Target Shooter

February 2012 IssueTARGET SHOOTERTARGET SHOOTER

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ContentsFebruary 2012 Issue

Regulars & more...

ContentsFebruary 2012 Issue

Page 6

Page 14

2

Page 26

Page 32

Page 44

Page 76

Page 64

Continued

Interview with Gary Costello by Target Shooter Magazine. Three months have flown by since our last shoot of the 2011 season - the Europeans at Bisley. Now it’s time to start thinking about 2012 and our opening shoot at Diggle in April. Maybe you are building a new rifle for this year – or rebarrelling your existing one? Maybe you are contemplating entering the League for the first time – if so, our Training Weekend at Bisley in February would be a good start – there are still a few places left.

Conor McFlynn from Northern Ireland travels to Italy for the World Field Target Championship and comes home with the silverwear! But let’s hear it from Conor...

Bergara and their new ‘no gunsmithing’barrels... Vince tries a 6.5x47 Bergara pre-fit barrel and Chris Parkin tries his hand at re-barrelling his 243 stalking rifle with a 6mm Bergara. Firstly, a bit of history. I ‘discovered’ the Spanish Bergara barrels at the IWA Show about five years ago. I got all excited to find we had another European barrel maker! After all, there aren’t that many.

Bi-pods for Tactical & Field use by Richard Utting. We’ve covered bi-pods for F Class on a number of occasions in the past but some surprising developments are taking place with tactical/field bi-pods. If you think your Harris is the ‘ultimate’, read on. We’re comparing the solid Harris, the adjustable-tension, panning Versa-pod, the Atlas and a Finnish version from the military arm of SAK which also pans.

THE HANDLOADING BENCH - 308 Winchester Rides Again. By Laurie Holland - Part 2. I’ll look at Lapua’s 308 Win ‘Palma’ match case this month, exploring its raison d’être, wondering whether it’s worth the extra money over the common or garden large primer model (£79.73 v £56.96 per 100recommended retail prices).

Keep up-to date with all the latest news from the shooting world...

LATEST NEWS Page 64

SMALLBORE BUSINESS page 60

UKPSA NEWS Page 94

FROM THE BENCHPage 58

LATEST NEWS Page 90

QUIGLEY ASSOCIATION NEWSPage 92

AND MUCH, MUCH MORE...

Sorting a Savage. PART 2 The Conclusion. by Laurie Holland. As regular Target Shooter readers will be aware, Laurie has pioneered the 223 Rem. as an alternative to the 308Win. in top-level F/TR competition. When re-barrelled, the rifle was not quite delivering the performance that Laurie had come to expect...

Premier Reticles is a name synonymous with scope modification and customisation, certainly familiar to both Field Target air rifle and Benchrest shooters who wanted to boost magnification on a Leupold... BY CHRIS PARKIN

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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.

Where were we? Yes, we were late with our internet launch this month. Our usual ‘first of the month’ boast was thwarted - by an underground cable fault which took my internet down for six days – at a very critical time. I live in a small village with its own telephone exchange and it suffered a catastrophic failure.

We were just back from the Las Vegas Shot Show, with but a few days to get the mag. together and launch our Shot Show supplement. The US Shot Show was a great experience for us – we met some great folk and we got to shoot plenty of pistol and lots of semi-auto stuff and even some full-auto! The supplement will be on-line very shortly, so keep checking our website.

The Shot Show supplement will be another free download, as is this issue of Target Shooter which is kindly sponsored this month by the Shooting Show. The Newark Shooting Show takes place on the 25th & 26th of February and is the largest European shooting show open to the general public. Please have a look at their website www.theshootingshow.co.uk but more importantly, please get yourself over to Newark and support YOUR show!

Without our advertisers and sponsors, we couldn’t possibly keep Target Shooter free to read on-line and we at Target Shooter are really looking forward to Newark and meeting as many of you as possible. Please come along to our stand and say hello to the guys and gals who put together your favorite shooting magazine and feel free to give us your thoughts and ideas.

Vince, Yvonne & Steve

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

Welcome to the new look February 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 - Chris Parkin - Ken Hall - Don Brooke

Alan Whittle - Tony Saunders - Gwyn Roberts - Carl Boswell & Richard Utting

Cover & Back Page Photograph by Steve Thornton

Webitorial February 2012

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The Premier Reticles Heritage 5-25x56 Tactical Scopeby Chris Parkin

Premier Reticles is a name

synonymous with scope modification

and customisation, certainly familiar

to both Field Target air rifle and

Benchrest shooters who wanted to boost

magnification on a Leupold...

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

The Premier Reticles Heritage5-25x56 Tactical Scopeby Chris Parkin


8 9



The Premier Reticles Heritage 5-25x56 Tactical Scope by Chris Parkin

Premier Reticles is a name synonymous with scope modification and customisation, certainly familiar to both Field Target air rifle and Benchrest shooters who wanted to boost magnification on a Leupold. Now, they have moved into their own line of optics and, when a tactical scope arrives with a price of £2429, a performance promise and a specification list to match it, the sceptic in me wants to see if it lives up to the hype.

No mistaking the prime targetThe first characteristic that struck me was the visual and proportional similarity to what has become the current benchmark in this field, the S&B PMII, so Premiers’ prime target is clear. There are a lot of specification choices that can be made - with turrets and click units, along with full reticle information easily accessible online. However, only two reticles are offered, both in the first focal plane. Anyone buying a scope of this type will more than likely study these specifications carefully and/or certainly has knowledge of their individual features before reaching for their wallet. Premiers’ own website is keen to point this out! www.premierreticles.com

The reticle on our scope is a `Gen2 XR` - essentially a variation on the standard mil-dot with extra hash marks every half milradian (Mrad). Being set in the first focal plane (FFP), it exhibited the usual compromise of staying precisely relative in size to the target image at the expense of being large or small at either end of the zoom range. Mil readings, aim-offs,

adjustments and zeroing are virtually impossible to do incorrectly but, as magnification

bottoms out, the reticule reaches a fifth of its former size.

The tactical turrets are beyond fingertip size and the ones here were getting on for fist-sized grip requirements, so no problem with gloves on. Clicks were 0.1 Mrad with

a more solid detent and heavier click every full Mrad.

This is in line with a competitor - US Optics patent and allows

corrections that are more quickly and easily defined, MTC simply means `More Tactile Click`.

15 Mrad are available within each rotation and the turret

is double turn, the spec shows 28 Mrad are available but,

after zeroing, I was limited to 18 Mrad although at

approximately 64 Minutes of Angle (MOA), this is roughly the same as the PMII and quite adequate. The turret rotated

clockwise for `up` but anti-clockwise ones are an option

and as this is a topic that often divides shooters’ opinion, top

marks there.

What is missing is a Schmidt & Bender type rotation indicator. Although a zero stop is featured, helpfully

situated 0.5 Mrad below `zero`, there is nothing to indicate you are into the second full rotation. Confusing 1 Mrad with 16 for example is a BIG miss! Windage is clearly marked by an identical turret and runs 6 Mrad left and right of zero. Alternative turrets are available and can be easily retrofitted by the user to alter the click values.

Lens caps includedEvery external surface on the scope is aluminium - no rubber or plastics in sight and rotating components are all machine-knurled for secure grip. The matt anodised 34mm tube is well finished and the left side parallax knob also has a telescopic illumination control within it. Simply draw it out and dial from 1-11 for reticule illumination. Between the numbers the lights go out, allowing you to have quick on/off near your chosen setting, although the turret does not push back in unless you dial back to zero.

The design and build of the scope exudes a stylish and practical feel without being over the top in anything but physical size. A Butler Creek pop-up objective lens-cap, coupled with a custom cap at the back are included. Strangely, there isn’t a fast-focus eyepiece,

instead the older style lock-ring and rotating lens body to which the special lens cap clips. I don’t have a problem with this, as when correctly set, I have rarely if ever had to alter one quickly but it seems unusual not to have followed recent trends. The diopter variation is broad and no problem was found in it’s function at all. 90mm of eye relief kept the scope well clear of my eye during recoil.

Love or Hate?The most unusual and questionable feature of this scope is the small toggle on both elevation and windage turrets. Instead of zeroing your scope and

Eyepiece focus was not `fast` but functional, a `Butler-Creek` style cap came included and fitted neatly.

First Focal plane MIL dot reticules are a popular choice as mistakes are impossible. Im not sure they work well with a 5x erector tube though.

First Focal plane MIL dot reticules are a popular choice as mistakes are impossible. Im not sure they work well with a 5x erector tube though.

10 11

then using a small Allen key to remove and re-zero the turret, all you do is flip up the lever and rotate the knobs back to zero and then latch them back down. That sounds simple and it is but, what seems unnerving is that when you do this, although the reticule isn’t moving, the turrets still ‘click’ as normal. It is a little leap of faith to be sure you have used the lever to correctly disengage the turret. Some will like it, some will not and, I for one certainly re-checked my zero after their use and although sceptical, I was not let down.

Staight onto the plateWith a 34mm main tube, the Premier’s Heritage fitted easily into a Third Eye tactical Unimount onto my 308 Remmy 700. The benefits of the mil-dot system coupled with FFP reticules were immediately obvious with a three-shot zeroing session and one extra shot - to check those unusual `clicks`. Then, I went straight into a head to head steel plate match at 400 yards with both turrets dialled straight into zero at that range.

The click values for such a quick test perfectly matched my range card using known data on my bullet and that was enough to tell me these click values are accurate. I find fast, competitive shooting is a good test of optics as it forces your eyes to work very quickly, both acquiring targets and focusing on the relevant reticle and target images. Poor optics flag up here with extra ocular effort required and I am pleased to say, my eyes had no room for complaint.

Both the field of view and edge-to-edge clarity were exemplary. Although this competition was single aiming point territory, the 0.5 and 1 mil increments had worked in total harmony with the turrets to zero or aim off for wind, although below about 10x magnification, the reticule was getting very small and harder to gauge. Illumination covered the central tree but was generally only used on its highest setting as balanced against any quality of glass - there is no point seeing a reticle without an image to partner it.

I tested the optics alongside a few other top-end scopes as light faded and I was very impressed with the extra field of view, clarity and brightness offered, no light conditions were encountered where any flare was a problem and colour rendition seemed honest. This is a very good scope and if you like first focal plane reticles, it certainly stands equal to competitors both optically and mechanically. There is more than a sniff of `German quality’ in the glass.

Familiar looks...

Familiar ethos...

Familiar glass...



12 13

Illumination control was within the left side parallax dial.

The toggles will divide opinion, some will find it utter simplicity, others will find them unsettling.

LikesSuperb glassTactile turretsWide Field of View

DislikesThe toggles on the turrets will not suit allDust gaps under those big turretsNo second focal plane reticules offered

OverallI’m personally no fan of second focal plane reticles and the optics and mechanics shown here are absolutely fantastic - American mechanics with European glass, a tough competitor!

Technical SpecificationReticule Mil-dot with extra half mil marksClick Values 0.1 MilradianClicks Per turn 150Full rotation 2 TurnsBody Tube 34mmParallax 50m to infinityField of View 7.6-1.6m @ 100m (5-25x mag)Weight 39oz (1.1kg)Length 17 inches (433mm)

Price £2429Sunshade £75.60Extra turrets (Mrad-MOA) £151.2034mm Rings £176.40

Contact: LGA supplies www.lgasupplies.com Telephone - 01904 608365



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Sorting a Savage Part 2THE CONCLUSION By Laurie Holland


Sorting a Savage

PART 2 The Conclusion.by Laurie Holland

As regular Target Shooter readers will be aware, Laurie has pioneered the 223 Rem. as an alternative to the 308Win. in top-level F/TR competition. When re-barrelled, the rifle was not quite delivering the performance that Laurie had come to expect...

My initial focus was now on the rifle’s bedding, in particular optimising rear screw tension. There is a relatively painless procedure for this, but as it relies on changes in group size and shape, you need access to a stable testing set-up and a 100-200 yard range with conditions such that reliable results can be obtained. You’ll also need 40 or more rounds of previously worked-up ammunition that has some chance of producing decent groups and a small torque-wrench calibrated in inch-pounds. While the latter is not 100% essential, it allows you to adjust the tension in small even steps and equally important, to return to the

optimum setting both during the tuning stage and also later if you take the action out of the stock for any reason. As noted, all Savages other than the PTA competition rifles (F, F/TR, BR, and Palma models) and single-shot LRPV (long-range precision varmint) rifles have two screws whose position is dictated by the magazine cut-out in the receiver floor. (Although a single-shot model, the BVSS Varmint rifle uses the twin screw set-up and its laminated stock has a large redundant cavity for the non-existant box magazine.

If you look at the modern Savage receiver, it’s obviously CNC-machined out of what starts as a tube, the rear couple of inches having most of the metal machined off to leave what looks like a shallow tang which would be drilled and tapped for the rear bedding-screw in a conventional Mauser-system action. However, both types of Savage action have the rear bedding screw further forward under the rear end of the tubular section. The ‘tang’ seems to be there mainly to act as a hanger for the trigger assembly and to house the sliding shotgun-style safety button.

Bedding and TuningAnyway, we’re now on the range complete with ammunition, Allen keys and torque wrench. The last named is a Wheeler FAT Wrench from Norman Clark Gunsmiths Limited, a modestly priced clutch-type model wrench adjusted by pulling the end cap back from the body and turning it. Let’s take the barrelled action out of the stock and start from scratch. I want to do this anyway to check there is nothing nasty hiding underneath that affects bedding efficiency. To do this with the McRees modular stock, the forend section has to be removed first to give access to the front bedding screw – no matter, undo four setscrews and take care not to drop it onto the concrete firing point floor, it being a simple lap joint. On a Savage or other conventional wood, laminated, or synthetic stock all bedding screw heads are of course immediately visible – and in this case we now count four! The rear screw is a short fellow, which just secures the back end of the trigger guard, so we leave it alone.

Now that I have the action out and inspected the bedding surfaces, everything turns out to be fine. The receiver body has left a straight, constant width witness mark along the top of each side of the bedding channel showing complete and apparently even contact. Shame! Finding and removing a foreign object would have provided an obvious solution to the problem and made things so much easier. Anyway, we now replace the action in the stock using the front two screws only. Taking slack out of the rear member of this pair and with the front one barely tightened, the rifle is held

upright and its buttstock rapped on a hard surface - the aforementioned crete floor - a couple of times to ensure the recoil-lug is in full contact with the stock. The front pair of screws are now done-up alternately a small amount at a time to ensure even tension. Using a torque wrench, 30 in/lb is about right for the factory Savage laminated stock with its small bedding pillars, although you can go a bit higher. Where the receiver goes onto a metal bedding block as in the LRPV models, or an all metal stock like my McRees, more torque is needed - at least 45 in/lb - with many authorities, including military and police armourers, using 60-65 in/lb. (This also applies to similar bedding jobs in rifles like the Remington PSS, VS, VSSF etc that use an H-S Precision synthetic stock with moulded in bedding block.)

Inching UpReturning to the three-screw Savage, we now insert the third and rearmost action screw through the front of the trigger-guard and only just tighten it. Shoot a group or two to get the bore fouled and then let the barrel cool for a few minutes before tightening it with a torque wrench to 5 or 10 in/lb (depending on the wrench’s minimum setting).

The procedure is: shoot a group, let the barrel cool and shoot another group after increasing the tension on the rearmost screw by 5 in/lb. Repeat until the tension is over 30 in/lb, even go up to 40 if you have the inclination and the ammunition. What you hope you’re going to see is the group shrink then open up again after you move out of the ‘sweet spot’. You need to keep a record of which group applies to which torque setting of course!

Finally, slacken the rear screw and return to the setting that gave the smallest group. If your torque wrench is calibrated finely enough, you can fine-tune the setting by shooting another couple of groups with the setting a couple of inch-pounds either side. Keep a record of your final settings on both sets of screws in case you have to remove and refit the

To carry out accurate evaluation, adjusting and shooting the rifle on a full benchrest set up like this one is ideal but any testing arrangement that provides consistent and genuinely comparable results on the target is suitable

The factory Savage 12 F Class rifle’s laminated stock uses small bedding pillars in the wood. The two front stock screws are tightened to 30-35 in/lb tension

1616 1717



Anyway, you can see the results in Figures 1 and 2. All target grids shown are one-inch incidentally. What was interesting – if depressing – was the recreation of both problems I’d suffered from last year. Group #3 at 15 in/lb tension produced a perfect facsimile of the 4 + 1 pattern, the ‘+1’ very low and slightly right, that I’d seen in the 800yd matches at Diggle and Bisley with both barrels. Group #4 at 20 in/lb produced the nearly straight vertical line that I’d seen at Bisley in the

European Championship 900 and 1,000yd matches. Going above that setting only made things worse, so in the end I settled on a setting between 10 and 15 in/lb. Two alternative combinations were now tried with this screw tension, a first go with the Berger 80.5gn BT ‘Fullbore’ and Viht N150; a retry of my original, very successful long range load – the Berger 90gn VLD with Alliant Reloder 15. The 80.5/N150 pairing started to look promising at the heaviest charge tried, so a bit further work will be done here. (The reason for strange 80.5 gn weight is that the bullet has been designed to just meet the ICFRA Palma / Fullbore Rifle regulation that states .223 Remington is eligible using bullets of ‘less than 81gn weight’ and is the small calibre partner to the 155.5gn 308 BT Fullbore model.)

