|
|
November 25th, 2007
Check out our enhanced VIDEO VAULT. We have added streaming digital video in Flash Format. You’ll find a slick new Flash Player that lets you watch videos with just one click. There are over 35 Videos in the collection, and we’ll be adding new Videos every week. Flash Videos are highly compressed, so they stream in real time if you have a fast internet connection–no more waiting for long downloads.
Using YouTube technology, we’ve built a playlist with lots of entertaining videos. And, we can add videos from our readers to our Video Vault. Just send your videos to Mailbox [at] 6mmBR.com, or upload your videos directly to YouTube.com and email us the link.
Create Your Own Videos Easily
If you have a recent digital “point and shoot” camera, chances are you can shoot your own videos and add them to the site. It’s pretty simple. Select the “Video” setting, usually indicated by a movie camera icon on the mode dial or menu. Then depress your shutter release (just like taking a still picture) to start the video. Click the shutter release a second time to stop the video. You upload videos to your computer the same way you do for stills. Windows users can then use the FREE and easy Windows Movie Maker software to edit the video or add titles or soundtracks. Here are some resources that can help you make your own videos.
An inexpensive digital still camera, such as this Canon A550 ($140.00), can take excellent video, complete with sound. Try it–you’ll get great results!
How to Take Video with Your Digital Still Camera
Note, this video tells you to upload your video to Vimeo.com. That’s not necessary. Just send your video to us (keep it under 6 megabytes), or upload directly to YouTube.com.
How to Use Windows Movie Maker
Move-Maker Basics
Share the post "Check Out our New FLASH VIDEO Archive"
November 25th, 2007
Every gun collector should have a copy of S.P. Fjestads’s Blue Book of Gun Values. MidwayUSA just knocked ten bucks off the latest, 28th edition of Fjestad’s definitive 2080-page book. Now through November 30th, you can get this major resource for $24.99 instead of $34.99. That’s a great savings, just in time for holiday gift-giving.
Considered the definitive authority by buyers, sellers, collectors and historians for establishing firearm values, the 28th Edition has been extensively revised for 2007. This amazing resource includes up-to-date pricing and technical info for more than 325,000 firearms, covering antiques, military, foreign, domestic and new 2007 makes and models. The lastest edition has a very useful 80-page color photo grading system. This 28th Edition continues the Blue Book’s reputation as most up-to-date and complete reference book for both modern and antique firearms.
Share the post "Latest Edition of Gun Blue Book on Sale for $24.99"
November 24th, 2007
What’s better than a 6BR? A 6BR that produces a LOT less noise and less than half the recoil of a bare-muzzled gun. Our friend USMA89 has a 6BR “Texas Tackdriver” with a trued Rem 700 action and Robertson Composites F-Class stock. Smithed by GA Precision, it has delivered tiny groups at 200 yards with 107 Sierra MKs. With sound suppressor in place, USMA89 tells us, it’s like shooting a 22 mag rimfire: “Shooting with a suppressor or can is a great experience. In fact, once you start shooting with one, it is hard to go back to normal shooting. The recoil reduction is amazing, cutting perceived recoil by as much as 70%. Think of a suppressor as the ultimate muzzle break that reduces sound to boot.”
The cost of a good suppressor ranges from $600-$1000, and then there is the $200 to Uncle Sam for the tax stamp and the 3-6 month wait. (Currently, 33 states allow citizens to own suppressors in accordance with Federal regulations.) The suppressor on this gun is considered one of the best, a SWR Omega. USMA89 adds: “I also use a SRT suppressor and am very pleased with it as well. The SRT costs about $300-$400 less than the SWR and you get the same amount of sound reduction.” With a quality suppressor you can get from 33 to 36 db worth of sound suppression.
