Rifle The Sporting Firearms Journal

Number 120 November-December 1988 Volume 20, Number 6 ISSN 0162-3583

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FEATURES Pint-sized Sporter by Steven Dodd Hughes Down-sizing a target .22 for a youngster.

The Rail Gun by Layne Simpson An inside look at a real shooting machine. Recoil Therapy by Gary Sloan Your guns can kick less and be more fun to shoot.

The Luger Story - Part I by Ludwig Olson How the gun we call “Luger” came to be.

Protect and Insure Your Guns by Roger Stowers So you think your guns are covered? Think again.

Regulating a 9.3x74R Double Rifle by Gil Sengel Getting two barrels to shoot to the same place takes patience.

Smith & Wesson Classic Hunter (ProducTest) by AI Miller S&W builds a .44 that doesn’t look like a Smith.

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Page 3 2 . . .

DEPARTMENTS Spotting Scope by Tom Gresham Thoughts on a First Safari.

Capitol Watch by Neal Knox

Air Rifles by Jess Calan

Classic Rifles by Ken Waters

Famous Riflemen by Sam Fadala

Dear Editor Large Exit Pupil Advantageous, Reactivating Surplus Arms, Sergeant’s Choice.

Benchrest’s Biggest Party - The Super Shoot.

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6 The Presidential Election. 1

10 Daisy Manufacturing Company.

11 The Marlin Model 39.

12 Roy Chapman Andrews.

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16 18 Echols-Rabourn ,375.

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Page 1 8 . . . Benchrest Report by Skip Gordon

Custom Corner

ProducTests Smith & Wesson Classic Hunter, Balvar Variable, Arundel Sights.

Trophy Pointers by Bob Hagel An Overall Look at Handgun Hunting.

COPYRIGHT WOLFE PUBLISHING CO. 1988

On the cover . . . It could almost be a modern sculpture, but the Jarrett rail gun is a work- ing gun. On page 26, Layne Simpson conducts a detailed tour of the rail gun, a shooting machine desgned to reduce variables to a minimum. Photo by Dave Culver.

November-December 1988 3

SPOTTING SCOPE “I DON’T BELIEVE in people

owning guns, only the police and military. And I’m going to do everything I can to disarm this state.” - Michael Dukakis.

PPC Brass Available

Late word from Skip Gordon is that 6mm PPC brass is available from three sources: (1) Sinclair International, 718 Broadway, New Haven, IN 46774; (2) R.W. Hart & Son, 401 Montgomery St., Nescopeck, PA 18635; and (3) Burger Bullets, 4234 N. 63 Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85033. Brass is made by Sako, im- ported by Stoeger, and a rough guess a t price is $17 per box of 20 unprimed cases.

First Thoughts on First Safari

Only four days back from my first trip to Africa doesn’t give one much time to collect thoughts. In fact, I’m still waking up at 3:OO a.m., or noon Victoria Falls time. And yet, a few observations can be made.

There will be articles in Handloader and Rifle on the loads and guns used, but I can say at this point that all the equipment worked perfectly - at least, all that got there. My guns arrived in Victoria Falls seven days after I did. So instead of my .338 and .416 Hoffman, I borrowed a .375 H&H from Chet Brown and covered the bases with it. The .338 did see some action, taking four animals.

The four hunters were all shooting Swift bullets, and on game from 150 pounds to 8,000 pounds there were no failures. Look for the complete run- down of the Swifts’ performance in Handloader next spring.

When my rifles finally arrived at the airport, Marilyn Van Wyk, wife of the professional hunter, drove into Vic Falls to pick them up. It was only after she lefi that we realized she didn’t have the key to the gun case, and she would have to show the guns to the folks a t customs. I wasn’t worried, though. This is the woman who, during an attack on their farm by terrorists several years ago, ran to the front door and emptied

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a Sten gun in their direction. She would get the case open if she had to use a crowbar. That wasn’t necessary, and the way she got in is an interesting note on gun case security.

A key was found at the airport which would open two of the three latches on the aluminum case, but the lock on the third latch wouldn’t budge. Marilyn simply picked the lock with a hairpin. Next time, I think I’ll look for a case I can padlock.

Our Zimbabwe hunting party was made up of Chet Brown and his son Mark. Chet, of Brown Precision, was the first person to make fiberglass rifle stocks some 20 years ago. Mark runs the stock making part of the company which now makes a number of custom guns, too. Bill McRea, outdoor writer and optics expert was the other member.

