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June 14th, 2007
Jeff Bartlett of GIBrass.com has some great prices on new Sierra production 55gr varmint bullets, .224 diameter. Two varieties are offered:
55gr BlitzKing with cannelure. Sierra item #9373.
Prices: $12/100; $55/500; $100 per thousand
55gr Varminter Soft Point. Sierra item #1360.
Prices: $12/100; $55/500; $100 per thousand.
Bartlett’s special production BlitzKings have cannelures, making them better for reloaders who prefer to crimp their ammo. Regular production Sierra 55gr BlitzKings (Sierra #1455) have no cannelure and typically sell for $16/box. Jeff also reports that he has plenty of the ultra-accurate ‘Euro’ 4895 powder, highly recommended by G. Salazar of ShootersJournal.com. This burns slightly slower than IMR 4895, closer to IMR 4064. It works great in the 6mmBR and .308 Win. Price is $100 per 8-lb jug.
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June 13th, 2007
Over the past decade and a half we’ve seen a definite trend to smaller calibers in both Highpower and long-range benchrest competition. Smaller projectiles have allowed a whole new style of bench-shooting, where you don’t have to hold the rifle at all. In the Service Rifle discipline, the .223 “Mouse Guns” changed the sport forever. Many would say this “downsizing” is all for the good. But have we lost something in the process? In engineering away recoil, have we “neutered” the sport and made it less exciting?
 Here’s what the legendary Col. Jeff Cooper had to say:
“Do you enjoy recoil? A recent article in Magnum magazine from South Africa points out that the retroactive shock delivered by the shooting of a firearm is not necessarily punishment. The sock you feel when your racket centers a tennis ball, or when you floor the throttle on a highly-bred car in third gear, or when you hit the water from the boat deck of your fishing cruiser–these things are exhilarating. It seems possible that this tendency to mitigate the shock of recoil maybe overlooking something. Personally I enjoy shooting a full-sized weapon more than I do a 22, and if I can remember that far back, I used to anticipate with distinct pleasure an unavoidable tackle when running back a kickoff. Perhaps we should think further upon this.” — Jeff Cooper Commentary
Is the Colonel right? Is recoil part of the fun of the sport, like the heeling force of a sailboat when it catches a puff of wind? Have we gone too far in reducing recoil in our “full-bore” match calibers? Has shooting become a sport for wimps?
What are your views?
To comment, click the “comments” link below.
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June 13th, 2007
 Grafs.com is offering huge savings on the Sightron SIII SS, 6-24×50 side-focus scope. Having made a special buy of this quality optic, item SIIISS624X50, Grafs.com is selling it at just $479.99 while supplies last. That’s $150.00 to $200.00 less than other optics vendors are charging. This scope features a “satin black” finish, plex reticle, 1/4-MOA clicks, tall “target-style” turrets, and a side parallax adjustment. If you contact Graf & Sons, be sure to tell them you heard about this deal on AccurateShooter.com. Note: no further discounts available. $479.99 price limited to supplies on hand. Click HERE for scope specifications.
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June 12th, 2007
Berger Bullets has issued three new prototype non-VLD 6mm bullets for testing, in 105, 107, and 108 grain weights. Initial results are promising to say the least, particularly with the 108s. Here’s a photo of all three by Wm. Roscoe.
Danny Reever reports: “Here’s the best group I shot today with the Prototype Berger 108 grain BT at 500 meters (547 yards). The group measured a fantastic .870 inch! The worst group I shot today with the same bullet measured 1.752 inch which is none too shabby either.”
Danny adds: “I do think this new bullet is a winner. All the bullets shot well for me, but the 108 was hands down the best performer. I had the chance to test the new lot #591 105gr VLD since Eric polished the die out and it shot very well also. Best group being a 1.544″ @ 500 meters which was shot in a 5-15 MPH wind. I’m now anxious to find out which bullet they will select for production. If it’s the 108 I’m going to order 3000 right from the get-go. That’s how impressed I am with that bullet!” Danny’s load was Berger 108, .015″ into the lands, neck-turned Lapua 6mmBR brass, CCI450 primer, 30.5 grains of Varget (the usual disclaimer applies here).