The 90/Re15 load took me straight back into small groups at similar charge weights to those used in 2010 with the original 31 inch barrel but crucially with less pressure showing on the primers! Only three-round

action. Logically, if you make a major change to the load you’re using, such as moving from 155s to 200gn + weight bullets in a .308, it would be worthwhile repeating the exercise to tune the receiver tension to the optimal harmonics for that load.

Hopes Raised...In my case, the first problem that arose in my tuning session was that the ammunition left over from ‘The Europeans’ didn’t group at all well. A combination that had produced 0.4-inch groups during load development, simply wouldn’t go below the half-inch mark, in fact I’d have been happy to have got that! This was the 90gn Berger VLD / VarGet combination, a reworked version of what had worked very well for half of 2011 in the rifle’s original 31 inch barrel but which had inexplicably ‘gone off’ in that tube and which had struggled from Day One in its identical - if shorter - replacement. (TS editor Vince Bottomley has been known to say to all and sundry in the Diggle Ranges clubhouse on F-Class comp days that if anybody around knows a good method for re-attaching three inches of barrel, would they talk to Laurie!)

The Wheeler FAT Wrench from Norman Clark, an easy to use budget torque wrench

The McRees bedding channel after the action had been removed. This stock uses a direct metal to metal bedding system relying on close tolerance machining of both receiver and stock body alongside bedding screws done up very tight. Continuous and even ‘witness’ marks on the Duracoat finish showed primary bedding was OK.

The Savage three-screw PT action. The rear (right-hand) screw is used totune the action to the ammunition.

The rear screw, its head protruding from the trigger guard, is the last to be tightened, its tension having a significant effect on groups size and shape.

With the barrelled action back in the stock and the screws very lightly tightened, the butt is tapped on the floor to ensure the recoil lug is in hard contact with the stock. The lug is visible here with the stock fore-end removed.

1818 1919



I did say before that I’d pass a little more load data on. Late last year after a new barrel went on, I decided to give Viht N150 a try. I’d avoided the powder previously after hearing from Jerry Tierney over in California that he’d had some worrying pressure spikes with it,

getting a huge rise in MV and pressure signs from a 0.2gn charge weight increase. I’ve always liked this powder with heavy bullets in the cartridge and decided to give it a try, albeit acting very warily.

Five batches in well-used Lapua match brass, CCI-450 SR Magnum primer and charges of N150 rising from 23.6 to 24.0gn in 0.1gn steps (weighed on Acculab high-quality electronic scales to accurately allow such small differentiations) produced 0.2 to 0.7” groups, only one exceeding the half-inch. The top load produced a modest MV of 2,641 fps with a small ES of 9 fps, so there is scope for working it up a bit higher. Before shooters scoff at such ‘low performance’, run the 90gn Berger BTLR’s external ballistics on a decent G7 based program. The 800 yard wind-drift for a 2,640 fps load is 6.7-MOA in the classic 10 mph 90-degree crosswind which is better than that of the NRA’s RWS .308W / 155gn SMK ammunition, assuming that the latter produces a full 3,000 fps MV from a ‘tight-bore’ 30 inch barrel.

Retained velocities and wind-drift values for this load fall between those of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ 155gn Sierra ‘Palma’ MKs at a full 3,000 fps MV in fact. I wouldn’t

tout this as a 1000 yard load but it shows a great deal of promise for the shorter-range club shooter, has no recoil to speak of and will probably give 4,000-5,000

rounds barrel accuracy life. The 80.5gn Berger BT at 2800-2900 fps is gaining a good reputation too and I’ll try this bullet later on in the year in my F/TR rifle as well as another Savage .223 we’re working on – a rebarrelled ‘sporter’ designated as ‘an affordable clubman’s F/TR rifle’.

Figure 1: rear screw tension set at 5 – 20 in/lb

Figure 3: With the tension at just under 15 in/lb, a return to the 90gn VLD / Re15 ammunition combination appeared to have got the rifle shooting well again

groups mind you but the four batches covering 24.9 to 25.2gn ran at 0.15” to 0.4” (figure 3). Wow! Cracked it (again!). All I needed was a long-range match in reasonable conditions to prove I was back in business. ...and Dashed!The PSSA competition calendar fixtures allied to long bouts of stormy weather denied me that opportunity until the second Saturday of the new year, which saw a 600 yard F-Class match coincide with cold but settled weather – only 600 yards but enough distance to show if the ‘verticals’ had gone.

New load or not they hadn’t, or at least not in the first half of the event. If anything, things were worse with the corrected elevation graph jumping up and down the paper between shots to produce a 2.5-MOA overall spread and more often than not a ‘minute’ of movement between shots. Then at shot 13 everything appeared to settle down and things were much improved to shot 19 - five of the seven hits displaying really impressive consistency. A glimmer of hope appeared – if my final shot stayed within a quarter minute variation, things were maybe on the up. Sadly not – along with my hopes, the strike went way, way down again, now at the very bottom of the four-ring, a drop of around 0.8-MOA on the PSSA 500/600yd ‘F’ target.

So, what is going on? I wish I knew! I feel I’m just on the edge of getting it back together again. Maybe checking and re-tuning the cartridge overall lengths, looking at neck tension, retrying some of the powders originally rejected, switching from the 90gn VLD to the 80.5gn and 90gn Berger BT designs will get it shooting well again. However, national GBFCA League rounds are approaching fast and getting loads sorted for my newly rebarrelled .308 Win F/TR rifle looks a lot less risky at the minute! Lots of people did warn me when I started out with long-range .223 Rem that the cartridge is incredibly finicky with 90gn bullets and often just goes ‘out of tune’ for no apparent reason. I think the lesson for me as well as others is just how ‘high-maintenance’ this combination is. If everything isn’t perfect, it simply doesn’t work.

Figure 2: rear screw tensions above 20 in/lb made groups considerably larger

Figure 4: Graphed elevations of the 20 shots in the 600yd Diggle F Class competition corrected to a common elevation setting on the riflescope. Despite the use of the Re15 load, the problem has not been solved! 0 = perfect elevation with a strike on the V-Bull centreline; low shots have minus values; high shots have plus values. Shots 13-19 suggest a solution may be close

20

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The Eighth MLAIC Long Range World ChampionshipsBisley England by David Minshall

World Field Target FederationChampionships 2011 – Italy – by Conor McFlynn

World Field Target FederationChampionships 2011 – Italy – by Conor McFlynnPaggiaro. Uncharacteristically, some highly regarded

shooters from the UK and reining World Champion Jose Redondo from Spain, posted unusually low scores - perhaps demonstrating the demanding conditions and difficulty of the courses. South African Piet Breedt clearly didn’t have any problems and finished on a course busting 48 ex 50, two points clear from 2006 World Champ James Osborne on 46 ex 50. I, along with four others shared joint third on 44 ex 50. Day two, Saturday 3rd September, was extremely humid and hot which made concentration levels quite demanding due to fatigue and dehydration. I made life difficult for myself by missing my first two targets on the green course! Simon Ayers pumped in a top score of the day with 48 ex 50; I managed to only drop one more target and finish on a very pleasing 47 ex 50. Breedt from SA didn’t maintain his rich vein of form from the previous day to post a 42 ex 50. This left myself, Ayers and Osborne in the lead; a three way tie, level on 91 points apiece.

Day three, Sunday 4th was the big finale. The air was very humid and heavy rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the afternoon. All eyes were firmly

focused on us and, being honest, in a way, it was both unnerving and exciting - an experience new to me but one that Osborne was all too familiar with. I had the white course left so I was determined and knew I had to post a big score if I were to finish on the podium. I ended the day with my highest score of the weekend – 48 ex 50 and being honest disappointed with my two misses.

Ayers and Osborne had both only posted 44 ex 50 so Breedt needed a 49 to tie for a shoot-off (which I was expecting) or a clear course would see him win outright. To my surprise and disbelief he also finished on 44 ex 50 which meant the silverware was mine and going back home to Co.Tyrone (and Ireland) for the first time. With 11 missed targets during three days of competition I ended with a total score of 139 ex 150.

The Gala Dinner and awards ceremony that marked the end of the 2011 World Championships is an occasion that will live fondly in my memory forever.

World Field Target Federation Championships 2011 – Italy by Conor McFlynn

Conor McFlynn from Northern Ireland travels to Italy for the World Field Target Championship and comes home with the silverwear! But let’s hear it from Conor……

The annual WFTF Championship was held at a stunningly beautiful, mountainous location in Felo d’Astico, near Vicenza, Italy. Federazione Field Target Italia, the Italian Regional Governing Body, took sole responsibility for the organisation and running of the four-day event, headed by the Italian Chairman Nicola Paggiaro.

Registration of names and practice on the zero-range took place on the 1st September, whilst the competition ran from 2nd- 4th September with three 50 target courses - one per day giving a total of 150 targets. 212 competitors from 26 countries made this the biggest, most competitive and truly international event in the organisation’s history. 19 countries entered the 8-man team event, which demonstrates the popularity of the sport that has spread rapidly throughout the world in recent years.

The two large zero-ranges were very spacious and had plenty of boards with paper targets attached to check

rifle and scope settings. The plinking range however bore no resemblance to the competition course as it was located on a flat field - the competition course was located at the top of a vertical hill on the side of the mountain.

The three separate courses were colour-coded in relation to the Italian flag - red, white and green, 50 targets per course, two targets were placed per lane resulting in 25 lanes per course. Each competitor had three minutes to shoot their two targets, with timing commencing when the lane was entered. On each course there were eight compulsory positional targets, four standing and four kneeling. The targets were placed at unknown distances from 7m to 50m, whilst target hit zones ranged in size from 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30mm and 40mm.

Target placement made full use of the surroundings with the vast majority of the smaller killzones placed at extreme angles both uphill and downhill. Flexibility, adaptability and sheer nerve were required in order to take many of the positional shots that mainly used the 25mm killzones. The larger killzone targets were almost exclusively used at near maximum distance so it was a truly challenging course designed to make each shooter think very carefully about each shot. Add the devilish, interchanging, light winds whisping almost undetectably through the forest, the extremely hot, humid conditions and one can almost get a slight resemblance to the sheer difficulty of each course.

Day one, Friday 2nd September, was a long day as shooting partners were drawn together after the safety brief and general instructions. These were relayed to everyone by the event director Nicola

One of the large zero ranges with the mountains in a stunningly beautiful backdrop.

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World Field Target FederationChampionships 2011 – Italy – by Conor McFlynn

Even though the achievement I had accomplished had not fully sunk in, the warm-felt congratulations and well-wishes from everyone involved just overwhelmed me with both pride and joy.

Hopefully FT can begin to gain popularity and flourish in my home country Ireland, where air rifle shooters in general are few and far between. FT is hugely popular throughout many European countries and the world. It truly is the purest form of marksmanship, highly addictive, enjoyable and is perhaps the most inexpensive target shooting sport currently available.

My kit included the following:Rifle – Steyr LG110Calibre - .177Velocity – 770fpsPellets – JSB Exact 8.4grnScope – Deon March X 8-80x56 MTR-1 illuminated reticule.Mounts – ThirdEye 34mm, base to suit 11mm dovetail.

Modifications:Jon Harris 4” parallax sidewheel and pointer.Jon Harris custom scope mounting rail.Mick Tromans muzzle break and quickfill cylinder.Custom laminate woodwork(cheekpiece, forend and grip).TEC-HRO Fusion butt plate. TEC-HRO trigger blade.TEC-HRO front accessory rail balance weight.

The courses were laid out together, with lanes from Italian colours red, white and green placed consecutively, the result meant everyone was shooting together at the same time, it also made for very sociable occasion!

Below: standing shots were elevated and utilised 25mm kills.

Right: A reduced size kill zone (20mm) target elevated high up a tree on the top of a hill made for a very steeply angled shot, some were inclined 50 degrees and then some!.

Above: Conor McFlynn holds aloft the WFTF Championship winning cup, left is Simon Ayers (England) 2nd, and right is James Osborne (England) 3rd.

Below; my shooting partners for the weekend; far left, Angelo Ribelli (Italy) and middle, Lukas Richter (South Africa).

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An interview with Garry Costello.2011 GB F Class Open League ChampionInterview - Garry Costello

2011 GB F Class ChampionInterview with Gary Costello by Target Shooter Magazine

Three months have flown by since our last shoot of the 2011 season - the Europeans at Bisley. Now it’s time to start thinking about 2012 and our opening shoot at Diggle in April.

Maybe you are building a new rifle for this year – or re-barrelling your existing one? Maybe you are contemplating entering the League for the first time – if so, our Training Weekend at Bisley in February would be a good start – there are still a few places left.

Check out the GBFCA website www.gbfclass.co.uk for more details.

Photograph by Steve Thornton

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An interview with Garry Costello.2011 GB F Class Open League Champion


Either way, you will be keen to get down to some serious testing and already, I’ve had a glimpse of a few new ideas for the coming season concerned. Really, with a single cartridge (OK Laurie, I know you love the 223) and a very rigid set of rules, it’s difficult to come up with something new but our rifles continue to evolve.

Not only that, bullet development seems to be directed to the 308 more than any other cartridge. Of course, let’s not forget that Russell Simmonds once again won the GBFCA League with his very conventional rifle but of course, it’s always preferable to buy something new in an attempt to boost performance rather than spend more time on the range learning to shoot what you already have! And maybe this is part of World Champion Russell’s secret – his equipment is very modest and similar to what he started out with five or six years ago but boy, he knows how to use it!

We did have a new Open Class League Champion in 2011 and that was current World Champion, Gary Costello. As is the tradition, we caught up with Gary following the Europeans where he battled all weekend with eventual winner, Vyacheslav Kovalshii

Interview with 2011 F-Open Class League Winner

TS – Gary, congratulations on winning the 2011 GBFCA League - just beating Simon Rogers in the final round – but just losing out to Vyacheslav Kovalshii in the final stage of the ‘Europeans’ to take runner-up spot.

We always like to start off with a bit of background. Tell us about your working background and what got you into shooting?

GC –I currently run two companies mainly involved in specialist transportation and freight forwarding, we are approved for weapons, explosives and sect. 5 items. I have always been interested in shooting from a very early age with air rifles however I started shooting firearms about 10 years ago, most of this was informal plinking and fun stuff.

TS – You’ve been shooting with the League more or less from the start but what did you shoot before that?

GC - I started clay shooting, I got into it in a big way, a business associate (now a very good friend) used to shoot rifles and black powder competitively and he got me into accurate rifles and re-loading. It all went downhill from there and I got the bug!

TS – Tell us about your current rifle – what cartridge, action, stock, scope etc are you using?

GC - I have shot several rifles this year, I started with a 7 SAUM built by Pete Walker, BAT 8.5 inch M action, Lee Six tracker stock in African Obeche walnut Bartlein barrel and a March 10x60x52 tactical scope.

TS – Gary, that’s a beautiful rifle – almost too nice to shoot! Pete’s work is faultless.

GC - I did try the second Bartlein barrel for my WFCC winning gun - Stolle Panda and heavily modified Masterclass F Class Thumbhole stock but, after 400 rounds I gave up with it, just not accurate enough. This barrel was produced at the same time as the WFCC barrel and chambered with the same reamer but it just would not work!

I shot my other BAT rifle built by Pete at Blair Atholl and in the Europeans - this is the same action (8.5 BAT) with 32” Bartliein barrel and McMillan F Class stock.

TS – Of course, you are the UK importer for the fabulous March scopes – how are sales going – are there any new models in the pipeline?

GC - Actually pretty good considering the current economy and the cost of the scopes. We have a new Tactical first focal plane scope the 3-24x42 this is a direct competitor to the Schmidt & Bender PMII - very similar features (with a lower starting magnification) but half the weight and smaller. Also a fixed 40X which has tactical turrets, zero stop and 70MOA elevation, I am going to try this next season for F Class.

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TS – I notice that you seem to prefer laminate stocks – any particular reason?

GC – I do prefer Laminates for purely aesthetic reasons!

TS – The 7mm is undoubtedly the best Open Class calibre – preferably in the WSM case but a few are now moving towards the ‘straight’ 284 – what about you?

GC – I have a 284 and a 284 Shehane; I have not done much with either yet as I have had no time in between competitions to do any serious development. I will have them working for 2012 though and will make a comparison. I shoot the 7mm Saum at roughly Shehane velocities and I really like it so I am sure they will work well.

TS – Tell us your preferred bullet, powder, brass and primers.

GC - I like the Berger 180 VLD and Hybrid, I do have some custom 190 grain VLDs I am working on as well. I use different powders depending on the rifle, RL25, Vit N165, Hodgdon H4831 and H1000, I use Winchester brass in the 7/270 WSM and Lapua in the 284’s. I have found that Fed 210M primers have worked the best for me this year but I did use 215M last year.

TS – What twist-rate are you using – and do you have any preference for barrels – cut or button – do you favour any particular make?

GC - I use 9 twist normally, the rifle I shot in the Europeans is a 8.5 twist, I cannot really see any difference to be honest. I always shoot cut-rifled barrels and I do like Bartlein.

