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Built a benchrest to sight in my pistol optic

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https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/6080055015

August 29, 2024, 09:07 AM
Beancooker
Built a benchrest to sight in my pistol optic
I’m not the most steady handed person, so sighting in an optic on a pistol would be very difficult for me. I just picked up a Holosun 507k x2 in trade for the recovery rope and soft shackles I had from my Jeep.

I was sitting and thinking how can I hold this pistol extra steady to sight in the optic. I took the LaRue quick disconnect light mount off my rifle, and it fit nicely on my pistol. I cut up a few pieces of wood and a few screws later, I had a pretty decent benchrest that holds the gun very, very steady. It’s pretty ugly and I was making this at 9pm the night before I went to the range, so I was focused on function over looks. I’m very happy with the results.

I sighted it in at 15 yards. It was perfect. I moved out to 25 yards to see how tight of a group I could make, and was at 1.75” at 25 yards using the benchrest.

I wish I could say that was freehand, but sadly no. At 25 yards I did ring my steel plate (9x18) with all 17 shots, which is really good for me. I couldn’t do that with iron sights, so the optic is an improvement for me in how I acquire the target.

Anyways, here are a few pics of my homemade benchrest for optic sighting.







quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I'd fly to Turks and Caicos with live ammo falling out of my pockets before getting within spitting distance of NJ with a firearm.
August 29, 2024, 09:17 AM
Tuckerrnr1
Innovative, I like it.


_____________________________________________
I may be a bad person, but at least I use my turn signal.
August 29, 2024, 09:18 AM
trapper189
That's great! But, now I'm thinking of ways to mount handguns to my rifles with those QD mounts. Big Grin I would never have thought to use the rail on my handguns to mount the handguns to something otherwise.
August 29, 2024, 09:27 AM
radioman
interesting but this goes against what I was taught.

I'll Wait to see what the experts here say, but during recoil your home-made rest puts mechanical stresses on the gun that it simply was not designed for.

This is why the Ransom Rest holds the gun only by the grips and has a spring which allows the gun to move at recoil, the way your hands would.
I suppose the wood pops up on your jig during recoil but still the added stresses to the frame at the rail are not per the design.

I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.

I'd really be afraid to go with gun held like this. can't be good.


.
August 29, 2024, 09:32 AM
slosig
A friend was out shooting the other day and just couldn’t help using his pistol rail to clamp to a tripod to do a mag dump. It definitely makes things a lot steadier. I’ll bet that your benchrest was a lot more cost effective than his RRS tripod though. Big Grin
August 29, 2024, 09:39 AM
Beancooker
quote:
Originally posted by trapper189:
That's great! But, now I'm thinking of ways to mount handguns to my rifles with those QD mounts. Big Grin I would never have thought to use the rail on my handguns to mount the handguns to something otherwise.


A couple M-Lok screws where the drywall screws are, and it would easily mount to a rifle with an M-Lok hand guard.


quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
interesting but this goes against what I was taught.

I'll Wait to see what the experts here say, but during recoil your home-made rest puts mechanical stresses on the gun that it simply was not designed for.

This is why the Ransom Rest holds the gun only by the grips and has a spring which allows the gun to move at recoil, the way your hands would.
I suppose the wood pops up on your jig during recoil but still the added stresses to the frame at the rail are not per the design.

I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.

I'd really be afraid to go with gun held like this. can't be good.


Radioman, as far as the stresses to the gun, the whole platform moved everytime it shot it. So the recoil was absorbed by the platform moving.
Honestly, if 50 shots from the gun mounted stationary would cause the gun to be stressed to the point of it being a danger, I wouldn’t want that gun. I would want something that was more durable.

It is a good point you brought up though. Thank you for bringing it up. I would like to see what the more knowledgeable people have to say. I had not thought of the possibility of the recoil causing harm to the gun.
I shot 45 rounds sighting it in on the benchrest.
Another 34 freehand after that with no issues. (I would have stayed out longer but the amount of little flying bugs gnats and midges were enough to make me go home).

As far as sandbags and sighting it, when I have to be extra steady, and focus on that, I start to shake like Mohammed Ali. I have been doing a lot of different exercised to steady my hands, and they are working well, but not for sighting in an optic, yet. Big Grin



quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I'd fly to Turks and Caicos with live ammo falling out of my pockets before getting within spitting distance of NJ with a firearm.
August 29, 2024, 10:26 AM
oddball
quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
I'm cheap and I just use sandbags and have had great luck resting my hands on sandbags.


Same, I used three sandbags to sight in my one RD- one under my elbow, and two stacked for underneath the gun/hands. Worked out great.



"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
August 29, 2024, 10:43 PM
SigFan
Very creative!


Regards From Sunny Tucson,
SigFan

NRA Life - IDPA - USCCA - GOA - JPFO - ACLDN - SAF - AZCDL - ASA

"Faith isn't believing that God can; it's knowing that He will." (From a sign on a church in Nicholasville, Kentucky)
August 30, 2024, 07:18 AM
41
I agree with Radioman. The point of aim can change and accuracy as well.


41
August 30, 2024, 07:43 AM
cas
Windage yes. Elevation will probably be off, possibly a lot.
August 30, 2024, 07:57 AM
Pipe Smoker
I use a “statistical benchrest”. Shooting unsupported, I put five shots on each target, and save all of my targets. When I get back from the range I count the number of hits to the left and right of dead center, then adjust windage by one click accordingly. Similar for elevation. After a few range trips sights are dead-on.



Serious about crackers.
August 30, 2024, 08:44 AM
Rey HRH
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I use a “statistical benchrest”. Shooting unsupported, I put five shots on each target, and save all of my targets. When I get back from the range I count the number of hits to the left and right of dead center, then adjust windage by one click accordingly. Similar for elevation. After a few range trips sights are dead-on.


Serious question: why not do the adjustments at the range then you can confirm? It will take only one range trip.



"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
August 30, 2024, 08:49 AM
Pipe Smoker
^^^^^
I just don’t want to mess with it at the range. I usually shoot with a friend and don’t want to waste his time.



Serious about crackers.