In the inevitable comparing of equip- ment, we were particularly impressed with a Zeiss scope Chet had brought over to use in hunting lions. A Euro- pean model, it had the 30mm tube and large objective lens as well as an extra heavy section on the duplex reticle. It was the brightest scope I’ve ever seen.

The plan was to hunt lion from a blind at night using just moonlight. We tried the scope with only a quarter moon and would have had no problem shooting with it in even those dim con- ditions. As luck would have it, Chet got a big male in the daylight hours.

McRea impressed me with a tidbit you can use next time you’re in a hunt- ing camp. Did you know you can see the moons of Jupiter with seven power binoculars? With my 10x40 Leitz glasses it was a snap.

As usually happens when several gun nuts gather around a campfire, we spent some time knocking around ideas on all sorts of gun topics in- cluding the standard 6-48 screws used to mount scopes on rifles. Brown Preci- sion regularly drills and taps the screw holes on heavy-recoiling rifles to 8-40 size. Chet pointed oiit that we arrived at the 6-48 standard back when we were mounting two-ounce receiver

PUBLISHING STAFF Dave Wolfe

President Mark Harris

Publisher Tom Gresham

Editor A1 Miller

Assistant Editor Holly McLean-Aldis

Copy Editor Jana Kosco

Advertising Manager Dave LeGate

Art Director Becky Pinkley

Production Supervisor Tammy Rossi

Circulation Manager Mardell Harms Carol Miller Ruth Robinson

Circulation Sharon Zalitis

Book Sales Manager Dave Culver

Photographer Ellen Fultz

Publication Assistant Roberta Montgomery

Executive Secretary

TECHNICAL STAFF Sam Fadala Jess Galan Skip Gordon Bob Hagel Neal Knox Wallace Labisky Ed Matunas Ludwig Olson Dave Scovill Layne Simpson Charles R. Suydam Mike Venturino Ken Waters

The Rifle is published bi-monthly by the Wolfe Publishing Company (Dave Wolfe, President), 6471 Airpark Dr., Prescott, Arizona 86301. (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (602) 445-7810. Second Class Postage paid at Prescott. Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S possessions and Canada - single issue, $3.50; 6 issues, $ 1 9 12 issues, $35; 18 issues, $50. Foreign - single issue, $4.50; 6 issues, $25; 12 issues, $47; 18 issues, $68. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might mcur from use of published loading data, or fmm recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the editor. Manuscripts from free- lance writers must be accompanied by a stamped, self- addressed envelope. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. Writers send for free editorial guidelines.

Change of address: Please give six weeks’ notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept., Rifle Magazine, 6471 Airpark Dr., Prescott. Arizona 86301

Rifle 120

We give The N R A Percent

C O N E T R O L D A P T A R M O U N T S H O W N I N C U S T U M G R A D E ON C U S T O M I Z E D

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I N G O R T A P P I N G E X C L U S I V E C O N C E A L M E N T OF M E A N S O F B A S E A N C H O R

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That the Conetrol mount i s the most beautiful avail- able today is not a claim: it i s the verdict of logic.

i b b

1 1 1 1 1 I 1 I 4 i For to contend any other mount can match it in looks

is to contend that mount‘s knobs and other projec- tions would be there even if the maker had not had to put them there. The question is, does the Conetrol system work? Conetrol gives you the consummate answer - a guarantee against failure for as long as you use it, for a5 long as you live.

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sights on nine-pound rifles. Now we’re putting scopes which weigh (with bases and rings) a pound or more onto rifles weighing six or seven pounds. Chamber that rifle for a .300 Magnum or larger, and you’re asking a lot of four tiny screws.

We’re not sure if this is a problem, but I’d be interested to hear from any Rifle readers who have had scope mounting screws break or loosen from recoil. - Tom Gresham

A Market for Gunsmiths

A letter from reader Jack Heibler of West Germany should set some gun- smiths to thinking. Heibler had Ray Montgomery of Ray’s Gunsmith Shop in Grand Junction, Colorado, rebarrel his Mannlicher-Schoenauer.

Not only was Heibler quite pleased with the work, he added that he would have paid three times as much to have it done in his home country. With the current exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the German mark, other gunsmiths might want to investigate appealing to that market.

