Robert Carnell’s Australian Benchrest Bulletin
Thanks to a dedicated ‘Down-Under’ benchrester, Australian shooters have an excellent web resource for their sport. Sydney’s Robert Carnell has created a content-rich website for Australian shooters, www.benchrestbulletin.net. Carnell’s Benchrest Bulletin provides match schedules and results, range info, recent news, record listings, shooting tips, and links to important Australian and Pacific Rim shooting organizations. You’ll also find gear reviews and a Shooter’s Forum.
Carnell, a past Australian Sporter Class champion, is an accomplished benchrest shooter with decades of experience. In 1993 he won a Silver Medal at the World Championships, and he has placed highly in events he’s attended in the United States. But Carnell is far more than an ace trigger puller. Robert is a skilled and creative “home gunsmith” who has crafted his own custom action and built his own railguns from scratch. You can learn about these and other Carnellian creations in the “Personal Projects” section of Robert’s website.
Home-Built Rail Gun — Aussie Innovation
Below are photos of one of Rob Carnell’s most amazing builds. This liquid-cooled, tension-barrel rail gun is a great example of self-reliant Aussie engineering. The barrel runs inside a coolent-filled, large-diameter sleeve, much like an old water-cooled machine gun. This is the fourth rail gun that Rob built, and the second fitted with a tensioned barrel.
Robert explains: “My railgun design has a 1.75″ barrel under tension inside an aluminium tube filled with radiator coolant. There is nearly a gallon of coolant, and the barrel stays cool no matter how many shots I seem to fire, or how quickly they are shot. The brass nut on the front rides on a nylon bearing and can be tightened to get the best accuracy. I am a believer in the ‘tuner’ idea and this seems to work for me. The main tube is thick-walled aluminium 600mm (24″) long. There is a flange at both ends. The flange at the back fits onto the barrel before the action is screwed on. The front flange is a press-fit into the tube, then there is a brass nut that fits over the barrel and screws against a nylon washer on the front flange. The Railgun’s base is aluminium and has the standard adjustments — windage, elevation and a sighter cam. In addition, there is a 1/10 thou dial indicator for windage. This allows me to zero the indicator and shoot my group. If I need to add a bit of windage for a condition, I can quickly get back to the original position if my condition comes back.”
Home-Built Action Uses Remington Bolt
Rob’s rail gun uses his own home-made stainless action, which features Panda-spec threads and a modified Remington 700 aftermarket bolt. Not bad for a do-it-yourself project we’d say! CLICK HERE to read how Rob designed and built the action.
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Tags: Aussie, Australia, Benchrest, Rail Gun, Robert Carnell, Schedules
Whew ! I thought that we were being fed another spoof – along the lines of “Deutch Waffenworks ” April 07.
I guess it was the picture of the action – “carnal action” is what I heard – – I would like to see this thing in an article on practical shooting. How do we get this thing to bag a “roo for the barbie”?
Cam Williams
How does it shoot?
You’ll find the address for the Benchrest Bulletin is actually: http://www.benchrestbulletin.net/drupal/
Editor: Thank you. In the year since this was originally published, the server, URL, and domain were changed. We’ve updated the links in the above story. You can get to the website via: http://www.benchrestbulletin.net/
The response level to local and national disasters is awesome but it’s a real shame that so many people take advantage of the sad situations.
I mean everytime there is an earthquake, a flood, an oil spill – there’s always a group of heartless people who rip off tax payers.
This is in response to reading that 4 of Oprah Winfreys “angels” got busted ripping off the system. Shame on them!
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/19/crimesider/entry5251471.shtml
good luck trying to get a seb rest through him. i paid my $300 deposit nearly 12 months ago and still cant get an answer on when i will have my rest.