Once you have gone though the hoops the government has put in your way (check your state laws also!), mounting is easy. Get a good gunsmith to thread your barrel (5/8×24 is the normal class 3 thread) and screw it on. In general suppressed guns barrels are cut shorter for balance. USMA89 explains: “I went with a 28″ barrel and with the can it is a little front-heavy, but the stock’s wide fore-end compensates for this. If this were a ‘tactical’ weapon, I would have the barrel cut down to at least 22″, maybe less. Most people that use suppressors will tell you that they shoot better groups with a can than without. This is because there is less recoil, less ‘dirty air’ behind the bullet, and (in many cases) you get improved barrel harmonics.”
To learn more about silenced weapons, read this article on Firearm Sound Suppressors by Mark White.
Share the post "Sound Suppressors for Target and Varmint Rifles"
November 23rd, 2007
As part of its “Christmas Flyer” Promotion, Midsouth Shooters Supply has cut the price on 1″ Burris Signature and 1″ Signature Zee (Weaver style) rings. We recommend these ring sets because Signature Rings have plastic inserts to hold your scope. The inserts prevent binding or misalignment so you don’t have to lap your rings. They also keep expensive scopes looking like new since the inserts leave no marks on the scope body. You can also order offset inserts that let you “pre-load” elevation and windage in the rings.
The Signature models are just $21.88, while the Signature Zees are marked down to $24.84. CLICK HERE to download Midsouth’s 16-page 2007 Christmas Flyer in .PDF format.
Share the post "Burris Signature Rings on Sale"
November 22nd, 2007
 In the USA, Thanksgiving is one of our most cherished holidays, a time families re-unite and spend “quality time” together. Increasingly, in our society, families are spread apart, with parents separated from children by thousands of miles. We hope that today, you have a chance to be with your loved ones.
For our many overseas readers, you can celebrate Thanksgiving in spirit. Here at AccurateShooter.com, we have our own “family” of sorts–a community of sportsmen and women linked by a love of fine firearms and extreme accuracy. To all our readers (we have more than 40,000 “unique” site visitors every month), we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and we hope that, on this day, you can be with your family. For those who are traveling, we wish you a safe trip and godspeed.
“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” — Jane Howard
“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family” — Anthony Brandt
Share the post "Happy Thanksgiving to Our Readers"
November 22nd, 2007
A joint effort of the Nat’l Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA), and National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), the “Families Afield” program works to expand the opportunities for young hunters with adult mentors. The goal of the program is to increase the number of young people getting involved in hunting. For every 100 adult hunters today, only 69 youth hunters are coming up to take their place. “Families Afield” works to reverse that trend. Thanks to the work of many dedicated groups and individuals concerned about the future of hunting, several states that were restrictive to youth hunting have signed into law “Families Afield” legislation. These new laws make it possible for young hunters and their families to enjoy hunting traditions together. CLICK HERE to learn more.
Share the post "Families Afield Program Expands Opportunities for Young Hunters"
November 21st, 2007
 The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the much-discussed District of Columbia v. Heller case (Docket 04-7041), previously known as Parker vs. District of Columbia. This means the High Court WILL review the decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the D.C. statute banning residents from owning handguns. The Court of Appeals held that the District of Columbia’s anti-gun law violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In reaching its decision, the Appellate Court found, as a matter of law, that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to keep and bear arms. This was a “breakthrough” finding. Other Circuit Courts of Appeal have held that the Second Amendment merely confers a “collective right” to keep and bear arms. In practical terms, this means that the Second Amendment applies to an organized militia (i.e. the National Guard), but not to individuals.
The High Court’s decision to hear D.C. v. Heller is historically significant. This will represent the first time the Supreme Court rules directly on the meaning of the Second Amendment since the U.S. v. Miller case in 1939. The decision in Miller was poorly reasoned and left many basic issues unresolved, including the key question “Does the Second Amendment confer an individual or collective right?”
The “collective right” interpretation of the Second Amendment is disfavored among legal scholars, despite what anti-gun advocacy groups claim. Many of the nation’s most respected law professors, including Lawrence Tribe of Harvard Law School, Akhil Reed Amar of Yale, William Van Alstyne of Duke, and Sanford Levinson of the Univ. of Texas, have strongly argued that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to keep and bear arms.
