Boomershoot prep–a 150 pound tripod

This time of year (66 days until Boomershoot) not just me but participants start putting the finishing touches on their plans for the big event. Here we see the results of Bruce Da Squirrel Hunter Boomershoot project:



Here is part of the story from Bruce himself:



Well I finally finished my year long project of building a completely new Polished Stainless Steel Tripod. This couldn’t have happened without the wonderful help of .223 Bill Lester and Fred Forgone working with me hand and foot to get this project completed on time for April 30th and Boomershoot once again this year. I think Fred has more gray hairs this year with me bugging him non-stop for his assistance with so many miscellaneous parts and devices even on his days off.


My hat is off to .223 Bill and Fred for sticking with me and letting me drive both of them nuts for a year while we invented and built what I believe is the best shooting platform ever invented. This Stainless Tripod was .223 Bill’s first production unit since his personal prototype which was made from mild steel. A true craftsman and dedicated friend.


This years project was invented after last years highly modified hunting tripod which had a 55 pound railroad track hanging from the center of the pod which made the total tripod with rifle weigh in at approx. 130 pounds.


After great success with that unit, I was still unhappy about having to hold and adjust the rear of the rifle for every shot. My heartbeat was moving the crosshairs too much in the excitement of Boomershoot.


So back to the drawing board and the current project for this past year has been: “How do we build a better mouse trap”?


Well, you start with the best pair of talented craftsmen who can invent right along with you and build dream toys with a common goal of hitting 7 inch targets all the way out to 650 yards and 700 yards.


The attached photos show my first dress rehearsal of the unit in my living room as my garage isn’t big enough with two cars in it to allow me to set this monster up in. The rifle is a Remington 700 Long Action and a Hart Custom .25-06 fluted barrel. The rifle is the only item carried over from last year.


The new tripod has an aluminum front Anti-Cant device and the rear has a polished mild steel Micro Elevation / Traversing Device. Along with these two items is a Mono-rail Anti-lift device up front that I also invented, a modified design instead of the two rail system I employed last year.


Hopefully the recoil will be less then last year with the overall increased weight (150lbs) and the much larger footprint of this unit. I had the .25-06 recoil down to that of a .22 long rifle last year. If this unit does what I think it will, there won’t be any recoil this year.


This new tripod still needs to be field tested, but I have a feeling that this will be one sweet tripod to shoot from.


I can’t wait for Boomershoot and the chance to really put all this work to the test.


Thank you once again Fred and Bill for all you did and sacrificed for me.


We might just once again hear the call of the wild “ReAdjust”

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10 thoughts on “Boomershoot prep–a 150 pound tripod

  1. Not to belittle the effort there, but wouldn’t it be a lot easier to simply buy a rail-gun(unlimited ) class precision rifle?

  2. I think this is an interesting design. My only question is why the rifle still needs a stock. It looks like the least stable portion of the contraption is the rifle-tripod interface. Why not build the barrel, action, and trigger into the tripod? If removing as many human factors is part of the goal I would consider a different triggering mechanism as well.

  3. Good grief… all you need is a telescope, a webcam, and a set of servos, and you could take the human entirely out of the picture!

    Other than that, do want :).

  4. Poor baby!! Doesn’t want to actually aim the rifle between shots? And the recoil of a .25-06 is too vicious? Yikes!

    Here’s a thought – put some servos on that sucker, and just run the whole thing remotely from the comfort of your warm car. Or even better yet, have someone set it up for you and run it via the Internet from the warmth of your living room!

    Not really to belittle the efforts here, but if the purpose of this event is to have fun and develop marksmanship skills, it seems out of tune to go to these lengths. My buddy and I have no difficulties with the 700 yard boomers, just using a simple bench, front rest, and rear bag. I have even more respect for the guys slinging up on the berm. Taking out a couple of 550 yard boomers from prone with a sling requires a heck of a lot more skill than dialing in corrections on the microdoodle and wiping the hillside clean.

    But that’s just me talking.

  5. DeFens, Would it make you feel better if he put some camo netting over his setup so he looked like a small tree?

    I don’t even have a shooting bench but I don’t begrudge people that do.

    My take on it is that Boomershoot is about acquiring the skills and the equipment to accomplish certain tasks. If someone want to emphasis the equipment more than the skill I don’t have a problem with it as long as they can get the job done. And from what I can tell Bruce isn’t lacking in the skill department either.

  6. To each his own. I shoot prone with just the equipment I’d normally have in the field with me. Everyone has different goals for Boomershoot. I find it one of the few times I can get serious range time at 500+ yards.

    Everyone has their own goals, his happen to be to use any and all materials available to provide the tightest group possible. Mine is to function as one would in the field focusing on first shot hits.

    Serious props though on the design. I could see adding servos and a camera for a remote fire base.

    B

  7. I won’t knock it. Part of the idea is to advance the state of the art. If that means experimenting with new and even seemingly goofy ideas, well, isn’t that part of the process? I don’t know haw many new and useful ideas started with poo poos, but my patented optic mount was one of them– most people I told about it told me it wouldn’t work, and that it would never sell anyway. “Who’d pay a hundred bucks for a mount when I can buy a pile of AK mounts right now for 40 dollars each?” was one comment I received several times, along with super smart people giving me all the very good and practical reasons why it couldn’t physically work. Several million dollars in sales later, I think I can say they were mistaken, but I knew that in the first place. If you want to do something that purposely increases the difficulty, you could go with a flintlock muzzleloader, from a tree (I recommend 45 caliber with long heavy bullets and a huge barrel) and have someone shooting at you with a paintball gun the whole time. Actually, that sounds like fun– maybe Joe should have a separate category for that. Contraptions have their place, if for no other reason than to learn some things along the way. One thing leads to another. Ideas get refined and simplified, or they morph into something else.

    Carry on.

  8. Lyle,
    I think the muzzleloader idea is fine, but you’re really getting carried away with that technology thing – a matchlock would be far more challenging than a flintlock! Personally, I’d like to see that fellow bring his bowling ball howitzer back out, if he could just get enough range out of it to flatten some boomers at the treeline.

    I’m not entirely knocking his technology, of course. I have wind meters, ballistics software, etc. to help me out as well. Actually, I should applaud those folks that have micrometer driven traversing mechanisms, etc. While they fiddle with those, getting ’em dialed in, my buddies and I can continue to clear the field of boomers out there. 😉

  9. I should have added that I have a friend who builds those things(unlimited) rifles. I saw him lose a 100 yard lightweight match with a five-shot(6mm) group that measured 0.187 inches.

  10. There are commercial tripods out there capable of carrying such a load, if that’s your thing…

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