TS – Obviously, you weigh all your powder charges – what scales are you using and for that matter, whose dies do you use?

GC – For the initial charge I use a RCBS Chargemaster which I set 0.2 grains under the required charge, I then weight the charge on my Denver Instruments AP 203 lab scale which is accurate to 100th of a grain, I keep this on all the time and it is plugged into a anti-serge filter and plug.

I use Alan Warner’s sizing dies exclusively, they are the Rolls Royce of dies, the die body accepts calibre sleeves, I send 3 fired cases and he makes a custom honed sleeve that inserts into the die body, the tolerances are incredibly tight which gives great results, minimal case-sizing for longevity of brass and also zero run-out. They are expensive but you only need one or two and they are for life.

I have also started using custom Newlon seating dies (made by Peter Walker) these have a Mitutoyo micrometer head and are very nice, however I have still got my Redding Micrometer seaters for some other calibres.

TS – Set-up is critical in F Class, can you tell us your preference for a front rest?

GC – I use both the Farley and the Seb Neo, I like both. I do sell the odd Farley and I Like the Gen II model with the space base (lightweight base good for Diggle or ranges that you have to walk to the firing point and of course air travel). I am currently using the Seb Neo with some modifications to the base and handle, (I didn’t like the way the original handle twisted in operation) so we had a long straight handle made which has stopped the torque/twist.

TS – Obviously the rifle has worked well for you this year but is there any room for improvement?

GC – Always room for improvement! I think we all forget sometimes about correct preparation, bag-alignment and good technique. I do find occasionally that I have an ‘odd’ shot, more often or not it is because I have changed my grip or position slightly.

TS – Will you continue with the same kit next year? Have you anything new in the pipeline? A new cartridge perhaps or is the ‘seven’ king for the foreseeable future?

GC – I do have the Shehane and another 7mm Wildcat that I will be working on during the winter. I think 7mm is the only way to go in F Class Open as the recoil of a big 30 is just too much. The new Berger heavy Hybrids look very interesting with very good BCs but I do not really fancy 60 shots in a day with a 215-230 grain bullet and the recoil and torque that goes with it.

TS – Like many of us, you have done your share of travelling this year to shoot F Class but what is your favourite UK range?

GC - I love Blair Atholl, purely for the scenery and ease of use, however it’s a very hard range to master due to the usual ‘Blair effect’ conditions. I was pretty lucky there this year with two 3rd places. I also like Bisley, it’s sort of my home range but I very rarely get chance to practice there much.

TS – Is there anything you would like to see changed in the F Class rules – for example, some say rifles are too heavy at 22 lbs?

GC – I disagree, I think the weight is OK for the type of shooting we do, any lighter and we will see some lower scores due to the recoil etc.

TS – Finally, although it’s 18 months off the World Championships at Raton in 2013, you are obviously one of the favourites for the GB Team. Are you looking forward to it? Any reservations with the elevation and heat?

GC - I have not really had much time to think about the next Worlds, however after David Kent’s talk after the Europeans I do have my concerns at the length of time required to shoot it! Three weeks is an awful long time away from your business and also there is a considerable amount of shooting in the run-up.

I am of the opinion that less is more, I do not practice, I think that it is ‘on the day’ you either get the conditions quickly and identify with the flags or you do not. We will need to acclimatise to the range and heat and do some load development but I think a week prior would be fine, this is no disrespect to David’s itinerary, it is purely my personal opinion.

The heat does concern me but I think the amount of shooting beforehand concerns me more, we do need to be fresh at the start of the World Championship.

TS – Gary, many thanks for taking the trouble to do this interview and for sharing your information with us all. Good luck for 2012.

Garry Costello “bagging up” the

winnings at the 2011 European

Championships at Bisley...

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Bergara & their new...No Gunsmithing Barrels...


Bergara and their new ‘no gunsmithing’ barrels... Vince tries a 6.5x47

Bergara pre-fit barrel

and Chris Parkin tries

his hand at re-barrelling

his 243 stalking rifle

with a 6mm Bergara.

Firstly, a bit of history. I

‘discovered’ the Spanish Bergara

barrels at the IWA Show about

five years ago. I got all excited

to find we had another European

barrel maker! After all, there

aren’t that many.

I got even more excited when I found that Ed Shilen – one of the most famous barrel makers on the planet – had played a large part in setting up the Bergara barrel-manufacturing process. And it shows! Have a look inside a Bergara with a borescope and you’ll see what I mean. The finish is second to none. Yes, I know, there’s more to making an accurate barrel than the internal finish but, experience has borne out my initial enthusiasm and, the Bergaras I’ve fitted have shot exceedingly well.

Unfortunately, Bergara don’t currently offer a really heavy profile that would suit a competitive benchgun or F Class rifle but, if they ever do, I’ll be the first to try one. However, a wide choice of profiles, lengths, twists and calibres are offered to suit most other applications and they are very competitively priced and available – Fox Firearms always have a good selection.

A choice of 416 stainless-steel or 4140 chrome-moly, fluted, bead-blasted etc. is available plus ‘specials’ for the AR carbines etc. and now, Bergara are the first manufacturer to offer a ‘no-gunsmithing’ replacement barrel for the Remington 700 series.

The Bergara system is similar to the Savage system and in fact Bergara also offer Savage barrels using the same principle. Several manufacturers offer pre-fit barrels but most require final head-spacing in the lathe – a skilled job. With Bergara, instead of the gunsmith ‘fitting’ the barrel using a lathe to headspace, Bergara use a lock-nut – like the Savage – so all we need now is a ‘go’ gauge and a barrel-vice.

OK – don’t get too excited. I can already see one or two drawbacks for the DIY shooter who thinks he can save a bob or two here. Firstly, proofing. The Bergara barrel comes ready proofed and your Remington action will also be proofed but, when you screw the two together, is further proofing required? Certainly, if you eventually sell on the rifle, it should really be proofed and, for your own safety and peace of mind, proofing is, in my opinion, a good idea.

Secondly, although most shooters who are capable of handloading should have the skill and common sense to do the work, removing a Remington factory barrel is no easy task and a proper barrel-vice and wrench are required. Even then, you could struggle! Then,

you need to screw-on the replacement Bergara to the required torque and headspace it. Again, not really a job for the novice.

A decent barrel-vice (this one was supplied by Fox Firearms) is essential – even then we may have to resort to more drastic measures to get the factory barrel off

It may be better therefore to get your favourite gunsmith to do the job, for which he will of course make a small charge, plus the cost of proof but, well worth it for peace of mind alone. However, it should almost be a ‘while you wait’ job – no excuse for being without your rifle for six months!

With that out of the way, let’s get on with the job of replacing our shot-out 308 Remmy barrel with a new Bergara in 6.5x47 Lapua.

My 6.5x47 Bergara is a stainless-steel un-fluted example with a heavy-ish profile very similar to the factory barrel on the Remmy. Overall length is 24 inches, tapering from 1.25 inches at the breech to 0.875 inches at the muzzle - which is already threaded for a moderator/muzzle-brake.

Removing the Remmy barrel was a bit of a pain but eventually - by using a technique well known to most gunsmiths - it freed-off. Warning – be sure to make a small ‘witness’ mark on the action and recoil-lug so that you can position the lug in exactly the right place when we come to fit the new barrel.

There were traces of rust and glue on the Remington barrel-tenon – and therefore in the action-threads, so the first job is a good clean up. This is a tedious process but needs to be done – with a dental pick or similar. When we are happy that all the threads are clean, make sure there are no burrs where the scope-mount screw-holes are drilled through the front action-ring. A small burr could cause our new barrel-threads to gall or even seize when we are screwing it into the action – maybe with catastrophic results!

Now we must apply grease to the action and barrel-threads. This joint is of course subjected to quite high temperatures so make sure you use a suitable grease.

Job done – in not much longer than it took you to read this article! Well OK, we still need to proof it...

The existing Remington c/w 308 barrel, our new 6.5x47 Bergara, the barrel lock-nut and two gauges – ‘go’ and ‘no go’

Job done – in not much longer than it took you to read this article! Well OK, we still need to proof it...

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Don’t overdo it with the grease or it will accumulate inside the action near the lugs – it’s a pain to remove. Now, slide the recoil-lug onto the tenon-thread (noting the witness mark) and carefully screw on the action. STOP – if any sign of binding occurs – remove the action and clean the action threads again.

With the barrel ‘snugged up’, you can clamp the barrel in your barrel-vice. Now, insert the ‘go’ gauge into the chamber – as you would a cartridge – and gently close the bolt. (The bolt should be free of the spring, firing-pin and bolt-face ejector pin) If it won’t close, back off the barrel a little until it will close. If the bolt closes, screw in the barrel a little more until you can feel it up against the ‘go’ gauge. If we were to lock-up the barrel-nut at this point, we would have zero headspace. We therefore need to back off slightly. Now, with recoil-lug and action witness mark aligned, fit your action-wrench to the front-ring of the action, carefully locating the recoil-lug in the recess in the action wrench.

Remove the ‘go’ gauge and apply a ‘strap wrench’ to the barrel-nut and nip up the barrel. Nip up? A bit vague that I admit but it’s one of those things that comes from practice and experience. I’d like to be able to quote torque figures but would it really help?

Now, insert the ‘go’ gauge. If the bolt closes, eject it and slip in the ‘no go’ gauge. If the bolt won’t close, we are pretty well spot on for our headspace. If it closes on the ‘no go’ gauge, then we need to screw in the barrel a little more. It’s ‘trial & error’ really - as the headspace changes as you do up the barrel-nut but, not too difficult and after a few attempts, I had the nut tightened and the gauges indicating correct headspace. Before you remove the wrenches and congratulate yourself, a final check that the witness marks are exactly aligned.

The whole job has taken me about an hour and there we have it – a new stainless-steel barrel fitted for under £400!

Having done it the easy way, now we’ll

do it the hard way! Target Shooter writer

Chris Parkin was talking to me recently

about re-barrelling his 243 Remington

stalking rifle with a new fluted Bergara.

He was asking that many questions that

I finally said “Why not come and do it

yourself?” Now Chris didn’t need asking

twice and a week or so later we were in the

workshop with Chris’s new barrel spinning

in the lathe but I’ll let Chris take up the

story...

Originally, it was a stalking and foxing rifle but I think when this project is done, the role of this gun will change slightly. I bought a 6mm/243 Bergara barrel from Fox Firearms and chose to re-define the build of this rifle somewhat. It had served well for three years and had only cost me £250 so owed me very little but, the factory barrel was now shot out. It was a sporter barrelled Remington 700 CDL with a detachable magazine but it was going to morph into something a little more competition - or at least long range vermin - orientated.

Up to now, a McMillan stock had been sourced and that, plus a Jewel trigger, Accuracy International compatible bottom metal/magazine system, fully bedded, was going to support the Remington varmint profile 26 inch Bergara barrel. Chambered in 243 Win. again but this time with an 8 inch twist rate, it stood to be more suitable for the 105-107gr match bullets. It is often interesting to see if deliberately fast twist rates

A lot to learnI had never even seen a barrel being chambered and fitted before, never mind done the work myself. I’m a materials engineer, competent tweaker, stock twiddler and mechanic but, not having had access to a lathe since school, never a machinist. I was warned what clothing to wear on THE DAY as cutting-oil may well be erupting generously upon chambering!

The first task to be handled was a few measurements of stock and barrel to decide if we were to shorten the blank at all to make sure the minimum amount of stock inletting was needed, although this stock was already profiled to accept a similar barrel. I was going to stick at 26 inches as you can normally shorten later but as this blank was fluted, there were only a couple of inches spare at the muzzle to trim off. We needed to plan in advance if anything was to be taken off at the chamber end but I decided to stay at 26 inches. Weight would not be an issue but velocity at long range is never to be ignored.

Next step was to remove the existing barrel – they don’t shift easily but eventually it came off and was consigned to the scrap-bin!

As most gunsmiths agree, the initial `clocking` of the barrel blank when inserted through the lathe headstock is of paramount importance. At both ends of the headstock, dial test indicators (DTI’s) are used to centralise the bore - not the external profile of the barrel - to ensure absolute concentricity to within one-tenth of a thou. Bores are never concentric to the outside profile and neither is the bore itself completely true or straight. Therefore, this operation can be quick or slow depending on each particular barrel but I was assured by Vince, who was patiently adjusting the spider chuck in 0.0001 inch increments, that mine was pretty good.

This is an economy project!At this point we should perhaps break to explain the economics of re-barrelling a rifle. Vince has all this gear and does it purely for fun - but only on his own guns and his ‘projects’ for the magazine and, as he has oodles of time to spare, has no worries about doing

The Bergara came with a pre-threaded muzzle – a useful saving.

We only have a couple of millimetres to stop the lathe before the threading tool crashes into the barrel shoulder!

are still able to handle the lighter vermin loads without premature failure of the lighter expanding bullets - I find it can indicate the internal finishing quality of the barrel. The gun was no longer to be a stalker but a true varmint/target rifle and would hopefully be accurate, I certainly hoped for better than the `factory` format.

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this job in ‘slow motion’, taking the ultimate care and attention to detail in all machining stages, never needing to ‘cut corners’ to match the time/money criteria laid down by professional gunsmiths.

He explained to me how the time and hence fee charged by various gunsmiths often varies widely, purely down to some of this balance and one other quite surprising facts – including the action being re-barrelled. Much as he tried to avoid the issue (I know Vince loves Remingtons for the way they are the access route for many, including me, into this sport of ours) but, as the consummate precision shooter, engineer and machinist, he winces at the thought of working with one. Had it been a BAT or Stolle, I’m sure his eyes would have glazed over and I now know partly why. I LOVE Remington 700s, at 50 years old this year they are the granddaddy of nearly all modern precision rifles with their footprints and design ethos but, they are as individual as women – in that no two are exactly the same - and in the same way, individually unique and challenging if a precision job is to result.

A love/hate relationshipIf you are working on a £1000 BAT action or something similar, the significant measurements, to within one ten thousandth of an inch, are all carefully laid down in the technical specification of the action - consistent from one action to its brother three years from now. The action-face is square to the bolt raceway which is central to the barrel-threads – exactly as it should be! When working with a factory rifle, such as the common old Remington 700 used here, all the measurements to do with the thread on the barrel tenon, bolt nose clearance and headspacing of the cartridge must be done after taking careful measurements off the actual action being used – some are good and some are not so good! With the threading/chambering job on the BAT or Stolle - you don’t even need to have the action in the room.

With a Remmy (much as I adore them) the action is continually measured and offered up to its barrel-thread to check fit and tolerances at all stages. I know any factory-made mechanical component has a plus or

minus tolerance on it but these are all unique. I have renewed respect and understanding for those who do this job day in and day out and, if the same machining care and attention is given to both actions during a re-barrel job, the Remington WILL take longer, if done to the same standard.

Anyway, from back in September, the precise numbers of threads per inch and tenon diameter evade me but the barrel tenon (the section that screws into the action) is threaded and has a shoulder cut into it that will meet the face of the closed bolt with a few thousands of an inch to spare.

Being a Remington, the face of the barrel, before chambering, needs to incorporate a bolt nose recess (part of the iconic `three rings of steel`) and allowance must also be made for the thickness of the recoil lug, in this case a precision ground custom stainless-steel one from Brownells.

Machining techniques and styles are often personalised with experience but, there are certain unbreakable rules associated with thread pitches, angles and feed-rates for standards as near as perfect to be achieved. Vince had a few well thumbed, beautifully oil and fingerprint stained `bibles` of equipment settings and records of previously worked-on actions to ensure correct specifications for subsequent barrels. He has the time to be confident in his exclusion of all considered variables and if this means slowing down the work rate, so be it.

So, we now have a threaded barrel that fits the action and mates to the bolt with the correct bolt-nose clearance - the next stage is to cut the chamber. This is where real patience comes in, as we were not using a roughing-reamer to rip out 95% the chamber but a finishing reamer that must be driven more carefully to maintain the finish and of course, not destroy this precision tool.

As most of Vince’s reamers are tight-neck or wildcats of some description, we had to borrow our standard 243 reamer from Osprey Rifles. The reamer is attached to the tailstock of the lathe via a floating reamer-holder that allows the tail of the tool to position itself precisely to the last ‘n’th degree whilst it is guided from its tip by a ‘pilot’ - carefully selected

Under Vince’s guidance, I took it very slowly and eventually I was able to ‘feel’ how the reamer was cutting. During machining, the swarf produced is a good sign to the machinist of machining quality, if he can speed up or slow down the feedrates and is also a good indicator of the barrel steel quality and consistency.

STOP!Coming to the end of the chamber reaming process, we need to start checking where we need to STOP, i.e. set our headspace or in simplistic terms, the size of the chamber, relative to the shoulder and bolt-face. To do this we use `go` and `no-go` gauges, which are specific to our cartridge.

Basically, we want to continue cutting until when the barrel, recoil-lug and action are screwed tightly together, the bolt will close on the `go` gauge but not with the `no-go`. It sounds simple but you have to anticipate the amount that the barrel will nip up into the action when fully tightened so how many `thou` to leave spare to take this into account as there is only a few thou. difference in the two gauges. Again, when working with a custom action, the ‘nip up’ will be negligible but with a factory action it can be significant.

