Target Shooter 1

2 Target Shooter

Target Shooter 3

Launching the brand new airgun marque of Prestige Airguns, the Kub family comes in a trio of exciting carbine-format models - the SB (side-bolt), RB (rear-bolt) and SL (side-lever) - each

available in .177 or .22 and with ambidextrous thumbhole or sporter woodwork in walnut.

The Kubs weigh-in at just 6.5 lbs., yet are stacked with features - including an adjustable butt pad, plug-in charging, on-board air gauge, adjustable two-stage trigger, re-settable safety, threaded muzzle and a 10-shot rotary magazine. Notwithstanding its compact dimensions, a Prestige Kub also returns upwards of 100 full-power shots per air-fill thanks to its self-regulating firing valve.

Against feather, fur, metal or paper targets, the new Prestige Kubs are the connoisseur’s choice for handling and performance. A pride born to make your shooting more rewarding.

4 Target Shooter

Sections

6 Shooting Sport News

9 Shooters Calendar

11 Support your Local Gun Shop

25 McRee’s Precision Stock System by Vince Bottomley

30 257 Roberts Ackley Improved by Richard Wild 36 Gun of the Month

50 ProfileonRoryMcAlpine by Hayley Platts

58 Full Bore Ballistic Analysis by Bryan Litz

64 Website of the Month 71 GalleryRifleBasicPart4 by Gwyn Roberts

76 Training Body and Mind by Andy Dubreuil

77 Club Feature

79 Malta, Sun, Sea, Sand and More by Stanley Shaw

94 Letters

95 Advertisers Index

13 Experience the Imperial Part 2 by Chris White

20 GSG-AK-47 review By Tim Finley 38 The 12-50x56 PM11/P Telescopic Sight from Schmidt & Benderby Vince Bottomely

53 SniperRifleNo4Mk 1 Part 2 By Nigel Greenaway

65 Commonewealth Custom From Fox Firearms by Laurie Holland

44 Batch Testing at Eleyby Carl Boswell

Welcome to the 7th month

.......of Target Shooter

Target Shooter 5

Association Pages84 UKBRA

85 UKBR22

86 F Class UK

88 Quigley Association

90 HFT News

91 GalleryRifle

92 UKPSA

Editor(s).Carl Boswell and Vince BottomleyAdvertising and Office ManagerAndy Dubreuil. email; admin@targetshooter.co.ukContributorsVince Bottomley Andy Dubreuil Chris White Tim Finley Laurie Holland Richard WildCarl Boswell Hayley Platts Bryan LitzNigel Greenaway Gwyn RobertsStanley Shaw Ken Hall

DisclaimerThe website www.targetshooter.co.uk is part of Target Shooter magazine with all contents of both electronic media copyrighted. No reproduction is permitted unless written authorisation is provided.Information,pricesanddataisbelievedtobecorrectatthetimeofpostingontheinternetwhichisonoraroundthe1stofeachmonth.AdvertisementsthatarefirearmrelatedarefromcompaniesorindividualsthatTargetShootermagazinebelievesarelicensedtoholdsuchfirearmsandacceptsnoresponsibilityifcompaniesorindividuals 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.Theviewsexpressedinthismagazinearenotnecessarilytheviewsofthepublishersandrelatetospecificcircumstanceswithineacharticle.Thesearetheopinionsandexperiencesofwritersusingspecificequipment,firearms,componentsanddataundercontrolledconditions.Informationcontainedintheonlinemagazineoronthewebsiteisintendedtobeusedasaguideonlyandinspecificcircumstancescautionshouldbeused.TargetShooterMagazinedoesnotexceptanyresponsibilityforindividuals attempting to recreate such testing using any information, data or other materials in its electronic pages.Publishers of Target Shooter magazine.

Webitorial - October 2009

We are rapidly approaching the close of the summer season and what a summer! Not the weather of course but lots going on in shooting – plenty of national matches, a World Championship and a new British World F Class Champion and a Gold Medal winning GB Team! During the coming months, some of us will go inside, preferring the warmth of a heated range rather than braving the cold of the English autumn and winter. I don’t blame you but personally, I don’t mind the cold and I’m happy to continue shooting outdoors. Winter is also the time when we tend to buy our new gear for the coming season and maybe order anewrifleinpreparationforspring,whentheroller-coasterstartsalloveragain.This year, in addition to a hectic shooting programme, we have also had the added excitement of developing Target Shooter. It has been a great pleasure and a privilege to reach out to you, the target shooter, via the world wide web but convincingadvertiserstogowithan‘unknownquantity’ismorechallenging.Withyourloyalsupporthoweverwehavesurvived – if not exactly prospered! From a zero starting point we now average a phenominal 10,000 readers per month. Even though we offer a totally free magazine,westillfindshooterswhohaven’theardofusandhaveyettoreadTargetShooter.Yes,theon-linemaga-zine concept is new and shooting is a sport steeped in tradition and maybe, in some cases, the two are yet to meet! To help with this we have bought-in new software, allowing readers to download the magazine to their own computer and read it at leisure rather than on-line. Hopefully this will assist those who are less able to spend time reading the magazine‘live’viatheinternet.You,ourloyalreadershipbase,areourmostvaluedasset,asyouarebestequippedtospreadthewordandgetyourfellowshootersacquaintedwithwww.targetshooter.co.ukWinter brings plenty for the shooter - we can look forward to Bisley’s Trafalgar Meeting in October and, although we willnotbeofficiallypromotingthemagazine,wewillbethere,withtherestofyou,buyingbitsandpieces,searchingout the bargains at the trade fair and hopefully having a relaxing day and maybe a shoot. At the end of October, it’s the F Class ‘Europeans’ - another great weekend of competition and our writers will again be shooting alongside you and bringing you the latest match results. It has certainly been a busy year for Bisley, which is great of course as it means that our sport of shooting is far from ‘in recession’ and the trade fairs have provided a great opportunity for dealers to showcase their products to a ‘captive audience’. As Vince stated in last month’s Webitorial, we would like to have lots more information from clubs so we can help pro-mote any events that you are running. We are here because above all, we eat, sleep, walk and talk shooting! E-mail us with your news, be it local, regional or national and let’s get the whole of Britain shooting! Until next month.

Carl Boswell - carl@targetshooter.co.uk and Vince Bottomley - vinceb@targetshooter.co.uk and Andy Dubreuil - admin@targetshooter.co.uk

Copyright © Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd

6 Target Shooter

Bolt Knob

OK, maybe you can’t get excited about a bolt knob but I can! As soon as I got this one from North West Custom Parts www.nwcustomparts.com I just had to bung it on my Barnard 07 tube

gun. Design is similar to the Badger Ordnance tactical knob with one or two subtle changes and it comes anodised in a variety of colours. The retail price is £20 - though you may have to get your favourite gunsmith to fit it depending on yourrifle.

Parmoor Stocks

Here’s a new stock and it’s made in the UK. Red cedar is used as this is very light and the stock weighs in at just 24 ounc-es and that’s before inletting. This should make it the ideal basis of a 10.5lb gun for rimfire or centrefire benchrest.The shape is typical of modern benchrest stocks and reminds me of a Tom Merideth design, with three-inch wide fore-end and a half-inch flat on the underside of the butt. If there is a demand, inlets could be offered but personally, I would prefer to

start from scratch with a complete blank.

If you would like to know more, e-mail stephen588@btinternet.com Suggested

retail price is £195 plus postage.

Shooting Sport News

Target Shooter 7

Shooting Mat

This one is from America and is being imported by our friends at North West Custom Parts. It packs up nice and small yet is well padded and very comfy to lie on. Like most stuff from America, it is very well made with various pockets and things. Retails at £85 from www.nwcustomparts.com

It has been a good year for the UK on an international level. With a total score of 123 from the 3 matches, James Woodhead from England has just won the FT World Championship , held in South Africa.Our congratulations to him and the UK team that went

over there. John Costello, also from England came second, with Mark Bassett of Wales coming in third place. With an overall score of 469, the English teamalsocameinfirstplacefortheteamevent.Well done to all concerned.

Position Number First Name Last Name Country Group Shoot 1 Shoot 2 Shoot 3 Total1 8 James Woodhead England 3 46 38 39 1232 11 John Costello England 3 43 38 42 1233 115 Mark Basset Wales 1 38 39 36 1134 59 David Combrink South Africa 2 41 34 38 1135 72 Hennie Breytenbach South Africa 2 44 33 36 1136 9 James Matthew Osborne England 1 39 35 38 1127 113 Dorian John Falconer Wales 2 36 36 37 1098 5 Andy Calpin England 2 37 34 37 1089 58 Curt February South Africa 1 40 31 33 104

10 106 Werner Breedt South Africa 3 37 30 34 101

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Benchrest goodies from Fox Firearms

Brian Fox has just received his first shipment from Harrell in the USA. He has a box full of tuners for the rimfire benchrest guys which look really nice. I’ve never had a close look at a tuner before and like all Harrell products they are well made and beautifully finished.

Also in the shipment were the portable

loading presses - used by most centrefire BR shooters to re-size their brass on the point and some of the superb Harrell powder measures. Brian also has Harrell’s CNC muzzle brakes and is selling all his stuff at the price you would pay for it in the States – in other words you save the cost and hassle of shipping. Visit the Fox website at www.foxfirearmsuk.com

IPSC European Shotgun Championships 2009

The photos are from the award ceremony at the IPSC European Shotgun Championship. Held in Oparany, Czech Republic. 14th - 19th July 2009. Also known as ESC09.

Venessa Duffy won Ladies Standard Semi Auto. Along with Sharon Sell, Josie Adam and Caroline Norman we took first teamprize in the Standard Semi Auto. Andrew Duffy was Ladies team manager.See the UKPSA pages at the back of the magazine.

Harrel Tunner

Target Shooter 9

Calendar of events over the next month If your club or association has events you want to publicise here then email us.

4 Oct Instructor Workshop (Methods of Instruction) Course (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)A new one day training workshop for those wishing to become either NRA RCO Assessors or Club Coaches in the future.

24 Oct to Sun 25 Oct Target Rifle SkillsCourse (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)This weekend course is aimed primarily at those who have recently taken up target rifle shooting to help them develop theirindividual skills

24 Oct - LongRangeRiflesBranch,600ydWhitworth/Rigby Cup & Annual Dinner, Bisley

From 10 Oct To 11 Oct 2009 NSRA/Eley Finals (all except prone & 3P), Bisley - Lord Roberts Centre

07 Nov Start of Probationary Members Course 2009/5 (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)This course is primarily a course in safe handling and provides an introduction to TargetRifle,GalleryRifleandBlackPowderPistol. Each course consists of four separate lessons. Course date to be allocated once entry conditions are fulfilled. Allapplications for Probationary Membership should be made to the NRA Membership Secretary.

14 Nov NRA Shooting Club Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets have been booked on Melville and at 100, 200, 500 and 1000 yards. All disciplines welcome.

14 to Sun 15 Nov Club Coach Course (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)Candidates should be experienced shooters who have already completed a Club Instructor course. This course covers coaching techniques, and methods ofinstruction. Candidates will be formallyassessed on the range and in the delivery of classroom lesson. Qualified Club Coachesmay run NRA Probationary, Skills and Club Instructor Courses.

30 Oct to 01 Nov - European F Class Championships (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)

24 Oct to Sun 25 Oct GalleryRifle -AutumnAction Weekend (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)This is the lastof the2009mainGalleryRifleAction Weekends that encourages ‘Action Shooting’ for theGalleryRiflecommunitywhovisit Bisley. This includes competitions for GalleryRifles (centrefireandsmallbore),LongBarrelled Revolvers and Pistols. There are also competitions for those of you who have an interest in Target Shotgun.

17 Oct to Sun 18 Oct Trafalgar Meeting (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)As the enjoyable memories of the Imperial Meeting fade, the thoughts of many shooters of an historical inclination turn towards the NRA Trafalgar Meeting.

11 Oct NRA Shooting Club Day (National Shoot-ing Centre (NSC), Bisley)Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets have been booked on Melville and at 100, 200, 600 and 1000 yards. All disciplines welcome.

17 Oct to 18 Oct Freelancers Fiasco (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)The Freelancers Fiasco 2009 Open shoot (OrganisedbyLangarRifleClub)havefixedthis years dates for the 17 and 18 October. Comprising a Queens I, II and III, the weekend welcomes all competitors to join us for a relaxed wind down of the shooting season of 2009.Download entry from the NRA website.

22 Oct NRA Shooting Club Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets have been booked on Cheylesmore and at 100, 200, 300 and 900 yards. All disciplines welcome.

10 Target Shooter

Welcome to GT Shooting.The premier shooting sports shop in Surrey

Our premises are located at 53 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2RB

www.gtshooting.co.uk

Tel: 020 8660 6843 Fax: 020 8660 6843

We are conveniently situated near the M23 & M25. Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am - 5.30pm

Fullbore & .22LR Black Power

Air Rifles and Pistols Used rifles and Pistols

OpticsAmmunitionReloading equipment and more...

Target Shooter 11

Welcome to GT Shooting.The premier shooting sports shop in Surrey

Our premises are located at 53 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2RB

www.gtshooting.co.uk

Tel: 020 8660 6843 Fax: 020 8660 6843

We are conveniently situated near the M23 & M25. Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am - 5.30pm

Fullbore & .22LR Black Power

Air Rifles and Pistols Used rifles and Pistols

OpticsAmmunitionReloading equipment and more...

Gunsmith Aaron Wheeler is certainly bucking the trend by starting a new business venture despite the current recession.

West Yorkshire shooters will already know Aaron through his involvement with the gun trade in the area for over 25 years but now, he has his own premises, situated on Bethel Street bang in the centre of the village of Brighouse.

I must confess I was surprised to see the very smart exterior of the shop and going through the door didn’t disappoint either and Aaron has fitted out the shop superbly. The walls are lined with full gun racks and the shelves are heavy with ammunition and reloading components and all the other accessories you expect to see in a good gunshop.

Aaron’s strength is his in-depth knowledge of firearms, particularly historic and the gun racks carry a good stock of classic military rifles as well as modern stuff. Shotgunners and airgun shooters are also well catered for.

Although the shop has been open a scant two months Aaron reports that business is brisk and due to the amount of work he is taking in for repairs, moderator fitting etc. he has had to close the shop on Mondays just to keep up with the demand.

Target Shooter wishes Aaron well in his new venture and we look forward to seeing his website at www.aaronwheeler-gunsmith.co.uk which is currently under construction.

‘Support your local gun shop’AaronWheeler,Brighouse,W.Yorkshire

12 Target Shooter

Forster Co-Ax PressThe simplest, most powerful and most accurate press on the market, bar none.The press delivers perfect alignment of the die and the case because the shell holder jaws are designed to float with the die, therebypermitting the case to center precisely in the die. Dual floating guide rods ensure perfect alignment.

UK distributor of Forster Products Tim Hannam The Reloading Specialists

Peckfield Lodge, Great North Rd, South Milford, Leeds, LS25 5LJ Tel: 01977 681639 Fax: 01977 684272 email: sales@timhannam.com

For the full range of Forster Products visit www.forsterproducts.com

Forster Benchrest Reloading DiesForster dies set the standards for quality and precision. Pinpoint accuracy and uncompromis-ing performance begin with dependable reload-ing equipment that delivers time after time. The perfect dies for benchrest and target shooters seeking the very best accuracy.

Original Case Trimmer Co-Ax Case & Cartridge Inspector

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Target Shooter 13

‘The Times’ at 300 yards on Monday morning should have earned an HPS cross but for shot six being ¾ MOA high on a called good shot. This was followed by another elevation anomaly in the Wimbledon which did not cost any points but should have rung a very loud alarm bell. At the time I thought it was ammunition related.

St George’s 1 (300 yards again) on Tuesday morning again displayed elevation problems in a re-run of the Yorkshire meeting with two highunexplained shots. My massive group at 300 yards in County Short Junior cost Durham a medal and I pleaded with my Captain to drop me from the Long Range team and let me coach. Highlight of this event was coaching County Cadet Force member Connor Atherton to a 49 at900yards inhisfirsteverserious teamshoot.

Tuesday night, the day before Queen’s I, is not the time to be doubting your equipment and Igave no more thought to elevation. A point was lost at 300 to elevation but 500 and 600 were tight elevations. Too many points were lost to wind to make the second stage but some honour was snatched from the day by getting a 50.7v in the ‘Conan Doyle’ at 900 yards with a true wind which varied between 10½ and 6. Incidentally this was only good enough for 15th place!

The day’s post mortem lead me to consider the

elevationanomaliesintheshortrangerifle.Thesehad, I thought, started to occur shortly after a new rearsightiris/filterassemblyhadbeenfitted.SinceI had not made either George’s II or Queen’s II, I had only one shoot left, the Prince of Wales at 600 yards on Thursday morning. Should I shoot my back-up rifle or stick with the Barnard? Themaster plan was to take the iris off the Steyr andfit it totheBarnardandseewhathappened.

In the event I forgot. The message one was given andsinceIwasnumberthreeIhadaquickpeepatthe target through my sights. I needed to open the aperture up a bit. As I put my hand on the ring I felt an almost imperceptible click. Surely the devil was not loose. How could I make such a fundamental mistake?Checkingyourapertureassemblyistightin the rearsight should be routine. I grabbed the 12 mm spanner from my bag and addressed the lock nut. Rock solid! However there was no gap between the assembly back plate and the lock nut. Spanner on back plate. This nipped up about a 30th of a turn.

I thought the wind was pretty unreadable and I was busy trying to set the sights to the mean of what I thought was on the way with really temperate sight alterations since many other shooters seemed to be loosing points by reacting to changes which appeared to be there but weren’t. I’d got to about shot 11 when I realised that I was shooting to about ½ minute and with only one out of the V bull

by Chris White

Experiencing the 2009 Imperial Part 2

Chris White continues his odyssey of the 2009 Bisley Imperial Meeting

14 Target Shooter

- I wasn’t shooting for a medal but for the trophy. Hell appeared to be let loose when the guy on my right, a very good friend and sound wind judge lost a shot well out down wind. This immediately preceded my 14th to count. Looking along the line there was a string of them. With no mirage I studied the upwind flagswhich lookedthe same. Based on where my buddy’s shot had gone there had evidently been a 1 ½ minute drop off which he hadn’t seen. I couldn’t see it either. I rarely correct on other people’s shots but in this case felt compelled to and tempering rashness with judgement took ¾ off and settled into the aim. For no reason other than gut feel I slipped the sight half a click right tomake the three quarters intoseven eighths. It saved the point since shot 14 was clinging on the edge. Shot 15 went with the mean of the last four shots on the gun. It probably wasn’t the bestshotI’vefiredinmylifebutitwasgoodenough.

In my opinion the resultant 75.13v, shot under trying conditions, was one of the best shoots of my life. 75.14vtooktheprizebutoffive75.13v,threewerebetter than mine on the countback. Tied second - counted to fifth!This shouldbe the ‘hereendeththe lesson’ point but there is still a sting in the tail.

With nothing better to do I entered the ‘Barlow’ in the afternoon. This is a ten-shot shoot at 900 yards. Squadding was ignored and the range

officer detailed us to a target. In my casetarget 23. Unfortunately four of us hove up there and my old friend Dr. Gray Robertson from Australia was unceremoniously kicked up hill which did not amuse him. I don’t blame him. With thebenefitofhindsight Iwished ithadbeenme.

At the start of the shoot it rained pretty heavily andI lostapointearlyontoaquestionableshotdelivered on a less than optimum sight-picture. The rain soon died out and a mirage became visible. Wind was pretty readable between four and six with a good mean at five and movingthe odd half minute either side of the mean was a sound and successful strategy when out of the blue I was given a miss after a bull and two Vs. The challenge produced naught. Now I’m not arrogant enough to say that I never miss the target at long range but with ammunition of this quality and insuch relatively benign conditions, I think I would have known. This turned a 49 into a 44 which left me fairly hacked off. This was on the same butt as theCambridgeincident-wasitthesamemarker?

