Target Shooter August

Welcome to the fifth month of this free online shooting magazine for shooters in the UK

August 2009 Issue

Club Features Support Your local Gunshop

feature articles

F Class & Centerfire Benchrest News

Target Shooter

FT Scope Review • 303 ammunition review • New Products • and lots more…..

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aunching 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.



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Welcome to the 5th month .......of Target Shooter 13 Basic Rifle Maintenance by Vince Bottomley

Sections



35 Volquartsen Custom Long Barrel Pistol by John Robinson

48 303 ammunition comparisons Part 2 by Nigel Greenaway

30 Gallery Rifle Basics Part 2 by Gwyn Roberts

40 Ammunition Testing and selection Part 2 By Carl Boswell

56 Redding T7 & Forster Relaoding Presses by Laurie Holland 65 Miniature TX200 Air Arms Rifle by Andy Dubreuil 4

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Shooting Sport News

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Shooters Calendar

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Support your Local Gun Shop

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Thurnscoe Mini Rifle Shoot by Ross Burrough

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HFT Scope Tests by Tim Finley

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World Benchrest Championships by Graeme Smith

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Air Rifle Equipment Part 5 by Stanley Shaw

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Project Rifle by Vince Bottomely

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Shooting Website of the Month

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Gun of the Month

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Gallery Rifle Basics by Gwyn Roberts

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Club Feature

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F Class World Championship report by Vince Bottomley



Mattersey Steel Challenge by Gwyn Roberts



Association Pages 77



UKBRA

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UKBR22

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F Class UK

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Quigley Association

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HFT News

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Gallery Rifle

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UKPSA

Webitorial

Editor(s). Carl Boswell and Vince Bottomley Advertising and Office Manager Andy Dubreuil. email; [email protected] Contributors Vince Bottomley Andy Dubreuil John Robinson Laurie Holland Tim Finley Carl Boswell Brian Walker Nigel Greenaway Gwyn Roberts Stanley Shaw Ken Hall

Thanks to your loyal support, we have established an enviable readership base in just four months which is more than double that of any other UK shooting publication. And it has been a whirlwind four months for three guys with no experience of producing a magazine, let alone an on-line one. Of course, we would not be here if our writers and contributors hadn’t stuck with us and freely given their time and creativity. We are delighted to now be in a position where we can actually pay them a small remuneration for their valued efforts and we thank them sincerely for their commitment and loyalty. With a ‘free to view’ magazine, our income is of course wholly dependant on advertisers coming on-board and having faith in a completely new venture. Yes, our income is currently minimal but our passion is limitless and we hope that you will support those advertisers who are supporting us. Although it was our passion for target shooting that brought us into the wonderful world of digital publishing, we have had to face the same reality as anyone attempting to start a small business in today’s credit-crunch economy and even with ‘electric ink’ it is difficult to avoid becoming embroiled in the tedium of company law, banking, VAT and the like. Without your fantastic support it would have been all too easy to throw in the towel and concentrate on our day jobs but, with over ten thousand of you logging-on every month, how could we! Carl Boswell - [email protected] and Vince Bottomley - [email protected] and Andy Dubreuil - [email protected] Copyright © Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd

Disclaimer

The 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, prices and data is believed to be correct at the time of posting on the internet which is on or around the 1st of each month. Advertisements that are firearm related are from companies or individuals that Target Shooter magazine believes are licensed to hold such firearms and accepts no responsibility if companies or individuals are not so licensed. Letters and photographs submitted by members of the public to Target Shooter magazine will be accepted on the basis that the writer has agreed to publication unless otherwise stated. Target Shooter magazine has no control over the content or ownership of photographs submitted. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers and relate to specific circumstances within each article. These are the opinions and experiences of writers using specific equipment, firearms, components and data under controlled conditions. Information contained in the online magazine or on the website is intended to be used as a guide only and in specific circumstances caution should be used. Target Shooter Magazine does not except any responsibility for individuals attempting to recreate such testing using any information, data or other materials in its electronic pages.Publishers of Target Shooter magazine.



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Shooting Sport News Youngmans Sporting Guns have just announced, in conjunction with Oi Engineering, the launch of a new product: The BSA Ultra Bi pod Adaptor. This new product allows the attachment of a Harris style bi pod to the BSA Ultra with the pod fitted where it needs to be near the muzzle of the rifle. The Bi pod Adaptor is exclusively available from: Youngmans Sporting Guns 19-20 Market Row Great Yarmouth Norfolk NR30 1PB Tel: 01493 859814 Fax: 01493 331022 www.youngmans.com email: [email protected]

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RA have announced a major new bench testing, a factory visit, comparative firing contract with RUAG for the supply trials, and use of some of the country’s top shooters the NRA was delighted to award RUAG of 7.62mm (.308) ammunition. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has agreed a major contract with RUAG Ammotec for the supply of RWS Target 7.62 mm, 155gr ammunition for the world-famous NRA Imperial Meeting.

Jeremy Staples, Managing Director of the National Shooting Centre, said: “For many years the MOD have supplied the NRA with 7.62mm ammunition in lieu of payment for range hire. This agreement ended in 2007, and it was essential that the NRA found a quality supplier who could provide the ammunition at an acceptable price.” He added “We undertook a series of tests with four potential suppliers and it quickly became clear that RUAG, who have an excellent reputation for producing top quality ammunition such as RWS and NORMA, were the clear front runners. Following extensive trials involving 6

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Ammotec the contract for the supply of their product.”

Philip Unwin, Managing Director of RUAG Ammotec UK added: “This is an exciting opportunity for RUAG and we are confident that shooters will be pleased with this new RWS Target ammunition. To meet the necessary requirements RUAG worked closely with the NRA to develop a unique round that would give optimum performance at both short and long range. The ammunition uses a Sierra Match King 155gr bullet, loaded in an RWS case with powder from RUAG’s wide range of own-manufacture powders.” He added: “RUAG is also supporting the NRA by sponsoring the 2009 NRA Imperial Meeting Grand Aggregate which attracts over 1000 competitors. The Imperial Meeting is the most high-profile meeting on the NRA’s calendar and we are proud to be associated with such an important and prestigious event. “ For further details contact Brigitte Rushmore, National Shooting Centre on 01483 798816.

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EBLEY LAUNCHES ALL NEW AGS VALUE MAX™ RANGE OF ECONOMY SPRING AIR RIFLES. Webley (International) Ltd (Webley) of Willenhall, West Midlands, UK, the iconic British Shooting company established in 1790, announced today the introduction at the CLA Gamefair, Belvoir Castle, Grantham, Leicestershire (24th-26th July 2009) of a new line-up of full power spring powered air rifles under their well respected “AGS ™” brand. “For some time now our customers have been requesting a UK full-power spring powered air rifle that would meet the budgets of consumers who have an occasional pest or vermin control problem; those that wanted an inexpensive gun for occasional hunting and those that simply wished to ‘plink’ in their gardens” said Mike Hurney, CEO of Webley, “With the introduction of the AGS Value Max ™ concept of Full Power – Low Price and with an impressive array of features, including fibre optic open sights, precision dovetails for the fitting of telescopic sights, a sculptured, ventilated muzzle break, manual safety catch, anti-bear-trap feature and a ventilated recoil pad (synthetic stocked models) we have met that need” he added. “When developing the range I visited a number of factories to establish those with the right level of investment in high-tech CNC machine facilities and a positive attitude to product development and quality control to ensure that we could deliver a high quality product, in large volumes, at a very competitive price. I am confident that we have the right partner and I will be working very closely with the factory to ensure that we continue to feed back customer and consumer response to refine and enhance the range going forward.” stated Paul Garrity, Webley’s Senior Technical Manager. The range at the time of launch comprises three break-barrel models all available in .22 and.177 calibres the AGS SPR 10 W (Wooden stock), AGS SPR 10 C (‘Mossy Oak’ Camouflage stock) and the AGS SPR 10 CF (‘Mossy Oak’ ‘ Carbon Fibre’ stock)

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ew stuff from Fox Firearms

Brian Fox found a really good alternative bi-pod to the Harris at IWA. This one is made in Finland and will fit any normal sling-swivel. The legs will fold forward or backward and it is very sturdy, light and well made. The same firm also make a rear mono-pod which comes with an accessory rail which can be inletted into the underside of your butt-stock. See www.ouluntyostokeskus.com

Another scope – Besonder Optisch!

from

Don’t ask me the origin of this one but Brian asked me to have a look at it and I must say it looks very good. It’s an 8-32 with 30mm tube and side-focus. Contact www.foxfirearmsuk.com for more details.

Availability: August 2009. RRP: from £89.95

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arbour Arms Snap Caps.

Remember when you bought your first rifle and the advice you received about not dropping the firing-pin on an empty chamber? So, you also bought a snap-cap so that you could safely drop the firing-pin. When you bought your next rifle - maybe in a slightly more ‘exotic’ calibre - you probably found that you couldn’t buy a snap-cap as they only tend to be available in the popular calibres. OK, dropping the pin the odd time is not a problem but, if you are a keen competition shooter, you could be doing this half a dozen times in a single day and you will find that most of the custom action makers do not recommend this.

competition cartridges, like 6BR, 6XC, Dasher, 6.5x47 Lapua, 6.5-284 etc., etc., right up to the 338 Lapua Magnum plus of course, all the popular calibres as well. The snap-caps have a brass spring-loaded plunger to cushion the firing-pin strike and are beautifully made from solid aluminium which is bright red anodised so that they cannot be mistaken for a live round. They are sold as a set of two for a paltry $12.95 or around £ 8.00. At the moment there is no UK distributor but I’m sure Eric would love to hear from one. If you order direct please add £7.00 for postage and packing. Check out the Harbour www.harbourarms.com

Arms

website

at

For firearm instructors, dry-firing is essential and using a snap-cap is just good sense. Alternatively, lots of serious shooters like to ‘dry-fire‘ practice off range. Similarly, when setting-up a competition trigger, repeated dropping of the pin is often required to achieve the correct adjustment. As a keen competition shooter and law enforcement instructor, Eric Kennard noticed that lots of other shooters also bemoaned the lack of custom snap-caps so, he decided to do something about it. Eric now offers a range of snap-caps in all the popular

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ew hunting shooting fishing web television channel launches

There has never before been a TV channel devoted to UK fieldsports. Now Fieldsports Channel is producing half an hour a week of programming in two fortnightly shows. The first show is Fieldsports Britain, a half-hour magazine programme that promises the best of UK fieldsports. It launches free-to-view online from 7pm on the Glorious 12th August, the opening day of the grouseshooting season and fortnightly thereafter. Presented by well-know shooting magazine editor Charlie Jacoby, Fieldsports Britain starts by counting down to the repeal of the hunting ban, by previewing the grouse season, by setting out to catch a brown trout, a bass and a sea trout all in Devon and all on the fly in 12 hours, and by celebrating the best of the kit innovations at this year’s CLA Game Fair. “The 12th August Fieldsports Britain show will be a humdinger,” says Fieldsports Channel presenter Charlie Jacoby. “Forget BBC Countryfile - this is the real countryside and it’s out enjoying itself. You won’t see stickmaking, dry-stone-walling or tractor-racing on Fieldsports Channel. You will see a show that brings you the best of British hunting, shooting and fishing.” Fieldsports Channel’s other show is Shooting Politics, which launches its half-hour debate programme free-to-view online from 7pm on 19 August and fortnightly thereafter. It was filmed at the CLA Game Fair with a panel consisting of CLA deputy president William Worsley, Sporting Rifle editor

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Peter Carr, the National Gamekeepers Organisation’s Geoff Garrod and Tom Blades, head of game and gamekeeping at the British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC). Subjects the panel is covering are: • Can the UK’s wild places survive without game keepers? • Will the Conservatives delver on their manifes to commitment to repeal the hunting act? • Do fish feel pain? • Why do the British find trophy hunting distasteful? • Is there still a snobbish divide between over-and-under and side-by-side shotguns Charlie Jacoby says: “We want to use Shooting Politics not just to entertain our audience but to inform them as well. We want to deliver the latest thinking on a range of pro-fieldsports subjects so that we fieldsports supporters can fight our corner against the anti-fieldsports noisy minority.”

Picture by Don Brunt

Calendar of events over the next two months

If your club or association has events you want to publicise here then email us. Sun 09 Aug NRA Shooting Club Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Sun 16 Aug RNTRC Catastrophe Match (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Thu 20 Aug NRA Shooting Club Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Sat 22 Aug to Sun 23 Aug Tullibardine (Tayside) Open Meeting (Blair Atholl (Scotland)) Two day Open Rifle Meeting with classes for TR, F Class and F(TR). This is the Centenary of the competition which started life as the Perthshire Open in 1909. http://www.westatholl.org.uk/ Sun 23 Aug LMRA v BBC RC v Kent RC (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)

Wed 26 Aug to Sat 29 Aug Jersey Open Championships (Jersey (Channel Islands) http://www.jerseyrifleassociation.com/ Sat 29 Aug NRA Open Day at Altcar, Merseyside (Altcar (England)) The NRA is hosting another pre ticketed Open Day event at the Altcar range, Southport. Visitors will be able to try shotgun, air rifle, fullbore rifle, sporting rifle, laser clays, precision snap, practical and historical rifles to name but a few, all with one-to-one coaching. Sat 29 Aug to Sun 30 Aug Gallery Rifle National Championships (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) A similar format to the Action Weekends and Phoenix Meeting but you can also compete to be crowned a National Champion. This event is predominantly for Gallery Rifles, (Centrefire and Smallbore) and Long Barrelled Revolvers and Pistols. Competitions include Multi-Target, Advancing Targets, 1500 Match, Timed and Precision and the Speed Steel Challenge. However, catering for the fullbore shooter, we have some short-range competitions for older military firearms and the McQueen shoot for any rifle. Fri 28th to mon 31st August The UK Nationals run by the UKBR22 – will be held at Portishead Club, Bristol 50m outdoor - Rimfire Unlimited and Light Varmint 25 yrds indoors – Rimfire Unlimited and Light Varmint - 25 yrds outdoor - Air Rifle Unlimited and Hunter (10.5 pound)

Sat 05 Sep - NRA Open Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) - The NSC is hosting, on behalf of the NRA, another series of pre ticketed Open Day events. Visitors will be able to try shotgun, air rifle, fullbore rifle, sporting rifle, laser clays, precision snap, practical and historical rifles to name but a few, all with one-to-one coaching. Sun 06 Sep - Welwyn Phoenix RC Guest Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Guest days for potential new members please apply via the website link below at least ten days in advance. http://www.welwynphoenixrc.org.uk/ Friday - 11 Sep 2009 British Pistol ChampionshipsThe Championships run from 11th to 13th September. Location: Lord Roberts Centre Sat 12 Sep - Start of Probationary Members Course 2009/4 (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) This course is primarily a course in safe handling and provides an introduction to Target Rifle, Gallery Rifle and Black Powder Pistol. Each course consists of four separate lessons. Course date to be allocated once entry conditions are

fulfilled. All applications for Probationary Membership should be made to the NRA Membership Secretary. http://www.nsc-bisley.co.uk/common/asp/courses/courses. asp?site=NSC Sat 19 to Sun 20 Sep - Surrey RA Open Meeting (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) The Surrey Rifle Association - Autumn Open Meeting, a great weekend’s shooting with high quality competition. Queens I, II and III format. http://www.surreyra.org

Thursday, 24 Sept - Commonwealth Shooting Federation (ED) The competition runs from 24th - 27th September. Contact: Isle of Man Sat 26 to Sun 27 Sep - The English Eight Club and Irish Eight Club Autumn Meeting (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Match Rifle & F-Class Rifle



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Duracoated AR15 in .204 built to customers specifications Strictly by appointment only

Savage benchrest in a custom anodised Mcree Precision chassis

Full Spec Custom .22LR Spikes Tactical M4

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Duracoat Specialist. .22 AR’s Specialist . Full Custom and Semi Custom Rifles built to order. Custom 10/22’s built to order.

‘Support your local gun shop’ North West Custom Parts

With the advent of the internet, it’s possible to run a successful business without having conventional shop premises but I’m pleased to say that although NWCP does not occupy a shop with a street frontage, it does exist as a building and behind its heavy steel doors lies a veritable Alladin’s cave for shooters.

In a few short years, proprietor Wayne, has built up an interesting portfolio of items which he imports – mostly from the States of course and he has a good stock of parts to interest the smallbore and fullbore rifle shooter alike. He carries a huge stock of goodies for lovers of the AR15 rifle which will interest centrefire and rimfire users plus he imports the excellent tactical stocks from Bell & Carlson, which have recently been adopted by the Remington factory for their new tactical rifle. These stocks are ‘drop-in’ with an aluminium bedding-block and will take most of the popular barrelled-actions. Wayne also has magazines, scope mounts, moderators, sights etc.

Give your ‘run of the mill’ Remington to Wayne and he can turn it into something special.

The latest component to be added to the portfolio is the McRees Precision stock. This is a ‘modular’ stock, CNC machined from billet aluminium which can be had with different fore-ends and butts to suit the tactical shooter, hunter, benchrester or F Class shooter. The stock is a ‘drop-in’ with inlets to suit most popular and a few not so popular actions. The US military are currently evaluating the McRees as a sniper-rifle stock and we have a review elsewhere in Target Shooter. Visit the NWCP website at www.nwcustomparts.com and give Wayne a ring if you would like to visit the shop which is situated on the north east side of Manchester.

Wayne also offers a custom paint service using the DuraCoat process and he is turning out some very nice tactical patterns – as good as any I have seen and best of all, it’s all done on site so turn-round is quite speedy. If you are not familiar, this mil. spec. epoxy-based coating can be applied to almost any surface from metal to fibreglass or plastic and is very hard-wearing – even when used on rifle actions. NWCP also offer their own muzzlebrakes, which are made locally on CNC equipment and look very good Proprietor Wayne with some of his Bell & and are very competitively priced. Carlson stocks.