This is a critical stage as, if you go too deep, there is only one cure, that is to re-cut the barrel shoulder and trim a bit off the tenon which means adjusting the bolt-nose clearance and is undesirable in terms of both time and physically, metal that has been removed cannot be glued back on. I doubt you will ever find a gunsmith who wants to be disturbed to any extent during these processes, all critical to 0.001 inches, never mind explaining it and teaching it along the way and, bless Vince’s patience, I buggered it up!

Vince is a true gent and basically returned back to the start to tweak a few details but eventually everything was perfect, a job we were both technically happy with - concentric chamber, perfect headspace and thus complete at the action/chamber end of the barrel. To finish the job, we removed the blank and turned it all round so that after once more re-clocking

Checking headspace with the ‘go’ gauge

Job done – the recess is peculiar to Remington – their ‘third ring of steel’

from a set that will closely and snugly slide into the rifling. This guides the reamer accurately along the bore centreline and hopefully, we end up with a chamber with negligible ‘run-out’. At this point we also fitted the muzzle-flush nozzle to the muzzle end of the barrel (not yet finished or crowned). This will drive a pressurised stream of cutting fluid back towards the reamer and ensure that cutting was well lubricated and all swarf flushed back along the flutes of the reamer to exit the barrel at the breech end. This prevents any swarf accumulating in the reamer flutes and scoring of the chamber. About to feed in the reamer. Once cutting starts we will increase the flushing oil pressure

The reamer is driven into the bore extremely slowly and smoothly and regularly withdrawn completely to inspect it and the chamber and ensure the flutes were clean with no build-up of metal on the cutting edge. Now, during this withdrawal and re-insertion of the reamer, the cutting fluid pump must be turned off and on - with careful timing – otherwise it can have a tendency to spray everywhere...!

3838 3939



Every barrel will have it’s own personal diet and this one was no different. I started out using Lapua brass with CCI BR primers with Hodgdon H4350 powder driving 87gr Hornady V-max bullets. I thought this choice a perfect start for its longer-range varminting role and H4350 is a bit of a favourite of mine. I had acceptable accuracy at sub 1 MOA at 100 yards but felt this gun should be capable of more and went through 70 and 75gr V-max along with their 105 A-max cousins.

Powders both faster and slower were tried, Viht N140, N150 and N160 showed no gain. Frustration aside, a change of tack to Sierra bullets paid dividends, the 70gr Blitzkings, 100gr soft points and most importantly, the 107gr Matchkings were now dipping consistently below the half-inch mark, the 70s preferring H4350 and the 107’s fairly characteristically liking H4831sc.

For a bit of McQueen’s or tactical shooting, of which I am a fan, the 107s deserved further tweaking and seating depth alterations although not critical, did pay dividends. At five thou. off the rifling, I was comfortably into the sub half-inch zone consistently with forays well below ¼ MOA. Remember, this is not a heavy target competition gun with a custom or even blueprinted action, it is a plain Jane Remmy and, even with make up, still not terribly attractive but very serviceable and inexpensive.

After running in the barrel, I have found the honed internal finish promised by Bergara has led to little

fouling and very easy cleaning, so much so it has been a good indicator of which powders are burning cleanly and efficiently within its 26 inch finished length. The 8 inch twist certainly had no problems stabilising the 107s and I might even be tempted to push my luck with some 115gr DTACs.

Testament to its clean buttoned bore, the 55gr Blitzkings, which I do find a little tougher than the 58gr V-max, were holding together well in excess of 3900fps with no blow ups or close range fragmentation. The twist rate also perhaps led to slightly higher than expected velocities although this is possibly attributable to a large number of other factors but was not accompanied by any unwanted pressure signs.

Certainly with the 100-107gr bullets, I was 2 grains below accepted charge weights and still exceeding the expected velocities by over 50fps. For the odd deerstalking trip, this gun may get used on Roe, though I’m not sure I can be bothered to reload as the Prvi Partisan (PPU) 100gr soft point ammunition was consistently ¾ MOA capable.

It’s a dog, but it’s MY dog!I’m very pleased with the Bergara - as you can see from the photos, the looks of a rifle are of little importance to me when function is paramount and it is only going to get knocked around in the field. It is so far untested in competition but has performed well at ranges beyond 400 yards in field-testing and has since been again butchered - this time to add the AICS bottom metal and magazine.

Shame my 260 Rem. is so bloody good, otherwise this `Light Tactical` gun as it has been christened, would show well as it can be either braked or moderated to minimise shot to shot movement during McQueen’s and those 107s at 3000fps are capable wind cheaters. I can’t take full credit for the fitting of the barrel but this gun will always be a gun I helped build, even if I only yanked on a lever 1/16” before the cutter crashed into the chuck, I don’t think I concentrated that hard on exams in the past!

Thanks to: Vince, Fox Firearms www.foxfirearmsuk.com for the Bergara barrel and proofing assistance, 0161-4308274. Stuart Anselm of Osprey Rifles www.ospreyrifles.com 0161-408-3555 for the loan of the 243 reamer and the second proofing ‘adventure’. Henry Krank for Sierra bullets and PPU ammunition, 0113-256-9163. Hannams Reloading for CCI, Lapua, Hornady and Vihtavouri products, 01977-681639.

The third option...But what if you don’t have a Remington or a Savage – can we still do a pre-fit? Yes we can – providing you have a New Zealand Barnard action – either the ‘P’ or ‘S’ versions – the ‘S’ being the smaller ‘Remington footprint’ version.

This is all thanks to the New Zealand based barrel maker Trueflite. Trueflite work closely with Barnard and, because the Barnards – like BATs and Stolles - are made to such tight tolerances, it’s possible to thread and chamber a barrel to the correct headspace without having the action to work with.

What’s more, I’ve found the Trueflite barrels to be the equal of any out there and if you currently have a Barnard and want a new barrel in the same – or a different – chambering, a Trueflite pre-fit could be the way forward.

Fox Firearms www.foxfirearmsuk.com always carry an impressive inventory of pre-fit Trueflites and you can expect to pay around £100 on top of the price of a new match barrel for the pre-fit threading/chambering work – so let’s say ‘from £350’. This is an absolute bargain and, provided that Fox have the barrel you want in stock, you are looking at a very quick turn-round for the new barrel.

Currently, Fox are listing 6PPC, 6.5x47, 284, 338 and a vast stock of 308 in every conceivable length and profile.

at both ends of the headstock, the muzzle thread could be cut for a moderator or muzzle brake and finally crowned. I went for a recessed crown due to this being a predominantly sporting rifle.

What the Proof House does in engineering terms is to dance a very fine line between `non-destructive` and `destructive` testing. Well my gun never got this far as it was returned un-proofed after the trigger blade (thankfully I fitted a scrap bin item for this trip) was ‘mysteriously’ snapped-off somewhere along its otherwise comfortably undamaged journey to Birmingham and back. It was fitted with another trigger and sent back to proof and two months after its construction, it returned, this time also needing re-crowning as ‘someone’ had now managed to ding the crown…… but at least it was stamped with proof marks. A quick trip through the milling machine to relieve the stock’s barrel-channel and make room for the larger recoil-lug and then a full bedding job with pillars and Devcon finally had it ready to shoot.

Shooting ResultsAs a test bench, this rifle is always being altered and fiddled about with and I certainly don’t have the experience and patience that fellow writer Laurie Holland does to exhaustively test my own handloads once they are `good enough` for me - certainly in this case with field use intended. Covered in mud and dust, reliability is more important than sub ¼ MOA accuracy!

A very economical barrel, bringing a shot out gun back to life.

4040 41

Rimfire Benchrest by Carl Boswell.Old materials - new ideas!

41


£100 depending on choices of material. Standard pine or birch would probably be the cheapest but it´s not my first choice - saving too much doesn’t always end up well. So, source and choose materials wisely!

Materials

Jens comments here on his selection of materials; Wood is a living material and humidity changes, as well as temperature, will affect the material. This doesn´t need to have negative effects on our front rest design. As long as we can handle the movements in the right direction it has nothing to do with scores and impacts on the target. We must always remember that we are using two sandbags that move and flex ten times more than a piece of wood!

The world of rimfire and air rifle benchrest continues to change. As we leave 2011 behind and head into 2012 we are looking at tuning barrels by sensor rapping the barrel to help adjust tuners for the perfect shot; we are looking at computer enhanced air rifles; we are looking at combining new technologies and materials to enhance equipment and rifles, we are looking at a number of new rifle designs.

In other words, we are looking at a

lot of developing ideas. Some of this

will either find a niche in the sport,

some may be forced upon us purely to

remain competitive, while some will

be left behind. Shooters will go with

what they think will work, looking for

that best piece of equipment they can

afford to give them the edge. Where all

this takes the sport is anyone’s guess.

Moving outside of shooting sports for a moment, there was a recent demonstration of an amazing bit of technology where we will be moving machines and controlling computer software by our thoughts in the next five years. Staggering! If this develops into a real product anything could happen! As 3D printers are also being developed as toys for children, we could even see complex designs produced in our own homes. Were we allow technology, or some types of technology, to grasp our sport is something we need to consider seriously. Technology always moves forwards and we cannot predict how it could affect shooting sports.

An Idea

With this in mind lets get back to some basic and lateral thinking and consider using some simple technology and materials. I aim this article potentially at those starting out in the sport but certainly ideas suggested here could be used by those who have been shooting the sport for years - as some of the design is innovative. The first time I heard about this idea was from the man behind it, friend and colleague Jens Lagas from Finland. In his words he “had another wacky idea that he would like me to look at”. Being from Finland, with wood in abundance, he wanted to build a front rest out of ....... well wood!

Now your reaction may be something similar to mine – skeptical, astonished but interested. However, I ask you to bear with me a little and consider the idea as I did and see if we can answer a few questions that might be circulating your brain at this point. After looking at the first prototype Jens made, I became even more enamored by the idea.

Knowing Jens for quite a while, I have faith in his skills as a designer, having spent time at university focusing on CNC machining, AutoCAD design and then progressing in his early adult life as a professional carpenter with his own business. With his background in centerfire benchrest, I knew he would come up with an interesting concept if nothing else!!

Interesting Premise

The premise behind Jens idea is simple, in his words:

‘To provide everyone with a cheap pathway to participate in the sport, that could be self built with minimal tools’.

The aim is a good one, enabling the a rifleman to make a usable and cheap rest, where the blood sweat and tears comes from you - as this is aimed at you making the rest with readily available parts and materials. (I don’t think Jens is offering to build these en masse - basically as he has too many other things to do, such as being a teacher, sea captain, etc - yes he is something of a Renaissance man).

At the point of writing - we are now entering 2012 - Jens started developing these ideas around last October - for me this is a brilliant way of finishing the year. Even more brilliant is the obvious need for something Iike this, especially in Jens’s own country with shooters not presently participating in the sport but showing great interest.

Breeding interest in the sport is the starting point but accessing it is another matter. The equipment we need to start in this sport costs quite a bit of cash and this can put people off. If you are setting yourself up from scratch, having nothing but a rifle, a simple but effective rest will cost anything from £250 - £650. This wooden rest will cost a great deal less at around £50 to

My first choice would be thermowood. It´s good looking and heat-treated near to death but this can´t always be found in the nearest store, plus it´s not the cheapest material.

These are the basic tools I used

4242 43


43


My second choice would be water resistant plywood. It´s glued together under high pressure and not affected much by humidity. You can find it in different colours and with different surface patterns. It´s easy to drill and saw and you can remove your pencil marks if you need to do corrections on your design. If it’s good for rifle stocks then equally it will be good for a rest!

And yes, there are many other good woods, very special ones but they don´t fit in with my prime purpose, cheap and simple.

Different Prototypes - a 3-Dimensional Mind Map

Much of the product development was a matter of trial and error. One could say that I have been heating my house so far this winter, with prototypes that didn´t meet my expections. It´s difficult to stop for a minute and do some thinking when you enjoy working with your hands. Rushing into solutions often means that you are going to ruin an otherwise a good piece of work. I promise you I have done just that, lots of times. The next day I would start from scratch but maybe a little bit wiser!

Pictures in this article show some of the different designs and ideas that have occurred during his tour. Actually you can create a front rest in almost endless designs and using hundreds of different technical solutions, they are all equally good if it wasn´t for the one thing - MONEY.

Many times I lost track, I forgot what my aims were - cheap and simple but functional. This experiment is probably a never-ending story, right now it looks like the final design in this article, next summer it might look totally different. I need to shoot with it a lot more to dare to say how good it is, therefore I will send a couple of them around the world so some ‘big name’ shooters can give some feedback.

The Final Design

As you can see the final design has quite a large footprint on the bench, creating a stable platform suitable for both rimfire and air rifle benchrest. (Whether it would be suitable for centerfire would need further testing - as Jens shoots all three sports it could be something for the future?)

The final model is actually a combination of different materials. The bottom plate is made of a 30mm thick plate already covered by a very hard synthetic melamine surface. These are sold mainly to be used in kitchens and places where cleaning with wet towel is necessary. It´s stiff enough and pretty heavy. After

sawing it I painted the sides to prevent moisture getting in.

Conclusion

At the moment Jens is still developing his ideas, possibly for a more complex model, beyond the basic and cheaper starter idea you see here. There are others that are considering DIY products along the same lines, reading some threads on benchrest forums. Where the research goes can only be positive, as it is just thinking in a different way. Again, as long as it works, let’s use ‘wacky’ ideas like this, even for a basic need like allowing easier and cheaper access to the sport. Until next time, shoot straight - using your new wooden front rest!If you would like a plan and details of how to manufacture this rest please email Jens at - [email protected] In this way he can monitor interest in the design and the idea generally.

I thank Jens for sharing this with us. Innovative? Absolutely!

A few early prototypes

This is a fast rest, five centimeters of movement covers the whole rimfire benchrest target. You can adjust the speed by drilling the holes between the pivot and the crossline of the sandbag axis into different center to center lengths but this is something that will occur from the drawings and its not a issue, just a fact of trigonometry.

The upper plate, blue coloured, is standard plywood and can be painted with all colours and is easy to design. The blue ‘front pedestal’ under the bag-holder is water-resistant plywood. I used this because it leaves a good surface on the walls after drilling holes and you can also use a reamer to polish the holes to right dimensions. This ‘pedestal’ is moving up and down, supported by two pillars made of delrin or aluminium.

The wedge lifting the gun when pushed forwards, is pure wood, it´s covered with Teflon tape to get a smooth and slippery surface. The white ‘mushroom’ is a special plastic (delrin). It is the heart of the rest, pushing it to the left moves the aiming point to the left and vice versa. Turning the hat gives fine tuning of height, enough to hold off a bull-size if needed.

My latest idea – in the rough

4444 45

By Richard UttingBi-pods for Tactical & Field use

45


This means that you cannot have a free range of movement and keep totally stiff, firm, upright

legs. This is fairly unpopular in my experience. I, however, have always loved this option for looser, free-recoiling support.

The MIL SAK enables free movement but not at all at the expense of leg stiffness. This is extremely classy in that you get to have your cake and eat it: range of movement but not at the expense of solid legs and stability.

The Harris flat out does not offer it; the Versa-pod and Atlas offer free movement but as you loosen off the tension to allow this, you also create less leg stiffness – lots less with the Versa-pod and slightly less with the Atlas. I love this and the Atlas is most popular here in that it is firmer in its range of adjustments than the Versa-pod. The Versa-pod goes quickly from tight to quite loose and it can be tricky to find the sweet spot.

The Atlas has quite a steady, progressive range of adjustment and this is better although I personally found the adjustment to be globally too firm.

The Versa-pod does have that separate adjuster knob for cant tension, though. Top adjuster is cant alone. Bottom adjuster is all other tensions ie. panning, tilting and leg stiffness

Bi-pods for Tactical & Field use by Richard Utting

We’ve covered bi-pods for F Class on a number of occasions in the past but some surprising developments are taking place with tactical/field bi-pods. If you think your Harris is the ‘ultimate’, read on.

We’re comparing the solid Harris, the adjustable-tension, panning Versa-pod, the Atlas and a Finnish version from the military arm of SAK which also pans.

How do we choose our bi-pod? It’s all about how you want recoil to come back at you. It’s very personal - some like to really load-up the bipod and use the preloaded legs to ‘manage’ the recoil whilst others prefer a much softer approach. These bipods offer various takes on this.

The Harris is obviously very well known and the market-leader, I’m sure. When I first bought a Harris I had no idea there were even other choices. The Harris is a firm bi-pod. There is no adjustable leg tension; you simply fold them down and that’s your lot. The legs are stiff and they hold the rifle steady.

The way the legs extend down is important to me: with the cheaper Harris models you have to lean forward from your firing position, unscrew the thumb screw, extend the leg to where you want it and then do-up the lock screw - for both legs.

The legs are sprung UP into the shorter position. Now, on the more expensive models, they have notches and are sprung DOWN, longer – a great improvement – this is the model I will concentrate on – S BRM 6-9” (Typical retail price £93).

On the Versa-pod, the legs are sprung DOWN, longer. So from your firing position, you simply unweight the rifle slightly, press the release catch and the leg springs down longer - an inch at a time.

