Rifle machine rest

Ian

Notorious member
I picked up a Hyskore DLX machine rest to see if I could take a little bit of the "me" factor out of my groups without having to build a whole new shooting bench and raised platform just yet. I have to stand to shoot off of this one, so it's not the best for precision.
https://www.amazon.com/HYSKORE-1003629-Dampened-Precision-Shooting/dp/B002P7YGE2#

The design of the DLX rest looked decent, but I figured there would be a lot of slop and backlash in the mechanisms, and sure enough there was. Once I discovered that the guide rods were 12mm, I ordered some linear bearings, cut off the sloppy tubes, and drilled some holes to bolt the linear bearings in place. Well, not quite tbat easy, but that's the gist. I also abandoned the ill-designed rear fine adjustment and rigged a temporary, adjustable rear leg instead. There was so much lateral slop in the original part that there was no fixing it.

20181013_185153.jpg

20181013_185127.jpg

20181013_185134.jpg

It actually works well. For .223 it needs light springs instead of the hydraulic damper, and with the ones I had on hand it recoils about 3/4", pretty much perfect. Bolted to the bench, it returns to battery right on target, very nice. I forgot to check the straps after a few shots and it threw a few out of the group, but otherwise shoots almost as well as I do from sandbags. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:

uncle jimbo

Well-Known Member
For some reason I think that before you are through modifying it to where you like it, it will be perfect. ;)
 
F

freebullet

Guest
Nice work, Ian.

We have the dangerous game machine rest w/hydraulic trigger. Picked it up out of cabelas bargain cave years ago as an open box unit. It's mounted to a board with levels & handles. Works like a champ, if you have the time. It sights in perfectly horizontal but the verticle is about 7-9" high. Still really handy for sighting slug guns & other heavy hitters. Don't have to "waste your shoulder" till it's lined up. Pretty handy.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I think the vertical is probably due to the slop in the guides allowing the muzzle to jump upward 1/8" or more before the bullet is out of the barrel. If your horizontal is ok, just replacing the two front guides with 12mm linear bearings ($15 a pair from Amazon) and sanding the paint from the rods would cure that. With upgrades, mine printed exactly the same as from bags with the light-recoiling .223.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
I think your 100% correct. Mine is strikingly similar if not mostly same.

Would you happen to have a link on those bearings? I'll measure mine, bet they are same. It can shoot the same hole if the gun/load will but I'd love to fix the annoyance of height shift between shooter & machine.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Here ya go: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019IGQ3DE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I did a lot of searching to find the best price on ones that are here in this country. Most of them are six weeks away and less money, so you know they're coming from China on the slow boat. The ones linked are per pair, ideally you'd replace all three slides but the rear one is a challenge without abandoning the entire fine-elevation block like I did. Sanding off the coating from the pins, using a cut-off wheel to remove the spot welds that hold the guide tubes to the cross piece, drilling holes and mounting the blocks with 10-32 screws (they're either not 4mm as advertised or so close it don't matter) will take care of most of the lift. These bearings have setscrews to adjust tension, I found that they fit just right with basically no extra tension on the screws, so a drop of threadlocker and tightening to just touch the plastic races was plenty. YMMV of course if your rods are slightly smaller. Before removing the paint, the rods measured 12.2mm, and right on 12 after sanding off the powder coating and polishing to 600-grit.

You'll have to remove the Nylock nuts from the "cant" adjusters, I suggest using some medium-strength threadlocker when re-installing them and also to tighten them enough when reinstalling that the end of the threaded shaft bottoms on the rectangular tube and adds slight resistance to turning the handwheels and eliminate the up/down backlash there, which helps a bunch. So does a little grease on both sides of the nut. You don't want it too tight or it will bind the linear bearings. I put jam nuts on top so the cant adjustment can be locked down and also take backlash out of the cant adjustment screw threads.

Other mods I did were adding a large washer under the bolt head on the fine windage pivot bolt so it doesn't bottom out on the stud, that takes out a little slack and lets you tension that joint with the self-locking nut. I also added a washer under the head of the screw that attaches the fine windage leadscrew block to the arm, again removing backlash. Snugging the windage block to the arm prevents it sliding in the slot and will bow the leadscrew slightly at the extreme ends of travel, but you can always loosen and retighten it if necessary.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
Thank you, thank you very much. I will measure the guides, then order the same ones if it appears they could work.

I was so excited about the shoulder pulverizing rounds I saved, never really looked for a cause.