Forum member Rick from Louisiana (aka RMulhern) has rigged up a fantastic target for long-range shooting. Rick, a long-time competitive Palma shooter, had a large 72″x72″ steel target fabricated with two separate center rings that are equivalent to the official paper Palma/Creedmoor target. He says he’s “shot a lot of Palma on that target, as well as lots of Black Powder Cartridge (BPCR) rounds”. The big steel target works great when Rick shoots his Sharps 45/110 BPCR at 800 to 1000 yards. The large steel background (painted white) helps Rick see and hear his hits. If you understand the high-arching trajectory of 500+ grain projectiles shot from a 45/110, you know it can take a few rounds to get Point of Impact dialed in.
Rick reports: “These are two of my favorite rifles to shoot: a M1874 Shiloh Sharps in caliber 45/110 (2 7/8) made in Big Timber, Montana by Kirk Bryan and family. The other is a 6.5×47 Lapua on a blue-printed M700 action with 1:8.5″-twist Krieger barrel and F5 McMillan Tactical stock. Many of the shooters that take up BPCR have a tendency to get away from their smokeless powder rifles in favor of the blackpowder game. Frankly I have the best of both worlds as I enjoy shooting both (smokeless and BPCR), although I must admit that I probably spend the majority of my time on the range with the Sharps rifles these days.” (Rick’s pretty good with his Sharps by the way — he recently shot a 95, 96, and 100 (clean) for 3×10 shots at 800 yards.)
Gongzilla: $1000 Worth of Steel with Three Plate Layers
Rick tells us: “Here’s the deal — everything is steel! The large plate is 72″x72″ and the black bull is 44″ diameter. The 20″-diameter central white bull is made from 1/2″-thick AR400 bull-dozer plating. That’s the same size as the regulation Palma/Creedmoor paper target. The white square and black bull are 3/8″-thick mild steel. Plates are off-set 2″ from each other. I welded a 2″ length of square tubing to the back of both plates and the bolt slides through and is attached to the large plate. I used 2 3/8″ upset tubing (oil field pipe) for the holder framing.” Rick says he invested about $1000.00 in metal for the target, but that was 15 years ago. Today the steel would be much more expensive.
Rick says the AR400 armor plate in the center bull is very strong: “You can shoot a .338 Lapua Magnum at 200 yards and it won’t damage the center bull”. The mild steel works well for the cast bullets Rick uses with his Sharps 45/110. Also, Rick says the mild steel is rugged enough for 6.5mm and .308 hollowpoint match bullets, if you’re at least 500 yards away. However, Rick told us, “If I would make [the target] again, I would make the black bull AR400 as well. [That way] you would never have to worry about big dents or beating the plate up at any distance. The AR400 is very tough steel. You can shoot a Sierra or Lapua HP bullet and they will just splatter.”
Rick told us: “I built this target with off-set clanger plates. The white clanger is AR400. Bullets just splatter!” Does he worry about hitting the bolt head? Not at all. Rick says: “When I hit the bolt head, I break my arm patting myself on the back!”.
For more information about Rick’s all-steel 1000-yard target, read this AccurateShooter Forum Thread. Registered Forum Members can also send private messages to “RMulhern”.
Dry-firing practice can benefit all competitors, particularly sling-shooters. However, for AR15 Service Rifle shooters and High Power competitors using AR-based “spaceguns”, dry-firing is complicated by the charging handle location — pulling back on the handle requires that you move your head placement on the rifle. In addition, extensive AR dry-firing can cause pre-mature wear of an AR’s firing pin. AR shooters take heart — now there are products that allow you to dry-fire your AR more easily, without breaking position, and with no adverse effects on the firing pin.
Creedmoor AR15/M16 Dry-Firing Device Creedmoor Sports offers a Delrin dry-firing device that allows you to reset your AR trigger with a very short pull of the charging handle — plus you don’t have to break position. Machined from solid Delrin, the dry-fire device is inserted into the bolt carrier and limits the swing of the hammer, allowing unlimited dry-firing without the risk of firing pin damage. The trigger pull is unchanged and the shooter can reset the trigger mechanism by cycling the charging handle a mere one-quarter inch or so. The shooter can reset his trigger without breaking position and the lessened impact of the hammer allows the shooter to better evaluate his sight picture and follow-through. Creedmoor’s AR-15/M16 Service Rifle Dry-Fire Device, item #C1051, retails for $18.95
Other AR Dry-Firing Devices MidwayUSA offers a similar Delrin dry-firing device for ARs. Like the Creedmoor unit, this TMA-made device fits in the bolt carrier group and protects the firing pin from damage. The orange unit slips between the buffer and bolt, and permits the trigger reset with only a quarter-inch movement of the charging handle. During storage the device can also provide a safety function by preventing the hammer from hitting the firing pin. But, we caution, don’t leave your gun loaded presuming this device, by itself, will make the gun safe. Midways’ orange Delrin AR dry-firing device, item #872223, costs $16.99.