You do not need to undo, or redo, any thumbscrews and the bi-pod helps you get higher. A bi-pod design that is sprung shorter is not needed - to do that, one could simply use

the weight of the rifle. What seems to make a whole lot more sense to me is some help making the bipod higher.... Anyway, in the field I personally find it very, very much easier to use.

The most significant difference between the Harris and the others is that the Harris has no facility for panning. This means that when one twists the rifle, even a few degrees to one side, there is then torsion in the legs and this is bad news for clean recoil. This is why you often see shooters rocking their rifles from bipod leg to leg, unweighting one at a time to take the torsion out of the legs.

This is not a problem on the range at all. In the field, for me, it is a no-can-do situation. All the other bipods here on test offer a proper range of panning. From

my point of view, as an ultra long-range varminter, the need to pan quickly and smoothly without imparting torsion to the system is a must-have. The Versa-pod enables this in that you can relax a ball-joint so that side to side play is available (tilting

is independent of this, with its own tension adjuster knob). This also proportionally enables up and down movement too... but also reduces the tension in the legs.

4646 47


47


The legs are very stiff and solid and adjust by pushing a button on the legs then sliding the leg down or up to a inch-spaced notch. It has really excellent height adjustment range, almost replacing two Versa-pods. It raised my rifle from 17-25cm. The shorter Versa-pod (051) goes from 16-21cm, and the longer (052) goes from 18.5-24.5cm. The MIL SAK looks to be brilliant value

if you compare it to the price of TWO Versa-pods.... I also really like the stiffness and wide saddle, the quick-release, the independent panning.

On the Atlas I like the adjustable feel, multi-leg positions, leg extensions. The build quality is beautiful. Height adjustment range on my rifle was very impressive: 17 - 24cm rifle height. With the legs it is very high: 22.5 – 29.5cm. On the Versa-pods I

like: the legs sprung longer, hugely (if a little roughly) adjustable feel from locked-up to very free and the quick-release spike.

On the Harris, compared in this company, I personally favour nothing about it except the price. Yet many people like their stiffness and quick fold-up. It will certainly hold your rifle steady and is not too expensive.

The MIL SAK and the Atlas have roughly inch-spaced leg notches that are very easy to clip into without any faffing about with thumbscrews. There are little grub screws on the MIL SAK that enable you to take out any play in the leg sliders and also the sprung clamp that catches into the leg height notches. This is a very neat touch.

One of my favourite features offered is the Atlas leg extensions: you can make the bipod longer in a few seconds simply by slotting-in leg extensions. They fit in like the height adjuster on NHS crutches – press a little

detente ball in with a bullet tip or pen, and snap in the extensions – genius. At £40 you are practically saving yourself the need for another longer bipod.

Alternative feet are available for the Versa-pods and the Atlas, making them more suitable for various surfaces.

The Harris and Versa-pod come as standard ready to clip on to QD studs. The Harris takes a few seconds to undo and clip on or off. The Versa-pod has an excellent system here, using a spike that the bipod can be slipped on and off instantly. This QD stud to spike adapter comes with the bipod and costs no extra.

If you buy another adapter (about £26), you can use the same bipod on multiple rifles. Due to the quick-release

nature of this system, removal for storage and use from vehicles etc. are a cinch.

This is a classy feature and a big selling point of the Versa-pods. Obviously, different mounts are available for all the bipods here, Accuracy International, various rail mounts et al.

The Atlas now offers a very similar quick-release system too but it bumps the price up significantly. The Atlas’s default fitment is the Picatinny rail. To use a QD stud, the stud to Picatinny rail adapter must be purchased for £20. (This is being offered for free to UK Varmint forum members by Tac-Fire/rifle-cases.co.uk, the UK suppliers of Atlas kit and UK Varmint supporters). Again, buy several of these and the bipod ships from rifle to rifle easily.

I’m not entirely blown away by the new quick release clamp on the Atlas. I found it a little fussy to operate quickly and there are a couple of tiny springs in it that

I rate to last about three uses before I drop them out - and the thing is hellish expensive. All in all, I was grumpy about

the thing compared to the Versa-pod system.

So again the Harris is short on features and the Versa-pod and Atlas offer much more but in the case of the Atlas, at some significant extra expense.

A feature that only the Atlas has is the 45 degree leg position: you can use the Atlas with the legs forward or behind vertical, at a diagonal.

This is preloaded in exactly the same manner as the vertical position. The MIL SAK, at £120 offers some nice features but isn’t as feature-rich

as the much more expensive Atlas. You have with this bipod a unique feature though: it has a very wide, stable saddle.

It stands out an inch on each side of the fore end and the difference in stability is remarkable. No chance of the rifle falling over when

unattended! Yet it is not unduly bulky as I had feared before delivery. It also offers a very neat quick-release system – at no

extra cost - that releases the bipod at the push of a button. Again, buying multiple QRs means that you can simply clip one bipod on to multiple rifles. The QR mount is £25, about the same as the Versa-pod’s mounts.

The bipod offers lots of pan, not preloaded or adjustable (although it can all be done up

to remove any wear). This is the only bipod here, however, that has totally independent pan; it pans without any effect on leg stiffness at all.

4848 49


You are nowadays able to buy a bi-pod that offers a range of tensions in the legs, panning and tilting, quick-release, different feet and other advanced features. Whilst the Harris will keep you on target, there are other and better options. I think it comes down to price and how you like to manage your recoil. For me, the big step up is from Harris to Versa-pod 051(short) and 052 (longer) at £123. You’re then into panning, adjustable tension for cant, adjustable tension for panning and quick release.

Also in the £120 range is the excellent MIL SAK, offering over the Harris: free panning without any effect on leg tension, wide saddle stability, quick-release and the anti-play/wear grub screws. It has the greatest range of height adjustment and this is a significant reason to purchase one over the Versa-pods.

The step to the Atlas is diminishing returns though. It is a superlative piece of kit but at a price. The unit without the quick-release is £180. With the QR it is £240. I think the best value way to purchase it is to buy the £180 unit with the brilliant leg extensions for £40. You’ve now spent £220 and got a short and a long bipod. I’d rather have the leg extensions than the

QR. The normal non-QR clamp isn’t terribly slow to undo and if money were a factor I could certainly live with that.

The Atlas has sublime build quality to it,

offering over the others the diagonal leg position and a beautifully controlled range of tension adjustment, and the excellent clunk-click leg height extensions. In the field, I found the Atlas to feel basically like the Versa-pod in that it is free-moving type of bipod and the MIL SAK to be like the Harris in that it is super firm. What is much smarter on the Atlas than the Versa-pod, is the more nicely controlled range of tension adjustment and the extra leg angles.

Myself, I must admit that it was still a good shade too firm for me even at its loosest and I struggled to get used to that. I experimented extensively at the range and found to shoot a quarter moa I had to load it more than I would normally like. I could do it but it required too great a change in my shooting and no major benefit. This is primarily down to my being used to a Versa-pod and something that is not the fault of the bipod, merely a characteristic of it. The range of height adjustment is certainly superior, especially as the leg extension kit is so well thought out. It is in many ways a better thought-out bipod but it equates to double the price.

The surprise was the previously unknown MIL SAK which was very popular with my testing group.My own personal preference was that everything here was too firm apart from the Versa-pods; only with them could I get my recoil absolutely straight on rough ground. They don’t have the best range of height adjustment and they are too sloppy by far at their loosest, easily letting the rifle fall over sideways (MOST unpopular with shooters!) Yet they offer a massive range of adjustment and fluidity and, I can ALWAYS get them set up so that the recoil does as I tell it. The notched and sprung-longer legs are by far the easiest to adjust. The QR system is superb.

I think most people prefer a much firmer set up than me and will think the MIL SAK to be wonderful value for money and the Atlas to simply be the Holy Grail of bipods. Thanks to all the suppliers who helped with kit for this unbiased review.

The Harris and Versa-pods are available from; www.midwayuk.com The Atlas range, plus all manner of accessories, is available from TacFire www.rifle-cases.co.uk The MIL SAK bipod is available from Fox Firearms www.foxfirearmsuk.com

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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

£2460 including VAT

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


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PGW Timberwolf .338 LapuaPGW Coyote 7.62

Also availableKG mil-spec weapon cleaners • Carbon remover • Copper remover • Bore conditioner • Gun oil • Dry lubricants • Solvent & Degreaser

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54 55

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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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Browning Buckmark Long Pistol

Buckmark Long Pistol with Lightweight Barrel £714.00 and Fox Red Dot sight £40.00.

Available from Westlake Engineering

Tel. 01722 782432 [email protected]

Hannam’s Reloading Ltd

Peckfield Lodge, Great North Road, Leeds, LS25 5LJemail: [email protected] www.hannamsreloading.com

The Reloading Specialists Fax 01977 684272Tel 01977 681639

This new generation of match bullets has been dubbed the ScenarL, and is a fitting successor to the Scenar family. Sharing the same aerodynamic profiles as their predecessors, the ScenarL are the perfect choice for any type of competitive shooting. Based on the Scenar’s proven track record of competitive successes, Lapua’s new ScenarL will deliver the ultimate performance in the most demanding competitive environments every time. Precision craftsmanship, painstaking quality control standards, state of the art manufacturing technology and advanced ballistic design all combine to make the new ScenarL the very best of the best!

www.bergerbullets.com

Available in:.284 180 gr Match Hybrid Target 2840 .308 155 gr Match Hybrid Target 3042.308 168 gr Match Hybrid Target 30425 . 308 185 gr Match Hybrid Target 30424.308 200 gr Match Hybrid Target 30427. 308 215 gr Match Hybrid Target 30423.308 230 gr Match Hybrid Target 30428

Hybrid Bullet Design The Hybrid design blends the best of both worlds by incorporating two different shapes within the nose. As the bearing surface ends, a tangent ogive begins. This tangent section of the ogive results in the bullet be-ing much less sensitive to seating depth. As you move forward along the tangent portion, the shape changes into a secant ogive (the shape used on the VLD bullets). This shape is very effi-cient in the wind and is why the VLD became so popular. The key to all this is not just the combining of these two shapes but also the partnership between the ballistician and the bullet maker. Berger’s Chief Ba l-listician, Bryan Litz uses his expertise to combine the appropriate shapes for optimum performance.

New Hybrid Target Bullets Now In

New from LapuaThe ScenarL Bullet

Available in:.224 69gr , .224 77gr, 6mm 90gr, 6mm 105gr

Lapua CasesCases ‘Lapua cases are the best in the world.’ All the cases are strong and uniformly precise, all Lapua cases are manufactured to be reloaded, again and again. Unlike other brands, flash holes are drilled to ensure no sprue inter-feres with ignition. Available in :

www.lapua.com

308 Win Palma .338 Lapua Magnum9,3 x 62.32 S&W Long9 mm Luger (9 x 19)

222 Rem Match,.223 Rem Match22-250 Rem6 mm B.R. Norma.220 Russian

.243 Win

.260 Rem6,5 x 55 SE6.5 x 476.5 Grendel

6,5-284.30-06 Springfield7,62 x 397,62 x 53R (7,62 x 54 Russian)308 Win (7,62 x 51)

mailto:ags.westlake%40virgin.net?subject=

http://www.shootreview.com

http://www.timhannam.co.uk/

58 5959

New carbon-fibre stocksWho hasn’t lusted after one of Bob Scoville’s beautiful carbon-fibre stocks? Yes, they are expensive and of course ordering one from the States is more tricky than ever - I’m not sure Bob will even ship outside the US now. But, look at these pictures below...

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

CompetitionsRound three of our 600 yard benchrest winter series took place on January 21st in not only freezing conditions but it was also blowing and absolute gale – there would be no small groups today….. In fact, the best we could hope to do was stay on paper and avoid a penalty for shots off the target. Many fell victim to penalties, which add six-inches to the group size for every lost shot. It would be one of those days where many Light Gun competitors were again humiliated by the Factory Sporter guys but at least Bruce Lenton won Light Gun Class with a Light Gun but second and third places were taken by Factory Sporter shooters.

Results: Light Gun:1st Bruce Lenton TGP 6BR Winchester 8.963 in. (av. of four 5-shot groups) 2nd Alan Seagrave 308 Sako TRG 9.637 3rd Darrel Evans 6.5x47 Accuracy Intl. 9.925 Small group: Sean Broxham 3.886 inches

Factory Sporter:1st Alan Seagrave 308 Sako TRG 9.637 in.2nd Darrel Evans 6.5x47 Accuracy Intl. 9.9253rd Sean Broxham 6.5-284 Savage 10.271

New stuffAt Diggle, we are always shooting slightly up-hill and the standard front-rest levelling-screws are never long enough to get on target. We see some elaborate contraptions to overcome this problem from lumps of wood to purpose- made extensions. Yes, we (including the F Class shooters) would all like some longer screws (unless you have a SEB NEO rest that is) but who sells ‘em?

Well, Spud sells ‘em. Spud’s legs are made from best quality stainless steel shafts with aluminium tops. Various thread types are available to suit any rest and are all made to order. The legs are six-inches in length allowing for plenty of height options, they are pointed with two types of point available - sharp or rounded. For knocking into a concrete bench top, go for pointed. Don’t forget to tell Spud which you want – if you don’t the soft point will be sent. (Above photograph)

The legs cost a very reasonable £35-00 per set posted to any UK mainland address.E-mail Spud at [email protected] or visit Spud’s new website at http://www.1967spud.com These beautiful carbon-fibre stocks are made in Italy by Attilio Serrone and, at the moment I have few details

other than the pictures. Hopefully Attilio will keep us informed.If you want to e-mail Attilio it’s [email protected]

From the BenchWith Vince Bottomly

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by Don BrookeThis Smallbore Business

Practice makes perfect?

NO, PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!Last month, I referred to this

statement a couple of times and

rarely has a truer word been said.

This is exampled in all precision

sports and one of the best example

of other sports lies in Figure Skating.

My 13 year old daughter Megan is a really good figure skater, progressing through the required levels at an enormous rate. The amount of training that is needed makes rifle shooting look silly, with the continuous repetition of the elements and a huge physical involvement to get things correct.

The parallel for shooting, particularly for 3-position shooting, lies in the ability to get things right and remain absolutely still with the only movement being a miniscule muscular response with the trigger finger. This too is a challenge!

The comparison factor here is probably an overkill but, the skater and the shooter have a great deal of similarity with the exception that the shooter is still, whilst the skater is belting along at around 60 plus km/hour then throwing in a really complicated manoeuvre such as a double-axel jump, or a really rapid spin such as a flying camel!

Have I lost you lot reading this?..... Probably, so forgive the comparison and let’s revert to the heading of Practice makes perfect and never have I seen a better example to write about!

So many shooters fall into the trap of expending huge amounts of ammunition to gain even that elusive single point, particularly in position shooting as I mentioned above. Say for instance we are shooting standing smallbore and chasing a personal best, (irrespective of what that level is) and suddenly find that this is a daunting prospect.

I know what it took for my own standing shooting to break into a level exceeding 350 points and even then, there was a long history behind the standard as I chased score levels above 320… then 330 points. (I hate even thinking about that as I write this!)

I sat in total awe of these blokes who shot scores in the high 370s continuously, and often came home dejected at yet another 348! (The amount of these I shot in my early years was astounding and, this was largely due to that at the time, my standard was as good as anything in Australia and was stuck on figuring it all out on my own.)

I trained hard and continuously, teaching myself to shoot well and I often wondered just what was this going to take. (For the fullbore prone shooters out there, try standing up with a 300m free rifle and see what I mean!) Yet, even a high prone standard is full of the intricacies that produce high scores, though far less, (FAR less) than what it takes to shoot well standing.

Yet again we are comparing...The heading of this article needs an understanding - please note the BOLD typed clarification really is entering the realm of ‘Mind Stuff’ I often write about and the attitude that encompasses this.

You see, perfected training really is a matter of attitude and awareness that, even though you are elbows deep in fired cases, the progress is just not happening. (See photo #2 and me with tongue in cheek…)

Can you give me an idea - if you are suddenly confronted with a similar situation that this photograph depicts - of what are you working on here? (Please note, this is a prone photograph as well!) Just what did you achieve apart from wearing

A difficult skating manoeuvre...

Lots of shooting is not the answer...

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out a perfectly good barrel in the process? Can you indicate even the slightest improvement? DO NOT tell me your endurance is improved either! Where is the proof of that if you are still shooting loose groups, or even happy with a 50.5 at 600 yards when there is no score out there that a 50.10 (fullbore obviously) would not feel better?

I vividly remember the World Championships for smallbore in Suhl DDR in 1986 where FIVE small bore shooters shot full 600 point scores in the English Match prone. Well wait on this a bit and consider there were two shooters who shot 600 points and did not win a medal!!! (How is them little apples?) That is also one of the principle examples of why the ISSF had to change the targets for 50m small bore. That plus yet another who did not make the final with a 598!

So when the standard reaches perfection, why then does it not convey the fact that the practice needs to be perfect as well?Viewed with the title on the top, (see diagram above)we see the number one circle where the positions development and mental performance techniques starts a clockwise motion. We arrive a #2 circle where new world records and skills levels are a result. ( An example of the World’s in Suhl DDR, outlined above, is a dramatic example!)