Bob Woodward (Matsubob) agrees: “Here is a group I shot with a 6mm Grendel on an AR15 space gun at 200 meters (8-twist Whitley upper). Very good group for an over-the-course national match rifle.”
What’s the secret to the accuracy of the 108s? It looks like Berger is pointing up nice, consistent meplats. But it appears the 108 has a shorter boat-tail than the 105 or 107 prototype. We should add that the 107s are shooting well too. William Roscoe got promising results with the 107s. Holding dead center (no wind correction), five of the new 107s went into .614″ vertical at 330 yards. More Details.
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June 12th, 2007
Sadly, James Phillips (JamesinTN) has decided to get out of competitive long-range benchrest shooting. He’s told us that travel costs (gas/motel) have just gotten too high, and the process has become too much work, and too little fun. James’ decision means that you can purchase a world-record rifle for a bargain price. James actually has three rifles for sale. You can see them all in this Forum Classified Listing.
Rifle 1 — 22 Dasher & 6 Dasher–World Record Gun
This rifle earned James 3 World Records and is capable of earning more. Rem 40X action, Shehane stock, Jewell trigger. Mulitple barrels come with the gun: Hart 8-Twist 22 Dasher (world record barrel); Hart 8-Twist chambered in 22 Dasher, less than 200 rounds; Krieger 7.5-Twist chambered in 6 Dasher (for Tubb 115s) less than 300 rounds; Krieger 8.5-Twist chambered in 6 Dasher less than 400 rounds; 9-Twist Chambered in 6 Dasher for 108 BIBs less than 200 rounds. The bolt has had the firing pin turned and bushed. There is also a brand new, spare bolt with magnum bolt face. Total of FIVE (5) barrels chambered for this action. Price is $3000.00 (without scope) plus shipping. Add $1000.00 for the NightForce 8-32x Benchrest Scope and rings.
Rifle 2 — 7500 Lawton Dasher/6mmBR
Next is a nearly brand new Lawton 7500 dual port (Jewell trigger) with RBLP right eject, SS action for Dasher case, in a Shehane stock. One-piece, +15 MOA base. Three barrels come with the rifle: 1) Krieger 8.5-Twist, chambered in 6 Dasher (.268), less than 200 rounds; 2) Hart 8-Twist 6mmBR rechambered from a 6 Dasher, less than 500 rounds and has a brake; 3) Hart 1.250 dia. 6mm 12-Twist–brand new, unfired, unchambered. 6mm Dasher brass comes with this rifle but no reloading dies as they will be going with the 40x. Price is 3000.00 w/o scope or 4000.00 with NF 8-32BR and rings
Rifle 3 — .243 AI, 22 Dasher
The third rifle is a Winchester SA Trued by Dave Tooley, with a bushed firing pin. Shehane stock bedded by Mike Bryant, Jewell Trigger. It comes with two barrels (.243 AI, 22 Dasher) both with less than 500 rounds and brass. The .243 AI comes with Redding Comp series dies and a Tooley FL neck die. Price is 1600.00 w/o scope or 2600.00 with Nighforce 12-42x BR scope and rings.
NOTE: James will NOT sell the scopes separately until the rifles are sold.
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June 11th, 2007
Here’s a report from Mike in NZ about his recent deer-hunting trip: “Under the shadow of the Matemateaonga Range in the central North Island of New Zealand there is a magical piece of land. Initially broken in out of native bush in the early 1900’s, it was left to revert during the 1930’s before being partially developed again during the late 1940’s. Now it is run as a hunting block catering for local and overseas hunters.
“Aotearoa”, meaning “long, white cloud”, is the native Maori word for New Zealand.
The country is a rolling contour, and is a mixture of rough pasture, scrubby gullies and native bush. It bounds onto the Wanganui Forest Park, which is thousands of acres of dense bush. The only access is by jet boat up the Whanganui river, or by air. (There’s a flattish piece of land on the property that is quaintly referred to as an ‘airstrip’.)
