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TARGET SHOOTER
MAGAZINE
January 2012 Issue
NOW Read WORLDWIDE BY OVER 10,000 DEDICATED READERS in over
77 countries
Contents
January 2012 Issue
Lyman 1200 DPS III Electronic Powder Measure Page 6
by Chris Parkin. I had a play with a Hornady
electronic powder measure a couple of issues ago
– and really liked it. This month, Chris Parkin has a
look at the Lyman version. Both are available from
Hannam’s Reloading and we thank them for the
loan of these measures for testing.
THE HANDLOADING BENCH - 6mm NORMA Page 36
BENCH REST (Conclusion) by Laurie Holland.
One downside of shooting the little BR is that
it is such a good-mannered little cartridge with
such a huge range of suitable bullets and powders
available for it that given the availability of a 100
yard benchrest equipped range with a covered
firing-point to keep the worst of the British weather
out, you want to shoot it all day, every day.
Shooter Profile - My name is Scott Grayson Page 24
and I have been shooting Rimfire and Air
Rifle Benchrest for approximately three
years. I am part of the United Kingdom
Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Shooting
Team. In my short career I have competed in
three national and two international events.
Air-rifle & Rimfire Benchrest - Where Air Page 20
We? – by Carl Boswell. The air-rifle classes
at the 2011 USA World Championship were
well attended for such a new sport. This was
a really positive reflection on the hard work
to get this branch of benchrest established
as a competitive sport at international level.
This goes back to 2007 - the first European
Championship.
Contents Continued
January 2012 Issue
Page 76
THE HANDLOADING BENCH - 308 Winchester Rides
Again By Laurie Holland. In December’s issue, you may
have read of the stunning scores posted in the F Class
European Championship meeting at Bisley in November
by F/TR competitors using .308 Winchester, so maybe
this is a good time to have another look at the cartridge
in its long-range role.
Page 12
Page 46
Sorting a Savage Part 1 – by Laurie Holland. My
provisional name for this feature was Tuning the
Three-Screw Savage Action - reflecting my initial
focus on rectifying the poor elevations that dogged
my 223 Savage’s performance in the F Class European
Championship meeting.
Choosing & using sights by
Gwyn Roberts. Moving on from
making your stocks and grips fit
you properly, the next thing to
consider is which type of sight (or
sights) are going to be the most
suitable for the type of Gallery
Rifle competitions that you
intend to compete in.
Regulars
& more...
LATEST NEWS
Page 54
Liquid Colour Design
Page 70
SMALLBORE
BUSINESS
- Custom Paint &
page 66
Airbrush with Design.
GALLERY RIFLE
Commonwealth & Olympic
Page 64
TARGET
SHOOTER
Target Shooter Gary Duff
AT HORNADY
has had his rifle stock
Page 28
painted and airbrushed
UKPSA NEWS
by Iain Baldwin of Liquid
Page 84
FROM THE BENCH
Colour Design - a custom
Page 62
painting company based
LATEST NEWS
in Northern Ireland. Iain
Page 90
describes the process...
QUIGLEY ASSOCIATION NEWS
Page 82
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE...
77 countries
Welcome to the new look January 2012 edition of Target Shooter Magazine
Webitorial January 2012
Happy New Year everyone. Although winter does not provide the best shooting
weather here in the UK, we still have plenty to look forward to – the fabulous Las
Vegas Shot Show in January, our own UK Shooting Show in Newark at the end of
February and finally, IWA in Germany in March. Target Shooter will be at every
one, bringing you the latest news of your favourite target shooting disciplines
and equipment as it happens!
For Christmas, we opted to give away our Apple app version of the December
issue so that more of you would experience this wonderful media via your iPad
and iPhone. This produced not only a leap in our circulation figures but an
increase in sales from one of our advertisers – to the extent that this advertiser
has agreed to sponsor the app for January as well so, you may download this
issue for free! We hope that this may be a trend which continues throughout
2011.
Talking of circulation statistics – we are now read in over 70 countries! I find this
quite astounding and although we are UK based, we must try and remember
our global audience when we publish articles and not make the assumption that
everyone lives in the UK.
On the other hand, I’m equally surprised when someone – maybe someone I
shoot with regularly – has never heard of Target Shooter! How do we spread the
word? Please help us, let your friends know about us and keep your favourite
target shooting magazine free to read on-line. And please,
feel free to engage with us – tell us what you shoot and
where, let us know about your competitions and events and
we’ll do our best to include you.
Good shooting.
Vince, Yvonne & Steve
Vince Bottomley - [email protected]
Yvonne - [email protected]
4
March
The highest quality precision range of hunting,
stalking, tactical & target scopes available for
shooters worldwide.
SCOPES
The Choice of
Champions
Tactical Turrets
NEW
Precision optical
instruments made
the way they
should be, one at a
time, by craftsman
with 30 plus years
experience using
components of
absolute quality.
Zero Set or Free Dial Locking
The 8x ~ 80x.
Side Focus 10 yards ~ Infinity
Push Button Illumination
Available from - marchscopes.co.uk - Call 01293 606901 or [email protected]
Editor - Vince Bottomley [email protected]
Advertising and Office Manager - Yvonne Wilcock. [email protected]
Compiled, Designed & Web Production by Steve Thornton. www.thorntonconnect.com
Contributors - Vince Bottomley - Laurie Holland - Chris Parkin - Ken Hall - Don Brooke
Alan Whittle - Tony Saunders - Gwyn Roberts - Carl Boswell & Iain Baldwin
Cover Photograph by Steve Thornton
Disclaimer
The website www.targetshooteronline.com is part of Target Shooter magazine with all contents of both electronic media copyrighted. No reproduction
is permitted unless written authorisation is provided. Information, prices and data is believed to be correct at the time of posting on the internet which is
on or around the 1st of each month. Advertisements that are firearm related are from companies or individuals that Target Shooter magazine believes
are licensed to hold such firearms and accepts no responsibility if companies or individuals are not so licensed. Letters and photographs submitted by
members of the public to Target Shooter magazine will be accepted on the basis that the writer has agreed to publication unless otherwise stated. Target
Shooter magazine has no control over the content or ownership of photographs submitted. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily
the views of the publishers and relate to specific circumstances within each article. These are the opinions and experiences of writers using specific
equipment, firearms, components and data under controlled conditions. Information contained in the online magazine or on the website is intended to be
used as a guide only and in specific circumstances caution should be used. Target Shooter Magazine does not except any responsibility for individuals
attempting to recreate such testing using any information, data or other materials in its electronic pages. Publishers of Target Shooter magazine.
5
Lyman 1200 DPS III
Electronic Powder Measure
by Chris Parkin
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
6
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
Lyman 1200 DPS III
Electronic Powder
Measure.
Easy to read display
and large keypad.
7
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
Lyman 1200 DPS III
Electronic Powder
Measure by Chris Parkin
I had a play with a Hornady
electronic powder measure
a couple of issues ago – and
really liked it. This month,
Chris Parkin has a look at
the Lyman version. Both are
available from Hannam’s
Reloading and we thank
them for the loan of these
measures for testing.
The Lyman DPS III is the latest
version – designed to overcome
minor flaws noticed in models I and
II which Laurie Holland used in a
previous article on powder scales.
These were mainly comments about
powder dispensing speed and the
final charge-weight accuracy along
with reports of the scale `drifting`
over a reloading session. The whole
point of these tools is to speed up
reloading with no penalty in chargeweight accuracy and to side-step
manual trickling which contrary to
popular opinion, has the hidden peril
of not countering balance-beam
damping - ONE kernel will not move
most balance beams.
The DPS III incorporates an electronic
powder weighing scale and small pan
with an automated trickling tube so when
the powder hopper is filled and a chargeweight is keyed-in, the unit begins to
trickle at speed then as it approaches
the full charge weight, slows down to
dispense the final few kernels, advertising
accuracy to +/- 0.1grains. A large keypad
and display-screen are integral with the
one-piece unit to permit data entering.
Several small tools are included (more
of which later) along with a calibration
weight. The powder reservoir holds over
1lb which should be enough for most
occasions and in fact, the overall package
is nicely made and well presented.
30 minute warm up
After reading the concise instruction book I assembled
the measure and plugged it in (via an awkward 2 pin
European plug!) for the recommended 30-minute
warm-up. If you are in a hurry, this step can be
overridden but the instructions do warn that it helps
all electronics to warm-up and stabilise. The scale
8
bleeps at the end of the warm-up period. The display
invites you to calibrate the scale which, following
the instructions, is a 5 second job. Although memory
options are available to store favourite recipes, I never
used these, as it is so simple to just type in XX.X and
Ènter` to begin dispensing on the large finger-friendly
keypad. The actual trickling speed (revolutions per
minute) can be altered electronically.
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
adapt it to specific powder types, kernel sizes and
their trickling characteristics, reducing the number
of kernels dropped per revolution and increasing
precision.
1200grain scale capacity, not needed for powder but proved accurate
Bouncing Kernels
The first slightly annoying attribute of the Lyman
is that until a few kernels settle in the pan, they will
bounce out of it and onto your workbench, adding to
the resulting clean-up time. You are warned to use
the brush here, not blow on it! After the first couple
of grains settle, bouncing stops and the screen clearly
displays the increasing weight and as it nears the
programmed level, the revolving trickler assembly
slows down. A nice feature of the Lyman is that a
small plastic reduction baffle is included that can
be screwed into the end of the trickle tube to help
9
When the scale has reached the requested chargeweight and stabilised, a `beep` is heard (the volume
of which can be altered), time to pick up the pan and
pour it into your case via the usual funnel - job done.
So where do the quirks
appear?
After running 2-3 charges, I began to test-weigh
every one of a ten charge cycle on my standard and
previously reliable RCBS 5-0-5 scale. The chargeweights agreed perfectly and no more than 0.1gr
variation was displayed, so a pass here and to be
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
honest, the older balance scale was hard pressed to
notice a difference on ANY load. Occasionally, the
Lyman would sound a warning beep - which alerts
the user to look at the screen - displaying an overcharge warning if it drifted more than 0.2 grains and
during longer reloading sessions, paranoiac had me
mechanically re-weighing random charges just to keep
my eye on things.
Make sure you close it after emptying!
The instructions warn you to be wary of temperature
changes, air currents and local static or magnetic
interference which although logical were not a
problem, although if something did upset the unit, a
`Re-calibrate` warning sounded. A clear folding cover
can be lowered over the scale to exclude draughts but
I didn’t use it, believing the less I touched the unit, the
more reliable it would remain.
I was careful to check on production times and a
charge of 43.4gr of H4350 took 22 seconds on average
to dispense, 22gr of H4198 a similar time and a large
80gr charge of H1000 was running nearer 35 seconds
so no problem there. I chose to seat bullets on my
bench simultaneously to dispensing powder but
although my bench is very solid, I never performed the
seating at the instant final trickle was taking place,
better safe than sorry. The automatic setting means
every time the pan is replaced, trickling recommences.
Apart from kernel spillage on commencement
of trickling, the biggest downside was emptying
the measure/cleaning when finished or changing
powders. A small hatch at the back with an internal
shutter started out easily, pouring the powder hopper
contents directly back into the bottle. After this, quite
major disassembly is required (hence the brush and
tools) to remove every last kernel from the complex
internal mechanisms and to do correctly, was a tenminute job. Not the end of the world but a major
downside relative to its competitors.
The powder emptying shute worked well but then
dissasembly starts
The trickling tube needed removal to
thouroughly clean it
The supplied tools and pan, note the optional
plastic funnelpan would not operate autorepeat
although it stopped spillage
10
Lyman 1200 DPS III
by Chris Parkin
Velocity consistency
A European adaptor plug was needed along with
the supplied tools
I had always previously used an accurate powder
measure and was confident a thrown charge was
accurate to 0.2gr. When I have manually trickled
to further refine this I have seen a huge increase
in reloading time and no difference at 100 yards
on target although a slight extreme spread (ES)
reduction over the chronograph. For the average
hunter/reloader shooting up to 200 yards, accuracy is
paramount and ES mainly comes into play at longer
ranges. An accurate 100 yard group can record quite
large ES on a chronograph but when pushed further
out, ES leads to vertical problems and I’m happy
to report the ES figures displayed when testing
ammunition produced with the Lyman convinced both
myself - plus some very sceptical onlookers - of the
unit’s value.
Kernels can be found throughout the machine
Likes
Speed
Accuracy
Reduction in velocity extreme spread
Dislikes
Reduced diameter bushing gives options
on speed control
European 2 pin plug
Laborious cleaning regime
Spills powder kernels when trickling commences
Opinion
A unit offering enhanced accuracy within acceptable
time constraints, just a pain to clean
Lyman 1200 DPS III £309.97
Hannam’s Reloading Ltd
www.hannamsreloading.com
01977 681 639
11
Sorting a Savage Part 1
By Laurie Holland
Sorting a Savage
Part 1 – by Laurie Holland
My provisional name for this feature
was Tuning the Three-Screw Savage
Action - reflecting my initial focus
on rectifying the poor elevations
that dogged my 223 Savage’s
performance in the F Class European
Championship meeting. However,
deeper examination revealed other
factors were at work, so it gradually
grew into a wider troubleshooting
exercise, also letting me post an
update on ultra heavy bullet 223
Remington cartridge in long-range
competition.
If you read my F/TR report in last
month’s bumper coverage of the
F Class European Championship
meeting at Bisley in November,
you’ll have noticed I suffered more
than a few elevation problems with
my 223 custom Savage. Yeah! Yeah!
You’re thinking, this is straight out
of that oft-quoted but fictional
publication, ‘The Great Diggle Book
of F Class Excuses’.
OK, most of us have after-match ‘if only I’d done /
not done ......’ thoughts but, there is an intrinsic part
of the ‘F Class Experience’ that is about the technical
side of the discipline - the vehicle not the driver. It’s
frequently and correctly said that a marginal, even
fairly significant, reduction in group size or bullet
wind-drift won’t compensate for an individual’s lack
of wind reading skills, or poor mental preparation and
organisation before and during a competition.
Laurie and the .223R Savage with 28” True-Flite barrel and Sightron 8-32X56 SIII LRTD scope in ‘The Europeans’.
12
By Laurie Holland
produce a ‘three’ at five or six o’clock. The second
form was most marked in the 800 yard matches which
started both days’ competition and saw an early shot
(score shots 3 and 4 respectively) drop down, these
equating to the 9th or 10th round through a clean
barrel, taking ‘blow-offs’ into account.
F Class targets are small! This is the 2011 short-range
(600yd) model, only 18 inches total diameter. The Five-ring
is six inches across.
Nevertheless, the best shooter in the world cannot
be competitive in national/international level longrange F Class and F/TR, if the rifle and ammunition
don’t perform superbly and consistently. Rifle and
ammunition precision standards that just let a skilled
shooter score a possible in Target Rifle matches,
albeit with a reduced V count, produce hopelessly
uncompetitive results in F Class, thanks to the smaller
scoring rings.
A common misconception is that the F Class target’s
rings are half the size of those on the standard NRA
prone target – that’s true of their diameter but,
halving a circle’s radius reduces its area by no less
than 75%. So, discovering that your barrel is on its
last legs, the ‘scope is acting up, or that there is some
other underlying rifle or ammunition problem after
you’ve started shooting in an F Class event is seriously
bad news, so much so that afflicted competitors often
retire after one or two stages.
In my case, the European meeting’s problem was
poor elevations that showed up in two forms – poor
overall consistency throughout a match, or just about
acceptable elevations for 14 out of 15 score shots
with one odd man out dropping around 1½-MOA to
13
I was largely convinced during the meeting and, in
its immediate aftermath, that this was a bedding
problem, hence the interest in tuning the rifle’s
action’s rear screw tension, the Savage PTA
(Precision-Target Action) being very sensitive to its
torque setting. However, as I reviewed the rifle’s
performance throughout the season, I became
increasingly convinced that there was more to the
issue and that an ammunition combination that had
initially worked well had ‘gone off’ for some reason.
When I say ‘worked well’, that includes 12 shots at
1233 yards range at Blair Atholl that put all bar a
couple inside the 1000 yard modified Palma target’s
‘Four’ ring (equivalent to 1.7-MOA at this distance)
and held consistent elevation as recently as July 2011.
Blankety-Blank!
To explain what might have happened, I need to
go back to the rifle’s early days. When I started
out with the Mouse Gun (Target Shooter August to
December 2010 issues), I found a load after a fair bit
of experimentation that really worked, and some!
This was 25.2gn of Reloder 15 that shot quarter-MOA
groups and gave a stunning 2900 fps with the 90gn
Berger VLD. There was a fly in the ointment though
– this load produced enough pressure to see primer
extrusion into the bolt’s firing pin hole, producing a
very occasional ‘blanking’ or piercing episode where a
little brass disk of primer metal detaches and is blown
back into the bolt-head.
At the very least, this disrupts the shooting rhythm
while the bolt is removed and manually de/re-cocked
to (hopefully) eject the disk safely onto the shooting
By Laurie Holland
mat; potentially worse if it gets into the chamber
and rifling leade ahead of the next round, which
guarantees a poor shot. Moreover, despite Alliant ATK,
Rel.15’s manufacturer, claiming that this propellant is
not temperature affected, my American F/TR shooting
Internet correspondents emphatically disagree.
spot’ down was nearly 200 fps lower with Rel.15.