The ‘new’ standard is set and the shooters accelerate to high levels generally. The ISSF in their wisdom make an obvious decision to reduce the target dimensions to split the competitors, which once again results in a clockwise movement of the cycle. (To circle #3)This then allows more research into accuracy factors, where sometimes huge advances come in equipment, gear, ammunition factors and mental techniques to develop the standard now required to go the full revolution of the cycle and so start the never ending quest for perfection, yet again.So, here we are again, at the very heading of this article and, please forgive me for waxing lyrical so much but, in my defence, the examples were warranted this time.

I now ask the question, do you have the attitude to put perfection in place? Do you have the mental strength to do this, or even recognise the difference?

For the sake of brevity here, my examples will be for prone shooting and once more I ask of you -how much dry fire do you partake in?

Dry fire is the key and so much less expensive that wearing out a barrel with a fullbore rifle as depicted in the photograph.

So how do you gain perfection without a result? Hmmmmmm... I see the point!

Right - the answer to this is once again with your ability to reproduce the method and within this is the example of my figure skater above and, the word ‘reproduction’.

In dry fire, each single aspect of the reproduction of the method is systematically put together to bring about the same routine. Every thing you do can be repeated and the dry fire method is the best way to reduce the expense but ensure that the process can be isolated and repeated.

There is a huge advantage in dry fire for small bore because the recoil of the 22 is hardly going to affect you, is it? As you climb the ladder to perfection, you will find that even minimal recoil becomes a factor that now needs watching. This will become the training time when the rifle must be fired.

This is also the time when a champion figure skater must resort to assembling the method without being on the ice. This is called ‘the off-ice routines’ and a figure skater knows this to be extremely important, particularly when trying to place some of the very high level jumps within reach.

In my own experience, I always (yes 100% always!) did not fail to watch the recoil of my rifle after the shot was released. There are two extremely important reasons for this.

1. The recoil of the rifle, it’s behaviour, shape and resettle is the final indication that the shot just fired was correct. 2. The second and extremely important factor, is that you were watching the sights!

How many times have I written in this excellent on-line magazine, if your mind was anywhere else at shot release, you are not watching the rifle sights.

I know that if the shot I just fired has a recoil factor that resulted in very little movement, BUT RETURNED TO EXACT AIM... then that shot was correctly fired. This applies to all rifle sports and disciplines.

On my fullbore hobby horse again, this is the one factor that I have continually found to be at fault in 90% of full bore shooters. (NB) Only prone shooters! Even working with the Australian Palma Team, the number of top level shooters who cannot follow a shot through is astounding.

So right is my question, have you ever wondered why 90% of the matches are won by 10% of the shooters?

Learning to dry fire is just the same challenge as learning to shoot. There are many details in the sport, even for prone shooting which is the simplest form. The details of your dry fire method need to be quietly disassembled into each and every single facet, and then made to develop into an overall picture. I have found that when I opened my mind and learned how to write down details, THIS was when I achieved!

I also found that dry fire, while being the easiest to find time to do, resulted in the method I developed that was so successful, all over the world of small bore. You see shooting is a mind sport and one of the most difficult questions I have ever had to answer is…….

Just how do you grow a brain? The answer is in the method. Brooksie...

An Illustration that I often use in my coaching seminars (#3) – is the ‘Evolution Cycle’ - an interesting illustration.Evolution cycle – read in a

clockwise direction.

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The British Shooting Show. Newark. UK.Feb 25th & 26th 2012Now Even Bigger and even more comprehensive.

Although we must be positive at the start of any New Year, there is little to look forward to, target-shooting wise, with several months of cold, wet weather to contend with.

However, it’s Show Time folks! We have the January Shot Show in Las Vegas and the European version – IWA in Germany, in March. Although these shows are fabulous, they are ‘trade only’, and hardly on the doorstep. But, it’s not all bad – British shooters

can look forward to the

British Shooting Show at Newark Showground and it’s certainly not ‘trade only’ – in fact it’s now the largest “Public” Shooting & Gun Show in Europe!

Now in its fourth year, the Show has really established itself, thanks to the tireless work of organiser John Bertrand, who really has done his homework to bring us a Show that shooters can be proud of.

Target Shooter has its own huge stand at the show – Hope to see you there!

Last year, the Target Shooter stand was situated in the “Rifle Focus Hall”, one of the six massive halls that make up the show. The stand will be manned by enthusiasts from a wide range of different shooting associations and clubs so you can catch up with what’s new and what’s happening during the coming year. Last year we were surrounded by some of the best in accurate British rifles – Riflecraft, Brock & Norris, Wentworth Sporting, Desert Tactical Arms, Accuracy International, Osprey Rifles, Fox Firearms etc, etc, and they’ll all be back for the next show. To be honest, I’ve never seen such an array of tasty kit all together under one roof at any shooting show! There’s even more for this year with The Dolphin Gun Company & HPS Rifles joining the throng. Plus The Tunnel, Low Mill Ranges, Simon West, Allwoods, Suffolk Rifle, Global Rifle, Aim Field Sports, Bold Action and March Scopes will also have stands in the special “Rifle Focus” Hall.

Save £££’s; check out all the special “Show Only” offers

Many clubs also had stands as did a host of firearms retailers and it was a great place to shop for a new or second-hand rifle with an enormous array to choose from – even bought myself a rifle. Plus of course, a great opportunity to pick up some supplies and reloading kit at bargain prices. A new company, as far as the UK market is concerned is Reloading International, which are coming all the way from the USA. The company specialises in direct, low cost supply of major brand reloading consumables and look like they’ll be well worth checking out. Throughout the rest of the show you’ll find a huge selection of the UK’s major gun distributors and specialist suppliers including, Edgar Brothers, Browning & Winchester, Viking Arms, Highland Outdoors, Norman Clark, Open Season with Mauser, Blaser and PGW, Extreme Performance and an impressive selection of retailers.

Latest News...Scopes & Optics

The show has one of the largest selection of scopes that can be found anywhere; Nightforce, Sightron, March, Leupold, Minox, Carl Zeiss, Swarovski, Leaper, Newpro Vortex, Kahles etc. A great opportunity to catch up on new innovations and technical updates.

Information on shooting opportunities with the BASC

For 2012, there will be an international flavour with stand-holders from Europe, the USA, Pakistan and Columbia and the BASC will have a huge pavilion with plenty of information and help for new and experienced shooters alike.

From a logistics point of view, Newark is centrally located, parking and access good and has a great avenue of food vendors offering good grub at fair prices. I had freshly cooked fish and chips and it was as good as any I’ve tasted. There is also a proper ‘sit-down’ restaurant offering meals all day, again at very fair prices. If you went last year, I know you will be going again this year. If you missed it last year make sure you come along and say ‘hello’ this time.

Advance ticket sales from;www.theshootingshow.co.uk

Target Shooter stand at the show. Come and visit us...

Free prize draw; Win a fantastic Ruger Hawkeye Predator rifle package worth a whopping £1848 - Ruger Hawkeye Predator rifle, Plus Brugger & Thomet moderator, Plus rifle scope, Plus Vanguard rifle sling. See this magnificent prize on the Viking Arms stand and fill in a FREE entry coupon – it’s as easy as that!

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

http://www.theshootingshow.co.uk

http://www.shootingshow.co.uk/

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British shooters have few friends in Parliament and I am saddened to report the death of one of them - Frank Cook, who died on Wednesday 11th January 2012 after suffering from lung cancer.

Frank was a staunch supporter of the Sportsman’s Association and spoke at our rallies in Trafalgar Square. His views on the handgun ban ruined his political career, nevertheless Frank tried to change the mind of the Labour Government.

A man of principal and a friend of Richard Malbon and Albie Fox, I invited him on two occasions to the BSSC annual luncheon, alas, on both occasions Frank was out of the Country.

Frank always insisted that he was a simple left-winger, as strong on defence as he was against nuclear war, there was nothing predictable about this veteran maverick. During the 27 years that he represented Stockton North on Teesside, his views on his specialist subject were well defined, but also changeable.

Our sympathy goes out to his family & friends

Latest News...e-petition

Reclassify .22 pistols as Section 1

Responsible department: Home Office

The Home Office should reclassify .22 calibre pistols as Section 1 firearms. This would permit legitimate sportsmen & sportswomen to practice competitive target shooting sports as require by many disciplines, including Olympic qualification, in this country. There would be no risk to the public, sporting firearms are not linked to criminal activity.

Number of signatures: - 9,675Created by - David Charles DerrickClosing - 08/08/2012

Calling all Target Shooter readers – this petition has been around for some time now and I can’t believe it only has 9000 signatures. 57,000 of us lost - no, make that ‘had them confiscated unjustly’ – our legally-owned pistols so please log onto the site by clicking Sign this petition and let’s show some strength!

ObituaryFrank Cook MP

1936 - 2012

CLICK THIS BUTTON TOSIGN THIS PETITION

NASRPC Irish International Open – Invitation The National Association of Sporting Rifle & Pistol Clubs represents the vast majority of target shooting clubs and target shooters in Ireland and is a member of the International Gallery Rifle Federation. In July 2012 we will host the Irish leg of the IGRF series as part of the NASRPC Irish International Open and wish to invite all international gallery rifle competitors to take part. Best regards,

Mark MaguireHon. Treasurer - National Association of Sporting Rifle & Pistol ClubsTel 00353 87 2404769 Email - [email protected] Website - ww.nasrpc.ie

In response to my “Let’s see your 1911” in December’s issue, Andrew Brice sent us this pic. Love the grips – have a look at Valmont Firearms www.valmontfirarms.co.uk for a great selection of 1911 goodies in the UK.

Let’s see your 1911!

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/360/signature/new

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Latest News...

Ray Ward, purveyor of shotguns, rifles and shooting accessories, is delighted to announce the arrival of top-of-the range binoculars and rangefinders from Leica, now in-store. The recent addition of the Leica range completes Ray Ward’s offering as the go to British luxury brand for shooting equipment, clothing and accessories

Ray Ward, 12A Cadogan Place, London, SW1X 9PU www.rayward.co.uk)

Ray Ward, one of only two London stockists of Leica products, now boasts an unrivalled range of premium performance observation equipment. All the products combine legendary optical performance with unsurpassed mechanical reliability and are ideal for hunting, shooting and observation.The Leica products at Ray Ward include;

The Geovid HD series: Designed to eliminate the need to carry separate binoculars and a rangefinder, legendary optics and laser technology combine in this ʻtwo in oneʻ tool. Measuring target distances up to 1400 yards and watertight to 5 meters the Geovid HD series is the ultimate accessory for the modern stalker.The Rangemaster CRF series: A must-have aid to the long-range target shooter. The laser rangefinders measure distances to target with pinpoint accuracy. The lenses have a 7x magnification and easy to read LED display that automatically adjusts to brightness.

The Ultravid HD 42 series: The ultimate in observation technology perfect for spotting and wildlife observation, the durable and ultra light weight design make the Ultravid HD 42 model a must have for any nature lover. New fluorite lenses with watershedding Aquadura coating ensure ultra-smooth focusing while the nitrogen filled 42mm front lens guarantees crystal clear vision even in low light.

The Ultravid Compact: The popular Ultravid compact model combines ruggedness and performance in pocket sized dimensions. With a large focusing wheel the binoculars are a luxurious accessory whether it is for a shoot or at the races.

Now a recognised luxury brand in its own right, Ray Ward is just one of the super-luxury brands within the JMH Lifestyle Group. www.rayward.co.uk

Ray Ward Introduces Leica Binoculars and Range Finders

(Left – Right: Ultravid HD 8x42, The Rangemaster CRF 1600)

SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH FRENCH SHOOTERS Mike Yardley of the Sportsman’s Association and Shooting Sports Trust is putting together a British con-tingent to attend the pro-shooting and hunting demonstration in Paris on the 25th February. Albie Fox, Savvas Toufexis and Alan Westlake were architects of the original Shooters’s rallies and marches in the UK which led to so much. We must stand together, here, and in Europe to defend the sports we love.

MOBILISATION DU 25 FEVRIER POUR LA DEFENSE DE LA CHASSE

SPORTSMANS ASSOCIATION NEWS

Apps and things!Have you had chance to have a look at Target Shooter via our new Apple app? If you already have an iPad, iPhone or iPad Touch, please give it a go. The app itself is free to download from the iTunes website . The app has lots of great features which make Target Shooter far more pleasant to read than from your computer screen and everything tends to work better and quicker. It’s easy to jump to any page and a ‘click’ brings up an advertisers website in an instance and we are hoping that this will be a real attraction for our advertisers.

Yes, you will always be able to read Target Shooter on-line but we feel that the iPad is the way forward for magazines and newspapers and, in a very short time, I predict that this will become the acceptable way to read a magazine or book.

Check out our NEW app for the iPad - iPhone or iPod Touch...

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

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Latest News...

New for 2012 - The innovative PSE Composites E-Tac

Innovative Composite ConstructionIntegral carbon fibre I-beam construction along the complete length results in a stock that is ultra-stiff on both a lateral and torsional axis.

The light weight of the E-tac will reduce mass below the bore line and help reduce initial muzzle flip and increase accuracy. In some cases depending on the weight of the scope or mag system, one can achieve the centre of gravity at “zero” or on centre bore line.

The rounded pentagon shaped grip of the E-Tac is another innovation of PSE-Composites. The rifleman can develop a feel for his rifle through practice and will develop a subconscious coordination and orientation with this shape. (Right) Ambidextrous extra long and vertical pistol grip with a slight palm swell.

New for 2012 - The innovative PSE CompositesE-Tac... Continued

Perfect fitting inlet moulding. Inlet area is reinforced via roving winding technique and roving cross-members. This includes the recoil lug area that is connected to the stock shell via several carbon roving bundles ensuring recoil is transferred with minimum flex directly into the stock.

Adjustable cheek is made completely from carbon fibre sandwich materials. If needed the top section can be filled with weight to reduce felt recoil. 1/2lb of weight can be added. This weight would be very close to the line of recoil. Clamp screw can be swapped to either side.

Flat sides on forend can be used to mount Picatinny rails. Flats are in line with the bore.

35mm (1.38”) wide no taper barrel channel. Will take the heaviest of barrels.

E-Tac: standard inlet is drop in fit for Remington 700 SA BDL or similar actions. Although not always needed, we recommend to epoxy bed the action. Metal pillars are not needed as carbon fibre pillars are integrated.

PSE-CompositesMarina House

Lower O’Connell Str.Kinsale

Co. CorkIreland

[email protected]

Tel: 00353 (0) 872363263

LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

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LATESTNEWS...

LATESTNEWS...

Latest News...

FCSA (UK) members Scott Wylie & Steve Milne competed in the 50 cal World Championship 1000 yd shoot at the Whittington Centre, Raton, New Mexico, in USA. This several days shoot (30-06-11 to 03-07-11) includes - Heavy Gun, Light Gun, Hunter Class, Unlimited, Practical & “Iron Man” etc.

Scott came 2nd in the International, 4th in Hunter & 6th in unlimited. (Using the Swiss AMSD Rifle)

Steve took 2nd in the practical class. (Using a provided EDM Arms Windrunner & Ammo)

Congratulations to both being in order.

A more detailed account of their activities can be found on Web Sites; www.fcsa.co.uk www.offasrifleclub.comincluding photo’s and an “in depth” article on how it all happens. See us on the Target Shooter stand at The British Shooting Show later this month...

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THE HANDLOADING BENCH

308 Winchester Rides Again By Laurie Holland - Part 2

This gives a clue to the case’s genesis. During late 2007, US Palma Team officials approached the Finnish company and asked if it would be willing to produce an SRP version of its high quality 308W case. After technical evaluations, Lapua agreed and 1000 samples were provided with a few members of the US Palma teams (there are west and east sub-teams for shooter selection, development and training) quietly trying them out during the 2009 season.

I believe that it was Tom Whitaker V.C. of the West US Palma Team who started this ball rolling having been a user of Remington UBBR SRP brass for many years. He undertook a series of tests with the Lapua version

Why change the tried and trusted 308Win format, one that has given excellent service for six decades? The objective is not enhanced accuracy (‘precision’) per se as in the smaller cased numbers such as the PPC and BRs with their 28-32gn charges, rather to reduce the spread of muzzle velocities by reducing primer energy close to the minimum level that reliably ignites 42-49 grain weight powder charges when the cartridge is used in ‘reasonable’ ambient temperatures.

In the past, dedicated long-range 308 competitors assiduously sought out particularly ‘mild’ batches of favoured LR primer brands, usually RWS and more recently the Russian manufactured PMC/Wolf/Tula models.

MV variations start to become important when any cartridge is used in long-range precision shooting but can affect some 308W loads particularly badly as the cartridge is pushed to its ballistic limits at 1000 yards and beyond. To be precise, such variations can induce ‘poor elevations’ on the target.

Also, if the bullets’ terminal velocities are close to a ballistics boundary of any sort, dropping through or sometimes even approaching the sound barrier being the most important, a large MV spread causes all sorts of unpredictable behaviours in some bullets. Wind changes can have disproportionate effects in such situations for instance. This may be one cause of the oft-heard complaint from long-range tyros that their rifles and ammunition group really well to 800 yards, but shoot all over the target at longer ranges.

