Wouldn’t it be great if your rifle case could do double-duty as a shooting mat? You’d have one less gear item to haul to the range. Well there is such a product — Uncle Mike’s Long Range Tactical Bag quickly and easily converts to a 78″ shooting mat. Measuring 50″ in length, with a 15″-tall main compartment, this bag is big enough to handle most tactical and F-TR rifles with optics and Harris-type bipods attached. A 30″ flip-out forward section includes a front load strap that allows shooters to pre-load the bipod legs while shooting prone.

The Long Range Shooting bag has four self-adjusting magazine pockets, which will hold magazine sizes from .223/5.56mm to .308/7.62mm. Conveniently, this new 50″-long soft case will fit inside the popular Pelican model 1750 hard case (for those situations where you need greater protection).

Available for under $180.00 including front bag, the Caldwell Fire Control front rest is a remarkable value. It makes the co-axial, joystick design more affordable than ever. We used the Fire Control front rest when testing our Ultimate Varminter 20 Practical AR. Once we removed some sand from the tri-lobe front bag, the rest worked quite well.

Get a Fire Control Rest for Just $179.40
Amazon.com currently sells the Fire Control rest (item 956104) for $179.40. That’s a really spectacular deal for guys on a tight budget, looking to try out a joystick-style front rest. With the conversion described in this article, you can put together a system that works pretty darn well, and is more than adequate for many applications, including prairie-dog hunting (from a bench).

While most Fire Control owners are happy with the product, many have wanted to replace the tri-lobe front bag with a more conventional front bag from Protektor or Edgewood. This isn’t as easy as it looks because the width of the Fire Control top is too narrow for most standard 3″-wide front bags. On a “special order” basis, Protektor has crafted some narrower leather front bags that fit pretty well, but some shooters have decided to “upgrade” the entire front assembly.

Forum member Doug M. (aka DrJeckyl), has come up with an elegant solution that allows a Sinclair Int’l Benchrest Rest Top to be fitted to the Fire Control Rest. Doug notes: “The Caldwell Fire Control is a nice rest for the money, but it comes up short in the rest top department. The Sinclair RT-3 [or its replacement, the Gen II B/R top] fits perfect with minor modifications.” Shown below are the main components:

To adapt the Sinclair RT-3 or Gen II B/R top, Doug merely had to drill a couple holes in the RT-3 baseplate, and adapt a spacer to get the height correct: “The Caldwell factory top has a raised mounting portion so a 1/8″ piece of stock will be needed as a spacer to the flat-bottom RT-3. The spacer needs to be cut to the same length as the movable portion on the rest. And you should plan the mounting accordingly so the left thumbscrew clears the vertical height column at full left position (there is a cutaway in the rest under the thumbscrew that allows for easy access to the screw).” We have labeled the photo with dimensions, but Doug cautions you should measure your own original plate to insure the drill locations are correct for your unit.

Below you’ll see the completed installation, with the RT-3 installed on the Fire Control rest. Doug says it works very well. For more information on this Fire Control rest top conversion, with Doug’s measurments for the hole-spacing and his specs on the fasteners, go to the original thread in our Shooter’s Forum. NOTE: Sinclair no longer sells the RT-3 top, but Sinclair’s $69.95 Gen II B/R top can be converted just as easily. LINK to Fire Control Rest Top Conversion Forum Thread.

While other companies offer similar bags for up to $120.00, the RPD retails for $26.99. That’s a lot less than most sling bags cost. This editor personally likes this bag (made by U.S. Peacekeepers) because it will hold a 10″ netbook (and paper notepads) in the main compartment, while I can put my still camera and video camera in the mag pockets. The $81.00 Maxpedition “Jumbo”, while otherwise a good bag, is a bit too small to carry a netbook easily in the main compartment. The RPD has the carrying capacity I need for assignment work, without being too large. In the field the RPD can easily carry your wind meter, laser rangefinder, log book, spare mag, and water bottle, making this a useful option for tactical comps. The RPD offers serious utility for half the price of the Maxpedition Jumbo.