FREE Bench Plans on the Web

Building your own portable shooting bench is a great do-it-yourself project. You can build a sturdy bench for well under $100 in materials. Compare that to some deluxe factory-built benches which may cost $600.00 or more. You’ll find a wide assortment of home-built shooting bench designs (both portable and fixed) on the internet. Renovation Headquarters has links to FREE Plans and building instructions for fourteen (14) different shooting benches. There are all-wood shooting bench designs as well as benches that combine a wood top with a metal sub-frame or legs.

CLICK HERE for Shooting Bench FREE Plans Webpage »

Among Renovation HQ’s fourteen featured shooting benches, here are five designs we liked:

	Larry Willis Shooting Bench Sandwiched Plywood top, 1.5″ Galvanized Pipe Legs
	Manuel Ferran’s Steel Shooting Bench Steel (welded) legs and frame, painted plywood top. Folds flat.
	eHow Permanent All-Wood Shooting Bench Heavy-duty, very solid and sturdy, but easy to build. Good for right- or left-handed shooters.
	Bill Clarke’s Basic Shooting Bench Restaurant table Cast Metal Pedestal Base, plywood top.
	Missouri Hillbilly’s All-Wood Bench 3/4″ ACX Plywood with 4×6 Beams and Legs

Heavy Wood Bench That Converts to Three Sections for Transport
In addition to the fourteen benches mentioned above, here is an interesting break-down bench design. Call it a “semi-portable” bench. The legs and frame are made from stout 4×4 post segments so the bench is fairly heavy. However, this bench can break down into three (3) sections for easier transport to and from the range. Dado-cut channels assure proper top alignment. This might be a good choice if you plan a multi-day excursion to a location without fixed benches. This three-leg bench design can be made from easy-to-locate materials. Note: The dimensions of this bench are are larger than typical fixed benches to accommodate 50 BMGs and other big rifles. CLICK HERE for more details.

Reader Jim Jewell has used the eHow bench design shown above. He recommends it highly. Jim reports: “A colleague and I built two of the eHow permanent wood, sturdy benches for our Pt. Phillips Rod and Gun Club in PA, which had outdated benches. I want to tell you that these benches are very stable and a real bargain. The benches cost precisely $100.00 each using the bill of materials and pressure treated wood. The bill of materials, with careful cutting, using a Chop saw, resulted in almost no scrap wood if carefully measured and cut. The plans are terrific and the benches are great platforms for bench-rest shooting. I made only one modification — I left a 6″ wing on both sides of the table to mount a spotting scope. Further we added a base of dry QuickCrete or similar fast setting concrete mix material. Add it dry, make sure the table is level and fill in the 6″ hole. The hole and QuickCrete add maximum stability. The QuickCrete sucks moisture from the ground, hardens in situ, and adds stability to the bench.

I can’t recommend this design highly enough. It is dirt cheap for clubs on a budget, goes together quickly, the table is very stable and there is no waste if you make precise measurements and cuts. A bag of QuickCrete is enough for two tables adding about $2.00 to the cost of each table. After about a year, with a completely water-free wood in the bench I recommend a coat of Thompson’s Water Seal and these benches should last a long time.”

The 9th Edition of the Firearms Guide has just been released. This is the MOTHER LODE of GUN INFO. If you’d like to have instant access to 8,000 gun schematics and descriptions of 73,000 types of guns and ammo from 1,110 manufacturers, then check this out. The Firearms Guide is a humongous online database that is regularly updated. You can access all this info for pennies a day. The basic annual subscription is on sale right now for just $29.95. If you only need the info for a month or two, get a monthly membership at $6.50 per month, and cancel any time.

You can also get a DVD or Flash Drive add-on that lets you access the database even without a web connection. A 1-year Online Edition PLUS Firearms Guide 8th Ed. DVD for Mac & Windows is $34.95, including shipping. Alternatively, the 1-year Online Edition PLUS Firearms Guide 8th Ed. Flash Drive for Mac & Windows is $44.95. This lets you access the data from laptops and most tablets with a USB port.

