X7 Review, X7 Bulls Bag Review, Shooting Rest Review, Sand Bag Review
Well I have gotten my hands on the
X7 Bulls Bag
system and I'm really excited to see if this system can solve some of
the issues I was having with a mechanical rest that I tried out during
my last FNAR range test. I'm not going to go into all the issues I had
with that rest, but it was clear to me that I wanted to get back to
shooting my rifle against my shoulder (not a the rear end of a rest
against my shoulder) and back to a sand bag system. Also, a couple of
posts ago, I performed a review of the
Bulls Bag Bench 15" Shooting Rest.
I really liked this bag and the range results, but this bag wasn't the
correct bag for shooting a rifle with a pistol grip and high capacity
magazines due to it's low height. This new X7 Bulls Bag should solve
that issue plus give me the versatility of reconfiguring the bag system
to suit any of my shooting needs. I would like to point out that even
though I'm going to give some great information during this review, you
need to check out the
Bulls Bag
website. Don't worry, I'm not on their payroll. It is just that I
learned during my review of their Bench 15" model that they do a great
job of marketing their products. What about price? I just did a search
at Amazon.com and you can get the X7 Bulls Bag unfilled for about $100
including shipping.
The photo below shows what you get in the box (remember that if you
click on a photo, it will bring up a higher resolution photo). Since
there are so many pieces to this system, I know terminology is going to
be an issue, so I'm going to stick with Bulls Bag terminology so it
will match their instructions. The box contained:
- 2 Hi-Front Rests Bags (largest two bags in the top middle)
- 2 Low Owl-Ear Bags (two in the upper right corner)
- 2 Rectangular Bags (two in the lower right corner)
- 1 Vise-Grip Bag (lower middle)
- Carry Strap
- Instructions
- Brochure
- Marketing Business Card
These next two photos are the front and back of the box.
I
thought is was worth putting their brochure in since it was in the box
and it does have a bunch of information on the bag system. Like I said
earlier, they really go out of their way to provide marketing
information and promote their products.
The
next 3 photos are two pages of instructions and one page of more
marketing data. There was a fourth page full of warnings that I didn't
think were worth showing. The warnings are all pretty standard and the
kind of stuff you would get in a gun safety course.
Now
it is time to follow their instructions and fill the bags. Steps 1, 2
and 3 are basically remove the stuff from the box, inspect all parts,
and find fill location. The photo below shows the fill port on a
rectangular bag. The low owl-ear bags are basically the same. I
started out trying to work my finger down between the Velcro hook and
loop to open the fill port. Then I figured out if you take a pen or
pencil, you can work it between the Velcro to get you started and then
use your finger to open the Velcro all the way.
Once
I got each of the fill ports open, I stuck a rolled up 4x6 index card
in each port to keep it open and I thought it might also help out in
filling process.
Step
4 is the filling process. Their instructions recommended that the
rectangular and owl-ear bags be filled with something other than sand
to reduce overall weight, and they say it will not affect performance.
Since I had the sand and since I make every attempt possible to be a
Real Man, I decided to deviate and fill each bag with sand. But
really, this would give me an idea of the maximum weight of the bag
system and in my mind may give me the maximum possible reduction in
felt recoil.
For
Step 5, I started out with the index card stuck half way in the bag and
then used the funnel to pour sand through the card tube and into the
bag. Their instructions talked about using a 1/2" piece of PVC pipe.
I didn't have any pipe in the basement, and the card tube worked pretty
good until the bag was nearly full.
Once
the bag was nearly full, I removed the index card tube and put the
funnel spout into the fill port and poured in sand and would then work
the funnel to get the sand to drop into the unfilled areas at the end
of the bag. It wasn't until my second bag before I really got the
technique down.
In
Step 6, just like their instructions said, after you get the sand in,
if you thump/flick the outside of the bag in the area of the Velcro,
the sand will fall off. I think it is pretty critical that you make
every effort to remove as much stuff off the Velcro before you close
the bag. This will help to maintain the integrity of the seal on the
fill port.
You can see below the rectangular and owl-ear bag are full of sand.
I
wasn't sure if you could over fill the bags so that they would not fit
in the Hi-Front Rest bag, but that was not a problem. Basically you
can get as much sand in the bag as possible and the two bags will fit
in the Hi-front rest bag. For Step 7, if you pay attention to the
shapes of the bag, you will see that the owl-ear bag goes in the bottom
(ears down) and a rectangular bag goes on top with the angled side
matching that of the Hi-Front rest bag.
When
you pull the cover over and zip it up, you will need to message the
bags into place so that you don't force the zipper closed. Don't
worry, I filled my bags to the max possible and I was able to zip it up
with no problem.
The
last bag I filled was the Vise-Grip bag. I really tried to get as much
sand in as possible because I didn't want a loose grip on my rifle due
to not having enough sand.
