Now through the end of January, Midway has three items on sale that caught our attention.
Dewey 44″ Cleaning Rods for $25.99
First, MidwayUSA has marked down Dewey nylon-coated 44″ cleaning rods from $31.49 to $25.99. The sale price applies to both 22-26 caliber rods (item 971244), and 27-34 caliber rods (item 268904). For most target rifles, a Dewey rod is a very good choice when considering both price and performance. Dewey rods have nice handles, good bearings, and durable nylon covers. Plus Dewey stands behind its products. The 44″ length should work with barrels up to 28″ (without muzzle brake). Note, however, these rods have a male tip, so you’ll need an adapter (which Dewey provides) for use with male-threaded jags.
Lee Universal Decapping Die for $7.99
There are many situations when you may want to remove primers from fired brass without running them into a sizing die fitted with a decapping rod. We often do this with pistol brass that’s slated to be loaded in a progressive press. Popping the primers first allows you to clean and inspect the primer pockets before loading the brass — and it also reduces the effort to run the progressive. If your rifle brass is dirty, you may want to de-cap before sizing. Lee makes a simple, inexpensive decapping die that every reloader should have. It will quickly pop out a primer without touching the rest of the case. The Lee Universal Decapping Die will work with cartridges from 17 Fireball all the way up to 45-70. However, NOTE that the decapping pin supplied with this Lee die is TOO LARGE for LAPUA BR and PPC flash holes — you’ll need to either turn down the pin, or decap with a different tool for the Lapua cases with .059″ flash-holes. With the exception of those cases, the Lee decapping die works very well and it’s a bargain. This month at MidwayUSA it’s on sale for just $7.99 (item 136543).
Bore-Store Synthetic Fleece Storage Sacks
In this Editor’s opinion, Bore-Store storage bags are the best option on the market for storing rifles, shotguns, and pistols in a gun safe or storage cabinet. They are much less bulky than soft gun cases, so you can fit more guns in your safe. The thick, synthetic fleece pile cushions your gun, safeguarding against dings and scratches. The fabric is breathable, so moisture doesn’t collect on the gun, and the fabric is treated with silicone AND a rust inhibitor. I have Bore-Stores for every firearm in my collection. Over the years they have kept my rifles rust-free and protected fine metal and wood finishes from scratches. MidwayUSA now has a wide variety of Bore-Stores on sale. For example, the 46″ Scoped Rifle case (item 570-349) is marked down from $13.49 to $9.99. This will fit rifles with barrels up to 28″ and maybe 29″ with a little stretching. The 42″ AR15 Case (item 360-601) is marked down from $15.59 to $10.49. This case is extra-wide, with plenty of clearance for pistol grip and carry handle. Other Bore-Stores for handguns and shotguns are on sale through the end of January.
When working on firearms, one is constantly in need of hex (allen) key wrenches in a variety of sizes, both metric and SAE (English). You can get a folding (swiss army knife-style) allen wrench set, but that may not give the reach you need and you can’t apply much torque. For heavier jobs, such as loosening heavily-torqued action screws, you’ll want a set of T-Handle wrenches.
Color-Coded 10-tool Hex Key Sets Harbor Freight has attractively-priced hex key wrench sets in both metric and English (SAE) sizes. Each $5.99 set comes with a nice, powder-coated metal storage bracket with tool sizes clearly marked on the front. The handle tops are conveniently color-coded in bright primary colors, and key sizes are stamped in the handle. The color coding is really, really useful. For example, I know that a yellow (5mm) metric key works for the action screws on my Tikka, while a green (5/32″) SAE wrench fits the action screws on my Savage. A purple (1/8″) SAE key fits the door jam tensioner on my gun safe. It’s easy to look at the tool holder on my workbench and pick the right hex key.
The SAE Hex Key Set (item 37861-4VGA) contains 10 tools, 3/32″ to 3/8″. The Metric Hex Key Set (item 37862-4VGA) has 10 tools from 2mm to 10mm. The shanks are constructed from carbon steel. Each set is just $5.99.
