First of all, apologies to Montie Gear for holding onto their Testing and Evaluation Precision Rest since the late Jurassic era. I guess I took the old adage “a thing of beauty is a joy forever” too literally. As soon as I finish this review I’ll slip on a pair of anti-cut gloves, package the $400 Precision Rest and send it back to base. I’m not saying the Precision Rest needs de-horning, but if those side were any sharper I’d be tempted to go into the diamond cutting business. I dropped a spud on it by mistake and ended up with a pile of julienne potatoes. Never mind. The real question facing us today: is the finely-crafted, lightweight Precision Rest a suitable alternative to those beanbag jobs for precision shooters? And the answer is . . .
Nope. Truth be told the Precision Rest is restless. The 2.5 pound unit’s hard plastic feet can’t maintain a suitable purchase on anything other than Brooklyn Decker lying on her stomach dressed in a wetsuit (don’t ask me how I know). The tripod shape doesn’t do the Rest any favors either; the unit lifts when you adjust the position of the gun or, indeed, fire the gun. It wobbles.
Does that really matter? As you’d expect from a designer with extraordinary good taste and a penchant for firearms, the Precision Rest is elegant in every detail, from its skeletonized arches to its textured bolt heads. It wouldn’t be any cooler if you put it in the ‘frig next to Walt Disney’s head.
Put some rubber pads on those hardscrabble feet, nestle a lower-caliber non-Hogue OverMolded rifle gently in the V and Bob’s your uncle. Or . . . you could use it to display your gun. Seriously.
Looks spiffy, but $400 for something the founders were able to accomplish with two sticks?? sigh.. if only I had the disposable income (and it worked)!
As someone who really doesn’t even understand why people “train” at firing ranges, I really can’t understand why any shooter would ever use these rests. You’re essentially not involved in shooting at this point, you’re just tweaking a platform and pulling a trigger. Congratulations – you’re a fool.
I was shooting my buddy’s handload 30 aughts off of one of those super fancy rests that wrap around the buttstock and I had the extreme misapprehension that a) I was a good shot, and b) the kick wasn’t too bad. I then shot it off-hand and damn near broke my collar bone. I don’t recall what my group of 1 looked like.
I read “buttstock” as buttocks and was trying to picture exactly how that worked…
(And I have new glasses too!)
Having also shot from this rest, I concur with your assessment. However, I will add that if the metal was “melted” to get rid of those sharp edges and the footing improved, this rest might be worthwhile for those thousand-yard shooters out there. For the rest of us who are shooting at 300 yards or less, sandbags or bipods do the job. To be completely honest, I was taught to fire with elbows on the bench, or standing with the sling wrapped around my arm, which at a hundred yards works just fine for me.
Sweet Remy sps, I own the same model.
No thanks. My $32 Vanguard Porta Aim gun rest works just fine for my purposes.
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