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November 18th, 2009
Tonight’s episode of Shooting USA television features the popular Garand Match held at Camp Perry, Ohio each summer. The Garand match is now the biggest service rifle competition at Camp Perry. After covering the rifle action at Camp Perry, the November 18th episode of Shooting USA visits the Springfield Armory to explore the history of John Garand’s creation.
Today the M-1 Garand is an icon of history, and a very popular rifle for competition in the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s John C. Garand Match. CMP Director, Gary Anderson says, “[The Garand] is a piece of history and a lot of people feel like it’s an honor just to be able to shoot this rifle for what it represents. Also, it’s an accessible match — you can buy an M-1 Garand for five or $600 that will allow you to compete in an event like this. You don’t have to buy a lot of expensive equipment.”
Here are Shooting USA’s Wednesday broadcast times:
Eastern Time 4:30 PM, 8:30 PM, Midnight
Central Time 3:30 PM, 7:30 PM, 11:00 PM
Mountain Time 2:30 PM, 6:30 PM, 10:00 PMt
Pacific Time 1:30 PM, 5:30 PM, 9:00 PM
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November 17th, 2009
 Thanksgiving is almost here. At this time of year many Eastern and snow-belt shooting ranges halt operations for the winter. If you’re an avid rifleman who enjoys shooting regularly, the dark days of winter can bring withdrawal pains. The closure of outdoor ranges can mean months of forced inactivity… unless you have an all-weather indoor shooting solution.
Some clubs maintain their own indoor air rifle ranges where you can continue to shoot and train throughout the winter. If there are no such facilities nearby, Creedmoor Sports now offers a great solution for those who want to shoot indoors — even in your own basement or garage.
Creedmoor’s patented 10m Air Gun Range provides a target holder and a curtain-type backstop capable of stopping pellets with a muzzle velocity up to 600 fps. The target support poles allow three (3) double target boxes to be positioned with attachment points at the correct heights for prone, kneeling, and standing. Creedmoor says the target boxes provide 100% containment for any pellet passing through the target — so you won’t have pellets scattered all over the floor.
The 10M Air Gun Range is available either in a 3-station configuration for $1279 (item 3AGR), or as a one-station (single-point) range for $295 (item AGR-SINGLE). Creedmoor’s Air Gun Range is a proven, heavy duty product — the only Air Rifle target system ever tested and approved by the U.S. Military. This system is currently being used in more than 600 schools nationwide, as well as the new CMP shooting facility in Alabama. The 3-station range easily dis-assembles for transport and storage, fitting inside a 34″ x 10″ x 8″ carry duffle Creedmoor provides.
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November 17th, 2009
 ATK (Alliant Techsystems) (NYSE: ATK), the world’s largest ammo producer, manufactures CCI, Federal, and Speer ammo, plus CCI and Federal primers. ATK is also the parent company of Alliant Powder and ATK runs the Lake City Army ammunition plant. That’s why changes at ATK can affect shooters nationwide.
ATK announced that after more than six years as ATK chairman and CEO, Daniel J. Murphy will retire in March, 2010. The company’s board of directors has appointed General Ronald R. Fogleman to serve as Chairman of the board of directors. The board also elected John L. Shroyer, ATK’s current chief financial officer (CFO), to serve as interim CEO. The appointments are effective immediately.
In related news, ATK announced that second-quarter profit rose 18 percent, helped by stronger sales of ammunition for security forces in Afghanistan. The company said that demand remained strong for ATK’s commercial ammunition brands and products. “I am particularly pleased with the growth of our commercial businesses both in ammunition, aircraft structures and elsewhere across the company,” said John Shroyer, interim CEO, senior vice president and CFO.
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November 16th, 2009
 The Modern Pentathlon is a 5-discipline Olympic event that combines Horse Riding, Running, Swimming, Fencing, and Shooting. Whether there will really be any “shooting” anymore is questionable if Pentathlon officials succeed in their plan to replace air pistols with laser devices. That’s right, the Snowflakes in Hell Blog reports that the UIPM, the international governing body for Modern Pentathlon, intends to replace air pistols with laser “pistols”, ostensibly to reduce the environmental impact of lead pellets. We think this is just a “feel-good” move reflecting anti-gun political agendas. Pentathlon air pistols fire tiny 7-grain pellets that are easily captured by bullet traps, so there is virtually no environmental risk.
