The Spirit of America Match at Raton, New Mexico has concluded. Bryan Litz provided this quick wrap-up last evening: “Just a short time to report the winners before heading to the awards dinner. Larry Bartholome won F-Open, Trudie Fay won F-TR, and Nancy Tompkins won the sling class. The match came down to the last relay at 1000 yards. The photo at right shows a common result in the switching winds. Lots of target uprights were damaged and shooters grateful for hanging a six by half an inch! Congratulations to all competitors for persevering [in] Raton’s difficult conditions!”
Below are match photos taken by Bryan Litz. You’ll find more Spirit of America Match photos on the Applied Ballistics Facebook Page.
Believe it or not, 90% of non-academic printed books are sold in the last quarter of the year. If you are considering purchasing books for your own gun library or as gifts for family members or friends, we’ve just made your life easier. Over the past few years, we’ve compiled a list of the best-written and most informative books for rifle shooters and precision hand-loaders.
You could spend days compiling your own list and then tracking down all these different titles. Or, with one click, you can find it all in one place in our new AccurateShooter virtual bookstore. We’ve teamed up with Amazon.com to provide the top titles at very competitive prices. All order-taking, payment processing, and shipping is handled by Amazon. We’ve just saved you the effort of finding the best titles.
Shown below are some of the most popular titles we carry. Use the arrows (lower right) to shuffle books from back to front. Click on a book jacket to get more info or start shopping. You’ll find dozens more quality gun-related titles in our Shooters’ Bookstore.
300m Lapua European Cup Finals are currently underway in Zagreb, Croatia. The prone events have concluded — and Lapua ammo shooters dominated the field, with the little 6mmBR topping all other cartridge types in both the mens’ and womens’ divisions. There have been challengers to the 300m crown, including Norma’s 6XC and Lapua’s own 6.5×47, but it appears that the 6mmBR cartridge is still “King of the Hill” at 300 meters. We know that Lapua’s 6mmBR factory ammo is outstanding. This factory 6mmBR ammo shot well under quarter-MOA in one Eliseo Tubegun we tested (READ 6mmBR Tubegun Story).
The European Cup Finals continue today with mens’ 3×40 and ladies’ 3×20 matches. On Sunday, the last day of the competition, the Mens’ 3×20 Standard Rifle and Super Finals are slated. Here are results from Friday’s 300m Prone matches:
Mens’ 300m Prone Results
1. Antti Puhakka, FIN 599-34X – 6mm BR
2. Juha Rutonen, FIN 598-42X – 6mm BR
3. Josselin Henry, FRA 597-32X – 6.5×47 Lapua
4. M. Ackermann, SUI 597-32X – 6.5×47 Lapua
5. Mikhael D’Halluin, FRA 596-39X – 6mm BR
All Top 5 male shooters used Lapua factory-loaded ammunition.
Women’s 300m Prone Results
1. Catherine Houlmont, FRA 599-39x – 6mm BR
2. Charlotte Jakobsen, DEN 598-38x – 6mm BR
3. Eva Friedel, GER 598-32x – 6mm BR
All Top 3 female shooters used Lapua factory-loaded 6mmBR ammunition.
L to R in photo below:
Jakobsen, Houlmont, Friedel
Need help with your handgunning? Check out the NRA’s Basics of Pistol Shooting DVD. This $19.95 DVD covers the purchase, handling, cleaning, and storage of both revolvers and semi-automatic pistols along with marksmanship fundamentals. Computer animations provide an inside look at how revolvers and semi-automatics function. The Basics of Pistol Shooting DVD is intended for anyone interested in learning how to safely operate, clean and select a pistol for a variety of activities.
Produced as a training aid for NRA’s Basic Pistol and/or FIRST Steps Pistol Courses, the 60-minute DVD provides useful information for all handgun owners, not just novices. We also recommend that NRA Certified Pistol Instructors watch the DVD to familiarize themselves with the most current training methods and safety procedures. The DVD can be ordered through the NRA Program Materials Center or by calling 1-800-336-7402.
