rear bags with bunny ears

corey4

corey4

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Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 11, 2012
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pittsburgh pa
#1
https://www.midwayusa.com/s?targetL...Ntpc=1&Ntpr=1&categoryId=&userItemsPerPage=48

took a class last week and the instructor let me use his rear bag'rest with bunny ears and i would like to pick one up. i have been using a beer can style, and he pointed out some deficiencies with that style. i have been searching, and really the only one that pops up is the one in the above link. there are a few different variations; some with tall/short ears, others have just a box shape, some have a slant at the front.

who has used which type, and what do you like and don't like. are these a good fit for field shooting, matches?

rifle chassis is a KRG W3 gen5 with the butt hook. i may pick up their bag riders, the straight and slanted.

what i have now:
https://www.triadtactical.com/Red-Tac-Gear-Rear-Bag.html

krg bag riders:
https://kineticresearchgroup.com/product/angled-bag-rider/
https://kineticresearchgroup.com/product/flat-bag-rider/


 
#2
The "eared" rear bags do not allow for much adjustment when shooting with a bipod. They are typically filled with dense sand and hold the stock stable when used with a mechanical front rest where adjustments for elevation are made. They excel in managing recoil when used with stocks that have a flat bottom as the stock can slide between the ears on the rearward force of recoil. They are good for F-Class and Benchrest shooting but they do not, in my opinion, have a practical application in tactical shooting.
 
#3
Pretty much what Sig Marine said. Those are good bags and I have one for bench use. For field style matches and use, there are others that are more practical and useful...and lighter.

If you plan on shooting F-Class or similar style, then these will be a good choice. If you want to start shooting PRS style matches, I'd suggest that you start by using the bag you have and shoot a small local match with it. I shot matches for two years using just that style bag and it still has a place in my pack. Once you shoot a match or so, you will get a better idea of what you might want to use to improve on your style of shooting.

 
#4
Years ago I found a bunny ear bag made from nylon and filled with plastic pellets, which does enable squeeze adjustments for elevation. It can also be turned on all sides for major changes. I've tried many other conventional shaped bags and prefer this one. It is less sensitive to my error of not always maintaining a consistent squeeze upon recoil, which results in a high shot.
 
#5
Ditto exactly what Lash and Sig Marine are saying. Ok, I'm going to let you in on a well kept secret and where you can find the absolute best tactical/field rear bag on planet earth. Here goes;
You were on the right track with the smaller red tac gear rear bag. Thats a nice bag but the problem with that bag is its just a little small. Red tac used to make one that was slightly larger, they called it a "pillow" but the name was misleading because most tactical/prs shooters think of a "pillow" as one of the soft fill larger bags that most of us use to help as a positional shooting aid/body support type of bag. Anyway, most people wouldn't order it for a rear bag because they thought it was a positional aid. But the kicker is it had a poly bead fill that made it very manipulative with just the slightest of pressure and was sized nicely for a rear bag. It was a killer of a rear bag and I can't count how many people have tried to beg, borrow, steal or buy that bag from me after they tried it. Problem was, both those Red Tac bags used to be sold for red tac through Triad Tactical but the guy that had the rights to it quite making it so it has been unavailable for a long time (I think Triad still has a little stock of the smaller version). Anyway, nobody could figure out where to get a bag like mine. I even had a guy offer to pay S100 for mine, lol. The secret to that bag was one, the size and two, the type of beads used. Anyway, to make a long story longer :)rolleyes:), so many people were bugging me about this bag thing, I eventually found out that the licensing agreement for my bag was sold to OC Tactical the owner of which is named Mike. Mike is making these now but he is using a different type & size of poly bead that has actually improved the bag, ie, it's ever easier to manipulate your sight picture, etc. I didn't think it was possible to improve on that bag until I tried it, amazing. Mike bought the rights to the name too so it's still made with a Red Tac label but its manufactured by OC Tactical. He sells them for 40 bucks. I know, it's probably stupid to get this cranked up over a stupid bag but with the improvement of the new style of bead, it really is a "no miss" bag, lol! They are actually kinda hard to find on his website, you have to "enter" the website (click on the skull, weird, I know), choose "store", scroll down to "nylon gear" then pick "long range gear". You'll find the bags (still called a "pillow" on that page, 40 bucks I believe. I talked to Mike today, he's currently making more, this week it's multicam. The beads are proprietary, he has to buy them by the pallet load.....crazy really. Anyway, that's the story of the best tacical rear bag on the earth. You can thank me later. Besides bunny eared bags are for bunnies. You wanna be a bunny?
 