‘Palma’ Connection

‘Palma’ refers both to a legendary shooting trophy and a long-range prone discipline using iron-sighted fullbore Target Rifles. The former was inaugurated in a five-nation team match shot on the long-gone

I’ll look at Lapua’s 308 Win ‘Palma’

match case this month, exploring

its raison d’être, wondering whether

it’s worth the extra money over the

common or garden large primer

model (£79.73 v £56.96 per 100

recommended retail prices).

But first, for those of you unsure of what Palma brass is, here’s a description and potted history. Dimensionally, the Palma case is identical to the company’s standard version. By that, I mean both not only conform to CIP/SAAMI dimensions but have near identical wall and neck thickness values and will have the same internal capacities after fire-forming in any given rifle chamber.

Any differences here are only what you might find between production lots. This suggests both cases start with the same materials and are drawn and formed in the same dies on Lapua’s production line. The differences are found in the ignition department, the standard model using the Large Rifle primer (LRP) and 2mm (0.080”) diameter flash-hole; the Palma version given a smaller diameter pocket for the Small Rifle primer (SRP) allied to a 1.5mm (0.059”) flash-hole. This combination puts the case into an elite group comprising the .220 Russian/PPCs, BRs and 6.5X47mm Lapua, other SRP users such as .223 Rem having the standard 2mm dia. aperture.

The 308W ‘Palma’ case is a specialist target shooting item, its makers advising it should not be used for loading ‘hunting’ rounds – I’ll come to the reason for that later.

Creedmoor Range on Long Island, New York in September 1876. These days, the international Palma match is held in a different country every four years, the most recent being Brisbane, Australia last October and was won by Great Britain for the third time in a row. The discipline is restricted to 308 Win/223 Rem rifles with bullet weight limits of ‘less

than 156gn and 81gn’ respectively. The international match is for 16-shooter teams and the course of fire is two convertible ‘sighters’ and 15 score shots each at 800, 900, and 1000 yards.

The ‘Palma’ name and eagle emblem, the latter based on the trophy, are registered service marks owned by the NRA of America, which controls their use as carefully as any commercially valuable global brand. As a result, you’ll find them applied to precious few products - Sierra’s pair of 155gn thirty-calibre MatchKing bullets and the new Lapua brass are the only examples I can recall off the top.

The starting point was Lapua’s high quality and very consistent .308 Winchester brass. All bar a handful of these standard LRP examples fell within a 1.0gn weight range.

THE HANDLOADING BENCH308 Winchester Rides Again Part 2By Laurie Holland


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

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while the company simultaneously carried out its own performance evaluations. With both parties very happy with the results, Lapua Nammo Oy launched its new SRP case branded and headstamped with the ‘Palma’ name with the US NRA’s approval in early 2010, supplies reaching our UK importers, Hannams Reloading Limited, that autumn.

Controversial

Not everybody welcomed this variant with open arms. A number of shooters questioned whether it was ‘legal’ under the Palma, Fullbore/Target Rifle and F/TR governing body’s (ICFRA) rules. Here is the relevant section:

T2.19.1. Cartridge Dimensions: With the exception of overall loaded length, cartridges must comply with the SAAMI or CIP cartridge specifications for .308 Winchester or .223 Remington respectively.

The US SAAMI standards body, which has technical responsibility for this cartridge, advised that the primer type is not prescribed in its specifications and large or small is immaterial to conformity decisions. Other equally serious but even more numerous criticisms came from shooters who had knowledge, either personally or second-hand, of the old

Remington 308 UBBR (Unformed Basic Bench Rest) case which also employed the small primer/small dia. flash-hole combination.

It was alleged all sorts of problems would be generated including variable performance, sensitivity to temperature variations, even hang-fires. A common refrain was: ‘Been there, done that, gave it up as a bad idea!’ The critics were, probably still are, generally of the view that the small rifle primer (SRP) is only marginally adequate for this size of cartridge

and weight of powder charges, that marginal status tipping over the line into inadequacy under certain conditions to give unpredictable and unsatisfactory performance.

On this issue of 308 UBBR brass versus the Lapua Palma Match version, one must consider that while the ‘UBBR’ was manufactured with 308 Win external dimensions, it was in some respects a different animal. It was drawn with exceptionally thin walls as its purpose wasn’t to be shot as .308W but to be a ‘basic case’

for reforming into the smaller BR Remington design and various wildcats. The ultra-light construction gave it significantly greater internal capacity than standard 308W brass and ideally required a tighter than ‘minimum-SAAMI’ chamber as well as the use of a custom or neck-bushing sizer die. The UBBR cases date from a quarter century ago too, as does much of the critics’ experience with them and propellant/primer technology has certainly not stood still over that period.

Here’s what the project’s instigator, Tom Whitaker had to say in 2010 in response to sustained criticism on the US Rifle Teams’ Long-Range Shooting Forum:

”After 25+ years of using the Remington BR cases in 308 and 6.5 calibers I have some experience using the small primer case. We should all agree there are many factors that contribute to loading accurate ammunition. It is a well known fact that primers are one of the most

important of these factors as they start the whole process going. What I found over the years is that there is a large variance in ignition using large rifle primers. Not just from brand to brand but from lot to lot within the same brand. No big revelation here, I’m sure we all have experienced this. Using small rifle primers I have found very little to no variance between lot to lot within a brand and minor variance from brand to brand. This equates to a much easier time developing a precision load and sustaining that load over a long period of time. Other factors affected by this are the reduced need to stock up on a certain component (primers can deteriorate over time) and less barrel wear wasted in testing.

...So, what’s the point? It is not 3-5 fps better ES (although I have found it to be better than that), nor is it that this case will produce ammo more accurate than the best LRP case loads (a great load is a great load no matter what you use). The big gain, in my opinion, is that it is much easier to find that great long range load with these SRP cases than it is with LRP cases.

Everyone has access to this case now use it if you want or not, the choice is up to you.”

The US Palma team reported that the SRP brass reduced velocity spreads (ES) by around 30%, sometimes more, with its standard load of the 155gn Sierra ‘Palma’ MK over Hodgdon VarGet. 15-round strings recorded ES values of 12-18 fps and SDs of 4-5 fps. The sole downside was a reduction in the MV but this could be rectified by adjusting the charge weight.

Four SRP brands were tried, purchased over the counter in ordinary gunshops and all performed well with little lot to lot variation. Low temperature questions were faced head on by placing SRP ammunition in a freezer overnight and test firing it over a chronograph immediately afterwards which was done without any serious or safety related problems such as hang-fires, although a reduction in the average MV was (unsurprisingly) recorded.

The Palma Match shield is topped by a stylised eagle and wreath emblem as reproduced on the Sierra ‘Palma’ MatchKing bullet carton. This is one of the very few products allowed to use the name and image.

Canny long-range .308W users look for ‘mild’ LR primers that perform consistently. Some batches of the Russian Tula manufactured PMC / Wolf brand LRPs are highly prized.



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Issues

Before we get onto my experience with ‘Palma’ cases, there are one or two issues to address. One is primer type and cup strength. Unlike LRPs which all have 0.027” thick cups, SRPs vary by type and sometimes by make. Standard SR versions vary from 0.019” to 0.021” by make, but Magnum / BR models use thicker brass sheet for a stronger cup. Federal 205M cups are 0.0225” thick, CCI-450, CCI-BR4, and Remington 7½

/ 7½BR 0.025”. I haven’t seen figures for the PMC/Wolf (Russian Tula manufactured) SR and SRM but my experience is that the former is one of the most fragile types on the market, while the ‘Magnum’ is exceptionally ‘tough’, resisting cratering and blanking slightly better than the notoriously strong CCI-450/BR4 models in my Savage 223 F/TR rifle.

Why is this an issue? For some reason, small primer cartridges are far more susceptible to problems caused by over-large diameter firing pin tips / slack pin to bolt-face fit than LRP equipped cartridges operating at similar pressures. This can be an issue if your F/TR rifle is based on a stock Remington 700 action, to a lesser extent the Savage PTA but won’t worry you if you’re using a Barnard or RPA model, or any of the specialist single-shot match actions from BAT, Stolle, RG Rifles etc.

The other issue to bear in mind is the mechanical ramifications from the use of the small diameter flash-hole. I covered this in my introduction to the 6BR some issues back but will repeat the salient points. While the ‘Palma’ case’s flash-hole is 1.5mm (0.059”) in diameter, the standard decapping pin used in sizer or dedicated decap dies is 0.0625”, so use of same in these cases will likely see the pin stick in the flash-hole, break, or if rigid enough to survive will do so by swaging the case.

You must get a suitably dimensioned pin if your 308W die set doesn’t come with the smaller type, as most

won’t, moreover make sure to have spares especially as small-diameter pins are only 0.057”, a mere 0.002” smaller than the nominal hole diameter on Lapua brass and easily broken. If you deprime cases as a separate step using a dedicated die you must obtain a correctly sized rod/pin, the fixed-pin Redding model needing the optional .17/.20 calibre rod, Sinclair’s decap die also using a different stem plus detachable Hornady small diameter pins.

Sinclair International makes a special BR/PPC flash-hole uniforming reamer (#07-3000) that is inserted from the rear of the case and indexes off the primer pocket which works in this case and the PPC / BR / 6.5X47L. It increases the flash-hole diameter a little to 0.063”, as Lapua’s production tolerances are 1.5-1.6mm (0.059-0.063”). If you use this tool on your

new brass, standard diameter decap pins should now fit, but only just! As it indexes off the primer pocket and is inserted from that end, what about de-burring the other (exit) end of the flash-hole? Many people (including me) are of the view that Lapua brass is so well made and consistent that you can simply ignore this issue, likewise don’t spend time and effort on ‘uniforming’ primer pockets. Just ensure you have a good supply of 0.057” diameter decapping pins.

Incidentally, if you feel that you must uniform the primer pocket, Lapua cuts those on its small primer/

small flash-hole cases a little deeper than on other standard SRP users such as 222 and 223 Rem., so a standard tool won’t do much good anyway. Sinclair International sells a small primer uniforming cutter dimensioned specifically for PPC/BR cases and which should also be used on the .308W ‘Palma’. If you prefer to uniform flash-holes from the case-mouth end and de-burr the flash-hole mouth/cut a small venturi in it, K&M do a conventional reamer/de-burr tool with the correct dimensions.

I left the flash-holes and primer pockets untouched in my tests, and used the CCI-BR4 primer throughout. In my experience with 223 Rem and 90gn bullets I found this to be the ‘hottest’ of the SRPs I tried producing higher velocities and I’d also had excellent results from this model in 6BR and 6.5X47 Lapua with their 30-40gn charges. It’s also very ‘tough’ and, even though I used my Barnard Model ‘P’ based tubegun, I wouldn’t want to use a ‘soft’ thin-cup standard SRP in this case, especially as I expected to run up serious pressures with some combinations and would need to ignite heavy (up to 49gn) charges of slow burning powders reliably.

Seasons

A leit-motif amongst those unconvinced by the SRP 308 Win case is alleged cold-weather unreliability. This appears to be supported by Lapua itself, or at any rate its US importer, with advice that these cases should not be used for loading ‘hunting ammunition’. We in the British Isles rarely think about ambient

Lapua’s .308 Winchester brass seen on the left is one of several recent introductions by the Finnish company. Another is its superbly consistent .22-250 Rem brass (front right).

Spot the difference! There is none visible between ‘Palma’ SRP and standard Lapua LRP cases from this angle.

They’re not the same at the rear end. The ‘Palma’ version (on left) not only uses the Small Rifle primer, but has a reduced diameter (1.5mm) flash-hole. The standard model uses the Large Rifle primer and has a 2mm flash-hole.

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Sizer and decapping dies must use the correct size of

decap pin on ‘Palma’ and similar cases. (The bottom

left pair have the small diameter pin, the others have

the standard size.)

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temperature effects on our match ammo – although I increasingly believe we need to become much more aware of them – but this is a major preoccupation in the USA covering both ends of the temperature scales.

With most medium and large game shooting taking place during the winter, seriously low temperatures may be encountered especially in the inland regions of continental North America and northern Europe. Ignition (un)reliability and reduced MVs become issues when temperatures fall below zero and some propellants are more affected than others – why some handloading manuals recommend that magnum primers should be routinely used in ammunition loaded with ball powders.

An American gun writer described in print some years back how he missed an apparently certain shot with his 44 Magnum revolver at a coyote that was openly stalking livestock in a ranch farmyard one bitterly cold winter’s day, the predator made incautious by extreme hunger during a spell of exceptionally cold weather. Drawing the revolver that he’d carried holstered while working outdoors for some hours and taking careful aim with it rested on a fencepost, he was astonished to do nothing more than scare the animal away, the report being ‘wrong’ too. Subsequent testing with a distant rock as a target showed that MVs had dropped to such an extent that bullets hit the ground 20 or 30 yards in front of the muzzle. The cause was the use of standard primers with his usual heavy compressed charge of H110 ball powder allied to the temperature, a load that had always given excellent results before.

Since we got our first ‘Palma’ cases as winter approached, I was keen to try them out in cold weather ... well, cold by UK standards. My initial efforts with the new brass employed three Vihtavuori based combinations that I knew worked well in all seasons with LRP cases: the near standard TR clubman’s load of 155gn Lapua Scenar over a stiff charge of N140; 175gn Sierra MK over a mild load of stable and easily ignited N150; my then favourite long-range F/TR combination of the 185gn Berger BTLR and N550.

As I expected pressures and MVs to be a bit lower than normal due to the SRP effect on its own, a range of charge weights was used in each of the trio. The N140 and N150 combinations were also loaded in standard Lapua LRP brass, the two lots shot fully supported off a bench rest in a single session to allow a side

by side comparison and also see what sort of 100yd groups could be obtained. The 185gn Berger/N550 combination compared 15 rounds of existing LRP ammunition left over from the 2010 F Class season against three freshly loaded batches of five rounds with rising charge weights in SRP ‘Palma’ brass. CCI-BR4 primers were used in the ‘Palma’ loads, Federal 210M match primers in the three LRP control groups.

The two 175gn SMK/Viht N150 variants were the first to be tried in my initial range session held on 18th November 2010. My notes describe the conditions as cold (3-4°C) with a moderate crosswind from the right. Five by 5-round batches whose charge weights rose from 42.0-44.0gn in 0.5gn steps had been loaded the day before in the two types of Lapua case. The 10 groups ranged from 0.4 to 0.7” centre to centre averaging around the half-inch mark with no difference at all attributable to case type. MVs and MV spreads were very much as expected, the ‘Palma’ versions losing some velocity, but sometimes producing reduced ES values. So far so good, especially as N150 usually produces small velocity spreads in LRP form. In fact, I’d normally expect better results than I got here with high single figure values up

SR Magnum and BR primers are best suited to this application.

Cratering and piercing SRPs at high but not excessive pressures is an endemic problem in some rifle actions. These examples are from .223 Rem cartridges fired in an AR-15 type rifle.

The Barnard Model ‘P’ bolt and striker assembly. The small diameter firing pin is a close fit in its bolt-face aperture and won’t see any problem with high pressure loads using SR Magnum or BR primers.

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to the mid teens, and I’ll put the deterioration down to the relatively low ambient temperature. Here is how the MVs and spreads look:

LAPUA ‘PALMA’ v STANDARD BRASS: 175gn Sierra MK / Viht N150

Muzzle Velocities Velocity Spreads

Palma Standard LRP Difference Palma Standard LRP Difference

42.0gn 2,590 2,631 - 41 fps 11 26 - 15

42.5gn 2,633 2,655 - 22 21 26 - 5

43.0gn 2,649 2,680 - 31 21 21 Nil

43.5gn 2,674 2,696 - 22 21 11 + 10

44.0gn 2,701 2,726 - 25 17 17 Nil

Test number 2 comparing the 155gn Lapua Scenar over Viht N140 loads didn’t work out in the SRP Palma cases’ favour at all. Taking groups first, the SRP range was 0.6 to 1.3” averaging 0.92”; the LRP ‘control’ loads ran at 0.5 to 0.8” averaging 0.59”. Not exactly startling, but the 30” Broughton barrel then in use had never liked this combination. MVs were down again with the ‘Palma’ cases by a similar amount, but the spreads were considerably larger with one exception where the Federal 210M load had produced an abnormally big value.

LAPUA ‘PALMA’ v STANDARD BRASS: 155gn Lapua Scenar / Viht N140

Muzzle Velocities Velocity Spreads

Palma Standard LRP Difference Palma Standard LRP Difference

45.5gn 2,897 2,913 - 16 fps 38 12 + 26

45.8gn 2,925 2,947 - 22 25 13 + 12

46.1gn 2,947 2,964 - 17 26 13 + 13

46.3gn 2,948 2,974 - 26 20 40 - 20

46.5gn 2,968 2,990 - 22 53 14 + 39

The Berger 185gn BTLR/Viht N550 tests were carried out on a different day, 6th January 2011 and my notes record the conditions as cold (now 2°C) with virtually no wind. Three groups were shot with the leftover match ammo and averaged 0.5”; 2,766 fps MV; 40 fps ES; 12 fps SD. That wasn’t a great result and there were two possible causes. These rounds had been loaded six months before and sitting that long rarely does much for performance. Also, I reckon the low temperature had an effect, at the very least the average MV was some 35 fps down on what it had been the previous summer, and this could also have affected the other results adversely.