Now there is another tale here which did not involve me but it needs telling. I was squad-ded on the second detail of the Barlow but the first detail and the 300 yard detail of Queen’s 2were due to start at 2.30pm. Shortly before this the heavens opened and I was drenched just

Target Shooter 15

shutting the caravan door. Those about to shoot the Queen’s were on the firing point. Within acouple of minutes of 2.30pm there was a massive lightening strike very close. My experience of shooting in Canada is that you are kicked off the range if there is any prospect of electrical activity. This does not appear to happen at Bisley. It ought to.

For the interest of readers I did a sample of equipment used in the Prince of Wales.From a statistical point of view this was fairly random since although I chose which range to takethesamplefrom,thesquaddingissupposedlyrandom. Therefore the results, whilst not strictly scientific should be a reasonable representa-

tion of what was actually being used. The results surprised me a little since I expected up to date equipment to be verymuch to the fore,which it wasn’t.

To round the week off, myself and Steve Penrose coached Newcastle University to second (again!) place in the ‘Musketeers’, a esult which the team captain described as “Simply awesome” and third in ‘University Long’.

From a shooter’s point of view there are two events in the Imperial which overshadow everything else. The Grand Aggregate is regarded by many as the true test of skill,

The hard-working Imperial butt crew do a very good job on the whole

16 Target Shooter

whoever wins it may have had some easy details buttheywillalso,inevitablyhadsomedifficultones.Good shoots are not good enough! To win the Grand every shoot must be an outstanding shoot.

It came as no surprise to most of us to discover, when the dust settled, that the Grand had been won by Jonathon Underwood, who has twice, recently shot 150.30v on Century range. That is all thirty shots in the V bull. To describe that as awesome isa little inadequate.Whilst fewwoulddeny that the ammunition was good, most would agree that wind conditions were rather testing. Out of a possible 705 Jon had scored a stellar 700. Bearing in mind that 100 of these possible 705 points are to be gained at 900 yards and 50 at 1,000 and given the conditions, anyone dropping five points over those three shoots alone wouldhave had to have had three jolly good shoots.

Whilst the Grand may be the ‘shooter’s shoot’ what really grabs the imagination is the Queen’s.

Jonathon won it in 2006. This year it was the turn of an old friend of mine, Nick Tremlett. Nick is a renowned international wind-coach and an outstanding Match Rifleman, having won the‘Hopton’, the Match Rifle aggregate four timesand taken the silver medal twice in the last ten years. If anyone was in any doubt, he has now proved that he is an outstanding all-rounder. In a nail-biting finish, Nick scored 298 ex 300 justpipping John Warburton who made 297 and Andy Luckman - who won in 1995 – on 295. Of the next seven shooters, five were all exwinners - Jim Paton, Glyn Barnett (2). Martin Millar, Anthony Ringer (3) and Jon Underwood. One could say the cream generally comes to the top!Next time we will have a quasi-scientific look atjust how good the RWS ammunition appears to be.

Queen’s winner Nick Tremlett is chaired off range

Target Shooter 17Our retail shop is open Thursday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm to allow us time in the workshop.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE LADS AT BORDER BARRELS ON THEIR SUCCESSFUL F-CLASS SHOOTAT BISLEYWHERE TWOOUT OF THREE TEAMMEMBERS USEDLAWTON ACTIONS TO BUILD THEIR RIFLES! ALSO,CHECKOUTVINCEBOTTOMLEY’S “GUN OF THE MONTH” FOR SEPTEMBER WHICH WAS BASED ON A SURGEON ACTION Please feel free to contact us to discuss your proposed custom rifle. We are please to advise shooters that ALL preparation and finishing of our custom rifles is now carried out on-site! This includes our latest development which is the introduction of Duracoat which we only apply to properly prepared surfaces and oven bake to give the best and most durable finish.

Everill Gate Farm Tel: 01226 756332 Broomhill, Wombwell Fax: 01226 751321 Barnsley S73 0YQ e-mail: enquiries@rimfiremagic.co.uk

We are now building custom rifles based on these top quality US made rifle actions. We are sole UK distributors for these actions and are happy to supply the Trade.

Surgeon XL action in .338

Lawton repeater action in 6mm BR Please feel free to contact us to discuss your proposed custom

rifle

We are proud to announce our new stainless steel Rimfire Magic action. This is now offered as analternative to our own Rimfire Magic aluminium action which has proved so popular that we are currentlyengraving and proofing our second batch of fifty! The new stainless steel receiver is a similar shape to the Ruger 10/22 action which allows it to accept any 10/22 style scope base or of course it may be used in the Nordic Components kit to provide a .22 AR-15 style rifle with the associated reliability of the 10/22 system. We offer the stainless receiver with a bead blasted finish or Duracoated with the latest Duracoat SL which contains PTFE and other chemicals to give a high lubricity finish (shown above in semi-gloss black)

At last…we have received a batch of 1894C .357 Marlin rifles! These areavailable at £610 with the action checked and a Wolff reduced power hammer spring fitted. Alternatively we have them competition ready with a tuned and slicked action and trigger pull of around 2 lbs at £730 We have plenty of scope bases and Trigger Happy kits available, also one piece stainless steel firing pins.

18 Target Shooter

Only the best is good enough for one of the world’sgreatest rugby league players, Keiron Cunningham.Keiron’s choice is the Victory Diavari 6-24x56 withilluminated reticle from the Carl Zeiss range ofbinoculars and riflescopes.

www.zeiss.co.uk/sportsoptics

The ultimate visual experience

The Choice of LegendsLotuTec™

Target Shooter 19

Only the best is good enough for one of the world’sgreatest rugby league players, Keiron Cunningham.Keiron’s choice is the Victory Diavari 6-24x56 withilluminated reticle from the Carl Zeiss range ofbinoculars and riflescopes.

www.zeiss.co.uk/sportsoptics

The ultimate visual experience

The Choice of LegendsLotuTec™

RingWerxRingWerx

All our scope mounts are machined from6061 aluminum and are available in dove tail30mm off set, 1” off set and 1” straight.

Also available are bolt down style for 1.350round receivers i.e. Turbo & Bat in 30mm offset, 1” off set and 1” straight.

Off set scope mounts have beenproven to be the choice of manyBenchrest Shooters who are lookingfor that edge.

Prices begin at $60 plus shipping

Dealer Enquiries welcome!!

The ultimate in precision mounts

In collaboration with Harrell’s Precision

For more details click on this advert to email

P.O. Box 4733Roanoke VA 24015+001 540 353 0368John@ringwerx.com

Also available in the UK from Fox Firearmsvisit www.foxfirearmsuk.com

Jackson Rifles Parton, Castle Douglas, Scotland DG7 3NL

Tel: (01644) 470223 Fax: (01644) 470227 www.jacksonrifles.com

• best-selling, proven design - made by Europe's largest manufacturer of high-power rifle silencers

• shortest overall length – model T4 adds only 2½" (65 mm) to overall length of rifle

• two-point mounting system resists harsh use • selected by the Forestry Commission to meet the latest European noise at work regulations • low-maintenance all-welded construction with tough parkerized coating - no need for internal cleaning • wide range of muzzle attachment threads

SAK-Products Air Rifle/Rimfire silencer • Excellent performance on rifles up to .17 and .22 magnum rimfire • Black or silver - standard ½"-20 UNF or ½"-28 UNEF thread • No springs or plastic parts • 34 mm diameter, 160 grams, adds only 5" (127 mm) to length of rifle

jet-Z, S-series and new NorthStar

over-barrel sound moderators

Shoot to win

Ultra-lightweight sound moderators

CMM-4 rimfire/air rifle – 105 g (3½ oz) CMM-4 centrefire – 220 g (7½ oz)

We are happy to give advice and information to retail customers, but we only supply the tradeJackson Rifles is a trade mark of Forge Consulting Ltd, RFD 108 (Dumfries & Galloway) sr0909bg

20 Target Shooter

GSG-AK-47

By Tim Finley The .22 rimfire semi auto rifle market has beendominated by the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22 fordecades. In this country it hasbeen the riflemostused by the club shooter for speed and precision

eventsaswellas relativelynewsportofmini rifle.There is a new kid on the block or should I say two new kids as the latest rifle from the firm hasonly just reached our shores. I am talking of the GermanfirmGSG,standingforGermanSportGuns.Their first offering was a model based upon theHeckler and Koch MP-5, this model the GSG-5 has been taken up by the club shooter, me included. I have used mine exclusively for mini rifle events at myclub. Being fortunate enough to win all four of the events I have shot this year. The firm’s new offering distributed intheUKbyYorkGuns is thefirms takeon another classic firearm. TheAK-47is world famous, or infamous depend-ing upon your point of view. GSG did not enter into the project lightly they actively sort and obtained the approval of the original rifles designer. MikhailKalashnikov only agreed to put his name to the project as the rifle is

purely aimedat the .22 rimfire sporting and targetmarket.Theriflehasbeenmadetothesamedimensionsastheoriginalrifle.Having shot a real AK I was keen to see if it felt like a real one and more importantly how it shot. York Gunssupplied me with a wooden stocked example along with two magazines and an optical sight mounting bracket. I would need this list item as theopensightsfittedtotherifleareofnouseifIwantedtoascertaintheriflesaccuracy at 50m. The magazines for the gun are 24 shot and made to the same width as the real magazines. They do not of course take the 7.62*43mm rounds of the real gun just verymuchsmaller.22rimfirerounds.They cannot take any more than 24 rounds, the GSG-5 magazines are

billed as 20 but you can squeeze 22 into them.Keeping the GSG AK-47’s magazines this wide does not spoil the looks of the gun as if that had only made themthewidthofarimfireround.Italsomakesthemeasier to handle in a magazine change situation in

The magazine takes 24 rounds

Above - The GSG AK 47 with mount and scope - it looks and feels the business

It is stamped MADE IN GERMANY

Target Shooter 21

speed shooting or mini rifleevents. They even hook into the action as a real AK mag does, there is a lip at the front of the mag and you hook this into the front of the mag well first then pull the mag backtowards you from the bot-tom and the mag clicks into place. The magazine release latch is in front of the trigger guard and you grip the mag and the latch at the same time and push the mag forward and down. After taking the rifle from the packaging andfittingtherearstocktherifledidindeed feel like I remembered an AK to be. The gun is fittedwiththesameopennotchandpostsights,the

very good tool kit and instruction manual also comes with a tool for adjusting the height of the foresight. I make no apologies for not using the sights fitted to thegun, fitting an optical sightenables the shooter to place their shots more accuracy The action of the rifle is not modelled uponthe real weapon this as we know is a gas operated system, the gas feed tube on this gun is purely a fake one. The gun uses the same bolt and bolt carrier as the firm’sprevious model. They have designed the safety catch to operate somewhat the same but on the real gun the large lever on the right hand side of

the gun also acts as a dust cover over the round ejection port. Here the breech is forward of the front of the lever. Pushing the lever up with the bolt closed

stops the bolt from moving back far enough to cock the action as well as preventing the trigger for being operated. The lever is also used to hold back the bolt with an open breech as it has a hook which latches over the bolts cocking handle. Pushing the lever downtothefiringpositionwheninthis mode releases bolt, also the trigger cannot be pulled with the safety on and also if there is no magazineintherifle.ForaccuracytestingIfittedthesidemount,thisclamps onto a moulded section on the left hand side of the action and has a 127mm long Picatinny rail.Ifittedalowmagscopeandproceeded to see what groups

I could get at 50m. The gun was very consistent witharoundan inchandaquarter tenshotgroups

I fitted a scope for the 50m testing. The optical sight bracket is a must buy.

The big lever safety catch is ALL AK47

It made short work of the steels

22 Target Shooter

shot off a bench. The gun is very difficult to bench shootdue to the very long curved magazine hanging underneath the action. This level of accuracy is to be expected as this is not a bench rest rifle, it is a semiauto large magazine capacity rifleforspeedshootingshortrange events. My own GSG-5 is not very accurate compared tomyboltactionVolquartsencarbon fibre barrelled boltaction rimfire rifle, but youcannot expect it to be, horses for courses as they say. I intended to test the AK in anger as it were by using

ittotakepartinarealminirifleevent.ForthisIremoved the scope and fitted a Hawke lowprofilereflexreddotsight.Thiskepttheheightof the dot/sight line as close as possible to the barrel centreline, this is an advantage when it comes to shooting the 10 yards IPSC targets. The less you have to think were to aim off the faster you are at getting the shot or shots off. I zeroed the gun in at 17 yards and then checked it at 25 and 10 to see where my aim points were.IdidnotexpectmuchasIhadonlyfired50 rounds or so though the gun before using it intheminirifleevent.ConsistingoftwostagesI came 3rd in that round as I got use to shooting theriflequickly.ThesecondlongerstageIwonwhich gave me the win overall. I did not expect towinandtheaccuracyoftherifleforminirifleismorethanadequate.LookingatthegroupsIgot on the second stage double tapping was an eye opener, one of them was a single ragged hole with two shots in it, and something I have

never done with my GSG-5. The groups at 50m could havebeeninfluencedbythetriggerweight,on my Lyman electronic gauge the AK gave trigger pull weights of around 4.5kg. In comparison the GSG-5 comes in at 2.5.kg. Interestingly the comprehensive manual had the trigger weight for the AK at 2.5kg. The model on test was more like shooting a real AK as their triggers are not the best, again you do not need or actually want a light trigger for speed shooting.Witha fireandmovementeventsuch as mini rifle shooting a light triggeris even less desirable on safety reasons. The GSG-AK-47 is also available with black polymer furniture as well as a range of tactical hand guards. I really liked the wood stocked version myself, it is more in keeping with the look of an AK. I would recommend the optical sight rail and at

Shooting mini rifle with the GSG AK47

A 10 shot group at 50m

A single hole double tap group with the AK47 GSG

Target Shooter 23

leastone(really two)sparemagazines.YorkGunsare in the process of making a threaded adaptor for the AK which utilises the existing thread in the front of the guns barrel shroud, then goes into a ½ UNF soanyrimfireratedmoderatorcanbefitted. IalsotestedtheGSG-5moderatormadebyYorkGuns,thissimply screws into the thread made for the guns fake moderator, it is 128mm longer and heavier than the guns original barrel shroud but it does work and is a cleverway of fitting amoderator tothe GSG-5, for those who want to use the guns for short range pest control or need a bit more hearing protection or recoil reduction when target shooting it is relatively cheap. There is a lot of talk from the Ruger shooters that these “air soft” guns are unreliable etc etc but as a person who has actually shot mine for over year I can say the only two jams I have had have been down to me, one where I stupidly held the magazine while shooting and the other when operating the cocking handle at the wrong time. I haveonlyeverusedqualitysubsonicammoinmyrifle.BoththeAKand5aremarkedupwithHVforhigh velocity rimfire ammo. The firm stating thatthe gunswillworkwithHVandquality sub rimfirerounds. I have never used HV ammo through any ofmy rimfire guns, suffering no feedmalfunctionsdown to ammo issues. I only used sub sonic ammo for the testing and competition shooting of the AK-47 also, with the result of not one single jam. Do not go for the cheapo stuff however as that is not as reliable. The only problem I did have was not being able to clear an unfired round from thebreechwhenfinishingastageoftheminirifleevent,

hookingitoutwithafingernailsolvedit,butIcouldhave just as easily removed the magazine and firedtheroundintothebuttstomaketheriflesafe.Afterwinningamini rifleeventwith theAK Imustsay I am impressed with it, opposed to the GSG-5 at least it looks like the gun it is supposed to be, unlike the 5 model which has had to have the ugly extended barrelshroudfittedtocomplywiththeUKgunlaws.As an alternative to the Ruger 10/22 it is worth considering, it already has a 24 round high capacity magazine which unlike the Ruger works every time andsufficientaccuracyforspeedandminirifleevents.

SpecificationCountry of origin GermanyManufacturer German Sport Guns ( GSG)Model AK-47 UKdistributor YorkGuns01904487180Action Semi autoCalibre .22rimfireStock Wood and Polymer (Wood on test)Barrel length 450mmPull length 350mmOverall length 927mmWeight 3155g ( without Magazine)RRP £564 ( Wood) £540 ( Polymer) £38 for spare 24 rnd mags and £56 for the sight rail

Bench resting is not easy due to the magazine, but the whole thing looks and FEELS like an AK47. The rifle has

very plain but functional wood work

24 Target Shooter

Target Shooter 25

McRees Precision Stock System

Vince BottomleyThere are quite a few aftermarket stocksavailable at the moment, which allow you to pimp your boring factory barrelled-action and turn it into something a bit special.

Replacing your factory stock will hopefully improve the handling, appearance and most of all, the accuracy of your rifle. Many suchreplacement stocks claim to be ‘drop-in’ – in other words it’s just a matter of taking your barrelled-action out of the factory stock and screwing it into your new purchase.

That’s the theory at least but, in practise, some furtherwork is often required. I recentlyfitted an aftermarket ‘drop-in’ laminate stockto a Savage barrelled-action. The stock came

ready pillar-bedded and was finished to agood standard – ready for lacquering – butwhen I screwed the action into the stock, the barrel wasn’t central in the barrel-channel. More work. Hardly what I would regard as ‘drop-in’.

Aftermarket stocks are not cheap either. Most come from America and with the current dollar/pound exchange rate, import duty, shipping, VAT and Parcel Force handling charges, stocks like the excellent McMillan A5 tactical are topping £600 and that’s before we buy bottom-metal etc.

When Wayne of North West Custom Parts in

This is a McRees tactical folder for the Remington and uses the AI detachable magazines. Paint job by Wayne at NW Custom Parts.

Above - Your scribe Benchresting the McRees at 400 yards

26 Target Shooter

Manchester showed me the McRees stock, it looked expensive – for the simple reason that it was beautifully CNC machined from billet aluminium and that don’t come cheap! The closer I looked, the more I was impressed. These stocks are built to the same standard as a custom action!

A McCrees stock consists of three basic components which bolt together to form the complete stock. This allows McRees to offer theirstockinseveralconfigurations.Theoriginalstock was developed as a tactical stock and is currently being evaluated by the US military but let’s take a closer look at each of the components.

The middle bitThis is the part which holds the barrelled-action and McRees currently offer inlets for just about any standard factory or custom action you can think of from the humble Remington, through Savage, Winchester, HS Precision, Surgeon, RPA, Howa etc. There are two basic middle bits – one for Remington size actions having a nominal diameter of 1.35 inches and larger one for bigger actions like the Surgeon XL etc. up to 1.6 inches in diameter – over thirty different inlets

are available with more being added all the time.

The centre-section can be had with a solid bottom, with or without integral mag. or machined to accept a detachable magazine. The trigger cut-out will accept the factory or aftermarket triggers and an AR15 style pistol grip completes the job.

The back bitRiflebuttshavechangedabit inrecentyears.The main function of the butt is to make contact with the shooter’s shoulder to take the recoil. A cheek-piece is favoured by some – preferably adjustable and if you shoot F Class or Benchrest and use a rear-bag, then some form of bag-riding ‘rail’ is needed. This is exactly what you get with a McRees and some clever thinking has incorporated much more.

The back bit is again CNC machined from billet aluminium and attached to the middle bit with a half-lapjointwithtwoquarter-inchsocket-headscrews. The rubber-cushioned butt pad will adjust vertically and the cheek-piece can also be adjusted. The detachable bag-rider sensibly

This shot clearly shows the lap joints either side of the middle section

Target Shooter 27

mounts parallel to the bore and the whole stock can be had with a hinge - if space is a problem - which enables the butt to fold through 180 degrees.

The front bitNow this is where the McRees gets really clever. Again machined from billet aluminium, the fore-end attaches to the middle bit with another half-lap joint but this time using four screws. Thefore-endisbasicallyaflat-bottomUshapedsection which can hold a bi-pod, sling or even act simply as a hand-grip or impromptu rest and it blends-in with the middle section . It is slot-ted on the sides and underneath to save weight and aid barrel-cooling. It also looks pretty good. But here’s the clever bit – if you shoot a bit of F Class or benchrest you can have a different fore-end with a three-inch wide flat to fit your machine rest. If you don’t want to go to a full three-inches, then McRees also offer a 2 and 2.5 inch fore-end. Thanks to the accuracy of CNC machining, there’s no need to worry about alignment.