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Vince Bottomley Basic Rifle Maintenance Part 4

Although this is not strictly classed as ‘maintenance’, it is an essential function which most of us will have to perform from time to time. Although it is a fairly straightforward procedure, it can often seem anything but. There are dozens of different scope mounts available but recently, the Picatinny system has thankfully emerged as THE mounting system. This is a system developed by the US military - no doubt following frustration when trying to swap scopes from one rifle to another. It is basically what we knew as the ‘Weaver system’ but the cross- slots in the rail could vary slightly in size and spacing from one rail to another The rifle must be properly supported for bore-sighting to be effective and even the rail could vary in width by a few thou. With the Picatinny like the Farrell or the ones supplied by Nightforce system they don’t. If you are looking for a scope or Badger Ordnance though several others have mounting system for a new rifle, it makes a recently come onto the market. If you shoot out to long lot of sense to go for the Picatinny. You could distances, get one with a built-in taper – 20 MOA is realistically buy one good scope and use it on usually sufficient. Avoid using a two-piece rail – one several rifles. piece rails are more accurate and can often usefully However, to make the system really effective, stiffen an action. Steel rail is the best but it’s heavy – firstly choose some good quality mounts for the half a pound typically and if you are struggling to make Picatinny rail . Look at the photograph. All these weight, an alloy rail can give you a significant saving. mounts will fit the Picatinny rail but choose Before you start to mount your scope-rail, carefully – good quality components pay off in the degrease the action surface and the underside long run. Like everyone, I’m always on the look out for of the rail and apply a thin smear of Araldite, then a bargain but play safe and invest in a pair of mounts do up the screws lightly to just pull the rail down. preferably made by a scope manufacturer and you It’s hard to avoid getting glue on the threads so won’t go far wrong. I can recommend Leupold, a bit of wax polish will help here. Clean off any Burris and Nightforce but there are many oth- excess glue which is squeezed out with a cotton-bud. ers, like the excellent A.R.M.S. mounts. I avoid the This will ensure perfect bedding of the rail onto the vertically-split ones shown in the centre of the action. Let the Araldite set overnight before photograph. continuing. Now, remove the screws, apply a tiny If you are looking for a Picatinny rail, I would smear of lube to the threads then nip them up tight. recommend a good quality one-piece steel example



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ruined action. Now, mount your scope rings on the rail. For best support, place the rings as far apart as possible but ensure that you have enough leeway to slide the scope fore and aft a little for eye-relief adjustment. Nip up the mounts onto All these rings are intended to fit the Picatinney rail. The rings on the left are made of bits the base and the of bent steel and are not suitable. Choose quality steel rings like the Leupold on the right. remove top clamps. Avoid vertically split rings (centre) as they can’t be lapped and are not quick-detachable Quality components will en Remember however that these are tiny threads and will strip easily, so don’t overdo it! Also, check that sure alignment errors are minimised but some may the front screws are not too long and impinging on still be present, so the first job is to lightly lap-in our the barrel-tenon threads. The holes in the receiver rings. This will also remove any ‘high-spots’ which are usually drilled right through and if you screw into could ring-mark our scope-tube. If there is a serious the threads and chew them up, it will make barrel misalignment problem, it will be at least highlighted removal very difficult and could result in a by lapping, if not eliminated. Wet & dry paper (320

Bubble levels on turret and scope-rail will help get your scope roughly level but final adjustment is best done on range

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Lapping rings using a mandrel and paper. Plug the ejection port and mask the trigger. grade) wrapped around a suitably sized mandrel is required for the lapping. Remember to mask-off the ejection-port – we don’t want any abrasive particles in there! It’s not necessary to lap the top clamps but check for any obvious high spots or burrs and remove using the mandrel and wet & dry paper. Once you are happy with the rings, we can drop in the scope. Please don’t be tempted to wrap any sort of tape around the scope. We are mounting a one-inch diameter tube in one-inch diameter rings (or 30mm) and a turn of masking tape will swell the diameter by about 10 thou. This means that when you tighten the mounts you will be creating pressure on the body-tube. Trust me, correctly aligned and lapped rings will not mark the scope and will not allow the scope to move under recoil. A metal-to-metal fit is the best engineering joint between two precision components. Although final alignment of the crosshairs (vertical/ horizontal) will inevitably be done on-range, you can get it close by using a couple of cheap bubble levels – one on the scope-rail and one on the scope turret (see pic.). Do up the screws on the ring-clamps evenly, making sure the gaps at each side are near enough equal when finished, for a professional-looking job. One thing we haven’t mentioned is ring-height. This is governed by two things – the scope’s object-bell must obviously clear the barrel so, larger the objective, higher the rings but, as long as your scope clears the barrel, I see no point in mounting it any higher than you need to. Secondly, if you have to use high rings, you may find that it’s difficult to get a decent cheek-weld on the stock. If your stock doesn’t have an adjustable comb, something like the Hunters of England ‘snipers cheek-piece’ will solve that one. Personally, as a benchrest shooter, I prefer not to rest my cheek on the

stock (except when shooting off-hand) so this is not an issue for me but I know some shooters like to ‘snug up’ to their stock. The final issue we need to address is eye-relief. When you bring the rifle into your shoulder, whether you are prone off a bi-pod or standing off-hand, having the correct eye relief will make that first shot and any subsequent follow-up shots so much quicker. Of course, we also need to consider recoil – get too close to that ocular and you could end up with a nasty cut eyebrow! So, if anything, you might find it’s safest to stretch a little to obtain your eye-relief. Get someone to measure how close you are to the scope – about three wet & dry inches is average for eye-relief and far enough away to prevent scope-bite. Now we can focus the crosshairs. Point the scope at a light-coloured plain background – a nice blank grey sky is ideal and turn the eyepiece until the reticle is in sharp focus. Although you may re-focus the scope on your target at different distances, you should never need to re-focus the reticle. Finally, check for parallax. With the scope focussed and pointing at your target and the rifle solidly supported fore and aft, peer at the target and move your head very slightly up and down. The crosshair should stay in position on the target. If the crosshair moves as you move your head, we need to slightly adjust the focus until we get rid of the parallax and the crosshair stays in position. The next job is to bore-sight. To do this, the rifle needs to be firmly supported fore and aft so a bi-pod and back-bag will be ideal. Remove the bolt and choose a distant object – like the ‘T’ top of a telegraph pole – the further away the better. Look down the bore and position the rifle so that the top of the telegraph pole is in the exact centre of the bore. Now, when we look through the scope, we need to see exactly the same image - the top of the telegraph pole. Adjust the scope turrets until you can. It’s almost impossible not to disturb the rifle when you do this so another check through the bore to see we are still looking at the telegraph pole and a final tweek of the turrets and we are almost ready to shoot. Almost? Let’s think about what we have just done. Although the line of sight through the bore and the line of sight through the scope converge at the telegraph pole which may be several hundred yards away, we’ll assume for now that these two lines of sight are parallel. If we were now to take a shot at our target at 100 yards - assuming we have done our sighting work perfectly - the bullet would impact about 1.5 inches low - as this is the height our scope is



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To get the two to coincide, turn the turrets and ‘wind’ the cross-hair onto the ctual bullet-hole – no need for guess-work. Your econd shot should be pretty close. That’s all it takes – bore-sight and two shots. Forget collimators, lasers and the like – bore-sighting is quick, easy and free! A few rules though: 1. You must support the rifle solidly, front and rear. 2. Always choose a distant object like a telegraph pole. Further away the better – Burris ‘Signature’ rings with the plastic ‘offset’ at least 300 yards - for best results. shims are very useful if you run out of elevation or 3. Re-check your bore sighting a couple of windage adjustment times – it’s almost impossible not to move the rifle when you twiddle the turrets. mounted above the barrel. So, we can add one 4. Remember to add the distance between your and a half minutes of angle (MOA) on the elevation scope and bore – usually between 1.5 and two inches. turret to compensate for this. In fact it would probably impact three or four inches low as we have 5. Don’t forget to consider the trajectory-drop, which the bullet’s trajectory-drop to consider. With a 308, it will of course depend on your cartridge and the will typically be a couple of inches at 100 yards, so distance you intend to zero at. If it’s 100 yards, one to two inches will do for most popular cartridges. wind-up another two MOA. Now take your first shot at your target at 100 So, the next time you come to mount a new scope yards. If you have done your job well, I would remember, 95% of the work can be done off range. You expect the impact to be within six-inches of your can mount the scope, bore-sight, focus the reticle and aim-point and probably more like three. To make adjust for eye-relief in your back garden but please, your final adjustment, set the butt of the rifle on don’t frighten the neighbours! When you get to the your back-bag again and position it so that the range, three shots maximum should have you zeroed. cross-hair is on your aim-point. Although the scope is now pointing at the aim-point, the barrel is clearly pointing elsewhere – i.e. your fall of shot.

Here’s a one-piece aluminium Ken Farrel Picatinny rail on a Savage action with Leupold QD steel rings. A really good mounting system

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www.timhannam.com Tel: 01977 681639 Fax: 01977 684272 Target Shooter email: [email protected]

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Thurnscoe Rifle Club Minirifle Shoot – June 2009 The weather forecast for the Doncaster region gave rain all day for Sunday 7th June which luckily for the guys at Thurnscoe Rifle Club shooting Mini Rifle proved to be inaccurate. Despite threatening clouds the rain stayed away and our second open Mini Rifle competition went ahead as planned. Again we had a good turnout, including some probationary members shooting the competition for the first time. In conversation afterwards a couple of these guys admitted that they had felt nervous beforehand as they had never shot a course of fire that involved movement, however having completed the two stages under the watchful eye of the RO, they all expressed their enjoyment and intention to take part in the next competition. The first course of fire began at the start position approximately 30m from the first target. Starting with a magazine loaded and the breech forward on an empty chamber the competitor moved forward to a barricade with a twelve inch aperture in the centre. In a crouched stance the shooter loads the rifle and, shooting through the hole, they engage 9 targets

By Ross Burrough

at a distance of 20m placing a shot on each. Each target is coffin shaped and approx ten inches tall by six inches wide and divided into three scoring zones.

Applying safety the competitor then moves forward to the next position and from a standing stance at 15m using weak shoulder puts another shot on each of the nine targets. Again with safety applied the shooter moves to the final shooting position at 10m and from a kneeling stance places another shot on each of the nine targets. For this course of fire a Comstock scoring system was used. This means that even though only one shot is required on each target at each distance the shooter can fire more if he believes the previous shot was a miss or low score. This can ensure better scores but has the disadvantage of increasing the time taken to complete the course of fire. The RO who accompanies the competitor records the time taken to complete the course and then totals the points scored on the targets. The highest three hits are recorded from each target and the overall score is divided by the time to give a finishing score. Even with high capacity magazines, the minimum amount of rounds required to complete the course necessitates a magazine change at some point and most shooters elected to do this at the start of the 10m kneeling section. Results for this 1st stage as follows: 1st 2nd 3rd

Competition Winner Target Shooter writer Tim Finley 18

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Jeff Steed Ruger10/22 Tim Finley GSG-5 Paul Harper GSG-5

135pts 124pts 121pts

Stage 2 and the first firing position is at 25m and requires you to knockdown six steel plates before moving to the next firing point. At 20m engage two targets through a hole in a barricade with two shots on each target and move to 15m. At this distance you shoot from behind another barricade with two shots at each of two targets from the left-hand side and the same from the right. This proves more difficult as your feet must not be placed outside an area the width of the barricade and so requires weak shoulder shooting. Finally knock down the last six steel plates at 10m. The course of fire requires a minimum round count

of 24 and only the Ruger 10/22 used by Jeff Steed carried enough rounds to complete the course without a magazine change, however this is only achievable if all the steel plates are taken down with one shot each. Miss and a magazine change becomes necessary. Unfortunately this proved the case with Jeff who needed to load a fresh magazine to take his final shot at the last steel plate. The introduction of the steel plates at two distances has proved challenging as mentioned above as any missed plate can affect planned magazine changes and so slow your time. Results for stage 2: 1st 2nd 3rd

Tim Finley GSG-5 130pts Paul Harper GSG-5 97pts Jeff Steed Ruger 10/22 94pts

The points from all stages are added to give overall competition winners. Results below: 1st 2nd 3rd

Tim Finley GSG-5 254.58 pts Jeff Steed Ruger 10/22 229.30 pts Paul Harper GSG-5 219.78pts

Congratulations along with some club medals and liquid prizes go to the guys above. Thanks go to Paul Harper and Tim Finley for their help as RO’s. Full results are available on the website, www.freewebs/ thurnscoerifleclub Feedback from the guys taking part is that as this discipline varies so much from traditional shooting that practice sessions are needed to help perfect different shooting stances and develop tactics. To this end the club will look at a dedicating some evenings over the next few months as practice nights. Equipment Feature - GSG-5 Last year saw the introduction of the GSG-5 made by German Sporting Guns (hence GSG) to the UK market. The GSG-5 is a .22 semi-auto replica of the

Equipment Feature GSG-5

legendary HK MP5 and boasts a 22 round single stack high capacity magazine making it ideal for Mini Rifle competitions. Initially fitted with open sights, as per the original, the GSG-5 has an extensive list of accessories including scope mounts and scopes both red dot and traditional as well as 3 different stocks including an extending and folding option. A tactical fore end with 3 weaver style rails is available allowing the fitment of torches, lasers and grip attachments. The original model incorporates a barrel shroud which imitates a moderator. This is cosmetic and covers the barrel as, due to UK firearms legislation, the barrel would not be long enough if imitating the un-moderated version of the original MP5. York Guns have recently gained the distribution rights for GSG in the UK and an actual moderator is now available. GSG have also introduced two further models. One is a copy of the MP5 SD2 made famous as the fully suppressed MP5 used by special forces world wide and also an AK47 copy both in .22. Previously the Mini Rifle competition world was dominated by the Ruger 10/22 in various incarnations as this offered one of the only semi-auto .22’s on the market which had 25 round magazines commercially available. Although highly accurate due to match chambers and barrels this also proved to be a problem with the Ruger as the chambering was so precise in most that any kind of dirt or wax build up from the ammunition would, more often than not, cause a miss-feed. Although not as accurate over longer distances as my match 10/22, the GSG is accurate and has been highly reliable and will cycle any ammunition from .22 Mini-mag to subsonic ammunition.



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Milbro’s New Snap Close Tin

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Hunter Field Target Scope Test Part 4

Tim Finley Quite fitting that this forth part to find the perfect Above - Test line up part 4 HFT scope series should feature a Mark Four scope. A Leupold Mark Four that is, the other scope is a Falcon Menace and both share ½ Falcon in test mil-dot aiming marks, something that today’s cradle top HFT shooters are wanting more and more. Saying that the reticles are not over fussy to look thro and use either. The Menace, it’s a far eastern sourced fixed ten power scope with a 42mm objective lens. Coupled with side wheel parallax adjustment, target turrets, a 80mm long screw on sunshade and flip up lens covers, it’s quite an impressive specification. The 10*42 spec is the same as three other scopes I could mention, however it differs from the others due to the reticle. It has a at ½ mil spacing’s in-between the dots. The normal mil-dot’s, but with small tick aiming marks second scope is a purely firearms/full-bore tactical scope from the American maker Leupold. For anyone who knows Leupold MKIV in test a bit about optics they will have cradle heard of a Mark Four. For many years a US military scope their rugged build quality and superb lens have been much sort after. The scope in this test is a 2.5 to 8 times mag 36mm dia front objective lens MKIV model. If it seems an odd set of numbers in the specification it is nearer a nine times magnification. It was originally made as a 3-9*36 scope but the spec was changed to 8 when it was found out to be 8.7 rather then a true nine

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Falcon mildot

enhanced

AGS mag ring

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mag, to keep the lawyers happy. The reticle is another special one, it is called a Tactical Milling Reticle or TMR. It was designed as an enhanced Mil-dot rangefinding reticle and the milliradian spacing’s are perfect for ranging and aiming on HFT targets too, thanks to the half mil tick lines in-between the full mil spacing’s of the longer lines. It’s true to say that HFT courses have evolved and the scopes we use have evaluated along side the ever smaller and smaller kill zone dia meters used. Ultra small hit zones such as 15 or even 10mm in diameter call for more accurate aiming at the smaller targets. So, half mil marks allow more accurate rangefinding and more precise aiming once you have determined the distance to the targets by bracketing. The test I perform on any potential HFT scope starts with setting it to a 23yard parallax. This is done by placing a test target as that measure distance and altering the parallax until the reticle does not move off the aim point when the head position is altered Falcon eye bell behind the scope. On the Falcon is was easy as it has a sidewheel P/A, which did line up with the 23 yardish mark on the scope, nice, not all the scopes I have tested do line up with the markings on the scope! The Leupold was just a little more tricky as being a firearms scope with no parallax adjustment it had been factory set to 100 yards. This would have to be manually altered. There is a front locking ring on the objective end and this can be cracked off using gentle pressure from a Baby Boa device used for fitting oil filters etc. Once the locking ring has been Falcon turrets screwed off the threaded lens carrier can be seen and the lens screwed out while checking the reticle on the 23yd aiming mark. Scopes are better held in a cradle or clamp when resetting parallax as you really need the scope hold steady with the ability to move your head fully around the back of the scope, not easy if its stuck on a rifle. On the MKIV it only has to screwed out about 2mm to reset to a shorter P/A and the

Leupold reticle illumination

Leupold TMR reticle

4-12b rainguard

MKIV turrets

locking ring can be screwed back into place so you would never know it had been altered. With the scope set in the aforementioned cradle mounted on a camera tripod I set out test cards at 15, 25, 40 and 45yards. These cards have scaled Mildot spacing’s for each distance on them, so the exact parallax error at each range can be read off. Moving the head moves the reticle on the scoped reticle and the full distance it moves it simply read off. It also allows a chance to gauge optical quality of the scopes, especially critical at 45 yards. With the 40 yard card I can see how each scopes image appears at the two extreme distances. They should be pin sharp at 40 yards and just slightly blurred at 45 yards, that is to be able to use that feature as an additional rangefinding tool. The Leupold was optically better at all the ranges, not surprising as it costs over four times as much as the Falcon. The reticle on the Menace was far better than I thought when I initially looked through the scope on opening the package it came in. At the range it was much sharper and clearer than I initially gave it credit for. It was easy to differentiate between the small dots set at mil spacing’s and the tiny ½ mil tick lines. The TMR does have the edge reticle wise for me with the small gap in the center makes for even more precise aiming, i.e. at a fleck of paint, or pellet strike on the target. Both have large finger friendly target style turrets for windage and elevation adjustment and both have ¼ inch click values at 100yards, coming with an allen key to adjust the scales on the turrets to zero once a suitable zero has been achieved (35 yards in HFT). The Leupold has the now famous M1 US sniper style turrets, much copied by other scope manufactures. Both

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are 30mm body tubed scopes. Both have plastic flip up scope covers, the Leupold ones being embossed with the firm’s logo. The Falcon comes with a sunshade and the MKIV cannot be fitted with one. The parallax error values I found are on chart three with the specs price on chart one and the optical tests and my ratings in chart two. I rate the Falcon as the best under £200 HFT scope I have ever tested. For my money the Leupold it’s optical quality and the added illuminated reticle make it the clear winner of all my four HFT scope tests. I see an illuminated reticle as a major advantage, it has 11 brightness settings and lights up the center mil-½ mil lines in red. Set on 5 it cannot be seen when shooting in normal daylight, but when looking at a target under a bush it goes a light brown colour. In really black out target conditions, say when they are set inside barrels etc, you can clearly make out the reticle without masking out the target. This feature will gain shooters targets over non illuminated reticles, of that there is no doubt. You pay your money you take your choice? £200 for

Locking ring removed

the Falcon leaving money to spend on a new stock or £826 for the Leupold, I have gone for the MKIV. Part five will cover the new kid on the block the Bushnell Elite 2.5-16*42 6500 which Pete Sparkes has already won a UKAHFT round and the first focal plane 4-16 Barska Benchmark. I’ll also give a full round up of the whole mega series of HFT scope tests. For the Leupold MKIV contact Riflecraft at [email protected] For the Falcon see their list of retailers on their web site www.falconoptics.com

The test cards set out at the range 24

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To introduce our selves we are the United Kingdom Association of Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Shooting. By that we mean "True Benchrest Shooting". The Association is recognised by rimfire shooters across in the UK, with partners across Europe and the rest of the world, as the presentative body that promotes rimfire and air rifle benchrest 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 champion shooter, everyone is welcome www.benchrest22.org



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2009 World Benchrest Championships in South Africa - Australia takes Gold

The tenth World Benchrest Shooting Championships, held in Pretoria, South Africa was true to tradition by being different to all previously held events. The most important difference being the end to the dominance by the USA in the Teams Championship which this time was won by Australia 1, followed by USA 1, and Italy in third place. History shows that the USA usually dominate the Team event with Gold, Silver and Bronze but finally the rest of the world of benchrest has caught up. The individual awards however saw a return to status quo with USA shooters Gene Bukys and Tony Boyer taking Gold and Silver but 2001 World Individual Champion, Brendon Atkinson of Australia took the bronze medal. Some of the other unusual highlights which made the competition different to all others were the range conditions – at an altitude of 4300 feet above sea level, humidity as low as 25% and the wind drift at least to me - seemed significant. One would normally expect many sub half-inch groups during the