You may be familiar with the Firearms Guide when it was distributed as a DVD. Now the 9th Edition is a fully interactive, subscription-based online database of firearms and ammo, which is also the most complete guide to global gun values on the web. The amount of imagery is amazing — there are tens of thousands of photos and over 8000 schematics, which help you work on a firearm or identify key components/parts. The Firearms Guide permits detailed searches of antique and modern guns and side by side comparisons of search results. Guns are cross-referenced with the ammunition database.

Database Includes Printable Targets: This resource even includes printable targets. You’ll find practice targets, sight-in targets, silhouette targets, special shapes and, yes, even Zombie targets.

Guns and ammo are presented with prices, specifications, features, ballistics, and up to 12 high-rez color pictures. NOTE: The Ammo information includes bullet BCs and velocities. GUN VALUES are provided for dealers and gun collectors. You can access thousands of printable and zoom-able GUN SCHEMATICS (diagrams or exploded views) with parts lists and blueprints for professional gunsmiths. Here’s an example of the schematicsL

The online database’s search capability lets you search by gun caliber, manufacturer, and key features (e.g. “.223 Rem, Colt, folding stock”). There are 14 different search criteria — this allows you to “drill down” precisely to find the gun you want in seconds. Shown below are typical profiles of listed products:

If you are a gun collector, or just an information junkie, you’ll find the Firearms Guide to be an invaluable resource. The scope is truly worldwide, with coverage of gun makers in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, South America, South Africa, and Asia as well as North America.

About the Firearms Guide Database
Firearms Guide has been published from 2009 to 2015 on DVDs and sold through Cabelas, Bass Pro Shop, the NRA and other vendors. In 2016 Firearms Guide was transformed into a subscription-based, online searchable guns and ammo reference and gun value guide for industry professionals and enthusiasts. Along with the web subscription, you can purchase a supplemental DVD or Flash Drive which contains the same information for off-line access.

The latest 7th Edition of the Firearms Guide is now available as a handy USB Flash Drive, as well as DVD. In addition, you can access the information on the web via an online subscription. (NOTE: the DVD Edition is FREE in combo with a 1-Year Online Database subscription.)

“We listened closely to the market,” says Firearms Guide editor Chris Mijic, “and saw that our online users still want to have a tangible backup copy of Firearms Guide. A lot of them like the DVD Edition which is free with the Online Edition but some of them don’t have a DVD drive in their new computers any more so we created a super-fast USB Flash Drive edition for them.” The Firearms Guide 7th Edition is also published on DVD-Rom for Windows and there is an online subscription service at www.firearmsguide.com.

Choose Multiple Options

• USB Flash Drive Edition comes in combo with a 1 Year Online Edition with free updates for only $39.95.
• 1-Year Online Edition with free updates is only $29.99.
• DVD Edition is FREE in combo with a 1-Year Online Edition.

The Firearms Guide 7th Edition represents the world’s largest, fully-searchable firearms, air guns and ammo database, covering 920 manufacturers from 50 countries. Published since 2009, the Firearms Guide covers over 64,000 antique and modern guns, with gun values, photos, and high-resolution gun schematics and blueprints. The Firearms Guide allows up to 14 different search criteria: caliber, year, country, manufacturer, stock, action, price, and more.

The amount of imagery is amazing — there are tens of thousands of photos and over 6300 schematics, which help you work on a firearm or identify key components/parts. Guns and ammo are presented with prices, specifications, features, ballistics, and up to 12 high-rez zoom-able color pictures.

GUN VALUES are provided for dealers and gun collectors. You can access thousands of printable and zoom-able GUN SCHEMATICS (diagrams or exploded views) with parts lists and blueprints for professional gunsmiths.

