[Uncle Buck]

Two 36 inch dowel rods crossed together makes an outstaning rest for you riflemen. You can wrap some camo tape around them too so they do not have the white glare that dowel rods have.

Did you ever see one of those plastic cane shooting rest. Kind of hard to get the point in the ground during winter hunts.

I guess I have them all but like the mobilty that the dowel rods offer.

[Mongojoe]

For the ground ends on the dowel rods, I just cut pieces of black rubber type hose, like a fuel or brake line, about 3 inches long and slid onto the ends of the stix and epoxyed in place, leaveing maybe a quarter inch or so of the hose sticking out past the end of the stick. ... I did this with the sets I made for my wife, my son and myself. It made them less likely to slip when the ground is frozen or in some of the rockier areas I hunted.

[cal]

I've only used the smaller 15" field rests for my rifles. It seems to me that the shooting sticks are pretty tall. Can you get decent stabiity with them? Do you have to use one hand to keep them steady? This is a new item to me. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Mongojoe]

LOL... I had not had mine out in a while...had to go get them and take a look to be sure..... But cal, with the ones I have made, the sticks are 3 feet long. I drilled a small hole thru both sticks at about 4 inches from the top. I ran a small bolt thru these holes connecting the sticks. I have a small flat washer on each end of the little bolt. In between the sticks on the bolt I have a small, rubber washer, smaller than a dime, and maybe 3 to 4 times as thick. From the top of each stick running to the connection I have wrapped and epoxied thin, rough-out leather for my rifle stock to rest on. 3 inches below the connection I drilled holes thru the sticks again and took about 16 inches of a strong boot lace and ran thru these holes. I tied a knot in one end, pulled it up aginst the stick, then set down and arranged the sticks(spreading the legs) so that they were the right distance and shooting height for me. Then I tied another knot in the boot lace so that when opened, the sticks only spread as far as the knots allow, and set at the right height for me to rest my rife in and shoot.(The excess lace I use to wrap around the sticks to hold them together for ease of carry.) Then I added the rubber hose on the bottom ends like I talked about above, cold blued the bolt and washers, and sprayed the whole thing in a flat camo pattern... When shooting I rest the rifle on the leather in the "fork" of the sticks, and hold them at the connection with my left hand.... There are more complicated and elaborate ways I am sure, and simpler ways, but this worked for me.

[wheelgun]

I use the fiberglass tent pole from wal mart. They are two piece with the string inside them 3/8" or 5/16" dia. Work great and easy to carry when folded up.They cost about $4 I think . I have a piece of leather that I can slide up or down for different heights.