An alternative approach was to change powders, in
particular to one that is temperature insensitive, ie a
Hodgdon ‘Extreme’ type, which in this context means
VarGet. This powder had been unavailable anywhere
in the UK for most of 2010 when I was working loads
up but, I finally got hold of some late in the year and
proceeded with load development over the winter of
2010/2011 producing a lower pressure combination
The Savage as originally built with a 31” barrel and outfitted with a Sightron SII 36X42 BR scope.
2010 was the third cold British summer in a row
but, commonsense dictated that sooner or later I’d
shoot on a hot day and that would possibly cause the
blanking problem to escalate to unacceptable levels
resulting in retirement. While the number of ‘blanking’
incidents was very small, examining my fired primers
showed I was walking a very fine line here. The
psychological effect was a major downside thanks to
worries affecting every important summer match as to
how the equipment would perform unless the weather
turned out unseasonably cool.
Chamber pressures were high but not excessive: it’s
a firing-pin to bolt-face clearance issue – nearly all
mass produced ‘factory’ actions suffer from this and
Savage is actually better than most. If I lived in the
USA, I’d simply send the bolt off to Greg Tannel (GreTan Engineering) with a modest fee and it would be
returned in a week with a bushing incorporating a
smaller diameter hole installed in the bolt-head and
the pin machined to give a close fit – but nobody in the
UK offers such a service.
Why not simply reduce the charge weight? The
223 is a finicky beast with 90s and the next ‘sweet
that grouped well, if not as brilliantly as the Rel.15
load, with a charge that gave 2,850 fps and small MV
spreads.
Sorted! I thought. I’d live with slightly larger groups
and a bit less velocity to end the primer blanking
worries, likewise face heatwave conditions with
equanimity. This became my 2011 load, the hotter
Rel.15 version only used once in the year – in a threematch international fixture at Blair Atholl, which
included an 1100 yard stage.
Sore Throats
There was another nagging concern as the 2011
season progressed, partially linked to the previous
use of hot burning double-base Rel.15 – sudden
performance collapse from barrel throat wear. When
I started out with 223/90, I can hardly overstate how
many people on the other side of the Atlantic warned
that these long projectiles only perform satisfactorily
with barrels in tip-top condition and that I should
expect a dramatic loss of precision at a modest or even
low round count. So, when the rifle’s performance
14
By Laurie Holland
started to go downhill in mid season with a bit over
2000 rounds through it, borescope examination
appeared to confirm rebarrelling was needed given
comprehensive firecracking and noticeable erosion
ahead of the chamber. On the plus side, there was
no copper visible, and both lands and grooves looked
clean.
The original 100yd test card for the 90gn Berger VLD
over Alliant Reloder 15 combination. Using neck-turned,
‘prepped’ cases and charges weighed on laboratory
quality electronic scales squeezed the 25.2gn group and
MV spread down further. (One-inch grid.)
The form of this perceived deterioration? – An
increase in overall elevation dispersion plus an
occasional really bad ‘flier’, usually at 5 to 6 o’clock.
Reviewing my plots for the eight stages in the August
and September Diggle league round matches, four
each at 800 and 1000 yards, reveals a very low shot
on its own in six out of the eight, split 50-50 between
low ‘Fours’ and high ‘Threes’. Three of the four 1000
yard matches display poor elevations producing 1½ to
2-MOA spreads, the fourth strangely staying around
¾-MOA (acceptable for Diggle on a windy day) bar
one ‘flier’, a ‘three’ at, you guessed it, 6 o’ clock. With
the benefits of hindsight, this pattern looks very
familiar given what was to follow in ‘The Europeans’ a
couple of months later!
Before moving onto results with a new barrel, I should
mention a 100 yard bench testing session using the
‘worn-out’ barrel and some of the remaining match
rounds. In the light of the Diggle League round’s
performance that immediately preceded the session,
I expected really poor groups displaying vertical
stringing and/or vertical ‘fliers’. Two loads were used,
both Berger 90-grainers and Hodgdon VarGet: VLD
over 24.6gn; BTLR over 24.1gn.
Three 100yd groups shot with the 90gn Berger BTLR
bullet over H. VarGet using the ‘shot-out’ barrel immediately before rebarrelling. (One-inch grid.)
15
VLD performance wasn’t brilliant, even if it wasn’t as
bad as expected, three five-round groups averaging
0.5 inches. However, two groups had three shots
touching plus a high pair also touching opening them
out to 0.6 inches. Three BTLR groups were better: two
between 0.35in. and 0.4in.; one a ‘screamer’ at under
0.1in.. Hmmm .... maybe the barrel wasn’t as worn
out as I’d thought .... maybe 100 yard groups only
tell you so much about what you’ll see at 1000. What
was remarkable was the MVs - both loads recording
By Laurie Holland
a 75 fps drop and larger spread compared to when
I’d worked them up – a substantial performance
reduction. Same powder and components’ lots,
similar ambient temperature, so it had to be barrel
wear.
Shorter Barrel
Anyway, in the belief that the problems were caused
by the barrel, a new example went on with only five
weeks to go to ‘The Europeans’. It was identical to its
predecessor, a True-Flite 1-7 twist, 6-groove, Heavy
Palma profile job, gunsmithed again by editor Vince,
the chamber cut with the same long-freebore custom
reamer. The only change was to crop it at 28-inches,
whereas Vince had squeezed the last few millimetres
out of its predecessor and obtained 31-inches out of
a nominal 30” blank. I’d been right on the 8.25kg F/
TR overall weight limit with that barrel and it seemed
prudent to have a few ounces in hand, especially
as two sets of scales used to weigh rifles produce
readings that are not even close to each other.
‘Europeans’ Match 4 (800yd) plot for the Four and
Five-rings. Elevations are almost tight enough to hold
the ‘Five’ except for shot #4 in the ‘Three’ more than
1-MOA below the group centre. (One-MOA grid.)
Received wisdom says that 28 inches is the ballistic
optimum for the cartridge anyway, each additional
inch beyond that generating only ~10 fps velocity.
Back to the 100 yard benchrest range to run and sightin the rebarrelled Mouse Gun using the remaining
stocks of VarGet based ammunition left over from
Barrel #1. Re-measuring the two bullets’ comparator
based COALs showed they needed to be seated 0.020
inches deeper in the case thanks to the unworn rifling
leade against measurements taken in March 2011 at
a 1279 round-count. Twenty thou’ throat erosion is
not at all bad for nearly 1300 rounds, nearly all with
90s and most shots using ‘hot’ loads and double-base
Rel.15 – I was very heartened by that finding.
‘Europeans’ Match 5 (900yd) plot for the Four and
Five -rings. Elevations have now deteriorated to give
a 2.5-MOA string with shot #6 particularly bad as a
high ‘Three’. (One-MOA grid.)
Anyway, the bullets were re-seated and both types
tried at 100 yard, BTLRs alone in a PSSA 600 yard
match. During running/sighting-in, neither performed
well, the BTLR load the better of the pair but now only
16
By Laurie Holland
Single-shot models in Savage’s Precision-Target and Precision-Varmint ranges use the three-screw PTA. Model 12 F Class
(foreground) and Model 12 LRPV behind.
averaging 0.6 inches. The elevation zero remained
very close to that used with barrel #1, but the windage
zero shifted no less than five-MOA, fortunately in the
‘right’ direction putting the new setting almost at mid
adjuster travel. The 600 yard match score was poor, in
the low 70s, not unexpected with ammo that wouldn’t
hold half-MOA but the waters were further muddied
by such bad weather that the match was abandoned
at half-time.
At this stage, I wasn’t overly concerned as every
barrel is an individual and you must assume that
load-tweaking will be needed. Moreover, reducing
the barrel length was almost guaranteed to change
its harmonics needing loads to be worked up
again. However, while I quickly found a 90gn BTLR
/ Viht N150 short-range load that grouped well and
furnished a good result in a 500 yard club match, the
VLD / VarGet combination continued to struggle, the
best I could get running at a just acceptable 0.4 inches.
The 28 inch barrel produced 2800 fps MV, a drop of 50
fps over the longer tube – but it was barely run-in and
MVs usually rise after 150-200 rounds. Nevertheless,
that was disquieting as I was now running a full 100 fps
down on where I’d started in 2010.
17
Another worry was a strange group produced by one
of the six charge weights tried – four bullets in a nicely
shaped 0.3in. cluster, one a full inch low! I rationalised
that away as a probable mechanical issue, the rifle
most likely too far back on the front-rest and rear bag
so the bi-pod attachment fixture touched the rest-top
for that one shot. No connection was made with the
occasional low ‘flier’ in previous league round matches
at that time – the mindset that said they were caused
by a worn-out barrel survived intact. Anyway, time for
further experimentation had now run out with the F
European Championship meeting imminent.
I wasn’t over confident about how the rifle and this
load were going to perform but hoped ‘it’ll be alright
on the night’ as they say in showbiz. Well, it wasn’t!
Everybody has such an experience sooner or later – it’s
part and parcel of competing in a high-tech discipline
with highly stressed rifles and components – and you
just have to be grown up about it. As only elevations
seemed to be affected, I used the matches to improve
my wind reading experience, valuable as I only shoot
on Stickledown once a year. Moreover, I still spent
a very enjoyable three days at Bisley despite the
problems.
By Laurie Holland
Three-Screw
My 223 Savage uses the company’s single-shot
PTA (Precision-Target Action) which shares many
components with the standard Model 10, 11 and 12
versions used in sporters and tactical models and is
derived from the same design and manufacturing
philosophy. It is only seen in the company’s PrecisionTarget rifle range comprising its Benchrest, F Class,
F/TR and Palma models and the single-shot Long
Range Precision Varmint (LRPV) series rifles. It’s also
available as an action only kit including the recoil lug
and barrel locking nut for custom builds, which is how
mine started life.
Changes from the ‘cooking’ version of the action
include a modified AccuTrigger assembly that can
be set to a much lighter pull, a larger diameter and
heavier gauge receiver with a small loading port on
the side – and of course being single-shot, a solid floor.
Finally, while standard Model 12s have two actionbolts, the PTA employs three and the front pair’s
spacing is different too. This provides a much stiffer
component than standard magazine versions and it
has acquired an excellent competition provenance
with US Team Savage F/TR shooters performing very
well in world class events, including making up half of
the victorious US F/TR squad in the last F Class World
Championships’ team matches at Bisley in 2009.
I’m not sure why Savage Arms added the third (rear)
bedding screw, but I do know that the torque it’s
tightened to has a significant effect on group sizes.
Tuning this setting and sorting the ammunition will
be covered next month in the concluding part of the
article.
Not all modern single-shot Savage rifles have the PTA. Stuart Anselm (foreground) uses a Model 12BVSS varmint
job rebuilt as a .308 Win F/TR rifle in a 2008 Blair Atholl league round. The competitor behind Stuart has a factory
Savage 12 F/TR model with the PT action.
18
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Air-rifle
& Rimfire
Benchrest
Where
AirRange
We? – byWorld
Carl Boswell
Long
Championships
Bisley England by David Minshall
Air-rifle & Rimfire Benchrest
Where Air We? by Carl Boswell
The air-rifle classes at
the 2011 USA World
Championship were
well attended for such
a new sport. This was a
really positive reflection
on the hard work to
get this branch of
benchrest established
as a competitive sport
at international level.
This goes back to 2007.
The first European
Championship.
With growing numbers of countries now
shooting air-rifle benchrest - currently 15
member states with another 4 waiting
to join - the expectation is that the next
international match in 2013 will be even
better attended.
With the 2011 championship being held in the
USA, I did expect to see a few custom rifles as
well as factory models, which we did. However,
the popularity of some factory models - like
Air Arms rifles - has made a huge impact in
the sport. Certainly the top ten places were
mostly EV2s this time around, with one heavily
customised FX model. In fact the top ten in
both the Light Varmint and Heavy Varmint had
a number of Air Arms models being used. In
2010, Steyr rifles set the standard at the top,
with both individuals in the Russian and United
Kingdom teams doing well. However, the
popularity of Air Arms was established in the
2010 team results and again in the top ten rank
order.
Here is the thing - Arm Arms rifles have even been
in the top five in any of these matches. I would even
say the top three. In the recent championships, these
results were even better. So does it mean that one
make is really winning? Maybe, with the fact that
most rifles chosen by the top sports shooters are Air
Arms.
20
Their popularity may stem from the ease of access
to the range Air Arms rifles. Plus the fact that they
are relatively cheap when we consider the price of
a match rifle from some of the European air-rifle
manufacturers - to the point where three MPR rifles
can be purchased for the price of one. Air Arms have
proven that they make consistent rifles when in the
hands of experienced and capable sports shooters.
I’m impressed by the success of the EV2 this year. I
have little experience of this rifle, apart from the few
odd shots over the years, plus reviews from people I
know and in other shooting publications. For some,
there were innate issues with these rifles but, I have to
say, this is not the experience from the Australian and
US teams who did so well with them this summer.
Where Air We? – by Carl Boswell
Whether these rifles had been ‘worked on’ or not is
really immaterial, or if they are newer models! A good
competitor will always work with the tools they have
to get the best results. This stands to reason. However,
having article that ‘performs’ tips the balance
positively! In other words, having an ‘out of the box’
factory rifle that shoots just the way we want it to.
Well let’s just say we would be very lucky as it also
comes down to selecting the right pellets, ensuring
proper scope alignment etc.
Todd Banks using an EV2
Nick from South Africa with an Air Arms
21
US custom air-rifle – hit the spot in the medals table
Tuner splitter design
Customised EV2
Shooters are experimenting with custom
barrels, tuners & air-splitters
Congratulations go to the GB Gallery Rifle Team on a
successful trip to Leitmar in Germany, November 12th/13th,
Where Air We? – by Carl Boswell
taking the honours in small bore and standard centrefire
For some, the development of custom rifles is not
classes in a three-way International with Germany and
Ireland.
really the thing to do. Whilst others are going the
whole hog with the aforementioned FX rifle and
some very nifty looking custom actions based on the
Theoben Rapid action. There are even discussions on
the internet forums about the use of full electronic
systems that are software enhanced.
The GB Gallery Rifle squad outside the Leitmar Clubhouse
From my personal point of view and it is just that,
my thoughts lie somewhere in the middle. Like its
centerfire and rimfire benchrest cousins, air-rifle
design will develop, albeit potentially with clear
restrictions for use in the sport. All three areas
of benchrest share restrictions within their rules.
Progress from the ‘norm’ is as inevitable as ‘death and
taxes’ and from this progress comes the future of the
sport - good or bad!
The GB, German and Irish teams
The future for competition rifles, in terms of electronic
technology or mechanical technology is clearly the
impasse that is coming. Where will electronics or even
software enhanced ‘tools’ be used in competition is
really the big question. However, the question should
not be based on what technology is available now but
more on what technology is being developed now,
that we will see in five, ten or even fifteen years time.
It will be an interesting discussion!
Some good exponents using Air Arms rifles in recent
competitions are Todd Banks, Scott Grayson, Dan
Brown and Brett Wilson to name a few.
The Air-rifle class that really showed how these factory
rifles can hold their own was the Light Varmint Class.
One leading competitor commented that constructing
a good sub. 12 ft lb rifle is not that easy. ‘Pumping
up the volume’ to higher velocities may potentially
increase accuracy, which is where custom rifles with 22
calibre pellets may bring better accuracy. This is what
a few believe to some extent!
So where does this leave us? The experiments are
happening now. FX rifles are being used by the likes of
Dan Brown as a ‘chassis’ to produce a customised rifle.
The rifle he used in the US was staggering - converted
from a manual pump to a full PCP rifle. Quite a bit of
superb engineering went in to making this rifle. (I have
heard FX are considering - or even have - a prototype
benchrest air-rifle. This will be interesting - especially
the design of the stock).
23
Where does this leave us? Well, there is just under
two years of development time to the next big
international event. I am sure that shooters will be
experimenting with rifles, barrels, pellets etc. All in
the effort to get better and more consistent accuracy
from their air-rifles. Discussions will go on, but we
must play by the rules we have in place at this time. I
know there is a great deal of research going on at the
moment and it will be interesting to see the outcome
and the potential for increased accuracy.
So what are you waiting for? Get building,
experimenting, developing and practice, practice,
practice...
Custom Paint & Airbrush Techniques
Profile – Scott Grayson.
24
Profile
Scott
Grayson.
The future of shooting lies
with our juniors. Let us help
and encourage them and
where possible publicise their
achievements. Together with
Jake Healey, Scott Grayson is
one of our brightest prospects
in the world of rimfire and airrifle benchrest. If you know a
promising junior shooter then
please tell us about it or, as
Scott did – get them to write
their own profile.
My name is Scott Grayson and I
have been shooting Rimfire and Air
Rifle Benchrest for approximately
three years. I am part of the United
Kingdom Rimfire and Air Rifle
Benchrest Shooting Team. In my
short career I have competed in
three national and two international
events.
