target shooter

March 2012 IssueTARGET SHOOTERTARGET SHOOTER

MAGAZINEMAGAZINE

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ContentsMaRCH 2012 Issue

ContentsMarch 2012 Issue

Page 6

Page 16

Page 32

8

Page 20

Page 50

Page 60

Page 76

Continued

Air Splitter & Barrel Tuners for Air Rifle Benchrest by Carl Boswell. Benchrest rimfire shooters will know a thing or two about muzzle devices (barrel tuners) and tuning the barrel. This process has gone from the ringing of the barrel, using such processes as the Hopewell method, to something a lot more 21st century using electronic monitoring equipment to achieve tuning.

The Long View by Les Holgate. Well here we go ago again - time to blow the winter cobwebs off your F Class rifle and equipment and try to put into action your New Year’s resolution of “Must do better at League shoots.” (or was that just mine!)...

Choosing Sights for competition shooting. 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.

This Smallbore Business – by Don Brook. Accessories - overkill or what? Gees, I have long seen the attempts from manufacturers to ensure that everything on a free rifle is so adjustable that it fits all. Even from my good mate in the UK, Barry Dagger - who is four foot zip - to the length of Harald Stenvaag from Norway, who is so tall that when he lays down for his prone, he is half way there! Now that, my readers, is indeed a challenge...

THE HANDLOADING BENCH - 308 WINCHESTER RIDES AGAIN Part 3 by Laurie Holland. I compared MVs and velocity spreads obtained from Lapua’s new ‘Palma’ small rifle primer (SRP) / small flash-hole cases against identical load combinations in normal large primer (LRP) examples last month, with particular reference to the effects produced by low (< 10°C) ambient temperatures. It appears that SRP cases are not well suited to chilly conditions with some powders - Viht N140 and N550 both struggling for instance.

Practical Shotgun: This month, weak-hand reloading from a caddy - By Mike Siva-Jothy. I saw my first Practical Shotgun competition a few weeks ago and good fun it looked too – as using any semi-auto firearm usually is! Mike Siva Jothy won the comp.

Regulars & more...LATEST NEWS

Page 54 SMALLBORE BUSINESS

page 50UKPSA NEWS

Page 56 FROM THE BENCH

Page 27 QUIGLEY ASSOCIATION NEWS

Page 74 AND MUCH,

MUCH, MORE...

The Grunig & Elmiger ‘Return’ Butt-plate by Conor McFlynn. If you read our February edition, you may recall the account of Irishman Conor Flynn’s spectacular win in the World Field Target Championships in Italy. Now Conor describes one piece of equipment that contributed to his success.

MINI PROJECT RIFLE - REMINGTON 700 SPS TACTICAL – by Laurie Holland. Laurie is in the process of a ‘silk purse from a sow’s ear’ rifle build which started off as an ‘out of the box’ 223 SPS Remington. The idea is to see just what we can do with a budget factory rifle without spending the earth...

4 5

DisclaimerThe 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.

Well, no sooner had we got back from the Shot Show that it was ‘all systems go’ for Newark. It was great to meet so many of you and, for me it was a great Show. Our little stand was representing not only the magazine but also Diggle Ranges, rimfire and centrefire benchrest, the 50 Cal. Association and the Long Barrel Pistol & Gallery Rifle crew.

When I get to meet shooters face to face for a chat, I’m always amazed how many of you don’t actually compete in any sort of shooting discipline and have little understanding of F Class, benchrest or what have you. My own Club at Diggle is totally competition orientated and we cater for just about everything.

I love to see a new shooter come along – perhaps not even having an FAC - then go through probation, basic training, buy a rifle, start reloading and enter their first competition. Then maybe a year or two later they will be picking up their first award in a Club competition or even winning one of our Championships.

The great thing about our sport is that you do not need to be super-fit or even that active to be competitive – just keen and enthusiastic. We’ve taken shooters from beginner to shooting for their country in two or three years – what an achievement for anyone!

Yes, plinking and just messing about with guns is immensely enjoyable but you are really missing something by not taking your sport to the next level. And please don’t think that taking part in competition shooting is all serious – just the opposite – there is plenty of fun and banter in the GBF Class Association even though we take our sport seriously.

If your own club is a little ‘inactive’ and you feel like getting going in competitive shooting, then we are here to help. We try and cover most target shooting disciplines so, if you need help or information, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Vince, Yvonne & Steve

Vince Bottomley - [email protected] - [email protected] - [email protected]

Welcome to the new look March 2012 edition of Target Shooter Magazine

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 - Mike Siva-Jothy - Ken Hall - Don Brooke

Alan Whittle - Tony Saunders - Gwyn Roberts & Carl Boswell

Cover & Back Page Photograph by Steve Thornton

Webitorial March 2012

Available from - marchscopes.co.uk - Call 01293 606901 or [email protected]

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Click values were accurate, the turrets easy to adjust and read but those gaps underneath may accumulate dust...

The 700 SPS project tactical rifle with its Armalon heavy barrel fitted.

MINI PROJECT RIFLE REMINGTON 700 SPS TACTICALby Laurie Holland


MINI PROJECT RIFLE REMINGTON 700 SPS TACTICAL by Laurie Holland

Laurie is in the process of a ‘silk purse

from a sow’s ear’ rifle build which

started off as an ‘out of the box’ 223 SPS

Remington. The idea is to see just what

we can do with a budget factory rifle

without spending the earth...

8 9



MINI PROJECT RIFLE - REMINGTON 700 SPS TACTICAL by Laurie Holland

Laurie is in the process of a ‘silk

purse from a sow’s ear’ rifle build

which started off as an ‘out of

the box’ 223 SPS Remington.

The idea is to see just what we

can do with a budget factory rifle

without spending the earth...

Previously, the rifle had a ‘Stage 1’ tune-up job involving a smoothed action, trigger job and muzzle recrowning followed by a Third Eye Tactical bolt-knob being fitted, all this work done by Valkyrie Rifles. Then, the not particularly rigid factory stock and its internal magazine were ditched to be replaced by a Manners Tactical thumbhole model from South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies. It came with a moulded-in Badger Ordnance mini-chassis that takes an A.I. 10-round detachable box magazine.

Later still, Armalon Limited, the London based gunsmith and barrel manufacturer, fitted one of their new hammer-forged fluted barrels towards the end of last year - remaining in the 223 Rem. chambering but 26 inches long with a 1 in 7.874 rifling twist-rate compared to the Remington’s original 20 incher and 1-9 twist.

With the longer heavy profile tube on, the rifle now really looks the part, more important feels absolutely right when added to the substantial and ergonomically superb Manners stock. Although heavier than it was in factory guise, the all-up weight isn’t too great to stop it being used as a dual-purpose target and tactical rifle. Finally, to top it all off, literally and figuratively, there was the most single expensive purchase - one of Aim Field Sport’s newly arrived Sightron Series III 8-32X56 long-range riflescopes with tactical knobs and the LR-MOA reticle (long Range, Minute of Angle), the example Vince Bottomley reviewed in the November 2011 issue of TS Online.

‘Musical Scopes’Let’s look briefly at the optical equipment up top and I’ve got to admit it’s changed again! The rifle is now on its fourth ‘scope – well I think it’s the fourth, as I’m in danger of losing count there having been so many! This isn’t a result of dissatisfaction with the Sightron, actually one of the brightest and nicest riflescopes I’ve ever used.

As I said in the last report on the project, it was much too good a bit of glass to stay on a rifle that I’d only rarely shoot beyond 300 yards and, sure enough it’s now on my .308 Barnard/Eliseo F/TR tubegun for long-range competition. Buying an equivalent specification replacement was out of the question, so it was a case of either procuring a budget varmint or tactical model, or the no cost option of seeing what I could rob off another rifle. Well, no monetary cost but one that invariably produces work and disruption. Each time I do this, the resulting game of ‘musical scopes’ seems to see five rifles end up with different examples and all that this entails in re-sighting and getting new range-settings!

Anyway, my very first ‘quality’ 30mm target scope, a Burris 6-24X50 Black Diamond, now looking a little

battered after years of abuse, moved to the Remy and I imagine will remain there. (I always say that!) Although a sturdy bit of kit and optically superb, the Burris is light on elevation adjustment (~50-MOA) and has small adjustment turrets and fine markings, so much so that my 60 plus year old eyes almost need a magnifying glass to read or change settings – not ideal for long range F or similar, but an excellent choice here.

Properly HammeredMoving onto the new barrel, it was made by the hammer-forging process, that is used on the vast majority of tubes on factory rifles used in the world’s deer woods, prairie dog fields and in nearly all of the gazillions of pistols, revolvers, military rifles and machineguns out there. Despite this, ever since our last two volume rifle manufacturers - BSA and Parker-Hale - passed into the loving embrace of the Official Receiver many years ago, you’d be most unlikely to find a hammer-forged barrel fitted onto any non-military rifle made in the UK... until now.

After many vicissitudes, Armalon’s Peter Sarony has got the former P-H barrel-making machines up and running in Oxfordshire, fully modernised and in a CNC equipped workshop to undertake every job involved in making, profiling, fluting, chambering and fitting barrels. The company also manufactures other shooting related components and accessories as well as offering gunsmithing and rifle building services.

However, some readers might wonder just what hammer forging entails and how it differs from other forms of rifling and barrel manufacture.

Every centrefire rifle barrel starts out as a ‘blank’ a solid cylinder-shape rod of high grade stainless or chrome-moly steel made to the barrel maker’s specification and, in other manufacturing methods, a little over the desired finished barrel length.

Traditionally, the blank was bored through with a special bore drill or reamer, then had a cutting device pulled through the resulting hole (or bore) umpteen

times to machine the rifling grooves into the bore surface, the blank being rotated meanwhile to impart the desired degree of rifling pitch or twist rate. This was the slowest and most expensive part of making a modern firearm and required very large, heavy and complex rifling machines. This method is still used by Krieger, Bartlein and Border Barrels often on machines dating from the middle of the last century or earlier since nobody has made any since. The form such precision barrelmakers use is called the single-point rifling method as the cutting tool

The barrel has been given a superbly machined set of deep flutes and an attractive black finish.

The right barrel side is hard up against the stock channel - to be rectified.

10 11

only takes a tiny shaving, a small fraction of a thou’, out of a single groove on each pass. The blank is then indexed round the tool to the next groove position and the process repeated several hundred times until the grooves reach the required depth.

A faster if cruder method, ‘broached rifling’ was latterly used on military rifle barrels and saw a multi-point cutter pulled through the barrel that took a much deeper slice out of all of the grooves in each pass.

The Germans invented hammer forging around the beginning of World War 2, a direct consequence of their adoption of the world’s first belt-fed quick-barrel-change general purpose machineguns, the MG34 and later MG42 models, as the firepower generator in every Wehrmacht infantry squad. With scores of thousands of these frighteningly effective weapons in use by the middle of the war, each with a 1000 rpm or higher cyclic fire rate and swallowing vast quantities of high-pressure 7.92X57mm 198gn bulleted cartridges, barrels had a necessarily short life and the demand for replacements was insatiable. (There’s a nightmare thought – the match grade F/TR machinegun. A 120 second burst and you need a new Bartlein or True-Flite at £650 and up chambered and fitted!)

Over on the other side of the Atlantic, those energetic one-time British colonists invented the button rifling barrel manufacturing process during WW2, also to increase production rates and reduce costs. Although the fruits of work by Remington Arms engineers, this company became one of the majority who subsequently adopted hammer forging in the post-war period, the button rifling method used by Anschutz, Lothar Walther, and Savage Arms alone of the major manufacturers plus many target and speciality barrel suppliers such as Broughton Barrels, Lilja, and True-Flite.

The Germans had installed their hammer forged barrel plant in a facility in Erfurt, a town in the traditional gunmaking region of Thuringia and likely to be occupied by the Red Army in spring 1945, so it was hurriedly removed to Austria to keep it out of Russian hands.

American engineers must have studied it closely transferring the technical know-how to the New World but I doubt if it’s coincidental that the world’s primary source for hammer forging machinery and tooling has been the Gesellschaft Fur Fertigungstechnik und Maschinenbau (GFM) in Steyr, Austria ever since. Note too that its neighbour, the major sporting and military arms manufacturer Steyr-Mannlicher AG, has used the method exclusively since it recommenced production after the end of WW2 and has taken such barrels to a very high standard indeed in cooperation with GFM.

For the hammer forging process, we start off with a blank somewhat shorter and fatter than that of the finished barrel. It is drilled and honed to a diameter that will accept a very, very hard and highly polished tungsten carbide mandrel which has bore dimensions and the rifling groove pattern machined in high relief on its outside.

Our pair in their intimate embrace is then fed into the hammer forging machine that sees the blank



Scope number 4 (or maybe 5?) on the rifle – a Burris 6-24X50 ‘Black Diamond’ target model. Nice glass, but shame about the little turrets and tiny adjustment markings.