 UIPM President, Klaus Schormann, defended the plan to replace air pistols with laser devices, stating: “The decision to introduce non-air pistol shooting was the second big step for the sport following the decision in 2008 to change to the combined run/shoot format. This is a significant development in terms of lowering the environmental impact of the sport.”
Sebastian, creator of the Snowflakes in Hell Blog, observed: “The reasoning of the [UIPM] committee is disturbing. I hope this doesn’t portend bad things to come with other Olympic shooting sports, whose environmental footprint is arguably worse.”
One Blog reader astutely commented: “It would have been trivially easy to mandate lead-free pellets, if the ‘lead poisoning’ argument were the real reason behind this change. Replacing air pistols with lasers instead of a much simpler requirement to use nontoxic shot suggests that it was the ‘gun-ishness’ of the air pistols, and not the environmental impact, that may have been the primary driver here.”
 EDITOR’s Comment: One wonders if the UIPM’s next move will be to replace fencing foils and sabres with Wii computer-game controllers — in the interest of safety. And shouldn’t the UIPM replace Pentathletes’ four-legged equine mounts with hobby-horses to reduce solid waste and methane emissions?
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November 16th, 2009
Thanksgiving is coming soon. We know many readers will be traveling far from home to be with the family clan during the holiday. If you’ve got some free time after the traditional feast, maybe you’d like to find a shooting range near your destination, where you can have fun with your relatives. Or maybe you’re just looking for a facility close to home that offers specialized instruction programs so you can try a new shooting discipline. You can quickly find exactly what you want at the WhereToShoot.org website.
A service of the NSSF (Nat’l Shooting Sports Foundation), WhereToShoot.org offers a Searchable Database of pistol, rifle, and shotgun ranges around the country. You can search by state, search by area code, or select a particular distance from any zip code. The database is very complete. The individual range pages also include web addresses, phone numbers, and map links. The example below shows the results of a search for rifle-specific ranges in Arizona:
Five-Star Ranges
Your search results may reveal ranges identified with up to five stars. This is a rating system developed by the National Association of Shooting Ranges (NASR) that distinguishes these ranges as the best at providing quality-level recreational experiences.
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November 15th, 2009
Kelblys Inc., long-respected as a producer of benchrest actions and rifles, has expanded its product line. Now Kelbly’s will be offering complete tactical and tactical/hunting rifles. Produced in a wide variety of chamberings from 6.5×47 Lapua all the way up to 300 Win Magnum, these new Kelbly rifles are available as either single shots or as repeaters. To learn more about the new Kelbly rifles, visit Kelbly’s enhanced website.
Shown above is Kelbly’s new Atlas rifle. This rifle’s$2800.00 base price includes premium components: Single-shot Atlas action with 20 MOA or Flat integral scope base, Jewell or Shilen trigger, Krieger or Bartlein Barrel, Kelbly’s HCFB or Hunting stock (with recoil pad and swivels), Double screw rings (30mm or 1″). Available options include: McMillan A5 stock, CDI Magazine w/ 5 round AICS Magazine ($260), 3-Round Blind Mag ($150), Kemper or Vais Muzzlebrake ($185 Installed), Karsten Adjustable Cheek Piece ($75), Barrel Fluting ($120), Long-Action Upgrade ($70), Painted stock ($300), CeraKote Barreled Action ($200).
Kelbly’s new Grizzly II Tactical/Hunting rifle costs $3300.00 before options. Shown above in wood thumbhole stock, this rifle features a single-shot Grizzly II Action with 20 MOA or Flat integral scope base, Krieger or Bartlein Barrel, Jewell or Shilen Trigger, Kelbly HCFB or Hunting stock (with recoil pad and swivels), Double screw rings (30mm or 1″ scope tube). Grizzly II options are the same as for the Atlas model, except that a detachable box magazine is not offered with the Grizzly II. NOTE: The stock in the photo is a prototype wood thumbhole. The production Grizzly IIS will use a Kelbly fiberglass HCFB stock (standard), or McMillan A5 stock (optional at extra cost).
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November 15th, 2009
 Since 2001, November 19th has been decreed National Ammo Day. The backers of this event want each and every gun owner to purchase 100 rounds of ammunition this Thursday the 19th. The purpose of Ammo Day is to support the Second Amendment and to send a message to politicians.
There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States. If even 10% of them purchase ammo on Nov. 19th, this will demonstrate the size, and economic importance, of the gun-owning citizenry. If there’s one thing politicians cannot ignore, it’s tax revenues. The sales and excise taxes on guns and ammo help support many important public programs.
