17 Fireball and .221 Fireball Brass Now Available

Both .221 Fireball and 17 Fireball brass have been in short supply for quite some time. Remington is the only producer of Fireball brass, and with the popularity of the new 17 Fireball cartridge, most of the recent brass production went into Remington loaded ammo. Wildcatters have also created additional demand for Fireball brass to make into 20 Vartarg cases. The 20 Vartarg is an extremely efficient cartridge that can drive the accurate 32gr BlitzKing or 32gr V-Max at 3700+ FPS with just 18 to 20 grains of powder. You can form Vartarg cases either by necking-down .221 Fireball brass, or necking up the 17 Fireball cases.

17 Fireball Brass at LockStock.com
As of 4/18/08, Lock, Stock & Barrel has 9800 pieces of 17 Fireball brass in stock, sale-priced at $38.90 per 100 cases. FYI, Grafs.com and MidwayUSA are both currently “out of stock” on 17 Fireball brass.

.221 Fireball Brass at MidwayUSA
MidwayUSA recently received a large supply of .221 Fireball brass. MidwayUSA now has .221 Fireball cases in all lot sizes: 20, 100, 500, and 1000-count lots. A 100-piece box (item 413527) is priced at $32.99, while a 500-piece box (item 145641) costs $151.99.

If you’re looking for large quantities of 17 or .221 Fireball brass, you may want to get your orders in quickly. Vendors are reporting very high demand for the brass.

How to Use Bulletin Calendar and Search Functions

There are now over 850 Entries in our Daily Bulletin, going back to March, 2007. In our Archives are many “nuggets” you can discover. Here’s a quick guide to our search options.

New Calendar Tool: We just added a clickable Calendar to make it even easier to find older Bulletin entries. Just click the date to view the stories for that day. When reviewing the last two or three weeks of entries, you may find it easier to click day by day rather than scroll down a long page.

Keyword Search: You can search for any Bulletin item by keyword, such as “Sightron”, or “Camp Perry”, or “6XC”. The keyword search is very fast and effective.

Find by Category: In addition, our posts are grouped into categories, such as “Competition”, “Reloading”, and “Optics”. The categories appear at the top right of every Bulletin Page.

Monthly Archives: You can also quickly access an entire month’s worth of posts. Just click on the month you want and all the posts from that month will appear, starting with the most recent item (end of month first).

Lones Wigger Named to U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame

Olympic marksman Lones W. Wigger, Jr. has been voted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Lones will be inducted into the Hall during a June 19 ceremony in Chicago, Illinois. “It’s a tremendous honor to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and especially to represent the shooting sports,” said Wigger. “I am overwhelmed and can’t hardly believe it. I would like to thank everyone who voted for me and supported me.”

Seventy-year-old Wigger (Colorado Springs, Colo.), a rifle shooter whose career spanned 25 years, is a three-time Olympian, having competed at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico and the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where he won a combined two gold and one silver medals. In addition, he qualified for the 1980 Olympic Team.

Wigger also competed on five Pan American Games teams, where he won five silver and 13 gold medals. During his shooting career, Wigger won 111 medals and set 29 world records in international competition, more than any other shooter in the world. He is a member of the USA Shooting Hall of Fame and was also honored in 1996 by the USOC as a “Golden Olympian.” A retired Army Lt. Col., Wigger is a two-tour Vietnam Veteran and spent 25 years on active duty.

The U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame Class of 2008 is composed of nine Olympians, one Paralympian, an Olympic coach, Veteran, Team and Special Contributor.

Fire Control Joystick Rest — User Review

Battenfeld Technologies has created a new Joystick front rest that allows shooters to adjust BOTH windage and elevation with one movement of the control arm. The 18-lb Caldwell “Fire Control” rest from Battenfeld operates much like a Farley, but it is about one-quarter the cost ($199.00 at MidwayUSA, item 956104). The new Fire Control rest features stainless steel leveling feet on a 28″ x 9″ cast-metal base. It offers 50″ of vertical adjustment (at 100 yards). The Fire Control rest comes with two front bags — a traditional medium-width bag AND a 3” lobe bag.

