The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) now has its own CMP Facebook Page. There you’ll find the latest match results, links to interesting stories, and info on special rifle and ammo sales. The Facebook format actually works really well for the CMP — visitors can quickly find the latest new items and stories of interest. For example, here’s a cool article about two Virginia High School Girls who shot in the first official CMP Vintage Sniper Rifle Team Match on 10 May, at Camp Butner, NC: High-Schoolers at Butner.
New CMP Rulebook Released
New for 2011, the 15th edition of the CMP Competition Rules is now available. The CMP is the national governing body for Service Rifle, Service Pistol and CMP Games shooting events and the CMP Competition Rules is the official rulebook for these events that are a popular and important part of the national competitive shooting scene. The 15th Edition Rulebook also provides all the rule changes for Service Rifle, as well as the governing rules for the new Vintage Sniper Rifle Competition. The new rulebook, in PDF format, can be downloaded from the CMP website at: http://www.odcmp.com/Competitions/Rulebook.pdf.
CMP Scoring App Now Available for Android Smart-Phones
Also, the CMP Scoring App, which has been available for iPhones since September 2010, is now available for Android OS smartphones in the Android App Marketplace. This $4.99 CMP App features an easy-to-use interface that allows for quick recording of your score after each string. The CMP App calculates your shooting percentages automatically to let you know how you are doing throughout the event. You can also enter notes and record conditions. The CMP App was recently updated so it can be utilized with all shooting disciplines. This application is sponsored and endorsed by the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
Our friend Vince Bottomley of Target Shooter Magazine, www.targetshooteronline.com, let us know about an exciting new development for the quality UK-based shooting eZine. Starting this month, June 2011, the latest monthly edition of Target Shooter will be available as a digital App for Apple iPads. Each monthly edition can be downloaded from the iTunes store for just $0.99. That’s a good value when you consider Target Shooter has at least 6-8 feature articles every month, plus gear reviews and match reports. Here are some highlight from this month’s June edition of Target Shooter:
New Optics for 2011 from Leupold, IOR, March, Schmidt & Bender, Sightron (informative report by Vince Bottomley).
Handloading for the 6mmBR (Part 2), by Laurie Holland (Great article — a “must read”.)
Visit to Savage Arms Factory (in Massachusetts) by Yvonne Wilcock.
New Valkyrie Tactical .308 (in Folding Stock), by Chris Parkin.
Reading Mirage for Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest, by Carl Boswell.
Review of Bryan Litz’s Applied Ballistics (2d. Ed) book.
If you prefer to read Target Shooter on the web, or you don’t have an iPad content reader, don’t worry, Target Shooter will still be available for free through Target Shooter’s website. Just log on to www.targetshooteronline.com. But if you want to see the latest and greatest version of Target Shooter, consider the iTunes download. Vince tells us: “the magazine is so much nicer to read with an iPad — it’s almost better than a paper magazine.” To download Target Shooter, just go to the iTunes Webstore and search iPad apps for “Target Shooter” or “targetshooteronline”.
RCBS has a launched a new website, www.ReloaderHub.com, an advanced online community dedicated to reloading. The website is designed as a social hub where readers can exchange load data and recipes, engage in forum discussions, and share outdoor- and shooting-related photos and videos. RCBS will also run regular contests and promotions on the site. Currently you can enter to win an RCBS Reloading Starter Kit, valued at $364.95 MSRP. You can use all site features at no charge — ReloaderHub.com site membership is free.
ReloaderHub.com features a handy Reloading Calculator that lets you quickly figure out the cost of your ammo, based on the price of your components and anticipated number of reloads on your brass. You’ll find dedicated photo and video archives, where members can post their own “home movies” and images. To stimulate file uploading and forum participation, the site also features a point system. The more content you upload, the more points you earn towards virtual badges (points have no retail value at this time).
COMMENTARY: Clearly RCBS put considerable time and effort into ReloaderHub.com. Generally speaking, it has a nice look and feel, and the photo archive area is easy to access. However, we think the site could benefit from some design changes.
First the Message Board area doesn’t use standard Forum Formatting. The layout of the primary Message Board topics page is poorly laid out, requiring too much scrolling. Then it gets worse once you get inside a particular Message Board Category, such as “Hunting Report”. There’s too much vertical space between thread titles, and once you manage to drill down to an actual thread, the displayed font is small and somewhat hard to read.