To learn more about National Ammo Day, visit www.Ammoday.com. Unfortunately, certain types of ammunition remain in short supply. Because of the surge in gun and ammo sales following last year’s Presidential election, most ammunition is quite a bit more costly than it was 12 months ago… if you can find it at all. One person, commenting on the Ammoday.com website, expressed his frustration with price hikes: “How about we don’t purchase any ammo on the 19th to send a message to the manufacturers that the price gouging better stop, or we’ll simply reload everything we shoot.” He has a point. However, in a market economy, supply and demand will always influence price levels.
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November 14th, 2009
 Sinclair International has a new tool assembly that lets you sort bullets by base to ogive length. The $79.95 Sinclair Bullet Sorting Stand with Dial Comparator (item 59-2000) comes with a heavy black granite base that stays put on your loading bench. The included dial indicator has a quick-release lever allowing easy placement and removal of bullets into the comparator. This lever allow the spring-loaded indicator shaft to pop up out of the way.
The special base comparators used with this tool (see photo), are sold separately for $10.99, and are offered in 22 caliber, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, 30 caliber, and 338 caliber. The sorting stand can also be used with Sinclair multi-caliber hex comparators (item 09-700, $18.25).
Measuring Bullet Bearing Surface with Calipers and Comparators
While we like this Sinclair tool, the same function can be performed with a regular set of calipers, using two comparators with caliber inserts. If you use the Hornady (formerly Stoney Point) OAL system you probably already have a #B2000 comparator body and a caliber-specific insert ($3.99 at Grafs.com).
Buy a second body ($14.39 at Grafs.com) and second insert (of the same caliber) and mount one on each caliper jaw, opposite each other. Tuck the bullet’s boat-tail in one insert and the “pointy end” in the other, and you can quickly measure the bearing surface. It takes a few tries to get the right “feel” of how hard to close the caliper jaws. But if the comparator bodies are set up right, the process should be quite repeatable, and you can probably measure just as fast with calipers as with the Sinclair measuring stand. However, the Sinclair unit should be a bit more precise, if you’re trying to resolve bullet lengths to less than one-thousandth. If you want to measure base to ogive (rather than bearing surface length), just remove one comparator and measure with the heel of the bullet (end of boat-tail) touching one jaw, and the bullet’s “pointy end” in the remaining comparator.
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November 13th, 2009
A full-time lawyer, Robert Whitley is also an avid prone, Highpower, and cross-course shooter. Over the past two years, Robert has pioneered a cartridge for these disciplines (as well as long-range varminting) based on the 6.5mm Grendel necked down to 6mm. Robert calls the cartridge the “6mmAR”.
The 6mmAR cartridge has performed very well in AR-based comp guns, both with shorter bullets loaded to mag length, and 105-107gr bullets single-loaded. Robert has complete info about the 6mmAR on his website, 6mmAR.com, including recommended loads and field test results. Robert has also developed a higher capacity version, with the shoulder blown forward and a shorter neck. He calls this the 6mmAR Turbo. This round can drive 105-108gr bullets in the 2850-2900 range, and it has proven very accurate. It is one of the best options for AR-platform space-gun shooters.
Though making 6mmAR brass from 6.5 Grendel brass is quite straight-forward and simple, Robert receives many questions about forming the brass, so he recently prepared a video. The two-minute video shows how quick and easy the brass-forming process can be:
Robert also builds and sells products for across-the-course shooters, including complete AR uppers, chambered in a variety of calibers, including 6mmAR. Jerry Tierney, 2005 NBRSA 1000-yard champion, has a 6mmAR upper built by Robert and Jerry says the upper “Absolutely shoots great. I love it.” In the past few months, Jerry has broken many NRA senior records with his new 6mmAR-chambered rifle.
CLICK HERE for Feature Article on 6mmAR and Robert Whitley (many photos)
CLICK HERE for 6mmAR LOAD DATA
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November 13th, 2009
Avid Design has released a new multi-tool designed expressly for rifles and shotguns. The $24.99 Gun Tool combines 18 of the most commonly used long gun tools in a compact package. The Gun Tool boasts three Torx wrenches (T20; T15; T10), two Allen hex drives (3/32″; 5/32″), and four screwdriver blades (1/8″ flat; 3/16″ flat; Phillips 1 & 2). In addition, there is a magnetic 3/16″ driver, a pin punch, and a stainless claw blade useful for opening shipping boxes or trimming target backers.