Story tip by Boyd Allen. We welcome submissions from our readers.
Nancy Tompkins will be bringing out a new Second Edition of her popular book: Prone and Long-Range Rifle Shooting. Nancy hopes to have Second Edition books available by mid-June, 2012. The enhanced Second Edition will feature updates to the current chapters, more photos, plus an entirely new chapter on F-Class Shooting. The Second Edition will be issued as a hardback only, for increased durability. Price isn’t set yet, but Nancy hopes to keep the price “under $40.00″. The book will be available from Sinclair Int’l and direct from Nancy who plans to have a new website for the book running by the end of May.
While visiting the new Lapua Rimfire Test Center in Mesa, Arizona, we had a chance to chat with Nancy, and learn about the Second Edition of Prone and Long-Range Rifle Shooting. Watch the video to hear Nancy talk about her plans for the updated version of her book.
Tompkins Book a Must-Read for Long-Range Shooters
Nancy’s updated treatise is a must-read for serious Palma, F-Class, and High Power shooters. The sections covering Mental & Physical training and Reading Wind & Mirage will benefit all precision shooters, regardless of discipline. Other topics include Shooting Fundamentals, International Competition, and Loading for Long Range. Nancy Tompkins has won the National Long Range Championships four times, and is the first woman ever to win the National High Power Championship. (The second was Nancy’s daughter SGT Sherri Gallagher.) Nancy has also won the prestigious Wimbledon Cup, and is a 5-time Leech Cup winner. Nancy has been on six Palma Teams (as both a shooter and a coach). (Note: photo shows First Edition of book.)
They have been on the market for nearly a year, but you may not know that Redding sells a line of Micrometer Seater assemblies, which can be used to upgrade Redding’s standard ½-20 thread seater dies. These replacements allow you to enjoy the ease-of-use and precision of a micrometer seater, without buying a whole new die. Redding states that “the new Bullet Seating Micrometers are a direct [retro-fit] replacement for the original seating plugs and can easily be changed from one die to another.” Unfortunately, these add-on micrometer stems haven’t started shipping yet, and Redding has not provided a firm delivery date (or price). We are hoping the products will start arriving by mid-summer.
NOTE: the seater assemblies are a component of the bullet seating die. These are not the dies themselves. It is the top portion of the die that contains the plunger, which pushes the bullet into the case. And here is something important: these new Bullet Seating Micrometers are available for both traditional tangent ogive bullet shapes as well as for VLD (secant ogive) bullets.
That’s right, Redding now offers micrometer seater assemblies made specifically for Berger VLD bullets. These Seating Micrometers allow you to convert a standard seater to a Micrometer seater optimized for VLDs. That’s great news for VLD fans. Eric Stecker of Berger Bullets tells us: “We have confirmed with Redding that each of the new micrometer plugs in the VLD group were designed based on Berger VLD bullets. We provided all of our VLD bullets to Redding, from which they took deliberate measurements and made these new plugs.”
New VLD-specific Seater Stems Improve Bullet Seating Depth Consistency
Stecker explains how the new VLD-specific seater assemblies produce better, more accurate ammo: “Many shooters have problems getting the VLD bullets to shoot because of the bullet seater die they are using. VLD bullet noses are so long and sharp that, in many dies, the bullet tip bottoms out in the bullet seater stem instead of touching on the side of the ogive like it should. Seating depth inconsistencies up to .025″ can occur if the seater stem bottoms out on the bullet tip. The worst part is that many shooters have no idea that this is the root cause of their poor performance. This new product can help turn a frustrating shooting experience into an enjoyable one.”
Story tip from Edlongrange. We welcome submissions from our readers.