Winter ammunition testing at Diggle with the Barnard / Eliseo tubegun. A key question with the Palma brass and SRPs was how it would perform on winter days such as this one at Diggle. Frost still rimes the valley floor on a cold January morning as a morning relay of TR and F Class competitors finish.

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SRP based ignition wouldn’t have posed any problems on this

warm, sultry day in late June 2009 when the tubegun was used in

the annual Yorkshire RA ‘Spring Open’ meeting at Strensall.

Anyway, onto the three freshly loaded batches in the ‘Palma’ brass, also starting at 46.3gn but now rising in 0.2gn steps to 46.7gn. Incidentally, I made sure the powder was from the same production lot as that loaded in the LRP control rounds.

46.3gn: 0.8” group 2,711 fps MV 33 fps ES



So, a charge weight around 47gn would have been needed to match the LRP/Fed210M 46.3gn load’s MV, two out of three spreads were better if not brilliant, but one batch of five gave a very poor result indeed.

Hmmm... taking the three sets of ammo, not a great result for the ‘Palma’ brass and SRP! But, was the mediocre to poor performance down to inherent inefficiency in these combinations, or was it temperature induced? Right, fast forward to 9th June 2011 on Diggle’s ‘A’ Range, nice and warm now in early summer. Er ... not exactly! 10°C and gusty crosswinds say my range notes. 10 degrees (50F) in June – that really says something about Diggle Ranges and the English summer of 2011! Anyway, the ‘Palma’ case, CCI-BR4 primer, 155gn Lapua Scenar and 45.5 to 46.5gn N140 (same production lot) combination was rerun as follows:

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F210M primers. The best combination of the four appeared to be 46.7gn providing a 0.6” group – too big for top level F/TR competition – and now achieving the MV I would expect at 2,806 fps.

Here’s how it compared to the same combination shot in January at 2-degrees C:

Group: 0.6” (- 0.2”)

MV: 2,806 fps (+ 61 fps)

ES: 14 fps (- 47 fps)

SD: 6 fps (- 20 fps)

Wow! That is a big change to the internal ballistics. My conclusions and advice, for what they’re worth? Be very wary of using this brass with some powders in cold weather, ‘cold’ defined as ambient temperatures significantly below 10°C / 50°F. Also, be aware that loads worked up over the winter may perform rather differently during the main competition season in higher temperatures.

Next month, I’ll give summer temperature SRP brass results with another mid-weight bullet, the Berger 175gn BT Long-Range with two powders, Hodgdon VarGet and H414 (ball powder), again comparing them against results from standard LRP Lapua cases. I’ll also move onto heavy (200-210gn) bullets in both types of case using slow burning powders seeking to maximise velocities. Could that be where the ‘Palma’ brass offers significant advantages when used in such high pressure long-range F/TR loads?

Much more like it! But, what a difference caused by a six or seven degrees C ambient temperature change, rising from ~4° to ~10°! Note however, that MVs barely increased after 46.1gn and 46.5gn only provided another 2 fps over the cold weather performance. Extreme spread values also jumped dramatically after 46.1gn saying to me that this was the maximum charge weight of that powder that the CCI-BR4 / small flash-hole could cope with in those conditions. With hindsight, I wish I’d run the three top loads again on a rather warmer summer’s day to see if that result was repeated or if MVs increased and ES values decreased at or above the standard ballistics temperatures of 14-15 deg C / 59 deg F.

The maximum charge weight used of 46.5gn had produced 2,990 fps in the LRP brass, another 20 fps, even in the cold weather so would likely just exceed 3,000 fps in warmer conditions. Maybe N140 seems to be limited by the small primer case in this respect, or maybe it’s even more limited by temperature factors than seemed likely at first. Nevertheless, I was very impressed to get 0.3” groups from the combination as I’d never had much luck with it with standard brass in that barrel.

How about the 185gn Berger BTLR/N550 load in warmer weather? The re-run took place on 28th July 2011 in something more like summer, 21-22°C, with light winds. Four batches were loaded and fired rising from 46.5gn to 47.1gn in 0.2gn steps, again using powder from the same lot. Groups ranged from 0.5” to 1.4” and ES values from 14 to 46 fps, still not brilliant compared to my normal LRP brass load with

LAPUA ‘PALMA’ / CCI-BR4 / 155gn Lapua Scenar / Viht N140 Re-Run

Group Av. MV (fps) ES (fps) MV Change from 11/10 ES Change from 11/10

45.5gn 0.8” 2,955 6 + 58 fps - 32 fps

45.8gn 0.4” 2,955 15 + 30 fps - 10 fps

46.1gn 0.3” 2,967 8 + 20 fps - 18 fps

46.3gn 0.6” 2,967 29 + 19 fps + 9 fps

46.5gn 0.3” 2,970 29 + 2 fps - 24 fps

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Even though modern nitro game and target cartridges are still relatively cheap to purchase, the tools and components required to manufacture ammunition at home are still being made and are readily available from several retailers, of note are Henry Krank & Co at

www.henrykrank.com and Clay & Game Reloaders at www.claygame.co.uk . Also of interest is the extract from the Parker Hale catalogue showing vintage tools still available at least as late as 1958.

Comments and questions please to;[email protected]

bowl to vary the volume. English and American made tools are usually graduated in drams for powder and ounces for shot, whilst continental ones are usually in decigrammes for powder and grammes for shot.

What simplifies things is that once you have adjusted the measure for the weight of shot, it is customary to use the same volume setting for powder. Using my English measure, I have settled on a load of 1oz

shot, this approximates to 28grams. At this setting the measure indicates a powder weight of 2½ drams, (74grains in common reloading parlance). This load should be more than adequate for CAS steel plate shooting.

So, using a cartridge filler tube, I take my primed case, pour in a measure of 2½drams of Swiss No 4, I then take a 3mm thick over-powder card wad and push this onto the powder, next comes a 13mm fibre cushioning wad, then a 3mm felt wad to prevent the shot embedding in the fibre. Next, using the same measure setting, I pour in 1oz of shot, (anything from No7s to No5s is good for knocking over steel plates) followed by a thin over-shot card wad. All that is left to do is to form the crimp to hold the components together. If, as I mentioned earlier, the case has not been previously cut to length, then that will be necessary before the crimping stage.

I made a simple gauge out of a piece of aluminium rod as pictured, which allows for an overlap of 3mm for crimping. The whole is now placed in the vintage cartridge closer and the roll crimp applied. I generally now mark the cartridge with an indelible pen to show it is charged with black powder.

LOADING THE BLACKPOWDER SHOTSHELL Part 2 by Ken Hall

In the previous chapter on this subject, I hopefully whetted your appetite enough to encourage you to try handloading the black powder shotshell yourselves. Traditionally, shotshell cartridges were made of paper or card tube, with a brass base containing a thick base wad with a hole for the large shotgun primer. This design has hardly changed except the outer tube is now made of plastic and the brass base has been replaced with a brass plated ferrous metal to keep production costs down. This means that reloading tools designed in the 19th century to reload the paper shotshell will work just as well in the 21st century with today’s cases.

Let’s look at the way I reload the 12 gauge black powder shotshell but first, as usual, I want to say that what has proven to be safe in my own turn of the century hammer gun may not prove to be so in other vintage guns so, if you intend to use the load in anything other than a modern nitro proofed gun, please have it checked by a competent gunsmith to determine its’ serviceability.

I tend to use once-fired cases for reloading; this means that if the case has been fired in a different gun than the shell is intended for, then the brass base

will need to be resized to standard dimensions in order to freely enter the chamber. Simple hand tools exist for this purpose but I cheat and use the resizing die with my Lee ‘Load-All’ machine as it is much quicker to use. (If new bought cases are preferred then this process is not necessary).

Next, the spent primer needs to be removed, I use an antique de-priming and re-priming tool for this purpose but it could be simply knocked out with a nail punch. As I sometimes use reclaimed (salvaged) cases which are of different overall lengths, I then take the unprimed case and trim it to the required length using another vintage tool which was illustrated in the last instalment. If you don’t have this tool then this process can be completed later using a simple home made tool. The new primer is then seated using the previously mentioned re-priming tool; once again this can also be achieved simply by placing the primer on a flat surface and pressing the case over it using a suitably sized dowel inside the case.

Next comes the powder, I prefer Swiss No 4 1½ ffg but other brands of fg or ffg grade are suitable. When it comes to measuring the powder and shot, I use a vintage hand tool called a powder/shot dipper. These are very common and always appearing at trade fairs and internet auctions. The tools have an adjustable

QUIGLEY SHOOTINGASSOCIATION NEWS

QUIGLEY SHOOTINGASSOCIATION NEWS

Home made trimming gauge

Section of a vintage Eley Grand Prix cartridge

Shotshell component parts

Typical hand tools

Parker Hale cat 58

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United Kingdom Practical Shooting Association News by Tony Saunders

UKPSA Section - by Tony Saunders

UKPSA AGM 2012

The UKPSA AGM was held early in January in Leicester as part of a 2-day series of meetings and seminars.

Saturday saw Range Officers, Match Directors and UKPSA Instructors attending a number of seminars and refresher courses to cover the new IPSC rule changes. There have been some significant changes, particularly in IPSC Shotgun that will impact competitors shooting sanctioned Level 2 and above matches, including the new ‘Muzzle Up’ directive that has been met with some initial objection. However, in order to bring us in line with the majority of IPSC regions, it was felt necessary to adopt muzzle up and it was trialled last year at the L3 IPSC shotgun match at Harlow in Essex with little apparent fuss apart from some gentle reminders occasionally by the ROs.

After a friendly LBF match on Sunday morning at Leicester Shooting Centre, the AGM was held early afternoon. The first order of the day was the stepping down and election of UKPSA council positions.

The council thanked Mike Darby for his work over the last twelve months, and welcomed Ken Trail to the position of PRO. Thanks also go to Leicester Shooting Centre for hosting the pre-AGM match.

2012 L3 IPSC Shotgun Matches

Some confirmed dates for your diaries. These matches will make up the UK championship matches. Best four out of five to count.

6th & 7th April Hadrian CSAC Hallbankgate12 Stages, 157 rounds of Birdshot. £35 MD Vanessa Duffy

25th & 26th May Ken Brown Memorial & HTRPC Harlow British Club Championships. 10 stages, 135 rounds of birdshot. £35 MD Geoff Smith

15th & 16th June Scottish Championships CSAC Crocketford. 12 Stages, 144 rounds - 87 birdshot, 17 buckshot and 42 Slug. £35. MD Vanessa Duffy

7th & 8th July British Championships Borders Border Guns, Shropshire. 12 stages. 130 rounds - 120 birdshot, 10 buckshot. £35. MD Martin Davies

26th & 27th October Home Countries Championships HTRPC Harlow. 10 stages 135 rounds of birdshot. £35. MD Geoff Smith

2012 Long Barrelled Matches

31st March L2 Southern Championships Blue Team Little Chalfont Championship round. 10 stages, 130 rounds. £25. MD (TBC) contact Vanessa Duffy

15 April L2 Basildon 9 stages, 140 rounds. £30. MD Gary Dyer

30th June L2 Scottish Championships CSAC Crocketford. Championhip Round. 10 Stages 144 rounds. £25. MD Vanessa Duffy

1st July L2 Reiver Challenge CSAC Carlisle. 8 stages 130 rounds £25. MD Vanessa Duffy

22nd July L2 Northern Championships Tall Trees Tall Trees. Championship round. 10 stages 140 rounds. £25. MD Roye West

12th August L2 Birmingham LSC Birmingham. 10 stages, 135 rounds. £25. MD Ian Chamberlain

14th October L2 Home Countries Championships Bedford. Championship round.10 stages, 120 rounds. £25. MD Nick Weber

25th Nov L2 British Championships LSC Leicester Championship round. 10 stages, 135 rounds. £25. MD Ian Chamberlain

The five Championships matches in bold will make up the UKPSA LBF British Championships for 2012. Best four scores from five matches to score. The remaining matches, along with the Championship matches will make up member’s grades for 2012.

Council has agreed that any club hosting a L2 LBF match may run a parallel L1 match which will be limited to the members of the host clubs. Please contact Vanessa Duffy for conditions and more details via the UKPSA website or Forum :

Matches and Events in January

February is currently boasting a number of Level 1 matches at various clubs, plus the Spring Shotgun Festival at Bisley.

Thurnscoe L1 PSG Match on 02/05/2012

Borderguns Level 1 on 02/11/2012

Carlisle L1 PSG Match on 02/12/2012

Council Position Previous Incumbent Elected Member

Regional Director Vanessa Duffy Vanessa Duffy

Chairman Rob Adam Rob Adam

Secretary Alan Phillips Alan Phillips

Treasurer Adrian Wander Adrian Wander Public Relations Officer Mike Darby Ken Trail

Spring Shotgun Festival Bisley on 02/18/2012

PSG Squad Training at Wedgenock on 02/19/2012

British Shooting Show - Newark on 02/25/26/2012

See UKPSA Forum for more details: http://ukpsa.invisionzone.com/

The UKPSA is hosting a stand at this years Shooting Show at the Newark Showground, Nottingham, NG24 2NY, UK

Come along and chat to us to find out more about IPSC shooting.

Show Info: http://www.shootingshow.co.uk/

UKPSA Handgun Commission Inaugural Competition at Kells Rifle and Pistol Club

As the first UKPSA competition does not take place until April, in order for an opportunity for people to get together we organised a New Year fun shoot competition. A small Level 1 three stage event took place on 14th January. The competitors shot an 11 round short course, an 18 round medium course and a 29 round long course. Once they had competed in one IPSC Division they could re-enter in another Division. So we had competitors swapping between Production, Revolver and Standard Divisions. Over 30 competitors turned up for the event and the good news was that we got a lot of people who are new to IPSC taking part. Luckily we had a calm still day weather wise. This year Northern Ireland is experiencing one of its mildest winters on record. Like the rest of the UK last year was one of our worst and this time last year the range was under several feet of snow!

The results can be viewed at www.ukpsa.co.uk/handgunniresults.html

The UKPSA Handgun Commission’s inaugural competition was held at Kells Rifle and Pistol Club in County Antrim. Kells RPC is where several Level 2 matches and the International Level 3 United

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UKPSANEWS

Kingdom Open Competition were held in 2007 and 2008. Kells club is still equipped with both experienced members and the facilities to host future matches. You can see more by looking at the clubs web site www.kellsrpc.com

In the practical pistol section of the menu bar you can read match reports from previous graded IPSC matches held at Kells in 2007 and 2008, including the report and photographs on the UKPSA 2008 UK Open. Further UKPSA events will take place at Kells RPC in 2012.

UKPSA Membership Application

For those people who were previously members of the UKPSA or who have never been members of the UKPSA, you can now join the Association as follows.

As from now you can join the UKPSA and your membership will run from the current date until the end of March 2013. The membership fee will still be £42.00. So you will get 15 months membership for the same price as 12 months membership.

You can find the membership application form on the UKPSA web site www.ukpsa.org which you can fill in and post to the membership secretary. Go to Join / Renew on the menu bar on the home page for the relevant forms. If you have any questions you can contact me at [email protected]

IPSC (Practical Shotgun) Safety Course

Due to a demand from UKPSA members in Northern Ireland an IPSC shotgun safety course will take place later this year. Anyone who is interested in taking part can send an e mail to [email protected] expressing an interest. The UKPSA Handgun Commission will organise a trip to a Practical Shotgun Competition in GB in the autumn of 2012.

The UKPSA Handgun Commission initiative has one goal; to train UKPSA members, Range Officers and Officials and to ensure that UKPSA members and members of other IPSC Regions can shoot and

enjoy properly organised IPSC handgun and shotgun competition within the United Kingdom IPSC Region. The Handgun Commission has its own section on the UKPSA web site, were you can find out more information.

E mail - [email protected] Web Site - http://www.ukpsa.co.uk/handgunni.html

United Kingdom Handgun Championship

Three Level 2 Graded IPSC competitions will also take place in 2012. The results of these three competitions will be combined to form a UK Handgun Championship. The dates for these three competitions are the 12th May, 21st July and 18th August. At the conclusion of the third competition we will be able to announce UKPSA Handgun Champions in the IPSC Handgun Divisions of Classic, Open, Production, Revolver and Standard Divisions.

The first UKPSA Handgun Commission Handgun Competition for 2012 will be a Level 1 Match on 21st April. The graded events that have been organised so far for 2012 are as follows.

Northern Ireland UKPSA 2012 Handgun Commission Competitions

12th May - The Jubilee Shoot, USASC, Kilkeel.21st July - Mourne Mountain Challenge , USASC Kilkeel. 18th August - Summer Sizzler Shoot, USASC Kilkeel.

Competitors shot the three stages in one Division and then re-shot the stages in another Division

Stage 1 had the competitors running alonga zig-zaging track

While shooting through this obstacle some competitors shot it kneeling, while others went into

the prone position

Competitors in Northern Ireland use the same types of handguns that are commonly found in IPSC

competitions, such as Glock, STI, SVI, S&W and the CZ Tactical Sport shown here

As in other IPSC Regions, in Northern Ireland Production is also a very popular Division as well

Thanks to David Thompson for pictures & article.

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