For serious competitive shooting, whether it be rifle or pistol, prone or multi-position, a good spotting scope is a necessity for observing the shot-holes in the target . . . only in this fashion can sight corrections be made in an intelligent manner.    A solid, vibration-free stand to mount the scope is also required to position it such that said bullet holes can be spotted with minimal movement of head or body from the shooting position.

Such stands, beautifully fabricated from cast/forged metal and polished steel pillars, are available from the majority of the shooting supply houses.    They tend to fall into two types . . . the older Freeland bipod-base style or the newer tripod-base style.    Various mounting heads are also available to allow the scope to be adjusted freely for alignment with the target and ones' eyes.    Both types are expensive, and tend to suffer a little from vibration in the wind or when lightly touched in use.

Now, for less than $20 and a few minutes effort, a reasonably solid simple stand can be fabricated.    The money you would otherwise have spent on the commercial stand can now be put to better use in buying a higher quality spotting scope than you might have originally bought.    Remember, the better the scope quality, the less eye strain you will experience . . . this leads to better sighting when shooting !

The photo above shows the variety of readily available PVC, (White !!), plumbing pipe and fittings that can be obtained at your local hardware or building supply store . . . 45 and 90 degree elbows, tees, crosses, threaded adapters and blanking caps among others . . . the 1 inch diameter size is preferred.    Then come up with an assembly arrangement to suit your tastes.    A small can of the Medium-Bodied PVC cement is required for assembling the PVC components, plus a small can of body putty with hardener.   You will also need a couple of "milk cartons" of BB shot from your local Walmart, fender washers, nuts, bolts and a short length of 1/8 x 1 x 1 inch, or larger, Aluminum angle stock from which to make the swivel mount for your scope.

I have made several of these gadgets with differing geometry, but the one shown here is probably the sturdiest and most practical to date.

Step 1:   Start by cutting a dozen or so 1-7/8 inch lengths of the 1 inch pipe to make splice pieces that allow butt jointing of the various fittings. Then using a 90 degree elbow, a splice tube and a domed blanking cap put together three feet assemblies.    Note that I don't get marks for neatness when I glue them up - lol !

    

Step 2 involves a splice piece, a Tee and two pieces of 1 inch pipe . . . 2-1/2 and 10 inches in length.      These make up the Main Leg Sub-Assembly

Step 3 uses two splice pieces, a tee and a 90 degree elbow to assemble the Lower Riser sub-assembly

     

In Step 4 you will need the the Step 2 and 3 sub-assemblies and a 7-1/2 inch length of pipe.    They should be glued together, (on a flat surface to ensure correct alignment), to make the base frame of the tripod as shown in the next photos.    The three feet sub-assemblies are added in Step 5. Note that this base frame assembly is set up to be used by a right-handed shooter, when placed at the left-hand front corner of his/her shooting mat.    If you're a "lefty" do a little reversing of the arrangement before final gluing !

  

In Step 6 . . . . open up your cartons of BB shot and fill the complete base assembly with loose shot until no more can be added.    Leave just a little space at the top of the vertical riser splice piece so that a small amount of body putty can be mixed up and used to seal the shot in place.

For Step 7 glue a short splice piece into to one leg of a cross fitting.

This cross-piece is made to fit on the exposed vertical splice piece of the main base frame assembly, with its' own splice piece pointing upwards ! The angular orientation of this cross-piece should be determined and reference marks made on it and the base riser tube before gluing.  Ideally the cross arms, on which the spotting scope will be mounted, should be aligned at right angles to the direction of shooting from mat to target. Note that a threaded adapter is shown alongside the cross-piece.    If you are shooting only prone competition, then a domed blanking cap can be glued directly to the upper splice piece.    The threaded adapter permits the addition of further vertical riser sections for those requiring taller scope stands in multi-position shooting competition. To keep the threaded end of the adapter from being damaged when the additional sections are not needed, merely screw on a threaded blanking cap.

    

   The interior of this cross-piece should be filled in small stages with body putty to add stiffness to it and to provide a suitable solid cross-arm which can be drilled to hold the mounting bolt.    Before drilling, however, file or sand each end of the cross-arm body putty flat and flush with the tube ends.    Then bond a 3/8 by 1-1/2 inch fender washer to each end of the cross-arm, using a gap-filling, medium-bodied Crazy Glue.    These will act as drill guides when putting the hole through the cross-arm . . . Tip ! - drill halfway from each end .    I recommend using a 3/8 diameter bolt for the mount fitting attachment.

The actual scope mount configuration will depend on the nature of the scope to be used.    The one used in the photo here uses a single angle piece of Aluminum because the BSA scope shown already has a rotational ring built in to allow the scope to be offset for ready usage.    If a fixed mount scope is to be used, such as a Kowa 600-Series, then two pieces of angle stock will be required to permit rotating the eyepiece down for normal usage.

      

Need a few more refinements ?    Get a large wooden ball from Walmarts' Craft department, drill a hole in the flat side of it, and bond the cross-bolt securing nut into the hole with Crazy glue or Epoxy cement.    Try a few Belleville, ("Wavy"), washers under this "fancy" knob to make it easier to lock in position and yet remain somewhat adjustable ?

Other Variants

As a result of reading the above description, Gintaras Valentavicius, "Vallas", did a little brain-scratching and came up with the following arrangement of much larger diameter tubing and fittings for his 'straight-eyepiece' spotting scope.    The photos actually show an incomplete version as he has added two adjustment screws at the rear end of the main support tube which can be turned to move the focussing end of the scope up, down and sideways within the tube for scanning the distant target bulls.    He uses a foam rubber insert as a "spring" to hold the scope against the screws.