Report by Bryan Litz
Day 3 of the Spirit of America Individual Aggregate (Thursday, 9/13/2012) started out cold and misty. Everyone was pretty much wearing every shred of clothing they had to get thru the morning, but the afternoon warmed up nicely. Short range was typical; constant and relatively calm at 300 and 500, but the wind kicked up about the time we started shooting 600 and some points started falling. After lunch we shot 900 yards and the points really started falling! As expected, the chaos shook up the standings quite a bit.
Controversy in Sling Class
In the sling class, Noma Mayo was the high shooter at 4 points down. Noma shot a miss at 600 yards, challenged it, and lost the challenge. She finished the range, then later went to the stat house and had the miss removed from her score card. A formal protest was filed, but her amended score stood (without a miss). Needless to say, the result is somewhat controversial, especially considering that Noma is in contention to win the tournament. The current standings in the individual sling aggregate are: Nancy Tompkins at 6 points down, Noma Mayo at 8 points down, and Bryan Litz at 9 points down.
Trudie Fay Continues to Lead F-TR
In F-TR, Trudie Fay continues her dominant performance at 13 points down to win the day. Trudie is also leading the F-TR aggregate with one day to go. Tomorrow is the Raton 8-man team match.
Larry Bartholome won the F-Open class at 7 points down for the day (Aggregate standings were not posted as of when we left the range so it’s difficult to calculate those full standings).
Black Powder Cartridge Rifles (BPCR) typically fire cartridges with large capacity — 70 grains or more of the ‘holy black’. For a variety of reasons, BPCR shooters may want to use a black powder substitute when training, hunting, or when competing in matches that allow substitutes. The problem with most smokeless propellants is that they are designed to operate at much higher pressure levels and they don’t fill the case well when loaded to black powder pressure levels. (There are some exceptions).
Allian Black MZ Wins Field & Stream Award
Alliant Powder has developed a new black powder substitute that works well in black powder cartridge rifles and in muzzle-loaders. Alliant’s new Black MZ is an innovative, non-corrosive black powder substitute that resists moisture and reduces cleaning time.
Alliant claims that Black MZ “burns cleaner for less residue and easier cleaning” and that Black MZ can deliver “better velocities at lower pressures.” In fact, Black MZ performs so well that it was recently awarded Field & Stream’s “Best of the Best” award in its product category.
Field & Stream reports: “[Black MZ] performed so well… that the test team was able to fire muzzleloaders repeatedly without any cleaning. And when a patch was run through the barrel, there was far less fouling than is normally seen. The loose grains also can be packed tightly, producing great energy results while maintaining low barrel pressure.” Alliant states that: “Moisture resistant and virtually non-corrosive, Black MZ replicates black powder performance without the ignition headaches and cleaning hassles common to traditional black powder use.”
Alliant Brand Director Rick Stoeckel declares: “We are excited to win the Best of the Best from Field & Stream. We strive to provide the best products for our consumers, and this recognition reaffirms the effectiveness of Black MZ” [for both muzzle-loaders and Black Powder Cartridge Rifles].
Are you bored with your “whimpy” .50 BMG? Looking for something with a little more punch? Well J.D. Jones and his team at SSK Industries have created a truly big boomer — the .950 JDJ. As its name implies, rifles chambered for the cartridge have a bore diameter of 0.950″ (24.13 mm). This would normally make such rifles “destructive devices” under the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA). However, SSK obtained a “Sporting Use” exemption allowing the rifles to be sold without special restrictions as destructive devices. CLICK HERE to watch .950 JDJ being fired.
