Want to build a night hunting rig, need ideas!?!

Jeremiah

New member
My partners and I would like to build a night hunting set up for the back of the truck. It needs to be big enough for at least 3 guys. We dont really know whether to go with a shooting rail or a pivoting chair or maybe even both. Any ideas, suggestions, or even some pictures would be greatly appreciated.
 
I will be hard to put 3 pivoting chairs in a truck. I would suggest a rail. i built one out of 1in square tube with an expanded metal flor the shooting rail sits about 10in above the truck cab. 2 chairs that swivel. I bought some 1in pipe foam insulation and put around the rails then cammo taped it up. Works pretty good two shooting chairs and one person standing with the light.
 
Are your shooting chairs side by side? We were thinking maybe a 10-12 inch wide bench type rail all the way around, with only one chair in the middle. The bench rail could be used to hold a caldwell tack driver bag that the other guys could use to shoot from, especially for those longer shots. The guy in the elavated chair could take care of the rest. We have been running 2 lights and one or two shooters. Thanks for the info!
 
Seems like putting a person in an elavated chair with the chance of the person below pointing a gun up isnt too safe.

Our chairs are side by side with room for a spotlighter in the middle. I have never ran two lights, always 1 light two shooters. Person on the left shoots left. The one on the right takes care of the right side. No confusion that way.

Try coaxing them in a little closer then there will be no need for a bag.
 
Seems like its easier to spotlight 360 with 2 lights. How wide and how long is your platform? We can see a long ways out here in Wyoming, and occasionally can take a 300-400 yard shot, when we are hunting a competition.
 
46in wide and 7ft long. I leave the tailgate down on my truck when I put the rack in. We usually dont shoot that far at night unless we are for sure its a yote and we cannot coax it in.
 
Here in California, lot of the guys will cut a hatch
in thier campers or shells with shooting racks. we call them rigs. I've got my 98 Silverado set up this way, it even has a crawl through boot from the cab to the camper.
Grizz
 
yep!! got a couple of dogs out of a rig in dec!! rig is from anaheim hills!!! ?? one lighter and one shooter and it helps if you have a driver!! with the boot , a driver is not needed just nicer to be able to trade off. alot warmer than a rack and chair!!plus you can sleep in the back when it rains or driving home!!
 
I have been thinking about building a killing chair for another truck I have been working on. It is a Jeep J20 pick up. I normally hunt with one or two friends. The rack seems to work out good for us. I can see the benifits of a chair and the rack. If there is three of you going alot I would probably say the rack and build it so one man can hold the light and two can shoot. I have been considering adding a platform in the middle of the rack on the blazer so the man w/ the light is a little higher than the shooters. It gets a little tiresome holding your arm in the air over the shooters head when running the light. with a little more heighth the man w/ the light wont have to hold it so high.
 
That is an awesome setup on that blazer! Hope others keep the pictures coming. They are definetaly helping us to get ideas. We plan to start building our rig next week. Thanks again for all the replies and pics, its really neat to see everybodys rigs!
 


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