Wayne was able to show me a few differentstockconfigurationsandoneortwoarebeginning to appear at tactical shoots at my local range.Avarietyoffactoryanodisedfinishesare

available and Wayne can also offer an in-house Duracote service which can be as wild as your imagination – Wayne has already done a bright red one! The pic shows one of Wayne’s camo finisheswhichgavemetheideafortheTSProjectRiflepaintjobwhichappearedinlastmonth’sissue.

How does it shoot?Yes - you may be thinking - it’s all verywell looking at photographs but what is a McRees stocked rifle like to use. Well, I wasexpecting Wayne to fix me up with that nicetactical rig but instead I have a stock with the benchrest fore-end, a rather flashy anodisedfinish and a Savage 6.5-284 barrelled-actionon loan fromOsprey Rifles. This is the solid-bottom Savage ‘target’ action of course, so no magazine or anything like that but it does have the bag-rider rail on the butt. It just needs me to mount a scope and we can do some shooting.

Although I’m fairly familiar with the 6.5-284, I don’t own one at the moment, so it meant literally digging in my scrap-bin for some old brass – OK, not recommended and definitely not my style but ‘needsmust’ and Imanaged to salvage about 25 cases. Not only hadthesebeenfiredtotheextentwherethebase

The ‘middle bit’ showing the action bed. This one has a solid bottom but it also comes machined to take a detachable mag.

This 400 yard group measures two and a half inches!

28 Target Shooter

had expanded and would hardly fit the shell-holder but they also had turned necks. Far from ideal but today, we are testing the handling of the stock rather than the accuracy of the Savage.

Having borrowed a set of dies – another set-back – no powder. I’ve always used Vit 165 in this cartridge with 139 grain Lapua Scenars but the nearest I had was Hodgdon 4831SC. This is a little bit faster than Vit 165 so I dropped the load by a full four grains to play ultra-safe and put ten rounds together. I didn’t even check the seating depth as I didn’t want to alter the borrowed dies but I did check that the rounds would chamber (using a dummy).

I had a spare 8-32 Nightforce with Weaver rings that fitted thePicatinny rail on theSavage soI am almost ready to shoot – I just needed to boresight the scope. When I arrived at the range, a shooter was already testing at 400 yards so I joined in and cheekily asked if I could put a few shots on his target! After a couple of sighters on the sand backstop and another cou-ple on target to zero, I was ready to shoot a group.

I simply wanted to see how the McRees stock performed under benchrest conditions so the idea was to put five shots down in rapidsuccession, noting how well the stock returned to battery and how it generally handled. The answer – quite well; some PTFE stock-tapewould make it a bit slicker in the bags though it would be fine for F Class. Even the AR15pistol grip was OK as the 6.5-284 has a bit of recoil so it gave me something to hang on to.

In benchrest competition, like to get 5 shots off in about 15 seconds but the unfamiliar layout of the Savage action with right bolt, right port was naturally slower than a right bolt, left port benchgun and it must have taken me about 25 seconds. I peered through the Nighforce to have a look at my 400 yard group. I was shocked to see four shots in about a one-inch group and a fifth shot about an inchand a half out of the group! (See pic) Wow – that’ssomerifle,especiallyconsideringmyoldbrass and the totally guessed load and a bar-rel that had only two proof rounds down it! I shudder to think what this gun would do with some decent brass and a bit of load development. No wonder these Savages are

wiping the floor with everyone in the Factorybenchrestclass!Toprovethiswasnofluke,theSavage recorded a 3.5 inch group in the 500 yard Diggle Fly shoot a couple of days later in the hands of another shooter, in extremely blustery conditions.

So there we have it. The traditional wooden stock was replaced by plastic and fibreglass. Thenalong came Accuracy International with that great concept using an aluminium chassis and plastic side-plates, which could be had as a ‘folder’ if required.Others, like Sako have followed suitwith their own versions in plastic and aluminium. Now, McRees has taken it one stage further offering a serious tactical stock CNC machined from billet aluminium to military specificationsand yet still catering for the competition shooter.

North West Custom parts are the sole UK importer and carry a good inventory. Prices start at around £550 and anodising adds about £50 or you can opt for one of Wayne’s Duracoat paint jobs in any colour you like. But remember – no bedding, no bottom-metal and the adjustable butt and cheek-piece which usually cost extra are included.

Our 6.5-284 Savage, as tested, weighs in at 15 lbs. 5oz. without scope. With a 36X Sightron, Leupold or Weaver, it should nicely make weight in the 17 lbs. Light Gun class for 600/1000 yard benchrest. For F Class Open, with its 22lb weight limit, you could use a big Nightforce and still be well under.

NWCP report that sales have been surprisingly good with stocks being shipped all over Europe so give Wayne a call on 0161 408 1155 if you are at all interested and of course our testrifleisforsaleifyoufancyagoodFClassorlong-range benchrest rifle. A new 6.5-284SavageFClassrifleinthefactorylaminatestockwill now cost around £1800 so our McRees stocked example is something of a bargain for the £1850 that Wayne has it advertised for on his website and this includes the 20MOA Picatinny rail.

Check out McRees Precision at www.mcreesprecision.net and North West Custom Parts at www.nwcustomparts.com

Target Shooter 29

Savage single shot PTA action McRee's Custom Chassis, custom bench rest configuration in a red and gold splash custom anodised

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30 Target Shooter

My journey into super-accurate rifles andprecision long-range shooting really started by accident. Basically, I wanted a better stock for a Ruger .223 but bought a stock for not only the wrong model but also the wrong action-length as well. These are the sort of accidents that you can’ttakelyingdown-Ihadtogetanewrifle.

After a long time searching for an old Ruger Model 1 with the long tang safety in the long action, I finally came across a model in 257Roberts. While the bore was good, it still had

the short, thin sporter-weight barrel which just wouldn’t do. I wanted a barrel that would make themostefficientuseofthepowder-chargeandfitinwiththewhole‘longrangerifle’themeandI wanted a cartridge that would reach out and still group at less than MOA out to 1000 metres.

Sticking with the heavy bullets for tactical shooting appears to be the best way to go. From left: 85 grain Nosler BT, 100 grain Sierra MK, 100 grain Nosler BT, 115 Berger VLD (perhaps the pick of the bunch) and 117 Hornady SST

The 257 Roberts Ackley Improved – retrospective or tactical renaissanceBy Richard Wild

Above-:Atacticalrifleforallseasons.Enoughhasbeenwrittenabout theAI stock tofill volumes,butthe Remington 700 action, match trigger, extended bolt handle and 10 round magazine makes for a potentriflethatmeetstheneedsofarangeofshootingpositions.

Target Shooter 31

I had thought of the 6.5x55 Swede but, while the ballisticcoefficientsareimpressive,thevelocitiesweren’t high enough for me. The hot factory 22 calibres were of passing interest, nevertheless I wanted a wildcat but one that was easy to use for a beginner. Then the 257 Roberts Ackley Improved with the 40-degree shoulder was suggested.Thiswasa turningpoint and I had to findoutmore. The Nosler Handloading Book Volume 4 had a lot of detail on this cartridge. The reloading specificationsindicatedthatafterfireforming,theAckley case would hold about 3% more powder for an increase in velocity of about 200 - 300 fps. and it ismorepowder-efficient thanthe25-06.

Fireforming turns the basic 257 Roberts case into the .257 Roberts Ackley Improved (AI) case. While there are a number of different techniques that one can use, both with andwithout bullets, I chose to use a cheap 120-grain bullet over a light 38 - 40 grain load of Varget. This had the dual effect of changing the case from its gently sloping shape with a 20 degree shoulder into a slightly larger, straight-walled case with a somewhat radical 40 degree shoulder.Asanaside,fireformingalsoallowedme to learn about the new rifle’s shootingability off the bench while running in the barrel.

The 257 Roberts Ackley Improved cases are a good first step into the world of wildcatcartridges. The rifle will chamber factoryammunition with little or no velocity loss but the straighter case walls produce a more uniform powder burn while the 40 degree shoulder will reduce or eliminate case stretching and last longer.

The greatest challenge for the 257 Roberts AI comes from the lack of available loading data. Not only is there no standard loading data for this cartridge but the ignorance, repetition and lack of development since PO Ackley launched the cartridge is noticeable and frustrating. A search of theInternetquicklyshowsthatfewshootersusethe 257 Roberts AI and even fewer write about it.

The greatest disappointment for fans of the 25 calibre has to be the lack of match projectiles weighing over 100 grains, with Berger the only manufacturer offering a match bullet and findingstocksofthe115grainVLDinAustraliaisa challenge. Since the 6mm cartridge has a good

range of heavy match bullets to choose from and the 6.5mm shooter can pick from a range of 107 grain to 142 grain bullets, it is a source of continual frustration that there is not a similar range of choice in the 25, which lies between the two. It seems likely that market forces will slowly kill off this calibre in favour of the 6 and 6.5mms.

While I originally designed this to be a long-rangevarmintrifle,itsutilityasalong-rangebenchrest riflewasquickly recognised. Thereis no better way of learning how to shoot small

The Ackley case before and after fire forming. The unformed case, on the right, shows its 7x57 heritage with sloping ioned case. The straighter case walls and 40 degree shoulder of the Ackley case are evidence of how much the case changes at first firing.

32 Target Shooter

targets well at long range than get out there and do it - every week in rain, hail and heavy mirage.

The National Rifle Association of Australia(NRAA) targets have a central bull that is just on one MOA at each range out to the 800 metre moundattheMcIntoshRifleRangeinCanberra.With a high power target scope, accuracy that I had only read about was now possible. The 100-grain Sierra HPBT Match and the 95-grain Berger HP (sadly now discontinued) performed exceptionally well except in very high wind conditions when the bullet’s relatively low ballisticcoefficient(comparedwiththe6mmand6.5mm match bullets) struggles to buck the wind.

1000yardshootingwasthefirstrealchallengefor the rifle, the cartridge andmyself. With amuzzle velocity of 3300 fps, the bullet remains supersonicat the targetandmybestfive-shotgroup at 1000 yards was a creditable 8 inches.

Timepasses,riflesfalloutoffavourandcalibrechoices change. The 257 Roberts AI benchrest

rig was long ago relegated to the bin, its life as a hunting riflealsooverandsoldontofinance fancier equipment.But there was always the suspicion in the back of my mind that I could do more interesting things in a different situation with the 25 calibre.

The purchase of an Accuracy International Chassis System (AICS) stock and Remington 700 action offered an opportunity to develop the 257 Roberts AI as a tactical-rifle alternative tothe 308 and 6.5s currently doing the rounds of the tactical circuit.

This Short Action Remington 700 has been tweaked along the way with a 20 MOA Nightforce rail, extended bolt knob and Shilen target trigger. A Nightforce NXS 5.5 -22 x

50 scope with the MLR reticle rounds out the package.

The 308 length of the AICS magazine means the Roberts can only be loaded to an overall length of 2.865 inches. This gives enough room for the 100 grain Sierra Match Kings to load and feed without impacting too much on the overall powder capacity. There is no evidence of powder compression with the 51 grain load being used.However, the Berger 115 grain VLD has to be loaded singly to get the best results from the load. An overall length of three inches gives the best results with a load of 49 grains of AR2209 (the case could easily take more) but theoretically the 2.865 inch magazine length is possible without impinging too much on the powder column.

Resurrecting my loading-data from the late 1990s provided sound starting point for testing the AICS on Known Distance (KD) targets. Even from a 24 inch barrel, the 100 grain Sierra Match

Close up of the neck and shoulders. The extra case capacity is immediately evident in the relative positions of the old (on right) and new shoulder position and angle.

Target Shooter 33

Kingsshotflatandhard. Butaccuracyonthesmaller F-Class targets was disappointing. Despite having a decade more of skills and cunning, the 257 Roberts AI had not developed at the same rate as I had and results were much the same as when I competed with it on a full time basis.

Nonetheless, 600 metre groups with the mild Berger load were pleasingly accurate and the 115 grain VLD appears to be a much better shooting proposition and seems much less wind sensitive than the 100 grain Sierras.

Moving away from string shooting at KD targets and slightly different animal emerges. The 257 Roberts AI enjoys shootingunder truefieldconditions. Themildrecoil means the bullet can be tracked into the target as part of a normal follow-through.A couple of test shoots derived from the 2007 Simo Häyhä Finnish Sniper competition provided a useful test vehicle for the cartridge. Choosing the wettest Sunday afternoon in

Canberra for a while provided and ideal situation to try five shotsfrom the sitting position at 95 metres and then five moreprone from the bipod from 220 metres at Fig. 14 Hun’s Head target.

Really, this is where the 257 Roberts AI shines. In the wet, with 117 grain Hornady SSTs, shooting clover leafs from the sitting position was hardly a challenge. The AICS stock makes positional shooting easy but the sitting stage calls for an improved tripod for really precise shooting under a time pressure.

The extended bolt handle makes for a fluid cyclingaction, which does not disturb the sight picture. Apart from the aesthetic, there are a number of reasons to replace the very basic factory bolt-knob, the

main one in my book being the extra leverage which contributes to a fast, rolling actionsimilarbutnotquiteasgoodastheSMLE.

Moving back to 220 metres and changing to 100 grain Matchkings demonstrated no discernible decrease in effectiveness. Dropping into the proneposition,inamuddyfieldliberallycoatedwithsheepandkangaroodroppings,fiveshotsformed two one-hole groups. The decision to not adjust elevation was obvious in this group but the 257RobertsAIshootssoflatthatonlyaminoradjustwould be required to centre this group.

As an aside - whilst I am not a strong supporter of tacti-cool gear - using an Accupod on the AICS proved to be an unexpected accuracy bonus. It makes for a stable tripod when shooting pronebutretractswhennotrequiredanddoesn’taltertherifle’sbalancewhenshootingoffhand.Overall, the time spent rebuilding and re-testing the 257 Roberts AI was not wasted. It does not cut the mustard as a BR type

Close up of the Accupod. I like it, not heavy, doesn’t get in the way when folded and provides on target stability.

34 Target Shooter

target rifle but then it wasn’t meant to.Rather,itisadourandflatshootingcartridgethathandles rapidly changing circumstances with a grim, can-do attitude. It does, however, show some promise as a tactical cartridge and can show the newer 6.5s how things can be done.

Disclaimer:Note that these loads work in my rifle. Any such loads may not work in yours and you should work up your loads accordingly.

The pick of the loadings is just that little bit too long for the magazine. The 115 grain Berger VLD is a great choice for the 257 Roberts AI for range and tactical shooting. There is space in the case to load the bullet that little bit deeper and still reach thecartridge’s full potential.

Target Shooter 35

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36 Target Shooter

Gun of the Month

AtfirstglanceyoumaywonderwhywehavechosenthisrifleasGunoftheMonth.Surelyit’sjustan‘outof the box’ factory rifle – a common or gardenSavage.Notquite.

Yes,itisaSavage.Yes,that’sthefactory’slaminatestock but look a bit closer. The factory butt-pad has been replaced with a Tubbs fully adjustable pad. The Savage barrel-nut has gone, so has the recoil-lug and yes, that small ejection-port marks this action out as the Savage ‘target’ action with solid bottom – not a factory option with this stock. The target action employs three retaining screws but the middle one is usedtosecurearecoilluginthisrifle.Furthermore,the front screw must be ‘repositioned’ by 0.125 inches in the ‘two screw’ stock to take the target action.

And doesn’t that 28 inch stainless steel barrel look justabitchunkierthanthestandardoffering?Itshoulddo, it’s a 224 True-Flite with 1 in 8 twist, tapering from 1.25 inches at the breech to one-inch at the muzzle.

So, a little bit special but what about the chambering? Yes, it’s awildcat called22Christelor 22 x 47 if you prefer. In other words, it’s based on the Lapua 6.5x47 necked down to 22. Why ‘Christel’? That’s what the lady wanted. The 22x 47 is a newish wildcat and a fairly unusual one at that and there is no standard specification asyet. Therefore, you must spec. your own reamer and although there are one or two about, no two

will be exactly the same so, why not choose your ownname foryourpersonalwildcat? Thismakessense as there could be a small number of 22x47 rifles in circulation but if the chambers are slightlydifferent, the ammunition won’t be interchangeable. This is therefore a 22 Christel and you must use roundstailoredtofitthischamber.Theneckiswhatwe call ‘no-turn’ - in other words you don’t have to neck-turnyourbrassbutyouwillbenefitfromacloserthan standard clearance in the chamber-neck area.

The rifle is throated to shoot 80 grain SierraMatchkings at ………………… well, if it’s a UK range it will likely have a muzzle velocity restriction of 3275 fps but the Christel will do much better than that so the Danish lady who commissionedtheriflewillhavetothrottleitbackforthe UK but who knows what she will shoot over there. Theveryfirst100yard3-shotgroupfiredintheSavageproduced a stunning 0.192 inch group! And that’s off a bi-pod in a howling wind with no load-development!

The 36 power Weaver benchrest scope is mounted in QD Leupold nickel rings on a NW Custom parts aluminiumPicatinnyrail.TheriflewasputtogetherbyUKSavagespecialistsOspreyRifleswww.ospreyrifles.com

Target Shooter 37

Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd 295 London Road

North End Portsmouth

PO2 9HF Tel 02392 660574 Fax 02392 644666

Opening TimesMon 9.30 - 5.30Tues ClosedWed Closed Thur 9.30 - 5.30 Fri 9.30 - 5.30Sat 9.30 - 5.30

E-mail sales@portsmouthguncentre.comWebsite www.portsmouthguncentre.com

We stock a full range of Rifles, Pistols, Air Guns, Shotguns, Ammunition,Reloading Equipment and Accessories. All major brands stocked including BSA, CZ, Air Arms, Marlin, Ruger, Umarex, Uberti, Cometa, Pedersoli, Berreta, Lincoln,Webley, Pedersoli, etc.

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PUTTING SHOOTING FIRST VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE THE VERY BEST VALUE CUSTOM PRECISION RIFLES FOR TR, MATCH,

F-CLASS, AND BENCH-REST—WE ARE NOW SELLING A FULL RANGE OF HARRELL PRODUCTSWE STOCK HUNTING RIFLES BY COOPER, KIMBER AND PFEIFER AND COMPETITION-WINNING RIFLES FROM KELBLY AND KEPPELER, AND ARE TRADE AGENTS FOR THE

SUPERB BARNARD ACTIONS, AND RECORD-BREAKING TRUE-FLITE AND BARTLEIN BARRELS

WE ALSO STOCK PROFESSIONAL BORESCOPES (from £533) AND A RANGE OF HIGH-POWER SCOPES FOR COMPETITION AT AMAZING PRICES (eg 8-32X50 WITH 30mm TUBES FROM £100)

ALONG WITH STUNNING BINOCULARS AND SPOTTING SCOPES

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38 Target Shooter

You could say that this is the scope the worldhas been waiting for – the world of long range rifleshootersthatis–beitcivilianormilitary!Wewaited for what seemed a lifetime for S&B to come up with a 5-25 but thankfully they have followed up quitequicklywiththeverydesirable12-50power.Having said that, although it’s been ‘available’ for quiteawhile,doyouknowanyonewhohasone?Haveyouseenareviewofone?Thelikelyansweris‘no’tobothquestionsbutTargetShooterhasone!

Undoubtedly, Schmidt & Bender are at the very top of the optics ‘tree’ – or should I say ‘rifleoptics’ for as the S&B website points out, they don’t make binoculars, cameras, spotting-scopes and the like – they make riflescopes, pureand simple and they arguably do it better than

anyone else. Until they introduced their 5-25 however, they had not offered a scope to really excite the serious long-range competition shooter. S & B have always concentrated on the civilian hunter-market and the serious Police/Military user and for some unknown reason, a ten-powerscopewasonceregardedas‘sufficient’.Thiswas perhaps true ten or fifteen years agobut Nightforce changed all that and we suddenly realised that it was much easier to hit your target if you could actually see it! If you are using a rested-rifle, you just can’t have too muchscope-power.