(Left) A Mauser 7.92mm belt-fed MG34, the original GPMG and much feared by British soldiers who called it the ‘Spandau’ in WW2. This barrel-eating machine was the driver for developing the hammer-forge manufacturing process.

(Below) .223 Remington and Sierra’s 80gn MatchKing showing the bullet base position at various COALs, that on the left at the SAAMI standard 2.26”. Barrel freebore that suits the centre pair is where Laurie would like to be eventually.

Winchester and Lapua brass was available for handloads.

Powders that suit .223 Rem with medium to heavyweight bullets. H4895 is the most flexible of the quartet.

‘Seating dummies’ for the four bullets used in the tests. The 52 A-Max was set too long.

12 13

away with those downstream jobs, although I don’t think that’ll apply with Armalon’s set-up. (If you look at current Mannlicher sporting rifles, you see the spiral flats left by the hammers on the barrel’s external surfaces, the factory only polishing and blueing them.)

The pros of this method are obviously its high output and low unit cost - assuming you make enough barrels to cover the substantial initial outlay if you’re buying new plant. It also imparts a very high quality and hard finish to bore and groove surfaces making for long life.

progressively hammered onto the mandrel by opposed high-speed hammers while being turned around its axis. This process, rotary forging, literally squeezes the barrel steel onto the mandrel creating the bore and indenting the rifling grooves into it.The part-made barrel is then forced off the mandrel, a lot thinner and longer than it started out and is ready for threading, chambering and external profiling.

Once set up, these very expensive machines can produce a rifled barrel blank roughly every three minutes. Recent versions also form the chamber and produce the required external contour or profile at the same time doing

The downside is that it also injects stresses into the steel and early hammer-forged barrels got a bad reputation for groups that increased in size and/or bullet impact changes as they heated in use. So, this was something I’d be looking for in my new Armalon barrel. I’ll stress too, that while this all sounds very mechanistic - just bore a blank and feed it into a machine - making high-grade barrels requires a great deal of skill and experience from the machine shop staff just as with any other process. A modern well made example is a very different animal from its ancestors, likewise dirt-cheap assault rifle tubes



produced in production runs of thousands – if you own a good CZ, Remington, Steyr, Tikka, or Sako rifle, you have the proof of this.

Another downside is that mandrels are very expensive and can only produce a single rifling form and pitch, so you either have to spend a fortune on mandrels or offer a limited choice of internal specifications. My barrel is made with a 1-7.784 twist-rate which may seem an odd figure when we think of American (or Border Barrels) made 0.224 barrels in 1-7 to 1-14 twist

rates, 8, 9 and 12 being the most popular. Actually, it’s 18th Century Bourbon France and its SI (metric) measurements system to blame for this - the twist rate being 1 in 200mm - which suggests that Armalon sources mandrels in Steyr rather than Solihull. Anyway, that’s one turn in eight inches for my purposes.

ClearancesAfter receiving the barrelled action, two issues now arose. The first and obvious one was that on mating it back with the stock, the much fatter barrel wasn’t fully floating. There was a just right amount of clearance underneath and on the left side of the barrel channel but several inches of metal were in hard contact with the stock on the right side. No great problem, just mill the channel out an eighth of an inch on this side but time was pressing and we wanted to see what the barrel could do.

The good news was that whilst a far from ideal arrangement, the barrel and stock were in good

(Above) .223 Remington and Sierra’s 80gn MatchKing showing the bullet base position at various COALs, that on the left at the SAAMI standard 2.26”. Barrel freebore that suits the centre pair is where Laurie would like to be eventually.

52gn A-Max groups 77gn Scenar groups. Number 3 at the top was only 0.2” until the 5th and final shot came in low.

14 15

solid contact and would therefore likely stay that way as the former flexed under firing pressures and maybe wouldn’t see its position and the tension placed on it shift around inconsistently under varying chamber pressures. Well, hopefully not too much, as barrels twist around far more than you might imagine. So we decided to leave things be until we’d had two or three range sessions with a variety of bullet weights and types – it’ll be interesting to see too what rectification – i.e free-floating the barrel - does to group sizes and impact points.

The other issue was the length of chamber throat freebore. This is the first re-barrelling job I’ve had for some time where I’d no idea how much freebore I’d have, other recent work involving supplying the gunsmith with an inert round using the desired bullet seated to my required COAL. I suspected Peter’s people would chamber it short as Armalon puts these barrels on its much modified Remington 700 ‘PR Rifle’ that uses an AR15 / M16 magazine in its 223 Rem version. This limits COALs to 2.255-2.265 inches depending on the make of magazine - my alloy Colt AR15 examples requiring the shorter length, some synthetic models allowing a bit more. Conversely, the A.I. mag on my rifle is based on the 308W/260R etc. box and allows COALs of nearly 2.7 inches, so that 80gn bullets - even 90s - can be seated without excessive intrusion into the case-body.

No matter, the barrel as received works out nicely at this stage as I intend to use the rifle to undertake a full 223 Rem handloading development programme starting with 40-55gn bullets in expanding, FMJ and match types working up to 82gn match models. (The 1-200mm twist rate won’t stabilise the very long 90s.) Many mid or heavyweight 0.224 bullets are designed for deep seating at AR15 magazine operation COALs too, most 68-75gn match models as well as the 77s from Berger, Lapua, and Sierra.

When I finally get around to loading much longer 75-82gn long-range models that I’d want to seat well out in the case, I’ll have the throat reamed out to a suitable length - a cheap gunsmithing job that doesn’t

need barrel removal. Unlike many box magazines, the A.I. type has no difficulty in coping with reduced length cartridges – it feeds SAAMI COAL or even shorter examples smoothly with 100% reliability.

‘Diggle Sunshine’So, it’s a simple matter of loading up 100 cartridges using four very different weight match bullets and seeing how they shoot. Brass was no problem as I had lots of little used Winchester and Lapua match cases on hand from my former 223 Rem (now 6.8mm Rem SPC calibre) SSR-15. Having been used in a straight-pull rifle and what that means in terms of high pressure loads equating to hard extraction, they’d had an easy life.

Full-length resizing 100 used Lapua examples turned them into a good match with the Armalon chamber providing easy chambering and, equally important, no-effort extraction after firing. Tough Remington 7½BR primers were installed in still tight pockets.

After some thought, 52gn and 75gn Hornady A-Max projectiles were selected, having given good results in other 223 Rem rifles, although the 700 SPS Tactical’s OEM 1-9 heavy barrel hadn’t cared for either model. The evergreen 69gn Sierra MK was a natural choice and, wanting to try as heavy a bullet as the throat would accept, it was a choice of three makes of 77-grainer, the Lapua Scenar being the winner.

To keep things simple, speed up the loading process, and avoid barrel cleaning between batches, I wanted to use a single powder. This is asking a lot from a single powder grade with a 52 to 77gn bullet weight spread, but Hodgdon’s data for H4895 gave full pressures and impressive MVs for this range, albeit with a compressed 26.5gn maximum charge weight under the 52.

My SSR-15 had also seen its smallest 77gn bullet groups with this powder, although you can’t guarantee such results transferring to other rifles and barrels of course. Another benefit of sticking to one powder was that I now have an RCBS 1500 Charge Master electronic powder dispenser - a super device that saw me weigh out 100 charges much, much quicker than I could have done with a measure and scales but which needs a little time and effort to change powders.

larger in the scope view with shot three, same again with number four. Wow! Keep calm my man and squeeze the fifth and final round off carefully, or as carefully as the factory Remington X-Mark Pro trigger allowed. (Still too heavy even with its breathed-on 4lb pull weight).

The shot dropped below the group. Dammit! Even though, an excellent 0.45 inch centre to centre effort, I really felt I should have got a sub quarter-incher here. That was it for the day, my hands too numb to shoot any longer and the light going fast. Considering the barrel wasn’t cleaned over some 70 rounds and shooting was fast with minimal breaks in dire conditions with a barrel that had less than 100 rounds down it from new – and the stock channel clearance problem - I was delighted!

Over-length 52gn rounds aside, the rifle was a pleasure to shoot with its improvements, bolt operation light, smooth and really slick. The only thing I can fault is the factory trigger. Unless it lightens a lot with use, I think I’ll be looking to get a Rifle Basix assembly installed.

How about the hammer-forged barrel heat/wandering POI issue? Well, the barrel just didn’t heat up much at all despite a steady rate of fire – I kept feeling it to see if I needed to pause and let it cool, but it never got past mildly warm. Those deep flutes and the super black finish must really dissipate heat - helped of course by the Pennine climate! Anyway, 2 grain charge-weight ranges and lots of rounds over a modest timescale didn’t affect where the bullets went at all.

This saga will be continued in due course as we get more shooting in.

COALs varied from 2.275 inches for the 69gn SMK to 2.420 inches for the 75gn A-Max with bullets set 15 thou’ off the rifling, or so I thought and used five by five round batches with charges rising in half-grain steps to Hodgdon’s maximum load for each bullet weight.

The try-out was on Diggle’s bench equipped 100 yard ‘A’ range, fortunately with a covered firing point as the weather was none to promising on a not at all sunny February morning. The first batch using the 52 A-Maxes set at 2.363 inches COAL was used to sight-in the Burris after a quick bore-sight, then it was straight into shooting for group with the remaining four.

An immediate but not insurmountable problem was that I’d obviously got the COAL wrong as bullets were seated hard into the rifling and it took noticeable extra effort to close the bolt. Not ideal for either accuracy or chamber pressures – I kept a close eye on fired primer condition and case extraction effort but fortunately, no problems were encountered even with the maximum 26.5gn charge.

The groups were encouraging too, running from a little below half-inch to around the three-quarter MOA mark. Taking this and the range conditions into account, this was a really impressive start. By this time, the light had deteriorated, the winds strengthened and ‘Diggle Sunshine’ (drizzle angling in at 45-degrees) had appeared.

There was no question of getting velocities as I’d had to recover the chronograph before the first group went downrange. (I keep writing things like this at the moment – you’d think Diggle Ranges occasionally suffer bad weather!) The barrel didn’t care for the starting charge with the 75gn A-Max, the only group of 14 that exceeded an inch, so that combination was put aside and a move made to the 69gn Sierra MK which produced a couple of nice 0.6 inch patterns despite thickening mist and drizzle and a rising gusty wind.

Onto the 77gn Scenar and a three-quarter inch pattern to start, an extra half-grain stringing the shots vertically. The third group still showed a single bullet diameter hole after shot two, only grew marginally



1616 1717

The Grunig & Elmiger ‘Return’ Butt-plateBy Conor McFlynn


The Grunig & Elmiger ‘Return’

Butt-plateby Conor McFlynn

If you read our February edition, you may

recall the account of Irishman Conor Flynn’s

spectacular win in the World Field Target

Championships in Italy. Now Conor describes

one piece of equipment that contributed to his

success.

This is the butt-plate that originally came with the Company’s Racer World Champion 22 rimfire rifle. It

is based along the lines of the highly popular and successful old style Anschutz butt plate, which is

no longer available.

The Return has a distinctive and attractive, red letter ‘R’ emblazoned across it. I believe this model of butt-place particularly suits benchrest and prone positions. Like all the other models in the range, vertical adjustment is simply achieved by loosening the central (main) attachment screw and sliding the butt-plate up or down the mounting rail. The mounting rail has a calibrated scale, which provides reference points if needed. There are grooves machined into the rail which interlock with teeth on a cogwheel clamp. This clamping mechanism provides excellent grip and ensures the plate remains locked in position once the central screw is fastened. These grooves do not run all the way to the bottom of the mounting rail. This prevents the butt-plate falling off the rail.

Radial axis adjustment is also offered by loosening the central screw (one full turn) and depressing it. This disengages the same clamping cogwheel mechanism incorporated in all G&E butt-plates which permits movement around the radial axis. From a central position, indicated by a slightly deeper groove on the rail, the butt plate offers +/- 15º of radial adjustment.

The whole blade is one piece, which is adjustable by loosening the two upper locking screws. A nicely designed hinge allows the blade to be angled to suit the shooters shoulder. It is quite broad and is very comfortable in the shoulder pocket.

1818


The blade comes with a layer of Supergrip applied to the front surface to ensure secure positioning in the shoulder. The Supergrip is available in a smooth or dimpled options, the latter providing more grip.

The hook is the same impressive design as all the G&E models, two universal joints permit adjustment for any position. Each joint at both ends has male and female teeth which interlock together to provide superior grip and ensure the hook position is held securely. Machined from stainless steel with lock washer, they will not wear and remain secure in position.

Again excellent design allows comfort for either right or left-handed shooters; the hook sections have been designed to be reversible so the screw heads can sit on the opposite side. Also an optional longer section offers an extra 1cm of length.

ConclusionFor those who a are fans of the old-style Anschutz buttplate, this offers a new, high tech, redesigned alternative with the added bonus of a highly adjustable hook. It incorporates, in my opinion, better materials which are engineered to a higher level, with simple yet effective design features. Cant and levering will be eliminated with the well designed hook tail. The broad, smoothly sloping, angular shape of the upper blade sit perfectly and comfortably in the shoulder, especially when bench resting the rifle and indeed the prone position.

Weight: 380g (including mounting rail).Available from: www.intershoot.co.ukCost: £390

Contact us today to seewhat we can do for youand make your productswork to their full potential,in a way that is the futureof magazines andadvertising. With overadvertising. With over10,000 readers a month, inthe UK and around the world.

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20

GALLERY RIFLE& PISTOL NEWS

21


Choosing Sights for competition shooting

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 telescopic

scope is by far the most commonly used in

GR shooting it’s not going to suitable for

every type of GR match but it’s certainly

the most popular type to start with. The

distances we shoot at are all relatively short

(as most of our matches used to be shot

with pistols) so there isn’t any need to go

out and spend an absolute fortune on a first

focal plane 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 reticle 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. There are a huge number of reticle 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.

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 a recipe for disaster really 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 reticle 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 all differ slightly with regards 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 reticles 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 either long-range or benchrest type shooting.

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 of some sort or another. 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 every one of us with the optimum sight-picture at every distance in every type of competition that we can shoot.

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 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, 6.5-20, 6-24x or even 8-32x power.

Most of the 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 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 10m 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.

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

Adjustable objectives are simple to use.

Barska & Burris - You pay for what you get but both will get the job done!

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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 rimfire targets.

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 10 ring. 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 inside the 8 or 7 ring instead, 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 practicing on the range trying all of the magnification settings is the only to find the optimum settings for you personally, at 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 as 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 powered scope would fulfill most peoples 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.

You can still use the same marking principal using the smaller types of turrets/adjusters, including the coin slot variety by using a small round adhesive sticker or even small dabs of different colored paint to mark each distance. There are two types of elevation

adjustments that give you either 1/8 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, 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

Pure confusion...

Leupold QR rings and base

Minimum power differences at 10m

24


25


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 tube (body) which helps to keep the

overall weight of your rifle down. Most of the scopes that offer a 56mm

objective lens will use

a 30mm body which will let more light in again 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 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. 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.

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 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 you generally do get what you pay for. 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 – 6x by 42mm would be an ideal choice as the 1.5x setting would certainly make life easier during the Mover and Plates matches and not many people would need over 6x to shoot the 50m stages on a full size target. 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 more quickly 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 give 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 make

Bushnell’s Elite 6500 2.5 - 16xis an excellent all round scope.

Left - Proper fitment. Right - Not something you’d want to rely on!

Left - This type of QR rings are very reliable.Middle -Target turrets are very popular and are a must.Right - Warne rings return to zero and are very good value for money

The Zeiss-1-5-6x42 electro dot would be ideal for the Bianchi C/F match, but they’re not cheap!

26

GALLERY RIFLE& PISTOL NEWS 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

Jean Louis EspinetThis month, I would like to devote my benchrest column to one of the sport’s great characters who sadly passed away on February 12th 2012. Anyone who has shot benchrest at World or European level in the last twenty years will know and remember French benchrest shooter Jean Louis Espinet with great affection. He was universally known as the Pig Man – yet he was not a pig farmer or anything like that – it was simply an assumed fun persona and he always wore a pink cap resembling the head of a pig – complete with ears and tail.

Jean Louis spoke excellent English, so he was the one you often approached if you needed to know anything whilst shooting in Europe. He also had a wicked sense of humour and I spent a great week shooting on the bench next to him at the European Benchrest Championships in Sweden a few years ago. As with most sports, competing in benchrest at World level is a serious business and the ‘characters’ who are able to inject a little humour when things get tense are few and far between. Yet, Jean Louis was a fierce competitor and proudly represented his Country; rarely was he off the podium at major shoots.

Following serious surgery, Jean Louis was unable to shoot in his own ‘Worlds’ in France last year, but he was busier than ever – helping out wherever he could - be it in the office or on range - as well as just being the Pig Man. That’s how we’ll remember him.

He died on February 18th 2012 following heart surgery. Our thoughts and sympathy are with the Espinet family and friends.

The famous pink ‘pig’ hat – complete with ears and tail.

Jean Louis (left) receiving an award from Walt Berger at the 2005 World Benchrest Championships in America.

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, as 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 isn’t going to happen, so make sure that everything fits properly as it should and you won’t have any problems. Leupold 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 and I have used these several times in the past with 100% success rate of them returning back to zero. These would definitely be my choice if I wanted to swap telescopic scopes quickly and accurately and the only downside to them is 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 weight adjustable stock and a heavier single stage trigger. The optics used are either a 6 – 25 x 56 30mm tube scope with Warne QD mounts or a Hakko 45mm red dot and I use this to shoot all of the action matches with. 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 one-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 with 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 with 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!

2828 2929

There are many designs for air- splitters...

Air Splitter & Barrel Tuners forAir Rifle Benchrest by Carl Boswell

Air Splitter & Barrel Tuners forAir Rifle Benchrest by Carl BoswellAir Splitter & Barrel

Tuners for Air Rifle Benchrest by Carl BoswellBenchrest rimfire shooters will know a thing or two about muzzle devices (barrel tuners) and tuning the barrel. This process has gone from the ringing of the barrel, using such processes as the Hopewell method, to something a lot more 21st century using electronic monitoring equipment to achieve tuning.Can we learn things from air-rifle benchrest and use them in the rimfire side of the sport? I think we have a chance to open a ‘benign Pandora’s box’ for want of a better expression. In fact we have a chance to look at both sides of the sport and see where we can gain advantage by sharing and developing ideas from both disciplines.

We have to remember, rimfire benchrest has a long history of development, going back over two decades. Centerfire benchrest has an even longer history than that. These disciplines share many similarities in design and equipment. Recently I have had a look at some of the more obscure ideas out there - like the wooden front rest last month. These wilder ideas are worth the time for a bit of lateral thinking, a bit of experimentation and obviously having a play with the final results of your efforts. Like a lot of shooters, I try to ‘lay off’ during the winter months, as this provides a few months to have a play!!

So we come back to the barrel tuner. As discussed in other articles over the years, this is basically a

moveable weight to adjust oscillation of the barrel as the bullet is shot. The idea I came up with for air rifle benchrest goes back approximately nineteen months. Unfortunately it had not been tested enough to be reliable for use at the World Championship last year. What is interesting is that a few of the air-rifle writers in monthly journals have cottoned onto this idea of the tuner for air-rifles. There have been some very thoughtful and interesting articles in other magazines during 2011. Air Gun World is one of these.

The idea behind the weight is that the barrel is tuned to provide the best oscillation for accuracy, depending on the barrel diameter, length and the projectile being used.

There are a number of engineering and experienced based theories explaining how this works. You can read the specialist forums to gain more knowledge, from every point of view - and there are many!

Which theory is correct, which is not, which design is the best, who knows more and who can explain it better is inconsequential - at least to me. The only thing I want to know is does it work? Show me how to use it and ‘accurise’ my rifle! Nothing more and nothing less!!

The basic principles need to be understood but how many of us own a fully kitted workshop or laboratory to test these theories? I guess in the same way that most of us trust a gunsmith to build a decent rifle, we just want something, or be shown that something can or does work. The rest is Sunday afternoon reading!

From the pictures, you can see that an air splitter has been adapted to extend its overall length. I have to say that the splitter is not made by me or to my design, as I have adapted it to suit my own ideas. The splitter itself is an excellent design, made by PCMB. The extension provides two features - one, a bloop tube like those used on ISSF rifles, or similar to the developed version of a bloop tube the Pappas Noodle, introduced to you in the first issue of this magazine. The other feature extends the splitter, to

Air Splitter & Barrel Tunersfor Air Rifle Benchrest

3030 3131

A few of my sketches...

CAD modelling.

The finished design. Above and below.

The air-splitter on my Steyr.



place a weight system on the exterior of the tube. This weight can be moved along the tube adjusting mass distribution.

This is really just a simple version of the more complex Harrell type tuners that use a set rotational movement with a vernier-like scale. My own design slides and locks into place using machine screws with a nylon base to protect the tube. Simple - as it is a prototype that I have played with for quite some time.

Now, weight is the factor. This is where you have to experiment for yourself - with the relatively thin barrels we find on air-rifles, the weight might be excessive. The easiest way to do this is by using large washers and building these up in sections until you get the appropriate weight for any given barrel. This was my own first attempt, buying 22mm I/D washers and fixing these together with long machine screws. Using these washers obviates the need for a workshop to

make the weight – you just need a drill.

When experimenting, do consider the overall length and diameter of your barrel. From limited experiments with only a few barrels, I would suggest shorter barrels need less weight and thinner barrels need more. This will depend on your barrel so unfortunately no formula at present! What we really need is someone with excess time, money and equipment to experiment. My own limited experiments have taken me twenty-two months so far, as I certainly don’t have much time or the workshop with test equipment. If I do need any custom parts, these are made up by a friendly machinist.

At this point, I would comment that it is my belief and it is only a belief, that a barrel is far better off completely free floating without barrel bands or any contact to achieve best results with this system. Much

like rimfire barrels, an air-rifle barrel is better off using a muzzle device free floating. Again, this does need further research and a lot more empirical evidence. So the disclaimer is, before you take your air rifle apart, consider if this is best for you.

One recent design by Bill Burdette in the USA, is a tuner splitter for rimfire. Now there is a novel idea! Whether it ‘shoots’ or not is again in the testing stage. A bit like the thoughts expressed here, the jury is still out but, the idea is showing a great deal of promise. With spring coming quickly, with warmer range days we will have a good few months to test these ideas that are continuing to develop around the world. Like I said earlier, we can learn things from other areas of the sport. If they work all the better but it is good to look outside of the box sometimes.

Like many things in this sport – it’s under development! An air splitter can be purchased as an ‘after market’ product. There are lots out there, so it’s a matter of deciding which one has the established claims of improving accuracy. The tuner part is something you will have to work on. You may ask friends of even pay for a local metal worker to turn parts up for you.

Until next time, watch the flags, pull the trigger and shoot straight.

32 33

New season starts GB F Class 2012

APRIL 2012

The long ViewNews from the GB F-Class Association by Les Holgate

The GB F Class 2012 season starts next month!

Well here we go ago again - time

to blow the winter cobwebs off

your F Class rifle and equipment

and try to put into action your

New Year’s resolution of “Must do

better at League shoots.”

(Or was that just mine!)

Springtime at Diggle Ranges...

Photograph by Steve Thornton

http://www.thorntonconnect.com

34 35


APRIL 2012

The Long View by Les Holgate

Well here we go ago again - time to blow the winter cobwebs off your F Class rifle and equipment and try to put into action your New Year’s resolution of “Must do better at League shoots.” (or was that just mine!)

If you were one of the 30 or so who went to Bisley for the annual GBFCA Training Weekend in February, then hopefully, you are raring to go. The GB F-class Association strives to give something back to shooting and one way of doing this is through shooter education. This was our third training weekend and the course is intended to give attendees a basic introduction to wind-plotting, reloading, range etiquette and target shooting at long-range.

By the end of the course, all attendees will hopefully have acquired a basic knowledge of what F Class and long-range shooting entails and can decide if it something that they wish to pursue.

This year, the course attracted students from all over the UK, plus Germany, Holland and France. Experienced F-class shooters acted as course instructors, with Mik Maksimovic delivering a lecture on correct way to wind-plot, World Champion Russell Simmonds gave an introductory talk on the principles of reloading accurate ammunition and Peter Wilson, David Lloyd and Tony Marsh assisted students with wind coaching and establishing 1000 yard zeroes etc.

Unfortunately, this year, the weather was rather unkind to us; wind conditions were strong and quite choppy and it was also rather cold and wet. Overall though, the students seemed to express satisfaction with the course content and the feedback received will be ploughed back into making next year’s course even better.

Shooting on Blair’s electronic targets

Photography by Steve Thornton


36 37


APRIL 2012New season starts

GB F Class 2012

APRIL 2012

The first competitive GBFCA shoot is in April at Diggle, so whilst everything is fresh in your mind, get stuck in and put all that theory to good use! The first Diggle shoot will be the only short-range shoot of the year so maybe a bit less daunting if you are intending to make your debut!

When we first started these short-range shoots, we wondered whether it would be of any interest - we thought most people would only travel a distance for long-range shooting but we certainly under-estimated the demand. Last year, at nearly 70 shooters, it proved to be the largest competition outside of Bisley and this year, despite the economic gloom, it is looking to be no different. As I write this, the entry forms have only been out for one week and I already have 45 paid entries! Certainly looks good for the rest of the year.

As for the old bone of contention about the weather - just because it’s April doesn’t mean the weather has to be bad – we’ve had some great ‘T shirt’ shoots in April at Diggle!

