Target Sports

.22 RIMFIRE BENCHREST: NOT JUST AN OLD BAG

Created on 19th May 2009

CARL BOSWELL tries out three examples of an exciting innovation in .22 benchrest: the ‘vari' rest head

THERE'S A new concept in front rests: the ‘vari' rest head, which promises to offer greater versatility and rifle control. Its design has been in development during the last couple of years and has now been incorporated into three new products from the hotbeds of benchrest product development: Italy and the USA.

The basic purpose of the front pedestal rest is to align and support your rifle using a bag made of leather or other material to achieve good tracking. This is fine apart from the fact that if you shoot with a variety of rifles with different forend thicknesses you will need to carry a variety of front bags as each will need a different rest. This can be a pain - especially if attending a match abroad with every ounce of weight adding to the overall budget for the trip.

The new vari rest heads (or ‘complete' rest in terms of the Micross model) have a different design which allows the bag - in fact filled strips of cordura - to be adjusted to the width of the stock. The variable rest will therefore fit any rifle straight away due to its unique moving sides, which can also add compression to the stock in the same way as the standard rest we use. This seemingly obvious yet relatively recently developed concept is a key selling point of these new rests. The padded strip ‘bags' on three sides of the rest provide control over the front of the rifle. Achieving the correct pressure on the stock will help stabilise each shot. (There is even a pressure gauge available to set correct side pressure, but this is not allowed in competition and would therefore not merit the substantial costs entailed.)

The Italian job

The first design we look at is the Micross, which is one of the best complete rests I have seen. It was used by some of the highest scoring Italian shooters last year. I'm lucky enough to have met its designer and manufacturer, Luca Belli, in Milan, where I discovered that the principle behind this rest is far from conventional. The usual configuration of a front rest is a centre pedestal with a cut thread. The Micross, however, uses a rack and pinion mechanism to adjust height. This represents a complete move away from the traditional design we know and (sometimes) love. Windage adjustment is obviously present in the product. This mechanism is extremely easy and effective to use, being very stable despite the lack of any locking device. So gone are the cumbersome locking arms, leaving just fine vertical adjustment using the mariner's wheel. This works the same for horizontal movements using a side wheel. Talking of stability, the base is of an unusual design - it's what is called a boomerang base. This looks very strange at first glance, but is actually very compact and steady with the rifle sitting on the rest: a very interesting and thought-provoking design! The variable top is the thing we are looking at here and this provides constant pressure from both sides. This differs from most other tops that provide pressure from ‘wedges' compressing the bag to the rifle. The vari top also allows any rifle to be used in the rest irrespective of the forend thickness. The one controlling arm threads the side together in a parallel motion providing constant pressure to the rifle stock. A normal bag can also be used if it suits the user.

This Micross is handmade and orders have a 16 week turnaround. At £1,100 it's not cheap - but what do you expect for this quality? I think there are only about 20 in existence and I would like to be in that elite group of owners.

Significant developments

The second and third models are very similar and can be added on to your existing rest, so are less expensive. One comes from the USA and the other Italy again. These countries have been shooting this sport the longest and have a very good history of developing products to support it. The Fudd Top costs $180 direct from the USA, and is made by Benchrest Specialties; the Cicognani adjustable rest (ADJ), is €150 to existing Cicognani rest owners, coming from a prolific target shooting products maker who has been featured in this column many times, Varide Cicognani.

Both these vari tops work in the same way as the Micross and are added to existing rests in slightly different ways. The Fudd Top's fit depends on the size/diameter of your cut screw pedestal but I believe it can be made to fit any standard rest with a 1" pedestal. The Cicognani, on the other hand, fits onto existing Cicognani rests only. To put it in place, remove a couple of bolts retaining the existing bag plate and replace with the new vari top. Both rests are very easy to fit.

Although the bags on all the vari tops look thin, this is all you need to secure and align the rifle. In fact, the less surface area the better, so as the rifle tracks in the bags it has less chance to ‘catch' in them and cause the shots to go off target. With the bags or strips on these variable models made from cordura, the rifle will track back and forward easily as this material aids movement. Lots of benchrest shooters like cordura as it has a low friction surface. Other materials, like the traditional leather bags, need to have talc added to their surface to achieve this low friction. The use of cordura on all three new products demonstrates how much benchrest products have developed over the years.

I spoke to my UKBR22 colleague Andy Dubreuil after he had just bought one of the Cicognani rest tops off the shelf.

"Anyone will tell you that it's important to take your time when setting up, so that you know when your sights are on the target and feel comfortable before you take the shot," he says. "I find that this rest makes it a lot easier and quicker to do that. This was only the second time I've used it and I wanted to try different pressures by tightening the pads onto the stock so that I could see if it made my rifle shoot differently and so fine-tune the rest to my stock. I shot a 248 with four Xs, which I was happy with. I think that more can be done with the vari rest with more time spent working with it, but on first impressions I think it's a first rate product with a lot to offer."

Which rest?

So which to choose? One problem with ordering products from the USA is the lead time. They may be built to order and are also sometimes difficult to get hold of, with a long waiting list. Import tax and shipping can be a bit excessive too. European shipping is cheaper as it carries no import tax; however, at the moment the pound is strong against the dollar but not the euro so you will have to weigh up which is value for money.
Vari rests have a lot going for them. They save time in competition, don't require you to fiddle with an array of bags, and will fit all you need to shoot rimfire or air rifle benchrest. The scores from this year's matches are suggesting that this innovation is helping shooters perform better, possibly through improving their rifle control. It doesn't come cheap, but if your pocket money will extend to buying one it will certainly be a good investment.

Contacts

Micross: luca_belli@libero.it
Fudd Top: www.benchrestspecialties.com
Cicognani adjustable rest :
www.varidecicognani.com