TekMat.com sells a wide selection of printed rubber mats used for gun cleaning and servicing. These mats are made from wetsuit-like neoprene sandwiched between fabric layers. One side of each mat is printed with an exploded diagram of a particular pistol, rifle, or shotgun. The 17″ x 11″ Handgun mats cost $13.99. Long Gun mats measure 36″x12″ and cost $24.99. Most mats are black, but some of the mats are offered in gray and/or Olive Drab.

Handgun mats are offered for 21 types of handguns including 1911, Beretta 92/M9/PPQ, Browning High Power, Colt SAA, CZ-75, Glock, HK P30, Sig P220/225/238/250/226/229/2022, S&W M&P, Springfield XD/XDM, Walther P99/PPQ. Long gun mats include: AK47, AR15, FN-FAL, M1 Garand, Mauser K98, Mosin Nagant, Rem 700, Sig 556, SKS, Springfield M1A, Winchester 1894, plus Mossberg and Rem 870 scatterguns.

Inexpensive Work Mat from Brownells.com
If you just desire a durable work-mat and don’t need printed diagrams, Brownells.com offers an 8.75″ x 16.5″ plain black neoprene work mat for just $9.99. The Brownell’s mat, with a nylon outer facing over neoprene, is item 084-000-228 in Brownell’s catalog.

A wide assortment of home-built shooting bench designs have been featured on the internet. Renovation Headquarters has put together a web page with plans for eleven (11) different shooting benches. Each bench is illustrated with a photo and link to FREE Plans and building instructions. You’ll find all-wood designs as well as benches that combine a wood top with a metal sub-frame or legs.

CLICK HERE for Shooting Bench FREE Plans Webpage

Among Renovation HQ’s eleven featured shooting benches, here are four designs we liked:

	Larry Willis Shooting Bench Sandwiched Plywood top, 1.5″ Galvanized Pipe Legs
	Missouri Hillbilly’s All-Wood Bench 3/4″ ACX Plywood with 4×6 Beams and Legs
	Manuel Ferran’s Steel Shooting Bench Steel (welded) legs and frame, painted plywood top. Folds flat.
	Bill Clarke’s Basic Shooting Bench Restaurant table Cast Metal Pedestal Base, plywood top.

Easy-to-Build Basic Bench
Simpson, maker of Strong-Tie fasteners, offers FREE Workbench Plans for a sturdy, 48″-wide bench with a pegboard backing and both upper and lower shelves. A complete list of fasteners and cut lengths is provided. For use as a loading bench with mounted presses, double-up the bench-top for extra ridigity. Without much difficulty, the plans can be adapted to build a wider bench if you prefer. The same downloadable document also contains plans for an 80″-high 6-shelf unit, a 72″-high heavy-duty shelving unit (with 4 shelves), and a 48″-wide heavy-duty table.

FREE Strongtie Bench Plans (.pdf file).

Corner Bench with Swinging Doors
The next design is rather unique — a corner bench with swing-out cabinets. This reloading bench is based on plans by M. L. McPherson as published in the October 1993 American Rifleman. The compact footprint that makes good use of corner space that is usually poorly utilized. This set of plans originally came from Ray-Vin.com. The folks who started Ray-Vin have retired, but you can still purchase many Ray-Vin products at SB Sales & Distributing.

FREE Corner Bench Plans (330kb .pdf file)

Classic NRMA Bench with Cabinets
The last bench design is a large, versatile bench with a full set of enclosed overhead cabinets. A National Reloding Manufacturers Association (NRMA) design, this bench requires many hours to build, but it will house all your reloading gear and provide a very stable platform for your presses.This bench was designed to be as versatile as possible to meet the needs of most reloaders. However, the bench design can easily be customized. For instance, it can be made larger or smaller to meet space requirements or quantities of equipment and components. As it is currently designed, the work area is about waist-high for a 6’2″ person. This can be adjusted to fit your height simply by making the legs longer or shorter.

FREE NRMA Reloading Bench Plans (2.42 megabyte .pdf file).