Kolpin rifle rest rubber melting

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Kolpin rifle rest rubber melting

Post by Wapiti » 18 Mar 2026, 6:40 am

Any of you blokes with SxS buggies or quads might be using these rifle grips. The issue I have with them is that after maybe a year of being installed, and even kept in the shade, the rubber starts to go sticky and comes off on everything. Then it starts to separate from the poly base frame underneath.
I've replaced too many of these things of different brands, all Chinese made and haven't found a better alternative.
I'd already repaired the ones that were really bad, but here's a shot of one up top that I stick a big brushcutter in to knock over pine regrowth, which is starting to deteriorate.
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Before they completely sh*t themselves, you can grab some large heatshrink and cover them at the first sign of the rubber starting to go off. As said, it happens to me before a year is out but if you are pulling rifles in and out daily as is usual here, the moulded rubber in the ribs and grabs starts to tear pretty quickly.
If you cover the grips with this heatshrink, in my cases 50/25 will do all types, the shape it forms to around the grips over the high spots and valleys holds the heatshrink on permanently and it does not degrade.
50/25 means the heatshrink is initially 50mm i/d, and when heated with a hot-air gun shrinks to 25mm i/d.
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I use these rifle holders not just for rifles, a SxS running around has to have certain things on it always not just for hunting but many other jobs, and the grips really deteriorate fast when exposed to the sun. Up top here is a long hoe and a camp shovel. Actually these might now be extinct, Australian-made Cyclone tools.
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Heatshrink is easy to get sent to your door off industrial supplies, I buy it by the metre from Ebay in many sizes. It's good to fix and protect things, not just to cover wire. Might give the handy ones of you that get out a bit, an idea.
"The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing."
Aristotle.
Regards G,
AKA Dr. Doolittle
Wapiti
Second Lieutenant
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Posts: 2125
Queensland

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