I have a quick question about rifle rests. I am looking at purchasing a rifle rest to be used for sighting in my rifles. I have done some looking online at different styles, but I do not know what features I should look for, and what companies I should avoid. I am looking for something portable, that I can set up on the tables at the shooting range. Can anyone tell me what to look for, and the best place to purchase one at.

Rifle rests can cost as little as $30 dollars to upwards of $500 depending on how much you shoot and what kind of accuracies you're looking for. For just sighting in, sand bags may suffice depending on how well you can hold a rifle. I do quite a bit of load development and use a rest made by Wichita that cost about $120 not including the front and rear leather rest which are sand filled. Try some shot shell bags (the older cloth ones filled with sand), tie them off with the electrical wire wraps. You would probably need about 5 of them. Stack two or three for the front rest and a couple for the rear. I get pretty good accuracy with my Harris bipod on a bench at the range, this may work for you also. I certainly don't get the .5" groups that I get with the Witchita but the sand bags or the Harris bi-pod should work fine for sighting inn.

As far as stability and accuracy are concerned, I have better luck with a sandbag than anything.

Got this at Cabelas:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...712&hasJS=true

The best i have used yet for the money they cost about 100 bucks but try out caldwells "lead sled" its absolutley perfect for zeroeing your hunting rifle, it also makes zeroeing magnum calibers easy on you it absorbs 90% of the recoil.

I would avoid any type of rest that clamps to the rifle or effects the normal recoil of the rifle as some of these designs do result in a different point of impact than shooting the rifle under normal field conditions.

The lead sled doesnt clamp to your rifle , the rifle just sits in it, the rifle still recoils as if you were shouldering it just the rest takes the recoil instead of your shoulder. you have to see it to understand what im talking about. But after zeroeing my rifles with the lead sled then to make sure it was a true zero I shot again with the rifle just resting on a sand bag all 3 shots had the same point of impact as with the lead sled.

I prefer sandbags myself also. But with a little twist. Instead of using sand, I fill my shot bags up with cheap birdseed. It is much lighter and works just as well.

I use a Wichita front rest with Protektor #1 owl ear leather bag. The rear rest is a Protektor bunny ear leather bag. The bags are filled with play sand I bought at Home depot. This makes for a very stable setup.

I tried the Hoppes (aluminum) front rest, but it was just too light. It would jump around on the shooting bench while shooting. The Wichita (cast iron) is not in the same league as a Sinclair rest, but it is just as heavy (meaning very stable) and it's about half the price.

You can get Wichita rests at www.lockstock.com and probably the Protektor bags too. If not, you can get the bags at www.sinclairintl.com for sure.

I don't like the one piece rests.

Birdseed, hmmm. Never thought about that, but it makes sense. I'll have to try that.