25
Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest
My shooting career started in Buxted
Rifle and Pistol Club, which is my local
club. This is where I met the shooters who
helped my shooting career to flourish,
developing great friendships along the
way. I initially started by shooting Hunter
Field Target – HFT - at national level and
then a couple of World Championships
alongside my brother Craig. I shot
benchrest targets for a bit of fun and to
see how accurate I was, thus initiating
me into the world of air rifle benchrest
shooting.
Gary Kingaby, Graham Freeman and my father Alan
Grayson, also fellow United Kingdom team-mates,
paved the way for my journey into Air Rifle Benchrest,
initially putting me into the postal leagues and
allowing me the practice time I needed on the range. I
used to really enjoy shooting the postal matches - my
first competition with shooters from other countries
which made my ambitions of shooting against them
‘shoulder to shoulder’ even stronger.
My first national competition at Portishead in 2009
was where my ambitions and desires were first
pieced together after learning that there were United
Kingdom Team shooters in the competition and the
England Captain was there. I wanted to show them I
could ‘do it’ and that was exactly what I did, taking 1st
junior in the air rifle. I was still oblivious to the art of
rimfire at that time.
It was fantastic for me, as I had become a national
champion in front of the England Captain Carl
Boswell who congratulated me on my performance
and hopefully, now that he saw my victory, he may
acknowledge that and offer me a place on the national
squad.
My father and I made it onto the England squad just
ahead of the European championships in 2010 - we
couldn’t have been happier. I practiced hard in air
rifle to learn all I could, as I knew it would be the
biggest challenge I had ever faced. Carl Boswell also
introduced me into 25 metre and 50 metre Rimfire
Benchrest – my hardest challenge to learn as the
variables are so different to air rifle.
However, I practiced with Carl’s rifle ahead of the
championships as he said that I could use it in the
Czech Republic. I felt a lot more positive about my
shooting as the event drew near, taking a lot of advice
from the various England team-mates. The European
Championships in Czech were fantastic and we shared
many laughs on that unforgettable trip.
It was also a very memorable time for me as I changed
my shooting career for good, coming home with a
total of 26 medals. I became the European and World
Cup Junior Air Rifle Benchrest Champion, European
and World Cup 25 meter Heavy Varmint Rimfire overall
Champion - even beating Carl with his own rifle in this
latter event! I also attained both Silver Junior medals
and Team Gold medal in 50 metre rimfire Heavy
Varmint, alongside Graham Redhead and Carl Boswell.
As a team, the UK won everything in that final match.
The icing on the cake was achieving a European record
for the Heavy Varmint 25 metre class. It was a brilliant
tournament with success and gratitude all round.
Only weeks after the Czech Republic my father, myself
and other members of my club attended the Nationals
at Paul Lane. This was such an enjoyable event!
Enjoyable for both the brilliant ranges - although the
air rifle range is immensely challenging - and their
exquisite food. We went out as a group in the evenings
and ate some amazing and rather large meals. This
event proved tough for me and everyone found it
difficult but, I managed to retain my title UK Junior
Air Rifle champion and become 2nd overall in the UK,
beaten only by Graham Freeman by three points in
tough conditions and a very close contest.
On the 27th of July 2011, I shot in the second World
Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Championships in the
United States. My Dad, the newly announced England
26
Captain Garry Kingaby and myself travelled from
Gatwick Airport for the 2pm flight to Charlotte then
onward to Charleston, South Carolina.
The Championships were the biggest event so far for
me, as I was competing for my long awaited chance at
the Air Rifle World Junior champion title. It was a long
17 hour journey to our destination, with colleagues
like Carl Boswell and his family missing the internal
flight. Others who I met had stories of running for
planes, so all were exhausted but happy to see each
other, which is my favourite part - seeing beaming
smiles all round.
America was the hardest competition I had ever
dreamt of, with very stiff opposition to beat and
the unbelievable heat to contend with all added to
the difficulty! I shot well and was pleased with my
performance, I had become the World Air Rifle Junior
Champion and placed 15th overall in the world. I was
so happy! I was told later that evening that my air rifle
had been leaking air throughout the competition and
had a few other problems, so I was very happy with my
position.
27
I also picked up Junior Silver and Bronze medals in
the rimfire 25 metre, beaten by narrow margins by
American Joe Oates and my fellow teammate and
good friend Jake Healey (also GB) who took Gold in 25
meter event. I was also placed 3rd Junior in 22 Sporter
Class , which was, for myself and Jake, the first time
we had shot Sporter! I was pipped by one point by
Jake!! So overall it was a very enjoyable trip.
For myself I had finally achieved my dream of
becoming a World Junior Champion and America was
the perfect place to do it. The whole experience was
amazing - getting to know people better and being
introduced to the biggest competition in Rimfire and
Air Rifle Benchrest. I cannot thank my Dad enough
for this opportunity, alongside many others who have
allowed me to grow in this sport.
Target Shooter
visits Hornady
by Chris Parkin
Sometimes it can be hard work being a
firearms journalist but, Chris Parkin grits
his teeth and bravely survives the ordeal!
Edgar Brothers, the UK
importer and distributor for
Hornady ammunition and
reloading equipment, offered
me a trip to Nebraska in
cooperation with Outdoor
Marketing International in
Germany. OMI took care of the
organisation and itinerary to
catch 9 flights in 7 days visiting
various US factories including
Leupold and Savage - it was
some schedule but, the chance
was un-miss able and Hornady
was certainly a highlight of the
trip.
100 and 200 yard underground targets are shot here,
this assembly holds any barrelled action. Looks like
Nightforce are well up to recoil pounding!
After smelting, refining and reforming, this lead wire
is formed into the bullet’s core.
Buckets of pre-formed jackets.
28
I travelled from Manchester with fellow
Englishman Pete Carr (editor of Sporting
Rifle) to Frankfurt, meeting our ten other
European companions - nine Germans and
one Austrian. After 24 hours of travel, we
finally reached Grand Island, Nebraska,
the home of Hornady.
Missed Prairie dogs - the hunter in
me cried...
Unfortunately, after some dodgy food somewhere on
the trip, I missed out on the first day of fun organised
by Hornady - a prairie dog hunt! I soon recovered and
caught up on the second day with a private tour of the
factory, guided by Jason Hornady, the Vice President
and grandson of the original founder of the company,
Joyce Hornady.
Office or showroom?
A large industrial unit in the distance could be any
large factory or distribution centre but the subtle
Hornady logo above the blissfully air-conditioned
reception was inviting. Entering the lobby, the sight
was jaw-dropping. Every room was beautifully
furnished with fine wooden furniture and hundreds
of wonderfully presented trophy animal taxidermy
specimens from around the world, plus an abundance
of local souvenirs and tribal emblems collected by
the Hornady family and their employees. Although
Target Shooter caters for the non-hunting appetites of
our shooting brotherhood, it was hard not to admire
the heritage, respect and experience contained
within these walls with regard to a worldwide hunting
audience, as well as target shooters. Knowing how to
make a bullet that will punch out a paper target is one
thing but, to stop a charging water buffalo which may
endanger the life of a customer is quite another. This
company’s owners and employees have walked the
walk.
From art to engineering through
one heavy (soundproof) door
Within this one factory, everything from smelting
and purifying the lead for the bullet cores to the
production of reloading dies takes place. A two-hour
whistle-stop spin around the thousands of square
29
Target Shooter Magazine
visit
Hornady
in Nebraska
THE
WIND
feet left little time for questions and specifics but
an abundance of photo opportunities in the noisier
locations made up for it.
The factory was just scaling back up to full production
levels after a two week holiday period but judging by
the repeat counters on some machines, day and night
hold no bounds with a skeleton staff having kept a few
`jobs` ticking over. There is a fascinating combination
of equipment used, from WW2 bullet forming presses
running at 40 finished bullets per minute alongside
modern pneumatic equivalents running at three times
the speed.
One thing you quickly learn to virtually ignore
are the buckets and I mean `BUCKETS` of bullets
- everywhere you look, in every state of the
manufacturing process. Staggering quantities in
all calibres are absolutely everywhere and chaos
only seems to descend back to normality at the
warehousing stage. A feeling like `Charlie` in the
chocolate factory is only crushed by the lack of small
orange Oompah Loompas.
Don’t mention the war!
The factory location originates from a wartime
ammunition plant and along with machine shops
and tool works to keep all the machines running, a
full testing laboratory is in place, originally created
in 1949 to allow ALL bullets to be proven on an
underground 200 yard range. Up until this creation,
Joyce Hornady had driven out to a local range to test
all batches of production bullets so, retreating from
the outdoor atmospherics, cut out a lot of unwanted
variables. My Hornady reloading manual has been a
constant reference from the day I started `rolling my
own` (shamefully more well thumbed than some of
my university engineering manuals) and to visit the
factory and specific room in which it was researched
and written was quite a privilege.
Filing cabinets bursting with test data along with
`THE` test bench, pressure barrels and actions and
a broad selection of firearms are on hand. It isn’t
something we have to worry about in the UK but
THE WIND
visit
Hornady in Nebraska
gas operated semi-autos, where pressures and
pressure cycles/dwell times are critical to correct
function’ are well catered for with hundreds at hand,
from pistols to sub machine guns and assault rifles.
Strain-gauge equipped actions are ready to ascertain
precise chamber pressures, something that has to
be monitored closely in both reloading manuals
and manufactured ammunition to maintain safety
standards and SAAMI operating specifications.
Can you guess the calibres these will turn into!
Quality Control
From the moment a bullet press is set going, a
handful of rounds are loaded up to the desired recipe
and fired on a test card to establish a benchmark of
performance. As the machine runs, sometimes for
months non-stop, test batches are shot repeatedly
to check product consistency, the frequency of these
checks depends on the exact bullet being made and
its required tolerances. A basic FMJ can be tested
every tens of thousands of rounds but the latest match
bullets are checked every few thousand repetitions.
Trained operators closely watch an undeniably
automated process, each one’s machine almost
treated and loved like a family pet. From the purified
lead, formed into wires then shaped into cores are
introduced to a newly punched jacket, each stage is
meticulously recorded and signed off. The New AMP
bullets are similar to the older style BTHP designs but
are now made to even tighter tolerances. The extra
rolling of the copper film from which the jacket discs
are punched ensures consistency to thousands of an
inch. Down the line, this gives a more consistent spin
on the bullet and lessens imbalance and consequent
fluttering in flight. Don’t forget, 46 grains of powder
is spinning these boys at hundreds of thousands of
RPM for their useful lives - seconds at best - but very
important ones!
Not quite the 39 steps, but close
After the jacket is punched in and out of 3 or 4 varying
sized dies, the swaged core is pushed into it and more
punches continue to finalise the overall shape. Of
course something like an FMJ is the reverse of a BTHP,
finished at the base instead of the pointed meplat
Each stage of the bules being formed.
EVERY batch of bullets is repeatedly tested and
recorded during manufacturing cycles, often lasting
for 100’s of thousands of rounds.
30
but, other than specific bullet designs, the process
has been done in this way for over a hundred years,
although tolerances have thankfully diminished.
Alongside all the jacketed bullets we of course didn’t
fail to notice thousands of lead pistol bullets on other
machines.
The largest bullet manufacturer in the US
We were told and it was clear to see, that in the
post Obama election ammunition drought, this
company has spent serious dollars on expansion and
development with a large increase in floor space and
machinery. Some of the most modern CNC machinery
is in use, especially in terms of tool making and both
die and reloading press manufacture where blank
castings are automatically recognised and machined
by the advanced systems to final tolerances.
The largest zone of expansion was in the cartridge
brass-manufacturing element of the business where
Hornady plan to become totally self-sufficient. From
the brass cups - similar to bullet jackets - all the way
through to finished drawn cases, we saw every stage
including flash-hole punching and final annealing
steps. We were free to photograph everything in the
factory except for the amount of construction work
going on. When you own a building on one side of a
commercial estate and another a hundred yards away,
to Hornady ‘expansion’ means FILL IN THE GAP, it is a
huge factory and now everything is under one roof.
A local treasure
Contrary to the scale, it was nice to see that in this
establishment, employing hundreds of local residents,
the Vice President knew everyone by their first name.
Perhaps the most memorable detail I saw all day
was one of the ladies hand-inspecting A-Max factory
loaded match ammunition. She placed several loaded
rounds on her palm, rolled them backwards and
forwards for a second or two and then separated them
into 1st, 2nd and 3rd class lots. Jason and I inspected
a 3rd class item for a few seconds before he stopped
Kim and asked her why she had rejected it. A quickly
placed fingernail pointed our eyes in the direction of
a half millimetre blemish on the case mouth before
returning to what must be a mesmerising job. I was
impressed by attention to detail and a tiny mark I
would certainly have ignored in my own hand-loaded
ammunition.
31
visit
Hornady
in Nebraska
THE
WIND
Playtime
After a generous US style ‘on the fly’ buffet lunch, we
were joined by Jason’s dad and company president
Steve Hornady on trip a few miles down the road to
the local shooting range. Along with crates of ammo
and gallons of water (heat I have experienced before,
the July humidly level was like being bathed in warm
treacle) we were offered a large selection of firearms
to shoot ranging from pistols and rifles up to submachine guns and assault rifles, some as old as the
Thompson. I’m just old enough to have enjoyed pistol
shooting in the UK in the early nineties so it was nice
to shoot them again but firing 45ACP from a drum
magazine with the `Tommy` on full auto was very
`John Dillinger`.
We rattled away to our hearts content, freshly loaded
magazines served like canapés at an evening reception
by a range crew. A heatproof glove was provided
at one point to shoot a MAC-10, which was literally
red-hot. The only gun I didn’t shoot was a full auto 22
rimfire sub-machine gun, I did not have the heart to
empty in five seconds a magazine a lad had taken 10
minutes to load for about the twentieth time that day.
Onto 50 yards, we shot falling steel silhouette plates
with more conventional 22RF and 17HMR rifles and
then moved onto familiar sporting and target rifles at
longer ranges. Savage and Leupold, both co-sponsors
of the trip had provided plenty of toys to play with and
they had all been shipped here, assembled and zeroed
prior to our arrival.
This is weird
I don’t think I am alone in considering the average US
shooting range to be a little more liberal in its location
and construction. Endless miles of countryside kind of
make you forget all thoughts of lateral safety angles
measured in milradians and imagine courses of fire
almost limitless in possibility.
On the contrary, the 600 yard range here was BEHIND
the mantlet, or at least you shot from a bench 20
yards from an embankment 50 feet high, pierced
with tunnels approximately 3 feet in diameter to
THE WIND
visit
Hornady in Nebraska
shoot through. If you loosed a shot accidentally
or negligently, it went straight into the earth
embankment without a chance of overshooting
anything. Very safe yes, but unfortunately, although
you could see your precise target, you couldn’t see any
wind flags or condition indicators at all, I don’t know
how you can judge wind here but apart from mirage,
nothing tells the speed or direction of airflow diverting
your bullet’s flightpath. Luckily our day, although 38
degrees centigrade with boiling mirage, was virtually
wind free, it must be pointless shooting in a howler
like we see at Diggle or Blair Athol.
Have you got any 208gr A-Max please mister---he did!
6.5 Creedmoor, one to watch?
More steel gongs and clay pigeons out to distances
of 600 yards were either sounded or broken by a
selection of Savage rifles equipped with Leupold
scopes in calibres from 204 Ruger up to 9.3x62mm
fodder, more familiar to out continental colleagues’
boar hunting pastimes. Along with chronographed
velocity demonstrations of the new Superformance
hunting ammo, we used both monolithic GMX bullets
and new A-Max pills manufactured to the tighter AMP
(advanced manufacturing process) tolerances.
I’m not sure if it was these, the new 6.5 Creedmoor
cartridge or the Savage rifles to thank but normal clay
pigeons were being dusted with boring regularity at
600 yards. Very impressive, especially when many
of the writers present had never shot more than
200 yards before. Throughout these `playtimes`, we
were encouraged by Leupold’s tech crew to learn
more about dialling turrets for longer ranges (not
always a hunter’s priority but very familiar to us
target types) especially with the new Custom Bulletdrop Compensation dials, perfectly matched to the
ammunition.
Horus reticules were great for the tactical shooters,
along with the Gold Ring spotting scopes proving
outstanding, easily spotting bullet-splash from small
calibres at 600 yards in the sand traps to call shots
onto the target. Although still a little fresh, keep your
eyes out for the 6.5 Creedmoor here in the UK from
Savage. I think it could be the cartridge that everyone
Reloading tools are also manufactured on site. A
press casting before and after machining.
The new AMP process is reliant on copper film of
dastardly perfect thickness, here seeing being rerolled, just to make sure.
These are the specific calibre, barrelled actions
on the data page in your manual used to work up
recommended handload recipes.
32
visit
Hornady
in Nebraska
THE
WIND
The room in which your
Hornady reloading manual
was researched...
33
THE WIND
visit
Hornady in Nebraska
would like the 6.5x47 Lapua to offer ballistically but
cannot in a factory rifle - without going silly with
pressures and killing brass. Hornady have designed
this cartridge with a nod to the reloader, for once all
factory load/recipe data is published and therefore
repeatable at home and hopefully true!
