Shooting saddle/rest with ARCA rail

Shooting saddle

Shooting saddle or also called hog saddle to place your rifle above a tripod with ARCA rail attachment for really stable shots. This is a nearly fully 3d-printed variant, only coil springs need to be added since no 3d printed springs can handle being under load for a longer time. And as a 3d-printed one, it will not be as strong and stiff as those in metal, so don't use it for heavy guns and calibers. I use it for a 4.5 kg .223 and it works good for lighter use.

 

Comes in one size for now, more sizes can be added if requested (approximate size, depends on thickness on grip in rubber/TPU):

Small: Support stock width from 40mm to 50-55mm 

 

Extra hardware

2x Coil springs, 8x40 (recommended, other sizes below 10mm diameter can work). The hole for the springs can be shortened by putting any kind of plug in it if you only have shorter springs.

 

Glue, epoxy recommended to glue main bolt handle in place. Contact cement for gluing TPU grip parts to the PLA parts. Epoxy to glue the arca rail to the saddle including the screws might also be a good idea, especially to get less flex in it.

 

TPU parts can be exchanged for any rubber, for example cut from a rubber door mat or something. “Stickier” rubber  is better. A tips in that case is to print those parts in PLA to use as a template for cutting.

Printing

Everything except the contact areas should be printed in a stiff material, so PLA, PLA+, PLA-CF or an engineering material (but the later might not make sense in cost compared to buying a ready one in aluminium). PETG and ABS might be to soft.

 

Grip areas should be printed in as soft TPU as possible. But as mentioned above, they can also be cut from any other rubber material you have available, it might even be a better option to get areas with better grip.

 

This model have been carefully designed to be printed with every part as strong as possible. Every part has an intended print orientation and no support should be needed on any printers. Still they need to be printed with a high number of walls.

I have printed with a 0.4mm nozzle. I use bambulabs 0.2 mm layer height Strength profile (6 wall loops, 25% infill) for all parts except following:

Main bolt (just the bolt itself), ARCA screws and ARCA rail should all have wall loops set to 20 (filling those fully with wall loops).

 

All logos/pictures in the model has been recessed 0.001mm so they can be easy painted in the slicer or omitted if you want to. (You can then add your own logos or text)

 

For some printers, the main bolt may fit a little tight in the start. Use a little oil or just work back and forth until it feels good. I might add one with looser fit as an extra option in the future.

Future

I plan to add some different handle options and some different sizes. If requested, I also might add an model with support for external/metal ARCA rail and a metal main bolt, it comes with its own pros and cons.

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