This leads to the site’s second major problem. ReloaderHub.com is supposed to be a place where users share load recipes. This, apparently, is to be done through the Message Board. But we predict people will have trouble placing logically-related topics in the Message Board, so the load recipe postings will soon become a mish-mash. RCBS should have created a dedicated area for load recipes with a clear, consistent formatting for data entry. RCBS could have provided pull-down menus for cartridge type and powder, with supplementary fields for charge weight, primer, OAL etc. That would organize the data logically so that user recipes could become part of a searchable database with consistent entries among all calibers. The way the site’s Message Board is currently organized, we think most visitors will struggle to find and sort through the load data entries.
At the IWA Trade Show in Germany earlier this year, a correspondent for The Firearm Blog interviewed Woody Woodall, who runs Lothar Walther’s USA operation. While many shooters assume that Walther hammer-forges most of its barrels like some other European barrel-makers, in fact Lothar Walther USA uses the button rifling technique for most of its US-made barrels.
In the video below, created for The Firearm Blog, Woodall explains that button rifling involves some extra steps to ensure a good result: “The extra work that goes into it is that you’ve got to make rifling, stress relieve it, and have it come out the right size. And it takes a lot of skill to do that. Lothar Walther invented button rifling in 1925, if a better way of making rifling came out, we’d be glad to go to it.”
Woodall explains that hammer forging is a good method for mass production, but it is costly to set up: “Hammer forging is relatively new, it came out in 1934, but did not come into prominence until the 1950s…. But the cost of [hammer forging] in the world today is getting above what the market will bear for barrels. [Hammer forging] is more complicated. As the hammers hit the barrel the barrel gets longer, but the hammers have to hit uniformly so the barrel [stays] straight. There’s a higher failure rate in that. There’s also some surface delamination that can occur, and some other issues. So if you’re hammer forging, you really have to pay attention to the details. So, it’s like button rifling, only ten times more complicated. It’s for super-high-volume production… The large companies tend to use the hammer forging, intermediate size companies tend to use the buttoning, and craft companies tend to use the cut rifling. All three [methods] can make an equally accurate barrel.”
The Original PA 1000-Yard Benchrest Club in Williamsport, PA, will hold a Father’s Day Fun Shoot with cash prizes on Saturday June 18, 2011 (starting at 8:00 am). This will be the first-ever match of its kind at Williamsport, the first and largest 1000-Yard Benchrest Club in the country. Entry is open to everyone. All net proceeds from this match are going directly to pay off the massive pit rebuild Williamsport recently completed. There will be 50% payback of fees to shooters, as well as door prizes. CLICK HERE for entry Form (Pre-registration recommended).
Father’s Day Fun Shoot and 1000-Yard Scramble
50% payback to top 10% of shooters in each class; there will also be door prizes.
Free lunch for every paid shooter (hot dog and drink)
Relays picked at 8am (random drawing). Match Starts at 9:00 am.
Pit crew will be provided, shooters need not pull pits.
Dinner will be provided for $7 if desired. Other concessions available.
THREE Classes – Light Gun, Heavy Gun, and Factory
Light-Gun and Heavy-Gun per Williamsport rules. Factory class rifles must include: factory barrel and receiver and stock. (Rechamber, trigger, re-crown, brake etc. are OK.)
ROUND COUNT: The total round count (per rifle) is 50-75 rounds.
ENTRY FEE: $75 per gun (each shooter may enter up to 1HG, 1LG and 1 factory)
Williamsport Father’s Day Fun Shoot — Course of Fire:
Stage 1: 3-Shot and 5-Shot Groups at 1000 yards.
– Shot in one sitting with a short break between groups.
– 12 shooters per relay, with points given for each group and score.
– Approx. 18 rounds, 48 points possible.
Stage 2: 10-Shot Group at 1000 yards
– Same scoring as Stage 1.
– Approx. 18 rounds, 24 points possible.
Stage 3: Clay Birds at 1000 Yards.
– Three targets each: rabbit/skeet/mini clay-birds for each shooter in 3×3 arrays.
– Shooters have 2-3 minutes to break as many as you can (no shot limit).
– Approx. 10-20 rounds, 36 possible points.
Grand Finale – “Scrambled Eggs”
– Top 12 scorers from EACH CLASS go to final relay to shoot eggs on the bank at 1040 yards. Note: this is shot in the evening for the best conditions.
– Factory class will shoot eggs at 600 yards.
– Two-minute sighters on bank at skeet, then 2 minutes to try and break eggs.
– Cash prizes awarded for breaking the egg (separate from the 50% payback).