I would like to thank Edgar Brothers and OMI
for this opportunity to visit Hornady, they were
superb hosts and no mention is made here of
the great hospitality we were shown both on
the range and at the bar. We were invited by
the company to attend a local charity ball and it
was plain to see the company is a well loved and
respected local employer and without blowing
anyone’s trumpet, clearly generous to the local
economy in hard times. The knowledge gained
can only serve to broaden our horizons and
reinforce the technical knowledge with which
we test our equipment. It all sounds like great
fun flying around and using hundreds or rounds
of free ammo, wearing out everyone else’s
barrels but trust me, it does wear you down,
eventually!
Thanks to Edgar Brothers
They make millions of these, .30 cal FMJ’s,
This machine assembling loaded rounds dates back to
WW2 but is still in constant use by Hornady.
Top to bottom, the forming steps of a FMJ bullet in
.30 cal.
www.edgarbrothers.com 01625 613177
Outdoor Marketing International.
For more product information check out:
Hornady at www.hornady.com
Would you notice that blemish, talk about attention
to detail, this ranked 3rd class.
34
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35
THE HANDLOADING BENCH
6mm NORMA BENCH REST
(Conclusion) by Laurie Holland
(Conclusion)
by Laurie Holland
36
One downside of
shooting the little
BR is that it is such a
good-mannered little
cartridge with such a
huge range of suitable
bullets and powders
available for it that given
the availability of a 100
yard benchrest equipped
range with a covered
firing-point to keep
the worst of the British
weather out, you want
to shoot it all day, every
day.
It’s easy to get caught up in the search
for that elusive ultimate components
combination to the detriment of barrellife. When I had the Remmy VS rebarrelled to the cartridge, an attraction
was its barrel-life compared to its bigger
6.5-284 Norma stablemate but, that
doesn’t mean you’ll get 5000 rounds out
of it!
37
Asking around, those with experience of
the 6PPC in bench rest competition say the
typical barrel loses its ‘edge’ at around 1300
rounds and the PPC uses 15% less powder
and lighter bullets, so can be expected
to have a longer accuracy life than the
BR. Of course, ‘accuracy life’ likely means
something very special and precise to a
benchrest competitor as any tiny increase in
group size is too much but, even so, I would
expect the BR to start to go downhill after
maybe 1500 rounds. The good news is that
it seems to be a gradual process and you
hear of 6BR varmint rifles still performing
satisfactorily on this size of target at 3000
or more rounds. Certainly I found the
VS noticeably lost its edge in 600 yard
benchrest competition on, or just after, 2000
rounds.
However, the rifle still shot extraordinarily well
by normal standards, so I used the remaining
barrel life as an opportunity to see how ‘varmint’
bullets would shoot in the long-throated ‘Norma
BR’ chamber and 1in 8 twist-rate rifling.
Many 6BR users employ their rifles on foxes, crows
and faraway rabbits one day and 600 yard - or even
further away - paper targets the next. I also know
shooters who use their target 6BR piece on small
deer species with 90-100gn expanding bullets but,
whilst the requisite 1700 ft/lb ME to comply with
the English and Welsh Deer Acts is achievable with
some combinations, the cartridge is marginal for this
application even with a full length barrel of 28 inches.
You have to exceed 2767 fps with a 100gn bullet for
1700 ft/lbs and this may be a struggle with a 24 inch
barrel – of course, this applies to many factory .243
Winchester loads too! However, since I covered 90108gn match bullets in the last issue, it’s fair to say
6BR inert rounds with 55gn Nosler Ballistic Tip (left)
and 87gn Hornady V-Max. The bullet bases are just
above the marker pen lines on the necks.
that whatever works for them should apply to sporting
projectiles too. I’d only caution that some 100gn
flat-base bullets may need charges to be reduced
compared to 105gn HPBT match models as they have
significantly longer bearing surfaces and will generate
more pressure - everything else being equal.
On the face of it, 6mm Norma BR and lightweight
varmint projectiles don’t make for a promising
partnership as the lighter, shorter models cannot be
seated to reach the start of the rifling and have to
make a considerable jump even when they’re barely
seated into the case neck. Then too, the optimal
twist rate for these bullets varies from 1-15 to 1-12
depending on the class and length of bullet used and,
we’re rotating these fragile little pills far too fast for
optimum accuracy, perhaps even for retaining their
integrity.
38
Blast a 55gn bullet out of a 1-8 twist barrel at 3600 fps
and it rotates at 324,000 rpm compared to just over
185,000 rpm in one with a 1-14 rate. Let’s put the
integrity issue to bed now – out of 170 groups fired
with 55-87gn varmint bullets - 850 or so shots - I didn’t
suffer a single failure and that was in a barrel with a
considerably eroded throat. That’s not to say it can’t
happen – a rough, badly fouled bore and temperatures
higher than seen at Diggle might very well induce
bullet failure, or it might happen at greater distances
beyond the 100 yards I used for testing.
So far as COAL is concerned, the throat was too long
in my chamber to have any 55-70gn bullet ogive just
off the rifling whilst seating even a small part of the
bullet-shank in the case-neck. I simply seated these
models with an eighth to tenth of an inch of the
parallel shank or bearing surface into the neck, before
looking for a powder and charge weight combination
that would group well despite a 0.1-0.2 inch jump into
the rifling leade.
These bullets are either flat-base or if nominally boattails, have such a tiny and short tapered rear section
that it performs no function other than easing the
bullet’s entry into the case-mouth during the seating
operation. This helps out here as nearly all of the
lower bullet body is available to be gripped by the
case. Those 75-87gn models tried are noticeably
longer and could just be seated, albeit shallowly to
reach the leade. This would put their bases on - more
usually a little above - the bottom of the case-neck,
whilst providing my usual 0.015 inch jump into the
rifling (or seated into the rifling if so desired with the
odd secant ogive model).
When using mid burning rate powders like Viht N140/
N150, Hodgdon H4895 and VarGet whose top loads
run above 30gn, I often had a desirable ‘no airspace’
set-up with the case capacity fully utilised by the
charge almost to, or right up against, the bullet base
with these bullets. This was with the chamber as
cut by Norman Clark’s reamer of course. If you’ve
specified a really long throat to suit the longest 105gn
VLD on the market or a 115gn design seated at the
optimal position in the case, all varmint bullets would
likely make a full quarter inch or even longer jump.
What about powders for these light bullets? Faster
burners – Alliant Reloder 10x, Accurate 2015 and 2230,
Hodgdon H322 and Benchmark, Viht N133/N135 seem
There is a huge choice of 6mm varmint and deer bullets, of which this is a tiny part
39
to provide the best results with 55-70gn numbers.
This also applies to ultra-light match bullets, of which
there is a good choice in the 66-70gn range, from one
or two larger manufacturers particularly Berger Bullets
and Sierra for its 70gn MatchKing, as well as the small
specialist bullet-makers geared up for 6PPC bench
shooters - G&C being the primary UK producer - but
many more in the USA.
These powders can also be used successfully with
the heavier (75-87gn) models but the mid burning
rate propellants – N140/N150, H4895 and H. VarGet,
Reloder 15 – I recommended last month for 90-108gn
55, 58, and 70gn 6mm bullets from Sierra, Nosler, Hornady and Berger.
long-range match bullets often perform well now.
I also tried some IMR powders – 3031, 4895, and
4320. Incidentally, those Accurate (or AA) powders
that we see have reverted to their ‘Lovex’ product
designations as used by the manufacturer, Explosia in
the Czech Republic. The American owner of Accurate
Arms now sources its propellants elsewhere but we
still get the older Explosia versions. AA-2015 is Lovex
SO 60 and AA-2230 ball powder becomes Lovex
DO73.4 under this regime.
Good powders for 55 – 80 gn bullets
I wasn’t over bothered about obtaining super
velocities. I’ve seen loading data for combinations
that push the 55s out at 3700 fps with some powders
but had no desire to replicate these feats. You will
lose some velocity - possibly even a lot of velocity from the Norma BR throat especially with the lightest
bullets making a big jump. Some of the combinations
I tried were a bit down MV-wise and if I’d been looking
to work up a field load, I’d have carried on increasing
charges in small increments – the promising 70gn
Nosler Ballistic Tip and Viht N530 combination is a
good example.
40
GameKing HP / 30.5 + 31.0gn IMR-4895). When I note
that the top loads were ‘warm’, this means that primer
‘cratering’ was just appearing. Remember though
that my unmodified Remy 700 bolt head / firing pin is
prone to producing this before reaching full pressures
and the Remington BR primer cup is noticeably softer
than those of the CCI-450 and BR4. Remember also,
that a short-throated chamber optimised for varmint
bullets will produce greater pressures from any given
load combination than my longer-freebore ‘Norma’
version.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
One of my Diggle test targets
Where shown, MVs are for the maximum chargeweight used unless advised otherwise. Talking charge
increments, most batches cover a 2.0gn weight range
which rose in 0.5gn steps, all combinations consisting
of five by 5-round batches. If a load listed in the
results table has a greater than 2gn spread, the first
increment was a full grain, reverting to half-grain after
that. If less than a full 2gn, it will have started as 0.5gn
and reduced to 0.4 and 0.3gn steps subsequently.
QuickLOAD was used to predict pressures and MVs in
advance and some leeway was deliberately built into
my charge-weight ranges to avoid overloads.
Remington 7½BR primers were used throughout
except for a few combinations with the CCI-BR4
model, this shown in the ‘Comments’ column. No
loads produced really heavy pressures in my barrel
and chamber with one possible exception (85gn Sierra
41
These components and
loads performed safely in
the author’s rifle: this cannot
be guaranteed for other
firearms. Good handloading
procedures should be used
working loads up from
low starting levels while
looking for signs of excessive
pressure. This data only
applies to rifles chambered in
6mm Norma BR form. 6mm
Remington BR with a shorter
throat will generate much
higher pressures.
Table 1 - VARMINT BULLET RESULTS - HANDLOADS
(77gn HP Factory Load as a benchmark: Average 0.5” group, 3221 fps/ES: 26 fps - 4 groups)
Powder / Charge
Groups
MV/ES
55gn Nosler Ballistic Tip
26.5-28.5gn Viht N120
26.0-28.0gn Alliant Re7
0.5-0.8”
0.45-1.1”
3,618 / 46
3,442/10
Comments
55gn CT BST (Nosler / Winchester low-friction coated version of the Ballistic Tip)
28.5-30.5gn AA-2015
0.26-0.85”
n/r
30.5-32.5gn AA-2230
0.6-1.15”
3,622
One velocity reading only obtained.
30.0-32.0gn H4895
0.66-1.1”
n/r
55gn Sierra BlitzKing
28.5-30.5gn AA-2015
29.5-31.5gn H Benchmark
0.3-1.1”
0.35-0.95”
3,352 / 32
3,500
58gn Hornady V-Max
28.5-30.1gn AA-2015
28.5-30.0gn Alliant Re10x
26.8-28.5gn Alliant Re7
28.3-30.0gn Viht N130
0.3-0.75”
0.6-0.9”
0.45-1.1”
0.5-1.0”
3,277 /53
3,384/21
3,420/58
3,470/29
70gn Sierra BlitzKing
30.0-32.5gn Viht N135
28.0-30.5gn H322
0.75-1.7”
0.55-1.3”
n/r
n/r
70gn Nosler Ballistic Tip
29.0-31.0 H. Benchmark
28.5-30.5gn Viht N530
30.4-32.5gn Viht N135
31.0-34.0gn H. VarGet
0.35-0.45”
0.35-0.75”
0.46-0.66”
0.35”-0.75”
3,374/49
3,252/31
3,358/25
3,368/34
70gn Berger HP Flat-Base Varmint
30.0-32.0gn H4895
0.55-0.85”
n/r
75gn Hornady V-Max
28.0-30.5gn IMR-3031
27.0-29.5gn AA-2015
28.5-30.0gn Viht N133
3,246/71
3,277/53
3,241/24
3,246/16
0.5-0.9”
0.3-0.8”
0.6-1.0”
0.65-0.9”
One velocity reading only obtained.
CCI-BR4 primer
CCI-BR4 primer
MV for 29.3gn
3 ex 5 groups ≤0.5” Slightly compressed charge
3 ex 5 groups ≤0.5”
Top loads ‘warm’
42
Table 1 - VARMINT BULLET RESULTS - HANDLOADS Cont...
Powder / Charge
Groups
MV/ES
Comments
80gn Sierra Varminter SBT (Spitzer Boat-Tail)
29.8-31.7gn Viht N140
0.4-1.0”
2,940/15
80gn Berger HBC-FB (Secant Ogive, flat base)
30.0-32.0gn IMR-4895
0.4-1.0”
3,106/50
28.4-30.3gn IMR-3031
0.35-0.75”
3,113/22
CCI-BR4. 4 ex 5 groups ≤0.45”
85gn Sierra ‘Varminter’ SPT (Spitzer, flat-base)
28.4-30.3gn Viht N530
0.4-0.85”
n/r
29.5-31.5gn Viht N140
0.4-1.0”
2,940/15
29.0-31.0gn H4895
0.5-1.0”
n/r
85gn Sierra HPBT GameKing
30.0-32.0gn IMR-4895
0.15-0.75”
31gn
28.4-30.3gn IMR-3031
0.55-1.1”
3,148/78
Top loads too warm. Good results 30-
3,110/29
CCI-BR4 primer
Top loads ‘warm’
87gn Hornady HPBT
28.8-31.0gn Viht N140
29.8-32.0gn Viht N150
0.4-0.55”
0.55-0.85”
2,906/25
3,007/31
87gn Hornady V-Max
30.4-32.3gn IMR-4320
0.45-1.1”
0.95-1.3”
3,052/14
3,108/36
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Choosing & using sights
by Gwyn Roberts
OPTICS
“Putting the pieces together. Part 2”
Choosing & using sights by Gwyn Roberts
Moving on from making your stocks and grips fit you
properly, the next thing to consider is which type of
sight (or sights) are going to be the most suitable for
the type of Gallery Rifle competitions that you intend
to compete in.
Whilst the variable-powered scope is by far the most
commonly used in GR shooting, it’s not going to be
suitable for every type of GR match but it’s certainly
the most popular type to start with. The distances we
shoot at are relatively short (as most of our matches
used to be shot with pistols) so there isn’t any need to
spend an absolute fortune on a Nightforce, Zeiss or
S&B scope but, there are certain things to think about
before rushing out and buying the first thing that
comes your way.
The first of these would be choosing a suitable
reticule and you won’t go far wrong if you decide to
go for a standard crosshair type (although mil dots are
also fairly popular) as they are very easy to pick up on
the target and also simple to use.
a recipe for disaster and you’d be well advised to steer
clear of the ‘cluttered’ variety. The standard crosshair
shape is usually referred to as a duplex or 30/30
reticule, although some companies will call it their
own version such as a Nikoplex etc. but they are all
essentially based on the same simple design.
Depending on the manufacturer, most duplex types
will differ slightly with regard to the overall thickness
and length of both the outer posts and the centre
lines, including the spacing between them so make
sure you try looking through as many as you can (or
ideally try them out on the range) to see which type
suits you best. There are also some fine cross hair
reticules available (including some with a small centre
dot) but these are pretty hard to pick up quickly on
the target and are mainly used for long range or
benchrest type shooting.
There are a huge number of reticule designs to
choose from (including illuminated varieties) ranging
from a series of dots to multiple lines and patterns
that resemble something more like a Christmas tree
but, quite frankly, I find that most of them are just
a gimmick and are of little use to us in the type of
shooting that we do.
The next important feature to consider will be
choosing the magnification range of your scope and
this is probably where most people will have to make
a compromise. I say this because of the wide range
of disciplines that are on offer within Gallery Rifle
and the fact that there are very few (if any) individual
scopes that have a magnification range diverse
enough to provide everyone of us with the optimum
sight-picture at every distance, in every type of
competition that we shoot.
Trying to decipher a multitude of lines, dots or curves
quickly against a Timed & Precision or Multi Target
target during a 2 to 3 second exposure is pretty much
Putting red dots and iron sights aside for now, you
would probably need a scope with a magnification
range of between 1 - 25x to satisfy the demands of
46
by Gwyn Roberts
this will make it easier for them to see which area of
the target they are actually pointing at when initially
bringing the rifle up into the aim. Trying to shoot
quickly and accurately at 10 metres using a scope
that has a limited lower range of between 6 & 8x will
usually prove very difficult for most (especially in
some of the faster shooting matches) as the target
size is obviously magnified a fair amount which will
fill the scope up completely and this can often lead
to confusion and rushed shots unless the sights are
brought directly up onto the centre of the target.
Reticles can be confusing...
every GR shooter but unfortunately the majority of
affordable scopes (for most people) tend to be in the
region of 1-5x, 3-9x, 3-12x, 4-12x, 4-16x, 5-20 x, 6.520, 6-24x or even 8-32x power.
Most new shooters coming into Gallery Rifle
competitions are usually steered by their clubs
towards some of the lower round-count events,
like the 25m Precision, the Multi Target or Timed &
Precision 1 matches to start with. Whilst the Precision
match allows you plenty of time to complete each
stage, the latter two will require you to pick up the
targets pretty quickly and fire off one or two rounds
within 2 to 3 seconds at the closer distances.