Graeme Smith

200 metre matches and although there were some, most shooters were happy to stay under the inch. In the Light Varmint 200m event, just 16% of the groups were under half-inch, 64% half to 1 inch and 20% over the inch, which gives some perspective of conditions. This time of the year, although mid-winter in South

Africa, is in fact the dry season on the high Veldt. The grass is high and tinder-dry with wild fires the order of the day. To have the event halted and all cars and equipment moved onto the range in preparation for a local fire that had got out of control was certainly something different! A hive of activity - reloading for the matches Fortunately the fire did not jump the highway beside the range so we were able to resume activity in due course but a somewhat tense time existed for a while! All shooters were accommodated at Game Ranches, generally only a ten-minute drive from the range. Entries however were almost 50% down on the record 176 entries from the 2007 event in Austria with a number of mainly European teams not attending, probably because of the perceived



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risks from criminal activity in this part turrets are clearly but tastefully incised. of the world as frequently reported in Note side-focus knob. the media. No doubt there is some risk associated with South Africa but from my perspective the way the whole arrangements were co-ordinated never at any time did I feel concerned, in fact we had an excellent standard of accommodation, great hosts and cooperation and courtesy all the way. A trip around the ranch to view all the wild animals was somewhat different to seeing them in a zoo. Although the competition proper is decided over 100 and 200 metres, with two weights of rifle – Light and Heavy Varmint - the final day of the Championship is traditionally a 300 metre HV match. Few ranges can actually offer 300 metre benchrest shooting so this is usually substituted with another 200 meter match but shooting ten-shot (rather than five-shot) groups. At 200 metres, our scopes will normally resolve a 6mm bullet-hole, except when the mirage is running but at 300 metres it became something of a guessing game due to the difficulty in establishing where your shots landed. However the smallest group shot - a tiny 0.471 inches – was in fact a new world record established by Ian Owen of New Zealand but again the match was won by the USA, taking first, second and third places. Ian Owen with his new 300m record target The largest group of 16.557 inches was shot by your author whose group of 1.557 inches gained a 15 inch penalty due to shots 14 issued, 7 went to the USA and one each to on the wrong target! Well someone had to do Australia, Finland, France, New Zealand, South it………. In conclusion, it was really great to see the Africa, Sweden and Russia. Our friends from overall spread of Gold Medals this time. Of the the USA no longer have it all their own way. Where to now?. The 2011 World Benchrest Championship will be held in France where the whole thing resumes again and this will be followed by Reticle is focussed by rotating the Australia in 2013. In the ‘off year’ of rubber-cushioned eye-piece. Note 2012 we will be see the WBSF Rimfire also the zoom ring. Championship become a reality with the first event to be held in Australia. Graeme Smith President , World Benchrest Shooting Federation We are indebted and honoured to receive this report of the 2009 World Championships from the President of the WBSF. For the record, we did send a four-man team from the UK who finished 19 out of the 22 teams entered. Full results , etc can be seen at

www.wbc10.co.za

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Last month we looked at the basic types of Gallery Rifles that we use so here’s a few ideas that will hopefully help you to start shooting them a bit more accurately. Starting at the top as it were with your scope and head alignment, because if this isn’t right to start with then you won’t get the rest of it right either! In the standing position keeping your head and body straight close your eyes and bring the rifle up into your shoulder into a position that feels comfortable (not where you think it should be), then move your head very slightly over until your cheek makes contact at some point with the stock. Correct setup of your rifle is vital if you are to shoot to your potential!

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By Gwyn Roberts

Then, holding this position open your eyes and check to see whether your vision through the scope is clear or not. If not, repeat it again and get a friend to loosen off the rings and adjust the scope forwards or backwards until the eye relief is perfect, then nip up a couple of the screws so that it doesn’t move whilst bringing the rifle back down again. Put a piece of masking tape on the body of the tube so that it’s flush against one of the scope rings and then mount it onto a rifle rest or place it on a level bench. You can then adjust the scope if needed so that the cross hairs are lined up perfectly square in relation to the action of the rifle and as long as the tape remains touching the ring the correct eye relief distance will be maintained.

Finally, double check everything again on the range by aiming at a target set at 25m or so, to ensure everything is ok then finally tighten up the remainder of the screws. The next thing to do is find a stable standing position. This area (minefield?) is basically divided up into two parts being stance and grip (or hold) and each will need to have quite a bit of time spending on it, both now and in the future to eventually find the optimum combination. Looking up “standing shooting position” on the internet will provide you with a huge amount of “expert” guidance by both shooters and coaches but much of it is contradictive. This is mainly down to the advice being discipline specific and what works in one scenario, may certainly not be the best solution in another but you will always find that certain points that are generally considered to be the “best” way to do things by many of the parties involved! You will also quite clearly see in some photos of a line up of top class shooters, whatever discipline they are shooting at the time who are doing their “own thing” and still producing the results so what is right? Whatever works for you of course!

find that placing more weight on either the heels or balls of your feet will cause you to have more vertical plain fluctuation when aiming on the target so keep this in mind when adopting your position. It could also cause you to either tighten or relax your grip on the stock which may cause a different point of impact on the target so be warned! There are times of course when you may need to put a little extra weight on the front foot to help counter recoil etc but not usually for most types of GR shooting. Finally, your feet should be placed at an angle that allows your body to naturally point the rifle at the target, without any twisting or over tensioning of the muscles to hold it in position. This is usually in the region of 45º to 60º in relation to the target although this may obviously change if shooting multiple or moving targets, and will inevitably vary from shooter to shooter!

Once you have achieved a reasonably stable stance, the next thing to achieve is a good hold or grip! There are many factors that will play a significant part in this from the size and profile of your stock to the overall weight and balance of the rifle, along with your physical size, strength and sometimes mobility too. You should always try and Starting at the front, your keep the head and body in grip on the fore end must an upright position as this allow you to do two things. will help you obtain a quick Firstly it must enable you to and consistent head/eye/ both pull the rifle rearwards scope alignment on the slightly, to hold it securely target. It will also ensure (not tightly) into the that the point impactand on his 6.5-284 Norma 12 F is supporting shoulder whilst Above - Phil of Gibbon the always to remains keeping the rifle as steady thetarget combination beat in 600 and 1,000yd UKBRA constant which willFS-Class help you Benchrest as possible at the same reach your potential! Always time. Too much rearward keep your shoulders as pressure will cause relaxed as possible, place instability in the hold, and your feet roughly about not enough will cause the shoulder width apart and shooter to grip tighter with keep your legs straight, but their trigger hand which will do not brace them as this probably result in a poor will cause excess muscle trigger release as the hand tension which can lead muscles are over tensioned Relax your shoulders as much as possible! to instability. Knees are and not relaxed as they neither bent, or locked should be. The best grip straight but simply remain comfortable. Wearing sturdy tension required would best be described as somewhere flat soled boots will generally provide you with a large between supportive and firm, but not excessive as this too contact area and the most stable platform to shoot from will cause problems. Using the same grip but at different whatever type of surface you have to stand on, which is points along the length of the fore end will have quite an usually quite varied with the type of shooting that we do. effect on the stability produced and again will depend on Wearing something unsupportive like a pair of trainers a whole host of individual factors so don’t just copy generally has you wasting time moving your toes around someone else. This is also true regarding the angle at and stuff trying to get comfortable, especially when you which you position your wrist and elbow in relation to the are shooting on uneven surfaces. Quite often you will line of sight. The taller shooters may well need to hold the



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Pistol grip stocks give good wrist/trigger finger alignment……..

finger and thumb to remain relaxed which will enable the trigger finger to move much more smoothly! The angle of the wrist in relation to the trigger should ideally be as fore end much further forward but this becomes a bit of square as possible so that the trigger is pulled straight back, an issue when shooting a Marlin as they are pretty slim which will obviously help produce a much better trigger by design and are relatively short in length also, forcing release. I personally find that trying to hold a Marlin, some shooters to hold the rifle further rearwards than due to their design (hunting rifle) forces my wrist into an they’d like to do. Most people will probably find the most uncomfortable forward cant, and places my trigger finger stable hold is with the fore end sitting flat in the middle of in such a position that I find myself pulling the top of the the palm, with the fingers and thumb just lightly gripping trigger blade and frame at the same time with the 2nd joint on the sides, instead of trying to hold it tightly with just the of my trigger finger. This is obviously not contusive to good fingers in some sort of weird alien hold. The fore end must trigger control so I always slide my hand downwards, so that fit you, not the other way round so if it doesn’t, change it! when I shoot, just the side of my thumb contacts the side At the butt end, grip pressure should generally be of the grip which gives me a much better trigger applied by the middle two fingers leaving the little alignment! Tucking the elbow inwards, holding it out to the side or somewhere in between will also have an effect on ...... where as Marlins usually don’t! stability and this is where the trial an error part starts. It’s always a good idea to use a note book to record changes, variations and results that you find out when experimenting with various shooting positions and a lot of this position work can be carried out without shooting at all to start with. Here’s a few suggestions to help you get the basic set up: 1. Place a target at 25m and placing your feet parallel and roughly shoulder width apart, simply aim your rifle at the target and adjust the angle of your feet and body until the scope lines up

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Above and below - Experiment to find a point on the slightly each time, and make sure you note any fore-end that gives you the most stable hold then adopt numbered positions where you find your hold to be more stable on the target. Make sure though that it every time for consistency! naturally with the target. When you think you have found it, a simple test of bringing the rifle down from the aim, closing your eyes and then bringing the rifle back up into the aim again before opening your eyes will show

you whether you are close or not. Remember, you are trying to get simple horizontal alignment in relation to the target, not bring it up exactly in the middle of it! Once the correct body/feet alignment is achieved, have someone draw around your feet with some chalk or mark it with tape so that this position can be quickly be re-adopted each time you go to shoot so you don’t have to start from scratch again. 2. Place some tape along the full length on the side of your stock and number it every inch or so starting from the front. Start by gripping the stock as near to the front as you can and bring the rifle up on aim onto a suitably sized target for about 10 seconds then rest it down for a short while. This is simply a stability test and all you are trying to do is consistently keep the crosshairs within a pre-determined area such as the 10, 9 or 8 ring, and nothing else. Carry on repeating this practice by sliding your grip back very

you have a rest in between otherwise fatigue may produce inaccurate results for you. You may well find that a more stable hold is achieved if your elbow is in a lower position when supporting the rifle as opposed to sticking it out to the side, but again experiment using both

positions and see which produces the best results for you. It will probably take quite a while to find a good, stable position but it’s well worth it in the end as it will then allow you to concentrate on other important aspects of your shooting. Once you have found the “sweet spot” on the fore end, simply leave a small piece of tape or mark it somehow close to where your thumb lines up on the stock so that again this position can be quickly adopted next time, until your hold and reference point becomes second nature. In part 3 we will look at what needs to be done in order to achieve a good trigger control and shot release, along with some simple accuracy practices which will hopefully reduce the size of your groups and help you gain a few extra points at the same time!



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Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd 295 London Road North End Portsmouth PO2 9HF Opening Times Mon 9.30 - 5.30 Tues Closed Wed Closed Thur 9.30 - 5.30 Fri 9.30 - 5.30 Sat 9.30 - 5.30

Tel 02392 660574 Fax 02392 644666 E-mail [email protected] Website 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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Osprey Rifles

‘The Savage Specialists’

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We still have a limited supply of precision target actions for sale at £500 for your next custom project. The new RRP is £920 so grab a bargain while you can URL : www.ospreyrifles.com

Volquartsen Custom Long Barrel Pistol

by John Robinson History The idea was put to our US partner i-SHOT to ask Volquartsen to custom make a Ruger Mk111 Long

Grips

shoot as good as it looked? Well, yes, it was great. The trigger was beautifully crisp and the recoil very controllable indeed. So welcome to the…………. Heavy weight champion of the LBP world, and I’m not joking. Weighing in at 4lb 4ozs or 2kg, this heavy weight, is so much more metal, and engineering than any other LBP. Whether you’re looking for a .22 LBP pistol for plinking or competition, the Ruger MKIIIs are among the best and most reliable on the market. Add this to Volquartsen Custom, a leader in the development of accurate, smooth operating, customized versions of the MKIII. You’re now looking at one hell of a LBP!! Even on first test, with Mike fitting a 2-6x scope for me, onto the standard mounts fitted on this LBP so no added extra involved in getting a scope put on it, he even sighted it in for me. And with me shooting at 50 meters no practice or trigger test on the a match 3 with normal timings of the 1500 where I think this LBP will come into its own, as you can use it over

Barrel pistol almost two years ago. And together with help from Nic Volquartsen himself we have come up with the first prototype that complies with all UK firearms legal requirements. The concept of a 12” barrel was not a problem, but the bar at the rear of the grip was. But once they got their heads around the idea that it had to be a permanent part of the firearm it was all cool, and they done a very fine job of it. I had first received the pictures from I-SHOT as it arrived from Volquartsen, and it looked great. But Helmie at I-SHOT had it in his hands, and he told me they had done a superb job and would leave it to me to put the first shots through. I was very excited when collecting the prototype from Heathrow, was it really as good as the photo`s? I was not disappointed; it was a work of art, superbly put together. Because of getting ready for the Phoenix, it was another Load three long days before I got to shoot it. Did it

Indicator

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Mounts - detailed view half the time or 72 rounds on a post your knee or sitting down. Dropping just 3 points only and one was very close as you can see, so watch out Layne. So after the first test is was nice to find out that Volquartsen First, start by tuning the action using their, own MKIII accurizing kit, as well as installing a pretravel adjustment screw to the trigger to achieve a crisp, clean 2.25 lb. trigger pull. Which was a treat to use “straight out of the box”. The Demonstrator V-Magic II came with right

mounts - full side view

handed, high tech Volthane grips as standard, a slight problem when shooting 1500. So Mike will also include the Pachmayr Signature grips to allow easier ambidextrous use and holstering, with future LBP`s. Volquartsen used a stainless steel “match” digitally gauged fluted barrel, with an extremely effective 32hole integrated compensator on this first LBP. The fluting decreases weight and increases surface area for cooling, but most importantly it increases rigidity, which in turn improves accuracy. And they also used

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the same chamber and bore dimensions, as with each of their pistol models, so this is coming from a long history line, not just a fad for the UK market. The chamber is hand cut using their, own unique reamer. The feed ramp is also hand polished to ensure proper functioning. Each LBP will come standard with a Weaver style mount, and they will be developing a fitting for a TL Rear Adjustable Sight and a .125” wide front dovetail sight, so this model you are reading about now will be the first in a long line of match grade LBP with upgrade’s to make it even more impressive and to suit the discipline that your intending to use it for. All pistols have a stainless finish, but a matte black finish is also available as another option. Carbon fibre match barrel Stockade can also now confirm that Volquartsen will now, make for us the very first Ruger MKIII custom pistol with a 12” Carbon Fibre Match Barrel with a 32-holed compensator, as a new option for our UK spec Custom LBP. Same quality and precision, with a lot less weight. Traveling with safety and safety functions. This pistol comes with an operation of, internal locking, helpful I think. When away from home or at home if you like. To activate the internal lock, place the manual safety in the on or safe position. Then place the internal lock key into the hole provided in the pistol and rotate the key clockwise until it stops, then removing the key you will now be unable to move the safety or fire the trigger. To undo this safety lock just place the key back in the reverse the operation. Remember, to place the key in a safe place so that you do not lose it (Spare key supplied). A Ruger padlock is also supplied to go through the slide with the action open. It also comes with the standard safety, which is close, and flush fitting so once applied it will sit in a holster and not disengage, as I have found out with other LBP’s. The magazine also helps play its part in safety. The magazine disconnect prevents the trigger from being pulled if the magazine is removed, so even if you have one round remaining in the pistol you cannot use it like a single

Safety - detailed view shot pistol.

even if there is not magazine in the LBP.

Load Indicator I know that you should like ways treat a gun as, loaded, but this again added little safety feature lets you look down the left hand side of your LPB and do a visual inspection to see is you have a round in the chamber. When the chamber is empty, the load indicator should be flush with the side of the receiver. When the chamber is loaded the rearmost portion of the load chamber indicator should protrude from the left side of the receiver and a red dot should be visible for you to see that the chamber does indeed have a round in the chamber

Accuracy and reliability Although I have not had time to bench this pistol, I have shot it in 1500 and T&P1 stages in timed conditions. And just slow precision fire, the results have been very good with a variety of ammunition and it has not malfunctioned once in that time for Mike or myself. My personal thoughts are that I shoot it better, faster. But I’m a 1500 shooter at heart. We will see as the Volquartsen LBP will be out and about at the Nationals and GRAW 4 to see what national records it can pick up.

The full pistol - an amazing bit of kit!

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Initial target tests at 50m Last but not least………… This heavy weight also comes with a heavy price tag, you can tell this by me saying you will have to Email or Phone for a quote. Ok I give in!!!!!!!!!! Maximum price is £1999.00. Any savings on exchange rate or shipping will be passed back to the customer; this is because there is a build time of three months and the pound V the dollar and shipping costs. Mike will also be including 5 magazines and a set of Pachmayr Signature grips. STOCKADE PRODUCTS LTD wants UK shooters to have access to the best possible equipment for

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their sport. SO!!!!! They will also have all the products you need for whatever disciplines you wish to go into.

Contact: Stockade Products Ltd www.stockadeproducts.co.uk [email protected]

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 Lapua Magnum

Lawton repeater action in 6mm BR Please feel free to contact us to discuss your proposed custom rifle A very cost effective way to enter the sport ….SPS Varmint barrelled action installed in a choice of aftermarket stocks from AICS, Hogue, Bell & Carlson etc Supplied with polished bolt rails, adjusted factory trigger and refaced and crowned barrel. May be upgraded to include detachable magazine system, tactical bolt knob etc ……

At last…we have received a batch of 1894C .357 Marlin rifles! These are available 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.

It’s all happening here right now! We’ve also been awaiting more Taurus LBR’s but a number of them arrived here the other day. So we have .22 .357 and .44 models in stock again. Everill Gate Farm Broomhill, Wombwell Barnsley S73 0YQ

Tel: 01226 756332 Fax: 01226 751321 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.rimfiremagic.co.uk

Shooter 39 Our retail shop is open Thursday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm toTarget allow us time in the workshop.

