Click image for lengthy podcast about NYSRPA v. Bruen U.S. Supreme Court case.
In an historic Second Amendment decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York state law requiring “proper cause” for law-abiding gun owners to obtain a carry permit. The landmark case is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen et al. CLICK HERE to read the decision (135-page PDF).
The Court’s 6-3 decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen was written by Justice Clarence Thomas. The majority ruled: “The Court holds that New York’s proper cause requirement to obtain a concealed carry license violates the Constitution by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense”. Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor dissented. SEE: Legal Analysis by The Federalist Society.
In the majority opinion of the Court, Justice Thomas concluded: “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self defense is not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees’. We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense.
New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
NOTE: This video was recorded BEFORE the NYRPA v. Bruen decision was released.
The inaugural CMP National Air Gun Matches will take place July 16-18, 2022 at the Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center located on Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ohio. CMP is excited to integrate a National Air Gun Competition into the National Match schedule. This year’s Air Gun championship will include training and a two-member team match on the first day, followed by two days of 60-shot competitions in air rifle and air pistol. A four-member team match will be included in the two days of 60-shot competitions.
The inaugural National Air Gun Championship will be held as part of the 2022 Camp Perry National Matches. That schedule allows the CMP’s junior 3PAR National Championship, the Air Gun Championship, and the National Matches Smallbore events to all be fired consecutively, with the Air Gun events held at the Gary Anderson Competition Center at Camp Perry.
July 16 – Training & Two-Member Team Elimination Match
July 17 – Air Gun Match 1 Championship
July 18 – Air Gun Match 2 Championship & Final
Team Results: 4-Member Team Match will be based on scores fired in Match 1 and Match 2
Gary Anderson CMP Competition Center at Camp Perry.
Additionally, the CMP has implemented new Distinguished Air Rifle and Air Pistol badge programs. Starting in 2022, Air Rifle and Air Pistol competitors of all ages, not just juniors, will be able to earn Excellence-In-Competition (EIC) credits for these badges in 60-shot National Matches Air Gun Championships, monthly matches, as well as in CMP-sanctioned Air Rifle and Air Pistol club matches. For additional information about the CMP Air Gun National Matches, contact Katie Harrington at kharrington@thecmp.org or call(419) 635-2141, ext. 731.
If you compete in PRS/NRL, tactical, or 3-Gun matches, and need to haul a lot of gear in the field, consider this Savior LRP gun case with integral shoulder straps. With multiple compartments, it can carry a spotting scope, laser rangefinder, binoculars, and even a small tripod. In addition the Savior case has detachable MOLLE pouches that fit magazines, Kestrels, or other accessories. And the case even has a removable scope cover and cleaning rod sleeve.
In our Shooters’ Forum, members have given positive reviews of the Savior Long Range Precision (LRP) carry cases. These are available in three sizes: 47″, 51″, and 55″. The 51″ version should be good with barrels up to about 28″. If you have a suppressor attached or have a longer barrel, we recommend the 55″ version. The 47″ case is available in black or dark FDE (as shown) for $159.99 on Amazon. The larger 51″ and 55″ cases are $169.99 and currently offered in black only (FDE should be available soon).
These cases include full heavy-duty, padded shoulder harness, carry straps, scope cover, tripod storage section, two MOLLE pouches, and a separate large, padded storage pocket that can be used for a spotting scope, and/or other accessories.
Owner Comment: “Well-built. Fits lots of gear. Been using mine weekly for two years now. Good soft case for the price. Solid so far… but a bit heavy. I think with my PRS rifle and accessories including a 5-lb gamer plate and bag, it weighs close to 40 pounds.” — Member DDRH65PRC
In its first major Second Amendment decision in a decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a New York state law making it extremely difficult for law-abiding gun owners to obtain a carry permit. The case is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen et al. CLICK HERE to read the decision (135-page PDF). The case was a 6-3 decision, with justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor dissenting.
In the majority opinion of the Court, Justice Clarence Thomas concluded: “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self defense is not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees’. We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense.