For these matches most newcomers will usually
experience greater success by using a scope with a
minimum magnification range of between 3 – 5x as
47
Faster - and probably more importantly, consistent presentation of the crosshairs onto the central scoring
zone can be achieved through body alignment, muscle
memory and target/sight presentation practices using
a lower power setting to start with. This will obviously
require a fair bit of time and effort on your behalf
in order to get it right but once this skill has been
mastered, it will definitely help you to improve your
scores and overall performances and is well worth
persevering with.
As well as making sure that the lowest power setting
on your scope is suitable for your intended needs,
you must equally ensure that it will provide you with
enough magnification at the opposite end to enable
you to see where your shots are actually landing on
the target. This is especially important when shooting
up to 50m where such things as wind, lighting
conditions or even an accidentally knocked scope
can change the point of impact by quite a margin,
especially on the much smaller 22 targets.
by Gwyn Roberts
I always check to see where my first few rounds are
going when I’m shooting at the longer distances just
to make sure that I’m hitting in or around the X or 10ring. If I’m not, then at least I’m able to see just how
far off I need to aim, or simply dial-in the required
offset using the turret adjustments. There’s no point
in putting 24 rounds down range during a 1500 Match
3 at 50m only to find out, when you go forwards to
score, that the rounds were actually landing down
Bushnell Elite 6500
inside
the 8 or 7
ring - just because you
couldn’t see where your shots were
going at the time.
Whatever caliber you shoot there is no magic
magnification setting to use when shooting at the
longer distances as it all boils down to personal
preference, experience and ability. Some shooters
will only use a magnification of somewhere between
6 and 10x because “the sight doesn’t wobble around
as much.” In reality though, their stability remains
the same, it just appears to be more stable as the
movement on the target is simply less magnified than
it would be on a higher setting.
Many of the GB team use between 12 - 20x at this
distance with very good results but it is definitely
something that you will have to work on over time, in
conjunction with improving your trigger-pull of course.
Most of my best results have been achieved using
between 20 - 25x at both 25 & 50m but I did
experiment with using maximum settings of between
12 & 15x at both the Phoenix and Nationals this year
and the results were fairly comparable, although I did
have to turn the magnification up to check my point
of impact a few times during some of the matches as I
couldn’t see where my initial shots were going.
Spending time practising on the range, trying all of
the magnification settings, is the only way to find the
optimum settings for each of the distances involved.
Once you have found the magnification setting that
gives you the best results at a particular distance,
make sure that you stick with it and don’t be tempted
to use one that you simply prefer - it’s the scores on
the target that count and not what you perceive to be
the most stable.
It’s also a good idea to write these figures down on a
crib note until you can remember them off by heart
to help improve your performance. There will
obviously always be exceptions but
on the whole something like a
3 – 9x scope just won’t get
the job done as many
have found out and
I would suggest
that either
a 4 -16x
or 5 - 20x
scope would
fulfill most
shooters’ needs
when starting
off in the GR precision type
disciplines, as they probably offer you the greatest
spread between the lowest and highest magnification
settings.
The lowest settings will help you cope at the closest
distances in most of the GR disciplines whilst the
highest will enable you see where your shots are
landing at every distance and, although you may not
use these maximum settings to start with, they will
always be available once you start to improve and
need to use them.
The next thing to look at would be adjusting the scope
so that you can aim dead-on in the middle of the X
ring at each of the distances involved and this is easily
done on a scope that is equipped with a set of target
turrets. They are very easy to use and will allow you to
wrap a piece of white tape around the outside of the
elevation turret to mark your distance settings onto
it. This makes everything easier and more precise and
will also help save valuable seconds rather than having
to aim off each time you bring the rifle up into the aim.
48
You can still use the same marking principal using the
smaller types of turrets/adjusters, including the coinslot variety by using a small round adhesive sticker
or even small dabs of different coloured paint to
mark each distance. There are two types of elevation
adjustments that give you either ⅛ inch or ¼ inch
per click at 100 yards and for what we do the ¼ inch
versions are the ones to go for if you have the choice,
by Gwyn Roberts
on the internet. More and more scopes are becoming
available where the parallax adjustment is made by
a dial located on the side of the main body of the
scope although it is not generally considered to be as
accurate as the AO ring system.
Barska and Burris
as they require less movement when dialing in the
distances which in turn helps reduce wear and tear in
the long run.
Moving up to the front end of the scope and you will
usually have the option of either a 40, 42, 44, 50 or
56mm diameter objective lens. The 50mm variety are
very popular in GR as they allow more light in than the
smaller versions and they are usually combined with
a one-inch body-tube, which helps to keep the overall
weight of your rifle down.
Whichever type of scope you go for, the main thing
to make sure of is that it will physically focus down
to 10m otherwise there will be an awful lot of GR
competitions that you will not be able to take part in
as all you will see is a blur when you bring the rifle up
into the aim. Quite a few of the models in the Leupold
range for example will not focus down to less than
25m as they as primarily longer range hunting scopes
so it’s always best to check before you buy.
Most of the scopes that offer a 56mm objective lens
will use a 30mm body, which will transmit more light
when shooting in poor weather or light conditions
but they are generally a lot heavier than the one inch
versions, so keep this in mind before opting for one. I
use two 6 – 25x by 56mm Millett scopes with 30mm
bodies on my precision rifles (for 1500 & shorts etc)
and whilst they certainly do the job, I really could do
without the extra weight that they add onto my rifles.
Many scopes will have an adjustable objective ring
marked with the approximate shooting distances
around it to allow you to quickly focus on the target
but more importantly, help correct any parallax error
that is present at each distance. To go into the effects
and corrections of parallax error here would take up
far too much space but it will be well worth your time
to read some of the excellent articles on this subject
49
Target Turrets
by Gwyn Roberts
As with most things, you usually get what you pay
for and scopes are no exception and anything that
uses either Japanese or German lenses in it will be
more expensive but the quality is certainly a lot higher
Another option of course if you are on a tighter budget
would be a second-hand scope and you could well end
up with a lot more scope for your money, so make sure
you check out the various shooting forums and sites
on the internet to see what’s available.
As I mentioned earlier, you will find that a telescopic
sight won’t always be the best option for some of the
GR disciplines, whatever its magnification range and
these include matches like the Bianchi, the Bisley
Speed Steels, 3 gun matches and Steel Challenge
falling plate type matches.
To shoot well in the c/f Bianchi, a 1.5 – 6x42mm would
be an ideal choice as the 1.5x setting would certainly
make life easier during the Mover and Plates matches
and not many shooters would need over 6x to shoot
the 50m stages on a full size target.
Adjustable objective
which can easily be seen when comparing them side
by side on the range. I have always advocated using
the Edgar Brothers Optimate range as they were
manufactured in Japan and were excellent value for
money considering they retailed for around £160-170
each but unfortunately these are no longer available.
I have used their 5-20 x 50 models for the last 15 years
or so and have never had a single problem with any of
them but, looking around recently for a new scope to
use for Bianchi, there doesn’t seem to be anything else
of that quality around anymore for this sort of money.
Yes, there are plenty of scopes available for around
£150-200 and plenty more for a lot less money but
they are all fitted with cheap Chinese lenses and the
build quality is somewhat dubious to say the least.
On the other hand, having to pay between £300-500
plus for a better quality item such as a Nikon or Burris
will bring tears to some shooters’ eyes especially
when they have more than one rifle to equip but, they
do offer excellent quality and most will come with a
lifetime guarantee. It’s going to be your wallet that
makes the decision at the end of the day but generally,
you get what you pay for.
Likewise, using a red-dot on an LBR for this match
would produce much better results for most shooters
as opposed to using a 2 – 7x pistol scope, given the
precise way you have to line your head up with the
eye-piece and the loss of sight-picture during recoil.
Some of the faster matches, where there are multiple
targets at close to medium range, are best shot using
red-dot scopes or even iron-sights as the targets can
be picked up much quicker and the transition between
them will be a lot faster and more fluid as your
vision will be far less restricted compared to using a
telescopic sight.
If you eventually decide to start branching-out and
giving these more varied disciplines a try, then you will
need to ensure that you use the right optic for the job
at hand and this can be done in two ways. The first is
to simply have a spare scope (or scopes) and fit it using
some decent quick-release mounts, or by using a set
of the quick-release ring system.
Warne (above) make some excellent QD rings and
they are fairly reasonably priced as well but whichever
make you decide on it’s very important that you
always make sure that the profile of both your rings
and base match properly - some rails are cut using
a 45° cutter whilst others use a 60° version. Hoping
that a set of 45° rings will locate in exactly the same
position on a 60° base when you swap scopes over just
50
isn’t going to happen, so make sure that everything
fits properly as it should and you won’t have any
problems.
Leupold (below) make some very good bases which
utilize their own version of QD rings which have a
stem-like base on them. The scope is lined up at 90
degrees with the front hole of the base and is then
rotated until the rear ring locates inside the slot at
the back. A screw is then inserted and tightened-
up locking everything into place. I have used these
several times in the past with 100% success rate of
them returning to zero. These would definitely be
my choice if I wanted to swap scopes quickly and
accurately - the only downside to them being that you
can only mount something like a Tasco PDP3 red-dot
scope with a 25 or 30mm tube-type body using this
system, as they don’t provide rings to fit the larger 40
or 50mm versions or one of the screen-type dots.
The second but more expensive option is to simply
have two rifles with one set up for precision type
shooting and the other for the faster action-type
matches and whilst it may sound a little excessive
to some people, it’s what a lot of us used to do back
in the pistol days. For example, I have a heavier
weighted 22 rifle (with the bias being at the front end)
which is fitted with a stainless 16 inch compensated
barrel, a mover base, barricade wings, a weightadjustable stock and a heavier single-stage trigger.
51
by Gwyn Roberts
The optics used are either a 6 – 25x56 30mm tube
scope with Warne QD mounts or a Hakko 45mm red
dot and I use this to shoot all of the action matches.
The rifle I use for the precision-type matches is around
a medium-weight with a neutral balance and is fitted
with a 12.5 inch barrel, a 1 inch 5 – 20x scope and a
very light trigger, which means that I can shoot it all
day without getting tired out.
My 44 Bianchi lever-action rifle has a 2.5 -10x scope
complete with mover base and wings etc. and the
trigger releases at around 2lbs. My second 44 is set
up with a 45mm red-dot scope and a 2lb trigger for
shooting the Man v Man and Steels type competitions
whilst the heavy weight 44 I use for shooting the
Precision based events has a modified fore end, 6 – 25
x 56 30mm tube scope and a 1lb trigger.
My LBRs and LBPs are also set-up to shoot the two
different types of matches and I have gone down this
route due to the amount of competitions that I shoot
at either the Phoenix or the Nationals. It’s a lot easier
just to pick up a couple of guns out of the boot and
go and shoot them and then pick up some more and
go and shoot some different types of matches, rather
than spending half my time trying to swap scopes
around and remember which one goes with which
gun.
There is also the added bonus of having a spare gun to
hand that is already sighted in (albeit with a different
magnification scope) should an optic or other major
component fail on my main gun during a weekend’s
competition. This has happened to both myself and
others on various occasions over the years both at
home and abroad and having a spare gun on the day
has certainly proved invaluable at the time and is well
worth considering if you can manage it!
Website : www.ospreyrifles.com
e-mail: stuart@ospreyrifles.com
Tel : 0161 408 3555
Mob: 07861 399066
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52
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53
Liquid Colour
Design - Custom
Paint & Airbrush
with Design
Commonwealth & Olympic Target
Shooter Gary Duff has had his rifle
stock painted and airbrushed by
Iain Baldwin of Liquid Colour Design
- a custom painting company based
in Northern Ireland. Iain describes
the process...
Welcome to Liquid Colour Design, the company
is custom paint and airbrush with design, based at
the start of the Antrim Glens in a wee village called
Ballycarry, Northern Ireland. There are many different
ways LCD can complete and design your work from
start to finish for all of your future projects. You can
visit my website to get a full run down on my company
and if you like to see more detailed pictures of the
process from start to finish, please visit my website,
go to the bottom of the page and click the Facebook
page and look under photos where you will see an
expanse of work and an ever increasing portfolio.
Custom paint & Airbrush has seen a very big increase
over the last few years not just the motorbike
or the scooter industry but from fine art work to
applying great artwork into bedrooms, murals,
films, kids favourite TV programmes to pubs and
large nightclubs; custom artwork can also be seen in
Hospitals, the list is endless.
I have seen many of the American target shooters with
designer paint jobs on the rifle stocks but you do not
see so many here in the UK & Ireland. I really enjoy my
shooting, from target shooting to out in the field, so
have an understanding of full-bore rifles and the tight
tolerances. I can ensure that all rifle stocks that are in
my possession will be looked after and cared for just
as you would expect from a fellow shooter.
I have had the joy of meeting many of the F-Class boys
before at Bisley on the long weekend for beginners
and introduction into F-Class which I found fantastic
and great fun.
I always had an interest in airbrush and custom paint
from a young age with qualifications & grades in art
from leaving school to gaining more qualifications
in design later in life. In 2010 I decided to start up
my own business in custom paint after being made
redundant. This I have now achieved and called the
business Liquid Colour Design.
Liquid Colour Design’s custom paint shop is at my
home location in the small rural Village of Ballycarry
at the start of the Antrim Glens in Northern Ireland.
I have been living in this great little Village from
2002 with my fantastic wife Naomi and my beautiful
daughter Erin aged 11 years, I also have to mention
our guard dog Tara, the 6 year old Jack Russell. I have
had a great opportunity of being shown some of the
many different aspects of airbrushing and custom
painting from the top European Airbrush and Custom
Painter Simon Murray of SM Designs who has been a
great help and inspiration to me.
I have been shooting since a young lad and I enjoy
stalking and also long range varmint, I have many
friends in the shooting industry and I was asked by
one of Northern Ireland’s top target shooters and
Commonwealth and Olympic Target Shooter Mr Gary
Duff to paint his stock for the upcoming 2012 year.
Well I was up for the challenge - what an amazing
way to go to work in the morning knowing that you’re
going to paint a Commonwealth and Olympic target
rifle for a great lad and athlete, I couldn’t stop smiling
54
and grinning to myself. Gary and I know one another
from previous work experiences and we came up
with a colour and design with some small art work
requested by him. Once we settled on a design and I
started to prep and paint.
I can use many different types of paints whether its
solvent-based or water-based, I really like the waterbased Auto Air (AA) paints as I feel that they produce
the best results. I have used these paints on jet-ski
bikes, cars, and golf clubs to name a few. AA produce
some amazing paints - exotic types such as the Gem
series, which Gary and I decided upon. The way this
paint reacts in the sunlight is truly out of this world.
I have produced a short You Tube video so you can
actually see the interaction in the sunlight. This is just
one of the paints that AA produce but there are so
many that can be used for your next project.
As I am an airbrush artist, detailed and fine artwork
can be painted on to your rifle stock - such as photos,
skulls, underwater themes, aeroplanes, birds, snakes,
graphic design - the list is endless. If you have an idea,
I am sure that I can provide a solution to your artwork
or design for your rifle stock.
OK, let’s get stuck into the process of painting Gary’s
rifle stock. Once Gary has informed me of the colour
55
and an idea of what he requires, I then design the
artwork and provide him with a colour chart that helps
him nail the exact colour he requires and, at this point,
I explain the work and timescale, so he understands
the complete process.
One of his main concerns was the protection of the
paintwork. Once the artwork or custom paint is
finished, it is protected by 2K lacquer systems that
provides amazing protection, just the same as you
would have from a factory laminate stock. Now here is
the difference between ‘factory’ and ‘custom’.
At Liquid Colour Design we apply six coats of clear
high-finish 2K lacquer. We then fast cut and polish
and end up with a hand glaze finish. This process was
developed by many years of custom painting and
award winning paint jobs from leading international
custom painters. It provides a glass finish that looks
wet - totally amazing. Your standard factory stock
would get two coats of 2K lacquer without any polish
then thrown out the door. I am offering a real custom
bespoke paint and finish that you will be proud of.
I was handed the rifle stock by Gary and then I stripped
the stock as far as it goes. This rifle stock is totally
different to an F-Class stock with less ‘meat’ on it, so it
had limitations for the design artwork aspect but great
for the custom paint, so this is how we came up with
the paint work. Firstly, the stock is totally stripped,
taped-up and all parts removed are placed inside a cup
for safe keeping.
This is really the most important part of the process
- get this wrong and the paint work will suffer. It’s
essential to understand what primers and metalcleaning products to use for all the prep work and
prime out. Due to the stock being made from two
different components - aluminium and laminate - I had
to ensure that I split the two apart, treating it as two
separate projects.
The aluminium was prepared by going through a
degreaser stage then using panel wipe. After that I
started on the wet and dry paper. I had to use a small
hand Dremmel to knock back a couple of dings out of
the aluminium – a bit of user error here Gary! I used
sandpaper to knock-back all the laminate ‘errors’ and
then I 2K lacquered the laminate. I did this process
twice and then sanded smooth. After the second time
of sanding the laminate, I used a high-build primer
then a dust coat of etching primer to give me a high
tack rate for my paint stage. I needed to do this as I
am totally meticulous about the process and finish.