Ammunition Selection, Testing and Preparation – Part 2

By Carl Boswell I finished last time on the point of rim testing your ammunition. Remember this is just checking to ensure consistency, like the other processes I note below. I am sure that a few of you will be thinking this is a waste of time and these are other ‘gadgets’ that I have to buy to keep up. In some respects I would agree with you. I remember just after the pistol ban I bought a new blackpowder revolver and all the bits to go with it. The first thing piece of equipment I bought was a in line cap dispenser. This was also the first piece of equipment to go as I found fiddly and cumbersome. Like everything, you should buy only what you need and if you shoot well with what you use, keep going! All I can offer you here are options and opportunities to ensure your rifle and ammunition are as tuned as they can be. Visual Inspection This is the most obvious and cheap method of testing you can use. In fact it will cost you nothing but your time. As we have so many gadgets for ammunition testing which we are looking at here; we can sometimes forget that we have our own senses to rely on first. So what are we looking for? Well firstly this does not have to be round by round, unless it is for a match when I find this process to be very worthwhile. You can just look at your ammunition while they are still in the box and inspect then in the case holder. We are looking for anything that would be out of the ordinary. This could be any extra wax on the bullet, or a bullet that has any lead removed from the shoulders or the nose section, any chamfering of flat nosed bullets, damage or buckling of the case, etc, etc (See Picture above). Basically, anything that could cause the bullet to loose stability or alter the way it will ignite in your chamber. Let’s face it, if you were reloading every case, head and possibly primer would be inspected for damage!? This can be time consuming process. Most

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postal matches are one target only, so not bad on a monthly rotation. However, if you are going in for a National or International match, with the aim to shoot several classes the process can be long winded. However, I would reiterate, it is worth it. I know a number of prone shooters that also go through this and other processes mentioned in these articles, to ensure a high level of accuracy. Weighing Ammunition Next up for consideration is weighing your ammunition. This can be done with a manual or

Typical manual scale Electronic scales can be cheap or expensive - it just depends on what you want it for and how much your willing to pay

Some are still over the one hundred pound mark, but others like the Frankford Arsenal I use can be purchased for as little as £30. This makes a difference as it does not break the bank. There are a variety of scales around so I will leave it to you to determine which is better for your needs, as this is not just an investment for this specific process but will also to help in reloading. Why do we weigh rimfire ammunition? A good question! When weighing and finding a difference from one round to the next we could be weighing excess lead in the bullet, case inconsistency, powder inconsistency or even excess lube. In general, having weighed a number of different brands of ammunition, consistency for match rounds comes within 0.1 grain; 0.2 if you want to have more ammunition to shoot from a batch. The difference within just one box of ammunition can be as much as 0.7 grains, which from experience can produce the odd ‘flyer’. This is what we are trying to alleviate. I have weighed a variety of ammunition over the last few years and taking out the ones that show some variance from the rest of those being weighed has dramatically reduced the amount of ‘flyers’ I have had. Whether people see this as accurate or not, it is another test that can be done and has worked for a great many people.

Ammunition Concentricity This is a new consideration on the scene and the product itself has been on the market in the US for the last few years. It is not widely accepted within the rimfire benchrest community, but has seen success and praise in the prone and three position shooting digital scale, although the former will take a lot of time sports in the US. To be honest I have never seen so I suggest the latter type. Digital scales have come a concentricity gauge in the UK and I have never down a great deal in price over the last few years. used one. The point here is they are out there and for some they are a useful tool in determining Rimfire cencentricity gauge - these have started to make their what ammunition is used way to Europe from mainland USA for a match or not! The nature of the product is to look at the concentricity of the bullet when seated in the case. For further information have a look at this online study; http://www.nielsonbrothersarms.com. This is quite an interesting piece of work and much of it holds true. I read it a few years ago, before the concentricity gauge came onto the market. I was taken by the depth of study and the conclusions the Neilson brothers arrived at. However, when you have a match chambered rifle it also holds true that the chamber



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will, in theory, seat the case and bullet square within the action. Any deviation from concentric seating will be corrected by the barrel chamber. This may be just ‘another gadget’, but time will tell. I am sure that if people start scoring well having used it, then others will be getting one in the hope of increasing their scores. At $365 or £181, it is not something you may go out and buy straight away. Ammunition Length (COL) The easiest way of measuring the length of your ammunition is not with another gadget, but with a plain dial calliper (See Pic 6). There could be lots of attachments or guides for this, but they could end up damaging your ammunition rather than confirming they are the correct length. As it implies, Cartridge overall length (COL), is the overall length of the round of ammunition. Determining this will be via the standard .22 round measurements . You can also find out how this fits the chamber of your rifle, for perfect bullet seating, by measuring the chamber yourself or having a competent gunsmith do it. Remember our centerfire colleagues do this, but also have the added advantage of fire forming their brass to the form of their rifles chamber. As you can see from the diagram the maximum size of.22 ammunition is slightly different from the standard sizes we may see on the shelf (See Pic 7). With this information you can get a clear idea about how variations from one brand to another do happen. This

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may not count while shooting your Ruger 10/22 for a bit of fun, but in a match rifle this may count very much. Batch testing will obviously alleviate the need for this test, and others, to some degree by finding the right ammunition for your rifle, but this test will still count if you are looking for any variance in that batch. Batch testing will also cost you the purchase of 5000 rounds upwards and although this is an investment, not everyone has that sort of money laying around. Accuracy can be affected by the length of the cartridge in terms of where the bullet head actually lies in the rifling (bullet seating) or how far it has to jump into the rifling. The manufacturer of your ammunition will have set in place accurate manufacturing processes and a test for COL, but if you are using a non match brand, it will have been made to put through a variety of chambers which could be a little more loose or tight! Again if we were loading our own ammunition, we would put in place a variety of testing procedures to ensure accuracy at the highest level. This would be from checking the bullet heads all the way through to checking the COL of the cartridge. Just because we don’t actually make the ammunition we rely on manufacturers to get it right for us, every time! For the most part this is true and they do. However, with all of these testing processes it is that one percent of the time that we need to check for. (It is usually that one percent that actually counts as well!!). All this might seem a bit exacting, but from experience

of accuracy. One question I will leave you with. Have you A Vernier Caliper is the easiest (and cheapest) way of tested the ammunition in a measuring a the overall length of each cartridge variety of conditions, cold, hot, humid, etc? This could be at your home range or it could be at number of venues. Using ammunition in the cold or humid conditions can have a very different affects on where it lands in comparison to using it in warmer weather or dryer weather. Shooting in the rain for instance will generally send shots high! Experimenting with or testing the ammunition you use is worth the while, as you can estimate how it is going to behave in specific of others as well as myself, these processes do conditions. From these last two articles I hope this is work. It is really up to you to say whether the extra the conclusion you come to, as it is not time, or money in some cases, is worth the effort. necessarily about the products that may help you, I have probably posed more questions than I have but more about knowing what the ammunition answered in these articles and for that I apologise. you have selected to shoot does and how it will I may also have missed something, but I am sure behave with the rifle you shoot. For me this is the first that I will be told if I have? However, in some ways stage of having the accuracy we all need. Good and that is the nature of shooting, especially in terms accurate shooting until next time.

www.eleyammunition.com

World Class shooters shoot World Class ammunition Matt Emmons (USA)

Double Olympic medalist, ISSF World Cup 2009 Silver Medal Prone - WC3, Bronze Medal 3P - WC3

ELEY - the home of Tenex



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Outdoor Air rifle sports – Starter Equipment Part 4

Stanley Shaw

Above and below - Some scopes will have a side wheel which is already marked (left) normal scopes have the parallax ring which is also marked but it is always a good idea to measure and mark your range finding for more accuracy and your shooting distances. Naturally the best to zero your scope is an indoor 50m range but this is not always possible, so try to find a clam day for zeroing your air rifle. Do not attempt to zero your air rifle if it is extremely windy your results will not be so ideal Most will go straight to the point i.e. place a target paper at the desired range and zero in. Well that is a very quick and dirty method that we like to avoid, we would like to be slightly more precise. • Take a white card like A3 paper and make a horizontal line in the center with a black felt pen. We will then place this at 10m. The from a rifle rest we focus on the line and place the cross hair at any point on the line and fire two shots always aiming on the line. The shots will probably fall low (do not bother about left or right for now). If the shots are more then 2 inches away from the horizontal line then you need to bring up the point of impact (POI) to meet the point of aim (POA). This is done by packing shim material between the rear mount and bottom of the scope tube. We do this to keep

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our adjustment of the turrets as small as possible. This is done to work our turrets later on as much as possible to the optical center of the lens as this is the most accurate part of any scope. For shims use old negative film, cut a few small strips. Mark the scope against the top clamps to find the position and rotation easy. Unclamp the rear clamp until it allows to slide in a shim or two between the lower mount and scope tube, then re fix your top clamp. • Now the pellet should be striking less then before. If still more then 2 inches include more shims. If this is less then 1 inch that is perfect. Now its time to check this at the longest range i.e. 50m. Set the same card with black horizontal line at 50m focus on the line and shoot a couple of pellet keeping your cross hairs on the line. The pellets might fall to the left or right of the line (don’t bother) concentrate on up or down. If the pellets strike within 4 inches above or below the line then it is advisable to remove some shim material you placed previously at the rear mount. If the pellets strike within 2 to 2 ½ inches above or below the line at 50m you are perfectly working in the optical center of your scope, hence future range finding with the scope is more realistic. • Its time to place a new card at our desired range for set up i.e. 25 meters. On this card we will make a simple cross (+) from one side of the paper to the next. First we will be setting the windage turret. Set the magnification to the card center of the cross (+).Aim at the center of the cross (+) and shoot

Above and below - Chairgun Pro trajectory POI plot for our example. One can also play around with the zero distance to find the optimum zero setting for the equipment set up and performance. Below is a Ballistic table generated for the same set up. Chairgun Pro is a scientific tool hence it offers a lot of possibilities to explore your performance. Still at the end of the day you need to confirm by actually shooting your equipment and fine tuning. a group of 3 shots. Your should fall at any point up/ down left/right around the center of the cross (+) but as a group. Your aim now is to get the group over the vertical line of the cross. If your are left or right of the vertical then you have to click in the opposite direction on the turret. If you have a ¼” @ 100y scope start with 5 clicks opposite to the POI, if you have a 1/8” @ 100y scope start with 10 clicks opposite to the POI. Now again aim at the center of the cross (+) and shoot another group. Repeat until the group hits the vertical line and stop. If the number of clicks make you skip the vertical line then return back ½ the amount of clicks and shoot a new group. • Now we will set the elevation turret. You already know if the groups being shot are lower or higher then the horizontal line of the cross on your target. If you are higher then you need to click opposite i.e. down and vice versa if you are shooting low. Repeat the same process as for windage until the group is hitting the center around the cross (+). • Now some fine tuning is required. Place a new target with a couple of cross (+). Aim at the center and shoot one pellet. Now load an new pellet and aim at the pellet hole on the target and shoot a new pellet. Identify the difference and adjust elevation turret and windage turret in small steps 1 or 2 clicks max in the required directions. Once you loose track of the pellet impact us another cross (+) and repeat until you are hitting the same pellet hole when you aim for it. • If you cannot do away with side wind set windage at not more then 15m. If you have head wind or wind coming from your back there your

elevation POI is affected. Wind from your back will lower the POI, head wind will raise your POI. • Well done your scope is set and zeroed for 25m but we are not done yet with our example. The shooter wants to use these setting for Benchrest, FT and HFT so for Benchrest the set up is done, now it’s a matter of more fine tuning and learning to shoot the wind. For FT and HFT however we are not done yet. In FT and HFT one needs to shoot targets at different ranges hence we need to understand the trajectory of the pellet in the required ranges and compare it to the mil dot scale in a set magnification. For FT one also must be able to range find his target using the parallax adjustment on the scope. The best to do this is to use the maximum scope magnification available for you. You need to place some markers at 5 meter intervals from 10 to 50 meters. Then wrap a piece of masking tape to the parallax adjustment bell. Start focusing until you can see as sharp as possible the closest marker. Mark the masking tape next to the reference mark the distance. Take the image out of focus and refocus on it if you match then mark the distance with a permanent marker. Once you have all the distances wrap some clear cellophane tape to protect the label. Note the further targets are more difficult to focus spot on, it would be easier if you have very high magnification (over X32) but one can still do and also estimate visually. There are two methods a quick method and a slow method to establish your Point of Aim for the various ranges with using hold over. The slow method is more accurate but the quick method can also bring you close enough to make your final calculations. For the slow method you need to place a target at least every 5 meter intervals starting from 10m till 50m. The target needs to be just a simple cross (+). For each distance you aim at the center of the cross (+) and shoot a group. Then the shooter to follow this example must not the group POI with the mil dot scale in X10 for HFT and X 24 for FT and take notes. NOTE if you vary the magnification you will vary the scale of the



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target but by placing the corresponding mil dot on the center of the target. Each target must then be hit bull. This takes some time and sometime it is difficult to do at the range. Below are the reticle maps for our example at 10x and 24x magnification with zero at 25m. The quick method is to use software capable of plotting your trajectory given relative data. Software like the new Hawke Chairgun Pro works. Simply download your copy from http:// www.chairgun.com/, install and then insert the required data and like magic your trajectory is calculated and plotted, and that is not all, you have ready to print reticle showing exactly were to aim at various distances and at different magnification. Chairgun also gives you data regarding the point of impact at all the distances. This is a quick method to start but it is always advisable to confirm the drop data given from the calculations in Chairgun Above and below -With the aid of computer software like against the true data. The data required Chairgun Pro one can already have an estimate for hold to run your Chairgun trajectory path over for the target ranges. This is generated according to is simple, you will need the following: your data entry and can easily be confirmed on the range. image so the POA is different for different magnifications, however your zero will remain the same. Once all the range is completed once can draw a reticle map and mark the mil dot required to hit the target at that distance. Once complete one have to recheck this work by shooting not by aiming the center of the reticle to the center of the

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1. Muzzle Velocity 2. Scope Height 3. Magnification 4. Pellet weight and other data (Chairgun has a big library of the most common pellets). 5. Zero Distance 6. Max Distance All of this data you know. Chairgun provides you with a variety of charts and tables, most important are the trajectory chart and ballistic table shown below. With Chairgun you can then play around with your zero range and scope magnification to see the effect of hold over. One can also opt to use dialing in (click in the elevation turret according to the shooting range), Chairgun provides you with this data and procedures how to be more accurate in scope calibration. Remember that from time to time check your zero. As time passes you will learn and experiment with your starter air rifle. Some of you will also take their starter air rifles to a higher level, by customization of the rifle internals and stock and eventually upgrading the scopes, but for now forget it, its time to enjoy your air rifle and practice your favorite sport.

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47

303 compensation characteristics and commercial ammuntion - part 2

By Nigel Greenaway A recent trend in reloading – Optimum Charge Weight (OCW) dovetails nicely with the well documented compensation characteristics of the Lee Enfield action. The basis of OCW is finding the optimum point in barrel vibration to compensate for small differences in powder load. It is a theory that recognises the dramatic affect that barrel harmonics can have on accuracy and directly links to the 100 year old theory of compensation that is a characteristic of the Lee Enfield action. At the same time I will show the results of my favourite .303 handloads in two different rifles. OCW theory comes from examining barrel behaviour which suggests that the initial shock wave, generated by the powder charge’s ignition, travels at the speed of sound in steel (about 18,000

Above - 303Sierra_bullet fps) from the chamber to the muzzle, then back, in a repeated pattern. When this wave is present at the muzzle, there is much turbulence and movement at the muzzle. However, when this main shock wave has reverberated back to the chamber end, the muzzle is relatively stable. This window of opportunity is the best time for the bullet to exit the muzzle. The barrel is basically straight, and relatively calm. The complete opposite of this ideal and therefore the most inopportune point of all for bullet release is when the shock wave is at the muzzle. For OCW afficianadoes this area is referred to as the “scatter node” because it will produce a scattered group, throwing flyers at random. This scatter node area can be easily seen during an OCW test, and generally 1 to 2 powder graduations above the scatter node charge will have you right in the OCW accuracy node.

303 Brass 48

Target Shooter

The OCW load or accuracy node would have the optimal amount of powder to push the bullet at just the right speed to exit the muzzle when this shock wave is at the chamber end of the barrel. Usually there will a .1 of a grain difference in powder charge weight above and below this optimum point where the point of impact on the

target is little different because the shock wave is still towards the chamber end. This is the OCW midpoint you are trying to find because the end result is that small differences in charge weight will make no real difference in point of impact and therefore group size. Set your charge weight so that the shock wave is towards the muzzle end and that extra 0.1 of a grain could throw a real flyer! The OCW load will be similar but not necessarily identical in two different Lee Enfield No.4 rifles because different manufacturers, bore size, wear and bedding will produce variations. There is no substitute for testing and it makes sense that there will be different optimum accuracy nodes with different velocities. A starting point will be to decide whether near service velocities are required or lighter loads for shorter ranges. If only shooting at 200 yards then a lighter load makes sense – less wear and tear on the rifle and extra reloads from that expensive tub of powder. However, if like me your shooting extends to 600 yards and beyond then velocity is important – in this case something close to 2,440 feet per second with a 174 grain .303 bullet. My favourite handload of 42.5 grains of Reloder 15 behind a 174 grain Sierra MatchKing in Greek HXP brass will achieve the service velocity and a bit more in some tight rifles or longer barrels. I did not have the time to conduct a full OCW test but I did test a load that I had picked up from a web forum that is the talking shop for OCW reloaders http://practicalrifler.6.forumer.com One of the members had tested different loads in his Lee Enfield No.4 using the same components that I use. He concluded that 41.0 – 41.3 grains of Reloder 15 was the OCW with groups hovering around the one inch mark. Drop to 40.7 grains or increase to 41.5 and the group opened up to almost two inches. I tested the 41.1 load against my 42.5 and achieved groups in my No.4(T) Sniper Rifle of 1.80 inches (4 in 1.1”) compared to just over one inch with my load. Overall cartridge length will be determined by the type of shooting,

No4 T Sierra

41.1 reload magazine fed or single shot – mine are 3.075 inch OAL. All the usual reloading caveats apply as I have found these loads to be safe in my rifle but readers should start at least 10% below this load, especially if using different brass or bullets. Another tip is to neck size

Kynoch the brass for as long as possible before full length resizing. This will extend the life of your brass and also make it more accurate but you will need to segregate your brass if shooting more than one rifle in .303 calibre. Neck resized ammunition can get a bit tight to chamber so is best NOT used in rapid fire events. I also used a 90 year old P14(T) sniper rifle to test some of these loads with the Reloder 15 load of 42.5 grains behind a Sierra shooting in to 1.5” (4 shots within an inch). I also tried some batch weighed Sellier & Bellot 180 grain Boat Tail bullets with a light load of 40.5 grains of Reloder 15. These shot surprisingly well at under two inches but I would stress the need to batch weigh the bullets because the variation is far greater than the Sierra bullets but then they are half the price. I would certainly use S&B bullets for the rapid fire or snap targetry at 200 yards but be prepared for a change in elevation as they shot 4.5 minutes low at 100 metres in the P14(T).



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P14Sierra The results are tabulated below including my earlier tests with commercial loads Ammunition Greek HXP Prvi Partizan Kynamco Match Reloder 15 42.5 Sierra Reloder 15 41.1 Sierra Reloder 15 40.5 S&B

P14(T) No.4(T) 2.93” 4.50” 3.15” 1.87” 1.50” 1.50” 1.50” 1.15” - 1.80” 1.95” -

I can’t help but point out the tremendous results from Kynamco’s .303 Match – a commercial loading but using many of the components that I

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favour -174 grain boat tail Sierra MatchKing heads loaded in to Greek HXP Brass. If you are not in to reloading then this ammunition may equal some of the best handloads – visit www.kynochammunition.co.uk for more details. On the subject of brass for reloading I would always recommend boxer primed HXP but recent use of Prvi Partizan brass indicates that this may be even better. It is certainly stronger in that critical web area about 1/3 inch or 8mm above the rim which is where .303 brass stretches. See the visible line in the picture of the middle HXP case fired out of the No.4(T), the lower Prvi Partizan case fired from the same rifle hardly exhibits any stretching whilst the upper case was fired out of the P14(T). I haven’t got any pictures of Sellier & Bellot once fired brass but I have seen a friend have total case head separation on virtually every round on the first reload using this brass. S&B brass has the reputation of being very thin and therefore weak in the web area above the rim – I would not recommend it for reloading. That concludes the article but I would like to leave readers with one message – if you really want to get the best out of your .303 then start experimenting with safe reloads – you might be surprised at how accurate these old rifles can be but take it slowly and read up on the subject if you are a novice.

