In this issue:
Machine rest comparison
Re: Sydney shooting events on TV?
Rumor on Olympic shooting demise
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As promised (9 months later), your friendly Editor finally has gotten time to do some testing with the rest I purchased last December. As it turns out, I was also furnished a second rest so I tried it out as well. The one I bought was from Eitan Barazani at http://machinerest.hypermart.net/, and the one that was sent to me came from Newt Engle, Rifle Coach at Univ of Akron, and was actually made by his father for his daughter, Angie. Thus, it has been dubbed Angie's Rifle Rest.
Eitan's rest is based upon the "Russian" rest though it is much larger overall and uses 2 parallel pins that a recoil bar can engage to keep the rifle upright as opposed to having the stock leaning against a pad. It should be high enough to clear the grip on any rifle without worry. Check out his sight for pics. The bars ride on Teflon (delrin?) hemispherical pads. While I haven't seen the "Russian" rest up close, Eitan's recoil bars were nicely engineered so I'll give him credit for the thought that went into it.
Angie's rest is a homemade design. Essentially you have 2 large ball bearings riding in stainless angle iron and a rounded-end bolt riding on a stainless pad. Thus, this gives 5 total contact points in a tripod configuration as opposed to just 4 for rests based upon the "Russian" design. This rest sits much lower than the others (the angles and pad are simply welded to 1/4" plate) so you'll need to mount it near the edge in order to clear the grips on the rifles. The rest was provided with wooden "shims" of plywood/paneling and bolts of 3 lengths for use with air rifles. The first rest I received had a ball bearing that was broken off in shipment (cold weld?) even though it was well packed, and it was promptly replaced.
Now for the test. The test was conducted on our indoor range with the ventilation off so there was no wind at all. Temperature was 75-84F and ~65% humidity. Distance was 121 feet or just over 40 yards (36.9 meters). Both rests were fired off the same base, which is made from 8" channel steel and was bolted to the concrete floor. Edelmann targets were used for clean holes. All tests were done using the same lot of Eley Tenex from the same case. 13 Anschutz rifles from 1963-1999 were used and they were cleaned before being used on each rest. I then shot 5 10-shot groups from each rifle and then 3 more 10-shots groups several hours later after they had cooled down again. I shot quickly (10-15 seconds per shot usually) so the barrels would get fairly warm by the 4th group.
I tried Angie's rest first. My first concern was the "roughness" of the stainless angle and pads as these were stock parts, not machined. After some initial testing, I measured the recoil of a free rifle to be 1/8" and a sport rifle to be 3/16-1/4". I decided to try some graphite and it help noticeably, increasing the recoil distance to 1/4" and 3/8" respectively. Things went fairly well after that until I got to the standard rifle and air rifles. The holes in the shims provided were not precise enough so I couldn't get the bolts all the way through. I increased the hole diameter in the shims to allow more play room (it could use a bit more still). The rest proved quite flexible, being able to adjust to any forend angle. The only air rifle I could not do was an LGM-2 which has a rail with an odd profile so "standard" accessories won't fit it (the LG-210 has a "standard" rail so I could test it). The other thing I did not care for was the wooden shims as the wood compresses (not to mention splinters). I think something like plexiglass would work well.
Eitan's rest was simpler to use because there is only one screw per recoil bar (as opposed to 2 per attachement for Angie's) and the bars center themselves when you tighten them down. Recoil with this rest was 1/8" for a free rifle and 3/16" for a sport rifle. I had tried months earlier to see if graphite would help and I couldn't observe any improvement. I ran into problems when trying to do air rifles. The adapter provided has a fixed angle so the barrel isn't parallel though FWB is pretty close. 2002 was pointing at my ceiling so the 1907 would as well. I didn't deem this acceptable. Apparently there is another adapter that he came up with about the time I bought this that will accomodate anything but I don't have this.
The bottom line: Angie's was quite versatile and is significantly cheaper so it's a good value. I expected to see some wear on the parts since the stainless isn't smooth or machined. You could tell where the bearings rode but there wasn't visiable wear after over 1000 rounds. There was a bit more wear on the rounded bolt that rode on the flat pad, which I expected as it isn't hardened. I would use another ball bearing here and replace the wood shims with plastic.
Eitan's rest is much nicer looking and quicker to use. In this configuration I had, I could not test our 1907 or any of our air rifles. Even if the angle were correct, I could not test either of the Walters and the FWB would need to have some weight added on the barrel or removal of the checkpiece to alter to balance point. I cannot speak for how well his other adapter works. I could definitely tell where the recoil bars rode on the teflon pads but couldn't tell if it had worn down or was just "polished."
Much to my dismay, I only have 1 rifle that likes the Tenex we have! The best groups were ~1/2" outside edge at just over 40 yards. Needless to say, I'll be investigating a couple other types. Groups were fairly close between rests though Angie's rest usually had slightly better ones if there was a discrepancy. I have no idea why. I also did a short test on Eitan's rest using a rubber band as resistance to recoil since I've heard from several places that these kind of rests often do better like this for some reason. I could tell no difference in the 3 10-shot groups I shot.
I will do some more tests at Thanksgiving or Christmas with some other ammo (and hopefully better groups) and will let you know if I find out anything different. If anyone would like me to compare their rest as well, just ship one to me and I'll include it in the next round of tests.
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[Editor - it's probably too late for this (if it would have even made a difference anyway), but you never know I guess.]
I logged on to the NBC Olympic web site and saw the following comment from
the host: "I can empathize with you Don, I have made several proposals to
NBC to increase the discussion topics in the shooting forum, none have come
forward. I believe though that NBC is in a catch-22 situation. They would
devote more resources and coverage to shooting events if the interest
warranted it, and you and I feel more resources would increase interest. I
can not fault NBC though, when you look at these forums, swimming and
gymnastics have over 1000 posts each, shooting less than 100. NBC will
devote it's resources accordingly.
Guys if we want NBC coverage of the Olympics we need to log on to
http://www.nbcolympics.com/ and let NBC know we are out there. Register as a
new member and go to the Forums section and say something.
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Having just attended a major pistol shooting tournament in Canada I heard an interesting rumour and I wonder if you or anyone whom subscribes to your list has heard it as well. Mr Nick Alexakos, president of the newly formed World Shooting Federation { www.worldshootingfederation.com}
stated that he is of the belief that after the 2000
Sydney games the I.O.C. will vote to ban all Olympic shooting sports that use gunpowder leaving only the 10 meter air gun events. Has anyone else heard of this ?
[Editor - I have heard a similar rumor though it was a bit later down the road like 2008/2012. Just airguns and shotguns. It hasn't helped that the shooting community screwed themselves out of quotas the last 2 Olympics.]
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End of UIT Mailing List #29
Michael Ray - Systems Engineer
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach
UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm
