Speedy Builds a Low-Profile F-Classer for Bret Solomon
On his Facebook page, Hall-of-Fame shooter and ace gunsmith Thomas “Speedy” Gonzalez unveiled an impressive new F-Open rifle built for Bret Solomon. The rifle features Speedy’s new low-profile F-Class stock.
Bret’s gun is chambered for his 300 Solomon wildcat, shooting heavy 210gr bullets, so it can can be a real shoulder-buster, without some kind of buffer. The stock is fitted with a Ken Rucker’s Bump Buster hydraulic recoil reduction system to tame the recoil. The Bump Buster was originally designed for shotguns and hard-hitting, big game rifles. It is interesting to see this hydraulic buffer adapted to an F-Open rig.
Here you can see Bret shooting the gun, coached by Nancy Tompkins and Michele Gallagher:
Bret’s gun features a stainless Viper (Stiller) action, barrel tuner, and an innovative Speedy-crafted wood stock. Speedy says this stock design is all-new: “It is a true, low Center-of-Gravity F-Class stock, not a morphed Palma stock merely cut out on the bottom”. See all the details in this short video:
Stock Features: Glue-in or Bolt-In and Optional Carbon Pillars and Cooling Ports
Speedy explained the features of the new stock design: “Terry Leonard and I started working on an F-Class version of his stocks last year during the F-Class Nationals and came up with what he and I consider the first true low-CG stock in the sport. As you can see by the videos, there is very little torqueing of the stock during recoil. I add the carbon fiber tunnel underneath the forearms to save Terry some time. This bonds very well to his carbon fiber skeleton within the stock adding addition stiffness to the forearm to support the heavy barrels found on the F-Class rigs. We are playing with both glue-ins like we benchresters use and bolt-ins as well. The rifles on the videos are glue-ins. Bret just took delivery today of his first bolt-in employing carbon fiber pillars and the first Leonard stock ever to have cooling ports.”
Need for Recoil Reduction Follows F-Class Trend to Bigger Calibers and Heavier Bullets
In recent years we have seen F-Open competitors move to bigger calibers and heavier bullets in pursuit of higher BC. There is no free lunch however. Shooting a 210gr .30-caliber bullet is going to produce much more recoil than a 140gr 6.5mm projectile (when they are shot at similar velocities). Does this mean that more F-Open shooters will add hydraulic buffers to their rigs? Will a recoil-reduction system become “de rigueur” on F-Open rifles shooting heavy bullets?
Our friend Boyd Allen observes: “You may imagine that shooting a short magnum, or even a .284 Win with heavy bullets, involves a fair amount of recoil, and in the prone position this can be more than a little wearing. It can in fact beat you up over the course of a match. Some time back, Lou Murdica told me about having a hydraulic recoil absorbing device installed on one of his F-Class rifles, chambered in .300 WSM. Lou is shooting heavy (210-215gr) bullets so the recoil is stout. According to Lou, the hydraulic recoil-reduction system made all the difference.”
Story tip from Boyd Allen. We welcome reader submissions.Similar Posts:
- Recoil Reduction System for F-Class Rifles — Bump Buster
- Bump Buster Recoil Reduction System for F-Class Rifles
- Bump Buster Recoil Reduction System for F-Open Rifles
- Exotic Wood F-Open Rig for the F-Class World Championships
- Taming the Beast: McMillan’s Hydraulic 50 BMG Recoil Reducer
Share the post "Speedy Builds a Low-Profile F-Classer for Bret Solomon"
Tags: 300 WSM, Bret Solomon, Bump Buster, F-Class, Low Profile Stock, Palma, Speedy Gonzalez
Videos are unavailable due to privacy settings.
EDITOR: Speedy has cross-uploaded the two videos to YouTube and we have changed the links to the YouTube URLs. All web users should be able to watch the videos now. Thanks for the reminder. Initially the videos were posted on Facebook, which apparently has some distribution limits.
I will add one more thing. Notice the size of the butt plate/pad on Speedy’s stock. It is a lot bigger than the back of the stock that it is installed on. This spreads the force of the recoil over perhaps twice the area, and that by itself makes a major contribution to increasing the comfort with which the rifle can be shot. I mention this, because it is a method that has wide potential application, in situations like when a shooter wants to put a Dasher or larger caliber barrel on a short range benchrest rifle that has one of the newer design short range benchrest stocks, that concentrate recoil in a small area. Simply spreading the recoil over a larger area, can do a lot to make things more comfortable, even without the hydraulic recoil absorber.