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58 - UK CUSTOM SHOP

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250 plus rifles in stock ~ 75 plus shotguns in stock ~ Airguns in stock Wild Cat Sound Moderators ~ On Site Air Bottle and Air gun Charging facilities We Stock guns from the following makers: Howa, Vorer, Steyr, Browning, Winchester, Miroku, Tikka, Sako, CZ, Remington, Blaser ,Sauer, Mauser, Stirling, Laurona, Sig, AYA, Beretta, Bakial, Fabarm, Franchi, Ruger, BSA, Webley, AirArms, Lincoln, Weihrauch and Fabarm We stock the following shotgun cartridges: Eley, Fiocchi, SIMI, Rio, Express. We stock metalics by: Fiocchi, Eley, Remington, CCI, Federal, Lapura, RWS, Norma, Sako. Optics by: Zeiss, Kahles, Swarovski, S&B, Lynx, Nicco Stirling, NightForce & many others. Reloading Products, Bullets, Primers, Powder, Cases, Dies, Presses, Scales etc.

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Target Shooter Project Rifle – Part 2

Vince Bottomley In June’s issue of Target Shooter we gathered Above - The AI’s aluminium skeleton is revealed together all the components for our first ‘project when the plastic side-plates are removed. Note cut-out for the Surgeon’s integral recoil-lug rifle’ build. To re-cap, this will be a tactical-style rifle based on the American Surgeon action and the The Surgeon action takes a few design ideas from Accuracy International stock. Our barrel will be the Remmy 700 in that it uses the Remmy spring case-extractor and a similar barrel-tenon design utilising what Remington call their ‘ring of steel’. In other words, instead of the bolt simply running up to the back of the barrel, the bolt is recessed into the barrel. This ‘overlap’ is designed to give better ‘containment’ in the event of a blow-up, so no bad thing.

Surgeon action with the Jewel trigger installed, plus newly chambered barrel with reamer and ‘go’ gauge. Note the bolt-nose recess in the barrel,

a safety feature which Remington call their ‘ring of steel’ a Bartlein 6.5mm, chambered for the 6.5x47 Lapua cartridge. This configuration works exceedingly well and if you are looking to build an accurate reliable tactical-style rifle, you won’t go far wrong with these components. If you recall, our American Surgeon action came from South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies, the Bartlein barrel from Fox Firearms and the trigger, a Jewel supplied by Jackson Rifles. All these companies are advertisers and supports of Target Shooter. Our rifle stock will be a folding example of Accuracy International’s tactical stock and was obtained secondhand.

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The standard Remington tenon is just 0.700 inches in length. Most custom action builders seem to think that this is a bit on the short side, especially as we are often using a much heavier barrel with a custom action. Most custom actions therefore have a barrel-tenon of an inch or more and so it is with our Surgeon, so we are really getting the best of both worlds. Although the two-lug Surgeon action may appear to be similar to the Remington, ‘fit ‘n’ finish’ is superior, though as this is a ‘field’ action, designed to be used in extreme conditions, tolerances are not as tight as say a BAT or Barnard.

The ‘V’ block bed in the AI stock will accommodate almost any circular action

Our Bartlein ‘gain-twist’ barrel is now set up in the lathe, through the headstock and we have ‘clocked’ both ends so that we have the barrel running pretty true – to within a couple of tenths of a thou. Of course, we have only clocked the ends – who knows what is happening along the rest of the barrel? We have however used a DTI with a three-inch long ‘finger’ so that we can at least clock the barrel in the area of what will be the chamber neck. All gunsmiths have their own theory on such matters but the important thing is to be happy with yourself that you have done the job to the very best of your ability. For those who wish to know more about this fascinating process, a well known American gunsmith by the name of Gordy Gritters has produced a very interesting DVD showing the whole process of chambering and threading a barrel. It’s available on-line from the man himself – try a Google search if you want one. Our chamber reamer again comes from Pacific Tool & Gauge in the USA. They offer ‘wildcats’ at the same price as standard reamers so, as most of mine are non-standard, I tend to use PT&G most of the time. My 6.5x47 Lapua reamer has what I call a ‘no turn’ neck. In other words, we don’t need to neck-turn our cases but the chamber-neck is ‘tighter’

than standard. For a tactical rifle, a proper tight-neck would be a step too far. Tight necks should only be used in controlled conditions – like benchrest – where the shooter is under cover, protected from the elements and there is ample opportunity to clean every few shots. For a true tactical rifle, which could be subjected to rigorous use in the field in all weathers, I would not even recommend a ‘no-turn’ neck but our rifle is really just at arget rifle in the tactical style and will be limited to range use. Once the chamber and tenon work is finished, we can spin the barrel around and cut the crown. This again requires careful setting up through the headstock, exactly as we did for the chamber work. I’m cutting a recessed crown though we may end up installing a muzzle-brake eventually but I don’t have one to hand at the moment. Although the 6.5x47 cartridge gives a very modest recoil – especially with the 108 grain Scenar bullet – it’s nice to be able to maintain a ‘hold’ on the target for any follow-up shots and for this, a brake is a great help.

The barrel can now be nipped-up on the Surgeon action and we can install the Jewel trigger. The Remington-style triggers are usually retained with two steel pins though sometimes a trigger ‘hanger’ is used. In the case of our Surgeon, it’s identical to the Remington and no hanger is employed. I’m sure that most of you are familiar with Just a matter of tapping in the two pins….or is it?

Lapua’s excellent 6.5x47 cartridge but here it is with the 308Win. for comparison. In my experience, the Lapua will outshoot the 308 even out to 1000 yards and gives much reduced recoil, especially with the 108 grain bullet

I’ve installed a number of Jewel triggers and several other makes as well and the job is usually straightforward but not this time. For some reason I couldn’t get the trigger to work reliably and ‘reliable’ is THE word when it comes to triggers – safety must be paramount. I owe most of my gunsmithing knowledge to Pete Walker of Walker Custom Rifles in West Yorkshire so I decided to let Peter have a look at the trigger and maybe learn something in the process. He spotted the problem immediately and we soon had the trigger working and breaking at one-pound - about right for our tactical rifle which may be operated with freezing cold fingers! Two ounces is great for a benchrest comp. gun but don’t get too clever with a magazine-fed rifle that will be shot off a bi-pod. The advantage of the AI stock is that our rifle will not need to be bedded. The Surgeon action will rest in the machined aluminium recess which will offer a pretty good bed. Although this type of aluminium ‘V’ bed is a great improvement over a simple inlet in a wood stock, where ultimate accuracy is desired a proper Devcon bed is essential. The original AI military rifle employed a flat-bottomed action bedded on a flat aluminium base which offered a superior bed



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to the ‘V’ block arrangement but the ‘V’ block allows the stock to be used with almost any circular action. When I initially tried the action in the stock, the bolt-handle was touching the recess which is already machined in the aluminium chassis, so a bit of work with a file and Dremel is needed. It is of course essential that the bolt-handle does not in any way foul the stock – whatever your rifle – or accuracy will be compromised. The AI stock is very cleverly designed and the very strong precision machined chassis is then clad with two non-structural moulded plastic side-pieces. Maybe ‘plastic’ is too simple a word as they are very tough and held in place with several tiny socket-head screws. Whether or not the ergonomics appeal is a matter of personal taste – I quite like the way it looks but I’ll deliver my final verdict after I’ve shot it in competition. Just a small amount of trimming is required to get the plastic sides to fit neatly round the Surgeon action and then it’s simply a matter of cutting a couple of quarter UNF screws to length and bolting the barrelled-action in place. Nonetheless, I have spent more or less a whole day doing these simple tasks.

OK, so my day doesn’t always start at the crack of dawn but if you have this work carried out by a skilled gunsmith you must expect to pay for the work. Not perhaps as expensive as a full Devcon bedding job, which would be needed with say a McMillan A5 stock but maybe not as straightforward as it first looks. My chosen scope is a 5.5-22 Nightforce NXS which will mount directly onto the Surgeon’s built-in Picatinny rail using a one-piece A.R.M.S mount. This is a very strong mount but the Nightforce is a heavy scope and needs a decent mounting system, especially on a rifle which may be subject to the odd knock in the course of its life. The matt-black stock and bead-blasted action does little for the appearance of our rifle so our final task - after proofing - will be a nice tactical paint-job. I’ll be going to North West Custom Parts for this as I’ve been immensely impressed by their DuraCoat camo. paint schemes I’ve seen recently. Wayne has a great little shop just on the outskirts of Manchester and he does all his painting in-house so turn around is usually quite quick. I should have the rifle completely finished by next month and we can sort out a load and see how it performs in competition.

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Shooting Website of the Month

This is top American rifle shooter and ballistics expert Bryan Litz’s website. It is subtitled “Technical Information for Rifle Shooters”, which tells you partly what it’s about. More fully it’s for those interested in understanding the design and external ballistics performance of rifle bullets used in long-range precision competition. Don’t visit it if you want pretty images, or to drool over shooting kit – it’s words illustrated by drawings and graphs. Bo.....oring! Maybe, but Bryan addresses the serious competitor who wants to understand the factors that influence results and make informed choices about cartridges, calibres and bullets. He originally set the site up four years ago to host relevant articles he had researched and written, and this is still its main function. It also acts as an introduction to his part-time ballistics consulting services and markets his newly published book Applied ballistics for Long Range Shooting (introduced in last month’s issue of Target Shooter). In Bryan’s words: “My sole objective for having the website is to share good, technical information with long range shooters. I think there are many aspects of long range shooting that seem mysterious and are poorly understood by the general shooting public.

This lack of information can make it hard to achieve success and enjoyment from the activity. My highest goal is to help shooters enjoy their sport better by providing useful information.” So what do you get? The main part of the site gives you access to 15 detailed articles as Adobe pdf documents. Of particular interest to British shooters is a trio that looks at, and compares the performance of three popular 155gn 0.308” match bullets – the Sierra ‘Palma’, Lapua Scenar, and Berger VLD, and a two-part study of the 168gn and 180gn 7mm Berger VLDs popular with F-Class shooters. Altogether, you get nearly 100 pages of material on this and other subjects, top grade information that other people originally had to pay for through buying magazines! There is a useful ‘Links’ page for precision and long-range shooting forums, other technical sites and sources of free downloadable ballistics software, as well as a page on the book and how to order it. www.appliedballisticsllc.com



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A LOOK AT THE REDDING T7 AND FORSTER CO-AX RELOADING PRESSES (Part 1)

By Laurie Holland presses were in carrying out a representative task, then measure the resulting run-out and shoulder position variations on the cases, the same die used throughout. What I found was that there was some variation in run-out values, but this was small and could be put down to statistical variations bearing in mind the [2 words deleted] sample sizes. What did vary noticeably was shoulder position as measured on a Stoney-Point / Hornady case headspace gauge, the weaker and less rigid presses producing a shoulder datum line position up to six thou’ further forward than on the bigger and stronger models. The best presses produced small spreads in the readings, a couple of thou’ variation, maybe half identical. Conversely, one budget turret press (that to be fair is really only meant to be used on pistol cartridges)

The big Redding T7 The background to this study is a review of presses that I undertook for ‘Target Sports’ magazine about a year ago. Although I researched progressive models, those that I borrowed and tried were single-stage or turret and when added to my own collection, totalled 17 models: two hand, 15 bench. I full-length resized twenty to thirty 1980s .308WCF Norma cases that had been purchased as quality once-fired brass used in a TR match on each press. The object of this exercise was to see how ergonomic and powerful the various

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Side view showing the rear support for the turret and amount of space available (.308 case on the ram).

a fortuitous result, as this was my own press having bought it just before I started the review, and The T7 uses a 1” in case you assume I was therefore biased in its (25.4mm) dia. ram. favour, I can only say I wasn’t, especially as I hadn’t got around to mounting and trying it beforehand. There was another model that I wanted to try, but couldn’t get hold of until the very end – Redding’s T7 turret, which I subsequently bought. (With what I’d started out with, and since bought, I own nine presses from six manufacturers ranging from an arbour type using Wilson hand dies to a progressive. At some point, I’ll do a comparative test on the results of loading one cartridge on five different types to see how the resulting cartridges perform.)

produced cases with a six thou’ variation. Obtaining consistent headspace (and adjusting the sizer die to suit the rifle chamber) is important to the precision shooter as headspace variations affect cartridge position within the chamber and can give variable ignition, this affected by how much firing pin energy is used in pushing the case fully forward in the chamber. Outstanding If I didn’t regard any press impressed by some than others. The two Lee ‘Classic Cast’ models offer top performance at remarkably low prices; the classic RCBS ‘Rockchucker Supreme’ showed why it’s still the single-stage press for many. However, one make really stood out, and one particular press rang every bell. The range was from Redding, its three single stage models (the ‘Boss’, ‘Big Boss’, and ‘Ultramag’) proving powerful, operating phenomenally smoothly straight out of the box, and providing small case headspace variations. However, the outstanding press for me was the Forster Co-Ax, a radically different design from the others. It was

as ‘bad’, I was more

Bargepoles I’ll look at the T7 this month, and the Co-Ax next. What I can say about them as a duo is that they’re big, heavy, and expensive both costing over £200. The T7 is the more conventional design conforming to the traditional modified ‘C’ form and looking like a huge mushroom, the turret incorporating seven die stations, the largest on the market. While a single-stage ‘C’ has a fixed top frame arm with a single die station, a turret model has a multi-station top that revolves around the upright leg and is ‘indexed’ to bring each die into play. Traditionally, turret models were mostly used for pistol cartridges, where three dies are involved (increasingly four nowadays with the growing popularity of crimp dies) and if big and strong enough, appealed to the American shooter

The turret with the full complement of seven dies installed.



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used and the turret turned to different positions a few thousand times, these problems got worse as wear and tear produced an increasingly sloppy turret fit. The more die positions, the harder the manufacturer’s job, but Redding has used a combination of good design, machining expertise, and sheer size to get around these problems, the downside is the weight.

Die stations are machined into the cast turret – no steel liners used. Note the turret retaining / spindle. Additional turrets can be purchased and easily swapped to handle additional cartridges. who handloads a cartridge needing two dies for his deer rifle on top of the three for the pistol / revolver number. In such usage, the [5 words deleted] dies usually stay permanently installed. If for no other reason, the big Redding had intrigued me by being the only model of this type that benchrest shooting gurus Fred Sinclair and Bill Gravatt recommend to precision rifle shooters as an alternative to big rigid ‘O-frames’. Normally, precision shooters won’t touch turret presses with the proverbial bargepole as the turret has to flex around its spindle / retaining bolt on the main press-upright a little – if it’s held rigidly, it won’t rotate or at least require excessive effort. Then, getting the machining and ‘indexing’ exactly right so that each and every die is 100% aligned with the ram / shellholder wasn’t feasible in pre-CNC machining days, or at least not at a price that the customer would pay. Moreover, as the press was The supplied primer arm moves out of the ram as it is raised on the sizing stroke for the operator to slip a primer into its cup.

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Big Make no mistake, this press is big! Some of that comes from the bits needed to provide a powerful tool. So we have a sturdy 14” long operating handle with a large plastic grasping ball, heavy steel operating links with 5½” between pivot points, and a hefty 1” diameter steel ram. The main upright leg is just under 6” high, around 3½” deep, and is cast as an I-section for strength, massively wide at the front. The operating handle, bottom end of the press links and ram are all attached to each There is a tiny gap between the turret and its rear support that closes up as the press is tensioned in use.

other by a massive [2 words – cast iron - deleted] casting down below. To support all this [‘cast iron’ deleted] metal, not to mention a near 6” diameter 1.2” thick [‘cast’ deleted] turret, there is an integral 19in² base that has around a half-inch thickness. As noted, the turret is just under six inches in diameter at 146mm for those who think metrically, and most of its area is 1.2” (30mm) thick, the seven die stations and the central retaining / supporting bolt all located in slightly thicker bosses in the casting, these running at 1.3” / 33mm. To support this little lot, not to mention the weight of seven dies, the central upright leg of the press frame deepens at its top to four inches and bifurcates, a rear section 1.3” (33mm) wide and 0.64” (16mm) deep sitting right out to the rear edge of the turret to support it under load. To let the turret turn freely, there is a 0.014” gap between the two, this closing up under load when the press

As the ram is lowered to extract the case from the sizer die, the arm moves back into the ram and eventually pushes the cup through the shellholder to prime the case. sizes a case. I measured this gap using feeler gauges with the turret turned to each die position, and it didn’t vary by more than a thou’. This support contains a spring-loaded ball bearing that does the indexing job, locating in appropriately placed concave depressions machined into the underside of the turret. Smooth [‘As with Redding’s single-stage models, the’ deleted] The T7 operated silkily straight out of the box. As with other Redding presses, you need to set the sizer die to put the press under tension so the linkage ‘cams over’a little. In addition to this, there is a positive stop on each side of the lower frame casting contacted by the operating links at full travel. As you’d expect, the press had no trouble full-length sizing .308 cases, although as always, extracting cases from the die took more effort than pushing them in thanks to the effort of pulling necks over the expander ‘ball’. This was despite their inside walls having been lubed, but in fairness, both cases and die are a quarter century old, and modern dies employ much improved expander shapes and positions. Spent primers fall through the hollow ram and into a length of polythene pipe that is a push fit on a stub at the bottom rear of the ram. A nice piece of design sees primers fall straight down and into the collector when the on-press priming arm is retracted – most other presses see half of them bounce out of the slot unless the arm is there to direct them. The photos show the neat on-press priming arrangement – of little interest to me though, as I always use a hand-held priming tool.

half fell within a one-thou’ modal range measuring 1.6185”-1.6195”. As I set my Forster .308W ‘Bushing-Bump’ sizer die to produce cases at the rather larger headspace setting of 1.622” to suit my F/TR Barnard’s chamber, no problems here then. If I was being really scientific in my testing. I would have had to carry out this exercise using the die in each of the seven stations to see if the performance varied due to any machining / indexing imperfections, but sizing and measuring 175 cases was rather daunting, and I thought I’d trust Redding! (If this seems far-fetched, do you remember those long-range revolver shooters on their ‘flying machines’? They’d find out which chamber produced the smallest groups and single-load that one ignoring the other five.) Why? However, this still begs the question that many of you have no doubt been asking ever since setting eyes on the photographs – why would I, or anybody else, want a muckle great lump of cast An optional 100-primer capacity magazine fed primer attachment can be purchased.

How did the T7 perform with regard to case measurements? Run-out was fine averaging just under a thou’ on the neck. Headspace averaged 1.619”, right in line with big ‘O-frame’ results with a spread of three thou’, albeit only one case each at the extreme values of 1.617” and 1.620”. Just over



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Spent primers are neatly collected in a polythene pipe for hygienic disposal. iron that holds seven dies, and how do I use it? To answer the second question first, I use it as a single-stage press, batch-processing cases on one die at a time, not turning the turret after each  Make / Model stroke of the ram to do another job. Apart from Frame Type anything else, it takes a fair bit of effort to turn Frame Material the T7’s turret, so it would be very tiring to Weight attempt semi-progressive operation. The No. of Die Stations other answer is of course the facility to hold seven dies semi-permanently. I use this press Index Method primarily for smaller cartridges with the Additional turrets? Height .222 Rem case-head size - .223 Rem and Depth .204 Ruger at the moment. This uses five Ram diameter stations (I expand .223 necks as a Ram travel separate operation from sizing). The other two Ambidextrous? stations hold a Redding decapper die, and Priming a Forster bullet-puller. What do I do when loading cartridges with 0.473” case-head diameter then - .308W, 6.5X47L, 6.5-284N, Spent primers? 6mm BR Norma at the moment? We’ll move onto that next month with a look at the Information Forster Co-Ax.