New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
In a concurring opinion, Justice Alito criticized the comments of dissenting justices, and stated: “All that we decide in this case is that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding people to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense and that the Sullivan Law, which makes that virtually impossible for most New Yorkers, is unconstitutional.”
The Hill reports: “The decision to invalidate New York’s law throws into question the legality of similar restrictions in more than a half dozen other states that give licensing officials wide discretion over concealed carry permitting.
The New York law at issue required concealed carry permit applicants to demonstrate a special need for a license, beyond a basic desire for self-defense. In striking down the law, the court’s conservatives ruled that the so-called ‘proper-cause requirement’ prevented ‘law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms’.
The ruling broke along ideological lines, with the court’s six conservatives joining a majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas.”
After the Opening Ceremony, the 2022 National Matches at Camp Perry officially commence on July 12th with the handgun Small Arms Firing School (SAFS) followed by M9 Pistol Excellence-In-Competition (EIC) pistol matches. The SAFS will be led by USAMU, Military Team, and CMP instructors. Following classroom instruction and practice on the range, SAFS participants will fire an M9 EIC Match with the goal of earning points towards the prestigious Distinguished Badge.
On July 13th, the .22 Rimfire 900 Aggregate, Team Matches, and Rimfire EIC matches will be held. In the past, these matches have been hugely popular — with 480+ Rimfire competitors from novices to experts.
Following the rimfire pistol matches, there will be centerfire Pistol Aggregate and Team Matches on July 14, followed by .45 Pistol Aggregate and Team matches the July 15. Then, on Saturday the 16th, the big President’s 100 Pistol Match, National Trophy Individual Match, National Trophy Pistol Team Matches, and GSSF Glock National Challenge will be held. There will be plenty of talent on the firing line. In recent years, over 90% of the top 50 Service Pistol shooters were Distinguished. The last pistol matches run on Sunday the 17th, with Pistol Games Awards at the end of the day.
by Sierra Bullets Ballistic Technician Paul Box This cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1935 in their model 54 rifle. A year later, it was added as a standard cartridge in the model 70. What might not be common knowledge to some reloaders is that the prototype for the Swift was developed in 1934-35 by Grosvenor Wotkyns by necking down the 250 Savage case, but in the end, Winchester chose the 6mm Lee Navy case for the foundation for this cartridge.
This cartridge was far ahead of its time and for that reason it received a lot of bad press. We’ve all read the horror stories through the years. Many of those stories were just simply repeated from previous articles even the wording was just slightly different. So how bad was the Swift? Let’s take a deeper look.
Some of the early Swifts had soft barrel steel and some of the rare ones even had barrels that were .223 in bore size. This stemmed from the fact that the .22 Hornets prior to the end of World War II were .223 in bore size and some of these barrels were chambered in the Swift. It was rumored that the Swift peaked in pressure far too quick. I’ll bet they did with a turkey extra full choke barrel.
Burn rates of powders were limited at that time as well, so the Swift was limited in its true ability due to that. It was almost like building a funny car for drag racing when only kerosene was available.
One of the longest lasting black eyes was that it shot barrels out so fast. If you get the barrel branding iron hot and fail to clean it often this can happen. Common sense will go a long ways here. Keep the barrel as cool as you can and properly clean it every fifteen rounds or less will go a long way to improving accuracy life of a Swift.
So what is the real truth about this cartridge? I’m glad you ask. I’ve been shooting the .220 Swift for over 43 years now. It is one of the best varmint cartridges I’ve ever owned. It is not hard to load for, it doesn’t suddenly peak in pressure and it isn’t the barrel burner that you’ve heard. Hodgdon powders once reported a Remington 40-X with over 3,000 rounds of full power loads averaged .344” for five, 5-shot groups. My findings have been the same. It isn’t as hard on barrels as it has been made out to be.
I’ve also read that down loading it slightly will help in barrel life. This is true, but if you buy a thoroughbred you want him to run. Barrels are threaded on the end for a reason. If you have enough fun to shoot out a Swift barrel, just rebarrel it.