From Diggle, we go up to Blair Atholl in May. If you have never been to Blair, you really need to give it a go at least once in your shooting career. The range is in a stunning setting but can often prove to be the downfall of even the best shooters - the wind flags can be very deceiving plus it is the first shoot of the year on electronic targets, so at least no butt marking.

For those of you who may not be used to electronic targets, it is quite an experience – not waiting for the target to be pulled certainly speeds up the detail. You also have the added bonus of seeing your shot scored, a few seconds after pulling the trigger, to one decimal place. Seeing a 4.9 rather than a 5 is certainly very frustrating, usually resulting in someone blaming the calibration of the machine rather than their shooting!

In June we are back at Diggle but this time for a long-range shoot 800 - 1000 yards. With recently extended firing-points it means less details which equates to less

F Class Shooting at the world famous Bisley Shooting grounds...



38 39


APRIL 2012New season starts

GB F Class 2012

APRIL 2012

1200 yards at Bisley...



40 41


APRIL 2012

a

with world champion F Class shooter

Russell Simmonds

Wind reading & plotting courses

The Group - Learn to read the wind, spot the changes and you may achieve groups like this!

Learn to plot your shots and make a perfect record of what the wind is really doing!

Learn to read, adjust and understand mirage effects!

Russell has been the European Champion three times and is the current British Champion winning it three times in the last four years he has also helped to coach the GB Team to

Gold in last years Europeanchampionships.

These one day courses are held at Bisley UK and will include; Wind and it’s effects on the bullets - Wind flags and how to use them - Topography of the range and its effects - Mirage and how to make use of it - Plotting sheets and how to use them correctly and more... All clients will have to have their own firearm plus 90 rounds and be a member of the NRA.

For more information and booking availabilityplease visit www.precisionreloadingservices.co.uk

Russell reading the wind at the European Championships enabling the GB Team to achieve Gold medals...

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time in the butts – good news for everyone. Again, if you are wanting to go to this shoot, don’t hang about too long before sending in your entry as the places will be limited.

We also have the first of the year’s Bisley shoots at the end of June with a GB team shoot the day before. Historically this long-range shoot has also included shooting out to 1200 yards! If you fancy something different, don’t miss this one (even though you could miss the target !)

We get a breather for July - unless of course you are going to attend the Imperial F Class at Bisley - with the next League shoot going back to Diggle, for the last time for the year, in August and again this will be another 800 - 1000 yard shoot.

No League shoot in September but then in October, it’s back up to Blair for their final shoot of the year. The season then climaxes with the ‘Europeans’ at Bisley - if you only go to one shoot this year, this is the one to do! The shooter numbers are increasing every year and, who knows, maybe this year it could even top the 200 mark with we Brits outnumbered by our foreign F Class friends.

World F Class Championship 2013 – Raton USAJumping ahead to 2013 – the year of the F Class World Championships - we need to start to practice ‘string’ shooting. In other words, rather than shooting in pairs, you shoot solo. This obviously speeds up the rate of fire - which has advantages and disadvantages but, until we try it, we won’t know what they are.

Hopefully, we can try string shooting in some of this year’s League shoots to get some practice for all those who are hoping to go to the ‘Worlds’. I first encountered string-shooting when I shot in the US Nationals at Camp Butner in 2004 and it certainly makes you think differently about how you approach your shoot.

Hopefully, all this has whetted your appetite – if so, take the plunge, check out the GBFCA web site www.gbfclass.co.uk and download the entry forms now.

Finally, please don’t get wound-up about equipment – F/TR is a great place to start your F Class career and any decent heavy-barrelled 308 will do the job – especially at the Diggle short-range comp. I guarantee you a great weekend, shooting with some great folk and a bit off-range entertainment thrown in.

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Dolphin Single Shot F/TR RiflesDolphin Single Shot Rifles. (Two above).Dolphin Stock in Hard Anodise Choice of Long F/TR, Short or Open front forendWith Morgan recoil padChoice of colours available Barnard S or RPA Quadlite Timney Trigger (Jewel £40 extra) 17 or 25 moa scope rail Bartlein, Lilja or Krieger barrel Choice of twist & profile Choice of .223 Rem or .308 Win or any othercalibre suitable for a 308 bolt. WEIGHT 6.5Kg (with med Palma Barrel)

£2360 including VAT

Options AvailableOptions - (Only when ordered with Rifle) Spiral Flute Barrel £160Straight Flute Barrel £120Interrupted Flute Barrel £160Duracoat Barrel £60Water Transfer Print stock £180Dolphin Trakker Rest(long) £150Dolphin Trakker Rest(short) £140Dolphin Muzzle brake £100Long F/TR additional forend £100Short additional forend £80Open/Bench rest Style forend £140VAIS style Muzzle Brake £120Thread for Moderator; £60Including fitting , proof and invisible end cap.Holland Style Muzzle brake; £120Including fitting & proof .All prices inc VAT

Stocks now available individuallyinlet for Remington 700, Barnard S & SM & RPA Quadlite. Coming soon ~ Savage.Only £630 inc VAT.Folding modular stock version coming soon.Keep visiting our website for latest products...

LATEST NEWS

Dolphin Repeating RiflesDolphin Stock in Hard Anodise

Choice of Long F/TR, Short or Open front forendWith Morgan recoil pad

Choice of colours availableBarnard SM or RPA Quadlite

Timney Trigger (Jewel £40 extra)17 or 25 moa scope rail

Bartlein, Lilja or Krieger barrel(Choice of twist & profile)

Choice of calibre available5 Round AICS magazine


Dolphin Gun Company - Southwold - Donington on Bain - Lincolnshire - LN11 9TR - EnglandTelephone +44 (0) 1507 343898 or +44 (0) 774 7771962. www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk - [email protected]



http://www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk


44 45

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50

ThisSMALLBORE

Business

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ThisSMALLBORE

Business

by Don BrookeThis Smallbore Business

Accessories!Overkill or what?Gees, I have long seen the attempts

from manufacturers to ensure

that everything on a free rifle is so

adjustable that it fits all. Even from

my good mate in the UK, Barry

Dagger - who is four foot zip - to

the length of Harald Stenvaag from

Norway, who is so tall that when he

lays down for his prone, he is half

way there!

Now that, my readers, is indeed a challenge...By and large the manufacturers do present the shooters with the fundamentals that are pretty well right but, I often wonder - when you see the shooters who continually stick with the tried and true and stuff the improvements!

A classic example is that incredible prone shooter from Russia, Sergie Martinov, who just rattles off 600 points so regularly that we are coming to expect yet another one! Do you see Martinov using the ultra-modern, ‘you beaut’ contraption that I am writing about? Nope, Martinov still sticks to his timber and usually his is the only timber rifle on the finals list. (He wins a good few too!)

Personally I think Martinov could shoot a bent stick with a lump of gas pipe for a barrel but, every year we see a new development issued and within the study that this article is headed with, I wonder…..

Lately I have been working with a shooter who does have an exceptionally fine rifle and,, to my mind, the only adjustment on his stock that is fundamental is the fore-end accessory rail - that can be reversed and so allow a much more comfortable left-hand position because the rail is closer to the ball of the thumb.

Well, when I built my own alloy stock way back in 1980, the accessory rail was milled into the fore-end 6mm off-centre towards the left, as I wanted my left hand to operate properly - given that if you hold your left hand face up, you will see a lot more of your hand on the right of the ball of the thumb.

I had also noticed that when my hand is settled into a correct position, the ball of the thumb has a relatively flat area (see photograph) that the fore-end of the rifle is rested on. The left thumb, in my technique, actually

pointed to the target in contact with the left side curve of the fore-end and, the width of that fore-end was made so that the measurement from the web of the thumb to the index finger knuckle was identical.

This position of the left hand also allowed a 10 degree positive cant (into the face) of the rifle.

This factor was a bonus that I had not considered when I made that stock but, I can tell you, the advantages of this was a huge improvement because I discovered that the butt-plate system fitted beautifully within the muscle structure of my right shoulder! (Even when I shot a straight stocked 1411 Anschutz prone rifle.)

Over the years, I have developed a butt-plate system that is very simple and, coupled with the fit for the shoulder, produced an extremely stable, extremely accurate prone position. (You may remember that ten shot group illustrated earlier in this magazine that a 22 rimfire case would not drop through?)

It is very desirable that prone shooters for smallbore and 300m use a hook butt-plate on their rifle. The stability gained when a hook is fitted, or adjusted correctly, is of paramount importance, as we all know the hook function is to allow position repeatability. The back of the rifle is securely locked in place within the shoulder and, once the face pressure is settled onto the cheek piece of the stock, there is very little that will affect the position and recoil stability when the shot is released.

There are however, a number of sensitive areas with the hook butt-plate system that can produce errors of startling proportions and, it is with these thoughts in mind that I arrived at the heading of this article, ‘Accessories, overkill or what?’ Tell me, do you think there are too many options available? Has the ‘KISS’ principle gone out the window?

The most dangerous problem of adjustment with the hook under the arm-pit, is the contact of the hook with the body of the shooter inside the jacket. Firm

An interesting photo of the author’s left hand showing the area of the ball of the thumb. It should be noted that the measurement from the thumb-joint to the knuckle of the index finger coincides with the width of a custom stock on my Finish Lion smallbore rifle

52

ThisSMALLBORE

Business

pressure in contact like this (see photograph) will result in considerable ‘thrash’ of the rifle within the recoil. The muzzle will dance sideways, to and fro, which can result in an elongated sideways group, compounded by the fact that the shooter often will blame their own wind judgement for the wild shot that falls on the target!

Look at the two photographs which show the hook in firm contact with the muscle structure of the rib-cage, explained above and the second picture showing the hook following the arm-pit without any sideways influence at all. This is just a simple adjustment that

should be followed and the result is usually a very consistent recoil pattern, particularly with a smallbore rifle. The 300m centrefire does have a more savage recoil factor but still remains problematical when the hook is in contact with the muscle structure down the rib-cage of the shooter.

Look at the rifle butt picture in this article which shows the hook plate in use on my Lion free rifle. It is a simple design with just functional adjustments. Notice the 10 degree positive rotation of the whole butt-plate (viewed from behind) which simply contacts the personal muscle structure in my right shoulder, plus the outward adjustment of the hook itself. It is designed that way to ensure that there is no body contact with the sides of the hook. As you will see also, the butt-plate system is quite simple, the ‘KISS’ principle survives in my house!

Back in my early days of smallbore, the hook systems were very basic and often did I see the addition of timber, tape, leather or even a folded hanky fitted to the hook to allow firmer contact points in the shoulder. These were largely the result of many experiments from the shooter in the never ending quest for accuracy. Sometimes they got it right mate!

More to the point, in these days of innovation, or even gadgets, it is funny because you still have to shoot the rifle eh? This is what I have found anyway...I just keep remembering Martinov and the bent stick with a chunk of gas pipe!

Think on this a bit.Brooksie

The picture above shows the hook plate in use on my Lion free rifle. It is a simple design with just functional adjustments. Notice the 10 degree positive rotation of the whole butt-plate (viewed from behind) which simply contacts the personal muscle structure in my right shoulder, plus the outward adjustment of the hook itself. It is designed that way to ensure that there is no body contact with the sides of the hook. As you will see also, the butt-plate system is quite simple, the ‘KISS’ principle survives in my house!

NEW - THE DOLPHIN MODULAR RIFLE SYSTEM

Dolphin Repeating Rifles

Dolphin Single Shot F/TR RiflesDolphin Single Shot Rifles. (Two above).Dolphin Stock in Hard Anodise Choice of Long F/TR, Short or Open front forendWith Morgan recoil padChoice of colours available Barnard S or RPA Quadlite Timney Trigger (Jewel £40 extra) 17 or 25 moa scope rail Bartlein, Lilja or Krieger barrel Choice of twist & profile Choice of .223 Rem or .308 Win or any othercalibre suitable for a 308 bolt. WEIGHT 6.5Kg (with med Palma Barrel)


Options AvailableOptions - (Only when ordered with Rifle) Spiral Flute Barrel £160Straight Flute Barrel £120Interrupted Flute Barrel £160Duracoat Barrel £60Water Transfer Print stock £180Dolphin Trakker Rest(long) £150Dolphin Trakker Rest(short) £140Dolphin Muzzle brake £100Long F/TR additional forend £100Short additional forend £80Open/Bench rest Style forend £140VAIS style Muzzle Brake £120Thread for Moderator; £60Including fitting , proof and invisible end cap.Holland Style Muzzle brake; £120Including fitting & proof .All prices inc VAT

Stocks now available individuallyinlet for Remington 700, Barnard S & SM & RPA Quadlite. Coming soon ~ Savage.Only £630 inc VAT.Folding modular stock version coming soon.Keep visiting our website for latest products...