When you put the pieces all together in the basic configuration, this is what it looks like.
Now,
remember when I said I was going to fill the entire bag with sand. I
started with a new 50 lb bag of sand. After the filling process, only
9 pounds of sand remained. Basically, my bag system has 41 lbs of
sand. In Step 6, they say their complete system needs about 30 pounds
of media. They must be referring to a sand and other media combination.
For
example, if I remove the weight of the cup (0.084 lbs), then the bird
seed would be 51% the weight of sand. Since I weighed each of the
bags, the total weight for the rectangular and owl-ear bags was 34.8
lbs. If I filled them with bird seed, they would have been about 17.7
lbs. With the vise-grip bag still being sand, the total weight of the
media for a bird seed and sand combination would be 24.9 lbs.
I
think we now have two good data points for possible system weights. If
I round everything to the nearest pound and add the weight of the bags
themselves, you have a full sand system of about 42 lbs and a sand
& bird seed combination of about 26 lbs. It becomes a tradeoff.
Bulls Bag says the reduced weight will not affect performance, so if
you are looking for a lighter system, maybe that is the way to go. I
still have to believe that the additional mass of the full sand system
would help in reducing felt recoil. For now, I'm sticking with all
sand.
Next
I'm going to look at how the system will work with my FNAR rifle. This
will end up being a two part section. The first part will be my
in-house evaluation . The second will be next Friday (weather
permitting) when I take it to the range and do some more range testing
with my FNAR rifle.
I
decided to head to the kitchen table and spend some time aiming out the
window. While you are looking at the photo below, I want you to
consider a couple of things. First, I must feel pretty confident that
my rifle is not going to rotate down and scratch the table, because if
it did, I'm in the dog house. Second, that is a 20 round clip and
pistol grip on the rifle and it clears the table by about 2 inches.
Third, you can't see them, but that is also a full 20 round clip of
7.62x51mm FMJ bullets. The center of gravity of my rifle is not even
on the bag and the gripping action held it solid. When I grabbed the
pistol grip and started pulling the rifle, it seemed that the whole
system (gun and bag and table) were going to move before the clamping
action on the forearm started to slip. When you consider it is a 42
lbs bag and 13 lb rifle and the friction of the bag on the table, that
is a lot of mass to help soak up the recoil.
The
next thing I wanted to do was try out my AR-15 with a 30 round magazine
so I headed to the basement before I did some dufus stunt and messed up
the kitchen table. It is a little more difficult to see, but there is
about 1/2" clearance between the bottom of the 30 round magazine and
the floor. Clearly, the X7 Bulls Bag can handle the height needed for
high capacity magazines and pistol grip rifles. I do want to point out
that I had to move my forearm grip forward to allow a space for the
rifle to rest on the bag and allow the vise-grip bag a good area to
clamp. I don't have a problem doing this because I will use the bag
for sighting in the rifle and then move the grip back when I'm finished.
My
main interest in this bag is for rifles, but keep in mind that there
are really 5 sand bags in this system that can be reconfigured for many
different firearms, shooting styles and situations. I'm not going to
spend a lot of time going through those different scenarios, but I do
want to at least point you back to the
Bulls Bag X7 website. The pictures there speak for themselves.
The
bottom line with any rest system is performance. I can tell you
clearly that the X7 Bulls Bag can perform. If you check out two posts
that I did while reviewing my FNAR rifle, it will be clear. This
link takes you to a post that used a mechanical rest. This
link
takes you to a post using the X7 Bulls Bag. With the mechanical rest,
I was only able to shoot one group that was 1 MOA or better. With the
X7, I was able to shoot 7 groups that were 1 MOA. Some might say that
would be a 700% increase in accuracy. The photos below shows my basic
setup for the range testing. Just to be honest, I did have a small bag
of bird seed between the bottom of the pistol grip and bench. I didn't
use it to support the rifle, but to help stabilize the rifle.
The
photos above show the main configuration for my shooting, but the photo
below shows an alternate more conventional style. This style does not
grip the rifle, but it does support the rifle.
Bottom Line:
The
X7 Bulls Bag has outperformed any other rest system I have used to
date. Also, after shooting for hours, the reduction in felt-recoil of
this system made shooting a pleasure.
Thoughts:
Since
I originally purchased the 15" Bulls Bag rest, I have something to
compare the X7 against. I think I like the increased friction
coefficient of the material on the 15" bag over the suede on the X7.
Also, while at the range, I learned that you need to make every effort
to put as much sand in the top vise-grip bag. When you think you can't
get any more sand in the bag, keep working at it. You are going to
want the grip on your rifle stock to be solid. After shooting for
hours, I feel I could have gotten more sand in this bag and that would
have helped the suede grip the rifle even better.