The bottom line is enjoy the .220 Swift for what it was meant to be. The popularity of the Swift has slipped in the last twenty years and few factory rifles are now available in this caliber. There is no reason for this and I know the Swift will always have a strong and loyal following.
Tactical competitor Zak Smith stores his elevation and wind drift data on a handy laminated data card. To make one, first generate a come-up table, using one of the free online ballistics programs such as JBM Ballistics. You can also put the info in an Excel spreadsheet or MS Word table and print it out.
Above is a sample of a data card. For each distance, the card includes drop in inches, drop in MOA, drop in Mils. It also shows drift for a 10-mph cross wind, expressed in inches, MOA, and mils. Zak explained that “to save space… I printed data every 50 yards. For an actual data-card, I recommend printing data every 20 or 25 yards.” But Zak also advised that you’ll want to customize the card format to keep things simple: “The sample card has multiple sets of data to be more universal. But if you make your own data card, you can reduce the chance of a mistake by keeping it simple.”
Once you have the card you can fold it in half and then have it laminated at a local office store or Kinko’s. Keep this in your pocket, tape it to your stock, or tie the laminated card to your rifle. If you regularly shoot at both low and high elevations, you may want to create multiple cards (since your ballistics change with altitude). To learn more about ballistic tables and data cards, check out the excellent “Practical Long-Range Rifle Shooting–Part 1″ article on Zak’s website.
Scope-Cover Mounted Ballistics Table
Another option is to place your ballistics card on the back of the front flip-up scope cover. This set-up is used by Forum member Greg C. (aka “Rem40X”). With your ‘come-up’ table on the flip-up cover you can check your windage and elevation drops easily without having to move out of shooting position.
Greg tells us: “Placing my trajectory table on the front scope cover has worked well for me for a couple of years and thought I’d share. It’s in plain view and not under my armpit. And the table is far enough away that my aging eyes can read it easily. To apply, just use clear tape on the front objective cover.”
Bang Clang! The 2022 Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship is featured on Shooting USA TV this week. The Shooting USA Steel Challenge episode runs June 22, 2022 on the Outdoor Channel. Show times are: Wednesdays, 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, 8:00 PM Central. After those broadcast times, you can watch the show via Vimeo on Demand for $0.99 per episode.
This past April, the fastest speed shooters in the nation showcased their skills at the Steel Challenge Championship at the CMP Talladega Marksmanship Complex in Alabama. The Steel Challenge course consists of multiple 5-target close-range stages. This discipline has been called “drag racing with guns”. Draw and shoot 5 steel targets with time as your score. The shooter with the lowest overall time wins.
There are multiple pistol and revolver classes, both rimfire and centerfire, iron sights and optics. Increasing in popularity (and speed) are the rimfire rifle and pistol-caliber centerfire rifle classes. There are 13 gun classes in total, the most for any shooting championship. In the centerfire handgun match, the fastest times are posted by competitors using enhanced open guns with compensators and red-dot optics.
Here is a full length Shooting USA Steel Challenge Episode from 2017:
Shooting USA Video covers Course of Fire, Firearms Classes, and Target Layouts (1:20)
Definitely watch the 4-minute video (above) produced by Shooting USA. It explains the classes, shows the stages, and illustrates ALL the different gun classes, pistol AND rifle. You can also see some of the world’s fastest shooters including Jessie Harrison (1:47, 3:44) and Max Michel (3:48). Be amazed by the speed of semi-auto rimfire rifles — five targets hit in under two seconds!
Here is Jessie Harrison, the fastest lady pistol shooter on the planet. At the 2022 World Speed Shooting Championship, Jessie won the Ladies High Overall title plus the Steel Master award. Harrison is the first woman to claim the Steel Master award, given to the competitor with the best aggregate score for two centerfire divisions and one rimfire division. Below Jessie celebrates with Taurus team-mate K.C. Eusebio, who took the High Overall title and first place in the Open division. This was K.C.’s ninth World Speed Shooting Title.