November-December 1988

Guns Used in Defense a Million Times

It’s said that if you repeat anything often enough, no matter how senseless, people will believe it. It’s called the Big Lie theory, and it has been used suc- cessfully more times than we can count. We’re all familiar with the one which says guns are no good for defend- ing yourself (and its sidekick - you’re more likely to be hurt with your own gun than you are to hurt a criminal).

An article in Gun Week quotes a study originally published in the February issue of Social Problems which says that in 1980 guns were used defensively a total of about one million times. The study was authored by Dr. Gary Kleck, associate professor of criminology at the School of Crim- inology at Florida State University.

Included in the one million figure were 1,500 to 2,800 felons who were legally killed by gun owners and about 8,700 to 16,000 criminals who were nonfatally wounded.

Another important facf to come out of this study is that people who use guns in self defense are least likely to

be injured as a result of the crime. “I didn’t quite expect it to be that safe, that injury free, for people to resist with guns,” said Kleck.

Some 17 percent of people using guns to defend themselves from robbers were injured, and only 12 percent of the ones resisting assault. The percentage of people injured who used other methods of self defense or no defense at all ranged from 24.7 to 50.8 percent in rob- bery and 24.7 to 52.1 percent in assault.

Pointing out that many cases aren’t reported to the police, Kleck said, “If someone successfully uses a gun to resist a robbery so that they were neither injured nor lost property, there’s no reason for them to report that to the police. In fact, most victims in such a circumstance would think they hadn’t even been a victim of a crime. And the cops never hear about the huge part of the iceberg under- neath the surface where the defensive use of handguns were successes.”

Wanna bet that you won’t hear this study quoted on the six o’clock news? - Tom Gresham 0

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Looking more like a machine than a rifle, the rail gun is designed to reduce or eliminate variables. Only Simpson (shown here) would have one barrelled for ,270 Winchester, as this one is. At 65 pounds, that’s some mountain rifle!

Layne Simpson

URING THE LATE 1940s, when D benchrest shooting as we know it today was still in its infancy, the sky was the limit when it came to the types of rifles allowed in competition. In those days the typical bench gun with its long, fat barrel and oversized wood stock was quite massive. Most of those rifles were built around military surplus actions such as the 1898 Mauser, 1903 Springfield and 1917 Enfield, mainly, I suppose, because they were available and the Remington Model 722 action had yet to make its debut.

As time went by, it was decided that since variety is the spice of many things, including shooting sports, various classes of competition would be established, and within each class the rifles of competitors would have to con- form to certain rules, regulations and restrictions. As a result of that line of thinking, the sport of benchrest shooting was eventually divided into five distinct classes of competition. The original class that started it all has re- mained unchanged, and even today those rifles are restricted only by a shooter’s imagination or his physical

ability to tote his creation to the bench- rest. That particular segment of bench- rest competition was then called Benchrest Rifle Class. Then came Varmint Class, Heavy Varmint Class, Sporter Class and Hunter Class rifles, each restricted to certain limitations in weight and dimension and, in the case of the latter two, their calibers as well. Today, the five respective classes of benchrest rifles are more commonly referred to as Unlimited, Light Varmint, Heavy Varmint, Sporter and Hunter.

Until around 1970, about the only difference between the Benchrest Rifle or Unlimited Class gun and those ac- cepted for other classes of competition was their weights. Both were fired while resting atop a sandbag out front and another at the rear. Otherwise, those early Unlimited Class guns might simply be described as a bolt- action rifle of reasonably conventional form but with various dimensions about right for the Jolly Green Giant. Then shooters decided that mass and weight alone, though important, were not the whole solution to the problem of shooting a handfulpf bullets into one ragged hole. What was needed was some way of returning the rifle to battery between shots with greater

uniformity and precision than was possible when it simply rested atop two sandbags.

I believe the next big step in the evolution of the Unlimited Class gun arrived with the development of the mechanical rear rest. The first such device I had ever heard of was the Ferguson rest, written up by Jim Gilmore in his Bench Report column in Rifle No. 22. The Ferguson rest, as Jim described it, had precision windage and elevation adjustments and a steel or Delrin button which mated with a V-way that was inletted into the bot- tom of a rifle’s buttstock. Available at additional cost was a lever actuated cam that enabled the shooter to quickly switch bullet point of impact from the record target to the sighter target.

