Portable shooting/hunting bench

[littletoes]

What height do you prefer your long range hunting bench to be? I have been thinking of making one out of doubled up 3/4" plywood. Cut the sheet in half, glue it together, mount 4 legs cut out of 1 1/2" or 1 1/4" pipe mounted to flanges so they can be removed for shipping. Now the problem is what height? Oh, yea, and router the flanges to allow the pipes to come out of the plywood at an angle. Seen some picks of Darryl's, wouldn't mind seeing some closer pic's!

 

[Dan Conzo]

Use 1 1/4" pipe about 30" long so you can put 1" pipe inside them (about 24" long) for terain adjustment or heighth adjustment-- then drill a 5/8" hole about 2 1/2" up from bottom of the 1 1/4" pipe and weld a 1/2" nut on for a T-handle bolt lock--angle your flanges about 20 degrees out and away--table heighth should be about 30" to 32" high at the front end. Instead of flanges you can cut couplers at 20 or 22 degrees and weld them to a 1/4" piece of steel then bolt the whole piece to the bottom of table front and rear. Use two pieces of 3/4" plywood and glue and screw together but bolt the steel with flanges or bolt the couplers on bottom piece only then top of table will be clean. Cut a hand hole on one side for easy carry. Table will weight about 65 to 70 lbs if it's 40" long by 18" wide. You can center the rear leg and have it come straight back if you have a cutout for the shooter and still put a extra flange or coupler for a fourth leg. You can put washers and or a pointed mining bit in the 1" leg. This is a solid setup. You can go half the weight with 1" plywood and 3/4" pipe(angled the same) with solid 3/4" aluminum inside (pointed on bottom end) and this is a good setup if your rifle isn't over 30 pounds or so. Just thought I would give you a few ideas that I use and know work--others probably have even better ones.

 

[Dan Conzo]

The 1/4" steel the couplers are welded to is only about 4 or 5" wide and 17" long at the front and even shorter at the rear if you have a cutout for shooter not the whole area of table.

 

[littletoes]

Like the idea of the "thread-protectors" Dan. Think I'll snag 4 next time at the wholesale house!

 

[*WyoWhisper*]

Littletoes,

Contact DC about where to get the legs. He gave me a friend of his that makes adjstable legs that will level your portable bench anywhere!. They work really well...
Ask Chris Jamison he used the protable bench this past summer for PD's... I used 2 pieces of fiber board, glued them together, mounted the legs.. then applied 3 thick coats of a sealant.. I left it out in the rain on purpose to see what would happen .. all it did was clean the dirt off.. no warpin nothing.. it weighs about 70 lbs but works incredible... I am actually gona build 2 more for the guided PD trips we are doing.

 

[ewallace]

My table is 48" long by 30" wide I used 2" pipe for the legs the top is 30" off the ground. Here is a photo.

 

[Dan Conzo]

Littletoes

On my big bench the pipe is 1 1/4" ID and 1 5/8" OD. The pipe that slides in this pipe is 1" ID. On my small bench the pipe is 3/4" ID and about 1" OD and I use 3/4" solid aluminum inaide them. I gave you the pipe diameters on the ID which is the way pipe is measured. We also mount our rifle rests (homemade) right to the bench.

 

[littletoes]

Thanks guys, any info is good! Would like to see them pic's! Hey Dan, I'm a steamfitter, piping is what I do! U.A. all the way. Always called pipe by the ID till I started working with a buch of refer-fitters. They always call it by OD. 1/2" is always 5/8 th's. There kind of messed up that way, but a good bunch of guys. Made some nice collapsable target stands out of 1/2" pipe last spring. They worked very well for the gravel pits I shoot in.

 

[Guest]

Littletoes--
I have contacted Darryl and the leg man is Jim Berfield and his phone number is 570-748-2055. He is enroute to Texas right now from PA, and is dropping me off a set of the legs here in Memphis on his way. I will take pics and post them as soon as I get them. I really liked Ric's bench and soon will have one of my own. Now if I can just figure out that bicycle sprocket thingy DC uses, I'll be set...

 

[littletoes]

Thanks Chris! Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words. Thanks again, also, Dan.

 

[Guest]

littletoes--
I got the legs yesterday, and I'll post some pics as soon as I can. I'm going to get some 3/4" Oak plywood and double it for the top. I'll try to take some pics today if I can.
Chris

 

[Guest]

OK-Here are the pics...

This gets it from all the important angles--shoot me an email if you have any questions...CJ

 

[BountyHunter]

we (VA 1000 yard club) made 25 portable benches for shooting on Quantico 1000 yard range and found out that the strip of metal on the front and rear of the bench with the couplers welded to that really stiffens the benches and makes them less wobbly. With the 1/4" stiffener plate, they are almost as solid as concrete. Would really recommend that to make the bench more stable and solid.

BH

 

[Brent]

CJ,
How do the ajustment locks actually work on those legs there?