New cradle for the baby (field report !!)

[aulrich]

I have to admit it I am a guy that has more time than money so after I tried a mechanical rest I just had to have one, and it had to fit the handi. About the only thing that looked to work was the one that Quick got from Cabelas.

Recently I had a couple of boring days at work and I scribbled a few things down. and here is the results. Version 1 of the HandiRest





For the most part it is made from 1x2 oak (some is maple but who's counting) some scrap that I have around from one of my other hobbies.

The support arm is just a basic half lap joint (corners clipped to alow movement). the cradles are made from low friction jig plastic (it's got a fancy name I can't remember at the moment).  The vertical adjustment is done with a turn buckle  Bolted to the sub base and into a mortise and bolted on the swing arm.

The main assembly is attached to the base with a bolt and it allows for some lateral movement. in the next version I would make the base longer and instead of having just wood pads on the bottom I would put threaded inserts in and use jig knobs to give it some leveling capabilities.

Hopefully it's strong enough, good thing my hands is only a 204. But I do have bigger so hopefully I don't bust it up too soon :grin: .

[quickdtoo]

Cool!!! That's really ingenious!!! Looks like it oughta work just fine....and I bet the price was right!!! :agree: :agree: :agree:

Tim

[McLernon]

Looks great!!!!!!!! I hope you will post a range report after you've tried it out to let us know how well it works. I've been thinking of something in wood like your 'Cradle' but was not sure if it would be sturdy enough.

Thanks for the post

McL

[aulrich]

With any luck I'll be out this weekend, weather has been kinda crappy (wetest month in recorded history ) But both my shooting partner and I have wives and kids out of town for the weekend so not much will hold us back.

[Norseman112]

Thats pretty cool. Have a name for that rest yet?

Norse

[Deadeye47]

Eccellent!! :agree:

[aulrich]

Thats pretty cool. Have a name for that rest yet?

Until I test it, the name is "Maybe firewood" :-D  

I will be testing it on Friday (the forcast is mainly sunny )

[Varminter]

Great job. :grin:

[aulrich]

Although version 2 could look a little different version 1 worked good enough that v2 may not happen.  I guess I had three main concerns durability, rigidity and range of motion.  

Durability seems good but that needs to be qualified by the fact that I have shot only a 204 and 17 hmr off of it. The next test for that will come in load testing for my soon to be 270 (Stevens 200 sorry :oops: )

Rigidity  3 shots at 100 grouping at .35" during load testing and other's approaching that good.  Comparing apples to apples a load that did about .8 previously was under .5.  But there is room for improvement so maybe I'll be breaking the magic .25 :-D . That change would be swapping out the "T" base with plywood which would give fuller support.

Another change in this reguards is more so I could shoot other guns. Because the handi stock is so fat the rear cradle is too wide to hold other guns properly. I suspect I'll be making different ones for my rimfires and bold guns, and a way to swap them quickly.

range of motion - was good but I did use every thread on the turn buckle, so relating back to the rear cradle if I have a quick way of swapping them out I probably have a quick way of adding some more adjustment into the system.

Varmiter - I'll take sugesstions for the name here are some of my ideas
- Handi-rest
- butt ugly but works

One other thing I even hauled it into a remote pasture and shot it off of the ground it was just tall enough to get over most of the grass.

[myarmor]

Good looking rest. The thought of making one crossed my mind before, but my restraint is having too many other unfinished projects with my Surplus rifles.
Glad to hear it worked well, and I believe you will be happy with that 270 Stevens, I have been hearing great things about these.