Wimberley's shooting sticks on Operation Predator

Looks like it could be a piece of flexible PVC tubing they use for air conditioner drains to me. I like the idea of golf club shafts, carbon fiber doesn't make as much noise as aluminum tubes.

GS,
I trust you will let us know when that new video comes out! Loved the first one and sure learned a lot, it's almost completely worn out from watching it. Nikonut /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
I bought a pair of Bruce's sticks soon after watching the Operation Predator video. Needless to say, I love them!
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BTW....I always thought that was a .22-250 Ed was shooting in the video. At least that's what the bullets look like when he was loading his gun before an early a.m. hunt. Regardless of the caliber....he's driving tacks with that gun!

Take care,

Rusty Holt
 
Rusty,
Great photo!! and it illustrates a handy factor about the sticks with their tubing across the top. Being able to prop your rifle out of the dirt and not worry about it falling out of the sticks while you put on your headnet, and get your calls warmed up, and glass the surrounding area. Nice photo prop, too. I hadn't thought about the advantage GS mentioned, either. Being able to reposition your rifle without fumbling around with the legs of the sticks. The sticks go where you point the rifle, and they stay in the open position.
Why doesn't someone just phone Ed and ask him what caliber rifle he shoots in the video? However, I get the impression from the video that he's just enough of a character to pull your leg if he thought he could get away with it.
This has been a great topic guys!!!! Thanks!
 
I have the video also, had a good look at bullet while he was loading it at truck, looks like 22-250 to me, the only other thing it could be is 243 with winchester 55 grainers. My h&r varmint really likes those winchesters, the 40 grainers at 3700 will do 1.25 to 1.5" groups at 200 yrds rested on a backpack. Going to try them in my new tikka t3 lite in 243 this weekend.

I'm still undecided about the band on the shooting sticks, there are times where my regular shooting sticks came in handy as a coyote came from direction unintended and i just let the sticks fall back into my lap while i swung on the dog. Same reason i don't like bi-pods for predator calling.

LD
 
Got my shooting sticks from Bruce Inness yesterday!! Very nicely made from oak, slightly different from the pair I had made. Bruce's sticks are lighter (and shorter) than mine, almost a thin oval in cross-section (mine are slightly rectangular with router-rounded edges). His sticks are joined with a copper rivet-type post and washer, I had joined mine with a flat-head brass screw and through acorn nut. I still haven't found any surgical tubing, but my wife (a nurse) is on the hunt, too. BTW, Bruce sent me his business card that listed his Geocities web site where he sells the sticks. I won't list it here because of advertising restrictions. If you want the info, e-mail me at lesjcbt@bellsouth.net although it was simple enough to get a pair just by calling Bruce at the number listed above. A really well-made product, and I can't wait to try them out!!
 
Go too Varmint Al's hunting page he has a set that you can make in a few minutes for a couple dollars and they work great I made a set four or five years ago. I think you can find his URL under links at this site.
 
I have built four sets of shooting sticks. The first three sets I made I used 4 foot long fiberglass driveway marker sticks that are about 3/8" in diameter. They cost around $2.50 each. Then someone told me they were using the 4 foot long fiberblass electric fence posts. By golly, those things are only $1.09 each up here in North Dacolder land!! So, I bought two of them and just finished building a set about an hour ago. I have a light coating of Krylon Khaki tan paint on them and will be spraying them with a couple more light coats to cover all the white of the posts and black from the 3/8" ID rubber gasoline hose I use for the forend rest.

I have been using castration bands for the hinging device along with some hinging effect also coming from the rubber gasoline hose. Here is the first set I made. This is before the final coating of Krylon Khaki tan was applied to the rubber hose.

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I use these sticks and do not take my Harris bipod off my rifle. The sticks hold the rifle up off the ground as I set up my decoy, or e-caller or just prepare my stand in general. They do not tip over (at least they haven't yet).

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Here's a full-length view of the new shooting sticks. These are 35 inches long and my other sets were 31 inches long. They blend in pretty good against the kitchen cabinets. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

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Here's the small bolt I used to fasten them together. I think the bolt was 1 1/4" long and was a 6-40 if I remember right. I didn't want the bolt so big that the hole I had to drill through the poles weakened the pole so it would split out. I placed a washer between the sticks to make sure they didn't bind, but I could use more spacers there I think. I then double nutted the end of the bolt. I'm not sure they make a self-locking nut as small as these bolts.

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This next photo shows where I had to carve off some of the rubber hose where they meet near the hinge to get the sticks to collapse for carrying. I'm not fully satisfied with that arrangement, but they'll do for now. My head hurts from all the thinking I had to do to put these together today. I am not done with the camo paint job either.

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Thanks for your efforts, Silverfox. The longer this thread goes, the more it shows that almost everybody has good, inventive ideas to make their own shooting sticks. On the sticks I bought from Bruce Inness he uses a thick (approx. 0.5")rubber spacer around the bolt between the sticks. This gives enough room so that the rubber tubing doesn't bind, and the sticks can be folded flat.
 
Hey Silverfox, I have been using the 4' fiberglass fence post also. I put cloth camo tape lengthwise, smoothed it down and ran a bead of Super Glue gel down the seam and rubbed it in with a Q-tip. (That camo cloth tape isn't the stickiest stuff around) Already had a bag of castration bands laying around the house so the project cost me about $7.00. Real happy with the results.
 
John Leslie--Thanks for the suggestion on using a rubber washer between the sticks. I took mine apart, found a rubber washer (about 1/8" thick) that was meant to be used in those old fashioned faucets and placed it between the sticks as a spacer. I put the bolt back in and tightened it down and it works just great!!! It keeps the sticks far enough apart so the rubber hose ends don't bind against each other. Thanks again for the suggestion! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
VM,
Call Bruce Inness at 970-824-4289 (Craig, CO) and he will give you his mailing address. He charged me $25 (shipping included) for the sticks, and they were delivered in about 10 days or so.
 
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