Auto Air paint is water-based and uses a mechanical
bond to paint - unlike solvent that uses chemical bond
- so the painting process becomes a joy. For the base,
I used 4002 sealer dark Auto Air paint and over the top
I used 4401 Gem Sapphire which is totally amazing
in the sunlight over the sealer. Dark produces a dark
shade of Sapphire but this paint can be used in so
many different ways if you paint over base white it
produces a high sapphire hot pink shade. The AA paint
is very versatile and there are many different options
to the custom painter or artist.
Unfortunately, the day Gary came to collect the stock
it was a very dull day so I will at some point get some
photos in the amazing sunshine we have here in
Northern Ireland.
56
Once the top coat is dry I then go to a tack coat of 2K
lacquer, once the flash of time is complete and all wet
coats have been laid I leave overnight in the booth at
23°C. The next day I wet and dry with 2000grit for the
final artwork and the small amount of design that is
required to complete the artwork/design.
Once I am 100% happy with the completed design and
artwork I apply the final coats few coats of 2K lacquer.
I have at all times been aware of the tolerance of the
action to the stock and the bedding, I have allowed
only fine coats of lacquer over this area and still at the
end of the process allowed a smooth and acceptable
allowance for the action to bed.
The completed rifle stock took me a bit longer than I
thought it would as the prep was a wee bit of a pain
but my client was very happy with his new custom
painted rifle stock. I would like to thank and wish
Gary the utmost support for his chance to become a
part of the 2012 Olympic squad again. I would also
like to thank Vince Bottomley for his guidance and
help so I could place this article in this amazing online
magazine.
Prices from £180.00 inclusive; for design, Iain can
produce the design on a jpeg format emailed prior
to work for final appraisal. Due to the ever building
57
clientele Iain is in high demand, terms & conditions
can be visited on his web site. When you visit his
website please visit his Facebook link by clicking the
link at the bottom of his business website. This will
allow you to visit his business Facebook with all latest
photos and links. Iain has produced a short YouTube
video of the stock where you can see this amazing
paint and artwork. http://youtu.be/z-x86BYHsoY
Iain Baldwin
40 Edmonstone Ave,
Ballycarry,
Co Antrim,
Northern Ireland,
BT38 9UA.
(O) 02893378525
(M)02893378525
[email protected]
http://www.liquidcolourdesign.com
58
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59
Browning Buckmark Long Pistol
Buckmark Long Pistol with Lightweight Barrel £714.00 and Fox Red Dot sight £40.00.
Available from Westlake Engineering
Tel. 01722 782432
[email protected]
New Hybrid Target Bullets Due In Soon
Hybrid Bullet Design
The Hybrid design blends the best of both worlds by incorporating two different shapes within the
nose. As the bearing surface ends, a tangent ogive begins. This tangent section of the ogive results
in the bullet being much less sensitive to seating depth. As you move forward along the tangent
portion, the shape changes into a secant ogive (the shape used on the VLD bullets). This shape is
very efficient in the wind and is why the VLD became so popular. The key to all this is not just the
combining of these two shapes but also the partnership between the ballistician and the bullet
maker. Berger’s Chief Ballistician, Bryan Litz uses his expertise to combine the appropriate shapes
Available in:
.284 180 gr Match Hybrid Target
2840
.308 155 gr Match Hybrid Target 3042
.308 168 gr Match Hybrid Target 30425 . 308 185 gr Match Hybrid Target 30424
.308 200 gr Match Hybrid Target 30427. 308 215 gr Match Hybrid Target 30423
.308 230 gr Match Hybrid Target 30428
www.bergerbullets.com
New from Lapua
The ScenarL Bullet
This new generation of match bullets has been dubbed the ScenarL, and is a fitting successor to the
Scenar family. Sharing the same aerodynamic profiles as their predecessors, the ScenarL are the
perfect choice for any type of competitive shooting. Based on the Scenar’s proven track record of competitive successes, Lapua’s new ScenarL will deliver the ultimate performance in the most demanding
competitive environments every time. Precision craftsmanship, painstaking quality control standards,
state of the art manufacturing technology and advanced ballistic design all combine to make the new
ScenarL the very best of the best!
Available in:
.224 69gr ScenarL 4PL5011
6mm 90gr ScenarL 4PL6015
www.lapua.com
.224 77gr ScenarL PL5016
6mm 105gr ScenarL 4PL6050
For More information contact
Hannam’s Reloading Ltd
The Reloading Specialists
Peckfield Lodge, Great North Road, Leeds, LS25 5LJ
Tel 01977 681639 Fax 01977 684272
email: [email protected] www.hannamsreloading.com
FROM THE BENCH
VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN WHEREBY ACCURACY NUTS CAN KEEP UP TO
DATE WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA
AND ACCURACY RELATED ITEMS
Competitions
Temperatures might be below zero but we’re still shooting benchrest! Twenty-odd brave souls made
a break from the Christmas festivities and took part
in the UKBRA’s 600 yard benchrest competition at
Diggle Ranges on December 27th – which is a good
job, otherwise I’d have had nothing to write about!
This was round two of our winter series and in round
one, Steve Dunn took an emphatic win, though
‘Remington Girl’ Toni Young placed second with
her out-of-the-box 308 Remmy 700. Toni also won
last year’s 600 yd Factory Championship with her
remarkable Remmy but, today she wasn’t there so
maybe that gave us a chance...
It was murky December Diggle day as Bruce Lenton sets up
his 6BR Winchester but three new records were set.
Not really – we just took a drubbing from another Factory Sporter shooter! Darrel Evans and his 6.5x47 Accuracy
International won not only Factory Sporter Class but Light Gun Class as well! Darrel’s 1.8 inch group was the
smallest of the day and a new UKBRA record to boot – beating Phil Gibbon’s 2.2 incher! In fact, Darrel broke three
records in total, the other two being the Factory Sporter Aggregate and the Light Gun Aggregate. A remarkable
performance.
Results Light Gun:
1st
Darrel Evans
2nd Jack Gibb
3rd
Vince Bottomley
Small group: 6.5x47 Accuracy Intl.
6mmBR Stolle
6mm TGP Stiller
Darrel Evans
2.839 in.(av. of four, 5-shot groups)
3.247
3.355
1.823 inches
Factory Sporter:
1st
Darrel Evans
2nd Chris Gleave
3rd
Sean Broxham
Small group:
6.5x47 Accuracy Intl.
308 Accuracy Intl.
6.5-284 Savage
Darrel Evans
2.839 in.
3.818
4.015
1.823 inches
Our new season of 100/1000 yard shoots does not start until April 7/8th April but meanwhile, we have another
Diggle 600 yard BR shoot on Saturday 21st January and Sunday March 4th. Just turn up on the day about
10.00am, all welcome.
62
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63
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Rook ‘n’ Rabbit Class
The Original and Uniquely British
Gallery Rifle by Alan Whittle
The Original and Uniquely British Gallery Rifle
The Rook ‘n’ Rabbit rifle is peculiar
by Alan Whittle
to the Britain of a bygone era
where shooters would take to the
competing in heritage competitions.
by roads on their bicycles with a
Such competitions are available
rifle slung over their shoulder and
at both the Imperial and Trafalgar
bag various types of small game for
Meeting at Bisley.
the pot. Such activities, being no
longer available, have meant these
low powered rifles of around 30
calibre have now been reduced to
I cannot really say that my acquisition of a
‘rook ‘n’ rabbit’ rifle at the Trafalgar Arm Fair
was an impulse buy as I have had a spot on my
firearm certificate for a 310 calibre rifle for over
a year now’ I suppose you could say that I was
64
always on the lookout and this one caught my
eye! We won’t discuss prices, other than to say
that classic firearms are rapidly increasing in
value, thereby
making it a good
investment and
anyway, my wife
does not need to
know!
What I actually
bought was a BSA
310 Martini Cadet
Rifle, made during
the first decade
of the 20th Century for the Australian Army Cadet
Forces. Without bothering you too much with the
history of the beast, suffice to say following their
use by Cadets, Australian home defence forces
were issued with them in the Second World War and
thereafter they were sold as surplus on the world
market.
My Cadet Rifle is a relatively late production version
numbering 51,747 out of the 60,000 made. The front
sight is a thick blade common of the military type and
the rear notch is proportionately too small, making
for a usable but uninspiring sight-picture. The rear
sight has some sophistication having micrometer
adjustment for both elevation and windage; it is
optimistically graduated for ranges up to 600 yards,
only time will tell.
The condition of the woodwork gives the impression
that cadets may have occasionally pressed it into
service as a cricket bat and being designed for the
stature of youth it is a bit short in the stock. Despite
this, it is light, pointable and there is no noticeable
creep in trigger, which is rather on the heavy side. The
metal work has most of the original finish and overall I
think I got a bit of a bargain.
Most importantly I know of no other rifle in this
chambering - making ammunition supply strictly a
home-loaded proposition. Cadet rifles still retain their
popularity in Australia and Western Firearms in Sydney
have supplied, at modest cost due to a favourable
exchange rate, a Lee Precision custom three die
65
The Original and Uniquely British
Gallery Rifle by Alan Whittle
set. They also do cartridge cases by Bertram but at
nearly £1 a piece I opted for conversion of some new
Remington 32-20 brass instead.
Bullets are of the outside
lubricated heeled type, rather
like the 22 rimfire. A heeled
bullet is an archaic design
of bullet where the internal
diameter of the barrel is
the same diameter as
the cartridge case, and
the bullet has a step at the rear to allow it
to fit inside the case. Luckily the Trafalgar Arms Fair
also revealed a quantity of suitable lead bullets of the
appropriate style and weight (120 grains), by Cast
Boolits.
These bullets have no lube groove and therefore
require lubricating with Lee liquid Alox. Ballistically
the 120 grain bullet should be propelled at 1200 fps to
duplicate the original loading and, although I cannot
find any reloading tables which include this calibre,
there are plenty of websites exchanging loading data.
Thus I have a project for the winter time and I will
report progress on ammunition manufacture and
performance in future issues.
This
SMALLBORE
Business
This Smallbore Business
by Don Brooke
Ever been through a loss in form?
Are you currently experiencing a
loss in form?
It’s a puzzle that sometimes takes months to
eradicate, or even longer. You try everything
One other instance was I was really struggling
to shoot a score in New Zealand for the Oceania
Championships, so I gave my rifle to ‘Smithy’ to try
out. He came back and asked if he could shoot my
rifle in the matches!
you know, yet still wonder what the hell has
happened. Indeed it is a puzzling time.
I have been through a few of these situations, even
giving my rifle to another team mate to see if he or
she can get any results. Mind-boggling - when they
drill nice little round five-shot groups with the same
ammunition you are using!
I did this with Tolly (Don Tolhurst, an Australian icon
of the sport) a number of years back, and he promptly
shot a solid 200 on a windy day…... He rose from the
firing-point and told me the problem was ‘between
my ears’. Probably right too, because the following
weekend I won the Victorian State titles with the same
gear I could not hit a barn with if I was inside with the
door shut, two weeks prior!
I offered to stand down, in discussion with my team
manager, which was refused politely, stating he
trusted me to perform. I didn’t do too bad with a
593 on a dead still day but, I can tell you it was one of
the hardest shoots I have ever had. I struggled and
struggled, used up the whole allocated time, finishing
with about ten seconds left on the match clock. Our
team won, including the individual quota place and I
suppose the 593 helped because any team result is no
better than the low score anyway.
This problem was actually traced to sighting, with
a lens rotated 15 degrees from axis and maybe this
gives you an idea of where this article is going.
66
So often, it’s the little things that go wrong that can
seriously affect results and drop the confidence level
to a new found low. What a funny feeling this is, when
your head seems to be missing the top half! Where
the grey matter resembles mush… wondering why the
heck you ever took up small bore shooting, when you
could be out fishing or something.
Psychologically, any athlete is affected by confidence
factors - even an argument with the long suffering
wife can wipe out a shooters edge really fast, for
any number of reasons. To shoot really well your
mind needs to be clear as crystal, without any of the
trappings of everyday life. The one thing about the
shootings sports is that it really is individual, you are
up there, on your own and very soon the results on the
board are there for all to see.
To go through the form-loss problem can be extremely
frustrating, so much so that even knee-deep in fired
cases has no rewards and even less results. You start
to doubt everything - I have seen shooters struggling,
then go out and buy a brand new Anschutz, or Bleiker
rifle in the idea their rifle is ‘shot out’, or go and buy a
new batch of Tenex or R50, just to see if that makes
any difference!
Well in my experience, I have isolated three areas that
more than likely are the culprits of form-loss.
These are:
1. Health of the shooter.
2. Mechanical issues with the gear, such as the
sighting example I set out above.
3. Weight issues with the shooter themselves.
Health of the shooter.
This often is the cause of loss of form. Any illness can
be detrimental and particularly in the spring weather
where allergy issues affecting the sinus and eye sight
is quite common. My Wife Cheryl, who herself is no
mug with a target rifle, is severely affected by the
spores of the Australian Wattle tree. As soon as these
things start to bloom in late winter, early spring, she
turns into a tearful, sneezing, nose running mess!
She calls our national flower a ‘noxious weed’ and
seeing what this does to her, I have a tendency to
agree. Pretty difficult to shoot with a box of tissues as
standard shooting equipment along side of you!
67
This
SMALLBORE
Business
If you have this sort of worry, then a course of antihystamine tablets are mandatory if you want to get
anywhere up the results board.
Hypertension, (blood pressure issues) where
medication is needed can also have fluctuating affects
on scores. High blood pressure, particularly if you
are a three position shooter, can be disastrous to
any sort of form. It is extremely important that your
blood pressure is stable and medical attention is often
required. A reading of 120/70 is optimal for a top level
shooter.
As usual, general fitness, though not entirely
mandatory for a shooter, is highly desirable. I have
seen some woefully unfit shooters that seem to put
things together in spite of whatever but all I can say
here is “There is more out there for you yet”!
I mentioned Tolly - he was an asthmatic who suddenly
found himself in Mexico City for the 1968 Olympic
Games. 8,000 feet up, with an atmosphere like pea
soup! He came home really sick from that event and
shot well in spite of everything…..
Be what ever, get on top of your health issues, if you
want to stay in touch with your form. If it goes for a
walk, find out if it is you that needs to go for a walk
too! These days, a fresh air addict is one that sleeps
with the window shut!
The mechanical issues with your
gear can have an effect.
In spite of the troubles I listed above, where lack of
confidence due to loss of form becomes somewhat
of a major trouble spot, it CAN be due to equipment
hassles.
The one cause I have found with those having loss of
form worries can often be the fact that the rifle needs
a good clean out. I have seen smallbore shooters who
have never cleaned the barrel in it’s life! Somewhere
close to 10,000 rounds through the barrel! I have seen
good stainless barrels with so much lead in them it is
not funny. (My gunsmith, Fred Lawler of RTM really
loves these blokes!)
This
SMALLBORE
Business
How about checking to see if the rear sight moves
correctly? Backlash is quite common in rear sights,
where absolutely nothing happens when you turn the
knobs, until it takes up in one fell swoop and moves
the zero about six clicks!
I can tell you, I have never started a new match with
a barrel that was not spotlessly clean. I made sure
my barrels were never fired over previous fouling and
cleaned them religiously. The same thing applies to
the benchrest shooters. You just never see them fire a
shot out of a barrel that was not clean. These guys DO
know what they are on about and that in itself is good
enough for me….
Check all your gear, your shooting clothing as well.
The elbow pads on the coat are often a source of form
loss (particularly for a full bore shooter where recoil
is more severe). Make sure they do not creep, or slip
from position.
The shooting sling that borders on crap is another
source, does it stay where you put it? Is it
deteriorating, or separating? Check the rivets in case
they pull through and leave you with nothing on the
upper arm. How about a glove you can spit peas
through? One of the best I have seen was a fore-end
rail that fell off the rifle!
Does the trigger creep before it reaches let off
settings? I have also seen a complete trigger drop into
the bottom of the trigger guard (in a severe case!) as
well as a trigger bar that was so loose it effectively
gave the release something like four first pressures….
Not bad for a single-stage release system!
If all the above are OK, then you can bet your Doc
Martens the problem lies with the ammunition
compatibility. Probably groups as big as the eightring or worse! Perhaps your pet batch of ammo either
froze in an aircraft hold, or became really hot, which
happens quite a bit in Australian summers. I always
kept my Tenex in Styrofoam cooler bags through the
heat of Australian summer months. Tenex does not
like 40 plus degrees C, and R50 is even worse…
Finally, as I indicated above, make sure the lens of
your shooting specs has not rotated out of axis, If it
is there is usually mark on the side of the lens that
lines up at 12 o’clock on the shooting frames. This can
often give you the collywobbles if the prescription is
there to combat astigmatism in your eyesight. (There
are so many shooters with this problem.)
Have you checked your weight lately?
Is it up a little or perhaps under? The fact that you may
have either put on, or lost weight, can severely affect
the best of the positions - particularly prone!