This Editor has been using the Harbor Freight Hex Key Sets (both metric and SAE) for over a year now, and they have performed well. The handles haven’t slipped, the tips haven’t rounded off, and nothing has rusted. Now I wouldn’t use these bargain tools to wrench a race-car engine, but for simple around-the-house tasks they work fine. I also put the appropriate action-screw hex key(s) in my range kit whenever I go shooting. I really like fact that each tool size has a different color handle with the size stamped in the plastic. The mounting bracket is nicely made and clearly labeled. At $5.99 per set, it’s hard to beat this tool deal.
Torx T-Handle Wrench Set for Just $9.99
Harbor Freight also offers other budget-priced T-handle sets, including a 7-Piece T-Handle Torx Key Set containing T15, T20, T25, T30, T40, T45 and T50 Torx keys. Each key in this $9.99 set has two drive ends: one long to provide up to 25° tilt angle for access in hard-to-reach areas, and one short for extra rigidity under high loads.
The Daily Bulletin displays the most recent articles on the first page. To see older articles you can simply use the “Older Posts >>” link at the bottom of this page. That’s handy for scanning back a few days. However, we now have nearly 1300 posts, generated over the past two years. All those older posts are archived! If you’re looking for a particular story posted some months ago, it’s best to use our search tools, which are on the right side of the page.
Folks email us regularly saying: “Hey, there was an interesting item in the Daily Bulletin, but I can’t find it now.” Take heart. Every Bulletin story is saved in our archive. You can always navigate to all previous posts using our multiple navigation tools.
The fastest and easiest method to find older posts is simply to search by keyword, or click one of the topic headings. If you want to see a video, for example, just click on “Videos”. If you’re looking for all stories about scopes, click “Optics”. To find a particular item, such as the story on Barnard actions, just type “Barnard” in the search field and click “Search”. Our search works very fast! Try it, you’ll like it.
You can also access archived posts by clicking on a Month (such as March 2008), in the archive list. This will bring up the most recent dozen posts from that month. To see older posts within that month, use the “Older Posts >>” Link again.
There are many “for charity” shotgun tournaments held each year, but the “Shoot for the Future” shotgun event in Nashville, TN, is special — in this program, the folks who are being helped get to do the shooting. Wheel-chair-bound shooters participate side-by-side with able-bodied shooters. Proceeds from the event are used to help persons with disabilities, and help fund spinal-cord injury research. The event is organized each year by volunteers and by physicians from the Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center.
On January 7, 2009, Shooting USA television will feature the “Shoot for the Future” charity tournament conducted at the Tennessee Clay Target Complex in Nashville. Shooting USA’s “Sighting In” segment includes interviews with disabled shooters and doctors from the Vanderbilt Medical Center, such as neuro-surgeon Peter Conrad. Conrad noted: “Our [disabled patients] are not only engaged in … being part of the community, but they’re participating as active competitors in the tournament, and that’s inspiring to anybody.” Conrad also predicts that developments in medical science may, in a decade, allow some of the wheelchair shooters to walk again. The YouTube video below previews the 1/7/2009 broadcast. (Editor: Do watch the video — it has an uplifting message.)
The next “Shoot for the Future” wheelchair shotgun tournament will be held on Saturday, October 3, 2009, at the Tennessee Clay Target Complex, 1100 County Hospital Road, Nashville, TN. For more information, visit the Shoot for the Future website.
If you’re interested in developing a program for disabled shooters at your club or shooting facility, contact the NRA’s Disabled Shooting Services Program, under the direction of Vanessa Warner. Call Vanessa at (703) 267-1495 or email: disabled-shooting [at] nra-hq.org.
First, we’d like to wish all our readers a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year. We hope that, in 2009, you’ll have time to enjoy your precision rifles, and spend more time at the range, hopefully with good friends that share your “addiction to accuracy”.