The Steel Challenge was founded in 1981 by Mike Dalton and Mike Fichman, in Southern California. The two Mikes wanted an exciting alternative to paper targets and came up with the all-steel format. The Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships have grown to one of the largest professional pistol competitions in America. In 2022, scores of competitors competed at the Talladega Marksmanship Park for glory and cash prizes. The Steel Challenge is governed by the Steel Challenge Shooting Association (SCSA) that consists of eight standardized stages with three types of steel targets: small circle, big circle, and square. Here is a steel challenge layout in Germany.
If you need pistol ammunition or .223 Rem ammo for your AR or varmint rifles, head over to Natchez Shooter Supplies this week. Right now, through 11:59 pm on 6/24/2022, Natchez is offering serious discounts on 9mm, .40 SW, and .223 Rem (plus 5.56×45), and .308 Win ammo. Along with the very attractive prices, you can get FREE Shipping with a qualifying ammo purchase of $200 or more. Use CODE FS220622.
Today, June 21, 2022, is Summer Solstice! This means today has the longest period of daylight of any day of the year. And July is right around the corner. That means “peak heat” summer conditions. It’s vitally important to keep your ammo at “normal” temps during the hot summer months. Even if you use “temp-insensitive” powders, studies suggest that pressures can still rise dramatically when the entire cartridge gets hot, possibly because of primer heating. It’s smart to keep your loaded ammo in an insulated storage unit, possibly with a Blue Ice Cool Pak if you expect it to get quite hot. Don’t leave your ammo in the car or truck — temps can exceed 140° in a vehicle parked in the sun.
To learn more about how ambient temperature (and primer choice) affect pressures (and hence velocities) you should read the article Pressure Factors: How Temperature, Powder, and Primer Affect Pressure by Denton Bramwell. In that article, the author uses a pressure trace instrument to analyze how temperature affects ammo performance. Bramwell’s tests yielded some fascinating results.
For example, barrel temperature was a key factor: “Both barrel temperature and powder temperature are important variables, and they are not the same variable. If you fail to take barrel temperature into account while doing pressure testing, your test results will be very significantly affected. The effect of barrel temperature is around 204 PSI per F° for the Varget load. If you’re not controlling barrel temperature, you about as well might not bother controlling powder temperature, either. In the cases investigated, barrel temperature is a much stronger variable than powder temperature.”
This Editor had the personal experience of 6mmBR hand-loaded ammo that was allowed to sit in the hot sun for 45 minutes while steel targets were reset. The brass became quite warm to the touch, meaning the casings were well over 120° on the outside. When I then shot this ammo, the bullets impacted well high at 600 yards (compared to earlier in the day). Using a Magnetospeed, I then chron-tested the sun-heated ammo. The hot ammo’s velocity FPS had increased very significantly — all because I had left the ammo out in the hot sun uncovered for 3/4 of an hour.
LESSON: Keep your ammo cool! Keep loaded ammo in the shade, preferably under cover or in an insulated container. You can use a SEALED cool pack inside the container, but we do NOT recommend H20 ice packs. And don’t have the container do double duty for food and beverages.
Powder Heat Sensitivity Comparison Test
Our friend Cal Zant of the Precision Rifle Blog has published a fascinating comparison test of four powders: Hodgdon H4350, Hodgdon Varget, IMR 4451, and IMR 4166. The first two are Hodgdon Extreme powders, while the latter two are part of IMR’s Enduron line of propellants.
The testers measured the velocity of the powders over a wide temperature range, from 25° F to 140° F. Hodgdon H4350 proved to be the most temp stable of the four powders tested. [NOTE: New Alliant Reloder TS 15.5 has also proved very temp stable in AccurateShooter’s range tests.]
This cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1935 in their model 54 rifle. A year later, it was added as a standard cartridge in the model 70. What might not be common knowledge to some reloaders is that the prototype for the Swift was developed in 1934-35 by Grosvenor Wotkyns by necking down the 250 Savage case, but in the end, Winchester chose the 6mm Lee Navy case for the foundation for this cartridge.
Scope-Cover Mounted Ballistics Table
To learn more about how ambient temperature (and primer choice) affect pressures (and hence velocities) you should read the article 