Too much weight around the tummy can drastically
alter the position of the rifle in the forward geometry.
The recoil is affected and thus the return to aim on
recoil which is so important in prone shooting because
effectively the position is much higher than normal.
It does not take a lot either! When this happens, it is
virtually back to the drawing board and learning to
shoot all over again. Your coat fit is affected and with it
the sling length and adjustments.
Breathing is clearly affected and in severe cases the
blood-pressure problem produces a hold similar to the
Krakatoa earthquake. You will find you can no longer
hold the ten-ring because the position you worked on
for so long just does not do that anymore….
If you have lost weight, the biggest problem with this
is the sling length and tension is severely upset. It is
loose and often results in pulling the forward hand
back from the hand stop in an effort to gain some
support for the rifle. This is a common tell tale when
you feel the rifle is flopping about, does not line
up with the natural point of aim, with a recoil that
wobbles like a bag full of fighting cats…. Alarm bells!
Ding, ding, ding!
So, readers, it is suddenly time to look and probably
go right back to basics and believe me, fishing, or
tiddlywinks may look pretty inviting when going
through form-loss for no apparent reason.
Remember, the most important measurement in
shooting is directly between the ears!
Brooksie.
68
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23/06/2009, 08:35
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LATEST
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The British
Shooting Show.
Newark. UK.
Feb 25th & 26th 2012
Now Even Bigger and even more
comprehensive.
Although we must be positive at the start of any New
Year, there is little to look forward to, target-shooting
wise, with several months of cold, wet weather to
contend with.
However, it’s Show Time folks! We have the January
Shot Show in Las Vegas and the European version
– IWA in Germany, in March. Although these shows
are fabulous, they are ‘trade only’, and hardly on
the doorstep. But, it’s not all bad – British shooters
can look forward to the
Target Shooter stand at the show.
Come and visit us...
British Shooting Show at Newark Showground and it’s
certainly not ‘trade only’ – in fact it’s now the largest
“Public” Shooting & Gun Show in Europe!
Now in its fourth year, the Show has really established
itself, thanks to the tireless work of organiser John
Bertrand, who really has done his homework to bring
us a Show that shooters can be proud of.
Target Shooter has its own huge stand at the
show – Hope to see you there!
Last year, the Target Shooter stand was situated in
the “Rifle Focus Hall”, one of the six massive halls
that make up the show. The stand will be manned by
enthusiasts from a wide range of different shooting
associations and clubs so you can catch up with what’s
new and what’s happening during the coming year.
Last year we were surrounded by some of the best
in accurate British rifles – Riflecraft, Brock & Norris,
Wentworth Sporting, Desert Tactical Arms, Accuracy
International, Osprey Rifles, Fox Firearms etc, etc, and
they’ll all be back for the next show. To be honest, I’ve
never seen such an array of tasty kit all together under
one roof at any shooting show! There’s even more for
this year with The Dolphin Gun Company & HPS Rifles
joining the throng. Plus The Tunnel, Low Mill Ranges,
Simon West, Allwoods, Suffolk Rifle, Global Rifle, Aim
Field Sports, Bold Action and March Scopes will also
have stands in the special “Rifle Focus” Hall.
Save £££’s; check out all the
special “Show Only” offers
Many clubs also had stands as did a host of firearms
retailers and it was a great place to shop for a new
or second-hand rifle with an enormous array to
choose from – even bought myself a rifle. Plus of
course, a great opportunity to pick up some supplies
and reloading kit at bargain prices. A new company,
as far as the UK market is concerned is Reloading
International, which are coming all the way from
the USA. The company specialises in direct, low cost
supply of major brand reloading consumables and look
like they’ll be well worth checking out. Throughout
the rest of the show you’ll find a huge selection of the
UK’s major gun distributors and specialist suppliers
including, Edgar Brothers, Browning & Winchester,
Viking Arms, Highland Outdoors, Norman Clark,
Open Season with Mauser, Blaser and PGW, Extreme
Performance and an impressive selection of retailers.
70
LATEST
NEWS...
Scopes & Optics
The show has one of the largest selection of scopes
that can be found anywhere; Nightforce, Sightron,
March, Leupold, Minox, Carl Zeiss, Swarovski, Leaper,
Newpro Vortex, Kahles etc. A great opportunity to
catch up on new innovations and technical updates.
Information on shooting opportunities with the
BASC
For 2012, there will be an international flavour with
stand-holders from Europe, the USA, Pakistan and
Columbia and the BASC will have a huge pavilion
with plenty of information and help for new and
experienced shooters alike.
Free prize draw; Win a fantastic Ruger Hawkeye
Predator rifle package worth a whopping £1848 Ruger Hawkeye Predator rifle, Plus Brugger & Thomet
moderator, Plus rifle scope, Plus Vanguard rifle sling.
See this magnificent prize on the Viking Arms stand and
fill in a FREE entry coupon – it’s as easy as that!
From a logistics point of view, Newark is centrally
located, parking and access good and has a great
avenue of food vendors offering good grub at fair
prices. I had freshly cooked fish and chips and it was
as good as any I’ve tasted. There is also a proper ‘sitdown’ restaurant offering meals all day, again at very
fair prices.
If you went last year, I know you will be going again
this year. If you missed it last year make sure you
come along and say ‘hello’ this time.
Advance ticket sales from;
www.theshootingshow.co.uk
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LATEST
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Compbullet!
Just when you thought you’d found the perfect bullet.
attention to the need to provide sporting facilities for
those visually impaired.
His Royal Highness was accompanied by the Lord
Mayor, Councillor Anita Ward and the Lord Lieutenant.
The Royal party were met by the Club Chairman and
Committee Members of the 49th Rifle & Pistol Club
and introduced to the visually impaired club members.
His Royal Highness watched as two members of the
club who are visually impaired, gave a demonstration
of target shooting. An explanation of how light and
sound is used to get the air rifle in line with the target
was given by Ken Nash of the National Smallbore
Rifle Association and British Blind Sports. The Duke
of Kent then unveiled a plaque in the club room to
commemorate the official opening of the facility.
In 2010 the 49th Rifle & Pistol Club applied for and
was successful in obtaining a grant from Sport
England to purchase the equipment needed to enable
the Visually Impaired and totally blind people to
participate in the sport of target shooting. The 49th
Club has encouraged the sport of target shooting for
all and with help and training from the National Small
Bore Rifle Association, the 49th Rifle & Pistol Club is
now able to provide a target shooting facility for the
visually impaired.
Actually stands for compensated bullet!
Designed by an Italian pistol shooter. More information on www.6mmBR.com and www.compbullet.com
Facility for the Visually
Impaired - 49th Rifle &
Pistol Club by Clive Lungmuss
His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent KG officially
opened an air rifle target shooting facility for the
visually impaired on Wednesday, 7th December 2011
at Saltley, Birmingham. The facility for the visually
impaired is the first in Birmingham and the visit by
His Royal Highness highlighted the sport and draws
How is it possible? A 177 air rifle is adapted to take
a light sensor incorporated into the housing of a
telescopic sight. The target has a special light shone
onto the centre of the target and the sensor on the
rifle detects variations in light and emits a highpitched sound through the shooters headphones. As
the aiming point gets closer to the centre the noise
pitch is increased and the shooter then has to judge if
it is then the optimum time to fire.
The range distance is 10 metres and is shot generally
in the standing position. The course of fire is carried
out using an adjustable stand for the rifle to rest on
with a helper to load and assist in bringing the gun
into the target area if difficulty is being experienced.
Targets are changed using a semi-automated target
changer.
The club can trace its origins back to 1945 when it
was formed from the 49th Battalion Home Guard
(Birmingham) Unit in 1945. The TA building in Thorpe
Street was the club’s first home. During the 1950s
the club moved to King Edwards School and used
their small bore range. In 1980, with the help and
72
encouragement of the former Minister of Sport and
past President of the Club, the late Dennis Howell MP,
the club acquired its current home the former baths at
Saltley.
Members of the club have represented Great Britain
and England in competitions abroad. The Great
Britain Pistol Team included a member from the
49th, Iqbal Ubhi, who added to the National tally
of medals by winning a Bronze Medal at the 2010
Commonwealth Games in pistol shooting. Two
members of the 49th were chosen to represent Great
Britain at the Sydney Olympics but were disallowed
entry when pistols were banned.
LATEST
NEWS...
The club also offers fullbore and small bore rifle/pistol
indoor and outdoor shooting on approved ranges
using cartridge and black powder. Club members
are frequently seen at the National Shooting Centre,
Bisley in competitions organised by the National Rifle
Association.
For details about the 49th Rifle & Pistol Club go to
www.49th.co.uk or E-mail to
[email protected]
His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent tries a rifle set up for the visually impaired.
Help wanted! A message from the assistant curator of the NRA Museum
My name is Jim Hallam and I am Assistant Curator of the NRA Museum at Bisley. As part of our research, we
would like to trace any existing rifles, which were presented as prizes at the 1907 Bisley Imperial Meeting by BSA.
According to our records there were six such rifles but we do not have any data on who won them.
We know of one – serial no. 16641 which was sold by Bonhams in December 2003. Whoever won that particular
rifle did not have the silver plate on the butt completed, so it simply reads “Won by ....... “
We would be most grateful for any information on these and any other Bisley (or even Wimbledon) prize rifles muzzle-loading, breech-loading or air-rifles.
Many thanks - Jim Hallam [email protected]
73
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Visit our website for news about national and international
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www.benchrest22.org
75
308 Winchester Rides Again
By Laurie Holland
By Laurie Holland
In December’s issue, you may have
read of the stunning scores posted in
the F Class European Championship
meeting at Bisley in November
by F/TR competitors using .308
Winchester, so maybe this is a good
time to have another look at the
cartridge in its long-range role.
Over the next two or three issues
of Target Shooter I will attempt to
up-date us, with a spate of recent
developments – a stream that seems
to flow ever more strongly with
no sign of let up. I’ll report on my
findings with Lapua ‘Palma’ small
primer brass introduced just over
a year ago and experiments with
heavy (200-210gn) bullets, also
trying some new powders including
the new Alliant Reloader 17 wonderproduct.
But first, here is an introduction
to the new range of 308 Berger
Hybrid models, no fewer than six
of them covering 155 to 230gn
weights. Berger Bullets has hardly
been backward in producing new
designs in the calibre over recent
years, notably its stretched and high
BC ‘Long Range’ tangent ogive BT
models (BTLR for short), in particular
the 155.5gn BT FULLBORE for
Palma, Target Rifle and, if you look
at who used what in the ‘Europeans’
F/TR top-ten, (see GBFCA website
www.gbfclass.co.uk) plus 175,
185 (used by new F/TR European
champion Stuart Anselm) and 210gn
BTLRs.
There have also been some secant-ogive VLD
additions from the company in 168, 185, 190 and
210gn weights, the last named used by four top-ten
F/TR competitors in ‘The Europeans’. VLDs are oldhat though – enter the ‘Hybrid’ giving as good as, if
not better, BC as the equivalent weight VLD, but with
jump/seating-depth tolerance. It does this by using an
exceptionally long, sharp secant-shape nose that turns
into the more rounded and tolerant tangent form at
the nose to bearing surface section joint.
76
These are really high-BC designs bettering the
previous class leaders as can be seen in Table 1 (at the
end of this article). None have gone on sale here yet
– I’m told we can expect the first deliveries of the 155,
168, 185, and 200gn models around now but we won’t
see the 215 and 230gn models until sometime later in
2012.
By Laurie Holland
The new 308 Hybrids. Left to right: 155, 168, 185, 200, 215, and 230gn models
However, Michelle Gallagher of Berger Bullets
managed to supply me with a couple of examples
of each of the sextet to let me have a look at them,
measure them up, and crucially to compare the casehead to ogive lengths against existing BLTR bullets
to see what sort of freebore you might need in your
chamber if you’re replacing the barrel on your TR or
F/TR rifle over the winter and want to know if any
Hybrids will be suitable for your rifle.
Table 2 lists the bullets’ key dimensions, BCs and
requisite twist rates. Table 1 compares them
to equivalent existing designs including their
‘comparator COALs’, that is against the older 155.5gn,
185gn BTLR, and both 210gn models, the BTLR and
77
VLD, in each case with the bullet seated at its optimal
position in a .308 Win case before measurement.
Heavyweights
While the Hybrid form is the feature that catches most
shooters’ attention, the other notable - perhaps even
more significant - feature of the newcomers is their
weights. Whilst the 155, 168 and 185gn models match
existing designs, we have a new 200-grainer filling the
185-210gn gap in Berger’s range, whilst matching the
two existing 210gn bullets’ BCs and we also get new
215 and 230gn heavyweights.
By Laurie Holland
The ‘knockers’ are already out saying this pair will
be too heavy for 308 Win - only any good in the 300
magnums. Certainly, we can expect people to reassess
the old 30-338 long-range target shooting wildcat and
its more modern short magnum competitors in this
calibre for 1000 yard bench rest, maybe even give the
‘sevens’ a run for their money in F Class.
Using a 155 at 3050 fps as the baseline and working
on equivalent MEs (3202 ft/lbs), you’d expect 2685
fps from the 200, 2560 fps from the lower BC 220,
and 2450 fps from the only marginally higher BC 240.
However, it’s unlikely that would work out in practice
even in optimally throated chambers, as the SMKs
have exceptionally long central bearing surface (or
bullet shank) lengths.
While the Hybrid runs at 0.45 inches, the 220gn
SMK measures 0.567 inches, and the 240-grainer
an exceptional 0.69 inches - even
longer than the bullet’s nose section
length of 0.65 inches. Over-long
bearing-surfaces increase pressures
and reduce safely obtained MVs to
a considerable extent. Also, back in
the days when many US long-range
any-calibre prone shooters used the
300 Winchester Magnum and similar
cartridges with the 240gn SMK, it built
up a reputation for shedding copper in
the barrel thanks to friction and heat
generated by the long shank.
Scaling
Berger’s Hybrids have been designed by the well known
ballistician and Fullbore/Palma Rifle shooter, Bryan Litz
However, tell the Match Rifle competitors that heavier
than 210gn bullets are unsuitable for the 308W and
you might be surprised at the response, the old 220
and even 240gn Sierra MKs having been heavily used
in this discipline in the past.
That’s the other ‘contra’ appearing of course – we’ve
long had these heavy SMKs, so what’s new here? The
MatchKings are antediluvian designs, the Hybrids are
ballistics state of the art. That’s what! For instance,
the new 200gn Berger Hybrid has a G7 BC of 0.320,
while the SMKs get 0.310 and 0.332 for the 220 and
240gn models despite being 10 and 20% heavier
respectively. The Berger can be driven faster due to its
lower weight.
The other, more theoretical argument
in favour of these bullets is that they
are not exceptionally heavy for the
calibre anyway, only that our subjective expectations
make them seem so. This is shown by looking at
‘scaling’ optimum weights by calibre. ‘Scaling’ is
widely used by projectile designers – you have a
near optimum weight and design in calibre ‘A’ that
experience shows works exceptionally well and you
scale its dimensions up or down as appropriate to get
equivalent designs in calibres ‘B’ and ‘C’.
A good example of how this works is illustrated by
development on high velocity 224 calibre rifles and
cartridges for the military. Back in the 1950s long
before the ArmaLite Corporation, AR15 and 5.56mm
cartridge appeared, the US military undertook
experiments in what was called the SCHV (Small
Caliber High velocity) concept, codename Project
Salvo. A US Army Proving Ground, Aberdeen,
Maryland engineer took the pre-WW2 308 calibre
78
By Laurie Holland
Comparisons with earlier Berger top performers. Left to right: 155.5gn BTLR ‘Fullbore’ and 155gn Hybrid; 185gn BTLR
and same weight Hybrid; 210gn BTLR, 210gn VLD, and 200gn Hybrid.
173gn FMJBT bullet designed for the long-range M1
version of the 30-06 military ball cartridge, scaled it
down to 0.224 calibre - keeping all the dimensional
relationships constant and asked the Sierra Bullet
Company to make 100,000 - or whatever - examples
to the design drawings. The experimental bullet
weighed 68gn and some years later was used by Sierra
as the starting point for its 69gn MatchKing, one
of the most successful target shooting bullets ever
produced.
Now turn that into a cube and compare volumes
and your one cubic inch becomes 2 X 2 X 2” = 8
cubic inches - an eightfold increase. Translate this
to calibres and bullets and we’ll take the best of the
140-142gn 264 (6.5mm) HPBT designs as our starting
point, these having been identified as ballistically
optimal in the 6.5mm calibre some years back. Scale
the 6.5mm 142gn SMK up to 7mm (0.284”) and you
get a 177gn bullet, scale it down to 6mm (0.243”) and
the result weighs 112gn.
Note that when scaling the M1 design down from
308 to 224, a 27% calibre reduction, 173gn reduced
to 68gn, a 60% drop! This is because we’re talking
volume here, or what a bullet displaces if dropped
into a measuring jar full of water, not a linear example
as in calibre. To show this take a one-inch long
line and double it – you get two-inches - a 100%
increase. However, if you double the length of the
sides of a one-inch square, you get 4 square inches - a
quadrupling of the area.
