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November 26th, 2007
Remington Arms offers a handsome collection of photographic “wallpapers” you can use as backgrounds for your computer’s desktop. There are dozens of stunning, high-resolution photos, all free for the downloading. Remington Wallpapers are available in 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768 and 1280×1024 pixel sizes and can be used on both PC and Mac computer systems. After downloading each file to your computer, you can set the image as your desktop background via your system control panel (or, with some operating systems, just open the picture file, right click on the image, and designate the photo as “desktop background”.)
Be sure to look through the wallpaper collections for years 2006 and earlier, as well as the current collection. The 2001 collection has gorgeous product shots of rifles and shotguns, while the 2005 and 2006 collections feature stunning outdoor nature photography. (There are 12 wallpapers per year. Below are previews of half the images from 2005 and 2006).
CLICK HERE for 2006 and Older Wallpaper Sets.
Photos © copyright Remington Arms Co., All Rights Reserved.
November 26th, 2007
 Forum Member Dave B., aka “Gunamonth”, is a chemist/physicist with decades of experience working with the ultrasound process. He has achieved great results cleaning cases via ultrasound. Dave tried a variety of solutions and he favors a mix of water and Citranox®. This achieved the best results, and did not require a separate neutralizing step if you rinse the cases thoroughly after. Citranox, mixed 1:75 or 1:100 with water (distilled H20 is best), is inexpensive to use. Phospate-free Citranox® contains a blend of organic acids, anionic and non-ionic surfactants and alkanolamines. For more information on using Citranox®, check out THIS FORUM THREAD.
Dave notes: “I had a lot of communication with the technical VP of Alconox about trying to clean fired cases with an ultrasonic unit. He sent me a copy of his ultrasonic cleaning manual and recommended a product called Citranox®. So far I’ve been very impressed. With once- or twice-fired brass they clean up very quickly. The worst cases I tried were 6 Dashers that had been fired ten times with Varget and never cleaned. The worst fouling was in the bottom of the case around the flash hole. They took longer and I used a more concentrated cleaning solution but they did come out clean. The price is reasonable. I paid $35 a gallon and for once- or twice-fired cases I dilute the cleaner 100 to 1. There is much less chemical reaction with the brass than there is with vinegar. No weird colors, just shiny bright. I even used it with hot water, which speeds up the cleaning process. No need to neutralize. Just rinse in running water and they’re squeaky clean. The cleaner is mostly detergents with a little citric acid. Even at a 1:75 ratio my $35 worth of cleaner will make 75 gallons of solution. It doesn’t seem to be reusable but 75 gallons is a whole lot of solution when I only use about two cups at a time.”
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.”
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.
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