Twenty-five power is now regarded as ‘theminimum’ for anyone who shoots serious long-range competition and if you walk the line at any of the GB F Class League shoots or a 1000 yard benchrest shoot, you won’t see much below 32 power. Yes,Nightforce offer a 12-42 power and they don’t come much better than Nightforce but, when I speak to shooters about their 12-42’s, most prefer to use them at lower power. I own two 8-32 Nightforce scopes and I must say they are excellent on full power – particularly the BR version and of course, we now have

The 12-50x56 PM11/P Telescopic Sight from Schmidt & Bender

by Vince Bottomley

Here’s the 12-50 Schmidt (top) with my 8-32 Benchrest Nightforce

The Schmidt mounted on my test rig – Laurie’s 6BR Remington

Target Shooter 39

the remarkable 10-60 power March scope but there are too few out there to give any meaningful feedback.NowSchmidt&Benderarefinallyinthegamecan theyofferanything thatotherscan’t?

When was the last time you twiddled your scope-turretsthewrongwayorlostcountofyourclicks?I’ve been around long enough to know better but I’m certainly not immune. If you use a Schmidt, you just can’t make that mistake. For us, it’s an

embarrassment and dropped points – for a police marksman, it could be a disaster. S & B always worked on a single turn of the elevation-turret to take you from zero to 1000 yards – foolproof.

However, even with a 34mm body-tube, the 5-25 Schmidt wouldn’t adjust from zero to 1000 yards in a single turn of the turret for any of the popular cartridges, so they devised the

Another big number that I never thought I would see on a Schmidt & Bender

Not just a nice view - in the distance you can see the pylon I use for comparing image resolution – not scientific maybe but a good field test

40 Target Shooter

‘lighthouse’ style elevation-turret which displays a yellow indicator when you get onto the second rotation. The same turret appears on the 12-50 and it’s still as ugly but now most shooters have already seen it and you don’t get those strange looks.

The bottom ‘white’ scale gives us 32 minutes of elevation and then up pops the indicator and we are on the top ‘yellow’ scale for another 32 MOA, taking us to a whopping 64 minutes of elevation. To the civilian shooter, this pop-up indicator might seem to be a bit a novelty but it works and that’s the important thing.

OK, you might be thinking – 64 MOA is no big deal, mycheapoChinesejobbygivesmethat.Yes,butyou inevitably ‘lost’ half of it just mounting and zeroing the scope. With the Schmidt, you zero, then reset the turret and you still have your full 64 MOA – that’s the difference and that’s impressive! Of course, if your mounts are way out of alignment, you could still lose some adjustment. Although 64 MOA seems an awful lot of adjustment, it will still only take you out to 12-1300 yards with a .308 but it will nicely take the 338 Lapua Magnum out to around a mile and don’t forget, the British Army have ditched the 7.62 Nato in favour of the 338LapuaMagnumastheirsniperriflecartridge.

Why aren’t all scopes made this way, you

might ask. Well, in lots of cases, it isn’t necessary. For example, benchrest shooters love top-quality optics but rarely adjust theirscopes. GB F Class League shooters rarely shoot at less than 800 yards so a scope with modest adjustment combined with a 20MOA tapered scope-rail will bemore than adequate.

The mildot reticle - previously the first choiceof S&B - ideally must be placed in the firstfocal-plane. The whole point of a mildot reticle is its range-finding ability. Everyone isoffering mildots – even the Chinese but seemingly they don’t realise its purpose and the mildot reticle is placed in the second focal-plane. In other words, its size doesn’t alter as you zoom-in on your target - the mildot is therefore only useableasarangefinderatonemagnificationandseldomisthisthetopmagnification.What’smore,you will need the manufacturer’s instructions to determine the setting at which the mildot can be used as a true range-finder. Clearly farcicalfor the professional user and a total waste of time for the target shooter as we always know the distance we are shooting at. However, the mildot can at least be used to judge ‘aim-off’ accuratelyandforthisreason-providingitisfineenough - it is still a valid competition reticle and certainly preferable to the once-popular ‘duplex’.

Thankfully, with the PM11/P, Schmidt have

Here’s the turret ‘lit up’ showing that we are on the yellow elevation scale

Target Shooter 41

finally acknowledged the target shooter andtheir ‘sport’ reticle is offered in the 2nd focal plane – in other words, it stays the same size irrespective of the power setting and we don’t now end up with a uselessly thick reticle at max. power which could easily obscure the F Class shooter’s tiny half MOA V bull! The ‘sport’ reticle is very similar to the Nightforce NP200 reticle – a tiny central dot with horizontal lines either side and a vertical line below with another dot at the bottom. Excellent for the target shooter, of-fering precise aiming and horizontal levelling.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, these scopes are still as rare as the proverbial ‘rocking-horse manure’ and the only reason we have this one for test is down to Laurie Holland, who somehow managed to get his hands on a ‘sample’ and has now loaned it to me. Not only that, Laurie has also mounted it on his 6BR Remington – a proven accuracy tool in 600 yard benchrest competition – plus, he has even brought me some ammo.! All I have to do is shoot butfirst,we’llhaveacloserlookattheSchmidt.

That 34mm body tube is finished in theusual satin-black hard anodising and there are rubber-rings to aid grip on the zoom-ring and the‘one-turn’ocularfocus.Allfiguringistastefuland incised into the aluminium so that it won’t wear-off with use and click-value is marked in quarter- minute divisions on this scope butno doubt a metric/mil version is available. Overall length is 417mm – about the same as the Nightforce NSX – and it tips the scales at two and a half pounds with the A.R.M.S rings. These rings are about the only ones available for a 34mm tube – remember, S&B make scopes – not mounts!

The object and ocular lenses are again similar in size to a Nightforce at 56 and 35 mm. These lenses are ground from special batches of Schott Werk glass. This glass is only made in small batches and if it doesn’t come up to the demanding Schmidt and Schott standard it is not used. This in itself could place restrictions on the output/availability of these scopes.Bothhaveanti-flare coatingsof courseand the body-tube internals have also received an anti-reflective treatment. The accompanyingliterature claims that the scope is waterproof to a depth of three metres, which is nice to know asweallhavetoshoot in therain– frequently!

A few years ago, scopes had two turrets, then

three and now four!. The previous PM 11 model had an ‘either or’ choice - side-focus or illuminated reticle – now, we can have both. An illuminated reticle has no merit for the target shooter and sensibly, our scope has just three turrets. The side focus will take us from 50 metres to infinity in a single rotation and thewindage turret offers 16 MOA in either direction.

Let’s do some shooting. After focussing the reticle with the eyepiece adjuster and a couple of zeroing shots on my 100 yard target, we’re ready to put the Schmidt through its paces. The firsttest is a ‘return to zero’. We fire one shot onfull-power, then wind-down the zoom-ring to the minimumsettingandfireanothershot.Fewscopesnow fail this test and the Schmidt comes through with flying colours with both shots touching.

Test number two is ‘round the angles’ . This test checks the accuracy of the windage and elevation turrets and ensures that the scope returns to zero again. We use the same aimpoint in the centre of a large target and I’m winding on 8 MOA of elevation and 8 MOA of right windage to place shot one in the top corner of the target. Before I take the second shot, I wind-off 16 MOA of elevation and take another shot which impacts in the bottom right corner. Now it’s 16 MOA of left wind for the third shot in the bottom left corner. Finally, we wind on another 16 MOA of elevation and take shot four. If you are following me, we now have a target with four shots – one in each corner and, if I wind-on another 16 MOA of right wind, the fifth shot should go through the same holeas thefirst–giventhe limitsof rifle,ammoandthe‘nutbehindthebutt’.Thefirstandfifthshotsare less than half an inch apart and by measuring diagonally, we can verify that the ‘square’ is atrue square. The sides of the square shouldmeasure (16 x 1.047) 16.75 inches – they actually measure 161/8 to 16 1/2 inches. This is an excellent result. Even expensive scopes can exhibit a 10% error – the Schmidt is less than 3% and as far as I can recall, this is the best result I have ever obtained. Eye-relief is about three inches for me.

Even shooting on a target just 100 yards away, I can tell that the Schmidt optics are something special and I can’t wait to have a look at my favourite skyline electricity pylon about 6kms away. No scope has ever out-resolved my 8-32 Nightforce BR in this test though the 5-25 Schmidt ranitverycloseandthe8-32Sightrondefinitelygaveanequallysharpandmorecontrastyimage

42 Target Shooter

so let’s see how the big Schmidt fares. I’ve always reckoned that the lenses in my old ‘benchrest’ Nightforce have the edge on the NSX model so that’s what I use as my ‘benchmark’ for scope testing.Notscientificbutfair.Withbothscopesseton 32 power, I just couldn’t see any discernable difference but the Schmidt was totally devoid of ‘fringing’ or chromatic aberration, whereas there was a small amount present with the Nightforce.

I mentioned earlier that shooters using the 12-42 Nightforce or the March preferred to use them at less than maximum settings – how would the Schmidt perform at its maximum. The answer? Superbly! When I would up from32 to 50, the image quality was still there –pin-sharp, no fall-off whatsoever. This for me is the key difference between the Schmidt and its rivals – you will want to use this scope at full power, whenever the occasion demands.

So, the 12-50 Schmidt ticks all the right boxes – superb optics, side-focus, heaps of accurate adjustment and all the controls move with that precision feel which exudes quality.Anycriticisms?Aslightlyfinercrosshair/dotreticle as we use in benchrest would be my preference for target work and would a sun/rain

shadebetoomuchtoask?Otherwise-perfect!

At the present time, I can’t give you a retail price for this scope as no one is currently advertising them but I would guess that it will be similar to the big March, which means that you maynotgetalotofchangeoutoftwogrand.Yes,that’s a lot of money but this scope is the best initsclass.Yes,the10-60Marchwillmatchthescope on top-end power and it comes in a neater package and I would love to compare the optics but you just know the Schmidt is built like a tank and will give a lifetime of service. It comes from a European stable which offers an excellent 30 year after-sales back-up that includes a free 10 year service. For the professional user, it has no equalanditwouldcertainlybemyfirstchoiceforserious F Class competition though it would take my 308 F/TR rig way over the 8.25kg. weight limit!

Finally, thanks to Laurie Holland for the loan of this fabulous scope. I’d like to think that Target Shooter has a world scoop with this report as I’vecertainlynotseenanotherreview.YorkGuns(tel: 01904 487180 or www.yorkguns.co.uk) are the UK importer if you wish to place an order.

The lighthouse turret and the numbers that count – 64MOA!

Target Shooter 43

To introduce our selves we are the United Kingdom Association of RimfireandAirRifleBenchrestShooting.Bythatwemean"TrueBenchrestShooting".TheAssociationisrecognisedbyrimfire

shooters across in the UK, with partners across Europe and the rest of theworld,asthepresentativebodythatpromotesrimfireandairriflebenchrest across this country and with other partners in European and

World events.Visit our website for news about national and international

competitions that all can ‘have a go at’. From novice to championshooter, everyone is welcome

www.benchrest22.org

44 Target Shooter

Finally, I have got around to the article that I have wanted to write for over a year! If readers remember, I was going to write something about the benefitsofbatch-testingammunitionbackin2008.Sadly, the week before I tried to visit Eley, they were faced with the untimely death of Bert Brookes, the customer range officer at the factory. Aspromised, I would like to dedicate this article to Bert, for his contribution to shooting sports, his amazing level of knowledge and the support he has given to countless shooters worldwide over the years.

For this article on ammunition testing, I am at last going to Eley to batch-test again. Eley is the rimfire ammunition manufacturer that issynonymous with the term ‘accuracy’. The

company has a long history associated with thedevelopment of rimfire ammunition and a fewof their breakthrough ideas in ammunition manufacture have been adopted by other companies in their endeavours to make more accurate ammunition. More recently, the company has launched a whole new range, taking old brands out and introduc-ing some new ones like Eley Team. I believe that this is a serious attempt to commit to the target shooter, bringing in the Tenex bullet ‘design’ to a new model of ammunition that is more accessible to

the club shooter. As raw materials are escalating in price and Eley brands are used by target shooters around the world, this is quite a significantdevelopment.

Eley has a complete customer range for batch-testing at its factory and this is where I headed on a pleasant summer day with fellow shooter Colin Renwick. As mentioned in previous articles, batch-testing could and should be your initial starting point for selecting the ammunition that will bestsuityourrifle.

A Visit to Eley Batch Testing Facility

By Carl Boswell

Batches for testing - 17 on this specific day. All for the price of £30

above - Rifles are locked in a fixed vice bench after being put into specially made machined

stocks

Target Shooter 45

I have produced a variety of articles on rimfireammunition over the last few months. This has included the number of ways of preparing them and testing them for competition. When it comes down to it, we are talking mostly about ‘off the shelf’ ammunition of ‘very good’ to the ‘cheaper’ qualities and the onething I would always do is batch-test ammunitionforspecificcompetitions - including what I will shoot over the coming year – as I take my sport seriously. This article lends itself to those of like mind who are prone, three positional or benchrest shooters and generally all who shoot .22LR ammunition in competition.

Each specific batch of ammunition mayormay not ‘shoot’ in your rifle. You caneasily see this if you go batch-testing. Some batches will open up to a 24mm group over 40 shots, whilst others will group as low as 14mm. A huge difference, especially if you are aiming to knock out a target-ring no bigger than a pin head at 50 metres. For those that have never experienced batch-testing, please take my word for it - it is staggering to see the difference between one batch of ammunition and another. I think in this one statement we come to the real point of batch-testing – it allows you to test a good number of different sample batches in clinical conditions, without the expense of buying lots of different boxes yourself and trying to test on range. Let’s face it, you are lucky if an RFD will actually let you buy one box at a time to test. You aremuchmore likely to be sold 500 rounds at a time. This may or may not shoot well, so this process is a bit of a gamble and could be very expensive. Batch-testing at the facility Eley offer takes any ‘ad hoc’ methods out of the process. It also costs a mere £30 for the test, which uses at least four hundred rounds.The new range officer at Eley isMartyn Buttery – ranked sixth in the UK

in ISSF shooting disciplines. He is, as he says, ‘agoodall-rounder’shootingbothrimfireandair.Martyn carries with him a wealth of shooting experience in relationship to his position, both

Martyn Buttery, Customer Range Officer at Eley

Martyn setting the rifle in the fixed block for testing

46 Target Shooter

gleaned by himself and that passed on from Bert. YoucouldnotbeinsaferhandswhenattendingEley.On arrival we are met with obviously heavy security but it is done with a sincere good will. Martyn escorted both Colin and me into the test-range facility. This looks small, but good things come in small packages. After sorting out details of the rifles and having a chat – theother hobby that goes along with shooting – we moved into the testing area to make a start. For years, shooters have discussed the mer-itsof lockingdowna rifle toa test-bedor letting

the natural recoil of the rifle determine theaccuracy of the r i f l e / a m m u n i t i o n combination. I can see the merits in both methods. Free-recoil testing from a bench should be capable of producing just as tight a groupasafixed/lockedbench but of course, many of the shooters who test at Eley shoot off-hand and don’t have the benefit of agood benchrest set-up. Rifle harmonics maybe different to your normal stock when using the system at Eley but we are testing ammunition

consistency and results show that the process works. If you look at the scores of the top shooters who have tested this way, most if not all would come to this same conclusion. Beforewe started, bothAnschutz actioned rifleswere placed into the testing bed by Martyn, set at theirnormal torquesettingof5nm.Thesewerelocked into the testing bed and we started the initial firing sequences. The first part of theprocess is to trial the ammunition that we were

currently using. This can then be compared to those that are on offer during the day. Twenty shots were therefore fired then we wereready to go through a further 17 batches of the ammunition which was available to us on the day we tested. The fascinating thing I find when batchtesting is the different group sizes that the barrelled-action will shoot. Last year, the Anschutz factory barrel I had shot up to a 24mm 40 shot group. This was the same with Colin’s this year.

Martyn setting up the computer system to record scoring

My rifle with view down the 50m tunnel

Target Shooter 47

However, that was one batch and a 40 shot group can go as low as 14mm - the current range record. The best batch tested in both riflesproduced groups of about 16mm, which is great. The Lilja barrel I have changed over to this year provided analysis information that the barrel is pretty consistent over the 17 batches tested – so this batch process also provided confidence inthat purchase. Two birds with one stone – cannot be bad! From some of the pictures within this article you can see the way each shot and ten-shot group comes up on the computer screen for the shooter to review as they proceed. Although you get all this information at the end, this is quite animportant feature of the process. I tend to analyse and judge what each batch is doing throughout the process. Martyn looks at this data either on range or in his office,where everything is displayed on his computer screen as it happens. The testing process took a few hours and over 550 rounds were

fired, with one coffeebreak in the middle for another chat with Martyn. At the end of the morning we had a variety of data to look at and compare. Colin had three batches to consider and I had six to choose from. The one that best suited my needs was slightly lower velocity than the others but there was very little in it to be honest. The one thing to remember about 22 LR ammunition is that is does perform differently than other ammunition in one simple fact - the lower

the velocity the better this is for accuracy. If the bullet is moving slower it creates less drag in the air and thus lower drift. I chose mine and Colin chose his batch, which was excellent and beat mine by a couple of points and three-tenths of a millimetre. Calculations of the best batch can be determined in four ways;

• 40 shot group size• Distribution of 40 shoot score

Groups sizes come onto the computer screen as you test

4 X 10 shot groups recorded for later analysis

48 Target Shooter

• Consolidated 40 shot score • Each 10 shot test group X 4 testsFrom this information, shooters can choose the batch that best suits their needs. In most cases the above data will match.One really nice thing we did not expect was a visit from Andrew Lane, the new Eley MD, who popped over to say hello and have a chat. I know he was busy, so this was much appreciated. After this we said our goodbyes for the time being, leaving the Eley range happy but slightly poorer, as

the minimum purchase after a batch test is an order of 5000 rounds. Overall a great morning!As a side note, the batch-test turned out to be a very sound investment as I have just won the 50 metre Light Varmint and Unlimited classes at the UK Rimfire and Air RifleNational Championship held the weekend after batch-testing session at Eley. In addition, I was also fortunate to win the aggregate cup for both 50 metre events. This new batch of ammunition isslightlybetter inmyrifle thanthe one I chose last year – and I thought that was good! So mightily impressed, both by the quality of Eley’s service andthe product I have chosen. My thanks to Martyn and all at Eley for putting up with me – yet again! It is much appreciated.So there you have it. Eley have the facilitiestotestyourrifleandmatchittothebestammunition available. Where you go to from here is up to you! Maybe even a few future national or international champions out there will start to develop testing processes for themselves. What make of ammunition you use is down to you. However, when you have a world class ammunition manufacturer on your doorstep,thisisprobablythefirststeptotake.I hope the last few articles have been informative and do help people, even if some of the ‘processes’ I describe are a little fussy.

Unfortunately consistency is the ‘name of the game’ and all shooters are aiming towards this goal. If you wish to book as slot at the Eley customer range then you will need to book this via the Eley website at www.eley.co.uk where there isanonline request form to fill out.All I would say is book well in advance as it is becoming very popular. Shoot well until next time.

Analysis prints to aid sellection of the batch

Eley Tenex - with podium to help you access rounds from the new box during a match

Target Shooter 49

World Cup Success- Every 50m Prone Medal 12/12- 87% of Gold medals in the 50m events- Total of 45 medals won by ELEY 2009 ISSF World Cups

www.eleyammunition.com

Champions shoot Tenex

ELEY - the home of Tenex

50 Target Shooter

This month I am pleased to feature another of Scotland’s bright young prospects in the shooting world, and despite his age is adding some impressive results to his sporting CV.

Rory began shooting at the age of twelve when he saw a notice at school recruiting new members to theschool rifleclub. Rorywasintrigued by this new challenge, decided to give it a whirl and found it was something he took to and really enjoyed. The discipline he chosewas.22pronerifleshooting,andmorerecently has started to expand his shooting horizontoincludeairrifleshooting.

Rory is now 18 and is proud to hold the post of Captain of George Watsons College Target RifleClubwherehetrainsaroundthreetimesa

week.Additionaltohislivefiringattherange,Rory says he does the majority of his training at home and tries to build in lots of different exercises to keep the interest during the slog of a hours of training. Whilst he varies the types of training he does, Rory says it is important that each exercise has an end goal to it, to stretch yourself and make the work meaningful and challenging. Currently coached by Sinclair Bruce and has achieved enough in his shooting career so far to be included and part of the Scotland Fast Track programme,forthoseagedundertwentyfive.

