Benchmaster American Bison Rifle Rest
Lewis Creek Shooting School 07.31.14
My early experiences with shooting off a benchrest involved a friend’s 300-yard hay meadow and a substantial wooden bench located in a little grove of trees. The bags were always there—canvas shot-bags filled with sand and kept under a bucket to keep them dry. In summer, the wasps sometimes managed to build a nest in the bucket for an exciting beginning to a shooting session.
Since that time, I’ve used all sorts of appliances to support a rifle during sight-in or a load testing session, from a lowly shot bag filled with sand to an M14 test cradle running on a Thomson Linear Motion System. The more sophisticated systems are great if you’re up for an extended session, but they’re bulky and heavy. There’s a need for a simple rifle rest that can be tossed in your gear, to be used to reliabably test guns for zero once you’ve arrived at the destination. Such rifle checks occur over the hood of a truck or across a fallen log, but they’re always a vital part of traveling and shooting a rifle.
I recently tested the BenchMaster American Bison Rifle Rest shooting bag. It’s a simple, medium-sized, shooting bag that’s made of top-grain bison leather. The two-tone leather has an antiqued look and the top surface is rough-side-out to better grip the rifle. My medium-sized test bag is about six inches square at the base and six inches high, making it perfect for that last-minute zero check over the hood of the truck with a gloved hand under the butt of the rifle. Both large and small versions are available. There’s a convenient finger loop for carrying the Bison Bag and it has an anti-skid waterproof rubber bottom for keeping the leather dry and to prevent marring the truck hood.
There’s an easy pour spout on the bottom to allow emptying it out for travel or storage. The BenchMaster Bison Bag is a high-quality, lifetime product, that’ll only look better with age. It even comes with a five-year warranty. The medium BenchMaster Bison Bag sells for $69.99.
Dick Jones is an award winning outdoor writer and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Board of Directors. He writes for four North Carolina Newspapers as well as regional and national magazines. He’s hunted and fished most of his life but shooting has been his passion. He’s a former High Master, Distinguished Rifleman, and AAA class pistol shooter. He holds four Dogs of War Medals for Team Marksmanship as shooter, captain and coach. He ran the North Carolina High Power Rifle Team for six years and the junior team two years after that. Within the last year, he’s competed in shotgun, rifle and pistol events including the National Defense Match and the Bianchi Cup. He’ll be shooting the Bianchi, the NDM, the National High Power Rifle Championship, The Rock Castle AR15.com Three Gun Championship and an undetermined sniper match this shooting season.
He lives in High Point, North Carolina with his wife Cherie who’s also an outdoor writer and the 2006 and 2011 Northeast Side by Side Women’s Shotgun Champion. Both Dick and Cherie are NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructors and own Lewis Creek Shooting School.
