I had an ex-coworker come up to the house this past Saturday with his wife and three kids to zero their rifles for hunting season. I've been dragging a wooden kitchen table chair back and forth from the house ever since I built the steel shooting bench shown below, which was about 6 years ago. This past Saturday morning I decided to put an end to that.
Last year an ex-worker dropped off some scrap steel at my house which he's done before. He typically gives me things that he considers to be junk and wants to be rid of, but does it in a way that makes it look like he's doing me a favor i.e. I now owe him a free firearms transfer or help with welding something for him. I think the pile of junk (shown below) that he gave me came off some farm truck or similar. I like repurposing things and have a "pack rat" approach to metal of all kinds so I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I'd been wondering what to do with the monstrosity that's been propped up against my garage for the past year and figured it had potential to be a shooting stool. If I were making a shooting stool from scratch I certainly wouldn't make it like this, so the challenge was making something functional with the least amount of cost, minimal effort and in an hour or less.
So here's the start, the in-between and the current status. I'm probably going to cut a couple of pieces of 3/4" plywood to the shape of the top plates, glue and screw them together and use lag bolts to attach them to the stool. I have some spare gun safe carpeted shelves as well as some old truck floor mats that are comfortable to sit on and allow for height adjustment. I haven't finished welding the stool since I wanted some feedback from my guests, but based on their comments I think it's good to go. The stool weighs about 50lb, is stable, is wide enough for two and quite comfortable. Maybe it deserves a coat of paint at some point.
Last year an ex-worker dropped off some scrap steel at my house which he's done before. He typically gives me things that he considers to be junk and wants to be rid of, but does it in a way that makes it look like he's doing me a favor i.e. I now owe him a free firearms transfer or help with welding something for him. I think the pile of junk (shown below) that he gave me came off some farm truck or similar. I like repurposing things and have a "pack rat" approach to metal of all kinds so I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I'd been wondering what to do with the monstrosity that's been propped up against my garage for the past year and figured it had potential to be a shooting stool. If I were making a shooting stool from scratch I certainly wouldn't make it like this, so the challenge was making something functional with the least amount of cost, minimal effort and in an hour or less.
So here's the start, the in-between and the current status. I'm probably going to cut a couple of pieces of 3/4" plywood to the shape of the top plates, glue and screw them together and use lag bolts to attach them to the stool. I have some spare gun safe carpeted shelves as well as some old truck floor mats that are comfortable to sit on and allow for height adjustment. I haven't finished welding the stool since I wanted some feedback from my guests, but based on their comments I think it's good to go. The stool weighs about 50lb, is stable, is wide enough for two and quite comfortable. Maybe it deserves a coat of paint at some point.