Large Photos: NZ Mist | Aerial | Morning Light | Taking Off
The area is a hunting paradise containing good numbers of free range red deer, fallow deer, wild pigs and goats. It is run as a privately-owned hunting block. I have been fortunate enough to be able to hunt there over the past six years, and have just come back from a typical meat-hunting trip.
There were six of us (Mike, Mike, Chris, Al, Colin and Jeff), and the idea was to take a couple of meat animals each. Transport was by air (Cessna 206). This is a six-seater (including the pilot), so we elected to do two trips. The first trip caried five of us plus the pilot and a bit of gear. For the second trip the back four seats are removed allowing plenty of room to take lots of gear in, and (more importantly) plenty of room to (hopefully) take meat out at the end of the trip. Beats walking….
Hardware consisted of one Tikka T3 in .223 Rem with a Leupold 3-9 variable, one Rem Model 7 in 7-08 with a similar scope, one Sako Finnbear in .270 Win with a Redfield vari, one .223 Rem Zastava with a cheapo scope, and two scoped No. 4 Enfields in .303 British.
After a 15-minute flight, we made a couple of low passes over the ‘airstrip’ to make sure that everything looked OK (well, as good as it was going to get anyway), and then touched down. There were no baggage handlers or airline hostesses to greet us, so we carried our gear up to the lodge, had a bit of lunch and got organised for an evening hunt.
I headed down to some grass and scrub river terraces that are normally pretty productive. The wind was in my favor, and I opted to drop down to the terraces through the scrub rather than take the track down as that would mean that there would be less chance of being seen from the bottom. I was doing a slow sneak around the bush edge when a red hind appeared grazing around the edge of a finger of scrub at about 100 yards. I slowly sunk down and did a quick little crawl to a handy little rise to use for a rest. As I eased the rifle up onto the rise the deer saw the movement and was instantly on alert.
I was considering a neck shot, but as the deer was on the verge of doing a runner, I played it safe and put the crosshairs straight up the front leg and a bit under half way down. Allowing for the fact that she was slightly facing towards me, I squeezed the trigger, the .223 cracked and the deer trotted about 10 yards and piled up.” Here she is, a New Zealand Red Hind:
There’s more to this story (this was just the first part), and we may have Mike write full a feature story later this year.
© copyright 2007 Michael Falconer, All Rights Reserved.
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June 10th, 2007
Many of our readers tell us: “I love the challenge of shooting paper in Benchrest, F-Class, or Highpower matches, but it would be fun to get some buddies together and ring some steel at multiple distances.” Well, if you’re in America’s heartland, here’s a place to go. Young’s Longshot Range, in Woodruff, Indiana, is a veritable “Disneyland of Steel”, with a huge variety of reactive metal targets set at yardage-marked berms from 25 to 1000 yards. Indiana’s only 1000-yard facility, Young’s Longshot Range is open 365 days a year. It has outdoor shooting stations (both covered and uncovered), PLUS a heated building with drop-down windows for winter shooting. There’s even a raised 5 meter high platform for prone shooting.
Larger Photos: Range | View from Bench | Shoot House | Shoot House Interior | 600-yd Swinger Target Bay
Click HERE for a nice story with full-size photos showing the range and target bays. Big thanks to Michael Sorensen (above) for that story and the larger range photos.
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June 10th, 2007
Black Hills makes some of the best .223 Rem ammunition you can buy. Here’s a good deal on .223 match ammo loaded with the very accurate 69gr Sierra MatchKing. Now through June 30, 2007, a box of 50 rounds, item #522299, is just $34.99 at MidwayUSA. That’s $6.50/box off the regular price. This is new ammo, boxer-primed, and reloadable. USER REVIEWS of this product have been very positive, with many guys reporting 1/2 MOA groups or better. Here’s what Daniel F. in Missouri reports: “I shot this ammo through a Rock River Arms AR varmint model with a 16.5″ barrel. I usually shoot Fed GMM but this was on sale so I decided to give it a try. With the Fed ammo I routinely shoot sub 1/2 MOA groups @ 100 yds. My rifle likes this ammo better. I shot three, 3-shot groups. Largest was .46″, smallest was .21″. Great ammo at any price, even better at about $0.80 a round.” NOTE: With this sale, this ammo is now $0.69 per round.