Case-neck run-out was measured after sizing. REDDING T7 Turret – modified C‐press Cast iron c. 23lbs 7. Designed to accommodate tall / Redding competition  type dies with micrometer tops. Manual. (Push‐fit operating handle provided.) Yes (changed by undoing a single large bolt).  14.5” 9.5” 1” 3.75” (for sizing, more for bullet seating) Right hand operation only. Via a swinging arm pivoting from below mounted on the  front of the press frame. There is a provision to add an  optional‐extra 100‐primer capacity tube‐fed slide‐bar  type system mounted on the frame base.  Via a hollow ram into a small diameter polythene tube.  www.redding‐reloading.com.  Importer: Norman Clark Gunsmiths Ltd.  (www.normanclarkgunsmith.com, tel: 01788 579651)

The key post-sizing measurement was headspace which was held within small variations on the T7, this example measuring 1.619” a typical result.

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By Gwyn Roberts This year’s annual Steel shoot at the excellent Mattersey range complex on July 12th was a charity match in honour of its late Chairman Jim Brown, who sadly died of cancer last year. Jim was probably best described as a “colourful character” who also happened to be one of the best revolver shooters in Europe! This is always a great match to take part in whether you are a novice or seasoned shooter, as the R.O’s always go out of their way to help you and make you feel welcome, and are a great bunch of people! The main match is open to GRCF & GRSB rifles and LBR & LBP revolvers / pistols so you are spoilt for choice depending on what firearms you own.

penalty that would be added onto your overall time at the end! Match 1 for the pistol calibre guns (GRCF / LBR) was a straight forward stage with six Bianchi plates set out at 10m. Starting loaded at 45deg with as many rounds as you liked, every plate had to fall to stop the clock in each of the allocated 5 runs, with every timed run to count. Simple enough, then it was onto Match 2 for a bit of “2 position” shooting! This one allowed a maximum of 20 rounds per shooter and consisted of two banks of 10 plates out at 25m requiring you to engage every target using a weak shoulder / hand hold. The left hand bank had to be engaged from a sitting position and the right hand bank from the kneeling position which to me was quite This year each calibre match would consist of 4 stages amusing for 2 reasons. Firstly, I couldn’t adopt a proper which equated to at least 120 rounds being needed to kneeling position because of a cartilage problem so I finish each one. Looking at the match descriptions in had to “stand” upright on my 2 knees which isn’t a very our squadding notice everything seemed to be around stable position to use, and secondly, was the size of 15m with a few stages out to around 25m, so it didn’t the plates that we had to shoot at from this position! seem it would be too difficult to hit the targets, or so we I kid you not they must have been the size of large thought! Typically, unless a particular match required plums and certainly provided us all with a challenge. you to knock down all of the targets in order to stop Quite a few shooters struggled on this one and there the clock, each plate left standing incurred a 5 second were quite a few plates still left standing after some runs but it was a great match to shoot and gave plenty Match 2 – Targets on the left, plums on the of opportunity for you to have some friendly banter right! with your fellow squad mates when it was their turn to shoot! Match 3 had 40 plates and you carried with you a maximum of 40 rounds to engage them with. The first bank of 10 plates had to be engaged from behind a barricade, then moving forwards to the next 3 shooting “boxes” with an empty chamber and actions open you engaged a further 10 plates from each distance. For those people who don’t practice their reloading skills this stage proved to be very costly time wise. Match 4 required 30 rounds for 30 plates at 25m that had to be shot from behind a Bianchi barricade. You could use it for support if you wanted to, or you could simply shoot around the side of it as long as you engaged 20 plates from one side and 10 from the other. Those who shoot the Bianchi match certainly made up some time on this one and having some “normal” sized targets to shoot at also helped! Before switching over to the smaller calibre match, we all had time for a quick fizzy drink and sample one (or



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Toni Tedesco taking a well earned break! 4) slices of Jamaica cake that had been made by 12 year old Toni Tedesco, and very nice it was too! She also managed to sell £51’s worth of it which will all be going to the McMillan appeal so thanks again Toni!

ber of people were a little bit too enthusiastic and expended all of their rounds before managing to drop the stop plate. This meant that they incurred a 15 second penalty for failing to finish the course of fire, plus additional penalties if they missed other plates making it a very costly mistake to be made. The simple advice of “just make sure you hit every plate” falls on deaf ears many times during a steel shoot; irrespective of shooting standard and this is what makes them such a great pressure match to take part in. Match 3 was the “pool” shoot with 14 plates split into two banks of alternate red and white plates and a separate black stop plate. Shooting this time from the standing position, you started with an empty gun with the action open and on the “beep” you stuck your hand into a bag and pulled out a golf ball that could be painted either red or white. Once you saw which colour you had drawn, you then loaded up and had to knock down every corresponding colour on the two banks before reloading to engage the stop plate. Two mags of 5 rounds were allowed for the “colours” with another purely for the stop plate so again it would prove costly to miss too many with the first shot! Match 4 was definitely the one that I enjoyed the most as it consisted of 22 plates and a stop plate which had to be shot from the weak shoulder / hand only. Three 10 rounders were allowed plus another for the stopper and once again the plates weren’t all that big, which seemed to be the case on every range we visited during the day. Again, counting your rounds for the reloads was the way to go and it’s surprising just how fast and accurate you can be if you keep your mind on things!

On the rimfire matches, Match 2 had the targets set at 10m whilst all the rest were shot at around 15m. Match 1 started off with an interesting array of 35 plates in mixed banks that were numbered from two to eight. Bank two had 2 plates together, bank three 3 plates etc, etc and you started off with 4 x 10 round mags plus another 10 rounder that could only be used to engage the stop plate with. This meant that you had 5 spare rounds in case of any misses, and quite a few In addition to the “main” matches the Mattersey crew people were glad of them on the day for obvious also put up the Bianchi “Mover” and for £3 you could reasons! This was a tricky stage as you had to shoot practice the whole 48 round course of fire, and this everything whilst sitting in a chair, and in numerical order which meant that you could not move to the next group until every plate from the previous bank had been knocked down. The fastest way to shoot this one was definitely to count your rounds so that you always had the last round of each magazine in the chamber so you could then simply drop the mag, insert a new one, then continue firing without having to re-rack the action each time. This is easier said than done though especially The rimfire Match 1 needed plenty of concentration to shoot well! when the banks where at different heights, and in different locations making proved to be very popular on the day. I really wanted to it pretty hard to locate the plate numbers through a spend a small fortune on this range but unfortunately telescopic sight, but that’s life! Match 2 was a straight didn’t have enough time as there was also the shotgun speed stage with 5 smallish plates and a stop plate speed range to visit as well as shooting in the Man v that was shot 5 times, each with one 10 round maga- Man event. The shotgun layout has two arcs of 5 steel zine and with all runs to count. Again, a small num- plates with a stop plate on each one that is wired up

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Using the barricade for support in Centrefire the way to go!

definitely equalled out on the smaller plates where shooting a pistol / revolver with a red dot on top was no match for a rifle with a magnified scope on it! In the end, I think the results on two particular matches made all the difference between winning and losing on the day. Match 2 in the fullbore event which required you to shoot the “big plums” from the weak sitting and kneeling positions certainly produced a wide spread of overall times but Mick Tedesco had no such problems on this stage and went on to shoot an excellent match, taking the overall win in the centre fire class with a total time of 323.93sec. In the rimfire class match 4 which was the shoot everything from the weak Match 4 was shoulder / hand stage, also produced some quite varying times and this is where I picked up some good time which helped me to take the overall rimfire class with a time of 143.14sec.

to a large electronic score board. This displays the “winner” along with both shooters’ time so that the spectators can keep track and see who the guys to beat are. Pete Harvey and Byron Wood made sure everything ran smoothly and safely on this range and As this years Mattersey Steel was a “Charity” match quite clearly the two guys to beat were Pete & Jim no-one was expecting anything other than results and Starley of Midway UK fame and eventually it was Jim thank you’s at the “prize giving” but surprisingly we were who posted the fastest time of the day to take the greeted with two tables covered in goodies which were win, along with an engraved tankard kindly donated a mixture of both raffle and sponsorship prizes. The by Pete Whomersley in memory of one of his close main sponsors of the day were Midway UK who very shooting friends. Their Winchester SX3’s are probably the best section 1 shotguns currently available and performed flawlessly, and owning one is certainly on my wish list of things to buy when finances allow it! The Man v Man match was made up of the top 8 shooters from the rimfire rifle class from the main event results and provided plenty of friendly barracking from both competitors and spectators alike with nationalities and woolly animals being the main topic of conversation for some Pete Starley and son Jim enjoying themselves with their SX3’s in the shotgun pit! reason! Like every other match we shot throughout the day this was also a very enjoyable shoot and again brought home with a big bang, to only shoot as fast as you can hit the kindly donated over £500’s worth of shooting products target. Missing, even by a few millimetres will cost you which ranged from chronographs to shooting bags, dearly and the guy who eventually kept his head on the and everything in between. I’ve known Pete for over best, was Adrian Ashby who took a very deserving win. 12 years now and he really is one of the nice guys out In the main matches, both the centre fire Underlever on the shooting circuit, as both a competitor and match rifles & LBR’s competed together along with the rimfire sponsor, and would like to thank him once again for all semi auto rifles and LBP’s. The shorter guns definitely of the support that he continues to put back into our had the advantage on each of the reloads taking just a sport at many of the major open competitions around couple of seconds instead of 12 or more, but things the country! York Guns are also to be thanked for their



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generosity for providing 500 cartridges and some section 2 pump and semi-auto shotguns to use in the shotgun speed steels match, as well as some other goodies for the prize table. Ruag Ammotech, GMK and Tim Hannam also provided some excellent prizes to

be handed out, along with some very desirable hand made leather holsters and belts made by various other people. Mattersey RPC covered all of the range and target related costs and also donated two nicely engraved tankards for the 2 overall winners. They also of course, thanks to the very professional and friendly R.O’s provided us with an extremely enjoyable and safe days shooting to whom we all extend our sincerest gratitude! Cancer has affected the lives of many of us with my father being diagnosed with it only three days after shooting this competition but thanks to the organisers, shooters and donators, they managed to raise an amazing £1500 for charity on the day! It was agreed beforehand that a third would be given to the Help the Hero’s campaign, while Mick Tedesco has chosen to donate his third of the total to the Marie Curie Hospice in Newcastle and mine will be going to Cancer Research UK. Thanks again to everyone involved and I’m sure Jim would have been very proud of you all! Centre fire Match Overall Name Match 1 Match 2 Match 3 Mick Tedesco 24.98 86.42 130.02 Gwyn Roberts 26.29 99.19 128.32 Paul Stockill 34.33 94.50 116.57

Mick Tedesco receives his trophy from Pete Whomersley

Match 4 82.51 79.02 90.78

Rimfire Match Overall Name Match 1 Match 2 Match 3 Match 4 Total Gwyn Roberts 52.40 24.65 34.28 31.81 143.14 Clive Ferguson 55.44 21.43 35.77 45.55 158.19 Pete Starley 66.19 27.18 33.81 48.16 175.34

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John Nash and his miniature TX200 Air Arms Rifle

By Andy Dubreuil John has been a member of Portishead Shooting Club for around ten years now and can be found every Sunday morning weather permitting sat at his benchrest shooting his air rifle without a care in the world. He just loves having a shoot just for the fun of it, nothing more and nothing less. Our John has been shooting since the age of 7 and believe it or not, it was his mother that got him into shooting, he was telling me the very sombre story of how his mother was a nurse after the 1st World War and was based at a hospital in the North West frontier near to the Kyber Pass and at that time nurses were with issued with a pearl handled .25 pistol. The sad part about this was that it was not issued for protection but to take their own life if the need came for it! It makes you think of the dangers that were around at those times and even now with the world as it is. John reminisces that you could walk into a Post Office and for 12/6 purchases a firearms license over the counter, those were the good old days! But his mother encouraged him to shoot and he remembers that when he used to shoot in the garden and if he hit the box at the end of the garden he would run into the house to tell his mother “I’ve hit the box mum” only to be praised and told to go out and do it again, what a teacher. John has been shooting for a staggering 71 years and has seen and used all sorts of rifles over the years and had many full bore rifles and pistols. He tells me that in the days that he use to shoot a 7.62mm converted P-14 rifle with a Cronenberg barrel, he shot at Bisley on a day that had gale-force

The detail in this minature rifle is amazing

winds and had a cross wind that was so heavy that he had to aim 16ft off to the left to be able to hit the target. This was with open sights as there were no

John with the rifle scopes in those days and just used a cardboard disc calculator and most times he was almost bang on the centre. John has many shooting accomplishments Championship of Gloucester, Championship of Somerset and Champion of Home Guard and a room of silverware form when he was in his prime. Unfortunately his shooting career was cut short by a nasty car accident which left him with no less than 17 broken bones in his arm. The surgeons were not sure if they could save his arm but after many operations John was back on the mend but was not able to pick up a rifle as normal and the Police took away his firearms license. But he would not give up shooting and went on to shoot air rifle and had tried many different ones till came across the Air Arms TX200. The Air Arms TX200 is an under-lever spring-



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TX200 HC NEW IMPROVED STOCK TX200 HC – A short barrelled manoeuvrable high performance rifle that justifies its name as “Hunter Carbine”. The bull-barrel has a threaded insert enabling the fitting of either an internal or external silencer.

Its even amazing that this scaled rifle works in every way as the orginal action air rifle and is a great rifle but quite heavy compared to some of the more modern air rifles of today. John’s accident made it difficult for him to carry on shooting in the normal way and being the inventive person he is, he bought a camera tripod that he converted to rest the rifle on so that he could shoot – true dedication. A friend one day saw him shooting off this tripod and said to him that he needed to get a lighter gun, well this got John thinking and being the joker he is he made a cardboard cut-out of the TX200! John had been a engineer most of his working life and had a workshop at the back of his house where he would do some tinkering now and then and it dawned on him that maybe he could make a miniature version of his TX200, but at the same time why not make a miniature that actually worked! So John got to work, taking his TX200 apart and measuring every single component so that he could make a 1/3rd version of the air rifle. His first one took him only six weeks to complete. The hard part for him to make was the springs, on his first attempt he had look around for the smallest springs he could find and even tried springs from a throw-away lighter but they were not small enough, so John even had to make these by hand and then temper them to give them stability, this in itself took him a fortnight to make. Once he had completed the rifle, he then turned his attention to making a scope to fit onto the rifle and he wanted this to be as real as possible and working. But at the time when John began this project there was no manufacturer able to provide him with lenses so small, but he didn’t let this put him off and got hold of some cellulite and cut them to shape and even scored a crosshair to make it as real as he could. This wasn’t just a replica, it is an actual working model and he did want to go that extra yard and actually make pellets for it but

there are limitations to some things and John used copper wire that was the same size as the bore. John could actually cock the little miniature rifle and load it with these bits of wire and fire it and to his amazement they were coming out at 50 feet per second. The last thing John did was make a two-stage trigger for the little rifle. I admire John’s patiece and engineering skills to make such an amazing thing but to make it so that it actually worked is just on another level. It wasn’t long before the word on John’s achievements got out due publication in a magazine. John received letters from Europe, America and even from as far away as Australia but a gentleman from London caught his attention as he was bed-ridden seriously ill and wanted to purchase the little miniature rifle, so John forwarded the rifle onto him and then went about making another for his grand children. With John’s health he could not continue making these rifles even though many people wanted one but he decided to make a third one for himself which he still has today. It’s almost a decade ago that John started this and he keeps the miniature Air Arms in its own little gun bag in a very safe place. John told me that he did see the original that the gentleman in London had purchased for sale in a magazine after he had passed away for £400.

... and yes even ths scope works. Amazing! John now has an Air Arms S410 which he has modified and loves benchrest shooting and in John’s own words “God willing I will be taking part in the UKBR22 Nationals in August here at Portishead”. It just goes to show it’s never too late even if you’re in your late 70’s to take part in competition and I look forward to seeing John taking part and hopefully picking up a medal or two at the nationals.



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Gun of the Month This month’s Gun of the Month was easy. This is the gun – and the man, Gary Costello – that won the ICFRA World F Class Championships in the last week of July at Bisley, beating over 200 of the best F Class shooters from around the world. Chambering is 7mm-270WSM and the rifle was built by American gunsmith legend Alan Warner. The action is an aluminium Stolle Panda with left-port, right-bolt configuration. Trigger is of course a Jewel and the scope is a March 10-60 mounted in Kelbly rings. There is a bit of history with the Alex Sitman Master Class laminated stock. It was broken in two at the thumb-hole during shipping and at first it looked as though it was scrap and might have to be re-stocked but Gary took it along to his gunsmith, Pete Walker of Walker Custom Rifles in West Yorkshire and it came back better than new. Pete also in-letted the underside of fore-end for that aluminium

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bag-rider and re-finished the whole stock. The rest by the way is a Farley ‘joystick’ rest from America.

EAST GRINSTEAD THE CLUB ON THE MERIDIAN - OR IS IT?

Club Feature roofed shooting facility was constructed. The Felbridge Rifle Club remained at the site for some 15 years attracting some 70 members, some of whom are pictured in1948. Gwynne Powell remained a member of the Club until his death in 1990.