The most unique feature of the Gun Tool is a stepped, multi-size choke-tube wrench that fits six shotgun bores from .410 all the way up to 10 gauge. For active shotgunners, that provides great versatility in a small package.
Respected gun writer Jim Shepard has reviewed the Gun Tool: “I can honestly say that I’ve been playing with ‘The Gun Tool’ for a couple of days, and I’ve found it to be a pretty promising device that really should find a place in lots of range bags. If you’re a long gun shooter, it has something you’ll eventually need in the way of a tightening/loosening/adjusting tool.” Jim cautions, however, that the claw blade does not lock into place.
Currently, the Gun Tool can be purchased online for $24.99. NOTE: With each Gun Tool you get a FREE set of polycarbonate shooting glasses, complete with handy, lanyard-attached 26 NRR ear plugs. We figure the shooting glasses and plugs are worth at least $6.00, making the Gun Tool a pretty good deal at $24.99. And if you purchase two Gun Tools you get free shipping.
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November 12th, 2009
We saw an interesting gizmo on Peter White’s front rest at the recent California Long-Range Championship. Peter, who won the F-Class division, has fitted a remote drive system that allows him to adjust his Sinclair windage top without moving from his shooting position.
The windage control cable (actually a McMaster-Carr flexible drive shaft) attaches to the right side of the windage top in place of the regular adjustment knob. It then circles back to the shooter, and is clamped at the end of the pedestal leg (near the vertical adjustment speed screw). A large, knurled knob is attached to the end of the flexible drive.
 With this set-up, Peter can adjust windage easily with his left hand, while keeping his right (trigger) hand in place on the rifle. In addition, he can fine-tune his vertical using the rotary knob (speed screw) on the threaded shaft for the rear-most rest “foot”. The flex-drive adjustment system places his windage control right next to his elevation fine-tune control, so both windage and elevation controls can be manipulated with the “free hand” from the shooting position.
Peter fabricated this system himself from less than $60 worth of parts. All you need is a McMaster Carr flexible drive shaft ($50-$60), an adjustment knob at the shooter’s end, and a small bracket to hold the adjustment knob securely.
Many F-Class shooters have fabricated a similar remote windage control system. If you have basic mechanical skills, you can build your own system in a couple hours (with the correct parts). Or, Leroy Johnson of Johnson’s Precision Gunsmithing, jpgrifles [at] yahoo.com, can build you a working system, if you send in your windage top. Leroy explains that “the various windage tops all have slightly different configurations, so the price depends on how much special work is required.”
Peter’s Parts List and Tips
Peter White offers some advice on building a remote windage control: “The parts were obtained from McMaster-Carr, www.mcmaster.com. The flexible drive shafts come in various lengths and diameters. When using the smallest diameters in this application the bend radius is critical as the cable wants to kink in one direction of operation. The tape you see on my rig covers a couple of stiffener rods. I have seen others using a longer cable with a larger bend radius with no need of a stiffener. Others have employed jacketed cables that have a much higher torque rating (but also much higher cost).”
Products Needed (Total = $49.31)
| Part Number |
Description |
Price |
| 3127K22 |
Panel-Mount Flexible Drive Shaft, 18″ Overall Length, 0.130″ Shaft OD |
$42.31 |
| 2577K18 |
Stainless Steel Knurled-Rim Knob W/Set Screw, 1/4″ Unthreaded Through Hole, 1″ Diameter |
$7.00 |
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November 12th, 2009
Here’s a great deal if you’re shooping for hunting gear, shooting supplies, or holiday gifts (yep, the Christmas shopping season has already started). Cabelas.com is now offering $30.00 off a puchase of $150.00 or more. This is a bonafied offer, not a sales gimmick. This Editor just purchased a pair of Cabela’s boots listed at $153.99, and I got $30.00 off the purchase price, for a net cost (before shipping) of $123.99.
How does it work? Click the promo link above. That takes you to a page where you type in your email address. Then you’ll receive an email with a Rebate Number and a “Cabela’s Bucks Code”. Fill in the rebate number and the Bucks Code during “check-out” of the online ordering process. You can also use these discount codes when ordering by phone or at a Cabela’s store.
Offer Expires November 17, 2009
NOTE: The $30.00 off promo expires at 11:59 pm on 11/17/2009. Also the offer may only be used once, and it is valid ONLY on merchandise — it can NOT be used for Gift Certificates.
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