#6
I will be the contrarian in this discussion. I prefer the typical rear bag with ears (Rabbit ears).
During your class are you sure the bag was bunny ears 1" tall vs rabbit 2.5" tall?

I shoot both F class FTR and precision matches (not PRS) and shoot primarily F class

My F class rear bags are huge heavy bags upwards of 20lbs they do not move under recoil.

My precision bag is similar to the one in the link but a shooter ridge version. weight is under 2lbs. filled
The width of the ears are 1/8 less then the width of my stock or bag rider. i control elevation using my non shooting hand which squeezes the ears and i don't want to ride the bottom as i would need to squeeze the bag portion.

I think the fill is key and similar to the tac bags/pillows it is filled with beads. I pack the base firmer to provide a consistent height and shoulder placement in prone and looser in the ears to be able to manipulate.

one other point choosing a bag I prefer the soft bottom and not the harder more rigid bottom for pliability on different surfaces.

All the best
Trevor
 
#7
BTW, no insult to users of eared bags intended, (although the "bunny" remark was kinda fun....) I'm primarily referring to field/tactical/prs competition type use. Plenty of people use the eared bags sucessfully in benchrest/F class shooting. But everyone who goes out to shoot ELR with us who bring bunny bags ends up using one of our tactical style bags after they keep missing, lol.
 
#8
Fursniper said:
Ditto exactly what Lash and Sig Marine are saying. Ok, I'm going to let you in on a well kept secret and where you can find the absolute best tactical/field rear bag on planet earth. Here goes;
You were on the right track with the smaller red tac gear rear bag. Thats a nice bag but the problem with that bag is its just a little small. Red tac used to make one that was slightly larger, they called it a "pillow" but the name was misleading because most tactical/prs shooters think of a "pillow" as one of the soft fill larger bags that most of us use to help as a positional shooting aid/body support type of bag. Anyway, most people wouldn't order it for a rear bag because they thought it was a positional aid. But the kicker is it had a poly bead fill that made it very manipulative with just the slightest of pressure and was sized nicely for a rear bag. It was a killer of a rear bag and I can't count how many people have tried to beg, borrow, steal or buy that bag from me after they tried it. Problem was, both those Red Tac bags used to be sold for red tac through Triad Tactical but the guy that had the rights to it quite making it so it has been unavailable for a long time (I think Triad still has a little stock of the smaller version). Anyway, nobody could figure out where to get a bag like mine. I even had a guy offer to pay S100 for mine, lol. The secret to that bag was one, the size and two, the type of beads used. Anyway, to make a long story longer :)rolleyes:), so many people were bugging me about this bag thing, I eventually found out that the licensing agreement for my bag was sold to OC Tactical the owner of which is named Mike. Mike is making these now but he is using a different type & size of poly bead that has actually improved the bag, ie, it's ever easier to manipulate your sight picture, etc. I didn't think it was possible to improve on that bag until I tried it, amazing. Mike bought the rights to the name too so it's still made with a Red Tac label but its manufactured by OC Tactical. He sells them for 40 bucks. I know, it's probably stupid to get this cranked up over a stupid bag but with the improvement of the new style of bead, it really is a "no miss" bag, lol! They are actually kinda hard to find on his website, you have to "enter" the website (click on the skull, weird, I know), choose "store", scroll down to "nylon gear" then pick "long range gear". You'll find the bags (still called a "pillow" on that page, 40 bucks I believe. I talked to Mike today, he's currently making more, this week it's multicam. The beads are proprietary, he has to buy them by the pallet load.....crazy really. Anyway, that's the story of the best tacical rear bag on the earth. You can thank me later. Besides bunny eared bags are for bunnies. You wanna be a bunny?
Click to expand...