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June 9th, 2007
 Hodgdon now offers a searchable Reloading Data Center with reloading info for hundreds of cartridges, with loads from all three lines of powders that Hodgdon distributes: Hodgdon, IMR, and Winchester.
With the new online database, you start by selecting a cartridge, such as .308 Winchester (see photo below). You can get all load data for that caliber, or restrict the search results to a particular powder type or bullet weight. Or you can filter by manufacturer–choosing just Hodgdon powder recipes, just IMR, or just Winchester loads. Once you get the hang of it, the database works very well, letting you target your recipe to specific bullets and powders you know will work. While Hodgdon still offers a “book-style” online load manual, listing loads by calibers, the new searchable database makes it easier to dial in a load for a particular bullet type and weight. You get only the load data you need and you don’t have to scan through a long page of load recipes for powders/bullets you don’t use.
Above is the actual output when we searched for “.308 Winchester”, 155 grain bullets, and “all” Hodgdon-label powders. Click HERE for a LARGE PHOTO.
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June 9th, 2007
The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP), a federally sponsored program to advance rifle shooting skills, offers a variety of training and competition programs dedicated to junior shooters. The US Army Marksmanship also hosts a Youth Clinic in August.
2007 CMP Three-Position Air Rifle Summer Camp
The 2007 CMP camp season is underway and there are still a few openings, especially in the June 11-15, Reno, NV camp and the July 2-6, Millersville, PA camp. Applications are still being accepted, but some programs are full. Commuter porgrams cost $225.00 while residential programs cost $350.00. Click HERE for complete information on the Summer Camp program. For questions please contact Sommer Wood at swood@odcmp.com or by phone at 419-341-5248. Summer Camp Application Form. General background on three-position air rifle shooting is found on the CMP website, where you can download the National Standard Three-Position Air Rifle Rules.
CMP Junior Three-Position Air Rifle Camps are for school-age junior shooters who have a basic knowledge of the sport. Athletes should have completed basic rifle marksmanship training and one season of three-position competition. CMP camps are designed for students who will be in grades 9 through 12 during the coming school year. There is no minimum score requirement. Here is the schedule of remaining Camp programs:
June 11-15: Reno, NV – COMMUTER ONLY
June 25-29: Bowling Green, KY (FULL)
July 2-6: Millersville, PA
July 13-15: Fort Benning, GA (Standing Position Camp)
July 16-20; 23-27; July 30-Aug 3: Fort Benning, GA (All FULL)
 Eastern Jr. Highpower Clinic
and Championship
From June 24-30, 2007, under the auspices of the CMP, a full week of clinics, coaching and competition will be offered at Camp Butner, NC for junior service rifle competitors. Instruction and coaching will be provided by the USMC Rifle Team and military personnel. The purposed of this event is to promote interest, education, and competition to the sport of Highpower Rifle Shooting among Junior shooters.
 Experienced coaches and instructors from the United States Marine Corps Rifle Team and military personnel will be conducting clinics for both new and experienced junior shooters. Instruction in both shooting individual matches and shooting as a member of a coached team will also be provided. This week-long program is offered to help junior shooters expand their current knowledge, experience and expertise. It is also an opportunity for juniors to form bonds of camaraderie within the sport. Click HERE for complete information on the Eastern Jr. Highpower Clinic/Championships.
USAMU Smallbore/Air Rifle Summer Camp
The United States Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) will once again host a Junior Rifle Camp this summer. The dates are 13-17 August 2007 at Fort Benning, GA. This junior shooting camp is open at shooters ages 12-20 with a cost of $35 per shooter. For further information and registration packet, please contact 2LT Lucas Leinberger at lucas.leinberger [at] usaac.army.mil or call (706) 545-2343.