Rory is in his last year at George Watsons College and it is good to hear that they have been supportive in his sporting endeavours although are perhaps understandably not

PROFILE ON RORY MCALPINE

By Hayley Platts

Up and coming Rory McAlpine in competition

Target Shooter 51

over keen on Rory taking too much time off from his studies.

Rory’s choice of rifle is theAnschutz 1913combined with Eley ammunition.

In the last 12 months Rory’s international shooting career has really taken off. He won bronzeattheYouthCommonwealthGamesin India in October 2008 and has followed this upattheAustralianYouthOlympicFestivalinJanuarythisyear.Inhisfavouritepronerifleevent Rory moved two steps up the podium to take the gold medal with a score of 591.

In 2009 Rory has followed up on his 2008 achievements representing Great Britain in PlzenfortheShootingHopesevent,finished12th in the British Championships and was a member of the British Team that travelled to Croatia for the European Championships.

During competition Rory applies some mental discipline and strives to stay as calm during a match as he does on the training

range. Rory does also point out that he does not feel nerves are a bad thing, and can of course be turned into a positive emotion if kept under control.

Outside of shooting Rory enjoys some other more unusual outdoor pursuits includingsailing, and what Rory describes as ultimate frizbee. Musically, Rory is a dab hand with the guitar.

On the subject of why Rory feels that shooting is a good sport to recommend to others, his response was the fact that you’re always trying to get better and achieve the perfect score. If you are having trouble with your shooting and not achieving what you hope or expect to, Rory’s top tip is to completely erase those shots that have already gone, as he says “you can’t change them” in other words solely concentrate on the ones to come.

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52 Target Shooter

Target Shooter 53

My previous article covered the development and introduction into service of the No.4(T) sniper rifle in late 1941. This article will give a detaileddescription of the markings of the rifles toassist current owners and future purchasers in identifyingwhether the rifle inquestion isgenuine.

I have personally handled upwards of 75 No.4(T) rifles and after awhile one gets a feeling for whatis genuine or otherwise. However, there are two well known experts in the United Kingdom who

between them have handled thousands of these rifles so I shall be drawing heavily on theirexperience and published articles and books. Peter Laidler is an ex-armourer and current curator of the Small Arms Museum and wrote two books-oneontheNo.4(T)sniperrifleandoneonthe

No.32 scope. Roger Payne is a Registered Firearms Dealer and collector of WW1 and WW2 British and Commonwealth sniperriflesandhashadseveralarticles published. A fellow RFD and collector – David Tomkinson

No.4(T) Sniper Rifle – The distinguishing markings on scopes and rifles.

By Nigel Greenaway

Left - The right hand side of the rifle where you can just see the letter ‘s’ below the bolt head. This was stamped on the block where the old Trials rifle magazine cut-off would have hinged. The red W on the scope indicates that it has pass waterproofing tests. The sling swivel forward of the magazine is also present.

Above - A 1944 made BSA Shirley No.4(T) showing the T on the receiver side wall near the ejector screw and the TR on the butt

socket near the trigger

54 Target Shooter

shares a trade stand with Roger at the Birmingham International Arms Fair and they always have a nice selection of either matched or mismatched, but otherwise genuine, No.4(T) sniper rifles for sale.My thanks to David for supplying many of the close up photos used in this article. Roger and David havehandledmanyof theearlyNo.4(T) riflesandherefore have seen how the distinguishing markings developed over a period of time before evolving in to the accepted form of markings on 1944 and 1945 datedBSAShirleyrifles.Thestandardmarkingsare:

Rifle Receiver, Butt Socket and woodwork – aHolland and Holland examiner’s letter T stamp (serif font) is present on the receiver sidewall, usually quite close to the ejector screw. Onthe left hand side of the butt socket below the manufacturer’s markings is a TR (sans serif font so quitedifferentfromtheTonthereceiverwall).Thismarkwasstampedbythemanufactureronriflesthatexhibited tighter than usual groups during accuracy testing and was thus earmarked for conversion to a TelescopeRifle.Onriflesthatdidnotrequirethebacksighttobere-zeroedorexchangedforthemodifiedMk1 back sight (themodificationwas the removal

of the upright battle sight that would otherwise foul the scope) there is a 1/8 inch high stamp of the letter ‘s’ (sans serif). This was stamped on the block wheretheoldTrialsriflemagazinecut-offwould have hinged. Another distinguishing mark is the ‘D6E’ examiners mark which is stamped on the left rear body next to the bolt-way after conversion to a No.4(T). The telescope number is stamped on the upper wrist of the wooden butt and the riflenumber isstamped just forwardof this number on the top part of the wooden socket which disappears into the metal butt socket when the butt is screwedontotherifle.Ontheunderneathof the butt is the Holland and Holland wartime manufacturer code S51 (always presentevenonthe1941rifles).Therifle

serial number is stamped along the underneath of the fore-end at the muzzle end, instead of the more usual way of stamping across the camber of the wood.

Other standard features – front (three mounting screws) and rear (two mounting screws) body pads were soft-soldered and screwed to the side wall of the receiver to accept the mount bracket. The screws on the front pads could work loose after as little as 1000 rounds so a solution was to stake metal from the pad in to the screwdriver slots of the screws using a punch.ThisbecameanofficialmodificationinMarch1946 so many rifles subsequently going throughrepair shops or refurbishment would have been so modified.Itisnotuncommontoseemultiplepunchmarks on the front pad whilst the rear will usually just have one punch mark. From late 1944 triangular slingswivelswerefittedinplaceofthefronttriggerguardscrew(beddingscrew)andmanyearlyrifleshadtheseretrofitted.CheekpiecesfittedonBritishriflesweremostcommonlymadefrombeechbutasignificantminorityof1944producedBSArifleshadoak – sometimes giving a pleasing tiger stripe look (asonmyrifle).Itwasstipulatedthatsplitforesight

On the underneath of the butt is stamped the Holland and Holland wartime manufacturer code S51

D6E examiners mark which is stamped on the left rear body next to the bolt-way after conversion to a No.4(T). The telescope number is stamped on the upper wrist of the wooden butt

Target Shooter 55

blocksshouldbeusedbutmany1944producedrifleswill be found with solid foresight blocks. Only Mk1 rear sights were used with the battle sight ground off.Enfield made rifles and conversions Mention hasalready been made of the 1403 Trials Rifles thatwere convertedatEnfield.Roger is of theopinionthat onlyTrialsRifleswere convertedbyEnfield –all of those that he has inspected did not have the Holland and Holland S51 code on the butt and they allhadanEnfieldexaminer’smarkonthefronttopflatofthefrontbodypad-amarknotencounteredonanyotherNo.4(T)’s.Mostriflesnotedaredated1931or1933withan ‘A’prefixandserialnumbersup to about 2500 e.g. A0794 and A2215. Woodwork iswalnutandtheyretainall theoriginalTrialsRiflefeatures.

BSA riflesPeter Laidler has calculated that 23,177 No.4(T) sniper rifles were completed by Holland andHolland, the last few in April 1946. To this can be added the 1,403 Trials conversions plus 1,524 Long Branch No.4(T)’s to make a grand total of 26,104. Whilst no actual figures exist of the breakdown ofdifferent manufacturers’ rifles supplied for

conversion, the majority (85% is Roger’s estimate) were supplied by BSA Shirley with the remaining 15% being made up by Enfield, R.O.F.Maltby, Savage and Long Branch. BSA’s markings also evolved during the war, starting with a B from 1941 to 1943, which changed at some point in 1943 to their wartime code of M47 which changed again in late 1943 to M47C. The serial numbering system alsochangedbutbyearly1944hadsettledonafivedigit number starting with 3, usually, with a single letter prefix. The latest production block of ‘T’conversions being the ‘X’ prefix in 1945.No 1946dated rifleshavebeenobservedalthoughsomeofthe last Kershaw made No.32 Mk3 sights are dated 1946.Early1941BSArifleswerestockedupinbeech,although of a colour that is darker than the typical post-war ‘blonde’ beech. By 1943 it seems that BSA Shirley rifleswereexclusivelyused forconversion.

R.O.F. Maltby TheRoyalOrdnanceFactoryMaltbyconvertedrifleswere nearly all marked ROFM 1941 on the receiver side wall and the initial part of this will be obscured bythe frontbodypadwitheitherno letterprefix tothefivedigitnumberoraletterintheAorBseries.

Three different woods were used for cheek pieces. On British rifles beech was the most common as seen on the lower L42A1 sniper rifle but a significant minority of 1944 produced BSA rifles had oak – sometimes giving a pleasing tiger stripe look as on the upper rifle. The middle Canadian rifle has a walnut cheek piece.

56 Target Shooter

Roger has only ever seen one 1942 rifle.OriginalrifleshavebuttsmarkedS51 indicating thatall theconversion work was carried out by Holland and Holland and not Enfield as some havespeculated. The presence of the ‘T’ and ‘TR’ stamps is inconsistent, most without but some with one or the other. It is more than likely that these marks, usually of a non-standard style and size, were added byordnancearmourersat a later datewhilst rifleswere being repaired. The ‘S’ mark is absent on all Maltby converted rifles. Enfield examiners marks,if present, are located on the right rear body under

the point where the bolt handle joins the bolt body. Occasionally a genuine two groove barrel is seen. Only No.32 Mk1 scopes would have been fittedbut it is not unknown for a later mark scope to be fitted‘officially’aspartofanupgradeonanotherwiseserviceablerifle.ThispointalsoappliestotheSavagemade rifles.Therewereprobably fewer than1000Maltby conversions and a similar number for Savage.

Stevens-SavageThe American manufactured Savage rifles wereconverted from very early No.4 Mk1 production and a very few Mk1*, probably at the point when production changed over to the different bolt release system on the Mk1*. Serial numbers seem to be in the 12, 13 and 14C blocks. The odd two groove barrel will also be observed – this was supposed to be a reject feature if spotted by Holland and Holland! There is some speculation that a second batch of Savage rifles were converted by Holland and Hollandnear the termination of the sniper rifle conversioncontracts in 1945/46 but were not fitted withscopes.Unfortunatelytheseriflesdonotexhibitthestandard markings, which by this date had become standardised, so there are considerable doubts aboutthese‘scopeless’rifles.Long BranchWorthy of an article in its own right, the history of the Canadian Long Branch made No.4(T)’s is very interesting. They tried to develop the No.4(T) in

to a more modern sporterised sniper rifle with ahalf length fore-end, a Monte-Carlo butt, rubber butt pad and a 5x magnification scope – all at aconsiderable weight saving. The British rejected it saying5xmagnificationwastoomuchandseemedto go out of their way to place obstacles in the way of future development! A great shame because all the trials showed that the users loved it! The Canadians did have six different scopes, Mk1, Mk1A, Mk2 and Mk3 which were the same or very similar to our three marks, plus one which was originally designated a No.32 Mk4 but, because it was a completely new development which owed nothing to the No.32, was subsequentlyre designated the C No.67 Mk1 (3.5x24mm). Due to productiondifficultiesinchurningoutenoughscopesthrough the Quebec based Research Enterprises Limited (R.E.L) the Canadians ordered 350 ‘off the shelf’ American Lyman Alaskan All Weather scopes which they designated the C No.32 Mk1 (TP) – TP stood for Trade Pattern. For a long while research showed that only 1,141 Canadian No.4(T)’s were made but Clive Law’s excellent book – Without Warning, revealed that all the rifles using No.32Mk3 scopes were produced after the war bringing the grand total to 1,524. The Canadian markings did not follow any of the British stampings and the main distinguishing mark was a sans serif ‘T’ on the left hand receiver wall. About 500-600 Canadian No.4(T)’s were accepted in to British service and these tend to have the scope number stamped on theupperwristofthebutt.ThereareotherspecificCanadian markings but these are beyond the scope of this article.

The next article will cover the ongoing development of the No.4(T) with the introduction, in British service, of the three main marks, plus one hybrid version, of the No.32 scope plus the associated scope tins, lenscaps,woodenriflechestsandtrainingliterature.

Sources:The Armourer Militaria Magazine, Issue 57 May/June2003–WW2SnipingRiflesbyRogerPayne

International Arms & Militaria Collector – Magazine No.20, 2002 – Roger Payne and David Tomkinson article on the No.4(T)

AnArmourer’sPerspective.303No.4(T)SniperRifle– ISBN 1 85367 144 4. Peter Laidler’s bible on the historyoftheserifles.

Telescope Sighting No.32 – An insider view of the Snipers Rifle Telescope - Peter Laidler - lastreprinted in 1993 - a very comprehensive booklet on these scopes and how to strip and reassemble them (if you are very brave).

The main distinguishing mark of Canadian made sniper

rifles was a sans serif ‘T’ on the left hand receiver wall

Target Shooter 57

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58 Target Shooter

With several developments around ‘fullbore’ bullets in the recent past, I decided to update

some earlier work on these designs. What do I mean by ‘fullbore’, a term in general use in the USA, but which may have a different meaning elsewhere? It refers to International Fullboreand Palma competition shooting whose rules dictate the use of the .308 Winchester cartridge loaded with bullets weighing less than 156gn. I understand these limitations also apply to BritishCommonwealth ‘TargetRifle’, and to theammunition used in the F/TR division of F-Class shooting in Canada and Australia. On top of that, 155gn bullets are a popular choice in club and regional level competitions. DesignThese rules fixing the weight, calibre andcartridge restrict the bullet designer severely. With Palma,FullboreandF/TRriflessingle-shottypesutilising barrel lengths of 29-32”, muzzle velocities (MVs) also fall within a fairly small range, generally between 2,950 and 3,050 fps. All that’s left is the bullet’s profile or shape, which determinesaerodynamicdrag.Theefficiencywithwhichthebullet’s ogive parts the air to make way for the bullet, and the effectiveness of the boat tail in reducing base drag are the key factors that differentiate their performance. Hang on, have I forgotten ‘accuracy’? Inherent precision(usually referred to as accuracy) is obviously a vital attribute in determining success, but that is mostly dictated by manufacturing quality whichis very high nowadays for all main contenders.

Fullbore Bullet Ballistic Analysis

By Bryan Litz

American ‘Fullbore’ shooting is based on UK and British Commonwealth ‘Target Rifle’,

both restricted to .308 Win / 7.62mm with bullets weighing less than 156gn in single-shot rifles with long barrels and iron sights

Above - 155gn bullets are popular in GBFCA F/TR, although heavier bullets are permitted. 2008 F/TR champion Russell Simmonds (nearest the camera), and the GB F/TR team

captain Stuart Anselm behind both use 155s

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WindA most important step in any performance analysis is to decide what measure of merit you care about. In this case, it’s wind deflection.Assuming our bullets offer equal degrees ofprecision, the design that is less wind-affected makes the competitor’s reading of the prevailing conditions easier, so is likely to produce the best score. With all models being driven at similar MVs, we have a simple rule of thumb:thedesignwiththelowestdragprofilewillhave the highest Ballistic Coefficient (BC), andsuffertheleastamountofwinddeflection.

In order to calculate wind deflection, weneed to know the bullet’s BC and muzzle velocity. I’ve assumed 3,000fps throughout, so any difference in ballistic performance is down to BC. To perform a meaningful analysis, we need accurate information, and unfortunately BCs advertised by the bulletmakersarequestionableforvariousreasons and may not be directly comparable thanks to differing methods used to calculate them. In order to make comparisons, we need BCs measured using a common method that’s repeatable. To obtain this, I devised an experimentally based

measuring system in which a number of sample shots are firedover 1,000 yardswith the bulletpassing over acoustic sensors placed at precisely measured equal intervals on therange. The sensors are activated by the bullet’s supersonic ‘crack’ and use wireless transmitters to advise a computer loaded with a specially adapted ballistics program of the sectional flight times. In essence, the pro-gram runs BCs iteratively until values are found that match the actual times (hence velocities) over each section. It should be noted that this method gives repeatable results within +/- 1% between test shots, results moreover that are in

agreement with other published, credible sources.

Bryan tested this trio two years ago – then the leading fullbore contenders. Left to right: ‘Old’ Sierra Palma MK (2155); Lapua Scenar; Berger VLD. The Scenar was found to be the ‘winner’ by a fair margin

Today, two newcomers are challenging the Lapua. Left to right: ‘New’ Sierra Palma MK (2156); Lapua Scenar; Berger 155.5gn

Match BT FULLBORE.

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There is another problem with manufacturers’ BCs – they are referenced to the G1 standard which ultimately compares their aerodynamic performance to a projectile shape that bears little resemblance to the modern long-range rifle bullet with its long nose and markedboat tail. Fortunately we have a much better alternative in the form of the G7 standard projectile. (Figure 1.)If we define performance against G7 standardresults, we get BCs that are much less sensitive to velocity than the G1 standard. For example, the 155 grain Berger VLD has a G1 BC that varies from 0.465 at 3,000fps to 0.402 at 1,500fps, a 14% difference. However, if you use the G7 standard, the

BC range runs from 0.228 to 0.223, under 3% which introduces far less error into ballistic calculations. However, as readers are likely to be familiar with G1 BCs, average values are provided in gray as a reference. It should be noted that there is no direct link between the values of the two sets, each used in a suitably calibrated ballistics program, so G7 values running at half the level of theirG1counterpartsisofnosignificanceinitself.

OctetLet’s look at the bullets, listed in Figure 2 in order of decreasing BC. Scale profiles are provided showing relative shapes and propor-tions in the left hand column. It’s noticeable

that the more aerodynamically efficient bullets are longer thanthose at the bottom of the stack, in particular having longer noses – an important factor in drag reduction. Moving across, the sectional density (SD) is given. As this is the bullet’s weight (in pounds) divided by its calibre squared, and all of our fullborebullets have the same weight and diameter, they have an identical SD of .233 lb/in2, except for the marginally heavier 155.5gn Berger FULLBORE at 0.234 lb/in2. The next metric in the chart is the bullet’s form factor, i7, referenced to the G7 standard. This represents the bullet’s drag as a ratio to that produced by the standard bullet, so one with a value below 1.0 produces less drag than the standard projectile, one above 1.0 more. Because the length and shape of fullbore bullets are restricted by the weight limit of 155-155.5gn, low for the calibre, the designer has his work cut out to get i7 below 1.0, and only three achieve it.

Moving on, we have the bullet’s G7 BC obtained by dividing the SD by the i7 value. The BCs displayed have been averaged using the bullets’ measured velocities and flight times from3,000 fps at the muzzle to be-yond the point where their

Berger 155.5, Lapua 155 Scenar, HBC BJD, New Sierra, Berger VLD, PMP, Old Sierra, Hornady A-Max

Bullet SD i7Average

G7 BC

Average

G1 BC

Manufacturer’s

Claimed G1 BC

Berger 155.5 Fullbore0.234 0.988 0.237 0.464 0.464

Lapua 155 Scenar0.233 0.988 0.236 0.462 0.508

155 HBC BJD (Australia)0.233 0.989 0.236 0.462 n/a

Sierra 155 Palma (2156)0.233 1.018 0.229 0.447

0.504, .470,

.430, .380 by

velocity bands

Berger 155 VLD0.233 1.039 0.225 0.439 0.439

155 PMP (South Africa)0.233 1.041 0.224 0.439 n/a

Sierra 155 Palma (2155)0.233 1.092 0.214 0.417

0.450, .443,

.417 by velocity

bands

Hornady 155 A-Max0.233 1.100 0.212 0.415 0.435

Figure 2. Ballistic performance comparison for 8 Fullbore bullets.

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speed dropped to 1,500fps. It should be noted there was very little difference between any individual bullet’s highest and lowest individual G7 BC readings over these distances / velocities. Finally, we have two columns displaying G1 BCs – those based onmy velocity / flight timemeasurements over the 3,000 – 1,500fps range, andthemanufacturers’claimedfigures.AsIdon’tuse G1 BCs in ballistics calculations because of the problems they create in modelling bullet behaviours at long ranges, they are provided solely as a point of reference.

These tests were a follow-up to some previously carried out for three bullets – the original Sierra Palma MK (#2155), the Lapua Scenar, and Berger’s Match VLD. They were tested again alongside the additional fivemodels earlier thisyear, and their resulting BCs modified slightlybased on the larger number of test shots’ data now available. I was gratified to find the ‘new’results barely varied from those carried out two years ago, the largest BC variation being 1.3%,

the smallest 0.5%.