It looks like he's out of the pillow. Would the rear bag he offers be just as good? Thanks
 
#10
"looks like he's out of the pillow. Would the rear bag he offers be just as good? Thanks"

I spoke with Mike at OC Tactical just yesterday. He'll be making more (in multicam) next week (the "pillow" version). I think he may have some in black if you want, check his Web site on colors for availability. He had kaiki yesterday too but i guess these bags are selling quickly. I'd wait, get the pillow version. As time goes by he'll have more colors available. He told me that if a customer orders one & the color is out of stock, he will email them back when he gets to that color. Depends how much you care about color & how long you want to wait I guess. Give him a call if you want......
 
#12
Fursniper,
this is Stu the owner/operator at Red Tac Gear.
Half of what you posted is correct.
Here is the skinny:
I have personally stopped making the bean bags. After 13+ years of making them I have passed on the torch.
Steve @ Triad, & Mike @ O.C. Tactical have written agreements with me to make all 3 sizes I use to manufacture.
The products are now manufactured by Triad & O.C. Tactical's people and is a licensed "Red Tac Gear" product.

Hopefully that clears up a couple things.

 
#13
RedMan* said:
Fursniper,
this is Stu the owner/operator at Red Tac Gear.
Half of what you posted is correct.
Here is the skinny:
I have personally stopped making the bean bags. After 13+ years of making them I have passed on the torch.
Steve @ Triad, & Mike @ O.C. Tactical have written agreements with me to make all 3 sizes I use to manufacture.
The products are now manufactured by Triad & O.C. Tactical's people and is a licensed "Red Tac Gear" product.

Hopefully that clears up a couple things.
Click to expand...

Stu, thanks for clearing that up, I was just relaying the info I was aware of as told to me by Mike. Didn't realize that Triad was making them too now finally. Funny, my gunsmith was one of the admirers of my bag which I got from Triad a couple of years ago. Seems like they were always out of them. Anyway, he had asked me where I got mine, I told him Triad Tactical but I was pretty sure they hadn't had them in inventory for awhile since I had referred so many shooters there and no one could seem to get one. I had sent several other people to their site as well, even tried myself several times to get some as gifts for friends with the same result. Just a couple of weeks ago, my smith called Triad, they didn't have any and who ever he spoke with told him they didn't carry that bag anymore and referred him to OC Tactical! So he did & he bought two of them from Mike. So I got the story from my smith too, lol. Anyway, just crossed signals I guess. If Triad is making them too, I wonder if they are using the same beads for the fill?....IMO the beads Mike is using are superior to the ones in the bag I got from Triad but that was some time ago, perhaps while you were still making them. In either event, thanks for "passing the torch" to those guys, you created a great bag and from what I have seen, OC Tactical has improved on it too! Again, thanks for clarifying, don't want to take anything away from Triad, they're a regular contributor here and they make some really great stuff, a lot of which I own as well.
 
#14
Fursniper said:
BTW, no insult to users of eared bags intended, (although the "bunny" remark was kinda fun....) I'm primarily referring to field/tactical/prs competition type use. Plenty of people use the eared bags sucessfully in benchrest/F class shooting. But everyone who goes out to shoot ELR with us who bring bunny bags ends up using one of our tactical style bags after they keep missing, lol.
Click to expand...