LATEST NEWS

Dolphin Repeating RiflesDolphin Stock in Hard Anodise

Choice of Long F/TR, Short or Open front forendWith Morgan recoil pad

Choice of colours availableBarnard SM or RPA Quadlite

Timney Trigger (Jewel £40 extra)17 or 25 moa scope rail

Bartlein, Lilja or Krieger barrel(Choice of twist & profile)

Choice of calibre available5 Round AICS magazine


Dolphin Gun Company - Southwold - Donington on Bain - Lincolnshire - LN11 9TR - EnglandTelephone +44 (0) 1507 343898 or +44 (0) 774 7771962. www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk - [email protected]

http://www.dolphinguncompany.co.uk

54 55

The website is live!We are delighted to announce the safe delivery, on time, of the DSP’s shiny new website. I hope it will find its way onto everyone’s Favorites list without delay! It is, of course, also linked to our presence on Twitter and Facebook.

What you will see now on www.disabledshooting.org.uk is Phase 1 of the site. A lot more material will be added to it during Phase 2 over the next month or so. After that, in Phase 3 we will create some more sections to ‘bolt on’ as they are ready – most of these relate to DSP schemes that are still in development, such as Focus Clubs, Coaching Modules, and the Disabled Shooting Year.

The website is, of course, a key part of the DSP’s communications system, which should help us to achieve our goals for the next 12 months, but we will continue to publish information in magazines, bulletins, etc. as well.

I would like to record my enormous gratitude to Clive Garnham who built the site for us and presided over my vertiginous learning curve! It is just over a month since he received the confirmation to go ahead with the project, so it has been very hard work all round.

As I have by no means finished learning the mysterious arts of web-mastering, there will undoubtedly be hiccups in future – may I apologise in advance, both to site users and Clive.

Next stepsNow that the site is operational, please would you:

1. Spread the news!2. Arrange for a link to it to be placed on as many websites as possible! The more links we have, the higher up the search engine rankings the site will be,

and naturally we’d like it to be top of the list! I am attaching a .jpg of the DSP logo which can be added with the link if you wish. 3. Feel free to submit things for the site and encourage others to do so. News, technical information, diary items, etc. will all be welcome. We are particularly keen to find good video footage and photographs to illustrate as many different aspects of disabled shooting as possible, so perhaps some people would like to turn themselves into film directors and actors for a day or two and send us the results. Reminder: Please ensure that everyone featured has given their permission for it to be used on the internet, and remember that names (if people are willing to give them) do make things much more engaging.

I am aware that information in some areas is thin on the ground, but we did not want to delay the launch because of what we want to accomplish by March 2013. I am particularly aware of the lack of material on fullbore, clay target and field target disciplines and that is something that I would like to remedy as quickly as possible, so contributions on those topics will be particularly gratefully received.

ClubsThe information on disabled-friendly clubs is rather patchy, because most of it I have hoovered up from their own websites. This is time-consuming, and also does not guarantee up-to-date accuracy. I will shortly be sending out a concise e-form, which can be completed and returned by clubs that wish to be properly represented on the site. I do have details of more clubs to go on at the moment, and hope to have them all up in the next couple of days.

I do hope you all enjoy the new site. It feels about time for a bit of a celebration! LIZ...

Latest News...Liz - DSP Co-ordinatorDSP Mobile: 07527 579686 The Disabled Shooting Project - Welcomes ALL disabilities into a competitive mainstream sport as well as helping less able shooters to stay in it.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Website: www.disabledshooting.org.uk Facebook: Disabled Shooting Project Twitter: @Disabledshooter

The project is funded and supported by Sport England via British Shooting www.britishshooting.org.uk

British Shooting Limited, 2nd Floor, 40 Bernard Street, London WC1N 1ST

First up is the Spring Action Weekend (SAW) at Bisley 24/25th March followed a month later with the Basil-don 1500 plus shorts 27/29th April. The Mattersey Ten on 6th May keeps the spring going before Frome weighs in with the Western Winner (1500 plus shorts format at the Failand Range near Bristol) 18/19th May, giving an opportunity for some valuable pre-Phoenix practice.

The Phoenix Meeting at Bisley 1/3rd June is delayed this year to coincide with the late Bank Holiday with the extra day for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Mon-day 4th June see the Phoenix International 1500 Match at Bisley with the first outing of the year for the GB GR Squad.

Summer brings the Derby Open 30th June/1st July. Then in quick succession the NRA Historic Arms Meet-ing 7/8th July and the Imperial GR events 11/15th July (unlimited entries Wednesday to Friday and squadded matches at the weekend) both at Bisley. If you fancy a trip to Ireland, 13/15th July brings the second Inter-national Match of the year, also available for individual and club teams to enter.

The National GR Championships are contested at Bisley 25/26th August, then a short pause until the Tra-falgar Meeting 20/21st October and the Autumn Ac-tion Weekend (AAW) the following weekend 27/28th October.

Still to declare are Stourport (usually early August) and the Germany International GR Match (habitually early November). So there are at least a dozen opportuni-ties to enter classified GR competitions in all corners of the country and beyond.

At time of going to press, the GR Sub-Committee Chairman, Neil Francis, has received just one nomi-nation for the GB Squad Captain for 2012 before the closing date. It is likely therefore that Neil will recom-mend the nominee to NRA Council and I should be in a position next time to make a formal announcement of the Captain next time.

2012 Gallery Rifle Calendarby Alan Whittle

On my way to work, the radio announced that 15th January was Black Monday - presumably because Christmas is over and the next Bank Holiday is in far away April. It is also the depths of winter, with short days dictating getting up and out to work in the dark and returning in the twilight. If all this is inclined to sadden the heart then fear not, club secretaries and match directors have been working hard all winter planning your 2012 Gal-lery Rifle (GR) shooting season. The NRA and nearly all the major GR Clubs have set their calendar, so here is the round up.

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

56 57

Latest News...All scores are to be recorded on the official score sheet which will be published with the stages. All details must be completed, to ensure the correct results are recorded.

Details of the stages for each round and the associated score sheets will be e mailed out at the start of each round. Scores must be submitted to arrive within five days of the last day of each round. The results will be calculated and e mailed out to all participants and clubs.

Please note that only the first attempt at each of the three stages may be used for your official score. Plus you may only enter one IPSC Division. However this does not prevent you shooting the stages as many times as you want for practice after you have made your first attempt for the official score. You can also shoot the stages for practice in a different division as well.

All the stages are simple to set up and organisers are asked to keep to the measurements given. All the stages will use the standard IPSC target, either as a full or partial target.

If you have any queries about the Postal League then please contact the Handgun Commission at [email protected]

It is hoped that you will have fun shooting the Postal League stages. There is an additional course at Kilkeel in April – see Upcoming Matches below or contact Fred Hanna, Secretary, UKPSA Handgun Commission. E-mail [email protected] Web Site http://www.ukpsa.co.uk/handgunni.html

Up-coming Competitions and Courses in March and April 2012-02-27

Borderguns Club Shoot Level 1 PSGAll welcome. Contact Jo or Martin at Bordergunswww.borderguns.co.uk - £10 members / £15 non-members. Minimum 8 stages, 100 rounds birdshot only. 3rd March 2012

Carlisle Level 1 PSGMore details to follow. See UKPSA Forum11th March 2012

Thurnscoe Level 1 PSGMore details to follow. See UKPSA Forum 11th March 2012

Safety Course for PSGDiggle Ranges – 2 Day CourseContact [email protected] for more details of this and other upcoming courses. If you want to shoot IPSC practical shotgun, this is the way to do it. You only need a three-shot pump or semi shotgun if you don’t have a section 1 shotgun. 17th / 18th March 2012

Range Officer Course in Kilkeel2 Day Course. 23rd / 24th March 2012

Level 2 Long Barrelled Firearm MatchRun by the Blue Team at Little ChalfontMore details to follow. See UKPSA Forum31st March 2012

Hadrian L3 PSG matchCourse shot in one day. More details to follow. See UKPSA Forum. 6th and 7th April 2012

Thurnscoe Level 1 PSG MatchMore details to follow. See UKPSA Forum. 9th April 2012

Basildon Level 2 Long Barrelled Firearm MatchMore details to follow. See UKPSA Forum. 15th April 2012

USASC Kilkeel Level 1 Handgun MatchFurther Details contact Fred Hanna on [email protected] - 21st April 2012

UKPSA Newsby Tony Saunders

Early spring is coming, a relief to shooters who prefer not to be resetting targets that are frozen to the ground! Hopefully we have seen the end of the snow for this winter... (famous last words?)

The British Shooting and Countryman Show 2012 took place this previous weekend and saw thousands of shooters turning up for this huge show. The UKPSA had a stand there for the first time and it proved a great success. Staffed by UKPSA members Vanessa & Andy Duffy, Rob Adam, Jim Gibney and Mike Darby, the two day event brought new and old members to the stand.

UKPSA POSTAL LEAGUES 2012This year, the UKPSA Postal League has been extended to include divisions for handgun, LBR, LBP, Gallery Rifle and .22 Rim Fire Rifles. These will begin on March 1st, whilst the shotgun League will start in April.

The Leagues are ‘open’ and any shooter may participate. The stages are designed to be easily set up and can form part of any club’s practice session or be included as part of a small match.

Each League will be made up of four rounds with 3 to 4 stages in each round. The course of fire will be published at the start of each round along with score sheets. Scores are posted in and will be processed and results published. At the end of the four rounds overall results for all the Leagues will be announced.

Details of the Handgun Postal Matches are already available in this article. For more details, rules, courses of fire, go to the UKPSA Forum directly, or via the UKPSA website at www.ukpsa.co.uk

UKPSA Handgun CommissionPostal League 2012

The UKPSA Handgun Commission invites you to get involved in our Postal League for Practical Handgun. The intention is to allow all Practical shooters to compete in Practical stages within their club environment, either as part of their training days, or they can be included in a Level 1 Open Match. You can then compare your results with other like minded practical handgun shooters from other clubs. The League will be shot to current IPSC Handgun rules. Membership of an IPSC Region is not required and it will be free to participate in the postal League.

The League will be made up of four rounds and each round will be made up of three stages and will be shot within a two month period as follows.

Round 1 in March and April Round 2 in May and JuneRound 3 in July and AugustRound 4 in September and October.The first of these matches has been confirmed.

Dunnyboe Level 1 on the 31st March & 1st April All competitors will complete the course of fire in one day. For further details and to enter contact Kieran McCormick on [email protected]

Scores will be calculated at the end of each Round and results will be e mailed out to all participating clubs and individuals. At the conclusion of Round 4, all the stages from all four rounds will be calculated to achieve overall winners of each IPSC Division. All the IPSC Divisions of Classic, Open, Production, Revolver and Standard will be recognised. UKPSA members living in GB who possess long barrelled revolvers will be able to take part in Revolver Division.

The three stages may be shot at any time within the two month period for each Round. P referably a qualified Range Officer should conduct the competition. Where an RO is not available, providing there are two witnesses to the stage being shot, one of whom may conduct the stages and both must sign the competitor’s score sheet, this will be acceptable.

UKPSA NewsContinued...

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

59


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.308 WINCHESTER RIDES AGAIN (Part 3)I compared MVs and velocity spreads obtained from Lapua’s new ‘Palma’ small rifle primer (SRP) / small flash-hole cases against identical load combinations in normal large primer (LRP) examples last month, with particular reference to the effects produced by low (< 10°C) ambient temperatures.

The case for high-BC ‘heavies’ in F/TR – shooting over long ranges at small targets in constantly changing wind

conditions. Diggle Ranges in a wet and windy F Class national league round.

THE HANDLOADING BENCH308 Winchester Rides Again Part 3By Laurie Holland

THE HANDLOADING BENCH308 Winchester Rides Again Part 3

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The new 308 Hybrids. Left to right: 155, 168, 185, 200, 215, and 230gn models

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6262 6363

Hannams and Norman Clark. I’ve long liked 175gn bullets in .308 Win and often use the Sierra MatchKing version for such jobs as basic accuracy testing, barrel run-in, scope sight-in, and short-range competition. So, giving the ballistically more efficient, if much more expensive, Berger a try seemed a good idea.

First off, I loaded the bullet over H4895, a superbly efficient and flexible powder in .308 Win, but very much overshadowed by its slower burning VarGet stablemate. (Reigning F/TR World and GB league champion Russell Simmonds is one of the few top GB F/TR shooters to use H4895, in his case paired with the 155.5gn Berger BT, which must say something good about it in this cartridge!) Running a near three-grain range of charge weights in three-round batches showed that this 175 shot very well in my Barnard and its 1-10” Broughton, the top load alone of eight exceeding 0.4”, so the combination seemed a

BTLRs

While Berger’s 185gn BT Long-Range (BTLR) model has quickly acquired a reputation as a solid long-range performer, so much so it’s been nicknamed the ‘Juggernaut’ in US long-range circles, its 175gn sibling is less well known here.

