Before this last trip to the mountains of New Mexico, I decided to replace my tried and true simple wrist rest with a new, very rigid hand made and highly engineered version. It didn't work well, so, after two attempts I reverted back to my original 4x4 plus ammo box plus microfiber towel setup, and that worked fine again, as always. Here is a little more in-depth explanation of what was happening and why the ammo box worked better than the rigid version.
After I finished the video, I removed the top two 2x4's, placed an ammo box across the remaining ones, wrapped the shop mat around the ammo box, and put two screws in the shop mat to contain the box. This feels OK in the shop, but the real test will be at the range, as always. And this time I am not going to assume this will work perfectly, like I did on the first testing of the rigid rest.
There is a bigger lesson here than just for those of us who like to shoot pistols at long distances from a wrist rest, and that is this. Shooting a pistol is similar to shooting a rifle at long distances in that every little detail matters. Consistency is the key. When I change anything, the zero shifts. If I change anything during a string of fire, the group is poop. For a rifle shooter, preload on a bipod, breathing, pressure against your shoulder, head position, parallax, all affect the group size and location. For a pistol shooter, grip strength, preload prep of the trigger, eyesight, steadiness, and wrist rest technique and rigidity all make a difference 100 yards out. I'm learning.
This is fun. This is not easy.
Joe