No offense taken. I was hoping to provide a different prospective to shooting precision (prone) there are pluses and minus for each. PRS being more dynamic may require a different rear support system.
As for ELR shooting i will see your tactical bag ;) and raise you on protektor rear bag...you can see one to the left of the shooter.

elr1705.jpg



all the best
Trevor
 
Last edited:
#15
fursniper,
all good man.
Here is what I know:
Triad and OC Tactical were both set up at about the same time with this.
Triad I believe had some issues with his manufacture getting the bag correct so that would probably be the lag time you mentioned.
As for Triad not stocking the Tactical Pillows, well if I understand his manufacture requires him to order a min. of 20 bags, in each color and in each size.
Do the math… thats literally a metric $hit ton of bean bags if he made one mass order.
Choice is up to them as to which colors and which bags they want to offer to customers.

L8R,
Stu
 
#16
Does to OC tact pillow allow the rifle to ride straight back without too much dicking around, breaking position to make sure the pillow/bag is straight? With the beer can type bag I have the instructor pointed out how i am allowing the rear stock to ride slightly to the left or right, which is why I throw mist of my shots. Most every time I threw one, he said "look at the rear bag" sure as shit, it was of 'center'.

​​​​​​im guessing since the rear of the JRG W3 is narrow, I need more of a narrow 'valley' if I choose the bunny ears.
 
#18
Cory, all I can tell you is in my experience shooting with folks in field positions that are trying to use "bunny bags", they seem to have a very difficult time getting the bag adjusted. Those kind of bags have a very limited "adjustment range" , they just don't have the flexibility to adjust easily to multiple positions, they are for the most part rather hard and lack the "squeeze ability factor" to accommodate mutiple shooting positions. The OC Tactical "pillow" is soft enough to create a "V" in the center of the bag if that's what you are looking for. So yes, your rifle can ride back somewhat but if you're looking for something that can accommodate a free recoil style(because it sounds like what you are describing to me), then no, it's probably not the right bag for you. IMO free recoil does not work well in the field. I have used bunny bags on square ranges where very little adjustment is required and they work ok for that but even with that I still use a tactical type of bag at square ranges for load development, etc. Too, if the rear of your rifle is moving left or right that much with a "beer can bag" as you describe it, well, that sounds like more of a problem with fundamentals with how you're holding the rifle, your position behind the rifle, recoil control, what youre doing with your off hand, etc. You control the rifle, not the other way around.

Like reticles, stocks vs chassis systems, etc, rear bags like so many other types of equipment are such a personal choice that it's hard to define what is the "correct" way". The best way is what works for you. Having said that though, trying other methods is a great way to find out what exactly that is. For 40 bucks I'd say give a different bag a try, if you don't like it, sell it. I have 3 other rear bags sitting on a shelf in my garage that I don't use because they didn't meet my needs. Part of the game I guess....:)
 
#19
Fursniper said:
Ditto exactly what Lash and Sig Marine are saying. Ok, I'm going to let you in on a well kept secret and where you can find the absolute best tactical/field rear bag on planet earth. Here goes;
You were on the right track with the smaller red tac gear rear bag. Thats a nice bag but the problem with that bag is its just a little small. Red tac used to make one that was slightly larger, they called it a "pillow" but the name was misleading because most tactical/prs shooters think of a "pillow" as one of the soft fill larger bags that most of us use to help as a positional shooting aid/body support type of bag. Anyway, most people wouldn't order it for a rear bag because they thought it was a positional aid. But the kicker is it had a poly bead fill that made it very manipulative with just the slightest of pressure and was sized nicely for a rear bag. It was a killer of a rear bag and I can't count how many people have tried to beg, borrow, steal or buy that bag from me after they tried it. Problem was, both those Red Tac bags used to be sold for red tac through Triad Tactical but the guy that had the rights to it quite making it so it has been unavailable for a long time (I think Triad still has a little stock of the smaller version). Anyway, nobody could figure out where to get a bag like mine. I even had a guy offer to pay S100 for mine, lol. The secret to that bag was one, the size and two, the type of beads used. Anyway, to make a long story longer :)rolleyes:), so many people were bugging me about this bag thing, I eventually found out that the licensing agreement for my bag was sold to OC Tactical the owner of which is named Mike. Mike is making these now but he is using a different type & size of poly bead that has actually improved the bag, ie, it's ever easier to manipulate your sight picture, etc. I didn't think it was possible to improve on that bag until I tried it, amazing. Mike bought the rights to the name too so it's still made with a Red Tac label but its manufactured by OC Tactical. He sells them for 40 bucks. I know, it's probably stupid to get this cranked up over a stupid bag but with the improvement of the new style of bead, it really is a "no miss" bag, lol! They are actually kinda hard to find on his website, you have to "enter" the website (click on the skull, weird, I know), choose "store", scroll down to "nylon gear" then pick "long range gear". You'll find the bags (still called a "pillow" on that page, 40 bucks I believe. I talked to Mike today, he's currently making more, this week it's multicam. The beads are proprietary, he has to buy them by the pallet load.....crazy really. Anyway, that's the story of the best tacical rear bag on the earth. You can thank me later. Besides bunny eared bags are for bunnies. You wanna be a bunny?
Click to expand...