Top TrioSo, onto the results. The top performers proved to be the new Berger 155.5gn Match BT FULLBORE, the long established Lapua Scenar, and a bullet that was new to me, the Australian HBC, this trio producing practically identical BCs, certainly within the measurement uncertainty of my testing. Let’s look at each in turn. The Berger is an inherently accurate bullet, in its short life winning the 2008 US Palma Individual Trophy at Camp Perry (450-26X) as well as setting a new midrange (iron sights) US National Record of 450-39X. The Scenar’s excellent ballistic performance is no secret to top shooters, and it was well ahead of the pack until the last year or so when other companies caught up. Lapua advertises a G1 BC of 0.508 for this bullet and my experimentally measured value at 3,000fps was 0.497, a mere 2% difference at these high speeds, but note that my average G1 BC for this bullet over 1,000 yards is 0.462, a much lower value.

The HBC BJD bullet was a surprise (to me at any rate), a friend down under sending some to test out of mutual curiosity. These bullets have an aggressive secant ogive and a long 7-degree boat tail which is a splendid combination that results in very low drag. To my knowledge, there is no advertised BC for this bullet, but my measurements indicate that it’s among the best ballistic performers in its class. HBC stands for

The old and new Sierras together for comparison. Note how the new bullet on the right has had the nose section stretched to

give a sharper front-end.

The ‘New’ 155gn Sierra Palma MK on the right has also had its meplat ‘pointed’ (reduced in

diameter) to reduce drag

62 Target Shooter

High BC, and BJD for Bob and Jan Dyer who make them in their company, R & J Sportsgoods in Darwin.

Auspicious BeginningsNext we have the new Sierra Palma MK bullet (#2156) which has a very much improved BC over the ‘old’ version (#2155 which remains in production). The new Palma bullet has only been out a short time, (barely reached the UK with the main importers still awaiting supply – Editor), but has already proven itself in internationalcompetition.TheUSRifleTeamusedthis bullet in September 2008 to win the Spirit of AmericaInternationalFullboreRifleMatch.Itwasso new that supplies were delivered direct from the factory to the range, with the team coaches swapping out the bullets from the ammo that the shooters brought to the match! The winning result is a testament not only to the bullet’s excellent ballistic performance, but also to its inherentaccuracyinsomanydifferentrifleswithno

load development. My average measured G1 BC for this bullet is 0.447, while the average of Sierra’s advertised values is 0.446, practically identical.

The Berger 155gn VLD comes next. Once this company’s top Palma model, it now represents just another option since the introduction of the 155.5gn FULLBORE model. As with the old Sierra Palma MK it remains in production. The 155gn PMP bullets are from South Africa, and were also provided for testing by a good friend abroad. PMP stands for Pretoria Metal Processing, and the samples I tested were from lot #66. Dimensionally, they are similar to the old Sierra Palma MK (#2155), but have a very small meplat (tip) diameter. The meplats on the samples I tested measured only 0.052” in diameter which is extremely small for a factory (un-pointed) bullet. Again, I don’t have an advertisedBC,butthemeasuredfigurecameoutjust where I expected it to be according to the bullet’s shape.

Old GuardThe old model Sierra Palma bullet, which saw heavy use in international competition over two decades by many countries, now finds itselfnear the bottom of the performance league. An inherently accurate bullet and still a very good option for short and midrange matches, this bullet simply lacks the design features to compete with the superior ballistic performance of the newer offerings at long range. Finally, the Hornady 155gn A-Max comes in just below the old Sierra. The plastic tips ensure very consistent BCs, but are not sharp enough to make up for the other areas where this bullet’s design is lacking. The short boat tail is too steep at a 13-degree plus angletoachievesignificantbasedragreductionand the ogive is very short. As we’ll see next month, thiscombination results inheftywinddeflectioncompared to the better designs, and it remains barely supersonic at 1,000 yards from 3,000fps MV. If Hornady wants to offer a better Fullbore bullet, they’ll have to turn to a design that’s more like their outstanding 208gn 0.308” A-Max which has a long boat tail at a shallow angle, and a long ogive.

Next month, we’ll see how these G7 BCs translate into wind deflection and retainedvelocities at 1,000 yards, and I’ll model poten-tial shooting scores on long-range Fullbore and F-Class targets in varying wind strength scenarios.

GBFCA F/TR options: 155gn bullets on the left; a match prepped cartridge with ‘pointed’ 155gn Lapua Scenar; heavy bullets (210gn Sierra MK and 210gn Berger VLD) on the right. The 210gn bullets’ much higher BCs are offset by a 400-500 fps velocity loss at the

muzzle

Target Shooter 63

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64 Target Shooter

This site is located ‘down under’ but if you are a benchrest or F Class shooter or just an accuracy nut, it is well worth a look. BRT – Benchrest Training – is operated by two of the nicest folk in shooting, Stuart and Annie Elliott. The Elliotts are known throughout the benchrest world and both are BR shooters of the highest level being part of the Aussie Team that beat the previously undefeated Americans in the South African Benchrest World Championships this year.

With a wealth of experience at world level, the Elliotts can now offer offer benchrest training anywhere in the world and many countries have already benefitted from their coaching. Their windflags are as recognisable as the Sidney Opera House to benchrest shooters and are used by many top shooters world-wide. There are plenty of pics on the site which will give you a flavour of benchrest shooting and F

Class – the Elliott’s latest passion. There is also a tips &

tricks section which is worth a read and will no doubt grow.

Finally, the Elliots are now supplying accuracy bits and pieces including March scopes. The Aussies are no different from we Brits – most of the good stuff comes from the USA but if someone else does the importing it takes the hassle and waiting out of the equation.We at Target Shooter wish Annie and Stuart all the very best with their venture – they are a great couple and deserve to succeed.BRT Shooters Supply – www.benchrest.com.au

Shooting Website of the Month

Target Shooter 65

Target Shooter has given a lot of coverage to New Zealand company Barnard Precision with my F/TR tube-gun, Vince Bottomley’s report on his Model07tacticalrifleandBrianWalker’svisittothe

company. This month’s offering has an interesting USP or unique selling point, being a qualityquasi-customrifleavailableata loweroutlay thanif you go down the traditional build-it-from-scratch-gunsmith route.This results from the accuracy and consistency with which two components, the action and barrel, are manufactured, as well as the use of bedding-block stocks. Barnard actions are so precisely and consistently made, bolts are interchangeable between action bodies and the company says a competently manufactured pre-threaded and chambered barrel will marry-up to the appropriate action and provide correct headspace straight off. Competently made pre-chambered barrels? Enter

another Kiwi outfit, True-Flite NZ Ltd that makesbutton-rifled match quality barrelsfrom top-grade US supplied 416R stainless blanks, available in many calibres,twistrates,profilesandinpreor unchambered form. Fox Firearms is a Barnard agent and the importer for the barrels, offering them to gunsmiths for custom build, or as in this case, the basis of budget pick ‘n’ mix job using a pre-chambered tube. With over 70 barrels in stock, plus several actions, there is a good chance of getting what you want quickly. Even if the barrelhas to be ordered from New Zealand, delivery times are reasonable. The third major ingredient in the mix is the stock. If you’re in the market for an

F-Class or TR rifle, Fox Firearms offers goodlooking, attractively priced rifles using anappropriate version of the Canadian Robertson Composites H&H competition stock, the Barnard single-shotModelPaction,andamatchorPalmaprofile

COMMONWEALTH CUSTOM FROM FOX FIREARMS

By Laurie Holland

The Barnard ‘Model S’ is a precision-made single-shot match quality action that has the same external dimensions as the

Remington 700.

Above - The Barnard / True-Flite / Bell & Carls-son 6.5mm rifle

The Barnard ‘S’ action has a simple, but immensely strong

receiver

66 Target Shooter

True-Flite barrel in an appropriate chambering. Bedding block versions of the stock design are employed to reduce workload and costs – strewth, clever people these colonials!

‘Interesting’Mytestriflewasalsomadeusingthisformula,butdespite trying to keep those other one-time colonists in North America out of the picture, US bits now appear – a Bell & Carlsson composite stock and Timney trigger. Let’s go back a step as I’m getting ahead of myself, and recount how I got here. Brian Fox, proprietor of the eponymous gun supplier asked me late last year if I’d like a Barnard / True-Flite

for review, anything I fancied within reason. I only made two stipulations – it should be accurate and in 6.5X47 Lapua calibre. I’d no idea what I’d get apart from the make of action and barrel, and was s u b s e q u e n t l yrather enigmatically advised it would be left-hand and ‘tactical’ – a magazine rifleoptimised for easy handling and rapid operation?Theriflewasready

in around six weeks despite being built from scratch and turned out to be an‘interesting mix’ – a polished 30”Palmaprofilebarrellikeyou’dfindonaTRrifle;left-hand single-shot Barnard Model S action; the ‘tactical bit’ being the stock, a matte black model from Bell & Carlsson. Up top, there was a Warne rail, an 8-32 power Hakko ‘Tactical’ variable, all held together by Warne tactical rings. While thanking my benefactorandopiningwhatafinepiece itwas, Iwasprivatelyhaving lessflattering thoughtsgiventhe rather ‘unconventional’ parts-combination!

Bedding BlockAs with Brian’s Model P based custom rifles,

All Barnard actions use bolts with three good-sized locking lugs

This version of the Bell & Carlsson stock is adjustable for ‘pull’ from 13.25-15”, as well as having an adjustable buttplate and cheekpiece

Target Shooter 67

the model ‘S’ action and B&C stock combination doesn’t require bedding.Barnard makes this smaller diameter version of its strong three-lug action with external dimensions identical to those of the ubiquitous Remy 700 short-actionas there are more inletted and speciality stocks and aftermarket trigger assemblies on the market for this design than all other makes put together. Splitting the barrelled action and stock revealed a Timney trigger (you have to supply your trigger for the ‘S’ unlike the ‘P’ which includes an excellent Barnard designed and made unit in the price). The only ‘bedding work’ was a small amount of machining of the integral bedding block to provide clearance for the trigger, otherwise it was bolt-on job.

Let’s look at the stock. This model, product code 2958-7, features a deep ‘wrist’, a narrow, deep section

incorporating the bedding block around the action broadening out to a wide forend incorporating an accessory rail. At the back, pull and cheekpiece height are adjustable, so everybody should get comfortable, and it can be set up for a variety of shooting tasks. What I didn’t spot was that it had started life in right-hand

The forend has a built-in bipod / accessory rail

The muzzle has a nicely recessed crown having tapered down to 0.91” diameter at this

point

The Hakko 8-34X56 Tactical scope offers a bright image and superb resolution, target turrets and side-knob focussing, and has been mounted using a well-made Warne rail and tactical mounts

68 Target Shooter

configuration and had been altered to suit theaction, the original bolt-handle slot filled andrefinished so well it didn’t show. The onlygiveaway to those who know their stocks was the usual rough-textured surfaces on the stock body had been removed to match the smooth filled-in area. It was also originally designed formagazine operation, but with the solid-bottom ‘S’ action installed had an empty space above the hingedmagazinefloorplate,lackingamagazinebox.

ThoroughbredThe action uses a three-lug bolt as with all Barnards and provided the slick-operation I expect from this company’s products. It might have the 700’s dimensions, but this is a far superior design. As well as three lugs and Barnard build quality so things that should bear on eachother do, and things that shouldn’t touch don’t, they’re built concentrically – no ‘truing-up’ needed here. The receiver is rigid with relatively thick walls, small loading / ejection port, and solidbottom. Look wise they’re functional rather than beautiful, but this can be improved by replacing the black anodised aluminium alloy ‘lollipop stick’ bolt

handle with aftermarket steel jobs with larger coloured knobs – a simple unscrew and replace swap-job.

There is another plus in choosing this action that I didn’t appreciate at the time, but do now that I have my own 6.5X47L rifle – a rebarrelled FN SpecialPolice Rifle with a version of the Winchester 70action. The Barnard, as with other thoroughbred competitionactions,hasasmalldiameterfiringpintipwhichisaclosefitintheboltface.Thisprovidessupport to the small-rifle primer used in 6.5X47L,6BR and other such small-cased high-performance cartridges. As pressures rise to the full working level, primers flatten normally and only ‘crater’ orworse when the load gets too ‘hot’. Conversely, factory actions (Savage 12 precision models excepted)havelargerdiameterfiringpinsandyoucanexpect to lose potential velocity through premature primerrelatedproblems.(Thisprimarilyafflictssmallprimer cartridge designs not those using the LR type.)

Anyway, stock alterations for the left-hand action aside, the rifle had been put together withless skilled work than your usual custom job – no threading, chambering, crowning, and headspacing

6.5X47mm Lapua cartridge (centre-left) alongside a .308Win for scale with 123gn and 139gn Lapua Scenars

Target Shooter 69

the barrel on the action, plus full bedding job to in-stalltheresultinthestock.Briandoesn’tbuildrifles,contracting this task out to a couple of gunsmiths, but it’s closer to an assembly than full ‘smithing operation for a big reduction in build time and costs.

PerformanceSo, to the range to see how it performed – the short answer is “very well indeed”. Despite the apparently mismatched ingredients, a well designed adjustable stock, slick action, crisp trigger, and excellent Hakko optics made it a pleasure to shoot and quickly produced goodresults on the paper. The latter was despite two barriers – the most unpleasant winter weather we’d had for years, and a barrel that needed a lot of running in (shoot one, clean etc) before it stopped coppering. Ammunition consisted of handloads using new Lapua brass, 123gn Lapua Scenar match bullets and modest Vihtavuori N540 and N150 charges from the Vihtavuori manual working up from starting loads. Despite the shoot / clean egime, the N540 combination soon produced a quarter-inch 100yd 5-shot group, and the wholeseries of N150 loads gave between 0.35” and just under the half-inch despite a three grain charge

range. I would have liked to try the rifle off abipod in a McQueens, or F-Class competition – the left-hand action would have been no barrier in the former, youquicklyadjust to it –but lyingouton Diggle Ranges in sleet or freezing rain, you had tobe joking! So,what does it cost?Thanksto the pound holding its value against the NZ dollar, and the large reduction in skilled work needed in the build, it’s very reasonable. As tested, theriflewouldcost£1,900withoutscopeandmounts(the Hakko 8-34X56 Tactical is priced at £375, and Warne Tactical rings at £70). If you wanted a Jewell match trigger instead of the Timney, add £100; if you don’t need the adjustable buttstock, knock£200off.I’llstressthatthisriflewasbuiltasa ‘demonstrator’ to show a section of the range of components on offer, not to offer single-shot 30” barrel left-hand ‘tactical’ combinations to the market!

For further information on Fox Firearms’ wide product range as well as custom-built rifles, visitwww.foxfirearmsuk.com,orcontactBrianon0161430 8278. Incidentally, Fox Firearms also supplies True-Flite barrels as blanks for those who want to have them chambered and threaded by their gunsmiths.

Fox / Barnard Model ‘P’/ True-Flite F-Class and below F/TR rifles using Robertson H&H stocks incorporating a bedding block

70 Target Shooter

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Target Shooter 71

In some of the Gallery Rifle disciplinessuch as the 1500, Timed & Precision 2 and PhoenixAmatchesyouarerequiredtoshootfrom both the kneeling and sitting positions, so here a few tips to help you achieve a stable platform from which to shoot. Probably the most common mistake made by novice GR shooters when shooting from the kneeling or sitting position is tilting or dropping the head down too low in relation to the scope, which will often result in a different point of impact on the target causing you to lose valuable points in the process! Whichever position you have to shoot from, the most important point to remember is to keep your head as upright as possibleandalignyourheadupsquarelywiththe scope so that you attain the same contact/reference point on the stock with your cheek as you do when shooting in the standing position. If this is done consistently then the point of impact on the target should remain the same regardless of which position you release the shots from.

Starting with the kneeling position (1) for a right

handed shooter, kneel down on your right knee and sit back on the heel to take the weight of your body. The left foot should be planted firmlyonthefloorandthelowerpartofthelegshould be kept upright at around 90 degrees. Placing the back of the arm just above the elbow on the front edge of the knee should thenprovideyouwithagoodflatcontactareato help hold the rifle in a good position. Theright elbow should be held in a relaxed position so that the muscles are not under any undue tension or this can lead to unwanted instability. Depending on your physical stature and the profileofyourstock,someshootersmayfindthat the rifleendsupbeingheld inapositionthat is too low to naturally acquire a properhead/sight alignment in the kneeling position. I have this problem with my Marlins and a simple fix is to add a small block of somedescription to the rear of the fore end which will helpelevatetheriflesothatthecorrecthead/sight position can be achieved. The fore end then simply rests in the palm of the left hand which applies just enough rearward pressure to hold the butt pad into the shoulder. When practicing shooting in the kneeling position, make sure that the position you adopt aligns your body up naturally onto the target without your having to twist or tension any muscles in order to hold it there. Also experiment by placing your right knee (2) at various angles in relation to your body tofindwhichgivesyou themoststableposition, as it will vary from person to person. Someofyoumayfindthekneelingpositionabit uncomfortable to start with so make sure that you only hold this position for a maximum of 20 – 30 seconds at a time when practicing before standing up to allow the blood to circulate properly again. This is also around the time it should take you to fire off 6well aimed shots when shooting during a

By Gwyn Roberts

72 Target Shooter

competition! Placing the foot too far in front of the knee (3) can cause you to push your body weight backwards causing instability and discomfort whilst conversely, having your foot tucked in under your knee (4) or putting all of the pressure onto the ball of the foot will push your weight forward causing a balance problem. This often

leadstoatendencytopullthefrontoftherifledownwards when releasing the shots. If you find it impossible toplaceyourelbow in frontof your knee cap then you should try and place the lower part of your fore arm just in front of the knee joint. Note: Placing the tip of your elbow directly on top of your knee will produce a pivot point making it virtually impossibleforyoutoholdtheriflesteadyandshould be avoided completely. Due to eitherphysical problems or injuries, there have been a few occassions over the years when some shooters have found it easier or slightly more comfortable to shoot with both knees on the ground (5) and sit back on their heels. This position is very similar to a normal offhand position as the body angle in relation to the target is pretty much the same and the knees are placed around shoulder width apart which allows the body and head to remain in an upright position. A good friend of mine and his better half use another kneeling position (6) when they shoot the 1500match. It requiresgood flexibility and the right physical size toadopt this position, and although the head to scope alignment isn’t perfect, it does produce some very good results for those that can achieve it! In this position, the left forearm should wrap around the top of the left knee thenkeepingtheleftlegupright,theriflesimplysits in the v shape created by the bend in the arm. The left hand gently rests on the right fore arm and the right elbow drops down naturally by the side of the body. The right foot is turned inwards and the shooter sits down on top of it,

Target Shooter 73

making sure that no other part of the body makescontactwiththefloorotherwisepenal-ty points will be incurred! This position is only recommendedforusewitharimfiresemiautorifleandisunsuitableforunderleverriflesdueto the racking action needed to operate them.The sitting position offers a wider variety of choice for the shooter and again your

physical size and flexability will usuallydetermine the most stable position that you can adopt, although some positions will only suit the semi auto type rifles. Once again,keeping the head in an upright position will help you retain a consistant point of impact on the target and another important point to note is that when your feet make contact with

74 Target Shooter

the ground they should do so with either the sidesorsolesofyourfeetflatontheground.Placing just the heels on the ground will obviously act as a pivot point and cause the ankles to rotate slightly causing positional instability. When shooting an underlever, I find that this position (7) allowsme to rackthe lever smoothly andquickly and still keepmy sight focussed on the centre of the target, whichevermagnificationIamusingatthetime.