Scale further down to 224 and you get 89gn. Sounds
familiar? 180, 115 and 90gn are of course the
maximum sensible weights in match bullets in these
calibres. Now, scale them up to 308 and you don’t
get 190 or 200gn as you might expect but 229gn, so
this is the thirty calibre equivalent of a 140gn 6.5 or
180gn ‘seven’. Nobody says they’re over heavy for
modest size cartridges such as 6.5X47 Lapua, 260
Rem, 7mm-08 Rem, and 284 Win – provided the
barrel is throated to suit the bullet length, of course.
79
By Laurie Holland
Downsides?
That may be the rub! The new 230 Berger Hybrid is
a very long design and if you throat your chamber
to suit, there will be precious few other bullets you
can use in that rifle. Recoil and torque increase too
- an issue for the F/TR competitor on a bi-pod, even
more so for the prone shooter resting on his elbows.
Conversely, barrel-life will decrease substantially – I
from Bryan Litz’s book Applied Ballistics for Long
Range Shooting 2nd edition except for the 215 and
230gn Hybrids from Berger Bullets’ Quick Reference
Sheet and marked so: * . This pair looks to be quoted
too short in relation to the other bullets.
‘Ideal COAL’ and Comp. COAL refer to measured
cartridge lengths with a bullet seated so the shank to
boat-tail junction coincides with the neck/shoulder
junction on the case. COAL is the resulting overall
length of the cartridge, ‘Comp COAL’ is as measured
from the case-head to the ogive using callipers and
a Hornady bullet comparator body / .30 cal insert.
The Hybrids’ meplats offer scope
for further improving the BC a
little through ‘tipping’ or pointing
reckon 2,000 rounds, maybe 2,500 if you’re lucky.
That’s partly because heavy bullets produce faster
throat erosion, other things being equal. (Heavy = high
inertia = increased period that the throat is subjected
to peak pressures and temperatures with each shot.)
Moreover, we’ll use a compressed charge of the
densest, highest-energy powder we can find whose
burning rate also suits the cartridge-capacity and
bullet-weight combination to obtain maximum
velocity from this capacity-constrained case. That is
double-base, hot-burning Viht N550, Alliant Reloder
17/Elcho 17, or Hodgdon H414/Winchester 760.
Notes
BSL = Bearing Surface Length (Shank length). Data
Some people may wish to chamber their barrels with
longer freebore so the bullet sits higher in the caseneck to maximise capacity. The purpose of the ‘Comp
COAL’ value is to give a feel for how the different
bullets stack up on the required amount of freebore.
Bullet seating positions were obtained in a fairly crude
manner using a second bullet held alongside the case
exterior for comparison, so these values should be
treated as a rough guide only.
Optimal twist rates are as supplied by Berger
Bullets and will provide full stability in all normal
meteorological conditions down to dry freezing air
at sea level and at standard velocities. A slightly
slower twist will often work in ideal conditions (high
temperatures and humidity at altitudes above sea
level).
80
By Laurie Holland
Inert .308 Win cartridges with the new bullets seated optimally
Table 1 - BTLR v Hybrid Comparisons
Weight / Model
BC (G7) BC Index
BSL
155.5gn BT Fullbore
155gn Hybrid
168gn Hybrid
185gn BTLR
185gn Hybrid
200gn Hybrid
210gn BTLR
210gn VLD
215gn Hybrid
230gn Hybrid
0.237
0.247
0.266
0.283
0.291
0.320
0.320
0.323
0.356
0.380
0.265” 2.855”
0.278” 2.835”
0.294” 2.845”
0.360” 2.940”
0.395” 2.950”
0.450” 3.050”
0.481” 3.055”
0.592” 3.075”
0.419”*
0.495”*
100
104
112
119
123
135
135
136
150
160
Ideal COAL
Comp. COAL
Optimal Twist Rate
2.15”
2.135”
2.145”
2.280”
2.210”
2.305”
2.360”
2.390”
3.105”
3.200”
1-13”
1-12”
1-12”
1-12”
1-11”
1-11”
1-11”
1-11”
2.355”
2.435”
Table 2 - 0.308” Berger Hybrid Key Dimensions
Weight Prod No.
Overall length
Nose
155gn
168gn
185gn
200gn
215gn
230gn
1.28”
1.296”
1.435”
1.500”
1.564”
1.640”
0.802” 0.185” /7° 0.278”
0.802” 0.185” /7° 0.294”
0.820” 0.195” /7° 0.395”
0.825” 0.200”/7°
0.905” 0.220”/7°
0.905” 0.220”/7°
81
30426
30425
30424
30427
30423
30428
Boat-Tail
Shank Twist
G1 BC G7 BC
1-12” 0.483
1-12” 0.519
1-11” 0.569
0.450” 1-11”
0.419” 1-10”
0.495” 1-10”
0.247
0.266
0.291
0.624 0.320
0.696 0.356
0.743 0.380
1-10”
1-10”
QUIGLEY SHOOTING
ASSOCIATION NEWS
With no black powder
Quigley shoots
scheduled until March
next year, I thought I
might write a little on another
subject that I am interested
in, namely reloading 12
gauge shotshells with black
powder, for use in Cowboy
Action Shooting (CAS) and
even traditional clay target
shooting.
Handloading, or reloading as it is
commonly known, is not new; it started
way back, so far back that even Vince
can’t remember. (Thanks Ken – Ed.)
After the invention of gunpowder, the
development of firearms followed a
natural progression but one action
remained the same for a very long time,
that is loading the thing.
Because they were muzzle loaders,
everything from mortars, cannons, muskets
and pistols required basically the same
procedure, which is a charge of powder,
followed by a wad of some description, then
a single or multiple projectile and often
another wad if the device was to be moved
to prevent the projectile from shifting in the
barrel.
With the development of the self-contained
cartridge, things didn’t change that much,
the common loading procedure was simply
applied to a primed tube made from brass,
paper or card and later, plastic in the case of
shotgun ammunition.
82
QUIGLEY SHOOTING
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Loading the black-powder
shotshell – Part 1
As the title suggests, this article is primarily concerned
with loading the shotgun cartridge, in this first part
I am going to look at the many ways available to
achieve this, using modern, vintage and home made
tools.
Modern tools, designed to load shotshells with nitro
propellants are readily available in various price ranges
but, to be honest, the budget equipment is more than
adequate for our purpose. In around 1972 or 1973
I purchased a Lee Load-All in 12g and this is still in
regular use, it came with spare feed fingers as these
are deemed fragile and I still have them unused to
date - good value or what? Lee still sells this press,
with a few improvements, at around £45 but you don’t
even have to spend that much!
From around 1880, and for the next hundred years or
so, the British, Continental and American farmers and
hunters have loaded their ammunition at home with
whatever tools were available. Because of ammunition
and gauge standardisation, many manufacturers
seized the opportunity to supply purpose made tools
and so produced and exported reloading tools which
could be used virtually anywhere in the world, the mail
order catalogues were full of them. Some of the rarer
and more desirable machines are now becoming very
expensive to collect, however the ‘common or garden’
variety can still be picked up for a few pounds from
antique shops and arms fairs and occasionally on the
internet auction sites.
83
When you look at the process of reloading the
shotshell it soon becomes apparent that it is a
relatively simple task, one that can be accomplished,
to varying degrees, with very simple hand tools. Put
in its simplest form, we need to take a fired shotshell,
remove the old primer and insert a new one (this stage
can be omitted by using new and primed cases) next,
put in a suitable blackpowder charge, add a card wad,
then a felt wad, another card wad followed by the
charge of lead shot, which is covered by another card
and the case is finally sealed. The seal is determined
by the tools we have at our disposal. Modern tools
will let us crimp the case with a star crimp and vintage
tools a roll crimp but, with home made tools, we will
have to seal the case with paste or glue. (More on this
in a later article).
I am assuming that the majority of readers are familiar
with modern reloading equipment and so I intend to
concentrate on vintage and hand made tools. Typical
examples of de-capping and capping tools are seen in
the illustrations, along with an in-expensive powder /
shot measure and roll crimp closer. In the next article
I will show how I use some of these tools to load the
12g blackpowder shotshell cartridge.
Questions and comments please to;
[email protected]
United Kingdom Practical Shooting
Association News by Tony Saunders
AP Customs Shotshell Carriers
shooter to grab three or four (usually) at a time and
feed them into the shotgun.
If you shoot IPSC or Practical shotgun (PSG), you’ll
know that over half the battle is the ability to keep
your shotgun stoked with cartridges. After all, a gun
without bullets is just a fancy stick.
This design has been around for a few years and is
used by some of the better shooters. Question is
though, as always, can it be improved?
Enter the new double-stack shell carrier from AP
Customs in the US.
Mmmn... already I can hear a lot of folks saying “I
thought of that!” And maybe they did (I was one of
them). However, the issue wasn’t just one of making
a Heath-Robinson version in the garage. IPSC rules
dictated (and still do) that ammunition must be within
50mm of the body! So, is it a problem?
Well, no. It certainly isn’t if you don’t shoot IPSC
matches - unless the club or organisers have a
problem with it, which I can’t imagine they would.
And, as of 2012, the IPSC rules have been altered too
and it is briefly worth covering them here:
1. The belt that ‘carries’ the equipment must be at
waist level. Only one belt is permitted.
2. The ‘waist’ is generally defined as being between the
bottom of the rib cage and above the hips (or pelvis).
The new double stacked 12g carriers from AP Customs
Over the years, there have been many designs to allow
people to carry cartridges – from belts with elasticated
loops to the ‘caddy’ or ‘strippers’ made by a number
of US manufacturers, most commonly by California
Competition Works (CCW).
All have one thing in common - they carry ammo in a
vertical stack off the competitor’s belt, allowing the
3. The new rule bans chest-rigs and, for all intents
and purposes, the chest is the area contained (or
demarcated) by the rib cage. Therefore it follows
that any rounds carried in the region of the rib cage
will not conform.
Finally and of particular importance with regard to
the AP carriers – the distance from the body to the
ammunition has been increased to 75mm and thus,
the new double strippers fit within this - phew!
The new carrier comes in two flavours currently: the
4 x 4 as shown in Figure 1, and a shorter 3 x 3 version
84
UKPSA
NEWS
They come standard with a ‘Tec-Lock’ fitting to clip
to the shooter’s belt and is also drilled to accept the
Safariland attachments.
This all comes at a price though. A 4 x 4 AP Custom
Carrier will cost you a whopping £65 each, compared
to a CCW single 4 shell carrier at about £27 (Midway
UK) – but of course, you can carry twice the amount
of ammunition. Looked at in terms of capacity then one AP Custom carrier only costs about a tenner more
than two CCW carriers and, you don’t take up as much
room on the belt.
CNC Machined elegance. Note the “Tec-Lock” that
comes as standard to fasten the carrier to your belt.
for those less confident at successfully grabbing four
rounds simultaneously (or with small hands).
Construction
The carriers are superior to the CCW versions but,
to be fair, that is reflected in the price. The CCW
carriers are by far the most popular caddies as they are
comparatively quite cheap, extremely robust plastic
construction and use a simpler metal clip to hold onto
the shooter’s belt. In short, the CCW versions take
some beating.
In the US expect to pay about the same figures in
dollars ($65 and $27 respectively)
Advantages and Disadvantages
If you’re already a user of this type of ammunition
carrier, you’ll naturally want to try them. The main
advantage is not the obvious ability to simply carry
more ammunition but the fact you can carry the
majority of the ammunition you’ll need to shoot a
large stage all at the front of your body. No more
reaching around as far as the small of your back
on those longer stages, or fumbling for rounds you
cannot see. With three (4 x 4) carriers you can have 24
rounds right there at the front.
The main disadvantage (aside from the cost) was
that they are a little awkward to smoothly get at the
rear set of shells, and you have to ensure that you can
firmly grab them with two fingers reaching into the
caddy. The cartridges have a tendency to bunch up in
your hand more readily than the easier front slot. This
is a practice issue though and I had only just got them.
The only other (very slight) issue I found was when
bending low or squeezing through or around
obstacles. Here I found that they felt bulky and
occasionally snagged. No big deal really.
The new carrier (right) next to a standard 4x4 carrier.
Note the shell retention clips (circled in yellow).
However, the AP Custom carriers have been CNC
machined from a solid aircraft aluminium billet,
Hard-Coat anodized to mil-spec standards and
feature 303 Hi-Yield stainless retention springs.
85
In Use
I haven’t had time to put some serious practice in
yet but I did use them at a club competition recently
on a very cold and wet day in the Shropshire hills
(so my fingers were somewhat inflexible!). What
I immediately found was that (being a user of the
UKPSA
NEWS
By Vince Bottomley
caddy already), I don’t ‘look’ at my belt anyway when
grabbing ammo – it is a practiced ‘motor’ action and
my hand drops to the right place automatically. So,
I kept hitting the top of the bulkier frame on the AP
carrier and will need to ‘re-learn’ to move my hand
slightly further out. Again, this is simply down to
Loading them is easy, with only the last round being a
little more ‘fiddly’ to insert.
The quality is second to none. Beautifully machined
with an elegant design, they are lighter than they look
so weight certainly won’t be an issue. The Tec-Locks
are very easy to use and accommodate different belt
thicknesses with a removable plastic insert. They are a
little less forgiving with a thicker belt than the simple
clips of the CCW carriers but it should pose no problem
with 99.9% of shooting belts.
In summary
It’s early days yet but, I think that with practice these
may become very popular with PSG shooters who are
already familiar with caddies. Cost will be a prohibitive
factor certainly. A belt with four of these (4x4) carriers
could easily cost a new shooter the best part of £320.
Pete Starley of MidwayUK has been stocking these
and they have been selling fast.
The new carriers on my belt. I have two on here, but will
increase the front carriers to three of the new ones and
lose some of my standard ones off the rear of the belt.
practice, practice, practice!
The stainless retention springs (shown in Figure 3)
are, in my opinion, a little too sharp and I suffered a
sliced finger. A little work with some wet & dry paper
has improved this but the metal is thin and therefore
it is difficult to make the edge very blunt. I would have
preferred something either slightly rolled on the edge
or thicker.
I think the ‘Prodec’ style may win out with new
shooters, or perhaps the growing trend for doublestacked belts (the type where two cartridges are held
vertically, one above the other in pipe clips) as both
styles are a considerably cheaper entry-level option.
With the World Shoot coming next year, it is important
that those who are thinking of moving to this new
carrier to start practicing now. Smooth loading makes
a massive difference to a competitors’ time and is a
key factor in winning a match. As I have pointed out
in other articles, it is the one skill that can be practiced
and improved without range time.
For more information, visit AP Customs Website at:
http://www.apcustomusa.com/carrier.html
UKPSA HANDGUN
COMMISSION UPDATE
Northern Ireland Club Affiliations. The Handgun
Commission Secretary is pleased to announce that the
following two Northern Ireland shooting clubs have
affiliated to the UKPSA.
The new carriers in use. Note using two fingers to reach
into the carrier to smoothly grab the rear four rounds.
1. The Police Service of Northern Ireland Rifle and
Pistol Club
2. The Ulster Small Arms Shooting Club
86
UKPSA
NEWS
We welcome these two clubs to the UKPSA and
will look forward to their members joining with the
members of many other clubs across Northern Ireland
participating in UKPSA organised IPSC events.
Don’t settle
for less
United Kingdom Handgun
Championship
In addition to the two Level 2 Graded IPSC
competitions that have already been announced
a third Level 2 Graded IPSC competition will also
take place in 2012. The results of these three
competitions will be combined to form a UK Handgun
Championship.
The dates for these three competitions are the 12th
May, 21st July and 18th August. At the conclusion of
the third competition we will be able to announce
UKPSA Handgun Champions in the IPSC Handgun
Divisions of Classic, Open, Production, Revolver
and Standard Divisions. The first UKPSA Handgun
Commission Handgun Competition for 2012 will be a
Level 1 Match on 21st April.
UKPSA Range Officer Seminar
All the places available for the Range Officer Seminar
for the 23rd and 24th March 2012 have been taken.
Also UKPSA members and former members who
have rejoined, from both Northern Ireland and
Great Britain, who were previously qualified UKPSA
Handgun Range Officers will be attending a Range
Officer re-qualification course on 25th March. We will
keep you informed of other events that are currently
being planned. More good news and developments
will follow soon.
Over 30 different
Gunsafes in our
standard range
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all requirements
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for brochures and
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Email [email protected]
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*Terms and conditions apply - see
website for details.
A4 Advert 06-09.pmd
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1
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For more information: Contact: Fred Hanna. UKPSA
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E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: http://www.ukpsa.co.uk/handgunni.html
87
23/06/2009, 08:35
88
Kelbly 179mmX130mm
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TARGET SHOOTER
MAGAZINE
NEXT MONTHS
FEBRUARY ISSUE
Out 1st February
Chris Parkin shoots the Sauer Wolverine
- is it worth the money...
We test Premier Reticle’s
tactical scope, start our first
build of 2012 - an F/TR
rifle and bring you a report of the
US Shot Show, plus
Laurie’s Reloading Bench,
all your Association News
and much more...
Photograph by Steve Thornton
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