The new 33rd Edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values has just been released, and is available now for $30.75. The Blue Book of Gun Values, by S. P. Fjestad, is the top-selling book in our AccurateShooter Bookstore which operates through Amazon.com. The 33rd Edition of the Blue Book has been expanded to 2,432 pages, all gun values have been thoroughly updated for both modern and antique firearms, including the recent paramilitary style guns, and it also includes new domestic and imported 2012 makes and models. Other features include an exclusive interview with the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre, an 80-page color Photo Percentage Grading System to help accurately determine the condition of firearms, and serialization and proofmark sections to help in identifying firearms. The Blue Book of Gun Values is the firearm industry’s most trusted reference book with over 1.4 million copies in print.
New Nine-Part Video Guide for Blue Blue Users
To assist Blue Book readers, Blue Book Publications has created a nine-part instructional video series on YouTube. Part 1, the Introduction, provides an overview (video below). Each of the other eight (8) short videos explains a key feature of the Blue Book of Gun Values and how to best utilize it. Watch one or more videos, according to your interests.
At the NRA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Colt Firearms introduced a new bolt-action “Competition Rifle”, the M2012-CLR. Assembled by Cooper Firearms for Colt, the M2012 features a Colt metal chassis with tubular forearm, and a Cooper Arms repeater action. The M2012 rifles on display were chambered in .308 Winchester with fluted 1:10″ twist stainless barrels fitted with Surefire muzzle brakes. The bolt is a three-lug design with a Sako-style extractor. Trigger is a Timney set at 3 pounds — pretty high for a “competition” rifle. Though the barrel is only 22″, the M2012 is fairly heavy. Weight without optics is 13.2 pounds. Given the weight and short barrel, we think Colt is marketing this more for tactical shooters, rather than actual High Power or F-TR competitors.
According to the GDI Engineering website, Colt’s M2012 “appear[s] to have been built on Cooper’s Model 54 action, which features a two-position safety to the right of the bolt. [Features] include an integral 25-MOA Picatinny base and the Colt-specific chassis and stock. The single-stack detachable magazines are from Accuracy International.”
Hefty Price for Colt’s M2012-CLR
MSRP for the new M2012-CLR is $3799.00. Colt’s asking price is approximately $1300.00 more than the price of an Eliseo RTS Tubegun Chassis ($1020.00) with a Rem-clone custom action ($900.00) and a Krieger barrel ($550.00 chambered). The RTS features a 5-way adjustable buttstock, easily removed without tools. The Colt M2012 offers adjustable Length of Pull (LOP) and adjustable cheekpiece height. The M2012′s skeleton buttstock is bolted to the main chassis, requiring an Allen wrench to remove.
Forum member Jerry Brandon isn’t just an excellent craftsman of Ballistic Edge annealing machines. He’s also a skilled writer who has authored six fiction novels. Writing as “JK Brandon”, Jerry has penned a series of books that should appeal to anyone who likes a good thriller with plenty of gun-related action.
We recently had the pleasure of reading Jerry Brandon’s book The Kennedy Rifle from start to finish. It’s an entertaining page-turner, with a fast-paced plot, well-drawn characters, sharply-written dialog, and some fascinating insights into the Kennedy assassination, drawn from years of research by the author. Brandon hooks the reader with this intro: “What would happen if you suddenly gain possession of the very rifle that killed President John F. Kennedy? And it’s not a 6.5 Mannlicher Carcano…and it wasn’t the only gun used in the assassination…”
The book’s protagonist is Michael Cole, a firearms and ballistics expert based in Arizona. Brandon says the Cole character is a “cross between Massad Ayoob and Clint Smith”. Those who’ve read much contemporary fiction will also notice that Michael Cole shares some qualities of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher — and that’s a good thing. This Editor has read most of the Travis McGee series of books by MacDonald, as well as many popular Elmore Leonard titles. I can tell you that Brandon writes very convincing dialog that fans of MacDonald and Leonard will appreciate.
In many “best-selling” crime novels and techno-thrillers, the actions of the central character are all-too-often implausible — and sometimes completely “over the top”. That ruins a story for me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a current novel and the protagonist does something so completely stupid, irrational, or implausible, that the book loses its appeal. You won’t encounter that problem with Brandon’s Michael Cole. The Michael Cole character is not a gun-slinging cartoon. Cole makes plausible decisions that draw on a sophisticated understanding of how real guns work. You won’t find Cole “releasing the safety on his revolver” or shooting down an airplane with a flare gun. The Cole character has another quality missing from most of the current techno-thriller heros — humor. Cole has a clever, dry wit that gives the book another dimension (Rockford Files fans will enjoy the humor.)
