Your picture was way to big. Didn't fit in my 25 inch screen. I could see parts of it.

Ken was a good guy.

My old rest is a Harts rest with a windage top made from a lathe compound.  It has served me well and will be in use at this weekend's match.  I need to get a narrow front bag for the new rest before I use it with my match rifle.  I am also going to get a small engine hoist to lift the new one.

Joe. I think you overpaid for that rest. My Harts cost me $100. At $960 yours should be solid silver. 
My Harts rest has been modified to take Arca Swiss tripod mounts. I have different bags I can slide on. It can go lower or higher than the new rest.  The jury is out on whether I will keep the new one. I will use it over the winter and see how I like it. I made a plywood box for it. Makes it heavier.

gnoahhh wrote on Sep 15^th, 2026 at 4:30pm:


Must have been a very limited run since his shop got destroyed the day he planned to open his doors.

Here's my new rest, still about 4 months to go on the wait list.  The second picture is my old rest, works well for lighter 22rf rifles not so much for heavier and those with even a tiny bit of recoil.

Made the mistake of shooting off a friend's Mini-X...
GT

Jeez, some mighty fancy rests I'm seeing here. I'll keep campaigning my old Sinclair, and put the money saved into a neat gun of some sort. 

If I showed y'all the bench (table) and rest I jerry rigged in the barn facing my bullet trap/gallery, y'all would take away my shiny ASSRA badge. (Badges? Badges? We don't issue no stinkin' badges says the membership director!) A variation on the theme of the slanted plank rest seen in old pictures of benchresters. I'll take a pic next time I'm in there spitting lead out of various .22's.

Am I all wet in thinking that the angle of the wrist-to-toe line sliding in the rear bag could be the culprit for consistently wonky performance. Your barrel sled and platform looks ok, if it engenders good rock solid stability. One way to narrow the problem would be to temporarily employ a Pope machine rest thingy on the rear of the barrel (with forearm removed) to eliminate the effect of the butt stock. If that works then you know it is indeed the fault of the butt and bag (don't say it!) and you can concentrate on that aspect (or other things like barrels, lock times, bullet alloy, powder, primers, triggers, scopes, eyeballs and brain farts, ad nauseum - in other words the stuff that dreams are made of and which fuel the nightmares that keep we loonies awake at night). 

Have you tried side rails on the sled like we discussed privately a while back? They could aid straight line recoil too. Or hinder it if not closely applied and aligned perfectly. Mom said it wouldn't be easy, and she was right. And she never tried to make a Borschart group into an inch at 200 also (just a wooden spoon at minute-of-butt cheeks at arm's length).

Spitballing here, as much for the benefit of the newbie lurkers as anyone including myself.

I like the idea of the V-groove. Simpler than my attempts with side rails (that results in similar blind squirrel-like shooting)
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Crux of this post: do you also guarantee the alignment of the V-groove toward the bullseye from your position with the rear bag. Ie: is the groove in a perfectly straight line toward the target, checked by verifying crosshair placement on the bullseye with the rifle all the way forward and all the way back when setting it up before shooting?

And is the rig leveled side-to-side during setup?

If I'm not making any sense I apologize. Middle of the night, can't sleep, a hundred ideas, questions, solutions for stuff buzzing in my electrified head. Chemotherapy in the afternoon beforehand tends to do that to me!

Sleep is highly overrated.

I'm at a loss for suggestions now, except one last electrified thought. Maybe vary the position of the sled clamp to the barrel? Assuming it's on the node at this point, maybe try it off the node for the halibut?

Modern benchrest requires the rifle rest on sand bags front and rear. Many shooters believe the bags should not be packed too firm so they act to absorb some vibration. I think you are on the correct path for better performance from this rest.

joelpend wrote on Sep 16^th, 2026 at 11:04am:


Here are the ASSRA rules on front rests. Looks like sleds are allowed.

Sorry, I was not clear. By "Modern Benchrest" I was referring to modern bolt rifle competition for group and score at various yardages. 

westerner wrote on Sep 16^th, 2026 at 11:36am: