Quite often I see people at ranges trying to work on guns (drift sights, tighten/loosen screws, push a tight brush/patch through a barrel....) while having no means to securely hold the gun. Years ago at the IWA in Nuremburg I discovered a neat portable vise from Lothar Walther. It has a set of hard steel jaws and on the opposite side a curved set lined with cork. You can turn the jaws around to position a rifle as you need. I often clamp the barrel of a BPCR in the vise with the muzzle submerged in a bucket of hot, soapy water to push a patch in and out rapidly getting the barrel spotless. Indispensable for sight work. I love this vise and can't recommend it more highly. Last I knew it was available in the US from Brownells.com

Our gun club rules are too strict to allow working on guns at the shooting benches unless the muzzle can be kept pointing down range. Issue with that is you can't reach out past the muzzle if need be, and the shooting benches are concrete that have a 3" thick top so most devices wont clamp to them unless you make your own clamping mechanism.
I miss the days 30 years ago when club rules were safe, but not so anal as they are now.

Our gun club rules state barrels must be kept level and pointed down range whenever they're out of a case. We used to have racks behind the shooting lines and I could bring numerous rifles and take them out of the cases and stand them muzzle up. Then just grab one when I wanted to change rifles. Not anymore as they removed all those racks.
I could put a gun across my lap, but I'd have to sit sideways to keep the muzzle pointed towards the targets. In a pinch I'd do it if need be, but not normally my favorite. We often have open benches, so I bring my cleaning rest along and sit it on the bench next to me. It clamps the buttstock and the muzzle rests in a Vee up front. I can do some minor adjustments, and repairs that way, or clean the bore also.
Sometimes I sneak over to the Muzzleloader range where the club allows muzzles to be pointed upwards for loading and I can fire my old single shots there with less rules if nobody is using that range.

bpjack wrote on Apr 15^th, 2024 at 5:47pm:


Same here. We leave the actions opened with a flag in the chamber, but there's a yellow striped area behind the bench and nobody is to be across that line when shooters are down range during a break in shooting.
At our range if you open a case at the bench and the gun is not pointing down range you're supposed to close the case and turn it around before removing the gun. Lots of silly rules, but they seem to think we're all stupid sometimes. I've always thought if you opened a case you could just put a flag in the chamber and as long as it was there the gun can't be fired no matter what direction it's pointed?

GunBum wrote on Apr 15^th, 2024 at 6:26pm:


Our club has 6000 members, and I can go on a weekday and rarely see anyone. But weekends get crazy busy!

Except during the run up to hunting season, I can have the range all to myself most Saturday mornings.  I try to get there by 7:30 whenever I go so I can get all my stuff setup and ready for the 8:00 OK to fire.  What I hate is when someone shows up right at 8 or a bit before and I have to wait for them to set up.  I have my atrget frames all ready to go and it takes me only 5 minutes to setup at 200 and 100 if needed.  I have waited 20 minutes for some guys to set up.  I try to tell them I am a good shot and I wouldn't hit them while they do that.

I have a spare $20 spotting scope and tripod in my truck to loan those guys.

bpjack wrote on Apr 16^th, 2024 at 10:20pm:


That's an elegant solution for the dim bulbs who interrupt constantly to go look at their targets. I have an old Bushnell that'll serve the purpose. Gotta do that. Maybe also keep a stash of those "high viz" targets for them too so's they hang more than just one target.

"Gee thanks, sir. You've been a big help. What do I owe ya?" -Me:  "Got any beer?"