Availability
Midway is still waiting for shipments of the rests. G.I. Joe’s Outdoor Supply, 1-800-442-8834, gijoes[at]mchsi.com , has them in stock right now, for $199.95 or $210.00 delivered to lower 48.

Forum Member Reviews Fire Control Rest
Early versions of the Caldwell Fire Control rest have recently shipped. Forum member NonLiberal purchased one. He tested it this week and provides this report:

“I received my Caldwell Fire Control rest today. First I’ll describe the shortcomings and items that needed adjustment:

1. The narrow bag that came with it is too thick, so you will have to have a tall rear bag to use it unless you are shooting down-hill.

2. The long joystick rod (with ball end) attaches to a short shaft (in the rubber boot) with one screw with a plastic head. That would be fine but the short shaft is round and the end of the attaching screw is flat. So you either must tighten the screw so tight that the plastic might break or mill/file a flat on the side of the short shaft. I plan to mill a flat section on the small stud shaft with a Dremel so the longer handle can’t slip and rotate.

3. When it came out of the box, the joystick couldn’t even hold its own weight and would fall to the bottom of travel. I was able to increase the tension, however.

4. The coarse vertical adjustment was so tight it would move the whole rest turning the knob.

5. The wide front bag is the normal, cheap cordura 3-lobe bag that comes with all the other Caldwell rests. (It is working well but it’s still cheaply made.)

Those were pretty much all the problems I could find with the rest. The good part is the instructions tell you how to adjust joystick tension and course vertical to your liking.

Function Test — Overall, the Rest Works Well
After making the adjustments, the joystick moves freely with good positive motion. It’s not glass smooth but is good enough that I won’t complain. I imagine it will get smoother with time. I had a 17-lb rifle sitting on it just to see if the vertical height would creep down and it didn’t move in 45 minutes.

The base seems to be a good design. When pushing the gun into the rifle stop the Fire Control doesn’t tip as easy as my Hart base. The Fire Control is a little narrower (from side to side) than my Hart, so I can get the Caldwell closer to the edge of the bench where I like to be. One gripe — my Fire Control didn’t include the bubble level shown in the pictures.

With the rest at its lowest setting, the cradle sits 6.5″ above the bench. I didn’t measure the range of motion but at 100 yards its definitely enough to cover a standard Hunter Benchrest Target and then some. I did notice, with the 17-lb gun, that when the joystick hits the very top of adjustment it drops just a touch when I let go. This can probably be adjusted out or I will just set the coarse adjustment a little high center on the target.

I like the way the Caldwell adjusts for height with the knob on the left side. For me it is nice not having to deal with the wheel and screw method for changing course elevation. At my home I shoot on a slight downhill grade and have to change back and forth a lot when I go to the range.

CLICK HERE for VIDEO of FIRE CONTROL Rest

Caldwell Fire Control is a ‘Keeper’
I did have a buyer for this rest if I didn’t want to keep it but I think I will hang on to it. I’m not even trying to compare this rest to some of the ‘works of art’ that are out there but for someone like me that really wanted to use or at least try out a joystick rest but couldn’t justify the cost of a Farley or Seb, this is a good option even if it’s just to get your feet wet and upgrade later. Cost was less than $200 plus shipping.

The Fire Control design is so new that I cannot comment on how long it will last or any problems that may develop. But, as it stands today, I would buy it again.”

Programs and On-line Entry System for Camp Perry Events

Official Programs for the CMP National Trophy and CMP Games Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, are now posted on the CMP website. Also, potential competitors can now sign up online via the new CMP Competitor On-Line Entry System.

On the CMP web site, you can also find Official Programs for the 2008 Pistol and Rifle Small Arms Firing Schools, the 2008 National Trophy Pistol Matches and other events. Use the pull-down match menu on the CMP home page or go directly to the CMP’s National Match Index Page.