As with the one-eight-five it offers a higher BC than the equivalent weight but older Berger 175 VLD at 0.264 v 0.255 in G7 values, but note that it’s marginally less efficient than the new 168gn ‘Hybrid’ which is rated at 0.266. (The 185gn BTLR is 0.283 for comparison.) An attraction of the 175, the BTLR’s trademark good manners in handloading matters like COAL / jump aside, is that a full-house load’s recoil with this bullet weight is as much as many sling-shooters can take before it affects scores. It’s also well suited to the slow rifling twists used in TR / Fullbore barrels, 1-13” being near ideal. An added attraction, for us in the UK anyway, was that it remained available throughout 2010-11 while the 185gn model seemed on permanent back-order with our Berger importers,

It appears that SRP cases are not

well suited to chilly conditions with

some powders, Viht N140 and N550

both struggling for instance. I’ll go

a little further this month in these

side by side tests looking at Palma

v standard Lapua brass results

using Berger’s 175gn BT Long-

Range bullets and a trio of Hodgdon

powders: temperature-stable, easy

to ignite Australian made VarGet

and H4895 extruded products; US

manufactured ball or ‘spherical’

H414 / W760 that is reputedly much

harder to fire up with consistent

results. I’ll then make a start on

the subject of heavy bullets, that

is 190-grains and above. This was

a subject I’d intended to address

anyway, but found it also links into

‘Palma’ brass, most top GB F/TR

shooters who use ‘heavies’ having

switched to this case during the

2011 season.

Mid-weight Berger Long-Range BTs – the very effective 175gn (centre) and 185gn ‘Juggernaut’ (right). 155gn Sierra MK on the left for comparison.

0.308” 175gn match bullets. Left to right: Sierra MK, Berger VLD, Berger BTLR, new Berger OTM Tactical designed for long-range shooting from shorter barrels with lower MVs.



By Laurie Holland

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natural for further refinement. Six by five-round batches in standard Lapua brass saw a best result of 0.2” allied to 2,806 fps MV with an ES of 17 fps. Frankly, 0.2” is as tight as I can hold a .308 on the bench where this cartridge gets a bit punchy, even in an 18lb F/TR rifle, so ‘shooting doesn’t get much better than this’ to parody MasterChef presenter John Torode. Another LRP v SRP case test seemed in order too since the combination used one of Hodgdon’s Thales Industries / ADI manufactured ‘Extreme’ extruded powders renowned for their flexibility and ease of ignition. This is how the cases’ performance compared: The MV gap in the results from the two case / primer types is much reduced compared to those in the tests I reported last month, the SRP brass sometimes even producing the higher MV figure now. The most likely cause is that, unlike those previously reported, the test-shoots took place on different days. The LRP brass suffered from yet another ‘cool’ summer day (8-10°C) while its ‘Palma’ competitor got much better temperatures just above 20°C (70F for US readers).

I then moved onto VarGet with the 175, but you may wonder why I didn’t pair the powder with a 155gn

bullet, given that this combination was the original driver for SRP case development. I’d no desire to reinvent this particular wheel given the considerable

effort previously expended by American Palma team members, but trying the powder under a heavier bullet appealed. This time round, the tests were restricted to the eight by three-round format covering a 3.0gn charge weight range, 42 to 45gn for both types of case, steps starting at a half-grain, dropping to a final 0.2gn from 44.8 to 45 grains. Conditions were chilly again, wet with temperatures hovering around 10-deg C / 50F. The MV gap in the LRP case’s favour reappeared with this

combination, 45gn producing 2,803 fps with an ES of 5 fps in the ‘Palma’ case; 2,840 fps also with an ES of 5 fps for the standard case. The broad ‘sweet spot’ or accuracy node that peaked at 2,800 fps MV with H4895 reappeared, best groups seen with the two top charges in the Palma case and 44.1 / 44.5gn in the standard case. The latter then moved out of this benign condition with the remaining two higher charges tripling group sizes to three-quarters of an inch, so I’ll discount them from the group size comparison. LRP brass and Fed 210M primers saw an average group size of 0.29” for the other six batches, two right on the two-tenths mark (44.1 and 44.5gn); SRP brass and CCI-BR4 primers averaged 0.4” group size over the whole eight batches with smallest examples of 0.25” and 0.3” (44.8 and 45.0gn). LRP ES values covered 5-33 fps and averaged 20 fps; SRP ES values were smaller with a range of 5-22 fps, average 12. These results are in line with the American claims for ‘Palma’ brass and the 155gn SMK with VarGet with an overall reduction of 40% in velocity spreads. Both versions promised precision that would do very well on the sling shooter’s 1-MOA V-Bull, 2-MOA Bull target sizes too, although I would want to test that out by refining loads using a smaller charge range and 5-round batches. While both performed very well in my rifle, the LRP version and its 0.2” groups looked a

better F/TR option – I’ll always use this measure first over reductions in what was not a particularly large velocity spread in the LRP cases.

Putting brass and primers to one side, how effective is this bullet at these MVs? Taking a 155gn bullet at 3,000 fps MV as a baseline, the equivalent internal ballistics are 2,823 fps for a 175gn bullet and 2,746 fps for a 185, all producing 3,098 ft/lb muzzle energy. Here is how the 175 BTLR stacks up in its external ballistics performance at 1,000 yards against the NRA’s RWS ammo with the original low BC Sierra Palma MK, long-range F/TR competitors’ favoured 155.5gn Berger BT FULLBORE, and the 185gn BTLR.

I put my tight-grouping 175 / 2,806 fps H4895 load at the end of the table to show how it compares, and I’d be happy to use it at 1,000yd, even though I tend to think of it as a shorter range combination, preferring the 185 at a similar MV for 900 and 1,000yd matches. This could be the ideal bullet for Target Rifle competitors with their 1-13” twist barrels in long-range matches that allow handloads and any bullet weight. However, depending on how it performs, the new 168gn Berger Hybrid may turn out to be even

175gn Berger BTLRs and Lapua Palma brass with the three powders used to do side by side LRP and ‘Palma’ brass tests.

Bullet V0 (fps) V1,000 (fps D1,000 (MOA)155gn Sierra Palma MK (2155) 3,000 1,165 10.2155.5gn Berger BT FULLBORE 3,000 1,304 8.7175gn Berger BTLR 2,823 1,325 8.2185gn Berger BTLR 2,746 1,354 7.8[175gn Berger BTLR 2,806 1,313 8.3](D1,000 = wind induced drift measured in MOA at 1,000yd in a 10 mph 90-deg crosswind.)

175gn Berger BT Long-Range over H4895 test cards show a clear win for the standard LRP version on the left.



By Laurie Holland

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To Laurie’s surprise, the SRP ‘Palma’ brass version (right) of the 175gn BTLR + H414 ball powder came out on top despite testing in cool conditions.

Old and new ‘heavies’. Left to right: 155gn Sierra MK (for comparison); 190gn SMK; 200gn SMK; 208gn A-Max; 210gn Berger BTLR; 210gn Berger VLD; 210gn SMK. Note the short blunt nose sections and long boat-tails on the two older SMKs compared to the more modern bullets. Sierra’s 210 on the extreme right is a VLD design and very different from its geriatric stablemates.



By Laurie Holland

better in this role as well as being viable in F/TR. Its preferred rifling twist rate runs a bit tighter at 1-12” though.

Ball PowderThat left one more thing to try with ‘Palma’ brass – ball or spherical powders, again using the 175gn Berger BTLR which the barrel obviously liked. Put most 175gn or heavier bullets through a QuickLOAD .308 Win Charge Weight Table run and you’ll find Hodgdon H414 / Winchester 760 (same powder, different bottles) at or near the top of the predicted velocity listing. This is a double-base propellant that’s been around forever, has a slightly faster burning rate than the 4350s and Viht N550, and is well suited to mid-size cartridges because of its density. I usually avoid ball powders as they’ve been traditionally found

guilty of giving a dirtier burn than extruded types. The cause is the absence of the tubular form’s hole up the middle that causes the kernel to burn outwards as well

as from the outside in. As the ball kernel’s surface area can only reduce as it is consumed, this form produces a ‘regressive’ burning behaviour (high gas production initially reducing as the charge is consumed). To counter this, a thick coating of non-inflammable ‘deterrents’ is used to slow the early-stage burn, but these chemicals are left behind as fouling, usually baked on hard thanks to the double-base propellant’s flame temperatures. Another consequence of heavier surface coatings is greater difficulty in igniting these powders, hence the common advice to use magnum LR primers. Actually, ball propellant technologies and ingredients have moved on a lot over the years, reducing these and other alleged downsides. However, if there is any doubt about the SRP’s ability to light up a heavy charge in .308W, it would likely show up with this powder.

Following 3-round group-tests designed to get a feel for how these combinations performed, I ran five by 5-round grouping trials side by side on yet another miserable, wet and chilly late June day, temperatures struggling to break 10°C / 50F. ‘Palma charges’ ran higher than those used in standard brass to give equivalent MVs, the charge weight range being 48.4 to 49.2gn x 0.2gn steps in standard LRP Lapua cases; 48.9 to 49.9gn x 0.3gn followed by 0.2gn steps in SRP ‘Palma’ cases. CCI-BR4 primers were again used in the latter, but due to accident not design, I grabbed a box of LRP brass primed with CCI-200s instead of the F210M match type used in other comparisons. I really expected the ‘Palma’ loads to struggle with this powder in the conditions especially with charges nudging 50-grains, but this wasn’t how things worked out. The five LRP groups covered a poor 0.6” to 1.25” and MVs plateaued over a 0.6gn charge weight range, 48.8 to 49.2gn producing 2,855 to 2,860 fps. ‘Palma loads’ grouped between 0.4” and 0.8” and MVs rose in line with charges ending up at 2,877 fps. So far as velocity spreads went, neither case gave great results with this powder, but the ‘Palma’ case again came out the winner with a range of 17-31 fps over the five batches averaging 23 fps; the LRP loads ran between 19 and 50 fps for an average of 29 fps. Both produced the characteristic ball powder hard fouling on outside neck surfaces that took a lot of cleaning when I came to reload the cases. Incidentally, there is a claimed method of alleviating this problem – spray the fouling with WD40, better still that unique German coal based oil, Ballistol immediately after shooting, wait 10 minutes and wipe the softened muck off with a paper towel. I must try this trick one day, although it could prove rather difficult logistically in a match.

HeaviesLet’s move onto heavy bullets in the cartridge, especially in the F/TR role where an 18lb rifle and bi-pod support can cope with recoil and torque levels that would be unacceptable to sling shooters, also those in tactical, McQueens, or service rifle disciplines with their need for minimal sight-disturbance and quick follow-up shots. First of all, what is a heavy

bullet in .308? Many TR shooters reckon anything above 155gn is ‘heavy’, while Bryan Litz of Berger Bullets argues that 230gn is the .30-calibre equivalent of the 140s routinely used in 6.5mm and 180s in 7mm. I’ve arbitrarily set 190gn as my floor for this exercise. On this definition, we’ve 14 bullets from three manufacturers (Berger, Hornady, and Sierra) available in the UK at the time of writing, although I expect Fox Firearms UK to have some more from a fourth maker (Swampworks / JLK) available by the time you read this. Table 1 lists their key ballistic statistics, predicted 1,000 yard performance, and the rifling twist rate that produces an Sg (stability factor) value of 1.4 at their expected MVs. Four of the 14 are elderly: Sierra’s 190,

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What we’re trying to avoid by using heavy,

high-BC bullets – a bullet blown to the right

barely in the ‘Three-ring’ by a wind change. The

competitor’s elevation isn’t too hot either being

a full MOA high!



By Laurie Holland

200, 220 and 240gn MatchKing (SMK) models; the others date from the last five years or so, some only months old. Sticking with the geriatric Sierras, they’re short and blunt for their weights compared to their youthful rivals and have correspondingly high (poor) G7 ‘form factors’. The metric for this attribute is ‘i7’, a measure of the bullet shape’s ballistic efficiency compared to that of the G7 ‘standard’ or ‘reference bullet’ shape with its i7 value of 1.000. As this is a drag related metric, low values are better than high and we’re really looking for 1.000 or lower here. It is easier for the bullet designer to create a long streamlined shape in a heavy model than in a necessarily shorter 150 or 155 while retaining other essential design features and the overall balance. Despite this, our baseline 155.5gn Berger BT FULLBORE has an exceptionally low 0.988 value, so that’s the target we’re looking to equal or better with our heavy designs. The heaviest (240gn) of the old Sierra quartet comes in at a very poor 1.092, which allied to other issues and problems in using this design, has led me to exclude it from the comparison; the other three have relatively high i7 values exceeding unity, but have compensating features. (There is a fifth, modern and more efficient heavy SMK, the 210-grainer with a 1.000 i7 form factor value.)

