Covering shooting rests on vehicles - an idea for DIY'ers

[Wapiti]

Over the years we've tried everything to use as rifle rests from quads and buggies, or out the driver's door of your farm ute if you do any pro-shooting with a spotlight.
From skeg foam on the cheap end, to those awful wobbly mechanical rests that have appeared that hold your gun on a quad or out the door.
In the end, I just make up a rest from 25NB extra-light galv pipe, bent to suit whatever vehicle, in my pipe bender and covered in a suitable pipe insulation foam.
But I always found that the sun kills the foam really quick, and the sling swivel studs slice through it when the gun recoils. Pretty soon, when used on a daily basis, they shred and need replacing too often.
So again, on the heat-shrink crusade, this is how the rests look and perform when protected with this stuff. I keeps the water and sun off, and because when it shrinks it doubles in thickness, never abrades or rips. Or damages the firearms. It's still soft enough to keep the firearms POI exactly the same as it is when sighted in on your benchrest.

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This frame just bolts to the cage so as not to weaken it in any way, via "Downey" fittings welded to one side. It also provides a place for a small light bar away from being beaten up by brush and cattle, or throwing distracting light down on you from above. Where tree branches will rip it off anyway.

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You can see how far this stuff shrinks. The ends of the pipe have Downey end-caps in case you are thrown into it, and the heatshrink almost shrinks right down over it. Also protects those safe queens from hitting the metal ends.

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Even on this single seat mentally fast buggy, you can make and fit a great steady rest at the exact height where you are comfortable. Again, covered with the heatshrink.

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Everything is out of the way so nothing hits you when driving, or when getting in and out.

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These little jobs make an amazing difference to accurate shooting, especially where headshots are required for standards or for wasting nothing when meat shooting.
Well worth doing the job once and not having to worry about it again.

[Wapiti]

Oh and BTW, this thing came with the green punisher skull on it from the dealer, and I haven't tried peeling it off because I have many other things that need doing.

[Blr243]

Wap , what you doin mate with that black tactical looking thing in your buggy ? Do u hide it from your neighbours if u run into them while checking boundary fences ? Are you trying to look as silly as I do with my new eureka rifle ? Good idea with the heat shrink. I did not know it was available in such large diameters. I’m still useing massive bean filled bags that sit on the top of my quad front tool box … I’m aiming to support approximately 350 mm of the front end of the rifle on the bag rather than just a single point up front and the steadiness off my shoulder at the back. I actually zero my rifle while sitting on my quad so it’s exactly the same as my paddock shots. It’s also very quick to race up to check the target

[bigrich]

good DIY info mate . is the furry shooter in the buggy licenced ?

[Wapiti]

Wap , what you doin mate with that black tactical looking thing in your buggy ? Do u hide it from your neighbours if u run into them while checking boundary fences ? Are you trying to look as silly as I do with my new eureka rifle ? Good idea with the heat shrink. I did not know it was available in such large diameters. I’m still useing massive bean filled bags that sit on the top of my quad front tool box … I’m aiming to support approximately 350 mm of the front end of the rifle on the bag rather than just a single point up front and the steadiness off my shoulder at the back. I actually zero my rifle while sitting on my quad so it’s exactly the same as my paddock shots. It’s also very quick to race up to check the target

Mate I probably could've used another prop, hey, but it was the rifle that was used that morning on a run checking the girls for next weeks sale. But despite appearances, that thing shoots tiny clusters at 100m and is as accurate as any 308 I have ever had, except for a 40XB Rem custom shop M24 clone I had. Despite the 1-8x scope. If I use the 135gn HP's at 2800fps from the 16" barrel, it's laser flat out to as far as I can hold it. On running dogs across a hillside, it always gets the job done, a bolt gun gives you one chance and a pump is barely better than that. No, I don't hide it. It was a huge effort to get in this ridiculous overly-regulated world we have to suffer, so it has become the thing that solves my dramas for me. Only problem is finding the brass, because using a case-catcher is a pain and I always forget it. I just wish other people would go to the effort to get too, as making them more mainstream would help us all with our choices.

Yeah mate heatshrink comes up to 120mm diameter unshrunk, at least that's what I've bought. It's easy to buy online, rather than chase it at electrical suppliers. I think the stuff used in those pics was 100mm i/d. The size markings have long since faded off.
I just buy a couple of metres of what size I want off ebay and it comes to the roadside letterbox in a few days.

[Wapiti]

good DIY info mate . is the furry shooter in the buggy licenced ?

Licensed? Sssshhhh... But yeah, there's a bill for everything in life.
They say it's for our own good, BS.
The dogs hang out to go on runs because they always get a nice reward from the outcome. Their incentive for that is to watch where the subjects drop and find them for me to check over, then they get a treat from the result.