BACKGROUND
The mayor of Washington, D.C., Adrian M. Fenty, filed the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for the High Court to rule. According to FBI statistics, Washington D.C., despite its gun ban, ranks as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States and maintains one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the country.
In March, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in striking down the District’s gun ban, held in Parker, et al., v. District of Columbia that “The phrase ‘the right of the people’ . . . leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual.” This was the second time in recent history that a Federal Circuit Court upheld the view that the Second Amendment was an individual right. In 2001, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in the case of U.S. v. Emerson that “All of the evidence indicates that the Second Amendment, like other parts of the
Bill of Rights, applies to and protects individual Americans.”
Share the post "Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Landmark Second Amendment Case"
November 21st, 2007
Think about the features you’d want in a bolt rifle for tactical/practical comps. How about a smooth-feeding, single-column 5-round detachable magazine? Fast, positive, side bolt release? Short, 70-degree bolt throw? Dove-tailed receiver top for secure, low-profile, and perfectly-aligned ring mounting? Smooth factory trigger adjustable to less than 2 pounds? Flat-bottomed receiver with integral recoil lug for secure bedding? Now how would you like to get all that for under $600.00? No, this isn’t a pipe dream. A late-model Tikka 595 offers all those features, plus respectable accuracy with a factory barrel. With the addition of a match-grade barrel, Tikka 595s can approach half-MOA accuracy.
Sadly, the Tikka 595 is no longer in production, but, with patience, you can find used examples on Gunbroker.com, AuctionArms.com, and at gunshows. These typically sell for around $500-600 for a bare rifle in a synthetic stock, but there are even better deals to be had if you shop around. Mac Tilton of MTGuns.com, just picked up a Tikka 7-08 for $350.00. The gun in the photos, a .308 Win with fluted barrel, recently sold for $650.00 on Gunbroker, including the Leupold 3-9X scope, rings, and four magazines. Sure, eventually you’d want to upgrade the optics, but the point is, for about the same cost as a trued Remington action, you can have a complete rifle that will get you in the game.
Tikka 595s come in a wide variety of calibers, with either .308 or .223 bolt faces. There are three sizes of magazines available–.223, 22-250, and .308-size. And get this — Tikka’s 22-250 magazines even feed 6BR cases reliably. Credit that to the single-stack design and short follower.
If the sporter-style stock isn’t “Tacti-cool” enough for you, Mac Tilton has bare Tikka Master Sporter stocks for sale. These nice walnut stocks offer a vertical pistol grip, deeper, stippled fore-end with rail, and an adjustable cheekpiece. McMillan and Robertson Composites also offer fiberglass stocks that can easily be adapted to the Tikka 595 action. You can find complete Tikka 595 Master Sporters for $850 and up, but the word is out, and prices are rising.
Share the post "Tikka 595 — "Poor Man's Tactical"?"
November 20th, 2007
The CZ 452 is one of the more popular bolt-action .22LR rifles, and justifiably so. It offers class-leading accuracy, a strong action, and a good, adjustable trigger that can be made even better with inexpensive mods. Right now, CDNN Investments is offering the CZ452 “American” model for just $279.99. That’s a great price for a .22 bolt action that can provide years of fun and accurate shooting (MSRP is $409.00). This rifle features a 5-round detachable magazine, 22.5-inch barrel, and a 3/8″-wide dovetail on the receiver for mounting rings. The stock is Turkish walnut. To compare the CZ 452 “American” with other models, visit CZUSA.com. (Note, the CZ 452 “American” does NOT include the single-set trigger found on the model 453 “American”.)
CLICK HERE for LARGE PHOTO of CZ 452.
To order, call CDNN Investments, (800) 588-9500. You won’t find this deal on CDNN’s webpage. Details are found in CDNN’s current downloadable .pdf catalog (43 megabytes).