The mechanical rear rest proved to be so successful that it wasn’t long before it dawned on competitors that if replacing the rear sandbag with such a device was good, replacing both sand- bags with two such devices would be even better. And so it came to pass that a rifle that had once differed from rifles used in other classes of competition only by its mass and weight had evolved into what would, in today’s benchrest circles. be considered as a

26 Rifle 120

The Rail Gun I

Two major components comprise the rail gun. The action and barrel are wedded to the rail to form the upper unit. The base features elevation and windage adjustments.

rather primitive form of machine rest. Even so, the Unlimited Class gun of yesteryear still looked a great deal like a rifle in the traditional sense. But eventually that would change.

After talking with several benchrest shooters who have been in the game for many years, I still have no idea who first came up with the design of the Unlimited Class gun as we know it today. Whoever he might have been, I suspect he thought that since the name of the game is to try to put all bullets into the same hole, and since there were no restrictions to get in the way of revolutionary thinking, such a machine really didn’t have to look like a rifle. So, rather than having a rifle of more or less conventional form gliding to and fro on two separate mechanical rests, the two rests were joined together by a common base. Up top, the rifle stock was discarded and the barreled action simply attached to a massive chunk of metal to eventually be called a rail. And so the rail gun was born. Or something like that.

Many rail guns punching holes in paper today are one-of-a-kind works of precision built by individual shooters. Consequently, they differ considerably in appearance, the materials used in

November-December 1988

their fabrication and minor design details. All are, however, nothing more than variations of the basic mechanical rest.

My rail gun was built by Bill Hall, who at one time probably turned out more of those works of art than any other individual. After Bill decided to retire from the business, Kenny Jarrett of Jarrett Rifles, Inc., picked up the design, made certain minor modifica- tions to it, and started supplying rail guns to benchrest competitors. I also understand that several companies in need of such a machine for the testing of barrels and metallic cartridge com- ponents are taking a keen interest in Jarrett’s big gun. I suppose my gun would more correctly be called a Hall- Jarrett rail gun since Hall originally built it, and Jarrett more recently brought it up to date with various modifications.

With a bit of history and credits behind us, let’s now take a close look a t this engine called a rail gun.

The rail gun Jarrett is now building consists of two major parts: the base and the rail, with each made up of various aluminum, steel and bronze component parts. I’ll start at the bot- tom in describing it, then move up top

and after that you should know what makes such a firearm tick.

The base, carved from one inch thick aluminum plating, is shaped like an old ironing board and measures 10 inches wide at the rear and five inches wide at its front. Jarrett fabricates the three leveling bolts, one out front and two a t the rear, by first drilling holes in the ends of half-inch bolts. Then a tungsten carbide core from an armor piercing bullet is inserted into the ends of the bolts and held in place with epoxy. The extremely hard and sharp points of the leveling bolts allows them to dig into the bench top, even if it is made of concrete.

At the front of the base is a rather simple mechanical rest consisting in part of a 3%-inch diameter cylinder standing upright with one end bolted to the heavy aluminum plate. The cylinder with its bronze bushing inside serves as a housing for the rough eleva- tion wheel. Atop the wheel is a Delrin button that supports the front of the rail and also guides its to and fro travel by mating with a V-way on the under- side of the rail. At the rear of the V-way is a Delrin bumper which serves to ar- rest forward travel of the rail when it is pushed into battery in preparation for a shot.

Since it is designed to perform more functions, the mechanical rest attached at the rear of the base is far more com- plex than its mate out front. At the bot- tom is a fine elevation knob, replete with Delrin button on top and sup- ported vertically by a threaded bronze bushing in the base. Resting atop this button is the forward edge of a hinged

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plate with two Delrin buttons spaced six inches apart and attached to its top surface. The left-hand button mates with a V-way on the underside of the rail and thus both supports and guides the rail. The right-hand button rests in- side a raceway on the bottom of the rail, rather than a V-way, and for this reason it supports the left side of the rail but leaves all guiding to its mate and the button out on the front mechanical rest. When the fine elevation knob is turned counterclockwise, it lifts the for- ward edge of the plate which in turn lifts the rear of the rail for a downward shift in bullet point of impact. And, of course, turning the elevation knob in the opposite direction causes the op- posite to happen to point of impact.