The right leg is extended outwards over the top of the left foot to keep it grounded and help it act as a brace, and the right foot is turned over so that the flat edge provides a stablecontact area on the ground to stop the ankle from rollingaround.The left foot isplantedflaton

the ground and the left knee is raised so that the foreendof the riflecan reston topof it.The left hand is cupped with the lower two fingersgrippingthefrontoftheknee,whilsttheother two grip the fore end to make sure the rifleisheldfirmlyinplace.Leaningbackwardsslightly allows a good head/scope alignment and the right elbow drops down naturally under no tension by the side of the body. It is impor-tant when in the sitting position to make sure that as many limbs as possible are anchored

against another to ensure maximum stability is achieved. Another position to try is with the legs crossed over with the sides of the feet flat against thefloor.Then,liftingthekneesslightlytobringtherifleuptothecorrectheight,the elbows can rest either on the outside (8) or on the inside of the knees (9) so that everything locks up together. This will also produce a very stable hold to shoot an underlever from. The most accurate sitting position that I have managed to findwhen shooting with a semi auto rifle(10) is to lift my knees up higher so that I can wrap my left forearm arm aroundmyleftknee.Ithenresttheriflebetween the ‘v’ shape that is created and lightly rest my left hand on top of my right forearm. This ensures that everything is locked together and should

guarantee you all 10’s or X’s at 50m, with a bit of practice of course! Another variation (11) which also gives excellent results is similar to picture no.7 except shooting with a 10/22 allows you to brace your forearm against the right knee to give an even more stable platform.

Target Shooter 75

It isalwaysworthspendingquiteabitoftimepracticing all of the positions that we shoot from in Gallery Rifle competitions no mat-ter what standard you shoot at, as we can

all improve in certain areas. When I practice for the 1500 match I use 4 separate target centres at 50m and shoot 6 rounds kneeling on the top left, 6 sitting on the top right, 6 weak shoulder at the bottom left target, then thefinal6 fromthe strong shoulder on the bottom right target. This way there is no doubt about any shots you may think you have pulled from a certain position as the results will be there in front of you. It will also highlight any variations you may be having in points of impact on the target from certain positions. This way you can either work on achieving a better head/scope alignment in that position or visually see any corrections you may need to give if you end up having to aim off slightly in the future. In the next issue I’ll look at ways to speed up your loading and

reloadingtechniquealongwithhowandwheretoplace and carry ammunition for GR competitions.

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76 Target Shooter

Picking up a rifle, pointing it at your target andpulling the trigger doesn’t mean that’s it - job done - especially if you are hoping for a medal or at least a decent place.Youcanhavethebestrifle,ammunitionandequipmentbut unless you able to control certain things within you, all that stuff won’t be as effective as it could be.

BreathingOne of the hardest things to do behind a gun is controlling your breathing and I don’t think there is a right way for everyone but, relaxing your breathing is something that you have to practice and engage in so that each time you have it right.Firstly, you have to understand your breathing and learn how to slow it down so that you are in a relaxed state. If you sit in a chair or lie in bed, rest your hand on your chest and close your eyes, feel how your chest rises up and down as you inhale and exhale, just breath normally for a couple of minutes. Now take a deep breath then exhale through your mouth. From this point onwards inhale slowly and then exhale slowly through your nose just to the point that it’s comfortable. This can feel strange but if you are behind a rifle, the slower you inhale andexhale will give you better control behind the shot. The slower you can breathe the lower your pulse-rate. So when do you release the shot?Some will say on the exhale but many of us have a tendencytoholdourbreath.Youhavetorealisethatif you do this then your pulse rate will rise quicklyso, if you hold your breath, then don’t take it to the point where you go blue in the face as all your effort will have gone to waste. There is the point between inhale and exhale and this is the key point as you’re still able to control the breathing for the next shot. Practising how you breathe is an essential thing to learn to control when you’re behind the gun so take time to practice - even as you fall asleep or even watching TV. Then, take it to the range and practice behind gun. Without control there is no control.

Match NervesHaving the jitters before a big match afflictsmost of us – especially newcomers. How many

times have you thought “I know I am going to get beaten - I don’t think I’m good enough - there are better shooters here than me - I’m rubbish”. Negative thoughts are not the best foundation for a good performance. You could read books on how to think andbehave in a positive manner and how to take control but why waste your money when all you need to do is think aboutYOU.It’snotaboutwhoisaroundyouorwhatscores you have seen posted before you are about to shoot, it’s what’s in your head that you need to think about.You have a rifle like everyone else, you have thesame ammunition as everyone else and you have the same conditions as everyone else. In other words, you have the same opportunity to equalanyone’s performance. Youareonanequalfootingbuttogetabetterscore,forget everyone else and shoot against yourself - just like you would when shooting alone. Set your sights on beatingyourpersonalbest.Youknowyoucanhitthecentre of the target - you have done many times before sowhynotnow?Focusonhowyouachievedthatthelast time you did it. If you get a bad shot, then think how you corrected that the last time it happened. One bad shot doesn’t mean that is the end, I have seen many great shooters loose it when they have a bad shot and almost throw the toys out of the pram. Keep your cool, that shot has gone, you can’t bring it back or take it again so don’t dwell on it, put it behind you and focus on the next shot. Pause if you need to, concentrate on controlling that breathing again then apply yourself to the job in hand. When it’s over, it’s over. If you have beaten your competitors you have done your job. If you have achieved a personal best, then be proud of that fact – win or lose. Most of all, you should be satisfied by the way you handled yourself andhappy that you have given your best no matter what positionyoufinish.Ifyouhavegotthatmedal,itprovesthat you kept your nerve whilst others fell foul of theirs.All good shooters have a ways of working with their body and mind and you just have to find theelements that suit your type of shooting and apply them. You are no different than any other shooteron the line and once you have that mindset, then you could be the ‘best of the best’ as long as you shoot against yourself and not the whole world!

Training Body and Mind.

By Andy Dubreuil

Target Shooter 77

Diggle is a former military range, established in 1897 and passing into civilian hands in the nineteen-seventies and now owned and managed by the Pennine Shooting Sports Association.

The PSSA caters for just about every shooting discipline including F Class, Target Rifle,Benchrest, Practical, Tactical, Lever-action, ClassicMilitaryRifleandQuigleyBPCR.Clubcompetitions are held every weekend and in addition, the PSSA hosts around 30 national shoots throughout the year which are open to non-members. Visitors fulfilling legalequirements are alsowelcome to shoot on aday basis for a nominal fee.

Shooting is available at all ranges from 100 to 1000 yards with 100, 300, 600 and 1000 yard firing-pointsunder cover and the rangesare open seven days per week throughout the year. The Club boasts a splendid Range House with catering facilities and limited ‘bunkhouse’ accommodation is available. Plentiful, safe on-site parking and disabled access make Diggleoneofthefinestshootingvenuesinthecountry.A number of commercial organisations, police etc. already hire the ranges and the club is keentoexpandthisoption.Enquiriesinthefirstinstance to vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk

Enquiries from individualsseeking membership are welcome and can also be directed to this e-mail address.

I am indeed fortunate to live close to such a fabulous facility but distance is seemingly no object and members travel from all parts of the country to take part in our shoots. If you are seeking to take part in competition shooting you will receive a warm welcome at Diggle Ranges. www.diggleranges.com

Above - Pennine cup shot at Diggle 2009

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78 Target Shooter

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Target Shooter 79

Malta, for some is an unknown country. For many others, Malta is a holiday island resort in center of the Mediterranean sea. Malta has a vast rich history, a typical Mediterranean culture and exquisite traditional cuisine. Malta’s culture andtraditions blend in with European and North African influences. This is the result of pastdominance of the by earlier civilizations and empires, from the early Phoenicians to the British Empire.

Unusual for such a small island, is the concentration of historic sites. The megalithic temples, the jewel fortified city of Vallettabuilt by the Knights of St.John, to other more recent strongholds such as Rinella Battery Fort, housing one of the largest naval guns ever employed by the British Empire, the 100 ton Armstrong Gun. All monuments that stood against time, sieges and wars in Malta’s turbulent past. For many years the shotgun was part of the

Maltese culture. Hunting formed part of the every day farmer’s life and was the pastime for the rich. The British gave Malta it’s independence in 1969 and Malta was gradually moving towards being governed totally by Maltese. In 1974 Malta became a Republic and the British Forces completely left the island in 1979. The only p o s s i b l e shooting sport was shotgun clay pigeons or hunting but, as time passed, Malta evolved and so did the s h o o t i n g t r a d i t i o n s .

It is only 100 years ago that shooting as a sport started to appear and

gain popularity. The oldest shooting sport organization, the Malta Shooting Sport Federation (MSSF) was the firstorganisation that evolved in Malta dat-ing back to 1908. In those early days, shooters from all over the country would meet at organised shoots and shoot on a variety of targets.

Eventually, clay pigeons became the only targets allowed in sport shooting, thus it was necessary to have

MALTA – Sun, Sea, History and more …..

By Stanley Shaw

IPSC pistol shooting is popular in Malta

80 Target Shooter

a more suitable location to allow for adequatepractice of Olympic Trap. Mr. Paddy Stubbs, with determinationandfinancialassistanceoftheMSSFmembers, inaugurated a new Olympic Range in Bidnija, limits of Mosta in 1977.The sport evolved to the extent that today Malta has no less than six Olympic Trap ranges, including one in Gozo.

MSSF is today affiliated as a full activemember of the UIT which later became to be known as the International Shooting Sport Federation or ISSF. This earned the Maltese athletes the right to participate in shootingcompetitions overseas besides giving Malta the right to organise international shoots. Today enthusiast shooters and athletes in Olympic disciplines of Trap, Skeet, Double Trap and 10 metre air rifles, together with the popularcompact sporting and down the line, occupy practically every weekend. MSSF gave an active contribution to the new Arms Act 2005, and now is looking into the possibility of expanding further to provide for other shooting disciplines.

Bone fide Maltese arms collectors and sportsshooters had for many years yearned for official recognition of their activities. Thesewere heavily suppressed by the authorities on account of the wide discretion granted to them by the colonial Arms Ordinance of 1931. In 1985 a

small group of dedicated enthusiasts set up the Arms, Armour and Militaria Society (AAMS).

This organisation immediately set to work on a gradual culture change. It organized the firstexhibition of collectible arms the year after and in 1989 it obtained a Police permit to organize the firstmuzzle-loadingtargetshootingeventinMalta.Intensive lobbying led the AAMS to be commissioned to submit a draft bill for cabinet consideration. Towards end of 1995, policy changes were announced for the firsttime, Air guns and replica muzzle-loaders were allowed in Malta while collectors could now acquire firearms that were 50 years or older.

It took several years more to convince the authorities to proceed with the introduction of an entirely new law based on the EU Arms Directive. By this time AAMS evolved into an association of six clubs while a splinter group set up the Association of Arms Collectors and Target Shooters (AACTS). AACTS was founded in April 2002. The situation of gun collecting and target shooting in Malta was at the time undergoing major changes. AMACS campaigned for the introduction of all forms of target shooting disciplines and no limitation on calibers.

AACTS and the MSSF adopted a cautious approach in the hope that limited gains could be

Sun, sea and pistol shooting..... those were the days!

Target Shooter 81

enhanced at a later date. However determination won the day as the Arms Ordinance was repealed and the Arms Act came into force on 15th August 2005 with the publication of Legal Notice (LN177) following an earlier unanimous parliamentary vote.

One development followed another. The major associations exploited the possibilities of the new law. They affiliated themselves with importantinternational shooting organisations that do not necessarily fall under the ISSF umbrella,

organizations such as IPSC, IDPA, IMSSU, NARA, WBSF, and many others, thus ensuring that future shooting events are held on internationally-recognized standards. In 2008 the first independent clubs were licensedfor the first time ever. These are dedicated toand focus on particular shooting disciplines .

The fist license issued was to the Malta AlliedAirgunners Club (MAAC). MAAC which is entirely dedicated to air gun shooting disciplines that are not under the ISSF banner. MAAC main interests areFieldTarget,HunterFieldTargetandAirRifleBench rest. Later in 2009 a license was given to the Gozo Target Shooting Club (GTSC) a club with specialinteresttocartridgefirearmtargetshooting.

For the time being there are two army shootingrangesavailableforcivilianfirearmstargetshooting, both are designed for pistol/carbine shooting. The major associations are given time slots to operate, however this limits sporting activities such as IDPA, IPSC, Bench Rest and others from starting at full swing due to army strict standing orders. On these ranges, pistols and carbines with calibers up to 9mm are allowed but 45 is only allowed in the Gozo Army range. Higher caliber pistols, center rifles and rim firerifles, although are available to sportshooters, are still not allowed on the army

FT and HFT is a popular form of shooting in Malta

82 Target Shooter

ranges. Private ranges therefore are a must for shooting sport in Malta to develop and grow.

Fortunately some of these ranges are being given the ‘green light’ after a long and bumpy road. Hopefully, in a short time they will obtain the licenses to operate. The government is also promising a National Shooting range of the highest standards for many years - a range able to accommodate both national and international competitions, in all types of shooting disciplines.

In the mean time, what is available is being fully utilized. Those organisations dedicated to cartridge shooting, utilize the slots provided by the army in their ranges in Hal-Safi (Malta)and Qortin (Gozo). Olympic skeet and trap is operated in a number of licensed ranges exist around the island. MSSF, who are responsible for ISSF Olympics disciplines in skeet, trap and

indoorairrifleaccommodatesitsmembersattheirranges in Bidnija.

MSSF shooter athletes are now reaching higher places in international events. William Chetcuti in the China 2008 Olympic games, reached the highest place ever – eighth - obtained by a Maltese athlete in Double trap. Outdoor air rifle Clubs such as MAAC, who are speciallydedicated to air rifle shooting sports like FieldTarget, Hunting Field Target and Air RifleBenchrest, shoot in dedicated areas within privately licensed clay pigeon shooting ranges. Air soft shooting sport is also gaining popularity and special permits are released by the Police that allow licensed air soft clubs and enthusiasts to organize skirmish games in controlled areas.

Malta’s main industry is tourism. Shooting sports tourism development will be an added feature to Malta’s sun, sea, history and culture. Malta would be a perfect venue, for international target shooting sports. The opportunities are there but we need to exploit them and the authorities must act before it is too late. All the local target shooting organisations must work together and look ahead. Having the adequate infrastructure will makeit possible for all types of target shooting sports to be held. Maltese target shooters will benefit,as will the Maltese economy. Malta, in the near future, may offer venues for international events, an added bonus to the target sport shooters looking for an activity holiday.

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84 Target Shooter

CompetititonsWith our earlier than usual deadline for the September issue, it was too late to include the results of our 22/23rd August benchrest weekend. It turned out to be a very good weekend for me personally as I took wins at 100 and1000yards–myfirstoftheyear-betterlatethan never!

The weather for the whole weekend was warm and sunny but the Diggle winds are never easy and Sunday was particularly testing for the 1000 yard shooters. Nonetheless, Les Holgate put in a very tidy four-incher, which was easily the smallest group of the day.At 100 yards, Laurie Holland returned to form with the 204 Savage taking Factory Sporter win and small group and Phil Gibbon put his factory Savage 6.5-284 to good use at 1000 yards though Ian Kellet stole the small-group award with his 8.5 inch group in Match 3.

Results: 100 yards Heavy Varmint

1st Vince Bottomley TGP 6PPC BAT 0.2302 inches(av.offive,5-shotgroups)2nd Ian Dixon Walker 6PPC BAT 0.2816

3rd Bruce Lenton 6PPC Stolle 0.286Small group Vince Bottomley 0.126 inches

Factory Sporter

1st Laurie Holland 204 Savage LRVP 0.4304 inch2nd Darrel Evans 6PPC Sako 0.52043rd Andy Woolley 223 Remington 0.6006

Small group Laurie Holland 0.283 inches

1000 yards Light Gun

1st Vince Bottomley TGP 243 Imp. BAT 9.927 inch (av. of four, 5-shot groups)2nd Steve Dunn 7mm Dunn BAT 10.1683rd Don Burrows 6.5x55 BSA 10.362

Small group Les Holgate 4.737 inches

Factory Sporter

1st Phil Gibbon 6.5-284 Savage 13.62 inches2nd Ian Kellett 6.5-284 Savage 15.2323rd Bruce Lenton 6.5-284 Savage 15.355

Small group Ian Kellett 8.588 inches

Forthcoming eventsNext benchrest weekend (and the last of the series) is 3/4th October at Diggle Ranges. Our winter 600 yard series starts on Sunday 15th November. E-mail me at vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk for more information.

VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN WHEREBY ACCURACY NUTS CAN KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA

Adrian Evans shoots a standard 308 Remmy but he’s had single-figure groups at 1000 yards

Target Shooter 85

In association with

European Championship and World Cup 2009News just in over the last few days is that the dates for the European Rimfire and Air Rifle BenchrestChampionship are now in. As this is being held at the Plzen range in the Czech Republic, a time frame had to be established with the military authorities. This is between the 26th July and the 8th August 2010. Obviously the Championship itself will only take about 6 days, with room for alternative shooting during that period.A world cup event will also be held during this championship, as a few countries outside Europe will be attending, including South Africa. Two for the price of one which cannot be bad!This is good news and I know that Ladislav Ninger, the Secretary of the ERABSF is excited to get this event going. In his own words though, ‘now the real hard work begins’.ThoseintheUKthathavequalifiedforthematchesat this event, via the recent UK nationals, regional matches, etc, have been informed and we have started to draw up the teams.Plzen is about 80km outside Prague and we are looking at ways of getting the whole team there. Obviouslyfightsarethefirstpointofcall,butinclude

their own brand of complication. An alternative we are muting is travelling in a team coach. We are not sure how this much cost – there might even be a shooter out there that owns a company thatcouldgiveusagoodquote.Iknow that those organising the team will keep us all informed over the coming months.Prague is a beautiful city and this time I hope to at least see some of it instead of shooting every day. We will see, as it would be nice to have a day off during this event.

Bald Eagle RestsI have just heard that Bald Eagle, the US company who makes rest has been taken over by Woodstock International. The company hopes to be trading these rests, both new and old

designs, in the next few months. The original Bald Eagle rest is very similar to the standard version offered by Cicognani in Italy. I personally find thisstyle of rest comfortable and easy to use, although I havemodifiedthemariner’swheelsoitisquickertouse. So let’s see what they come up with – hopefully it will be as good as the original or even better. Contact Bald Eagle at; http://www.woodstockint.com/brands/bald_eagle.aspx

Final thoughtsThe summer season is nearly over! This is a time thatIusuallyhaveaboutsixweeksofftoreflectandplan for the next year. One thing I have done in the pastisdevelopsomeoftheequipmentIneed,suchaswindflags.Theselittledevicesreallydohelpyourbenchrest shooting and it is something that I would recommend anyone doing over the coming months. I have written a few articles over the last few years about how to develop your own – some complex and others not. If anyone wants a revamp of these pieces, just let me know. They cost little to make, only your time.Until next month.

he next European Championship will be held at Plzen in the Czech Republic, 2010.The 50m range here is one 5 lane section

of the 30 lane stand.

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GB F Class Championship – Round 4 – Diggle Ranges 19/20th September

This year, there are only five rounds in theGB F Class Association Championship rather than the usual six. Blair Atholl is missing as a venue this year and Bisley had an extra shoot, the intention being to give as much practice as possible to those UK shooters hoping to contest the World Championships last July.

This strategy clearly paid off and the GB Open Team won the gold medal and the GB F/TR Team took the silver. A lot of shooters put in much time, effort and money and many were rightly feeling ‘shot-out’ after the ‘worlds’ and looking forward to a break before the Europeans at the beginning of November. Unfortunately, we already had a September League Shoot scheduled at Diggle but would theentrysuffer?

Seemingly not, there was still a healthy interest with numbers only slightly down on the previous year, which was nice as both our new Individual World F Class Champions – Gary Costello (Open) and Russell Simmonds (F/TR) - had entered the Diggle shoot. Not many sports can claim that!

There was also something else new with the Diggle shoot – for the first time, the F/TRentry was greater than the Open entry. Not by much but it conformed the continuing trend of growing interest in F/TR. Also, it would be the firsttimethatwewouldnotbeusingcompetitor-marking of targets at Diggle - we would have paid markers. On every other F Class shoot, this is

the ‘norm’ so we thought we would try it. It worked well so we hope to carry on with it in the future.

Friday afternoon was set side as an informal practice day and as per usual several competitors took the opportunity to get a few shots down range to check their scope settings. The weather forecast was good for the entire weekend, once again bucking Diggle’s reputation for poor weather. For the record, the last three Diggle League Shoots have taken place in warm sunny conditions. Those of us who shoot there regularly know that whatever the forecast you go to Diggle with waterproofs but maybe now we should also pack the sun cream!