Share the post "CZ 452 American On Sale for $279.99"
November 20th, 2007
If you are looking for a very solid, beautifully fabricated, loading press that can do double-duty at home as well as the range, consider the Harrell’s Combo Press. Though it is very compact, it has plenty of leverage to full-length size cases. As you can see in the photo, the Harrell’s combo works BOTH as an arbor press and as a standard press that functions with shell-holder and conventional screw-in dies. The arbor section on the left is tall enough to hold a Wilson micrometer-top seater. The threaded die section on the right has enough clearance for .308-sized cases.
One of the best features of the Combo Press from Harrell’s Precision is its sturdy clamp. This mounts solidly to a wood loading bench or table top. It also has enough vertical clearance between the jaws to work with most range benches. Forum member Boyd Allen has written a detailed review of the Harrell’s press, with additional photos by Paal Erik Jensen of Norway.
CLICK HERE to read COMBO PRESS REVIEW
Share the post "Harrell's Combo Press"
November 19th, 2007
Visitors to this site often ask, “Just what is F-Class, and how are the matches run?” Monte Milanuk, a regular on our Forum, has provided a practical explanation that is far more illuminating than the technical definition of F-Class found in the RuleBooks.
Monte explained: “Since ‘TR’ may not mean much to you if you’ve never shot iron sights competitively, specifically in a Commonwealth country… lets try it like this. F-Class matches are all shot prone. No benches, no sitting, no standing, nothing but prone, as in laying on the ground.
The matches are shot in a manner referred to as ‘slow fire’ (as opposed to ‘rapid fire’). Basically only one round in the gun at a time. Got a 30 round magazine? Fine, but you can only load one round at a time.
The general idea is you shoot at a target on a fairly large frame, suspended in a sliding carrier, sticking up from behind a protective berm. After the shot goes thru the target, someone in the ‘pits’ pulls the target down, puts a shot spotter (plastic or cardboard disk w/ a spindle) in the hole, puts a paster over any previous shot holes, marks the value of the shot, and runs it back up.
The reason for the value marker is because at distances of 600-1000yds, it’s very difficult, even with the best of optics, to tell if a shot is on one side of a scoring line or another. The spotter disk tells you where the shot went, the value marker tells you what the actual score for that shot was.
At this point is where we run into the difference between ‘pair fire’, which is what they do in Canada, Britain, and other countries, and ‘string fire’, which is what we predominately shoot here in the U.S.A. In pair fire, you have two (or more) shooters to a firing point, alternately shooting and scoring for one another. This makes it functionally almost impossible to ‘machine gun’ a string and get off a large number of shots in one wind condition — you simply have to learn to read the wind, take your best calculated guess, and let fly. In string fire, you can shoot again as soon as the target comes back up, over and over and over. You have a ‘block’ of time, say 22 minutes for 2 sighters and 20 record shots, and you can use 3 minutes, or you can use 21 minutes 59 seconds.
At any rate, you shoot usually three or four ‘strings’ of 15-20 shots. They might all be at one distance (say, 600yds), or you may have to change yard lines between each string (800, 900, 1000yds).
The targets are fairly challenging. The X-ring is 1/2 minute across, and the 10-Ring is 1 minute across. It’s just a little over a 1/4 minute from the edge of the X ring to the 9 ring… not a lot of room for error. [Editor’s Note: There are four specific targets, for distances 300, 500, 600, and 800/900/1000 yards. Exact Target dimensions (plus distance-specific courses of fire) are found at F-ClassInfo.com.]
There are two basic classes or categories in F-Class. There is ‘Open’ class, which is fairly wide-open still. 10kg (22 lbs.) weight limit, max .35 caliber, 3″ wide fore-end, and no one-piece rests or rear mechanical rests. And then there is ‘Target Rifle’ class, aka F/TR. A slightly lower weight limit (8.25kg, roughly 18.15 lbs.), caliber restricted to .223 Rem or .308 Winchester, and you have to use either a bipod or a sling, both of which are included in the overall weight limit! The majority of shooters seem to be migrating initially to F/Open (about 75-80%), and the remainder are in F/TR. Unfortunately, this means that at a lot of smaller local matches a lone F/TR shooter will likely get lumped in w/ the F/Open shooters.