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June 8th, 2007
We’ve given our readers a double dose of Tactical this week (see our latest Feature STORY), so it’s time to showcase some shiny, long-barreled rifles with wicked paint jobs.
Pala guns are purpose built for one task–knockin’ down steel critters at 200 to 600 yards with Extreme Accuracy. Pala, an Indian Reservation in So. California, has a monthly match that atracts serious marksmen from throughout the state. You shoot four types of targets, each at a particular distance. The targets increase in size the further out you go.
Click HERE for GIANT SIZE Range Photo.
There are a wide variety of rifles, but typically you see a BR-style rifle, with a heavy, 28-30″ barrel, often using a muzzle brake. The brake definitely helps you spot your hits by reducing muzzle jump. You need a very accurate chambering, so you’ll see 6BRs, Dashers, 6-284s, 6.5-284s, and a few 6mm Remingtons. Our friend John Adams has tried a 22-6.5×47 at Pala along with his own .243 wildcats. This long-range silhouette game is great fun (and you can go gamble at the Casino when you’re done). Here are some Pala rigs on the line. Note how the shooters have fabricated platforms to raise their front rests:
The Berger Bullets crew–Eric Stecker, Shawn McKenna, and Michelle Gallagher recently attended the Pala Match. Eric reports: “You would think that shooting silhouettes using rests and scopes would be easy but it was quite a challenge since the wind direction and velocity changes could easily push your bullet off the small varmint silhouette targets. You really had to stay on top of the changes to get hits each time. The high score of the day was an impressive 48 out of 50. (For the record we were not at the top of the list as this type of shooting is harder than it may seem but I did beat Shawn and Michelle…teehee).” Nice shooting Eric (Shawn took second place, F-TR Class, at the 2006 Nationals).
A while back we did a feature story on a husband/wife team who shoot at Pala. Click HERE to read the story. It has some nice photos of the range taken by John Adams, and it even includes Katy’s famous guacamole recipe!
For more info on shooting at Pala, visit Ramshooter’s Website (nice rifle photos), and the North County Shootist Assn. site.
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June 8th, 2007
When we announced, in this Bulletin, that Cerberus Capital Management, a multi-billion-dollar holding company, acquired Remington Arms, we predicted there would be shake-ups in management, plus a re-vamping of the product lines with increased emphasis on military and “tactical” markets. Cerberus also owns Bushmaster Firearms and we predicted there would be a merging of the two companies’ operations. Well it looks like all that is coming to pass. Among other things, Bushmaster’s former CEO is now President of Remington’s Firearms Operations, and Scott Blackwell, former Bushmaster President, will now direct Remington’s Sales and Marketing efforts. Expect to see a Remington-brand AR15 in the near future.
Tommy Millner, Remington’s CEO, announced a major executive re-shuffling today, with Bushmaster execs moving into major decision-making roles at Remington. Paul Miller, former Board Chairman at Bushmaster Firearms, has been named Remington’s new Chairman of the Board. Mr. Miller served most recently as the Chairman of the Board of Bushmaster Firearms, and before that, he held executive leadership positions in the defense industry. John DeSantis has been named President, Firearms Operations. Mr. DeSantis was the Chief Executive Officer of Bushmaster Firearms. In his new duties, Mr. DeSantis will oversee all manufacturing facilities as well as all R&D activities within Remington’s firearms business. Scott Blackwell, who was Bushmaster’s President, will become Remington’s new President for Sales and Marketing. In that role, Blackwell with oversee all sales and marketing operations for Remington, worldwide.
What does this all mean? As we predicted, Remington is very much intent on becoming a “Black Rifle” company, not just a hunting rifle supplier. No doubt Cerberus’ long-term plans include pushing aggressively for military arms contracts. By putting Bushmaster execs in the “drivers seat”, Cerberus is sending a clear message that it is betting on military-style rifles to boost Remington’s bottom line. The Board of Directors at Colt and FN Mfg., current suppliers of M16s for the U.S. Military, are probably feeling a little nervous right now.
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