Ransom Rest???
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Flint Ridge
Member
I got scared off of them once I saw the price and that you really need the extra windage items and technically you have to buy $50 or so adapter per each frame you will shoot.
To me each gun if put in a ransom rest would perform amazingly. So, having guns like my 66-1's that out perform the plastic stuff in my house tells me the Smith's are the best.
Now, if you are reloading for a purpose and are looking for the utmost accuracy and dialing them in - well, it might be justified.
To me each gun if put in a ransom rest would perform amazingly. So, having guns like my 66-1's that out perform the plastic stuff in my house tells me the Smith's are the best.
Now, if you are reloading for a purpose and are looking for the utmost accuracy and dialing them in - well, it might be justified.
I have one. It was great when I was working up loads. Now I rarely use it, only on occasion when I am evaluating a new gun purchase.
Texas1941
Member
If you are project kind of person, especially with reloads, they can be worth the effort. The 'certs can be sort of expensive, but how many do you really need? I have K and N for the Smiths, I and O for the Colts. Probably $90 all together (but the last one I bought was 10-12 years ago).
Using one takes time. Ten ten shot groups will burn 4 hours, easy.
One thing: you have to have a solid shooting bench to clamp on to. If you are using the usual wobbly range shooting bench, forget it and save your money.
Using one takes time. Ten ten shot groups will burn 4 hours, easy.
One thing: you have to have a solid shooting bench to clamp on to. If you are using the usual wobbly range shooting bench, forget it and save your money.
rck281
Member
I had one some years ago. I found it difficult to use but once set up did get good results. If you get one, buy the windage base. It takes several shots to get the gun settled in the inserts. Also, some autos shoot the first round to a slightly different place. One nice thing with revolvers is that you can find out if one chamber shoots different than the rest.
Ransom Rest
A Ransom Rest with windage base is a great tool if you are an experimenting kind of person. Our gun club used to have one for member's use and we had a very solid (concrete & steel rebar) bench to use it from.
However, as "Tex" said, it can be time consuming. A friend and I used to spend all day testing several handguns. If you combine the Rest with the use of a chonograph, you can find out all kinds of interesting things.
It does take a little time to learn to use it effectively, too. If the trigger is not pulled the same every time and if the gun isn't returned to the down position every time in the same way, you can get less than perfect results. Also, sometimes settleing the gun into the grip inserts can be tricky with some guns (for instance, "race guns" which have been highly modified for competition use).
On the other hand, the goal of handgun shooting is placing the bullet in the right place on the target (whatever that might be) from your unsupported hands (usually), so the Ransom Rest isn't really going to help with that. You can't really use it for sight adjustment because the adjustment will be different from your hands.
- - - -Buckspen
A Ransom Rest with windage base is a great tool if you are an experimenting kind of person. Our gun club used to have one for member's use and we had a very solid (concrete & steel rebar) bench to use it from.
However, as "Tex" said, it can be time consuming. A friend and I used to spend all day testing several handguns. If you combine the Rest with the use of a chonograph, you can find out all kinds of interesting things.
It does take a little time to learn to use it effectively, too. If the trigger is not pulled the same every time and if the gun isn't returned to the down position every time in the same way, you can get less than perfect results. Also, sometimes settleing the gun into the grip inserts can be tricky with some guns (for instance, "race guns" which have been highly modified for competition use).
On the other hand, the goal of handgun shooting is placing the bullet in the right place on the target (whatever that might be) from your unsupported hands (usually), so the Ransom Rest isn't really going to help with that. You can't really use it for sight adjustment because the adjustment will be different from your hands.
- - - -Buckspen
FWIW I don't want to own a gadget whose only purpose is to show me how badly I shoot. 
They can be a very valuable tool to find out what loads really work best in your guns. That said, once you have those loads worked up it will sit in the corner gathering dust. We have one we bought at a local club, with the stipulation all members can use it, but if any new/different inserts were needed the members would buy them. It has only been used by about 4 of us, and does lie idle most of the time. I did take it out last summer, to re-verify the .
45acp loads I am using in my gold cup and for practice with my Springfield Armory comp gun. For strict accuracy with a 200 gr H&G cast bullet 4.3 gr. 231 with a Fed. primer was still the most accurate load, which I had worked up 20 years ago. It chrono's about 738 fps and works fine with up to a 17 lb recoil spring.
45acp loads I am using in my gold cup and for practice with my Springfield Armory comp gun. For strict accuracy with a 200 gr H&G cast bullet 4.3 gr. 231 with a Fed. primer was still the most accurate load, which I had worked up 20 years ago. It chrono's about 738 fps and works fine with up to a 17 lb recoil spring.
S.B.
