THE SEB NEO REST PRODUCT Review
So has the NEO addressed these problems? To a certain extent – yes. However, there are compromises. The swivelling base has gone. This was really useful for setting up – particularly for the F Class shooter. Drop your rest on the grass firing-point, set up your rifle, only to find that it isn’t pointing at your target. To move the rest, you need to come out of the prone position – except with the Mk 1 you didn’t – slacken off three thumb-screws and simply swivel the whole rest top a few degrees whilst leaving the base just where you’d plonked it down – brilliant!
The NEO (right) offers stacks more adjustment than the Mk 1 SEB – no need for those long screws
The Mk 1 SEB was a very good rest and it had one very good feature that no other rest has (including the NEO) – a swivelling base. Useful as this was however, the Mk 1 had a couple of flaws. Vertical adjustment was a bit limited (again, more critical for F Class where outdoor ranges may vary in topography) and the ‘tension’ was a bit tedious to set up and fiddly to alter on range during a shoot.
SEB Mk 1 users soon made their own modifications and you will see SEBs with longer set-up screws to cope with the lack of vertical adjustment and counterbalance weights – to support the weight of the rifle without unduly increasing the tension – which can make the operation of the joystick jerky. You just can’t shoot quickly with a stiff, jerky rest and if you can’t shoot quickly, it kind of defeats the object of a joystick rest - for benchrest shooting anyway.
I like to use my Mk 1 set very loose, with a counterbalance weight – moving the joystick feels like stirring cream – lovely and smooth! Even for F Class, I just can’t do with a stiffly set up rest but some shooters seem to get along OK with a stiff set up. Of course, with a loose set up, you need to hold the joystick absolutely still as you pull the trigger and it takes some practice to do this – even the slightest movement would be reflected massively on the target.
Side by side – that swivelling base is the only loss
quickly, the rear leg has a tendency to lift as you slam the rifle back into battery against the fore-end stop. With the leg to the front, this won’t happen.
OK, but why the option? The problem is, if you are using the rest for short-range benchrest, you may find it difficult to set up with the muzzle of a short 20
8
OK, we’ve lost the swivelling base – what have we got in exchange? Seb has given us a few toys. Firstly, the NEO can be dismantled and ‘stacked’ for transportation.
You don’t do this every day but it would be damn useful if you were flying with the rest. Secondly, the rest can be rigged in two ways – with the ‘third leg’ to the front or rear. Normally, with a tri-pod rest, it would be set up as a ‘Y’ with two legs to the front and one to the rear. However, when ‘running’ a gun very
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