Good Morning, two days ago I ordered this Shooters Ridge Deluxe rifle rest from Walmart. They had the best price by far of the places I looked online. 79$ and 1.97$ shipping to my house. I wasn’t expecting it today but it showed up fast for once. 🙂 I’ve been here in my living room dry firing out the window for an hour or so getting familiar with it.

Initial impressions: It is a solidly built yet lightweight contraption. I have to say I’m thrilled with it just sitting in the house playing out the window. The rifle has been rock solid still sitting in this thing. The construction seems solid and quality except for the front rest rocked back and forth a tad. I quick fixed this with some cardboard shims I made out of the box it came in. Not a big deal, it was an easy fix. I’ll make something more permanent here in the near future. Don’t let that stop you, for the money spent I don’t mind shimming that at all. It came with a tray for sandbags or bags of shot to help weight the thing down and reduce felt recoil it said. Personally 308’s, 30’06 and 300 win mags don’t buck all that much I don’t think, at least to the point of being called uncomfortable or painful but for some of those 9 million nuclear magnum guys that might be a good thing.

It has a nice leather pad for the front of your rifle and a metal rear rest for your buttstock. I have read that a towel around your butt will even add to the stability. I’ll see if that’s needed when we go shoot later. For now dry firing it seems good to go. I also read that the rear support causes the shots to be off. Like it doesn’t allow for the normal recoil movement and it throws the shot off. Well we will see, that complaint was rare but I did read it. A lot more satisfied guys than not though, out of about 25 customer comments I read on various websites selling it. It averaged 4.5 out of 5 stars. So I’ll let you know about shooting when I’m done with it this afternoon. The thing is fully adjustable for windage and elevation. The knobs are easy to use. Like I said, so far I can’t find anything I don’t like about it.

Now to touch on why I bought this thing. Couple reasons. 1. and most importantly in the last 2-3 weeks my pulse has appeared in my reticle something AWFUL!!! I can’t shoot for crap the last couple weeks and it’s all because my crosshairs are jumping all over everything with my own heartbeat. I don’t know where it appeared from all the sudden? I don’t know if it’s in my face, hand or shoulder. I have been back in the gym hardcore and muscled back up quite a bit, one suggestion made to me is it’s in my shoulder as all those muscles and veins are popping back out. I don’t know, if anybody has had this please chime in! 2. I saw Mike Coker’s rest in one of his reviews and thought it was pretty neat. I figured that for ammo testing and sighting in new scopes that it would help reduce the human error in my shots. So if I’m using less 1$ + a round ammo to learn what I need to know then in no time flat this thing will have paid for itself not only in cash but in frustration and worry. Yes, bad groups DO keep me awake at night. So with my “playing with it in the living room” portion done I will talk to you all later this eve after I’ve sent some lead down range.

Ok I’m back with the rest of the story. I sent 40 rounds of 7.62 and 50 rounds of 5.56 down range off the rest. I was completely satisfied with the rest. It got rid of my pulse for the most part and was very solid. I couldn’t have been more pleased. I do think the towel to take up the extra room in the buttstock support is a good idea. It keeps the rifle from rocking. The cardboard shims in the front worked like a charm and it really was a solid platform to test off of. I can see this saving money in ammo during load tests and site in’s for sure! I ended up shooting off the hood which isn’t exactly my best position either. I set up in my normal weedy “hide” only to no more than get set up and have a big old snake slither right in front of my face and scare the bejeezus outta me. So I moved. I’m not scared of snakes particularly but I don’t like being surprised by them. 🙂 It was going to screw up my shooting as I laid there wondering when I was going to get surprised again, so I moved to the hood. I have one of the same kind of black snakes living in my pole barn. I leave him alone and he police’s the rodents that infest Corvette heater ducts in the winter time. Again though during my last brake job he surprised me too, that I don’t like but he still lives there. I just take a good look for him before I get on a creeper and start rolling around under cars. Anyway, back to the rest, for 80$ if you want a rest I really don’t see where you can go wrong with this. Use a towel, shim the front rest pad and fire away. I was quite pleased and would recommend it. It folds up and is easy to transport as well and seems very well built like your not going to break it easily. For the $$ it’s a nice piece of gear.

As always thanks for reading and train often.

By: Cary Kieffer

 

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Cary Kieffer

USMC Infantry/Combat Veteran/MUESOC/Sniper School - Med Retired LEO w/ 8yrs on job before Iraq wounds caught up with me.

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