At its rear edge, the plate hinges on and is held up by a rod which is sup- ported horizontally on each end by a

vertical bracket. The two brackets are bolted to the base, with their inside surfaces spaced about an inch farther apart than the width of the plate resting between them. Wrapped around the support rod and held cap- tive between the inside of the right- hand vertical bracket and the right- hand side of the plate is a heavy coil spring. On the opposite side, the end of the threaded shank of a windage ad- justment knob protrudes horizontally through the left-hand bracket and rests against the left side of the plate. Turn- ing the knob clockwise causes the plate to move to the right along its support rod, and in doing so it compresses the coil spring. When this is done, the rear of the rail moves along with its support plate and bullet point of impact moves left. Turning the knob counterclock- wise allows the compressed spring to push the plate to the left and point of

The underside of the rail shows the rear raceway (top), the rear V-way (bottom), and the front V-way (right). Note the convenient carrying handle.

a I

I I Looking not unlike a heavy ironing board, the base sports the front and rear mechanical rests. The front rest performs coarse elevation adjustments while the rear rest adjusts for windage and fine elevation.

impact shifts to the right. Still with me?

Just forward of the windage adjust- ment knob is another knob lying flat on the base and with part of its top sur- face beveled. Simply described, it is a camming device that when twisted one-half turn, quickly shifts bullet point of impact either up or down the exact distance between the record and sighter targets. Let’s say that while in the process of firing a group on the record target, range conditions change. By twisting the cam knob, the shooter can instantly shift bullet point of im- pact down and fire a few shots on the sighter target to see what effect the changes had on the flight of his bullets. After he decides how much windage and/or elevation to dial into the gun to compensate for the changes in condi- tions, he twists the cam knob again and is back on the record target. Or, if no windage or elevation adjustments are made, the cam knob will return bullet point of impact precisely to where it was on the record target before all the excitement began.

The rail is a 26-inch long section of five-inch aluminum I-beam, with a web thickness of close to half an inch. On its bottom side, out at center front, is one ofthe previously mentionedv-ways with a Delrin bumper at its rear. About 10 inches aft of this return to battery bumper or stop is a second Delrin bumper which prevents the rail from recoiling completely off the base. At its rear, the web of the rail is contoured and slotted for the trigger, and a trig- ger bow carved from %-inch thick aluminum stock is held in place by two bolts.

Bolted to the top of the rail is a massive block of aluminum, 3% inches wide, six inches long and three inches high. Its purpose in the scheme of things is to join the barreled action and the rail together into one immovable object. I should also mention that this type of block is used with cylindrical receivers such as the Remington XP-100 and 40X. When installing this type of receiver, it is first turned to perfect concentricity, coated with epoxy and encased by a two-inch diameter aluminum tube or sleeve with a wall thickness of .350 inch. (I believe the

28 Rifle 120

sleeves Jarrett uses are made by A.L. Davidson.) Since the sleeve is 10 inches long, it extends from the rear of the receiver bridge on my XP-100 action to considerably beyond the front of its receiver ring. Prior to installing the sleeve on the receiver, a narrow loading/ejection port is milled out of its side. Then the outer surface of the sleeve is coated with epoxy and it is in- serted into a closely fitting hole bored through the block of aluminum, with its front surface resting flush with the front of the block.

When using a flat-bottom action such as the Stolle, Jarrett substitutes a thin- ner stainless steel mounting block for the aluminum block and mounts the receiver to its top with counterbored bolts extending up from the bottom of the block. Then he mounts the scope directly to the receiver with Kelbly custom rings.

Not much is left to be said about what makes up a rail gun except its weight. The total weight of mine, with sleeved XP-100 action, 23-inch Hart barrel of 1%-inch diameter in 6mm PPC, and Bausch & Lomb 36x scope held in place by a Weaver two-piece base and Bushnell rings pegs the old cotton scale at a couple of ounces shy of 65 pounds. For transporting the gun

Kontinued on page 48)

Black Delrin buttons support the raceways of the rail. Simpson lubricates them with Lemon Pledge. Large thumb screw is for fine elevation adjustment, and at right is the sighter target cam.

Rear mechanical rest. At left i s the sighter target cam and adjustment screw. Cam is adjusted for record target. Large wheel at right is windage adjustment.

The action is epoxied into the aluminum sleeve, which i s epoxied into the rectangular mounting block. Scope is a Lyrnanhiebert conversion in Bushnell mounts.

November-December 1988

Leveling leg (left) has a point of tungsten carbide to bite into the bench. Mariner’s wheel under the front Delrin button adjusts rough elevation. Thumb wheel is for locking the rough elevation.

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