.950 JDJ Specifications
Rifle Cost: $8000.00
Ammunition Cost: $40.00 per round
Projectile Weight: 3,600 grains (more than half a pound)
Rifle Weight: Between 80 and 120 pounds
Muzzle Energy: 38,685 ft/lbs (52,450 Joules)
Momentum: 154.1 Newton-seconds
As crafted by SSK Industries, .950 JDJ rifles use McMillan stocks and very large-diameter Krieger barrels fitted with a massive 18.2-lb muzzle brakes. The ammo produced by SSK features solid 3,600 grain bullets and CNC-machined cartridge brass. It is also possible (through a lot of work), to use a 20mm cannon casing shortened and necked-down.The primer pocket is swaged out to accept a .50 cal machine gun primer. That 3,600 grain bullet is just massive — it weighs more than half a pound. The cartridge propels its 3,600 grain bullet at approximately 2,200 fps. This yields a muzzle energy of 38,685 ft-lbs and a momentum of 154.1 Newton-seconds. The energy on target (knock-down power) is comparable to WWI-era tank rounds.
A few days ago we featured Tim Sellar’s new Double-stack Sure Feed Ammo Caddy. No sooner had we revealed Tim’s double-stacker, than we got a call from Tim saying that he was developing a new flex-arm support for his gravity-fed ammo caddies. The advantage of the flex arm is that it allows the vertical position of the caddy to be adjusted for different guns (or different shooter positions). In addition, the arm raises the caddy up off the bench, clearing space for the operation of a joystick on a coaxial front rest.
Tim explains: “At the IBS 1000-yard nationals in West Virginia this year I had a lot of requests for a flex-arm type caddy. Here’s the first prototype — the paint just dried this morning. It works great especially for the joy-stick type rest. This opens up space for the arm movement. The example in the photo has a bracket attaching the flex-arm to the rest. I can fabricate any mount specified. I also plan to offer a magnetic base for the caddy flex-arm for use with ferrous metal front rests.”
Tim hasn’t announced a price for the flex-arm option yet: “The price is still being worked out. I will announce it after some anodizing and aluminum estimates come in. Production should start early January next year”. For more information on Sure Feed Ammo Caddies contact Tim in Texas:
Sure Feed Ammo Caddies (Tim Sellars)
4704 Redondo Street
North Richland Hills, TX 76180
Phone: (682) 240-7690 (cell)
eMail: sel248 [at] aol.com
Series Premieres 9/12/2012 at 10:00 pm The National Geographic Channel is launching a new TV series about a father and son business, International Military Antiques, that specializes in antique and historical arms. Nat Geo’s new show, Family Guns, has solid production values, and the stars of Family Guns are more reputable than the clowns featured on some other gun-oriented cable TV series. Family Guns airs Wednesday Nights at 10:00 pm on the Nat Geo Channel. Tonight’s debut episode features 1920s-era Tommy Guns and two rare, mint condition World War II sniper rifles.
An international authority on antique weapons, Christian Cranmer first started collecting military antiques at the age of twelve. In the 1970s he began dealing antiques and traveled around the world collecting weapons from government arsenals that were being emptied. He established a reputation as having unrivaled knowledge of military history and antique arms.
In 1969 Cranmer heard about a mythical cache in Nepal. It would take over 30 years, but he would find this stockpile and make the greatest purchase of military antiques in his career. The amazing purchase amounted to over 55,000 firearms, with over 50,000 of them antique—Including 146 bronze cannons, a huge array of edged weapons, musket balls and parts. By 2000, Cranmer had purchased from countries from every corner of the world, and his company, International Military Antiques, had supplied military equipment for films including “Saving Private Ryan”, “Flags of Our Fathers”, “Cold Mountain” and “Inglourious Basterds.” See IMA’s inventory at www.ima-usa.com.
‘Family Guns’ Series Trailer (Worth Watching!)
Preview of ‘Family at War’ — Family Guns Episode 1
Here is Bryan Litz’s latest report from the Spirit of America Match, underway at the Whittington Range in Raton, New Mexico. You can follow Bryan’s posts on the Applied Ballistics Facebook Page.
Report from Raton
Today was the second day of individual Fullbore shooting at the Spirit of America match. Some clouds moved in for part of the day and showered on us for about 15 minutes in the afternoon, but other than that the weather was good. There was wind, but nowhere near bad for Raton.