Rifles 1909 - By kind permission of the Felbridge & District History Group The East Grinstead Target Shooting Club (EGTSC) is set in rolling parkland comprising the former grounds of East Court Mansion close to the centre of the town. The Club specialises in prone 0.22” target shooting, having an indoor 25 yard range and an outdoor 100/50 metre range. It has one of the best Clubhouses in the South East. Target shooting clubs have been active in East Grinstead for at least a century. The Sussex County Daily Telegraph Shield shows the East Grinstead Miniature Rifle Club as winners in 1909. Some of the team may well be included in the picture ‘Rifles 1909’. Although there does not appear to be any direct link with the former East Grinstead miniature rifle club, EGTSC is proud to be carrying on the tradition. The origins of the current club can be traced to the end of World War II. In 1945 members of Felbridge Platoon, 9th Surrey Battalion Home Guard based at Hobbs Barracks north of East Grinstead were looking for some social activity to keep the unit together. Arnold Kelf, resident in the area since 1930, told the story when he was interviewed in 1978. The first idea was darts, but then came the idea of a Rifle Club. He advertised in the East Grinstead Courier and his first response was from Mr Howell ‘Gwynne’ Powell. Using Gwynne’s local knowledge land was acquired at Imberhorne Lane, Felbridge, and an asbestos

The facilities were basic and maintenance intensive. On one occasion the building collapsed in high winds and later suffered a fire. Locals claimed to have heard the ammunition exploding. However, purchasing the land proved to be a shrewd move as the plot was sold for development in 1965, providing funds for the construction of a new range. In 1964 Gwynne Powell was instrumental in

Felbridge Rifle Club 1948 - By kind permission of the Felbridge & District History Group

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Shooter’s eye yard ranges negotiating a new site leased from East Grinstead War Memorial Limited, a charity responsible for administering land gifted to the town in 1946 by ocal benefactor Alfred Wagg (of Schroder Wagg). Wagg’s intention was to provide a memorial to those people of East Grinstead who lost their lives in the Second World War. East Grinstead War Memorial Ltd (EGWML) was incorporated in 1949 to provide and maintain the estate and to encourage and promote public recreation, education and other charitable projects. Together with East Grinstead Town Football Club, EGTSC are tenants of EGWML, to whom we are most grateful for their ongoing support Construction of the new range began in 1965 with most of the work done by the members who included some professional builders. They did a good job. The Clubhouse and facilities remains one of the best in the South East, including a full size snooker table, central heating, male and female toilets. Building work continued and the outdoor range was opened in 1967. The Club was firstly renamed the ‘Felbridge and District Rifle Club’ and became the ‘East Grinstead Target Shooting Club’ in the early 1990’s. The eighties was the high point of the club with a membership of some 110. This prompted significant use of the snooker table as members waited for their turn on the firing point. On one occasion the Club played host to Granada TV who needed facilities to shoot some film of Malcolm Cooper shooting air rifle for part of a children’s TV programme. They spent the whole day setting up for each shot, filming for a minute or two and then resetting for the next shot. By the end of the day they had captured some 30 minutes of film. This had the benefit that Malcolm and his wife Sara, both being of Olympic standard, had a lot of spare time and spent most of it chatting to the members. The highlight of the day was when we

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found out just how good Olympic standard is. Malcolm had come equipped for the air rifle filming so he had to borrow a jacket, rifle, and sling to show the TV crew some 0.22 rifle shooting. Having strapped himself in his first shot was a nine at 3 o’clock. He view of the 50m and 100 adjusted the sights and his second shot was a spot ten at 4 o’clock (i.e. very slightly off centre). He adjusted the sights again. The remainder of his shots were all spot tens! The Greenwich Meridian Line crosses the 100 yard range a few metres away from the firing point. Occasionally someone with a Satnav says that the line is not on zero degrees longitude and must be in the wrong place. In fact it is not zero at Greenwich either. So what’s going on? Satellite navigation refers to an internationally agreed ‘Prime Meridian’ maintained by the US Department for Defense. As everything on the Earth is moving about due to tectonic plate shift an ‘average’ position for the network is established. Currently zero degrees longitude in the UK is about 100m east of the Greenwich Meridian Line. So, yes, EGTSC is still the Club on the Meridian. The Club hosts a Double Dewar open shoot every year in April followed by an open English Match in September. While the majority of competitors come from adjacent counties entries from Birmingham, Devon, Sunderland and Jersey are not unknown. Over the years, several of our members have used the facilities for training of several hours a day required to achieve the necessary standard to shoot for England and Great Britain. Some have made the grade and returned from Commonwealth and Olympic Games with medals of various colours. The Club currently has around 60 members and continues to encourage more people to take up target shooting. We shoot a large number of postal competitions and run our own 25 yd, 50 and 100m e-mail scored Meridian Leagues. If you need a good competition without postal charges for target scoring the EGTSC Meridian League is worth a look. Check out the Club’s Website on www. egtsc.co.uk . New members are always welcome. Graham Rowcroft Chairman, East Grinstead Target Shooting Club.

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The Third F Class World Championships

By Vince Bottomley The F Class World Championships are held Shoot in a kilt – but only if the wind is blowevery four years, with the inaugural event held in ing towards you! Canada in 2001. This was followed by South Africa in 2005 and four years later we are now at Bisley. Britain F Class Association was formed. Membership quickly doubled – and trebled as GB and Mik Maksimovic shot as part of the GB team Continental shooters discovered a sport which was in the two previous shoots and, when the third both challenging and great fun. League shoots were Championship was awarded to Bisley, he was held up and down the country and we now have an determined to put together a team capable of taking established calendar based around Blair Atholl in on the very best long-range riflemen in the world and Scotland, Diggle in the north west and of course, hopefully beating them! Bisley. Mik’s quest started on a freezing cold November morning in 2005 at 8.30am on Bisley’s Stickledown Range. Mik had thrown out a challenge to GB F Classers to come and shoot. We did. Forty odd shooters turned up and the Great

For those who enjoy competing with the 308 Winchester cartridge, the GBFCA has followed the rest of the world and added an F/TR Championship and we are now beginning to attract some sponsorship – mainly from Aimfield Sports and Sightron but hopefully more will The successful GB Open Team working as a follow.

well-oiled machine.

It was decided that the top places in the GBFCA League for 2008 would form the basis of the two GB Teams to contest the World Championships and two team captains, Des Parr (Open) and Stuart Ansem (F/TR) were appointed. The Open Team will consist of eight shooters and the F/ TR, four shooters.

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Organiser Mik Maksimovik sorts out another problem – now he can take a well-earned break!

day was a good indicator of who’s hot and who’s not and although USA had some impressive individual results, it must have come as something of a shock to see that the top ten places in the World Individual Open Class were occupied by GB shooters. In the F/ TR Class things were a little more encouraging with USA having six shooters in the top ten, though GB shooters Russell Simmons and George Barnard took first and second places withAmerica’s Stan Pate in third. Team America hosted a soiree on Tuesday evening in the Canadian Lodge which was well attended and gave competitors an opportunity to mix and socialise before the main event got underway the following morning. For me it’s great to meet and put a face to those internet ‘nom de plumes’ and I got the opportunity to speak with Darrell Buell, Captain of the US F/TR squad. With all the development we have recently put into F/TR, I was surprised to learn that two of the Team - John Weil and Monte Milanuk - would be shooting standard factory Savage FTR rifles as part of the Savage sponsored team.

Following a day of practice on the Sunday, the event opened with the World Individual Championships on the Monday and Tuesday. Competitor Les Holgate has documented this part of the event in his Long View column elsewhere in Target Shooter so this article will be devoted to the Teams event which was contested on the Wednesday and Thursday. Six nations fielded a Team in the Open Class – Great Britain, Ireland, USA, Germany, Netherlands and South Africa. Disappointingly, no Australian Team and Canada, who’s George Faquharson invented the discipline, did field a four man F/TR team but not an Open Team. Encouragingly, Spain bravely entered an F/TR team, the country’s first foray into the sport of long-range rifle shooting. What they lacked in equipment, they made up for in enthusiasm. We hope to see more of them in the future. Coming into the shoot, the American Team were favourites having won in Canada in 2001 though the host team took the honours in South Africa but America’s Mid Tompkins had won the individual championship. The Americans were posting a daily ‘blog’ and pre-championships, they sounded pretty confident. The ‘Individuals’ on Monday and Tues-

The course of fire for the Teams was exactly the same as for the Individual event – 800, 900 and 1000 yards on each day with two sighters and fifteen to count at each distance. For those unfamiliar with World F Class team shooting, this is a coached shoot and individual shooters will string-shoot with the help of their wind-coach and a plotter. For Day One on Wednesday, it was dry with a testing wind but none theless some impressive scores began to appear. It soon became apparent that the battle for Gold would likely be between GB and the USA though South Africa were staying in touch. After 800 yards only one point separated GB and USA with South Africa 9 points adrift. After 900 yards, GB opened up a useful six-point lead which had increased to 19 points by the close of shooting. Day One scores were: Great Britain 1719.116v USA 1700.126v South Africa 1688.110v Germany 1631.98 Ireland 1618.80 Netherlands 1569.82 Barring an absolute disaster, the fight for Gold was going to be between GB and the USA. The GB team uses the 7mmWSM whereas the USA prefer the 6.5-284. The ideal Open cartridge has been the subject of much debate. Individual yardage winners: 800 yards John Brewer, USA 75.11v 900 yards Adam Brough, GB 75.5v 1000 yards Cherryll van Niekerk, SA 71.4v



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Incidentally, Adam Brough is just eighteen years old! So how was the F/TR going? Answer – a bit better for America – here’s how they finished day one: USA Great Britain Canada Germany Ireland Spain

807.40v 785.43v 755.35 737.16v 736.24v 646.10v

Individual yardage winners: 800 yards Matthew Wolf, Canada 74.6v 900 yards George Barnard, GB 73.4 1000 yards Jeff Rorer, USA 67.2v Day One passed without rain and the forecast was good for the final day. Conditions were indeed good for the 800 yard stage and GB increased their overnight lead to 36 points. South Africa were still fighting and matched America at 800 yards, both with 571 points. At 900 yards, going into the lunch break, GB pulled further ahead and were now leading by 42 points with only one yardage left. The F/TR teams were still battling and GB had pulled back seven of the 22 point over-night deficit with a cracking 900 yard shoot scoring 267.11v to the USA’s 250.10v and strong shooting by Ireland had hoisted them into third place, leap-frogging Canada and Germany.

The GB F/TR Team took the Silver Medal.

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We had a short rain-shower at the end of the morning detail and more rain over the lunch break but the final 1000 yard stage started in sunny but blustery conditions – it wouldn’t last. Again, GB took a whopping 17 points out of America on the final 1000 yard stage which was hampered in the final stages by a heavy shower and although it lasted only a few minutes, teams could not afford to stand down for too long. Here’s how it finished: Great Britain United States of America South Africa Republic of Ireland Germany Netherlands

3436.240v 3377.234v 3337.188v 3218.158v 3188.154v 3134.160v

Individual stage winners: 800 yards Jeff Traylor USA 900 yards Gary Costello GB 1000 yards Larry bartholome

75.10v 74.6v 74.6v

Could the F/TR Team salvage some glory for the USA. With a healthy 15 point lead it looked likely but in F/TR at 1000 yards, it’s not too difficult to be blown into the two-ring and big points can easily be dropped. Well, the Brits did manage to pull back a few points but the US Team were

The victorious GB Open F Class Team receive their medals. strong and John Weil’s score of 69 was better than several of the Open Class shooters managed at 1000 yards – and that’s with a factory Savage! Final scores were: United States of America Great Britain Republic of Ireland Canada Germany Spain

1581.76v 1569.74v 1508.47v 1502.59v 1423.33v 1258.19v

Individual stage winners: 800 yards Jeff Rorer USA 72.8v 900 yards Dale Rathwell Canada 70.6v 1000 yards John Weil 69.0v

Mik Maksimovik. He can feel proud of the GB Team and of Great Britain’s World F Class Championship. The next one will be in four years time at Raton New Mexico but the GB F Class Association continues with its League shoots throughout the year – visit www.f-class.org.uk for further information.

The Gold winning US F/TR Team

Prize giving was carried out on-range under a clear blue sky and warm sun – the best weather of the week. A Gala Dinner wrapped up proceedings and everyone I spoke to was well impressed by the way the Championships were conducted. Chief Range Officer Doug ran a pretty tight ship on the point but with good humour and I heard few complaints regarding marking and the hard working butts crew were well applauded by shooters at the end of each day. No event of this size is down to one man but there is always a driving force and full credit must go to



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VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN WHEREBY ACCURACY NUTS CAN KEEP UP TO DATE WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA Competitions In July, we tend to take a break from benchrest competition as this is the main holiday period so although there were no UKBRA competitions, the tenth World Benchrest Championships were held in June in South Africa. This is the first ‘Worlds’ I’ve missed since 1999 but we did send a GB team as always. Well done Martin Miles, Steve Newman, Gerrit Van Rooynan and Phil Sammons for flying the flag. The Championships were established in 1989 and the American team have taken the Gold Medal every single year and usually the Silver and Bronze as well. This year, there was a major upset and Australia won the Gold! The American’s did get the Silver but the Italians took the bronze – I wish I had been there to see it. Elsewhere in Target Shooter, you can read a match report written for us by the Captain of the Kiwi Benchrest Team, Graeme Smith, who is also president of the World Benchrest Shooting Federation. It sounds like there were other upsets – like a bushfire which threatened the range and halted shooting! New stuff – Another British Action A couple of issues ago, we carried a report on a new custom action from Russ Gall of RG Rifles in

Aberdeenshire. I’ve seen the pictures but I haven’t yet seen one in the flesh. Now another new British action is about to hit the streets. Like the RG Rifles example, it’s basically a Remington clone and as this issue goes on-line I have just managed to get this pic of the prototype – Fox Firearms are involved but more next month. Scopes New UK Sightron importer – Aimfield Sports – have received their first shipment of scopes and you will recall that July’s Target Shooter carried a report for the 8-32 model which is proving very popular with the F Class guys. I’m currently playing with the fixed 36 power which weighs just 17 ounces and is a great replacement for the now obsolete Leupold 36BR or the Weaver T36. My initial impression is that this scope will be a winner – not just for rimfire and centrefire benchrest but also for F/TR shooters where weight is a problem. I’m really looking forward to shooting it in competition so look out for a report very soon. The Sightrons are made in Japan and amazingly, Aimfield Sports (via your local dealer) are selling this scope for an amazing £370 – a bargain and much cheaper than the alternatives. Events Our next benchrest weekend at Diggle Ranges is the weekend of 1/2nd August. Any shooter is welcome to attend and shoot or even just come along for a look. E-mail me for further details on [email protected]



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In association with

time we meet. Personally I am working on a new stock for an air rifle, which I hope to write about in the September issue. News just in is that the World Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Federation (WRABF) has finally been formed, with many of the countries that have supported the world postal and world championship events now taking a leading role in developing these two sports. Bill Collaros from Australia has been voted in as president of this new A discrete 10.5 pound rifle, based on federation, and knowing Bill I the Annie 1913 action, with new Lilja believe he will do a tremendous job for all rimfire and air rifle barrel benchrest shooters. As a reminder of this, we have the second European Well the nationals are coming up thick and fast. Championships next year in the Only a month to go and I know a number of people Czech Republic – this being led by Ladislav Ninger the are getting prepared. A few new barrels have been secretary of the ERBASF. The following year we have winging their way into the UK from abroad. I know of a the second World Championship in the USA. So lots few Lilja barrels that have been brought in, apart from going on and we look forward to developing the UK the two that Brian Kelly and myself got a short time ago. team for both of these events. Roger at South Yorkshire Shooting Supplies has Finally, there are a number of ‘local’ matches coming up said that he has had a few other enquiries so that in the near future. A team from the UKBR22 has been must mean that some of you out there are also invited to shoot in Germany during October. There is considering it. Lilja also produce barrels for other also a match in the South, at Buxted club around the actions. The lead time for this could be up to nine weeks. same sort of time. This is an open shoot and the type of However, Brain bought his barrel originally for his 2013 thing we would like to see a lot more of. John Farrell has action. He has now modified this for the 1913 action he developed this type of interclub shoot over the last few has, making it a discrete 10.5 pound Light Varmint rifle. years. It’s brilliant to see it happening more and more. It would be interesting to see what other modifications Any news you would like to put into this section, people have made and to hear about the new kit that then contact me at; [email protected] has been brought in. This is the great thing about ‘head to head’ matches, as we all learn something every

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The Long View

News from the GB F-Class Association

Round 3 of the F class league also coincided with the third F Class World Championships being held for the first time ever in the UK at Bisley, so you would certainly get more ‘bang for your buck’ with this one! This was the one not to miss as we would not just be competing against the best in the country but also the best in the world - it was destined to be the largest gathering of F Class shooters ever with approximately 140 Open class shooters and 70 F/TR competitors in attendance. Of these, around half were from overseas. The competition would comprise a practice day on Sunday, then individual championships would be contested over Monday and Tuesday and finally the Team Championships would be Wednesday and Thursday but, as it followed the annual Imperial Meeting, for some it would be three solid weeks on Bisley ranges. Even though the first day was Sunday, by mid afternoon Saturday most of the competitors had arrived and could watch the impressive closing ceremony of the Imperial and take the opportunity to renew old acquaintances. For Sunday practice, some individuals and national teams had booked their own practice targets and the GB F Class Association had made a block booking of five targets for members. Once the shooting was over for the day the official opening ceremony took place on the lawn outside the Pavilion with each country raising its own flag. Then the competitors adjourned to the Pavilion for a complimentary free drink and buffet laid on by the GB F Class Association. Competitors then retired to their accommodation or in the case of the touring Diggle Dollopers, off to Team HQ - actually the caravan belonging to Stuart Anselm, GB F T/R Captain, complete with all necessary refreshments thanks Yvonne!.

On Monday, the first detail kicked off at 8.00 am and the course of fire would be 2 + 15 at 800, 900 and 1000 yards with FT/R up first followed by two Open details, all preceded by the free sighting in session - sorry that was a typo - I meant blow-off shots! The weather forecast wasn’t good but at 800 yards it was dry and winds were light. Even though the conditions were good, it is still a remarkable achievement to keep all your shots in the five-ring with a 308 but that’s what two shooters did, Mike Miller (USA) 75.9v and Dale Rathwell (Canada) 75.7v, with Paul Phillips (USA) not far behind on 74.10v. Conditions remained pretty much the same for both Open Class details and it was hard to see how much you could improve on those FT/R scores but no less than 35 Open Class shooters hit the maximum 75 and that shows how much F Class has advanced in the last few years, even though the target is smaller. Eventual Open Class winner at 800 yards was Jeff Traylor (USA) with a 75.15v. I don’t care how good your rifle is and what the conditions are - to hit a five-inch diameter V bull fifteen times at that distance on a range you are not familiar with is something special. Jeff was closely followed by Cheryll van Neikerk (South Africa) on 75.12v and Shiraz Balolia (USA) on 75.12v. At 900 yards FT/R were again first up but now the weather was starting to change, the rain was coming and the wind had increased but that didn’t seem to upset the F T/R guys and Stan Pate (USA) put in a remarkable 75.7v to win the stage. It would have also put him in 3rd place in Open! Not far behind him was Mike Miller (USA) with a 75.1v and in 3rd place Andrew Penfold (GB) 74.2v. Highest Open score went to Gary Costello (GB) with an outstanding 75.11v, with legendary USA shooter Mid Tompkins in second on 75.8v and third Robert Bock (USA) on 75.3v, these being the only three guys to shoot 75’s. Back at 1000 yards, the wind had increased



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considerably, testing the limits of the 308 calibre and scores started to tumble as many shooters explored the 3 ring for the first time. Some mastered it though and top F T/R shooter was Ian Dixon (GB) 69.2v with Russell Simmonds (GB) not far behind on 67.4v, closely followed by Paul Eggemann (Germany) 67.2v. In Open Class, in similar conditions Grant Taylor (Scotland) won with an impressive 74.4v followed by Gary Costello (GB) 74.3v and USA’s Jeff Traylor in third on 73.3v. With the shooting over for the day some went home to lick their wounds but others could pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Day One results: F/TR 1st Russell Simmonds (GB) 213.15v 2nd George Barnard (GB) 212.14v 3rd Mike Miller (USA) 211.12v 4th Terry Perkins (Canada) 209.12v 5th Stuart Anslem (GB) 208.10v Open 1st Gary Costello (GB) 223.25v 2nd Jeff Traylor (USA) 222.26v 3rd Grant Taylor (Scotland) 222.18v 4th Middleton Tompkins (USA) 220.25v 5th Des Parr (GB) 219.21v. (Please note that first place man Gary Costello had only dropped 2 points all day!) With Monday’s shooting over but the competition only half way through, the evening was left to

individuals to make their own entertainment which for some meant a visit to the local ‘eat as much as you can’ Chinese restaurant. It would be an early night though as several in the party were well placed in the competition. Tuesday’s forecast didn’t look good but amazingly, the rain didn’t trouble us all day. Pity the same couldn’t be said of the wind! FT/R were first off again at 800 yards and after the blow-offs it certainly wasn’t as calm as the previous day with the wind ebbing and flowing and pushing many out into the 4 ring in both FT/R and Open Class but not Monte Milanuk (USA), using a standard factory Savage F/TR rifle, he shot a stunning 75.9v - a score that was good enough for third place in the Open Class! Peter Scott (Wales) took second on 73.8v and third was Gary Rasmussen (USA) 73.7v. Conditions remained similar for the Open guys and again, those who could avoid the odd ‘four’ would finish close to the top of the board. Eight shooters put in 75 or better and top spot went to Brian Otey (USA) with 75.13v, with Martin Townsend (GB) in second on 75.11v and Rick Jensen (USA) third with 75.9v. When we dressed back to 900 yards, the wind had noticeably picked up and was also changing direction considerably thus dropping the scores for all but a few of the top shooters. In F/TR, John Weil (USA) was ahead by two whole points with an excellent 73.7v, again shooting a factory Savage, followed by Matthew Wolf (Canada) 71.6v and Jeff Rorer (USA) third on 70.4v. Conditions didn’t improve for Open Class but that didn’t seem to make any

New F Class World Champion Gary Costello – for more details of Gary’s rifle see our ‘Gun of the Month’ feature.

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difference to John Campbell (GB) who put in a 74.6v. Next best would be Martin Lobert (Australia) 73.7v followed by John Carmichael (GB) also with 73.7v. The final shoot of the competition was at 1000 yards with the round-count increased to 2 and 20. The wind was even stronger now and 2’s and 3’s were not unusual for FT/R shooters. Highest placed was Stan Pate (USA) with an 85.2v, with Russell Simmonds (GB) second on 85.1v and George Barnard (GB) taking third with 83.3v. These three were in close contention for the overall title and it was not initially clear who had won until the official scores were posted. The first ever FT/R World Champion is Russell Simmonds. Russell had won the GB F Class League the previous year and has now proven that he is truly world class. The top five places in F T/R are: 1st Russell Simmonds (GB) 437.23v 2nd George Barnard (GB) 432.23v 3rd Stan Pate (USA) 430.25v 4th Jeff Rorer (USA) 428.22v 5th Ian Dixon (GB) 424.18v It was equally close in the Open Class and the whole Championship could be won or lost at the final distance. It was still tricky and the best at mastering the wind was John Carmichael (GB) 94.6v, with second place going to Dan Brough (GB) 93.8v with Des Parr (GB) on 93.7v. in third spot. If you remember, the previous day’s overall leader was Gary Costello and with Gary finishing in 9th place at this distance, had he done enough to win as some of his closest contenders had taken points off him? The leader-board had changed considerably - John Campbell jumped from 24th to 5th. John Carmichael jumped a staggering 26 places from 30th to 4th but Grant Taylor held his third place and Des Parr’s solid performance secured second spot. But Gary Costello had done enough. He had put in a near perfect shoot on both days and by holding his nerve (and resisting the temptation to clean his rifle) had now become the World Open F Class Champion! Did it make a difference Gary? We will never know! The top five Open Class competitors were: 1st Gary Costello (GB) 458.44v 2nd Des Parr (GB) 456.36v 3rd Grant Taylor (GB) 455.30v 4th John Carmichael (GB) 454.37v 5th John Campbell (GB) 453.36v.

Gary Costello and Larry Bartholome (USA) on 149.20v. The shoot-off provided a perfect dramatic end to the whole competition as both competitors made their way to the 800 yard point for a ‘one sighter and five to count’ shoot-off. Both sighters were ‘fours’ and with Larry shooting much quicker than Gary it was becoming difficult to figure out who was actually winning. Larry had put in a 24.2v ( 2 v’s, 2 5’s and a 4). When Gary stopped shooting I think several people like me were unsure who had won but the man who had held is nerve for the rest of the comp had still kept his eye on the ball and could add this trophy to his tally. Gary had shot a 24.3v ( 3v’s, a 5 and a 4). So the individual championship was over and for some the Team event was still to come. All in all there were some stunning performances and it boiled down to what it usually boils down to – consistency. So congratulations once again to both Russell and Gary making it a clean sweep for GB shooters. If you recall, this started off as an article on the GB League shoot, so where does that put them League points wise? Who knows and I doubt they care bearing I mind that they had both just become World Champions! The final accolade must go to Mik Maksimovic and his team at Bisley for arranging a comp this big that went off without any incidents – well done guys. If you are wondering who shoots what I can tell you that all the top GB shooters had 7mm’s with third placeman Grant Taylor building his own gun! Bearing in mind the conditions we usually shoot in, this proves what many GB shooters already suspected ‘a good big ‘un generally beats a good little ‘un!’ If you live in the UK and shoot F Class but didn’t manage to make it to Bisley - you should have! But if you want to attend the next GB League shoot it will be held at Diggle Ranges 19th and 20th September. Just email me at mrmister@tinyonline. co.uk and I will send you an entry form. But don’t hang about entries are limited. Who knows, you could be shooting alongside the world champion. For a full list of results please visit the NRA UK website www.nra.org.uk

But the drama for Gary and the rest of us didn’t end there. There are trophies for the 800, 900,and 1000 yard aggregate of the two days and the aggregate score for 800 yards was a tie between



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A regular column whereby Ken Hall keeps us up to date with black powder cartridge rifle shooting in the UK.

Mark and Carole Silver discuss tactics

1000YD BILLY DIXON SHOOT – 18TH July 2009 Diggle Ranges.

outpost 1000 yards away known as Adobe Walls. (Well, Diggle ranges bunkhouse actually!

On a grey, damp July morning it was just possible to discern the outline of Quanah Parker’s leading scouts, as they attempted to assess the marksmanship capabilities of the band of intrepid defenders gathered at the small

The year is 1874 and 28 men and one woman are all that inhabit the few buildings in the Texas panhandle, known as Adobe Walls. Among them are several buffalo hunters including Bat Masterson and a certain Billy Dixon,

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The Indian targets through the scope

who was so proficient that it was claimed it took 15 skinners to keep up with him. Chief Quanah Parker, son of a Comanche war chief and a captured white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker, were

The winners Jake Rich and Carole

waging war on the white man in response to the theft of his tribe’s land and had been persuaded by a medicine man, whose magic made them immune to the white man’s bullets, to attack Adobe Walls. On the morning of June 27th the men were

Winner John Gilpin cleans the bore

awakened around 2am by the cracking of a collapsing ridge pole and so fortunately were well awake as the attack was launched, after some fierce fighting during which the defenders suffered four dead, the Indians withdrew to a safe distance, and for the next four days continued to sporadically attack the outpost. On the second day of the siege a group of Indians appeared on a distant bluff presumably to plan their next attack. Feeling more than a little miffed by now, Billy borrowed a “big fifty” (probably a Sharps .50/90) and let loose a shot. Seconds later a figure was seen to fall from his horse causing obvious consternation to the Indians as they promptly withdrew to a safer distance after stopping only to pick up their fallen comrade. Four days later reinforcements arrived in the shape of the US Army and when it was deemed safe to do so the distance was measured from Billy’s position to the bluff where the Indian was seen to fall, a total of 1,538 yards. Billy later enlisted as scout with the US Army and went on to fight in many Indian battles, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for his actions. For the rest of his life, Billy Dixon never claimed the shot was anything other than a lucky one. On his retirement he built himself a home at Adobe Walls and was buried there after his death in 1913. The Quigley Shooting association runs an annual competition based on Billy’s famous shot using modern replica firearms of the period, fitted with open iron sights and fuelled only with black powder. The competition consists of two stages. Stage 1 being two sighters and ten shots to count at a standard bullseye target to get the range and sight setting. Stage 2 is again two sighters and ten to count on a scaled down mounted Indian figure target. Traditional crossed-stick rests were permitted as the only aid, no optic sights allowed. The winner is determined by the number of hits on the Indian, followed by hits on the horse, one point being awarded for hits on the backing which miss the silhouette. With the infamous Diggle breeze snaking up the valley and spasmodic rain showers, some difficulty was expected. Although everyone managed to score hits on the frame, only three firers hit the mounted figure. Carole Silver, shooting her Sharps .45/110 had fired eleven shots without a hit, and then on her last shot scored a hit on the figure to take third place. Richard Healey scored a hit on the figure and three hits on the backer to



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take runner-up, but (dead-eye) John Gilpin took the trophy again by scoring a hit on the figure, three hits on the horse and three hits on the backer. JULY QUIGLEY COMPETITION. Saturday 11th July, weatherwise what a complete contrast to the last Quigley . The infamous “Diggle Breeze” was on its’ annual holidays and instead, a barely noticeable wisp of wind kept coming and going with unpredictable frequency. As there are no wind flags on the prairie, then we also don’t provide wind flags on the range for Quigley events. This time, as the wind was so slight, any variation was almost impossible to detect and so most firers were caught out at

Ken Dennis and Richard at 600yds

Ian Hull waits his turn at 400yds maintained his standard to score 46, with Ken on 38 and Dennis Richardson on 36 points respectively.

The final scores are as follows. Pos. Shooter. Rifle. Score. 1. Richard Healey 101 2. Ken Hall 87 3. David Coleman 77

Sharps 45/70 Sharps 45/70 Sharps 45/70

least once and made the odd “flyer”. The Quigley target is most unforgiving and a miss on the 5 zone by a fraction of an inch can result in a zero score. Stage 1 at 400 yds, consisted of two sighters and fifteen shots to score at the Quigley bucket at 400 yds. Richard Healey led stage 1 with 55 points, just ahead of David Coleman on 47 points and

See if you can spot this one boys

Ken Hall on 46 points. After lunch, stage 2 was the buffalo silhouette at 600 yds and Richard

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Winner and runner up Rich and Ken

Hunter Field Target News percentage point lead over that old FT shooter Dave Pete Sparkes in action Ramshead. Dave beat me in the shoot off in the world HFT champs and I know what a tough competitor he is, it’s tough at the top and it ai’nt over yet. Chris Cundy who started well has two hundred percents from the first 5 shoot’s but has been a bit inconsistent of late with a 53 only good enough for a silver at round six, I know the feeling Chris I was robbed in round one too( sob!). On to equipment and the Bushnell 6500 scope is becoming Things are ‘hotting’ up in the 2009 UKAHFT more popular and will feature in the series, six of the nine rounds have now been last part of my HFT scope tests next month, shot and with only three to go a clear leader in Pete Sparkes has used his to shoot two the open series has immerged. That can really hundreds and a 98.305 out of his last three be said for those shooting the .22 caliber grade rounds. German match rifles are seen more and in the series; a certain Johnny Smith has won more too, mainly from the Steyr and Walther all the six rounds so far. It’s fair to say he will stables. I have to admit it is not where I thought win the title, I for one am very interested to see HFT should be going, i.e. the Same route as if he can make in nine one hundred percents. Field Target shooting with mega expensive rifles Moving to the 9 to 13 juniors group these is a but without a budget cap there is no way to keep clear leader there too now. Larissa Sykes has the costs down and we all know that even talk scored three hundred percents to have an of budget caps can cause major upset, look at almost 20 percentage point lead over Luke Formula one. I started HFT with a Logun Gemini Saunders who has scored one top score then an Air Arms 400, now even I have had to so far. I then turn to the 14 to 16 age group, move to a Steyr in order to keep competitive at all. where the stars of tomorrow are always With only 200 unique shooters in the open found it is Ben Russell with 4 100% scores class at the six rounds so far attendance who lead’s from Kyle Harrison. Ben was also is down on previous years but everyone if smiling in round four at MAD when he won a new suffering under the current financial climate, it’s Ripley Elite in the raffle at the end of the shoot. still good to see the sponsors digging deep and still Nice one Ben. Two other shooters I would like supporting this sport. The big prizes still go to to mention are “Little” Stephanie Kirkwood the person lucky enough to be drawn out in the and Dave Martin. Both are shooting out their raffle so that is a major incentive to get out and skins this season, with Steph scoring a 100% shoot one of the last three rounds in itself. I’ll at Tawd Vale, I hated the course myself as I see you at Anston and Emley, if only to see if only came away with a silver badge, shame! Johnny Smith can win again and if Pete can In the Open title that evergreen master of the resist the surge of Dave Ramshakle. Oh, and HFT art Pete Sparkes has two 100%’s and a 5 remember to bring your HFT pistol along too.

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Gallery Rifle News

Quiet time of year with holidays around the corner but plenty still going on to keep you all busy. This month you have the two meetings we highlighted in the last issue. The Frome 3 Gun at Shield in Dorset and the National GR Championships at Bisley - two contrasting competitions. The first tests your speed, accuracy and the ability to solve problems (if you don’t just go blank after the buzzer!) while shooting – a must for those who like a challenge and an enjoyable day out at a friendly shoot. The second is where anyone can compete with the best in the country at the home of shooting. Lots of your favourite events and open to all comers – Bisley is not just for the “elite”, it’s for everyone and many of the events are classified so you can come along with a realistic chance of going home with a medal. (Don’t forget to bring your certificate of safety and competence.) Next month there is only one in the diary, the Pinewood 1500. This is an old favourite with a good prize table organised by another old favourite, Peter Watts.

COMPETITION CALENDAR August 8 to 9

Frome 3 Gun Shield Shooting Centre

August 29 to 30

National GR Championships National Shooting Centre Bisley

September 19

Pinewood 1500 National Shooting Centre Bisley

(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.galleryrifle.com for more news and information.

The GB Team L to R is Jim Smith, Dave Holt, Steve Lamb, Andy Pain, Andy Jarman, Keiran Barry & Gerry Congratulations to the National Gallery McCarthy from the SSAI Rifle Team on a convincing win over the Republic of Ireland and Germany at the international match held in Fermoy, Co. Cork. A special mention for Andy Jarman who achieved a personal best of 1499 (ex 1500) – very few competitors have ever done that. Only one more point needed next time!!

Also in this issue is another article in the Gallery Rifle skills series. This month it’s about stance – the first thing to get right on the line.

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PRACTICAL SHOTGUN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH AT CARLISLE 4 - 5 JULY 2009 Words and Photo’s by George Granycome For those of us who live in the south, Carlisle is undoubtedly a long way to go for a practical shotgun match. Especially in these days of ever more expensive petrol, but it was always, is now, and looks to be for evermore, one of the most worthwhile journeys as far as shooting is concerned.

IPSC matches each competitor had one-on-one supervision by a qualified UKPSA Range Officer. The slug stages were shot first and once we had all shot these we found time to stuff our faces with Carlisle-burgers at the on-range galley whilst the three slug stages were transmogrified into birdshot and buckshot stages. The day then proceeded with one squad shooting these new stages in the rifle range area whilst the other two squads each shot birdshot stages to the left and right of the main range.

Carlisle Small Arms Club is fortunate in having a properly built rifle range certified for solid slug. The club always makes best use of this and this year

On the left was an 12 plate birdshot stage where the shooter started sitting at a table, and next to it, what I always like the best, a long 24 plate stage with a lot of movement, the last 15 yards being steeply uphill. On the right was a similarly large stage, but with not so much movement but an unloaded start with both cartridge belt and gun on the ground. It was tricky but fast and furious. Finally, two speed shoots, one shot from a seated position, and then, on almost the same group of targets, a weak shoulder stage. Weak shoulder shooting always sorts the men from the boys, or the girls from the women and even possibly the boys from the women and the girls from the men. Josie Adam, tackling the Long Stage on her way to

coming runner up in the Ladies Standard Auto category. put on three great slug stages, the first through three apertures using paper targets requiring two hits on each. The second, again with paper targets, one round on each, but with a no-shoot bobber obscuring targets, and the third an unloaded start with some partial paper targets and a clay pigeon. Slug clay pigeons are static – this one was fastened to a stick stuck in the back-stop, and for my money a static clay is a much trickier shot with slug than a flying clay with birdshot. There were 24 shooters on the Saturday and another 17 on the Sunday. Shooters were divided up into three squads and as with all

The point of a good practical shotgun stage is that it should not be a mere blag, but that it should pose a question on how best to shoot it, that question having several possible answers. It is then up to the shooter who must see all the angles and decide on the best answer for himself – everything is shot against the clock – the shot timer held by the RO – and so speed is of the essence. So is not missing! That is only the first bit. When his turn comes the shooter must front up to the line and actually load and shoot according to his plan. Very often – almost always – the plan will go awry and so the shooter must improvise, must change his plan, must not panic, must stay calm, and must think clearly.



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selected and pre-assigned and had their bottoms smacked at twice the intensity of lesser matches. At this stage of a match report it is normal to say “pity about the weather” well the weather was fantastic! All-in-all it was a beano of a match. Last year, on the way home, braving the traffic jams on the M6 we vowed never again to travel north, but this year even the traffic jams had evaporated and we arrived home saying that we cannot wait for Vanessa Duffy is making her way up hill in the long stage. next year’s Carlisle match. Closely watch by Mike Darby the men’s Standard Auto Great prizes were awarded to the winner. Having secured the win the previous day he is deserving. now carrying out Range Officer Duty. For those of you who are not Neither is it any good to claim that your ammo familiar with the shotgun scene, on an away match is poor or your gun is not working properly. like this many shooters will stay overnight at l Practical shooting is exactly what it says, practical, ocal B and Bs or with friends and so there is the and if your gun does not work it is your fault as you opportunity to party at a convenient pub or should have fixed it beforehand. If your ammo is hotel. This year was no exception. Indeed there wrong and does not feed or work the gun or sticks are people for whom a hangover is the norm – but in the chamber then you should have tested it only after all the shooting is done and dusted. beforehand. In many ways it is a pitiless sport, Practical shotgunners of the world unite! Go unforgiving of poor equipment or a poor mindset. north! You have nothing to lose but your There is only one slim nutmeg of consolation: if your prejudices! To find out more on IPSC stage goes hopelessly wrong, you miss targets, shooting in the UK visit www.ukpsa.co.uk you shoot down no-shoots, you fumble your loads, you run out of ammo, the gun busts, you make a fool of yourself, you burst into tears, you can be certain that as you walk away red-faced with shame and embarrassment or sobbing with self-pity, you are the only person who feels that way. Everyone else, including your best chums, will be falling about laughing, even rolling on the ground with glee.

The Match Director, the person who sets up the match, as distinct from the Range Master who is responsible for the range officials, safety and indeed all activities within the range, on the day, was none other than the charlady of the UKPSA herself, Vanessa Duffy. Under her direction the UKPSA has recently promulgated guidelines for match directors, and so as now being one herself it behoved her to put her money where her mouth was. Never have we seen such a well run and efficiently organized match. Checking in was smooth and efficient. You never even noticed paying the entry fee. Guns were properly checked beforehand, and verification sheets issued and filled in. Score sheets were not in gold leaf but could have been. Range officers were pre

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Match Results Standard Auto 1st 100% Mike Darby 2nd 90.98 Barry Sullivan 3rd 85.76 Jim Starley 1st Senior 1st Junior 1st Lady

Blue Team Harlow Borders

Barry Sullivan Harlow Jim Starley Borders Vanessa Duffy Blue Team

Standard Manual 1st 100% Iain Guy Shield 2nd 97.48 Neil Smith Borders 3rd 85.74 Martin Davies Borders 1st Senior George Granycome Shield Modified 1st 2nd 3rd 1st Senior

100% 93.36 86.43

Pete Straley Borders Colin Alden Harlow Kevin Strowger Carlisle Pete Starley Borders,

Letters and News We have had really good feedback from the last 4 issues and even more things to make us think about how we can deliver a better magazine to you.

[email protected] Happy 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 article on specific firearms, competitions, shooting sports, etc. The aim of the magazine is to include you the shooters in the United Kingdom. So having a regular letters page or even a question and answer section would be really useful for a lot of people out there. Let us know what you think!? 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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Next time in..... Welcome to the sixth month of this free online shooting magazine for shooters in the UK

September 2009 Issue

On Test Features 90

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