Gen 2 SEB Neo-X Four Piece Bag Set Upgrade
The Gen 2 Bags were designed to gain a more consistent product for the customers. We have been making or having our bags made since we started in F class in 2017. We noticed at that time that a 1 piece bottom bag created issues. The rifle would start to rock around from the sand of the bottom bag migrating to the center of the bag throughout the string of shooting. Then there were the L shaped 2 piece bags that came out, that ended up creating the same problem, the sand would migrate to the corners of the L bags and created an unstable rifle and shots would become erratic.
Our bags we have made for nearly a decade have always been made out of a nylon fabric for toughness and then lined with a 3M super slick material on top for reduced friction. This system has worked great for many years but the time and labor involved on making a super consistent bag this way proved to be too costly. Another issue was that it was next to impossible to get all the bags to be the same shape and size and have the same height when filled with sand. Then there was the issue where the seams had to be flawless and not let any of the sand out!
With modern advancements of 3D printing and high quality 3D printers becoming more used and available we decided to invest in this direction with a material called TPU. TPU was designed to be a flexible yet durable material that is widley used in the world today. TPU is used to even 3D print entire tennis shoes that are made to last, so that give you an idea of the toughness yet super flexible material.
The Gen 2 Bag system uses TPU material but also is combined with a fiberglass reinforced PTFE super adhesive tape. When installed on top of the Gen 2 bags, this creates a super low coefficient of friction between your rifle forend and the bag system.
Now, lets talk about the rules. Rule 3.2a in the F Class Rule book by the NRA states the following:
The rest may not mechanically capture the fore-end of the rifle in such a way that does not allow the rifle to be lifted directly up from the rest or to be placed directly down into the rest. Any rest which captures the fore-end of the rifle and that will not allow for the rifle to be lifted directly up from the rest shall be considered to be an attachment. The area of contact between the front bag and the rifle’s fore-end will not exceed 76mm x 76mm (2.99 inches x 2.99 inches).
Ok, so with our bags, we do not exceed the maximum amount of surface area, nor do these bags capture the rifle in a way that will allow the rifle to be lifted straight up. On a fabric type bag system what could potentially happen is the sand could end up migrating up, then creating a bulge area above the for end of the rifle stock, therefore making it illegal as the rifle would then be captured by the rest mechanically. The Gen 2 bags do now allow this with the material being used.
Now, rule 3.2a/10 states the following:
(10) The contents of front and rear bags will be dry, finely divided (less than 5mm/0.19”) granular substance such as, but not limited to, sand, gravel or grain, packed loosely enough so that the bag will be visibly deformable by pressure of the range officer’s fingers.
Now this is a big rule that caused a lot of debate. There were/are front supports that were made out of hard plastic, i.e. Delrin, solid PTFE, etc. These were outlawed by the NRA in 2024. So lets look at the key points in the rule. The contents need to be of finely divided (less than .190” diameter) granular substance but not limited to sand, grave or grain and packed loosely. Well the Gen 2 bags have a 3/8 hole on the backside so that sand can be filled into the bags, and a provided rubber plug is used to cap off the sand to keep the sand or granular substance from coming out.
Rule also goes on to state it needs to be packed loosely enough so that the bag will be visibly deformable by the pressure of the range officers fingers, We have that covered as well, you can put as much or as little sand in the gen 2 bags as you desire, just do not pack them too tight, we still need them visually deformable.
Now, the Gen 2 bags actually do not “need” any sand in them to function, they are malleable yet stiff enough to fully support a rifle. So you can put, according to the rules, just a few pieces of granular substance to fit the rules right? Well that may be the case, but we do not need to skate on the edge of the rules and there is no advantage to running minimum sand so lets at least fill the Gen 2 bags half way to completely fit the rules.
Now for the bag retention in the rest. In our original bag system, you had to install Velcro on your rest to attach the bags to. With the Gen 2 system, they are a nice tight fit that is retained by the original Neo X slots and grooves on the rest. They will NOT move once installed as there is a substantial amount of friction an tightness to them once installed to eliminate any unwanted movement.
Side tension. Normally with a fabric bag we would have to tighten the side screws on the Neo X rest to get the desired tension. Now, that is still an option but with the construction and design of the Gen 2 bags, there is hardly any compression once installed, so this is not as critical as before for maintaining the torque control needed for most F Class rifles.
Shape. The sides of the bags are planer (flat) shaped where it contacts the rifle. Since the Neo X rest is a rotating and then locking design, the flat sides of the bags can rotationally straighten out to be straight with the rifles forend.
The bottoms. We did not want a planer (flat) bottom. The reason for this is because when you setup on a yard line, even with your rest leveled, the gun will almost always be pointing upward to account for the dope you have in your scope for that given yard line. So what we have done is created a slight arc on the lower bags so that the rifle still maintains a substantial amount of tangency contact, yet not too “rounded” to where the rifle does not have stability. Once the rifle is positioned, the bags somewhat “self level” to the rifle, to allow ample contact to the bottom of the forend. If the bottoms were planer only, you would only be “riding” on the edges (usually rear edge) only, not on a large contact surface.
We have a lot of research and development into all of this design and in testing the results are very consistent. We hope you find the success in our efforts to make you more accurate!