Long-range.com is probably the de-facto place to go for F-Class info, but there is a fair amount of [cross-over] in terms of accuracy, loading techniques, etc. from 600/1000yd BR. The U.S. F-Class team has a website, USFClass.com, that covers most of the basics, and there are a number of other websites with introductory articles on the sport.”
Here are Web Resources with useful info on F-Class Gear, Competition, and Rules:
F-ClassInfo.com
F-Class FAQ
F-Class Shooting Basics
F-Class Nationals Report
Share the post "What is "F-Class"? — A Practical Definition"
November 19th, 2007
This should interest varminters looking for a harder-hitting rimfire round with better ballistics and accuracy. The most common .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR) ammunition features a 40gr round nose or flat point bullet with a Muzzle Velocity of about 1910 fps. All the major makers — CCI, Federal, Remington, and Winchester — sell 40gr ammo loaded to this specification.
Hornady’s new 22 WMR offers a more accurate bullet traveling faster — roughly 300 fps faster to be precise. The new Hornady round features a 30gr V-MAX™ bullet leaving the muzzle at 2,200 fps. The new 30gr Hornady 22 WMR ammo should be available in “early February” according to Hornady.
While the new Hornady 22 WMR offers significantly better ballistics than a typical 40gr, 22 WMR load, other ammo makers do offer similar high-speed 22 WMR loadings. Both CCI Maxi-Mag +V and Federal V-Shok ammunition push a 30gr HP bullet at a claimed 2200 fps. But the Hornady round, with its higher-BC, V-MAX™ bullet, should maintain a velocity edge downrange, as less speed is lost to aerodynamic drag.
Excellent Accuracy
Hornady claims the new 22 WMR loaded with the 30gr V-MAX™ is “significantly more accurate” than any other 22 WMR ammo they’ve tested. According to Hornady’s Dave Emary, “we started with a better bullet, and the added velocity provides a flatter trajectory.” Even out of old, inexpensive rifles, the new ammo is delivering 1.5 MOA or better groups at 100 yards. That’s exceptional for a 22 WMR according to noted gun writer Chuck Hawks: “I have also owned and used enough .22 WMR rifles to know that they will seldom match that level of performance. I used to have a rather accurate Mossberg bolt action varmint rifle that would consistently shoot into about 1.5″ at 100 yards if I did my part. That is as accurate as any .22 WMR rifle I have ever tested.”
We think the potential is there for even better accuracy, perhaps even half-MOA in a match barrel, but unfortunately Hornady decided to short-load the ammo, pushing the 30gr bullets well inside the case. Bad move. As a result the case crimp is right on the ogive (and with production variances, the crimp may actually be forward of max bullet diameter). Given the shape of the bullet, which curves aggressively away from the case mouth, there’s no way you can get the seated bullet to touch the rifling, even with a zero-freebore match chamber. This was a deliberate decision on Hornady’s part, but we still wish the ammo was loaded longer — even just a little bit, to ensure that the ammo is crimped on the full-diameter bearing surface. We have seen examples of 17 Mach 2 and 17 HMR rounds with crimps forward of max bullet diameter and this kills accuracy while causing problems such as mangled case mouths and canted bullets with extreme run-out.
Compare the CCI Maxi-Mag +V shown above. It has a distinct driving band. This ensures that the crimp is on the full diameter of the bullet. We would like to see Hornady load its new 30gr 22 WMR longer to ensure that the crimps are ALWAYS on the bearing surface, and NEVER on the ogive. If Hornady is already at SAMMI max Cartridge OAL of 1.350″, it could modify the plastic bullet-tip to allow the bullet to be moved further out of the case.
Share the post "New 2200 FPS .22 Mag Rimfire from Hornady"
|