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Borrowed one from a friend several times and consider it invaluable while working up loads or checking the accuracy of pistols. When he passed, I bought it from his widow along with all the inserts I needed or used. Still consider it valuable for any pistol work.Even rimfires, shows what is really good ammo and what is just junk.
Steve
Steve
Kenneth L. Walters
Member
Decades ago, I have no idea when, either Gun Digest or Handloader's Digest did a review of the Ransom Rest. It was, I think, shortly after it came out. As I recall the review was quite positive.
I've used one. I've also done offhand studies without one. The groups are really much smaller with the Ransom Rest. So if you want to study accuracy of a load, I think that they are worth the effort.
The Ransom family, Chuck's wife, just sold the company. The rests are still being made but not by the same people. Chuck, of course, died years ago.
I've used one. I've also done offhand studies without one. The groups are really much smaller with the Ransom Rest. So if you want to study accuracy of a load, I think that they are worth the effort.
The Ransom family, Chuck's wife, just sold the company. The rests are still being made but not by the same people. Chuck, of course, died years ago.
John Ross
Absent Comrade
What guns do you intend to test with it? I've used one a number of times and have been very pleased when testing lower-recoil cartridges, less so on powerful ones.
When the .500 came out in 2003, I tried it in a Ransom Rest and couldn't avoid massive vertical stringing--a foot or more of vertical dispersion at 25 yards with less than an inch of horizontal. This was even after dozens of rounds fired to "seat" the gun in the inserts. Maybe I needed a stronger spring or I was doing something else wrong, but I never could get good results with the .500 in the RR.
OTOH, I have a lot of experience shooting handguns off sandbags, especially scoped. Resting the trigger guard on the bag (not the barrel) and paying attention to uniformity of grip, I can outshoot a RR with a scoped gun in any magnum caliber every time.
It might not be feasible for every gun you want to test, but temporarily scoping your gun and shooting it off sandbags would be a lower-cost alternative to the Ransom, with better results if you're shooting revolvers with heavy recoil.
When the .500 came out in 2003, I tried it in a Ransom Rest and couldn't avoid massive vertical stringing--a foot or more of vertical dispersion at 25 yards with less than an inch of horizontal. This was even after dozens of rounds fired to "seat" the gun in the inserts. Maybe I needed a stronger spring or I was doing something else wrong, but I never could get good results with the .500 in the RR.
OTOH, I have a lot of experience shooting handguns off sandbags, especially scoped. Resting the trigger guard on the bag (not the barrel) and paying attention to uniformity of grip, I can outshoot a RR with a scoped gun in any magnum caliber every time.
It might not be feasible for every gun you want to test, but temporarily scoping your gun and shooting it off sandbags would be a lower-cost alternative to the Ransom, with better results if you're shooting revolvers with heavy recoil.
FWIW I don't want to own a gadget whose only purpose is to show me how badly I shoot.
I dont either...and that is certainly one way of looking at it.
Still another would be that I might want to own a device who's only purpose is to show me just how good my pistol will shoot.
I have several pistols of my own I would like to both check accuracy and work up loads for. The largest being a 629. I never shot max loads out of any of them. I also do some gunsmithing and am interested in verifying on my own guns that accuracy "enhancements" are just that before I sell them to others.
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S.B.
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John, I talked to Ransom about shooting my 500 in their machine and was told I need to send it to them to have hardened screw(for the start nuts) put in if I intend to fire many 500 rounds through it?
HTHs, Steve
John Ross
Absent Comrade
Nov.-Dec. 1970 Handloader (the magazine) Issue no. 28, page 34 by Jim Carmichael.
Thanks a million for that little tid bit...I will be looking that one up for certain.
Frank237
Absent Comrade
I DO have that issue. I could make copies and forward them. Before I go to that trouble...I wonder what upgrades were made to the RR in the past 40+ years? Would the article even be useful?
Anyway..I have it.
FN in MT
feralmerril
Absent Comrade
I have a real old one. I had ransom overhaul it about 4 years ago and havent used it since. They overhauled it for $50s. I dont have a windage base, or a real solid bench to mount it. I do have a bunch of grip adapters for it.
John Ross
Absent Comrade
At that time, it was autos only, with an insert in the mag well that was split and tightened by being forced apart. looks like it worked the same though.
JimC
Member
I have one, an older one however, the gun club that I belong to does not have a solid enough rest to use it properly and there isn't enough interest among the members to install one from what I can tell.
When I lived in NJ, my club there had a solid steel in concrete setup for a Ransom Rest. I used it quite often to check the accuracy of both handguns and specific loads.
Great piece of machinery the Ransom Rest is and the results can be enlightening.
When I lived in NJ, my club there had a solid steel in concrete setup for a Ransom Rest. I used it quite often to check the accuracy of both handguns and specific loads.
Great piece of machinery the Ransom Rest is and the results can be enlightening.
