RCBS R.A.S.S. Shooting Bench

For nine shooting seasons, I have been using the RCBS R.A.S.S. Shooting Bench. My wife Susan bought me my first one back in about 2005. I had discovered ground squirrel shooting from an Argo Customer down in Santa Maria area. The RASS was priced at about $400 making it by far the most expensive of the options for a shooting bench. For the first few seasons, I used the bench from the ground, taking it apart and putting it back together again at each set-up. For all the inconvenience of using it, it is by far the best shooting system for ground squirrels available anywhere.

In about 2013, I started looking for an alternative to the hassle of setting it up on each location. I first experimented with using a golf-utility vehicle. I put a 4'x4' flat bed on an EZGO MPT 1200 gas powered utility vehicle. The RASS mounted perfectly on the bed and I just moved the vehicle when it was time to move. The problem with that are 2-fold. First, you have to haul it to the ranch on a trailer. Also, it is very illegal to shoot from a motor vehicle in California. I experimented with using 3 trailer tongue jacks to jack the vehicle off of the ground and leveling it up. My thinking was that if the vehicle was not in contact with the ground it would be legal. Turns out that it is not. A motor vehicle is a motor vehicle on or off of the ground. I then began to think "what if I use the jacks to just jack the flatbed off of the vehicle. Turns out that is legal if the platform from which you are shooting is not touching the vehicle. After I thought about that for a while, I realized that if I built a removable platform for a small light pickup and mounted the RASS on that, I would solve both problems. I would not have to carry the utility vehicle to the ranch, and I could leave the RASS setup and mounted on a platform which would be easily removable from the vehicle.

I found a 2004 Ford Explorer Sport Track pickup on a dealers lot. It was small, light, 4-door, 4x4 and had a small pickup bed on the back. Perfect! I bought the truck and immediately began to design the platform. The hardest and most expensive component to my design was the four camper jacks needed to lift it off and on to the truck. I found a set of 4 slightly used jacks on Craig's List and bought them. The next step was to design the platform. I used some sections of warehouse shelving to construct a frame and attached the jacks. The next step was to fit a sheet of 3/4" outdoor plywood to complete the deck. The next trick was figuring out how to keep it attached to the truck when moving and easily remove it when it was time to set up the shoot. I designed some carpet covered 2x4s that exactly matched the contour of the bed sides on the pickup. Then, I used 4 index blocks that indexed down into the bed when the platform set down on the bed sides. This keeps the platform in place while moving. I put slots in the deck directly over the cargo tie-downs on the pickup bed sides. Using a couple of motorcycle tie-down straps, I can more securely attack the platform to the truck for highway trips to prevent the platform from dismounting in the event of an accident. I usually do not secure the platform with straps for daily movement around the various ranches.

In addition to the obvious benefits of having the worlds best, most inconvenient shooting bench always setup and secured, I realized that there was no vehicle except the one you were sitting above. You can literally shoot 360 deg. from every location.

Here is a video shot from the RASS bench. I added the spotting scope mount and used it to hold a video camera. The camera moves with the rifle and sees everything the rifle scope sees. Use caution! graphic violent content.

Over the course of 9 shooting seasons, many problems have come to light regarding the RASS. The first thing is the bearings used to support the vertical rotating column. They are plastic races with plastic rollers. The way the bench is designed, there is a huge asymmetrical load on the bearings. The bench is rated for a shooter of up to 350 lbs. I am a hundred pounds lighter than that, but it does not matter. The asymmetrical load crushes the plastic rollers in the bearings over extended usage. The rollers are replaceable, so I have been able to keep going for 9 seasons. I purchased all the remaining bearing stock at RCBS years ago and they now are depleted. When I learned that the RASS bench had been discontinued by RCBS in about 2012 or so, I purchased the last one from Huntington's in Oroville (right next door to RCBS), and put it away for parts.

After my first outing of 2020, I felt the bench was very loose and was having a hard time making good shots. When I came home, I decided to mount up the new one on the platform. I figured if it would last another 9 years, it would probably outlast my squirrel shooting addiction. It didn't take long for me to realize that I did not have a spare bench, so I found a used-once RASS on Craig's list in Ventura, CA and bought it for a spare. Once it arrived and I got it on the shelf for a spare, I started thinking about rebuilding my original RASS. I took the bearing unit apart and about 40% of the plastic rollers were cracked and or broken. I installed my last two rebuilt bearings, lubed them up and put it back together. I was also able to scrounge around and find enough spare rollers to rebuild two more bearings for spares. I now have a new bench mounted on my platform, a complete new spare in reserve, a rebuilt bench in reserve, and a rebuilt set of bearings in case I have to replace a bearing in the field. Now, I feel prepared.

The other wear item on the bench is the "rapid acquisition unit". This is the device that us used to rapidly move the turret up and down and to make fine vertical adjustments. My original device had been getting sloppy in the last few seasons. I have it disassembled and am waiting on some brass shim stock to attempt to shim out the slack.

In the process of repairing my original bench, I thought I would call RCBS and ask if there might be any parts left in stock. According to RCBS, ALL of the parts for the RASS are depleted. It seems that although there is no better shooting system anywhere, sales were just too low for RCBS to continue production and they were discontinued sometime around 2012. My opinion is there are too many inexpensive benches on the market and most shooters use them only occasionally. The RASS bench was designed for hard core shooters. With a nearly $400 price tag, it just did not sell enough units.

To put this all in prospective, I use this bench an average of about 20 days per year for 9 seasons. My shooting day usually consists of 4 to 5 setups and about 5 to 6 hours of bench time. Using these numbers, my original bench was used about 180 shooting days with my big ass sitting on the seat for about 900 hours. It could be considered expensive to use RASS benches and keep them repaired, but as long as the good Lord gives me my health and I have a few bucks in my pocket, I will always have an RCBS RASS Bench or two, or maybe three.

After my initial work on my original bench, I noticed the Rapid Acquisition Unit was very sloppy. I took it apart and looked at what I could do the tighten it up. There are a couple of options. The best one would be to machine .010 off of the back side of the adjustment knob. This would tighten the knob up on the sleeve to which it is attached. Not having access to a lathe, I decided to buy some brass shim material and shim up the wear. I cut 2 washers out of .005 brass shim stock and put them in the knob ahead of the plastic sleeve. I then screwed the retaining ring back on to the back of the knob. Before I shimmed the unit, there was .017 slop between the knob and the internal sleeve. After shimming, I was able to reduce the slop to about .007. I compared the slop to a new unit and it was comparable to a brand new unit.