Saturday’s shoot started with 2 sighters and 15 to count at 800 yards, followed by the same at 1000 yards. Although the change in the marking system certainly speeded things up, we didn’t want to change the format at the last minute so competitors had plenty of time to do what they do best – sitting around in the sun talking about – you guessed – guns! Next time, it would certainly be possible to increase the round count.

The additional spare time factor is always handy to have and in this case it saved the day for one local shooter who had to go home to get the right bolt for his riflebut, by the time you read this he may have edited it out! OK, I admit it – it was me! (Vince).

At the end of day one it looked like this, with both our World Champions in the lead:

Open 1st Gary Costello 146.13 F/TR

The Long View News from the GB F-Class Association

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1st Russell Simmonds 140.72nd Mark Daish 145.15 2nd Adam Bagnall 137.53rd Peter Hobson 144.9 3rd Steve Rigby 136.6

The social side of the GB F Class shoots is an important feature and a group of us ventured out for the now obligatory ‘Indian’ whilst the more sensible settled for an early night in readiness for an 8.30am start!

Sunday’s shoots would be 2 & 15 at 900 yards followed by a 2 & 10 at 1000 yards. The shortened round-count allows those with a long way to travel to get home at a reasonable hour but on reflection, with nobutt-duty, we could easily have shot 2 & 15.

The weather was fairly similar to the previous day with a light wind – particularly on the early details and John Cross’s F/TR score of 73.8v was not only the best 900 yard F/TR score but it also beat the top Open score as well! Soon however, the flags were stirring and often telling us verylittle, such is the difficulty of shooting inDiggle’s steep-sided valley. The superb weather continued however and it was impossible not toenjoyshooting long-range rifle in suchconditions.

But, would the World Champions maintain their form?Here’showitallfinished:

Open Class 1st Mark Daish 259.22 (ex. 275)2nd John Campbell 258.173rd Peter Hobson 258.134th Gary Costello 256.175th Grant Taylor 256.15

F/TR 1st Russell Simmonds 248.142nd Steve Rigby 247.133rd Adam Bagnall 244.114th Steve Donaldson 244.135th Paul Dobson 241.5

For the record, Russell Simmonds’ F/TR score would have given him seventh place in the Open Class – a remarkable achievement.

As with all the GB League shoots, a lot of the work is done behind the scenes so we must thank Ian Dixon (targets), Stuart Anselm (stats), Jeanette Whitney (RCO) and of course our butt crew made up of Diggle members.

Now, we go to Bisley for the European F Class Championship, which is also the final League shoot of the 2009 season. Thiscompetition lways attracts a large entry from all over urope and with it a fabulous atmosphere. If you would like to enter, please check out the GBFCA website for details www.f-class.org.uk

If you shoot F Class or would like to try it but haven’t yet shot in a League match, please don’t be discouraged by the level of competition.Justbringalongyourscopedrifleand join in - everyone has to start somewhere.

Next year, there may be an F Class training day at Bisley and Diggle to introduce newcomers to the delights of long-range competition. Watch Target Shooter and the GBFCA website for more information.

88 Target Shooter

A regular column whereby Ken Hall keeps us up to date withblackpowdercartridgerifleshootingintheUK.

E QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION.TEAM STEEL CHALLENGE.

Sunday 19th July, and once again, wet and miserable, with a challenging wind. An early mist delayed the start and so a decision was made to shortentheusualcourseoffirebyreducingthenumber of rounds on the bullseye stage at each distance. So eventually we started stage 1 at 400 yds, the bullseye stage consisted of 2 sighters and 5 rds to count, which was followedbyafirerfromeachteamengaging5steel javelina silhouettes with a maximum of 10 rounds in a 5 minute period, scoring 10 points per steel knocked down with a 2 point bonus per round remaining.

Interestingly the team scores on the bullseye targets were very close with the QSA

scoring 136.7 to the SSBPCRCGB’s 134.13. The steel silhouettes however were a different story………the SSBPCRCGB

knocked down 26 pigs with a 28 point bonus to the QSA’s 20 pigs and 16 point bonus, with Mark Stevens and Ian Hull scoring maximum points for each team. So at the halfway stage we adjourned for lunch with the SSBPCRCGB leading by a magnificent70.9points. After lunch we gathered in the 600 yd covered firing point for Stage 2 of thecompetition, a reprise of the bullseye stage followed by 3 firers from each teamshooting successively at the half size steel buffalo silhouette for a total of 10 rounds each. This always provides a nail-biting finish to the comp, though the half time

The QSA team

600 yrd Lineup

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lead by the SSBPCRCGB was virtually unassailable.

The afternoon belonged to the Southerners, scoring 121.3 on the bullseye to the QSA’s 108, and also hitting the buffalo one more time than their opponents. The name of the competition reflectswherethescoreslie,theSSBPCRCGBhit 7 more steels than the QSA allowing them to

retainthetrophyforanotheryear.Afittingendtoa great match.

A hearty thank-you is offered to PSSA members Steve Hodge, Dave Tickle, Dave Bownass, Dave Malpas, Mike Davenport, Tony Bradshaw and Glen Wilson for their invaluable assistance in running the range.

SER NAME 400yd 400yd 600yd 600yd TOTAL POS`NBullseye Pigs Bullseye Buffalo

SSBPCRCGB

1

2

3

4

5

6GRANDTOTAL

QSA

7

8

9

10

11

12GRANDTOTAL

12th

980.9

J. Barnard 22 10 17 60 109

5th

E. Todd 20 30 18 100 168 8th

D. Richardson 23.1 50 19 100 192.1

11th

R. Healey 24.1 56 16 100 196.1 4th

D. Coleman 22.1 10 16 70 118.1

I. Hull 25.4 60 22.2 90 197.6 3rd

1073.17

2nd

C. Buck 23.3 58 21.1 100 202.4 1st

C. Taylor 23.2 54 21 100 198.2

7th

A. Buck 23.2 20 15 80 138.2 10th

M. Silver 23.2 60 22.2 80 185.4

9th

S. Bonfield 23.3 56 22.1 90 191.4 6th

J. Gilpin 19.1 40 20 80 159.1

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OCTOBER 2009 Its all hotting up nicely for the 2009 UKAHFT series with the 8th of nine rounds shot last weekend( The 27th Oct) Pete Sparkes had a chance of wrapping the whole thing up. He did not expect to shoot well as he had all the work to do setting up the course for the round at his home club of Quarry. I know from past experience it is very rare indeed to shoot well on your own course, especially with all the running around organising the event etc. Pete and Dave Ramshead were shooting in the first session,Petestormed in with a 58 after slipping up the peg on a 35 yarder. Dave shot well for a 57, these were good scores and Pete’s and Kieran Turners 58’s were the top scores going into the second session. Normally the top shots all shoot in the same session but a top runner Ross Hudson who with a 100% in round seven and round two shot in the second session to come I with a 59. This gave him 100% and opened up the series again. Ross andDaveneeda100%inthefinalroundat Emley Moor FTC to threaten Pete for the title. So the pressure is on them if they do not get 100% then Pete has his forth series win. Pete Dutton with a good score can come in 3rd. The Current 6th place man, the 2008 champ Chris Cundey couldhaveaninfluenceasheishavingahand insetting thefinal roundcourseout, expect a few tricky targets everyone!The .22 class is wrapped up with Johnny Smith having scored 100%

in the first seven rounds to score anunbeatable 600% for his top six scores, well done Mr Smith. The two junior titles have been well attended and seen some fantastic shooting. Ben Russell has four 100% scores and is untouchable for the 14-16 year olds title, the next three places are up for grabs as Daniel Smith, Kyle Hampton and Ryan Martinscrapfortheplaceswithonlyfivepercent between the three of them. In the 9-13 year olds Jack Houghton has a four percent lead over Larissa Sykes with Luke Saunders nine behind Jack. Best of Luck to all the young shooters for the last round, if only their shooting enjoyment and the safe way they conduct themselves were recognised by the wider press. The MAD White team have run away withthetitlewinningthefirst7rounds,Iwould say well done but I do not need to, they tell everyone they see just how good they are! ( But they did not win at Quarry) Their second string MAD red team are third behind Anston. Past winners Quarry languish at the bottom of the team table.Lloyd Scott Upton will take the recoiling title with a 20% point lead over Paul Bretland. The top six English shooters in the 2009 UKAHFT series will form the England team for the 2010 World Championships, so Pete Dutton is assured of an England team place.

Hunter Field Target News

Target Shooter 91

The results for the GR National Championships have been out for some time now so I won’t go over them here except to congratulate Keith Cox on his usual consistent performance which gave him top place in the GR Aggregate. There should be a report in this issue too. It was a record turn out with over 200 competitors who entered a record number of events.

The premier event of the national competition season, the GR Home Countries National Match, took place on the Saturday afternoon on Melville. England won with Wales second and Scotland third. There was a small reception and prize giving at the English Twenty clubhouse immediately after the match to which all the teams and range officers were invited. A special mention here for those who worked so hard behind the scenes to make the evening a success – the two Sues from the England Team supporters club and the two Sallys from NRA Shooting Division.

It’s good to see that this year entries are up all round in spite of the financial pressures and that new competitors are coming along to join in. Next time you go to an open meeting why not take along someone new from your club? It only takes one positive experience and, with any luck, they’ll be hooked and join next year’s competition circuit. You’ll even get a voucher for a free shoot at the NSC if they compete at Bisley and aren’t on the national database yet.

Last month I gave a run-down on the three meetings coming up this month at Shield Shooting Centre in Dorset and the National Shooting Centre at Bisley. All well worth the trip but very different in what they have to offer. Still plenty of time to get your entries in and you can enter on the day too if you have a free day or two at short notice.

Next month there doesn’t seem to be anything in the UK but there is an international in Germany. The GB Gallery Rifle Team are going for a hat trick of wins this season so good luck to Sharon and the boys. There will also be other matches over the weekend for club and national teams.

COMPETITION CALENDAR

October 18 Shield Steel Challenge Shield Shooting Centre Dorset GRSB, GRCF, LBP & LBR

October 17 – 18 The Trafalgar Meeting National Shooting Centre Bisley

October 24 – 25 Autumn Action Weekend National Shooting Centre Bisley GR&P, Shotgun & Full Bore Rifle

November 14-15 International 1500 and Short Events BDMP Range, Leitmar Germany GRSB, GRCF & 30M1 carbine

(Either contact the organisers direct or go to www.galleryrifle.com for entry forms.)

GR&P = Gallery Rifle Centre Fire (GRCF), Gallery Rifle Small Bore (GRSB), Long Barrelled Pistol (LBP) and Long Barrelled Revolver (LBR)

Please go to the Gallery Rifle website www.gal-leryrifle.com for more news and information.

GalleryRifleNews

92 Target Shooter

Kracow Open Practical Handgun MatchBy A. EllisEight UK shooters attended The Krakow Open IPSC Level 3 handgun match, in Krakow Poland on 28th,29th & 30th Aug 2009. Five were from N Ireland and three from the mainland. Five entered Standard division, with two in Production & one in Open. Thematchconsistedoffifteenstagesshotover twodays with a minimum round count of just under 300. The match was organised to the usual high standard, very efficient and hard working RangeOfficers andofficials.Saturday morning started out overcast and soon deteriorated to a steady drizzle which lasted till well after lunch. This suited the UK squad because itmade us feel at home. However, Sunday improved immensely, blue sky’s right from breakfast but not too warm, unfortunately still quitemuddy underfoot.This nothing but a minor distraction, since the shooters were all too busy figuring out strategiesand making sure their magazines were full and trying to get at least two hits on every paper target. All to soon the last stage was completed, gear cleaned and packed away, nothing to do but while away the time till the prize draw and awards ceremony. So we sat around and told again the stories we had told before while our hosts set out the prize table. There was a wide variety of prizes, from a cheap cleaning kit to a microwave oven, First prize was a CZ pistol of some description. Quite a bit of the proceedings was conducted in Polish so that’s why some details are a bit sketchy. Then came the results (in English). Two of the UK shooters were placed, perhaps more due to their advancing years than hours of practice. Alexander

Ellis and Thomas McConnell took first and third in Senior Production.Thanks go to the Match Director: Piotr Poniedziałek, Range Master:Roman Šedy and everyone who helped to make the match happen. The UK contingent will return with more shooters in tow to take part in this most welcoming of competitions.

Bedford LBR Match Postponment.Due to urgent repairs to the backstop the match planned for 10th October has had o be postponed. It will now take place in January. The British Open LBR Championship match is still on course to take place at Leicester Shooting Centre on 13th December.

Last PSG 2009 Championship Round.Get your entries in for the last of this year’s shotgun Championships. To be held at Harlow on 23rd & 24th October. 9 challenging stages are planned. Results will help to determine the 2009 Champions in all shooting Divisions.

ESC 2009 Short Article: By Tony Saunders

With the holiday season coming to a close, the crowds in the departure lounge at Prague airport had thankfully diminished as the tired, but jubilant, British competitors arrived en-masse in the heady aftermath of the Level IV European Shotgun Championships 2009 (ESC 09). Over thirty British shooters had attended the weeklong Practical Shotgun (PSG) event in Pisek/Tabor and the ranges at Oparany, seventy miles South of the capital Prague in the Czech Republic. Almost 300 shooters from 24 IPSC regions met to shoot the fourth ESC, previously held in Greece, Italy and the UK.

VanessaDuffy,retiredMetropolitanPoliceofficerandchairman of the UKPSA, had particular reason to be pleased as she checked her Winchester SX3 through airport security. An early adopter of Winchester’s latest gas-operated semi-auto shotgun, she had experienced a few teething issues with the light and stylish 12 gauge and very nearly gave up on it. “I was close to going back to my trusty Browning Hunter Gold earlier this year” she explained. “Thankfully, Pete Starley persuaded me to keep it and he made some small changes to the gun to ensure it functioned smoothly. I also switched to using Magtech buckshot along with my Lyevale Express birdshot and Sellier & Bellot slug.”

Malcolm Clark shooting at the Kracow Open Championships. Photo by Alexsandra Procajlo

Target Shooter 93

Itwasquiteobviouslyawinningcombination.Attheclosing and awards ceremony held in the historic House ofCulturebuildingon thebanksof the tranquil riverOtava in Pisek the previous evening, Vanessa climbed the stage and accepted the gold medal proclaiming her as 2009 European Ladies Champion to the cheers of the four hundred strong crowd of shooters, organizers and civic dignitaries. Vanessa though is no stranger tothis,havingwontheLadiesModifieddivisiontitleinboth 2003 at Terni in Italy and again in 2006 at Kavala in Greece where she won Ladies Standard Auto Division.

The Ladies UK team, managed by Andy Duffy and comprising Vanessa, Sharon Sell, Caroline Norman and Josie Adam also took gold medal for the Ladies team position, beating the team from Finland into an easy first place. “Unlike theprevious ESC competitions, it was good to actually have another Ladies team to shoot against.” Vanessa said. “Although there were other female shooters, most were either shooting individually or as part of other teams, such as the team from Thailand”.

A little about team entrants. Each team comprises four members with a minimum of three team members scores needed to qualify.This allowsa little latitudeshouldacompetitorbedisqualifiedforanyreasonandit also allows the best three individual team scores to be put forward at the end of the match. These three highest scores in the team contribute to the overall team score.

Individual scores, whether the shooter is part of a team or not, are calculated in each division (Open, Modified, Standard,Standard Manual, Junior and Ladies) to determine the top three medal places

for overall highest score.

Josie Adam finished 4th overallthanks to a costly gun jam on Stage 8. Sharon finished in 5th place and CarolineNorman, shooting her first Level IV competitionwith her own Winchester SX3, came in a very commendable 10th place.

The UK fielded team entrants in Modified,Standard and Standard Manual this year as well astheLadies.TheModifiedteamcamein5thplace,with the Italians, Russians and Finns taking the top three places. Standard was dominated by theFinnsinfirstplacefollowedbytheSlovenianteam and the Russians in third place. UK made 7th place. In Standard Manual (Pump), the UK team made 5th place with the Italians, Germans

and Slovenians making the top three places.

Our very own Barry Sullivan took the Bronze medal and trophy as Senior Standard Auto. Barry (Bazza), a strong and competent shooter on the British Level III circuit,hadamixedfirstdaybeforesettlingintohisstridein the latter two days of the competition and shooting a strong consistent match to win the deserved third place.

Jim Starley was the highest placed junior in Standard Auto with Mike Scarlett winning top Super Senior and Warwickshire RFD Pete Starley winning highest SeniorinModifiedDivision.Noawardweremadefortheseplacesunfortunately,duetoinsufficiententries.”

Vanessa was particularly please with the levels of professionalism and commitment from the Czech hosts: “It was excellent to see so many shooters from so many countries coming together to compete in a match of this size and stature. The bar is constantly being raised and the shooting was of the highest calibre I have seen at a PSG match. I’d like to thank the organizers, range and build crews as well as our own Barry Pollard and Neil Beverley for putting their personal time and hard work into what I felt was the best European competition so far.” A full report next month

Caroline Norman

Vanessa Duffy in the final stages

94 Target Shooter

LettersI wanted to drop you a note to let you know that I think your magazine is about the bestshooting sports magazine I have seen, in both our countries (I am in the USA).

The content and layout are fabulous. And I thank you very much for making your magazineavailable to me. ( I had no idea that shooting was that prevalent in the UK....and I amglad to learn that it is.)

I will be looking forward to getting each issue.

Thank-you

Robin T. Leeman USA

Sirs,

Have just downloaded the June issue of Target Shooter and wanted to congratulate you on a superb magazine and a wonderfully innovative online format. Despite myself I almost prefer this to the paper magazine I used to love. And the reference articles will take up far less room to store!Many thanks indeed for keeping this going. And yes, I would be prepared to pay a subscription for thiskindofquality.Pleasepass on my best wishes to the editorial team.Regards,

Simon Barnett

In reply to Patricks letter last month;PatrickInresponsetorequestforhelptosolveyourextraction problems with you No.5 Jungle Carbine that has been converted to .308. This might be caused by a number of problems:1. Have you replaced the .303 extractor on the bolt with the correct 7.62mm extractor which has a deeper claw (they are usually markedwiththeEnfieldmarkD65)?2.AreyouusingthemoresquareshapedEnfield 7.62mm magazine which has ahardened steel plate on the rear left hand lip of the magazine which helps to eject the case? The Sterlingmagazine which formed part of the conversion kit to convert .303’s to 7.62mm does not have this lip on the magazine and relies on a relocated ejector positioned through the receiver wall (which requiresmachining).3. If you are using the correct Enfieldmagazine then the different position of the magazine lips require machining of theunderneath of the magazine well area of the receiver. This allows the magazine to sit higher up so that the bolt can pick up the edge of a rimless .308 compared to the rim of a .303 cartridge. I hope this helps but if not send me your email via the publishers and I can send you some pictures that will help further explain matters. I also have some of the deeper extractors if you need one.All the bestNigel Greenaway

If you have an issue, questionor comment then please send letters via customer support on the website.

Target Shooter 95

NewsOur Thanks for the feedback you have provided to us. The last 6 months have been a bit of a rollacoaster, but it has been fun. Our readers, approximately 10,000 to 11,000 on average per month have been great. Hopefully the next 6 months will get even better. Our thanks.

customer.services@targetshooter.co.ukHappy reading and we hope you enjoy the magazine. The team at Target Shooter.If you have any letters or news that you would like to air on a national basis then please contact us at the magazine. This could be for those budding writers out there that would like to submit a full articleonspecificfirearms,competitions,shootingsports,etc.TheaimofthemagazineistoincludeyoutheshootersintheUnitedKingdomandfurtherafield.Sohavingaregularletterspageorevenaquestionandanswersectionwouldbereallyusefulforalotofpeopleoutthere.Letusknowwhatyouthink!?We would also like to have a gun of the month section - so send us your pic and spec and we’ll include it in ‘gun of the month’.Any news that your club or association thinks is worth viewing can also be sent in for selection. What we would like is to get a letters page started with your views, news and perceptions about all all the aspects of target shooting. So lets see those letters coming in and we will read your thoughts in these pages.

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96 Target Shooter

Next time in.....

It was our intention to use the picture below for the front cover of the magazine this month. News of a new European Champion superseded this. Nigel will be continuing with his No4 T articles next month, so will be glossing the front cover.