AUTHOR TALKS about BOOK
CLICK “PLAY” to hear Jerry Brandon TALK about his new thriller, The Kennedy Rifle.
If you like the Bob Lee Swagger books by Stephen Hunter or the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, you’ll enjoy The Kennedy Rifle by Jerry Brandon. And certainly if you have a serious interest in the Kennedy assassination, this book is a must read. Brandon’s book uncovers many of the puzzling facts left out of the Warren Report. Though The Kennedy Rifle is a work of fiction, it makes a convincing argument that important aspects of the Kennedy assassination were never revealed to the American public.
Overall, I can recommend the book highly. My only criticism is that I wish the book were longer. By the third chapter I was “hooked” and proceeded to race through the novel in a couple of late-night sessions. When I got to the finish I wished Brandon had added some more twists and turns, and perhaps a few more sections dedicated to ballistics. In paperback version, the book runs 206 pages, including an excerpt from The Steel Violin, another Michael Cole novel by Brandon. You can order both paperback and eBook versions of The Kennedy Rifle and The Steel Violin from Amazon.com. Visit JKBrandon.com to learn more about the author and his Michael Cole novels.
If you have a rifle chambered in .260 Remington, you may be wondering if the Lapua .260 Brass is worth the money compared to domestic-made brass. Well, the answer is “yes” if you demand consistent weight and dimensional uniformity (including neckwall thickness).
Mike Harpster of Dead Center Sports took the time to weigh and measure Lapua .260 Rem brass. His test show this brass to be extremely uniform. Weight variance was less than one (1) grain in a 20-case sample. And case neckwall thickness was very consistent.
Report by Mike Harpster: Lapua .260 Rem Brass Test Results (with Comparisons)
I pulled twenty (20) pieces randomly from one Lapua box to do some measurements. I weighed them on my Mettler-Toledo digital lab scale and here are the individual weights of each case. Remarkably, the Lapua brass had less than one grain total weight variance among all 20 cases!
While checking the Lapua brass I remembered I had just received some Winchester brand .308 brass, so I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison between the two brands. I again pulled 20 cases at random from a bag of 50 and repeated the same measurements. The results are shown in the right half of the table below.
Weight Variance Lapua .260 Rem Brass vs. Winchester .308 Brass
LAPUA .260 Rem Brass
Winchester .308 Win Brass
Average: 172.20 grains
ES: 0.94 grains
SD: 0.259
Average: 158.49 grains
ES: 2.64 grains
SD: 0.678
Lapua Brass Further Inspection
With sample Lapua .260 Rem cases, I also measured the neck wall thickness in four places with calipers, not the most accurate method but I feel confident that the thickness did not vary more than .001″ over the 20 cases (.0145-.0155). The inside diameter of the neck measured .260 which would give .004 of neck tension out of the box. I visually checked the flash holes and I did not find any flakes of brass or burrs inside, the holes were round and centered.
Winchester Brass Further Inspection
The flash holes on the majority of the Winchester brass were not round or centered and they had large burrs inside. The neck wall thickness was pretty consistent, varying only .0015″ (.0125″ – .014″). As you can see in the photo (right) many of the Winchester cases were badly dented while the Lapua brass showed very few minor dents. The annealing on the necks of the Lapua brass was clearly evident while the Winchester showed no signs of being annealed. [Editor's note: Winchester tumble-polishes its brass before shipping -- so you would not notice annealing coloration if annealing had been done.]
I have never done these measurements on any other brass so I don’t know how they compare, but I am very impressed with the overall quality of the Lapua .260 brass. If they prove to hold up to the repeated firings I get from my Lapua 6BR brass I believe .260 shooters wil be very happy.
Mike Harpster — Dead Center Sports
105 Sunrise Drive
Spring Mills, PA 16875
phone: 814-571-4655 www.deadcentersports.com
Mirage shields really do help you hit your targets more reliably. Novice shooters may wonder “Why does that guy have a venetian blind attached to his barrel?” Here’s why. As the barrel gets hot, the heat from the barrel rises up, cooking and distorting the air directly in front of the scope’s front lens. In essense, the rifle creates its own nasty visual mirage, right in the worst possible place. You can have a $4000.00 custom rifle and a $2500.00 scope but if the air in front of your scope is distorted, it can literally move your apparent point of aim on the target relative to your cross-hairs, causing you to miss the shot.