ProsBut, to go back to first principles, why should we even consider using heavies in the cartridge? ...... and what penalties do we pay in using them? Pros and cons in other words. Assuming 155 and 210gn models group equally well in a given rifle specification, and assuming they’re equally well designed (same or similar i7 values), the heavier model moves less in the wind at long ranges despite starting out at a lower muzzle velocity. This is easily demonstrated as it happens that two bullets with very different weights share a 0.988 form factor – the aforementioned Berger 155.5gn BT and the same company’s 210gn BT Long-Range model. Let’s assume we drive the 155.5 at 3,000 fps. This produces 3,108 ft/lb of muzzle energy, and a load and barrel throat optimised for the 210 should be capable of producing the same amount

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New ‘heavies’ only just arrived in the UK. Left to right: 155gn Sierra MK (for compari-son); 200gn Berger Hybrid; 208gn Hornady HPBT; 215gn Berger Hybrid; 230gn Berger Hybrid.

Run the MVs and BCs through Berger Bullets’ G7 ballistic program and we get;

Bullet i7 BC V0 (fps) V1,000 (fps) D1,000 (MOA / Inches)155.5 BT FB 0.988 0.237 3,000 1,304 (1.16 M) 8.7 / 91.1”210 BT LR 0.988 0.320 2,582 1,371 (1.22 M) 7.3 / 76.1”

Standard ballistic conditions (59°F, 29.92-inches Hg atmospheric pressure) apply.D1,000 = wind drift at 1,000yd in a 10 mph 90-deg crosswind. M= MACH.

Same (.308 Win) cartridge; same (Norma) case; same (208gn Hornady A-Max) bullet; two noticeably different COALs. The reason will be explained next month.



By Laurie Holland

of energy if both combinations produce the same chamber pressure. 3,108 ft/lbs = 2,582 fps MV with a 210gn bullet, very much in line with those actually produced by heavy bullet F/TR users. The 155.5’s G7 BC is 0.237, that of the two-ten 0.320, the difference arising entirely from their weights, or more precisely their sectional density values which is a fixed weight to calibre ratio. That’s a substantial gain at 1,000yd both in retained velocity and reduced wind drift. High retained velocity is important to keep our bullet out of the transonic speed zone, or at any rate to reduce its exposure to transonic flight. This speed zone starts at 1.2 to 1.3 MACH depending on which authority you

consult, but what is not in dispute is that the closer the bullet gets to the speed of sound (1,122 fps / 1.0 M), the greater the likelihood and severity of turbulence in the airflow around the bullet’s body and tail. When I

first ran these figures, the discrepancy was so great I had trouble believing the results, but Bryan Litz, Berger’s ballistician assures me there is no mistake.

Table 1 (Overleaf) takes the Berger 155.5 at 3,000 fps as a benchmark and shows how the 190gn to 230gn models compare using equivalent MVs. We see that judicious heavy bullet selection can give us nearly 150 additional fps at the 1,000-yard target taking the bullet out of transonic flight and potentially reduce

wind drift by up to two and a half MOA even compared to that most efficient of the 155s. The gains will be larger still against the NRA’s RWS manufactured ammunition with its early model and much lower BC 155gn Sierra Palma MatchKing. That 10 mph 90-degree crosswind is an artificial construct of course, what matters is any change in wind speed and/or direction between shots. To get a feel what a ‘heavy’ might give us, I played around with wind values in the program to get one that moves the 155.5 at 3,000 fps by 1.2-MOA at this distance. Assuming our bullet would have hit the V Bull dead centre if the wind hadn’t changed from the previous shot, it now scores a line-cutter ‘Three’. Retain the wind speed value, but rerun the program with those 200/210s with BC values

around 0.320 at 2,580-2,600 fps MV and the wind now moves the bullet 0.84-MOA, a big enough reduction to see it fall comfortably into the ‘Four’ ring saving a point (or score a ‘Five’ in Match Rifle with its 2-MOA dia. Bull-ring). Of course, if the shot would only have scraped a ‘downwind Five’ in static conditions, 0.84-MOA deflection would still lose you two points. Incidentally, the 200gn Berger Hybrid performance shown in the table produces the same 1,000-yard wind drift as the 0.264” 139gn Lapua Scenar at 2,900 fps, a popular 6.5-284 Norma load in the early days of F-Class. .308 Win and F/TR have come a LONG way in five years, but so too has F ‘Open’ with its hot 7mm cartridges and ultra high-BC 0.284” 180s.

Readers who learned their three Rs in their school days may have noticed that there are 11 heavy bullets listed in the table, not 13. The missing couple are new Hornady HPBT match bullets weighing 208 and 225 grains. I haven’t seen any G7 BCs quoted for the pair to date, but Hornady claims G1 BCs of 0.620 and 0.660 respectively, the former a 4.4% reduction on its figure for the 208gn A-Max thereby reducing the HPBT’s G7 value to around 0.310. We can expect the 225gn model to have a G7 BC around 0.330 on that basis.

Look at the i7s and BC values, and the three older Sierras (190, 200 and 220gn models) really do look to be poor performers against the newer, longer and more ‘pointy’ designs. You might wonder why I included them at all other than to maybe warn you off wasting your money on them. Well, don’t write these old-stagers off just yet as their long-range performance is often better on the target than on the ballistics program printout. The high i7 figures derive from their short blunt nose sections, and that’s certainly what determines drag at very high MVs. But these bullets have a reputation for really performing at the far end of the flight as velocities drop and the nose-form becomes less important. All three were very popular in Match Rifle until recently – and still have their adherents – as they perform to 1,200 yards and beyond. It seems their transonic zone performance is better than that of many of the long nose types, and they’ll even pass through the sound barrier into subsonic flight without a qualm. Much of this must be down to that enormously long 9-degree angle boat-tail rear section, and they seem to be very well balanced too enhancing stability through a wide

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range of speeds and conditions.

ConsWell, we’ve seen the ‘pros’ and they’re all related to predicted long-range external ballistics performance. Everybody will have switched to the more efficient ‘heavies’ surely? ..... but, no. if you revisit the report on the F Class European Championship meeting in the December issue of TS Online, you’ll see a table listing what kit and loads were used by the top 10 F/TR shooters. Runaway winner Stuart Anselm used an intermediate weight model, the 185gn Berger BTLR; four used 210gn ‘heavies’, another four loaded Berger 155.5s, and the final odd-man out (sole non Berger user) shot the Australian 155gn BJD-HBC. However, the winds weren’t very strong over that weekend – if an early winter weather depression with 20 mph plus winds had blown in, ‘heavies’ users might have outnumbered the 155gn brigade in the top spots.

Let’s look at the ‘cons’, and the overwhelming downsides are an increase in recoil and torque. Increasing the bullet weight from 155 to 210gn increases recoil energy by over 20% in an 18lb F/TR rifle, from 8.7 to 10.6 ft/lbs. That might not sound much, but it will affect rifle handling and bi-pod movement on the ground. I notice that some of the

more successful heavy bullet shooters have fitted spikes to the bi-pod feet allowing them to ‘load the bi-pod’, that is lock the foot position and put the legs under tension to reduce movement and eliminate the dreaded bi-pod leap in the air that not only affects shot to shot consistency, but can see you unknowingly lined up on the neighbouring target for the next shot with the consequent risk of cross-shooting and a guaranteed loss of five points. A heavier bullet also puts more stress on every major component in the rifle from the barrel through the receiver and bolt to the bedding. In my look at the ‘pros’, there was the proviso that ‘heavies’ will produce the same size groups as 155s, but there is a lot of evidence that while it’s possible to achieve this, it’s very hard to do so. For whatever reason or reasons, most heavy bullet shooters say their long-range ‘elevations’ are bigger than they expect from a good 155gn bullet load, and this is the ‘swing’ you lose on against the gains from the reduced wind drift ‘roundabout’. High energy double-base powders are de rigueur in the 308’s constrained capacity case to get full velocities from these bullets, and this allied to greater bullet inertia will see throat erosion and damage set in quicker, so barrel life will be reduced, likely to 2,000-2,500 rounds.

Next month: twist rates, chamber throat lengths, powders, loads and 200-210gn bullet results to finish things off.

Table 1External Ballistic Performance from Heavy 0.308” Match Bullets

Bullet i7 BC V0 (fps) Twist V1,000 (fps) D1,000 (MOA / Inches)155.5 BT FB 0.988 0.237 3,000 12.5” 1,304 (1.16 M) 8.7 / 91”190gn Sierra MK 1.070 0.268 2,714 12.1” 1,269 (1.13 M) 8.6 / 90”190gn Berger VLD 0.982 0.291 2,714 11.7” 1,364 (1.21 M) 7.6 / 80”200gn Sierra MK 1.058 0.285 2,645 11.9” 1,292 (1.15 M) 8.2 / 86”200gn Berger Hybrid 0.944 0.320 2,645 10.6” 1,417 (1.26 M) 7.0 / 73”208gn Hornady A-Max 0.966 0.324 2,594 10.5” 1,393 (1.24 M) 7.1 / 74”210gn Berger VLD 0.985 0.321 2,582 11” 1,375 (1.22 M) 7.2 / 76”210gn Berger BTLR 0.988 0.320 2,582 11.25” 1,371 (1.22 M) 7.3 / 76”210gn Sierra MK 1.000 0.316 2,582 11.1” 1,359 (1.21 M) 7.4 / 77”215gn Berger Hybrid 0.910 0.356 2,551 10.3” 1,454 (1.29 M) 6.4 / 67”220gn Sierra MK 1.068 0.310 2,522 11.2” 1,296 (1.15 M) 7.9 / 83”230gn Berger Hybrid 0.911 0.380 2,467 10” 1,450 (1.19 M) 6.2 / 65”

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Many BPCR rifles (mine included) have a barrel length of around 30 inches with a sight radius of around 34 inches. This means that we can treat 1/100th of an inch on the rear sight to equate to one minute of angle (MOA).

Interim distances not listed can usually be estimated accurately enough to put a round on target, enabling further adjustment. It should be noted that when shooting at ranges other than Diggle, these settings vary slightly depending on elevation above sea level, atmospheric conditions and range construction.

Many mid-range sights are fitted with a only a 21/2 inch staff, which would really be suitable for shooting up to 800 yards but, the Pedersoli USA 405 Mid Range Soule is fitted with a 3 inch staff, although not all this can be used due to the scaled aperture block, which takes up valuable space.

However, from this data we can see that if you intend to shoot at ranges not exceeding 1000 yards, then a mid-range vernier sight with a 3 inch staff will be adequate for the job but, with a free play of only 0.5 inches or 50 MOA then you are at a maximum. It can also be noted that my Sharps is fitted with a windage adjustable front sight which is somewhat taller than the fixed version, therefore it follows that the sight settings would in fact be lower if a fixed front sight was used, giving more adjustment.

Long-range vernier sights are usually fitted with a 4in staff allowing for approximately 31/2 inches of vertical adjustment and so should be adequate for 1200 yards or perhaps even longer ranges.

Comments and questions please to;[email protected]

Medium-range versus long-range sights at 1000 yardsby Ken Hall

With the first Quigley shoot of

2012 still a week or two away,

Ken takes a closer look at sights

suitable for shooting at longer

ranges with the black-powder

cartridge rifle.

When selecting a sight for your

nice new black powder cartridge

rifle (BPCR) - be it of Winchester,

Sharps, or Remington pattern -

some thought must be given to the

selection of suitable sights.

The rear sight must be capable of fine adjustment in order to capitalise on the inherent accuracy of these rifles so, in some ways, the choice is made simpler in that it means the sight should be of the vernier adjusting type. Also, one of the first considerations must be to decide on the distances at which you intend to compete, short range (up to 400 yards), medium range (up to 800 yards) and long range (up to 1200 yards).

Let’s assume a calibre of 45/70 as this probably accounts for the majority of BPCR rifles sold in this country and is probably the chambering chosen by most newcomers to the discipline. Testing carried out at the actual distances has given the following results which, whilst not guaranteed to work with every rifle/sight combination out there, should provide a reasonable guide.

It would be nice if the sight, when fitted and zeroed at 100 yards (the normal zeroing range and usually the shortest range to be encountered) gave a reading of 0.00 in on the scale. However, owing to variations in butt-to-action angles (comb) between the different types of rifle and, to some degree, the style of front sight fitted, this is rarely the case, so once the 100 yard setting is found by actually firing groups, it should be noted in your shooter’s record book.

QUIGLEY SHOOTINGASSOCIATION NEWS

QUIGLEY SHOOTINGASSOCIATION NEWS

Actual sight-setting for 1000 yds showing adjustment remaining.

Full extent of of Pedersoli USA med. range sight adjustment.

RANGE (yards) SIGHT SETTING (inches) ELEVATION100 0.39 00mins 400 0.84 +45mins600 1.21 +37mins1000 2.10 +89mins

The following chart plots the number of minutes, or 1/100th inch of elevation adjustment required for shoots at Diggle Ranges using my Pedersoli Sharps with a load of 68 grains of Swiss No 3 behind a Lyman 530 grain Postell bullet.

