The Rick Rest. Notice the cutouts for magazine and pistol grip. The top part with the bolts clamps down on an AR float tube. (The handguards have to come off.) The interior piece with the rifle clamped on it rolls forward and back on linear bearings.
Bolt in the rifle, shim it around until it lines up on your target (with the correct elevation on the rear sight), then clamp the whole thing to the table. You can see a stack of wood shims under the front where I had to raise it to get the rifle pointed at the target 500 yards away.
Detail. I lined it up and the recoil never moved it. Groups were strung vertically by powder charge. You work the trigger with finger on the trigger and thumb behind the pistol grip. Use a couple fingers off the other hand behind the buttplate to keep the rifle part from bouncing off the back of the chassis.
Ready to fire at 500 yards. The part that the rifle is clamped into rolls front and back...precisely, while the chassis stays clamped to the top of the shooting bench.
Out to practice after watching the Tour on the web. Guy down the line had a chronograph set up so I quickly asked if I could shoot some rounds through it. He had the really nice type that produces a tape. The five loads I tested were all shooting faster than I thought. Good data to luck into.
Shot 20 rounds standing at 200. Luckily, a guy brought his spotting scope down the line to talk to me while I shot. That's all anyone shooting standing really wants- to have someone talk while you do it. I just put it down as stress training. Shot a 193X4. Nothing outside the nine ring.
The gate across the lagoon was unlocked so I took the AR Rick Rest over to the 500 yard shooting bench. On the berm on the other end I stapled up a piece of white photo background paper with a 200 yard center in the middle. I had to shoot five rounds, then drive around and down to the 500 yard berm to look at each group as I shot it. I had radios but no flunky. No wind.
The best load was an 80 grain Sierra on 23.2 grains of Varget. Chronographs at 2665 fps. Five inch group at 500. That's the load I am taking to Camp Perry. It's about a grain and a half lighter that I thought. Caution: That's MY load for MY barrel. Anyone else using it risks fire, explosion, birth defects, cancer, blunt-force trama, flesh-eating bacteria, life issues, homophobia, drug abuse and flatulence. Plus people will try to give you kittens in parking lots.
An aside: 23.4 grains didn't go any faster over the chronograph and the group opened up.
Dr. Mike McVie designed and built the Rick Rest out of cast-off parts. He also help design and build the International Space Station system that has astronauts drinking their own urine. Make of that what you will.
Got the load sorted finally. It's Hammertime!
Update: Hearing horror stories about lack of primers and powder on Commercial Row at Camp Perry. I just need a leather sling and a Chick-O-stick.
Update: Linked the the Muncle. I wondered what the heck was happening with the hit counter. Thanks!
6 comments:
WOW ! The real deal. I guess you'll have to get video sometime and put it up on Youtube. Dont put your load data up there though, that should be classified, need to know, burn before reading, tell ya' have to kill ya' top secret.
Interesting piece of equipment, and looks like a guaranteed repeatable hold! :-)
It's guaranteed if you clamp it down carefully. I've used it twice now with no walking problems. My biggest worry is Black Widows under the firing bench.
very cool
VERY nice.
Chick o Stick. Haven't seen those in years. Used to always have one floating around me when I was a kid.
You need a leather sling? Want to borrow a used Turner Sling? I would be happy to babysit the Rick rest while you go North too. Might be fun to put my Tubb 2000 in it and see how it groups at 600 yards. In the meantime just working brass for future loading experiments. The search for accuracy continues.
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