As our friend Boyd Allen observed: “Varminters should use mirage shields. Think about it. You’ve invested thousands of dollars in a fancy varmint rifle and quality scope. You may have spent hundreds of dollars traveling to the varmint fields and spent dozens of hours loading up your ammo. Without a mirage shield on your barrel, once that barrel gets hot, you WILL get mirage effects that can make you miss a shot.”
So, we’ve established you need a mirage shield to shoot your best when the barrel gets hot. You can make your own shield from a scrap blind, or purchase a ready-made plastic or aluminum shield. Sinclair Int’l offers 2″-wide, white mirage shields in 18″ (#06-7200) or 24″ (#06-7300) lengths for $4.95. Shotmaster 10X offers a variety of Patterned Mirage Shields, starting at $6.00. These include a Patriotic theme and even Tiger Stripes:
Camo Mirage Shields for Tactical Shooters and Hunters
Though tactical shooters should use mirage shields for long-distance, slow-fire stages, for the most part, tactical shooters don’t bother. One reason is that mirage shields CAN detach if you’re crawling around in the bush. However, for many tactical shooting situations, a mirage shield IS both practical and recommended. And now, for the first time, tactical shooters can get mirage shields in camo patterns to match their rifles. These camo shields should also be popular with varminters and long-range hunters.
At the request of AccurateShooter.com, Shotmaster 10X created a line of camo-pattern mirage shields (see above). Made of 2″-wide aluminum strips, these are available in 18″, 20″, and 24″ lengths. The camo-pattern shields come complete with Velcro attachments, and start at $8.50 for the 18″ length. The 20″ models are $9.50, while 24″ shields are $11.00.
As you may know, Norma is working hard to make its products more readily available in the USA. Norma has put a new distribution system in place, and quality Norma ammunition and cartridge brass is now carried by many major vendors. Leading the way is Midsouth Shooters’ Supply, which now stocks a full selection of Norma brass and a large inventory of Norma loaded ammunition. Most of the Norma cartridge brass types now come in 25-unit boxes. This allows you to try out the Norma brass without breaking the bank. For example, 25 pieces of Norma 6mm PPC brass (item 013-10260105) costs just $20.25. You can “buy it and try it” without a big up-front investment.
SAVE 5% on Norma Brass and Ammo Orders! Midsouth Shooters Supply has announced a special discount just for Accurateshooter.com readers. Just enter PROMO CODE 6mmNORMA during check-out to get 5% off select Norma merchandise. Listen to the Audio clip below to learn more about this special discount!
HOW TO GET 5% OFF CLICK “PLAY” to hear Midsouth’s Michael Ryan explain how to use the 6mmNORMA Promo Code. Save 5% on your order!
Target shooters will be pleased to find Norma cartridge brass in these accurate calibers: .222 Rem, .223 Rem, 6mm PPC, 6mmBR, 6XC, .260 Rem, 6.5×284, .308 Win, .300 RSAUM, and .300 WSM. Varmint Hunters should consider these other offerings: .204 Ruger, .220 Swift, 22-250, and .243 Winchester. Big game hunters will find a huge selection of cartridge types — everything from .25-06 to .375 H&H. Of course Norma offers nearly all the popular deer-hunting cartridges, such as 6.5×55, .270 Win, .270 WSM, 7mm-08, 7mm Rem Mag, .280 Rem, .30-06, and .300 Win Mag.
Some of our mechanically-skilled readers chamber their own barrels or bed their own stocks. But these are relatively simple tasks compared to the jobs of constructing an entire rifle plus building an advanced front rest from scratch. Well that’s exactly what Forum member Steve B. (aka Essexboy) did. He built his own rifle and an impressive twin-belt-drive pedestal rest. (Click photo below to see large version). And get this, Steve’s home-made rifle was victorious in its first-ever match. Steve reports: “I shot my first Comp with the rifle this weekend and managed to win with a score of 239-21!” (The match was shot at 300/500/600/1000/1100 with English scoring of 5 points for center bullseye).