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United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association News by Tony SaundersPractical Shotgun:

This month...Weak-hand reloading from a caddy.By Mike Siva-JothyI saw my first Practical Shotgun competition a few weeks ago and good fun it looked too – as using any semi-auto firearm usually is! Mike Siva Jothy won the comp. and I was really impressed with his rapid reloading technique. “Any chance of an article for Target Shooter Mike...?

I started shooting practical shotgun (PSG) a couple of years ago when members at my local club (Thurnscoe) started to get the bug. It’s an addictive shooting discipline (regardless of your age or athleticism) because its dynamic and you have to think on your feet. Good course designers will test your skills at trading off efficient movement, reloading, positioning and aiming. Courses of fire are usually timed shoots – so speed and accuracy are critical.

The other thing I like about PSG

is that, as a novice, the old-hands

tend to look after you and are

generous with advice. However

there are a couple of critical things

that affect your ability to progress

for which there is precious little

help.

Number one is some objective evaluation of section 1 shotguns. Since you can not shoot these guns unless they are on your firearm certificate, many beginners (myself included) fumble their way through at least one ‘entry gun’ before finding a suitable stick. It won’t be long now but there is an article on the way that will address this issue.

The other drag on progress is reloading technique. Watching the top-end shooters at competitions quickly highlights the importance of quick, sure-handed, reloading. It’s the easiest way to reduce your times on long courses of fire and it allows you to recover time when your aiming goes to pot. It is probably the only aspect of PSG that you cannot bring from other shooting disciplines and most PSG shooters just muddle along.

What follows in this article is the formalized technique/process that I developed from watching the best shooters in the UK and analyzing what they did, by breaking the process down. Many of those guys and gals reload from caddies like greased racing snakes – but they have been at it for years. As a beginner, it didn’t take long to realize I could shoot the targets quickly, I just couldn’t get those shells in the gun at anything like a competitive speed.

UKPSANEWS

Two caddies with live shells and one with dummy shells – all loaded with the brass end against the caddy spacer on the left hand side (i.e. set-up for a rightie). Note, the caddies are attached to a very stout belt (which is attached to a very stout shooter). There is enough space between the caddies to get those two curled up fingers in between.

The butt of the gun is tucked under my arm (stopping the gun rotating downwards and off- setting the weight of the barrel). My strong hand acts as the pivot. I have also rotated the gun slightly clockwise down its long axis – this makes getting the shells in just a little bit easier.

(Inset). A perfectly placed set of shells after stripping – all sitting proudly in my hand, all resting on my ring finger. If you sit them on your pinky they are too far down to thumb into the mag. This way my thumb hardly has to move to get under the first shell. This is the transit from stage 1 into stage 2.

Dog’s-head shadow puppet – in this position your hand should slot naturally into position – your extended fingers over the exposed shells and your curled up fingers down the side of the caddy. Keep those curled up fingers running up the side of the caddy as you extract the shells and the shells will be in the right position as you bring your hand up.

(Above). Indexing the first round. I use the tip of my finger to feel the front of the carrier. The natural consequence of this is that the first shell is ready to go in and the remaining three are all nicely aligned on top of my ring finger (the one with the ring on it).

(Above). The first round is indexed. (Right ). I start stage 3 and begin thumbing the shells in firmly and steadily. Note - the gun is canted in the wrong direction for the benefit of the camera.

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UKPSANEWS

Of course, there is a lot of chest puffing here – there are any number of You Tube videos showing selected clips of people loading 8 shells in less than 5 seconds! God knows how many attempts it took them to get that perfect reload. Of course, world-class shooters can reload like that consistently.

All I want to do is be able to strip and load 8 rounds in less than 8 seconds without fumbling – most novices would be happy with that in a competition.

The method outlined below is the result of watching Master and A-grade shooters at competitions and copying them. I keep what works for me and dump what doesn’t. I take no credit for inventing this method – all I have done is watched and analysed experienced shooters.

It’s helped me and my advice, based on it, has helped those who have asked me. I offer it to you in the same spirit. Use this article as a foundation but, go out there and watch elite shooters, experiment with and tweak their techniques and see what works for you. Above all, watch and copy – there is no shame in that.

Starting off.If you want to reload consistently and quickly get a decent belt and some caddies. There is a great article by Tony Saunders in the April 2011 Target Shooter looking at the pros and cons of different ammunition belts. Some very fast shooters on the circuit strip off pairs of rounds from a wide belt and run them into an upside-down gun. I can’t do that. I have seen other shooters strip rounds from clips with their strong hand and reload like lightning. I can’t do that either. The method I am extolling is week-hand loading from a caddy – it works for me - but there are other methods that may work better for you.

There are several suppliers for stripper clips – I use California Competition Works because they are relatively easy to get hold of. Most caddies work in the same basic way. They have a spacer which you will need to fit into the caddy so that your shells are not jammed in but are loose enough to strip out easily without falling out. If you are right-handed and are stripping rounds with your left hand (which I

am – consequently this article is for righties – south paws need to reverse these instructions), then put the spacer down the left-hand side of the caddy.

The shells go in with the primer to the left. This means that when you strip the shells from the caddy they are sitting relatively high up in your hand (we will come back to this later). You need to attach your caddies to a stout, stiff belt that doesn’t flex as you try and strip the shells from the caddy. I recommend 4 shot caddies - the sixes are OK for loading at the firing point but you can’t get more than 4 shells in your hand at a time during a speed reload.

I ‘hold’ the caddies in place on the belt with cable ties (see the photo below) – this stops them moving too close together during a competition. You will see why this is important shortly. When you are starting out - or if you have small hands - load 3 shells into the caddy – its easier to practice stripping and loading.

The other thing worth buying is four aluminium 12g dummy shells. They are expensive but last a long time and mean you can practice reloading at home. They feel more-or-less right in terms of weight (the plastic ones don’t) but their main disadvantage is that they go into the mag much easier than real shells. NEVER practice with live rounds at home. EVER!

So now you have your belt and caddies, your dummy shells and your gun we can start practicing.

Starting off with an empty gun in ‘aim’ position. Release your weak hand, lower the gun with your strong hand (finger out of the trigger guard – OK its an empty gun and you are using dummy rounds, BUT make safe technique an aim of your drills too) and tuck the butt into the crook of your strong arm. In this position the barrel weight pulls the front of the gun down, your strong hand acts as a fulcrum and your armpit locks everything in place. It’s a natural and comfortable position and provides a very stable position for reloading.

With the gun in this position the reloading process can begin – it should happen in three distinct stages:

Stage 1 – Strip the caddy Stage 2 – Index your hand under the gun’s carrier Stage 3 – Thumb the rounds into the magazine

If I run these three sub-processes in sequence - even when I am in the middle of a competition course of fire - my reloading is smooth and fast. The biggest cause of screw-ups for me is to let this process slip out of sight and revert to ‘get the rounds into the mag as fast as possible’ mode.

The easiest way to convince yourself that ‘process’ is more important than ‘speed’, even if its counter intuitive, is try one after the other and see the difference in consistency and average times. You might just get a super-fast reload in headless-chicken mode but, you will get consistently faster average reloads if you focus on process. Another trick that works for me is to imagine the fastest I have ever loaded the gun and then consciously reload at 80% of that speed. I always load faster in 80% mode and have significantly fewer fumbles, than if I operate in 100% mode.

I now want to break down each stage into its component parts (again – don’t rely on instinct to do this – make yourself ‘think’ through each step as you do it. It produces a smoother, faster reload).

Stage 1. With your week hand in the ‘dog’s-head shadow puppet’ shape, plant your curled-up pinky and ring-finger on the outer edge of the left-hand side of the caddy. That’s your guide for the lift – keep them in contact with that edge throughout the lift. Your index and middle finger now curl round the bottom shell, your thumb on the top shell, and strip the contents of the caddy out in one positive smooth movement.

When you look at the shells in your hand they should all be sitting firmly on your ring-finger. (Putting the spacer on the LHS ensures the shells are always in the optimum position as they are stripped out of the caddy.)

That’s stage 1 sorted. Most of my mess-ups with reloading are caused by ‘panic’ stripping the caddy. If the shells are not sitting in the right way in your hand you might as well chuck them on the floor (which, by the way, is what you will end up doing anyway). Smooth IS fast.

Stage 2. This stage seems like the most pointless but is very important. With the shells sitting pertly in your hand, carefully index the top of the first shell into the gate on your gun. I use the tip of my index finger to

‘feel’ the lip on the gate and then move my hand (and the shells in it) forward so the top of the first shell slips into the gate. With your hand (and shells) now indexed you can move to stage 3.

Stage 3. Thumb the rounds into the magazine at 80% speed, paying attention to each shell. Don’t switch over to instinct now, stay focused on the process. Fumbles at this stage are caused by switching your brain onto something else. Again, don’t try and do this as fast as possible – do it smoothly and at 80% and you will be consistent and quick.

If you find that you are having problems getting the shells in smoothly try rotating the gun slightly clockwise down it’s long-axis (so the rib is between 12 and 1 o’clock). Slight canting like this can make a big difference, especially if you have small hands.

When you organise a practice regime with dummy rounds, you should concentrate on the process - don’t focus on speed, at least until you have conquered process. When you are loading live rounds at club shoots, don’t focus on speed, focus on process. What you will notice is that your speed starts to go up without you trying to load faster. Another benefit of this approach is that if you suffer from competition nerves, the mental focus on process tends to reduce anxiety and you end up shooting faster.

At any organized competition there will be a series of different starting options for loading. UKPSA use three different options and its worth figuring these into your practice drills:

Option 1 is a fully loaded start – 1 in the chamber and 8 in the tube (safety ON). So what’s to practice? Nothing at home but, when you get to the line in a competition, don’t load the gun from a box – load it from the caddies - use that time as practice. I keep two six-shell caddies round the back of my belt specifically for this and it means I don’t cheese off the RO by faffing about with a box of shells on the line.

Option 2 is nothing in the chamber and 9 in the tube, bolt forward (obviously on an empty chamber (safety can be off because there is nothing in the chamber). Again, load from your caddy on the line. The practice

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for this at home, with 4 dummy shells in the tube is to rack the gun as it comes up from the ‘trail’ position (by your side). What a lot of novices do when the beep goes off is look down at the gun, turn it so the bolt faces up, rack the bolt, turn it back, then lift the gun into the shooting position. You can shave off seconds by practicing racking the gun as you bring it up into the shoulder. You have to do this with your weak hand under the gun in a U-shape – rack the bolt with your index finger (your thumb is on the other side of the gun) and then move your weak-hand forward into the support position. It’s worth investing in an oversized charging-handle for this. With a bit of practice this all forms one smooth, and very fast, motion.

Option 3 is an empty gun. This is where your home practice with dummy rounds pays dividends. With an empty gun most novices start by picking up one shell, dropping it into the chamber, pressing the bolt-release button, then stripping their caddy. This seems like a lot of time for one round. I always start option 3 shoots with the bolt forward – load in 8 or 12 from my caddies and then rack the gun as I bring it up.

Once you get good at reloading from a caddy it quickly becomes apparent that the biggest cost in terms of time is moving your hand back and forth from gun to caddy – so why spend one transit for one shell when you can do it for four? All your dummy-round reloading drill is essentially for Option 3 starts or top-ups when the gun is running low on a course of fire.

A starter for a home drill is as follows. Notebook and pencil, shot timer or iPhone with the free surefire shot timer app, dummy shells and shotgun. Adjust the sensitivity of the app so that it picks up the sound of you racking the gun.

With gun at the strong-hand trail, your dummy rounds in your belt and the shot timer set to random start, wait for the beep, load your 4 dummy shells and then rack the gun as you bring it up into the shoulder. The timer will give you the time from the beep to the rack - note down that time. Do this drill in small batches – I do ten reloads whenever I can, note down all ten times AND try and analyse what went wrong if I fumble

or take too long. Keep notes and read what went wrong in previous practices before doing the current practice. If you have a spread-sheet program like Excel, drop your times into it and plot your practice-averages against date. I guarantee you (a) improved reloading times and (b) fewer fumbles after only 2-3 weeks. Remember, poor quality practice only enforces bad habits – don’t practice unless you are focused and don’t do it for too long – little and often is better.

A good live-round drill on the range is to have five metal plates at about 15m – plates you can easily hit (poppers are best). Load three shells into the gun (one in the chamber, two in the tube – safety ON) and have the gun in the strong hand trail. On the beep, shoot one target, load 4, then shoot the remaining targets. Get the RO to note down your time and you should log it to monitor progress. Shooting against yourself like this is a good way to ‘stress-practice’ and benchmark your home-practice improvement. Keep notes and be critical and analytical (of yourself).

That’s my technique explained – I’m nowhere near the fastest at comps but, I no longer finish a shoot feeling frustrated because I fumbled shells or needing a calendar to measure my times. The best long-term advice as you build your own skill is ‘watch the fast shooters and nick their techniques’.

Have fun. Be safe.

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