I just looked at these and they are all sold out. :/ Hopefully he gets some made soon. I'm going to order one.
 
#21
Not looking for free recoil style

I built a shooting barricade with stand, kneeling, sitting positions (just haven't had the chance use it yet). Definitely looking to for tactical/match type recoil control style. And yes, my fundamentals definitely need working on.

I was also eyeing up the Armageddon gear game changer.
 
#23
Fursniper said:
Well, if you like Armageddon gear, the NUMERO UNO bag is the one for you!!!;https://youtu.be/faIPXY3ZFSk

ENJOY!
Click to expand...

Lol! Always a good video for a laugh.

On a more serious note, I have been using the Armageddon Gear X-Wing bag for a couple years now and have found that it works well for my needs.

And yes, I too have three or more different bags hanging around. I do carry the old cylinder bag with me still, as is sometimes comes in handy for an odd stage now and then or as a loaner.
 
#24
I am not a fan of Protektor type bags with bipods. Like others have said, those types of rear bags really shine when using front rests, but lack adjustability with bipods.

If if you are wanting to use that style of rear bag, I'd encourage you to also get a good front rest. Something like this would be great.

[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/www.snipershide.com\/shooting\/core\/webkit-fake-url:\/\/3e189fe7-1c0c-41e5-ae15-25a6c9cc428a\/imagejpeg"}[/IMG2]

http://www.bullets.com/products/Rest...st-Iron/BE1006

Not gonna do you any favors in a PRS match, but it will for load development and working on fundamentals. For practical/tactical shooting I mostly use the TAB rear bag.
[IMG2=JSON]{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","src":"https:\/\/www.snipershide.com\/shooting\/webkit-fake-url:\/\/9cb643ff-5e07-49dc-9550-429bf700d50c\/imagejpeg"}[/IMG2]


http://www.triadtactical.com/TAB-Rear-Bag.html

Although, I think I'm going to order the pillow bag mentioned above.
 
#25
I started out using a lightweight filled rear bag (Str8 Laced), and found that I shot much better from the prone when I used a heavy filled bag. The TAB Gear bag in the standard size mentioned above has become my go-to bag for any stage that has prone, unless it requires a high bipod height.

How heavy is the OC Tactical Pillow? I know you said it was a proprietary bead blend, but is it like the super light fill of the pump pillows, or the dense heavy fill of the TAB rear bag?
 
#26
samb300 said:
I started out using a lightweight filled rear bag (Str8 Laced), and found that I shot much better from the prone when I used a heavy filled bag. The TAB Gear bag in the standard size mentioned above has become my go-to bag for any stage that has prone, unless it requires a high bipod height.

How heavy is the OC Tactical Pillow? I know you said it was a proprietary bead blend, but is it like the super light fill of the pump pillows, or the dense heavy fill of the TAB rear bag?
Click to expand...

The OC one uses plastic type beads, the bag is about 3 pounds. Nothing like a pump pillow.
 
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