David Crandall won the sling class with the only clean for the day, followed by Bryan Litz, Bob Steketee, and Rick Hunt who were all down 1 point. For the Aggregate standings, Bryan and Nancy Tompkins are tied at 898, but Bryan has 57 Xs to Nancy’s 55. That’s a narrow margin with two days remaining!
Bill Litz, Bryan Litz, Michelle Gallagher, Nancy Tompkins
F-Class Results
Results in F-Open are interesting in that the top three places for todays shooting are also the same top 3 in the Aggregate. The winners for today, and leaders in the F-Open class are [familiar names]: Jim Murphy, Larry Bartholome, and Danny Biggs. These guys are three of the best F-class shooters in the USA. They’ll be difficult to catch.
Top three in F-TR today were: Trudie Fay, Ray Gross, and Darcy Spenst. Local shooter and U.S. Palma Team member Trudie Fay is also leading the F-TR aggregate by a decent margin. This comes as no suprise, as Raton is Trudie’s home range and she’s won the sling class of this tournament in the past. South African Ivan Lamprecht is second in the aggregate so far (Ivan is shooting ammo provided by Applied Ballistics Munitions!). Ray Gross of Team Sinclair is in 3rd place, despite having a miss on the first day of the tournament! Were it not for that, Ray would be leading by (up to) 7 points. Bill Litz (of Applied Ballistics Munitions) got off to a great start today, only losing 5 points in the morning (300, 500 and 600 yards). Bill’s new rifle built by John Pierce of Pierce Engineering is shooting the 215 grain Berger Hybrids EXTREMELY well. In Bill’s words: “That thing’s a freakin’ laser!”.
Two more days of individual shooting remain (on Thursday and Saturday), so we’re only half way through the tournament. Tomorrow’s 4-man team match will conclude the Team Aggregate.
The Spirit of America Match at Raton, New Mexico has concluded. Bryan Litz provided this quick wrap-up last evening: “Just a short time to report the winners before heading to the awards dinner. Larry Bartholome won F-Open, Trudie Fay won F-TR, and Nancy Tompkins won the sling class. The match came down to the last relay at 1000 yards. The photo at right shows a common result in the switching winds. Lots of target uprights were damaged and shooters grateful for hanging a six by half an inch! Congratulations to all competitors for persevering [in] Raton’s difficult conditions!”
300m Lapua European Cup Finals are currently underway in Zagreb, Croatia. The prone events have concluded — and Lapua ammo shooters dominated the field, with the little 6mmBR topping all other cartridge types in both the mens’ and womens’ divisions. There have been challengers to the 300m crown, including Norma’s 6XC and Lapua’s own 6.5×47, but it appears that the 6mmBR cartridge is still “King of the Hill” at 300 meters. We know that Lapua’s 6mmBR factory ammo is outstanding. This factory 6mmBR ammo shot well under quarter-MOA in one Eliseo Tubegun we tested (
Need help with your handgunning? Check out the NRA’s 
Black Powder Cartridge Rifles (BPCR) typically fire cartridges with large capacity — 70 grains or more of the ‘holy black’. For a variety of reasons, BPCR shooters may want to use a black powder substitute when training, hunting, or when competing in matches that allow substitutes. The problem with most smokeless propellants is that they are designed to operate at much higher pressure levels and they don’t fill the case well when loaded to black powder pressure levels. (There are some exceptions).
Field & Stream reports: “[Black MZ] performed so well… that the test team was able to fire muzzleloaders repeatedly without any cleaning. And when a patch was run through the barrel, there was far less fouling than is normally seen. The loose grains also can be packed tightly, producing great energy results while maintaining low barrel pressure.” Alliant states that: “Moisture resistant and virtually non-corrosive, Black MZ replicates black powder performance without the ignition headaches and cleaning hassles common to traditional black powder use.”
Are you bored with your “whimpy” .50 BMG? Looking for something with a little more punch? Well J.D. Jones and his team at 
The National Geographic Channel is launching a new TV series about a 