First-Day Ceremonies Planned
Once again, the colorful First Shot Ceremony will officially open the matches. This year’s ceremony is on Monday afternoon, 7 July. The 2008 First Shot Speaker is John Sigler, President of the NRA. Other planned highlights include a military band performance, Air National Guard jet fly-by, and Army National Guard parachute jump. The ceremony, which takes place at the end of the first day of the Pistol Small Arms Firing School, will be followed by a “National Matches Visitor Reception” in the Camp Perry Club House.

New Home for Airgun Competition
The 2008 National Matches will debut a new home for the air gun matches that formerly took place in a small air gun range on Commercial Row. The new Camp Perry CMP Competition Center will have 80 firing points equipped with electronic targets. The new facility will host a 60-shot air pistol event with finals on on July 13, and a special 60-shot air rifle match will be fired on the new range on July 15, along with other multi-day events.

Brownells Offers Scope Mounting Video

Brownells has a helpful Instructional Video showing how to attach a one-piece scope mount and dove-tailed rings on a rifle. Brownells tech David Bennetts shows how to degrease the parts properly, torque the screws correctly, and adjust scope placement for proper eye relief.

CLICK HERE to WATCH VIDEO

In the video, Bennetts installs a conventional ring set with dove-tail front ring + windage adjustable rear ring. We actually prefer a non-adjustable double-dovetail installation. Double dovetails provide a rock-solid, low-profile installation that works well on hunting rifles–you never have to worry about the rear ring working loose. Burris makes double-dovetail sets with Signature polymer inserts. Offset (assymetric) inserts allow “pre-loaded” windage correction in the rings themselves. Hence you don’t need an old-fashioned rear ring that slides from side to side for gross windage adjustments.

This video is just an introductory clip. It does not cover ring lapping or more sophisticated methods of reticle alignment. We recommend, when mounting the scope, to use multiple bubble levels and a plumb line to ensure that the scope’s cross-hairs are truly aligned properly. With some commercial scopes, unfortunately, the reticle is canted up to 3° internally relative to the turrets. With such a scope, you CAN set the reticle square, but then your turrets will be canted relative to the receiver. That creates issues when shooting at long range. Accordingly, if your scope has a badly canted reticle, you should send it back to the manufacture for warranty repair.

Ruger Recalls SR9 Pistols

In 2007, Ruger launched its new polymer-framed, SR9™ striker-fired 9mm pistol designed to compete with the Glock, Springfield XP, and S&W MP handguns. The gun was slim, with a comfortable grip. Unfortunately, Ruger has “determined that some Ruger SR9 pistols manufactured between October 2007 and April 2008 can, under certain conditions, fire if dropped with their manual safeties in the ‘off’ or ‘fire’ position.” Accordingly, Ruger has issued an SR9 Recall Notice.

To correct the problem, a new trigger group must be fitted by Ruger. If you own an SR9, submit contact info on Ruger’s SR9 Recall Registration Page. Once you register, Ruger will send you a shipping label and shipping box so you can return your pistol to us FREE of charge. After installing the new trigger group, Ruger will return the pistol (at no charge), along with FREE extra magazine.

For more details, or to submit your info by phone, call the SR9 Recall Hotline, 1-800-784-3701.

Swampworks Revives JLK Bullet Designs

Jimmy Knox may have retired, but his high-performance bullet designs are still available for competitive shooters. The JLK line of projectiles is now produced by Swampworks Inc., which acquired Jimmy’s dies and components.

Swampworks’ Owner, Steve “Swampy” Milholland, tells us: “We are in regular production now of new bullets in the most popular calibers. These bullets are produced with the SAME tooling, the SAME bullet forming dies, and the SAME quality components from the same suppliers. We are producing the ‘new’ bullets on the old designs one batch at a time, based on demand.” We’ve heard good reports about the Swampworks JLK bullets, particularly the 6mm 105gr VLD and 6.5mm, 130gr VLD.

Here are current prices on some popular JLK Bullets: