Sometimes you need a rest
By: Hiltonjg
Date: 14 July, 2024
In the world of precision shooting competitions, the desire to go out and buy every new piece of gear that comes out and lug it around in a cart is commonplace, which makes Tony Gimmelle an oddity. You will find the owner of Impact data books, Team Vudoo shooter, and multiple precision rifle competition winner showing up to competitions with nothing more than his rifle and a small backpack of gear. Pieces of his kit are older than some of the shooters competing against him. So when I heard he developed a new tripod rest specifically to help with positional shooting I was immediately curious.
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a prototype of the Mini Anchor Rear Support (MARS) and do some testing with it. (Editors note: The author was cool enough to play with the prototype but not get one with his name on it.) This example was made to be used with the two vets QDT tripod and productions models will be available for most of the commonly seen tripods at PRS style matches. On the day I was able to use the MARS the heat index was over 100 degrees at the range, giving me the excuse of mirage and shooters fatigue for some of my shooting. With my excuses out of the way for any poor performance I may have had let’s get down to the rest.
The rest is designed so that when it is attached to a tripod you have an almost straight shelf to sit your rifle on and it is easily slid up or down to adjust for your heigh requirements. I found it was able to support the end of my .22 rifle by itself. We tried a friend’s rifle (over 20 pounds) and while it would not hold it up by itself, a very light grip underneath it worked and was comfortable enough for prolonged shooting. To test it a folding chair was used as a barricade that was about as stable as my ex-girlfriend. I was able to effectively engage targets out to 400 yards with misses being due to bad wind calls or bad shots. The target shown was two strings of fire at 155 yards (sorry, it's not letting me upload pics at the moment), the top grouping was a rapid fire to simulate a stage timer and the bottom was a slow controlled grouping. Throughout the day I tried many positions and the rest did not fail once. At around eight ounces and 60 dollars it won’t hurt your back or your wallet. The MARS is currently available at
www.Impactdatabooks.com
The only downside was that with the rest being made to go on the top part of the tripod legs if your position requires you to get low you have to lower the tripod to use the rest, or get a second one that works on the lower legs. A nit pick of mine is the part you rest your rifle is on is pretty slick. I believe a piece of leather or felt stuck on there will fix it easily.
In conclusion it is a great piece of gear being brought to the shooting sports from a great little company. I will be ordering myself one to use long term (editors note: The author still isn’t cool enough to get free stuff.) and probably in some future precision rifle matches.
