BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
I don't hunt much anymore in a way that would require or even benefit from lighter weight equipment but I do compete in matches that involve long hikes over rugged ground so I get the same benefit from extremely light kit. I'm kind of curious what all you long range hunter types who do deep walk-in's are doing for rear support bags.
For years I've been using toe support bags that weigh on average 2-3lbs a piece and I tend to carry 3-4 of them plus a big pillow bag. Trying to keep weight down I've tried everything from memory foam (worthless) to styrofoam (crumbled to dust) to stuffed animals (too soft) while having nothing but problems. I've also tried seed corn (heavy & sucked), pinto beans (heavy & sucked), kitty litter (super heavy), plastic beads of the Platonic solids (shattered into shards & sucked).
More recently I've been trying to solve the problem in a more targeted (pardon the pun) way. So, I called up a company that specializes in low density polymers and solved my issue completely. I spec'd out a set of properties for some media and they filled the spec perfectly. The downside is, I had to buy a HUGE amount of the media and shipping of large quantities of lightweight yet bulky items is heart thumpingly expensive. It was kinda like finding a distributor of used space shuttle tiles and finding out that they only sell them in 55 gallon drums full when you just need 1 or 2 tiles for the rest of your life. Ok, well we'll have some extra on hand for a while.
Here's 3 of my toe support bags I recently refilled. Before refilling the flat one was just shy of 2lbs, the other 2 were 2.25 and 2.75lbs. So nearly 7lbs between them. Now they weigh just under 3000 grains, which translates to just under half a pound or around 200 grams. That's FOR ALL THREE BAGS COMBINED! The prior media was composed of plastic cylinders which was heavy as snot and had really poor lock-in... I got a lot of creep with it. Other media I've tried were just too heavy or too squishy or crumbled or had other problems. How hard can it be to get this right.
So you might ask yourself, "How well can light media take weight?" About as well as seen below. This is a 12lbs weight that I set on top of my small cylinder bag. I didn't even have to fiddle with it to get it to stay supported like that. The base conforms well to the ground and there's some compressibility in the media but not much and once it's done compressing it locks in tight as a <insert dirty country saying here>. I've done a little testing from prone and bipod-on-bench with the bags doing toe support and I'm very very happy.
So you're now asking, "What are the specs on the fill?" I had a list of things the media had to do:
~3-5mm beads, slightly compressible at the pellet level, waterproof, chemical resistant, dust free, crumble proof, pellets must not be perfectly round, <3lbs per cubic foot. We managed to hit all the points and got the mass density down to ~1lbs per cubic foot. The cost of the material was pretty darned high and I had to buy a gob of it to get any of it but I also don't need to spend hundreds on new ultra-light bags when I own gobs of bags already. They just needed refilled with non-garbage media.
So far I've managed to fill every shooting bag I own, I sewed together 2 new shooting pillows, filled all of my Coach's shooting bags, filled all my friends' shooting bags and I still have a bunch on hand. Now I'm kinda stuck for what to do with the extra but hope fellow long range shooters might find it helpful. If anyone wants any I'm happy to pass along my cost until I run out of the stuff. I have something well over 50L left (I said I bought a gob right?). I figure it'd be about 10 bucks a liter including shipping given what it cost to ship some to friends around the country already. If you want some PM me.
For years I've been using toe support bags that weigh on average 2-3lbs a piece and I tend to carry 3-4 of them plus a big pillow bag. Trying to keep weight down I've tried everything from memory foam (worthless) to styrofoam (crumbled to dust) to stuffed animals (too soft) while having nothing but problems. I've also tried seed corn (heavy & sucked), pinto beans (heavy & sucked), kitty litter (super heavy), plastic beads of the Platonic solids (shattered into shards & sucked).
More recently I've been trying to solve the problem in a more targeted (pardon the pun) way. So, I called up a company that specializes in low density polymers and solved my issue completely. I spec'd out a set of properties for some media and they filled the spec perfectly. The downside is, I had to buy a HUGE amount of the media and shipping of large quantities of lightweight yet bulky items is heart thumpingly expensive. It was kinda like finding a distributor of used space shuttle tiles and finding out that they only sell them in 55 gallon drums full when you just need 1 or 2 tiles for the rest of your life. Ok, well we'll have some extra on hand for a while.
Here's 3 of my toe support bags I recently refilled. Before refilling the flat one was just shy of 2lbs, the other 2 were 2.25 and 2.75lbs. So nearly 7lbs between them. Now they weigh just under 3000 grains, which translates to just under half a pound or around 200 grams. That's FOR ALL THREE BAGS COMBINED! The prior media was composed of plastic cylinders which was heavy as snot and had really poor lock-in... I got a lot of creep with it. Other media I've tried were just too heavy or too squishy or crumbled or had other problems. How hard can it be to get this right.
So you might ask yourself, "How well can light media take weight?" About as well as seen below. This is a 12lbs weight that I set on top of my small cylinder bag. I didn't even have to fiddle with it to get it to stay supported like that. The base conforms well to the ground and there's some compressibility in the media but not much and once it's done compressing it locks in tight as a <insert dirty country saying here>. I've done a little testing from prone and bipod-on-bench with the bags doing toe support and I'm very very happy.
So you're now asking, "What are the specs on the fill?" I had a list of things the media had to do:
~3-5mm beads, slightly compressible at the pellet level, waterproof, chemical resistant, dust free, crumble proof, pellets must not be perfectly round, <3lbs per cubic foot. We managed to hit all the points and got the mass density down to ~1lbs per cubic foot. The cost of the material was pretty darned high and I had to buy a gob of it to get any of it but I also don't need to spend hundreds on new ultra-light bags when I own gobs of bags already. They just needed refilled with non-garbage media.
So far I've managed to fill every shooting bag I own, I sewed together 2 new shooting pillows, filled all of my Coach's shooting bags, filled all my friends' shooting bags and I still have a bunch on hand. Now I'm kinda stuck for what to do with the extra but hope fellow long range shooters might find it helpful. If anyone wants any I'm happy to pass along my cost until I run out of the stuff. I have something well over 50L left (I said I bought a gob right?). I figure it'd be about 10 bucks a liter including shipping given what it cost to ship some to friends around the country already. If you want some PM me.
though.