We are working on a major site upgrade for 2009. This should make the site faster and easier to navigate (with better access to the archives). The Forum, Bulletin, and site content will be better integrated. Plus we can make the Classified Ads section in our Forum much more user-friendly. We also plan more product tests. We have a brand new 6-6.5×47/6.5×47 switch barrel rifle ready for testing. This will help us provide data for a planned 6.5×47 Cartridge Guide. We’ve also assembled six chronographs for a chrono comparison “shoot-out”. And we will continue to showcase a wide variety of accurate rifles in our ongoing “Gun of the Week” feature.
But to do all that, we need your support.
As your Editor, Moderator, Photo Guru, Videographer, and Site Programmer, I’m maxing out on the number of hours available in each week (I work 7 days a week on the site). For the site to continue to expand its content, we need to bring in paid helpers. Right now, Google Analytics estimates the site reaches over 50,000 shooters every WEEK. If the majority of those users could provide a small donation every year, we could deliver MORE stories, MORE tests, MORE Gun of the Week features, and provide more of the photos and videos everyone enjoys. (Yes commercial sponsors help greatly, but their contributions alone won’t do the job.)
In the past quarter a couple dozen guys have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who use the site regularly without contributing one penny.
Here’s my proposal. First, if you have used our FREE Classifieds to successfully sell your rifles or shooting gear, consider sending in a dollar or two from your sale proceeds. Second, for those who use the site regularly, consider donating One Dollar a Month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee and much less than many websites now charge for their “premium content areas”. Consider this — what do you pay for a movie ticket these days? Probably $7-8 dollars for 90 minutes of escapism. For a buck a month you can help this site provide a YEAR’s worth of info, tests, and shooting news that you won’t find anywhere else.
Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just scoll down to the bottom of this page and click the DONATE Button to make a donation. You don’t need a Paypal account to contribute. Any sum is welcome — donations need not be large. If 20% of our readers gave even $5.00 a year we could hire a staffer to do research, create videos, and help with field tests.
If you don’t like Paypal, you can send a check. Make the check payable to our Asst. Editor Jason Baney, list your Forum Name (if any), and mail the check to:
Molded polymer stocks are light and inexpensive. However, they tend to be flexy and hard to bed. Savage has engineered a solution to this. The new Savage “AccuStock” employs an aluminum inner section combining a bedding block with a “spine” in the forearm. According to Savage: “With its integral aluminum spine that runs from the action down the length of the forearm, the AccuStock is the most rigid factory polymer stock in the marketplace. No matter how hot the weather or the barrel, the forend stays rock-solid and the barrel remains free-floating.”
The aluminum cradle surrounding the action is more than a conventional bedding block. The AccuStock uses a wedge bolt to push the recoil lug back into the aluminum spine to prevent any movement forward and aft, while the bedding cradle squeezes the action from the sides when the action screws are tightened. That is something new, and it seems like a promising design. Savage explains: “Pillar-bedded and v-block stocks, as good as they are, only apply bedding pressure on one axis, up and down.” By contrast, the new AccuStock is designed to grip the action from the sides as well as the bottom.
The AccuStock bedding block system will be initially offered in just two Savage models, the Model 10 FCP, and the Model 10 Precision Carbine. The 10 FCP comes in .308 Win and .223 Rem, and features a 24″ fluted, heavy barrel, a detachable Box Magazine (DBM), and a new (for Savage), factory muzzle brake. The Model 10 Precision Carbine will also be chamberd in .308 and .223. It will have a 20″ medium-contour barrel, detachable box magazine, but no muzzle brake.
There are many “for charity” shotgun tournaments held each year, but the “Shoot for the Future” shotgun event in Nashville, TN, is special — in this program, the folks who are being helped get to do the shooting. Wheel-chair-bound shooters participate side-by-side with able-bodied shooters. Proceeds from the event are used to help persons with disabilities, and help fund spinal-cord injury research. The event is organized each year by volunteers and by physicians from the Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center.
In the past quarter a couple dozen guys have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who use the site regularly without contributing one penny.
