Field target hamsters

thomasair said:

Zebra,

For me, the vast majority of my sitting shots are taken with my knee riser in the very same position. So you could easily just make a static riser and probably be all set for most of your sitting shots, too. For my kneeling shots, I like a different position. For offhand, i typically don't use the riser at all. However, there are times when targets are placed in trees that require an uphill hold of maybe 30-40 degrees. The offhands and kneelers can be very difficult to find a steady hold if you don't have a good range of adjustment on
the riser.

I would suggest just making some simple static risers that connect to your Anschutz rail and shoot for a while to see what your particular needs are. Here in the US, we can change accessories on the lanes in the open class. Wftf does not allow adding or removing during the match. Lots of open class guys have static risers of various height that they freely change out as necessary. That would be the least expensive route to take.

I read somewhere that a guy used toilet flange bolts to hold accessories on his Anschutz rail. I don't know if they required any additional modifications to utilize, as I have not tried them myself.

You can buy Anschutz rail sections from Champions Choice for about 15.00 for a 15" piece. I don't have a direct link, but if you go to their site and search rail sections....it should come up.

Mike

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JimD said:

I haven't shot field target yet but am trying to get set up to. Working on getting the parallax wheel marked and a good drop chart worked out.

I've thought about a hamster, mainly for off hand shots. Might need for kneeling too I guess. I plan to shoot hunter class and my understanding is the hamster cannot be more than 6 inches below the barrel center. Is that correct? My tentative plans are to make something I can just slip into the quick release sling mount. It would just be a friction fit. I already put the sling mount in the stock for when I hunt with this gun. I could easily make more than one. Or I could screw together multiple pieces to vary the height.

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zebra said:

Ah it makes more sense now. I guess people in America call it a knee rest or knee riser (which is a much more sensible name) while people in Europe refer to it as a hamster for apparently no other reason than it is roughly the same size.

The only search results I was finding were from the UK and Eastern Europe when I google field target hamsters. They seem to have much cooler air gun accessory shops than we do btw. I particularly appreciated the designs sold in this store:

https://www.maestro-design.co.uk

but not their prices so much.

Is Mac1 the only place to make and sell them in America? Does anyone make a lower cost product for people who are just dipping their toe in the sport?

I could be wrong but it seems hard to believe that people who use $400 air rifles like a CZ200 would be investing $175 or more in a knee rest for one.

Making the actual rest out of carbon fiber or fiberglass would be very easy for me. It's the mechanism that makes it's height adjustable that I'm not sure about. Do they have to be height adjustable or, if you were making one as a custom job, could you just make it the right height for yourself and keep it fixed? I.e. Is there any need for the same person to have it at one height for one thing and then adjust it for another position etc?

The only way I can think of to do it easily is to use a quick release bar clamp and attach the rest to a carbon fiber tube. It doesn't look like anyone else does it that way though...

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