The Color Purple — A Father’s Gift to His Daughter
“My daughter’s favorite color is purple, so I built her a purple rifle….”
Here’s a feel-good story about a family that shoots together, and a dad who did something very special for his daughter. All fathers create things for their children, but it’s unusual to find a Dad who has the skills (and motivation) to build a top-level competition rifle for his child. Our friend, Erik Cortina, did just that. Here is the story of the lovely purple maple F-Class rig Erik built for his girl Amberleeana.
| AUDIO FILE: Erik Cortina and Daughter Amberleeana Talk about the Purple Rifle. (Sound file loads when you click button). |
My daughter would always tell me when I would go to a match, “Remember Dad, only Xs matter, the other stuff on the target is just there for decoration!” — Erik Cortina
A Father’s Gift: An F-Classer for Amberleeana
by Erik Cortina
My daughter Amberleeana has been wanting to shoot F-Class for a long time because I have been dragging her to matches since she was a little girl. She would come into my reloading room and watch me reload while she asked a million questions, all which I tried to answer to the best of my abilities. At age 9, she started hunting with a semi-custom rifle her grandfather gave her, a 6×47 Lapua built on a Remington 700 action with a Bartlein barrel. She has been very successful as a hunter so she decided to move to the next step and start shooting F-Class.
She shot my backup rifle before and she really enjoyed it. Here’s a YouTube video from a while back. This shows Amberleeana, at age 11, shooting at 500 yards for the very first time. You can see she does very well.
After hearing about the U.S. F-Class Under 25 (U25) Rifle Team selection trials in Raton this upcoming summer, Amberleeana wanted to try out for the U25 Team. I told her that was OK, but we had to modify the rifle she was currently using so that it could fit her better. After some consideration, I decided instead to sell that rifle and build her a brand new one.
Her favorite color is purple, so I built her a purple rifle with adjustable cheek piece and butt pad. Shurley Brothers (Austin, TX) crafted the stock from maple, and then applied a purple gloss finish. We think it turned out great. Amberleeana is eager to take the rifle to Raton this summer: “I would like to make the Under 25 U.S. Rifle Team and compete at the F-Class World Championship in Canada in 2017. My main focus now is on the upcoming team try-outs in Raton, New Mexico.”
I hope that my daughter enjoys F-Class as much as I have, which will allow us to spend more time together on the range and in the reloading room.
6.5×47 Lapua Load Development
The purple rifle is chambered for the 6.5×47 Lapua cartridge. Our preliminary load work up shows great promise using Vihtavuori N140 powder, 136gr Lapua Scenar bullets, and CCI 450 primers. We tried a variety of charge weights, starting at 35.7 grains of N140 and ending up at 38.2 grains. The photo below shows an initial series of 3-shot test groups at 120 yards. What do you think is the best node? What charge weight would YOU select among these? [Editor: That final load of 38.2 grains looks very good, but we would want to check for pressure signs and repeat with 10-round strings checking for ES and SD. Also, if you go by the vertical only, the 36.0 and 36.3 loads are worth further testing.]
Purple Rifle Specifications:
Stock: Shurley Brothers Lowrider XL stock (Maple)
(Finished by Shurley Brothers, bedded by Speedy Gonzalez)
Action: Kelbly F-Class Panda
Trigger: Flavio Fare
Barrel: Brux 32″-long, 1:8″-twist, 4-groove stainless, chambered in 6.5×47 Lapua
(Barrel work and assembly done by Erik Cortina)
Barrel Tuner: ECTuner (matches barrel contour)
Scope: Nightforce 15-55x52mm Competition
Front Rest: SEB NEO front rest
Rear Sandbag: Edgewood
Load: VV N140, 136gr Scenars, CCI 450 primers
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Tags: 6.5x47, 6.5x47 Lapua, Canada, Erik Cortina, F-Class, F-Class World Championship, Kelbly Panda, Shurley Brothers, Under-25
I would like to know Eric’s thoughts about the trigger.
Eric, how about a review on that FF trigger?
Nice rifle and all the best
37.8 for my money
Where did you end up for the load?
Very sharp looking rig! Like the tuner.
I have seen this rifle in person. It looks even better than the pictures.
Very nice build Erik, setting a nice high standard in the junior division. They will all want one!
The FF trigger is outstanding. It is much smoother than a 1.5 oz Jewell trigger and more consistent as well.
I have been training my daughter lately, here’s what we have been doing in case you guys want to get a Junior started.
Optional: I showed her everything I do to ammo for reloading. This step is not necessary, but I want her to eventually load her own ammo.
Steps 1 & 2 may not last very long since they will tire easily because they are not used to it.
Step 1: Dry fire practice. Set her up on my reloading room floor and make her practice aiming on a spot on the wall (can use a target for this) and break the shots as cleanly as possible. The advantage is that we can modify position and equipment easily because we are at home.
Step 2: Go to the range and have her shoot at 100 yards. I printed a target with 12 dots on it that are 1/2″ diameter. Shoot one shot at each target. Do this until she can shoot accurately and consistently. Do three sets of 12 taking a break in between.
Step 3a: Move to 500 yards and practice shooting dead center. Main focus at this point is holding tight vertical.
Step 3b: Start coaching her on wind calls. I call the wind, she shoots.
Step 3c: Let her make her own wind calls while I watch through spotting scope. As soon as she makes a mistake, stop her and discuss.
Step 4: Move to 1,000 yards and do the same as step 3.
Step 5: Take her to a midrange match and coach her for a string or two and let her shoot at least one on her own. Do this until she can do very well on her own and then do the same on a long range match.
Our goal is that she can shoot at 1,000 yards by July.