Water-Cooled Heavy Gun Set 1000-Yard World Record
Here’s something you’ve probably never seen before — a liquid-cooled benchrest rifle. No, this is not just a crazy experiment. This gun, built by Joel Pendergraft, produced a 10-shot, 3.044″ group that is still listed as the International Benchrest Shooters (IBS) 1000-Yard Heavy Gun record. Using this water-cooled 300 Ackley Improved, Joel shot the record group in April 2009 at Hawks Ridge, NC. This monster features a 12-twist, 4-groove Krieger barrel. Joel shot BIB 187gr flat-based bullets in Norma brass, pushed by a “generous amount” of Alliant Reloder 25 and Federal 210M primers.
This 3.044″ 10-shot group was a remarkable accomplishment, breaking one of the longest-standing, 1000-yard World Records.
Pendergraft was modest after his notable achievement: “What makes this so very special is to be able to celebrate the accomplishment with all of my shooting friends[.] A good friend once said that records are shot when preparation and opportunity meet. I feel blessed to have personally had the opportunity. The preparation we can individually work on and achieve but the opportunity only comes to a few. Those of you that compete in long range competition will know what I mean.”
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Tags: Hawks Ridge, IBS, Joel Pendergraft, Krieger, Water-Cooled
Would love to hear more of the story! Was it a calm day? How fast did he shoot the string? Was there video? How close are the records of uncooled guns?
I wonder hiw it effect the harmonics of the barrel?
I can’t even start to imagine how this setup affects barrel harmonics. But there’s no arguing with success.
Joel’s gun was much more than water cooled. It was a stretch barrel set up, i.e., stretched from action to end of barrel by adjusting the “nuts” on each end. There were several stretch-barrel rigs at Hawks Ridge, and they all did a great job of reducing the vertical.
I Cant’ remember for sure, but I think the 187 BIB was the bob-tail version (very short BT) with a GI BC of around 525 or so. But one heck of a fine bullet traveling very fast out of the magnum chambering.
Joel, his shooting partner Charles Ellertson, and Charles Bailey ran these rings with great precision.
I made my very first benchrest match at Hawks Ridge back in 2005. I had a light gun for both classes. I spent all weekend looking those big guns over and still have the pictures. I’ve been thinking about building one ever since then.
I traded some supplies with a fellar in Australia for some high grade aluminium tubing for a tension tube light gun that I keep thinking I’ll build some day.
Seeing these pictures brings back some of the drive I had and makes me want to do it.
Thanks for sharing.
The term is “tensioned”, not stretched.
I recall a few years ago that Joel advertised this rifle for sale. I suggested he put it up on eBay because the price he was asking (where I saw it) was quite “low” for what the buyer would be getting. But he’d have none of it. Unsure whether it was ever sold.