Homemade shooting table - solid as a rock!
 

I hate to admit this to you all, since you'll probably be somewhat disappointed in me for it: I've rarely ever shot off a truly steady platform, even while sighting in and practicing. It's not that my shooting rests, whether manufactured or improvised, were unsteady. No, it was the table I shot off of.



This somewhat rickety old porch table has been my makeshift shooting table since even before I started hunting. Although with proper bracing it was somewhat usable as a shooting table, it was never ideal. The only reason I continued to use it for so long was, well, it's all we really had, and for most of our shooting, it was merely adequate.



Well, that's changed.

This year, I decided I was going to overhaul my entire shooting system for both my pistols and rifles. I've built a custom Encore pistol barrel - the 221 Fireball - to allow me to shoot an accurate, yet cheap to reload round. I've mounted a new Leupold 6.5-20x scope on my Weatherby Vanguard 270, which is about to have its creepy, heavy trigger replaced with a Timney trigger. I'll soon take possession of a new handgun rest to replace the backpack and pillow method I've been using as a handgun rest. But, while doing all of this, I realized that none of it would matter if I didn't have a solid table to shoot off of. Rather than pay for an expensive manufactured table that may or may not be what I need, I decided to design and build one of my own. With guidance from my uncle - a carpenter - I bought some treated lumber 2x4s, 4x4s, and 2x8s and constructed this shooting table:



Here's a picture (admittedly a poor one) taken prior to adding the 2x8s:


True, it's probably over designed for what I need, and it sure isn't pretty, but it's solid as a rock and cost me less than half as much in raw materials as some of the shooting tables I've seen for sale online. Even though I haven't shot off of it yet, one thing's for certain: this is a far superior shooting table to what I had been using.

Can't wait to try shooting off of this.

Overbuilt?? Understate much? Sheesh kiddo you could mount a cannon on that sucker!! When you go for stability you sure don't mess around do ya!!

That should certainly be stable! You won't want to move it much by yourself though!
-Jake

Good deal bud. How much did all that lumber cost you?

Well, "cannon" is a pretty good descriptor for some of my handguns. :D

Great looking table!!! Could you give us copy-cats the measurements so we can build one like it? Thanks.

Yeah, it's a two person task moving it around, with three preferable for loading it in the back of my truck.

About $110 including taxes.

The 4x4s are 30" long, which support the square tabletop formed by two 40" and two 43" 2x4s. The three braces in the tabletop are also 40" 2x4s. The cross braces on the legs are 2x4s running diagonally from the tabletop on one leg to the bottom of the adjacent leg on the same side and cut accordingly. One cross brace is on the outside, while the other is on the inside. Finally, the tabletop surface was formed from six 43" long 2x8s. I used two 3" deck screws at every point two pieces of wood came together.

If you want, I can scan the design I drew up and post it here for your reference.

Many thanks, Lone Wolf, I can do it from there.

Well if it ever gets stolen, you know who to send the cops after, 'cuz only the local football team will be able to move it!!

Definitely going to make a HUGE difference in your groups, that wire table is definitely something one of my old coaches would have called, "not conducive to accurate shooting."

One thing you might want to add - grab up a bit of 5/8" trim board and run a 1/2" lip proud around the edge on the front and sides. Helps prevent cartridges and cases from rolling off of the edge. Probably less important for you since you're shooting break actions, but if you use it for side port ejecting rifles or pistols in the future, it's pretty handy having a lip to catch things.