Do-It-Yourself F-Open Rig from England
Steve, who hails from Essex in the UK, constructed virtually every component of his skeleton-style rifle except the 28″ HV Bartlein barrel (chambered as a 6mm Dasher) and the Tikka 590 donor action. Steve also did all the design and fabrication work on his one-of-a-kind front rest. Steve tells us: “Over the last year or so, I made this rifle stock and rest. I managed to make it all on a little Myford Lathe, as you can tell I’m no machinist but it saved me a load of money — so far I’ve got about $200 invested plus the barrelled action. The stock is aluminum except for the stainless steel bag runner. The rifle came in at one ounce under weight limit for F-Class Open division.” Steve did get help with the chambering and barrel-fitting, but he hopes to do all the barrel work himself on his next project.
The gun is very accurate. Steve notes: “I have shot the rifle to 1100 yards and it shoots well. Last time out the rifle dropped just one point at 1000 yards and 5 points at 1100 yards [English scoring system]. I know it’s not pretty, but it got me shooting long range F-Class for peanuts.” Message to Steve: Don’t worry how it looks. As another Forum member observed: “Any rifle that shoots well at 1100 yards is beautiful….”
Steve started with a Tikka 590 action: “The whole stock was made on a small (6.5×13) lathe and a vertical slide. This caused a few head scratching moments, figuring out how to hold the T6/HE30 alloy for the milling/turning operations, but it did teach me a few things. The hardest parts were clamping the longer sections (such as the fore-end) and keeping it all square. Due to the short cross-slide travel I had to keep re-setting the parts. I managed to keep all measurements to .0001″ (one thousandth). I’m most proud of the trigger guard (photo below). This took a full day but came out really well, even if I say so myself.”
Belt-Driven Front Rest
We’re impressed with Steve’s ingenious front rest. Steve explains: “The rest is belt-driven and still in the experimental stage — hence no powder coating or polishing yet. I may have gone over the top as the key moving parts (the pulleys) run on three (3) types of bearings: radial; reamed bush; and a ball race. The main post runs on a radial bearing and the feet even have bearings in them, so when I raise the main body up (for rough height adjustment) the foot stays static.”
Will Steve build another rifle? Steve says he will, and he’s upgraded his tools: “Since building the rifle I have acquired a bigger lathe (Harrison m250) and a milling machine. For the next project I hope to be able to do the barrel work (threading, chambering, crowning) as well.” The next gun might be another Dasher. Steve explains: “After extensive reading on AccurateShooter.com, I chose the 6mm Dasher chambering, as I have a shoulder problem and can’t shoot a rifle with a lot of recoil.”
Bigger is Better?
Yes, size matters — at least when it comes to gun safes. Is your current safe bursting at the seams with your ever-growing firearms collection? Perhaps you need a little more vertical clearance for your Lahti L-39 or favorite Punt Gun? Well Superior Safe Co. has a solution for you — a humongous safe that stands 10-feet tall and weighs more than a pick-up truck. For reference, the young man in the picture, Greg from Pyramyd Air, is an honest 6’3″ tall.
Sized Right — For a 7-Footer
Now if you’re not an NBA center, the lock placement on this jumbo safe is not very practical. We note that the keypad is a good foot above Greg’s head, making access somewhat difficult for the “vertically challenged” customer. We’re not sure what Superior Safe hand in mind there — unless this mega-safe was really created for Shaquille O’Neal or Yao Ming. Still, Americans love big stuff — big cars, big houses, and, of course, big guns. At least if you purchase one of these monsters, you’ll have the peace of mind that a smash-and-grab thief can’t roll it away on a hand dolly. Superior Safe, which displayed this yellow giant at the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits, explains that this is a “custom model” not on the normal price list — face it, if you need to ask about the price, you can’t afford it. Joking aside, if you really need this kind of capacity for a firearms collection (with a punt gun or Lahti), you’d be wise to consider a custom walk-in vault, built into a room in your house. (Safe photo courtesy Pyramyd Air.)
What is a Punt Gun? A punt gun is an extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. Punt guns could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound of shot at a time. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. Punt guns were too big to hold so they were often mounted directly on the punts (boats) used for hunting, hence their name. Generally the gun was fixed to the punt, requiring the hunter to manuever the entire boat to aim the gun. Firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards from recoil. Sometimes fleets of punt gun-boats were used together. In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. In the United Kingdom, a 1995 survey showed fewer than 50 active punt guns still in use. UK law limits punt guns to a bore diameter of 1.75 inches (1 1/8 pounder). Learn more at Wikipedia.com.