– Approx 10-15 rounds.
Jackie Schmidt, posting on Benchrest Central, observed that there may have been some production changes with Lapua 220 Russian brass. This brass is commonly used as the parent case for fire-forming 6 PPC cases. The newer 220 Russian brass has slightly thicker neckwalls, and, according to Jackie, the new brass is more consistent in overall neckwall thickness.
Jackie writes: “I have not made any new PPC cases in a while. But I finally used up all of my older 220 Russian brass, and just bought 500 new cases, in the blue plastic boxes. The necks are thicker. By at least .0008 (eight ten-thousandths). That is right at .0015 on diameter. I am getting neck-wall thickness of .0142″ on the old cases, .0150″ on the new cases. I [fire-formed] two cases, and seated a Flat Base Ultra bullet in each. The old case, with a seated bullet and non-neck-turned case, measures .2708″ average. By contrast, the new case, with a seated bullet in an unturned neck, measures .2722″ average. That is, on average, about .0015 difference in the diameter of a seated round.”
“Anybody else notice this? I guess the main reason I did the measuring is that I am thinking of having a ‘no-neck turn’ reamer ground. With this new brass, .0274″ would be the minimum. The new brass is a tad better in overall [neck]-wall thickness variation.” — Jackie
What does Lapua say? We’ve sent inquiries to Lapua’s USA tech representatives. We hope to have a response soon.
Smart shooters know the importance of using a quality cleaning rod bore guide when cleaning barrels. The rod guide helps center the rod in the bore, preventing uneven wear on the rifling. Good bore guides also seal off the chamber to prevent solvents and gunk from flowing back into the bolt raceway and trigger housing. While most bore guides are “better than nothing”, the best designs are custom-sized to the chamber and also have a very tight clearance around the rod shaft. This prevents the rod from bowing and from dragging on the critical throat area of your rifle. We use Lucas Rod Guides for many of our rifles. The Lucas two-part design, with a caliber-specific insert, provides a tight fit for the rod.
T.K. Nollan’s Barrel Saver System
While many readers may have seen or used Lucas Rod Guides, T.K. Nollan makes another very high-quality cleaning rod guide that is favored by top benchrest shooters such as Tony Boyer, Dwight Scott, and Dick Wright. If, like many short-range Benchresters, you do a lot of barrel brushing, it may be worth investing in the $135.00 Barrel Saver.
T.K. Nollan’s patent-pending Barrel Saver is a precision-machined system designed to provide maximum protection during barrel cleaning. The Barrel Saver features a double O-ring “fail-safe” seal, and a stainless steel outer tube with straightness held to within .001″. To help ensure optimal alignment, a bushing, custom-sized for your action, precisely centers the outer tube in your action. Models are offered for Hall, Stolle, Grizzly, Farley, Remington, RFD, Nesika Bay, Borden, BAT, Viper and similar 2-lug actions.
Each Nollan Barrel Saver comes with two (2) metal guide tubes, one for brushes and the other for jags. As you can see in the slide show below, these brush/jag tubes run INSIDE the larger diameter guide which slides into the action and chamber. This “tube-within-tube” design, combined with the 0-ring for the chamber, ensures that the cleaning rod stays precisely centered, even if you brush fairly aggressively. While we strongly advocate bore-brushing only in the outward direction, we know some shooters prefer to brush back and forth. If you are a “back and forth” cleaner, you NEED a product like the T.K. Nollan Barrel Saver.
T.K. Nollan Barrel Savers start at $135.00 plus $9.00 shipping for PPC-type chamberings. Custom sizes cost $150.00 plus $9.00 shipping. Each Barrel Saver kit comes complete with two Rod Guide Tubes and spare O-rings. For more info, visit the Barrel Saver website, or contact T.K. Nollan at this address:
TK Tool Co. – Precision Benchrest Tools
tknemail [at] gmail.com
401 South Cimarron St.
Catoosa, OK 74015
(918) 633-2966 (Call before 9:00 PM CST)
This year marks the 100th Anniversary of J.M. Browning’s 1911 pistol, and the classic semi-auto is more popular than ever. If you are looking for the source of “all things 1911″, check out Brownells Centennial (7th Ed.) 1911 Catalog. This richly-illustrated catalog features over 3,000 1911 products, including some 350 new items added just for this special edition.
New CMP Rulebook Released
CMP Scoring App Now Available for Android Smart-Phones
Our friend Vince Bottomley of Target Shooter Magazine, 
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Jackie Schmidt, posting on 
