Few years ago at the range saw a guy with a soft leather gizmo, the size of a woman's purse with a big V in the middle. He had the unit on the range table and had the frame of he pistol in the V to stabilize the gun sighting it in. With an optic on a couple of my guns thought about getting one of the gizmos. Anyone know where to buy something like what I have described?

I have an Outers Pistol Perch which serves that purpose.



There are similar models marketed by other firms as well.

Are you talking about a bag rest? Like this, usually used for long guns...

Any rifle bag should do just fine, you may have to camp it up a little with other gear, but its not too complicated to get stable.

Or you can buy that gizmo.

PB

I had a pistol bag rest once. Think it was made by Caldwell. Or Allen. Bought empty; had to provide my own filler material. I had a couple of huge bottles of metal BBs so I chose that media. Perhaps that was bad choice.

The first time out the damn thing burst a seam wide open when I was sighting in one of my .45s; steel BBs all over the floor and bench top around my shooting station at West Coast Armory. Yeah, that didn't go well...

I later bought an inexpensive plastic rest made by MTM; it's held up surprising well over the past decade or so. Hasn't been a bad purchase at all for about $15 or so out-the-door. Every once and a while I look at those fancier rests like the Hyskore or one of those spendy metal Caldwell setups...naah...my cheapie works just fine.

Thanks for the tips, will definitely avoid the BBs.

A guy with Parkinson''s shot with my weekly group for a number of years. He'd sit down to shoot and put the barrel in one of those rabbit ear bags.

The guy would put 10 rounds of .22s in a hole the size of a 50 cent piece at 25 yards.

Not bad for parkinson's.

I've used various pistol rests over the years when evaluating new reload recipes. In my case the rests were not always useful for sighting in as the point of impact would tend to change when handholding without the rest. The Pistol Perch was the worst in that regard if I let the butt of the grip contact the padded shelf. I would place a small sandbag on the shelf to rest my wrist on so only the barrel/front of the pistol touched the V of the rest.

quote:

Originally posted by Ranger41:
I've used various pistol rests over the years when evaluating new reload recipes. In my case the rests were not always useful for sighting in as the point of impact would tend to change when handholding without the rest. The Pistol Perch was the worst in that regard if I let the butt of the grip contact the padded shelf. I would place a small sandbag on the shelf to rest my wrist on so only the barrel/front of the pistol touched the V of the rest.

You're right and I'd forgotten about that small point. I bought one of the Parkinson's guy's .22s with a red dot and it shot high and right for me, around 3" at 7 yards and a foot or so at 25 yards. His zero only worked with the barrel on the bags. The bags probably altered the barrel vibrations and thus altered the POI.

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
Thanks for the tips, will definitely avoid the BBs.

I've had better luck with Airsoft BBs. Not too light, not too heavy.

However, as Ranger41 and Flash-LB have pointed out, I'm not sure you want to do it that way. Your POI will change between hand-held and bag-rested. If that's the only way you'd be shooting a particular pistol, then fine.

I use a bag when shooting a handgun at longer distances, but it's just a regular sandbag or the like, and I only set my wrist on it for stability, while gripping the gun in the ordinary manner.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
His zero only worked with the barrel on the bags. The bags probably altered the barrel vibrations and thus altered the POI.

My thinking is the pistol recoiled differently when handheld than it did when fired from the sandbag.

For a very short period (called barrel time) the projectile is still in the barrel as the pistol begins its recoil, so when it exits - the muzzle is now in a different position from when the sear released. I find it very difficult to have the pistol recoil from a rest exactly the same way it does when I hand hold it, so the POI is usually different.

Barrel time is why (with the same point of aim) high velocity loads usually print lower than standard velocity ones even though they experience less drop. They leave the muzzle sooner, so it has risen less.

I'm just a font of useless information

My Ex made sandbags for me by filling a small plastic bag with kitty litter and then sewing the bag into the legs of worn out jeans. Still use them.