The Farley Coaxial joystick benchrest has been around for a long time and is the original form of a joystick style front benchrest. We first saw the prototypes of this benchrest being used by the USA shooters at the 2003 World Championships in Sweden. At the most recent World Benchrest Championships held in Sydney 2013 the Farley Coaxial was chosen by 72% of all competitors. So for traditional group shooting benchrest it still dominates.
For F class shooters many have been using this benchrest also and adapting things like legs and feet to use for their type of shooting. We are the biggest Farley rest dealers in the world (according to them) so we get to have a bit of input. In early 2013 I started talking to the Farley brothers about an internal modification which I wanted done to provide some upward pressure support for heavier rifles. I had developed the idea and modified one of my own Farley rests to allow me to use it on our Heavy Gun class benchrest rifles since 2011. I have a youtube video which shows me using a 22kg rifle on my Farley rest with this internal modification. Search "1000 yard Benchrest" on YouTube.
I wanted this modification so that I could add the required parts and make the Coax better for F class rifles up to 10kg in weight. By mid last year they built me a prototype and sent me to check. It only required two extra machining jobs. They started this mod on the shipment of 30 Farley rests made for us in June/July last year. So shipments from that time have the internal modification. It consists of two coil springs fitted vertically in two holes machined in the internal moving plate. The springs sit on special Delrin pads and are secured at the top with grub screws. This allows adjustment of the tension from the top and gives slight upward pressure to counteract rifle weight somewhat. The system is designed to get approx equal upward joystick movement as downward and sideways tension.
The latest modifications occurred after the Farley brothers visited the World F Class championships in Raton, New Mexico last year. They spoke to shooters and together with Speedy Gonzalas developed new feet and leg design and a large diameter hand wheel to connect onto the original Farley height adjustment wheel. This large wheel is now an optional extra. The top of the new F class feet and the new Benchrest feet are alloy and can be tapped with a hammer if required. The F class threaded legs are long, the machined point is stainless steel and the large washer section is machined alloy anodised. All parts on a Farley rest are hard anodised. The new model has new engraving to illustrate the recent changes. Called " F Type".
As usual Farley rests have a choice of bases. The original cast iron solid base or the lighter cast iron Space base. I have designed a new very large footprint Space base which will appear as an option in the future. Farley rests comes in RH version and LH version. The difference is which side the elevation control system sits. The lock lever can be positioned anywhere as it is the sprung rachet type lever.
The front bag supplied by Farley is a Cordura bag for 3" wide fore ends. At BRT we have had Protektor make for us a custom front bag to fit the Farley billet box which has leather front and back with Cordura in the middle. This is to give extra support for rifles with strong twisting torque. Some people also like to use an Edgewood leather front bag. The BRT custom bag is an optional extra. Other extras include the BRT straight handles in 3 lengths. A Farley Hard Case and for those who want extra tension control the BRT/Shadetree replacement tension screws sets are available.
Attached are some photos to illustrate. ( I hope the picture links attached work)
Thanks for your time. We have a few still available from shipment recently arrived. Another 30 are being manufactured now.
Stuart Elliott. BRT Shooters Supply. www.benchrest.com.au
ps. we are 95% finished on our new website so won't be long we hope.
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