Lahti L-39 photo, courtesy Gordon Greene, originally appeared in The Gun Zone.
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Forum member Rick from Louisiana (aka RMulhern) has rigged up a fantastic target for long-range shooting. Rick, a long-time competitive Palma shooter, had a large 72″x72″ steel target fabricated with two separate center rings that are equivalent to the official paper Palma/Creedmoor target. He says he’s “shot a lot of Palma on that target, as well as lots of Black Powder Cartridge (BPCR) rounds”. The big steel target works great when Rick shoots his Sharps 45/110 BPCR at 800 to 1000 yards. The large steel background (painted white) helps Rick see and hear his hits. If you understand the high-arching trajectory of 500+ grain projectiles shot from a 45/110, you know it can take a few rounds to get Point of Impact dialed in.
Nancy Tompkins will be bringing out a new Second Edition of her popular book: Prone and Long-Range Rifle Shooting. Nancy hopes to have Second Edition books available by mid-June, 2012. The enhanced Second Edition will feature updates to the current chapters, more photos, plus an entirely new chapter on F-Class Shooting. The Second Edition will be issued as a hardback only, for increased durability. Price isn’t set yet, but Nancy hopes to keep the price “under $40.00″. The book will be available from 
Tompkins Book a Must-Read for Long-Range Shooters
They have been on the market for nearly a year, but you may not know that Redding sells a line of 
That’s right, Redding now offers micrometer seater assemblies made specifically for Berger VLD bullets. These Seating Micrometers allow you to convert a standard seater to a Micrometer seater optimized for VLDs. That’s great news for VLD fans. Eric Stecker of Berger Bullets tells us: “We have confirmed with Redding that each of the new micrometer plugs in the VLD group were designed based on Berger VLD bullets. We provided all of our VLD bullets to Redding, from which they took deliberate measurements and made these new plugs.”
Forum member Jerry Brandon isn’t just an excellent craftsman of 
If you like the Bob Lee Swagger books by Stephen Hunter or the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, you’ll enjoy The Kennedy Rifle by Jerry Brandon. And certainly if you have a serious interest in the Kennedy assassination, this book is a must read. Brandon’s book uncovers many of the puzzling facts left out of the Warren Report. Though The Kennedy Rifle is a work of fiction, it makes a convincing argument that important aspects of the Kennedy assassination were never revealed to the American public.
If you have a rifle chambered in .260 Remington, you may be wondering if the Lapua .260 Brass is worth the money compared to domestic-made brass. Well, the answer is “yes” if you demand consistent weight and dimensional uniformity (including neckwall thickness).
Lapua Brass Further Inspection
Mirage shields really do help you hit your targets more reliably. Novice shooters may wonder “Why does that guy have a venetian blind attached to his barrel?” Here’s why. As the barrel gets hot, the heat from the barrel rises up, cooking and distorting the air directly in front of the scope’s front lens. In essense, the rifle creates its own nasty visual mirage, right in the worst possible place. You can have a $4000.00 custom rifle and a $2500.00 scope but if the air in front of your scope is distorted, it can literally move your apparent point of aim on the target relative to your cross-hairs, causing you to miss the shot.
HOW TO GET 5% OFF
The gun is very accurate. Steve notes: “I have shot the rifle to 1100 yards and it shoots well. Last time out the rifle dropped just one point at 1000 yards and 5 points at 1100 yards [English scoring system]. I know it’s not pretty, but it got me shooting long range F-Class for peanuts.” Message to Steve: Don’t worry how it looks. As another Forum member observed: “Any rifle that shoots well at 1100 yards is beautiful….”
Bigger is Better?
A punt gun is an extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. Punt guns could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound of shot at a time. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. Punt guns were too big to hold so they were often mounted directly on the punts (boats) used for hunting, hence their name. Generally the gun was fixed to the punt, requiring the hunter to manuever the entire boat to aim the gun. Firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards from recoil. Sometimes fleets of punt gun-boats were used together. In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. In the United Kingdom, a 1995 survey showed fewer than 50 active punt guns still in use. UK law limits punt guns to a bore diameter of 1.75 inches (1 1/8 pounder). Learn more at 
