Making a Gun Vise

One would think that after all the years I've been shooting/hunting & with all the rifles that I have had & still have . . . that I would have a gun vise! I always made do with laying them on the bench, across my lap or between my legs.
I finally decided to build one. It isn't like I'm an amateur woodworker because I've been doing cabinet work & building furniture all my life. Go figure. So anyway I've been looking at various plans on the net. Some very simple . . . some unecessarily complicated. It's not like we're building a piano here!
I finally settled upon a set of plans that will do the job at little cost. See attached.

I bought one from Cabelas and I have to say,,, it works ,,,OK. but the clamp doesn't hold every gun right. Some it holds better than others. Some I have to wrap some with a rag so they
are wide enough to get clamped well.

I wish I would have bought the wood one they sell instead of the plastic one.

On your's I would suggest making the fore end piece so you can adjust it lengthwise, and making the clamp so you can change the elevation so you are clamping on the thick part of the stock.

My .02

Randy

I like the stock clamp, mine only has 1 clamping screw so I had to notch the stock end so it would clamp evenly and not just grab the edge of the butt. It was a premade thing that I bought years ago very similar to your design.
I think I'd want to cross pin that clamp in place though, wooden dowel or something to hold it onto the base. I sometimes pick mine up and move it out of the way, wouldn't want the rifle to come unstowed in transport. But I can also see the benefit of being able to lift if right off with the clamp still attached.

One side of the clamp wil be screwed tight to the fixture and as W.R. suggested I'm going to make forward rest adjustable. Thanks fellas.

I've got one from midway and it works good. My other one was made by my dad 40 yrs ago. Still use it most of the time.

Hi,
I enjoy wood projects and looked at different things I could build. A lot of us have work benches with a machinist or bench vise already there. I have an industrial scrap metal yard that I go to and they have a little bit of everything there. I bought some 3/8" thick aluminum and some rubber about an inch thick and made some vise jaws to use with my vise just for working and cleaning my firearms. Might be a way to go for some?

These are cut out on the bottom so they ride the middle of the vise and center themselves. This is so you don't need 3 hands when you go to put a rifle in. Also on battle rifles like a FAL I just grab the barrel by the vise and the thick rubber holds and protects everything,then I can break the rifle open as the FALS work that way!

Pigslayer I have been doing what you've been doing all these years as well. As soon as the weather warms April, May, June :mrgreen: I'm going to build one too. These are the plans I found online, http://nrmcburney.net/Mac/GunVise.htm