|
|
October 2nd, 2009
 The October issue of Shooting Sports USA e-zine is now online, FREE for the reading. Dedicated to competitive shooting, Shooting Sports USA offers a good mix of news briefs, feature stories, and a very extensive calendar of shooting matches.
You won’t want to miss this issue. It contains a multi-page report on the High Power, Long Range, and Smallbore Championships at Camp Perry, complete with plenty of photos and interviews with participants.
 In addition the October issue features a number of articles of interest to AR-platform shooters. The competition models from major manufacturers (such as Armalite, Colt, and DPMS) are profiled. Plus, there is a detailed, two-page feature on Geissele AR triggers. These triggers are widely considered to be among the best available for AR service rifles, and they are also popular with space-gun shooters.
Each month, Shooting Sports USA is “published” on the web in a print magazine-style format. You navigate with an index, and then flip pages to move from one story to the next. There’s no fee to read each issue, and you can sign up to receive a reminder in your inbox every time a new issue is released.
September 18th, 2009
Confused about the meaning of a term such as “meplat”, “magnaflux” or “obturate”? Need to know the OAL of an unusual Wildcat such as the .218 Donaldson Wasp? Well CCI and MidwayUSA offer handy answers on the web. CCI’s Shooters’ Glossary is a very complete collection of gun-related and reloading terms. MidwayUSA’s GunTEC Dictionary contains short descriptions of hundreds of cartridges, plus definitions of thousands of shooting-related words and phrases. How many of you knew that “Maggie’s Drawers” is “a colloquial term used for the red flag once used by pit workers to signal a missed shot at high-power rifle competitions”?
Consulting the dictionary, we learned that “Magnus Force” was not a Tom Selleck TV show. Rather, “Magnus Force is the movement of a bullet in the direction it is rotating (and downward) due to the lower air pressure surrounding it. The low pressure pocket is caused by the effect of the bullet’s fast rotation on the surrounding air.” MidwayUSA’s GunTEC dictionary even includes short “bios” of notable firearms inventors and marksmen, including J.M. Browning, Fredrich von Martini, and Peter Paul Mauser. A serious shooting buff could spend hours browsing the GunTEC dictionary, learning new facts (and a ton of obscure trivia.)
September 7th, 2009
 Vince Bottomley, an ace shooter from the United Kingdom, also operates the excellent Precision Rifle website. On Vince’s handsome, informative site, you’ll find gear reviews, gunsmithing tips, competition reports, and in-depth features on interesting rifles.
Vince, who competes successfully in a variety of shooting disciplines from 100 yards to 1000 yards, has also authored articles explaining how to set up your equipment for optimal accuracy and best performance. One such feature is Choosing and Using the Machine Front Rest. Whether you’re a novice shooter, or a seasoned competitor, this article is worth reading. Vince reviews a number of the premium front rests, including the Farley Coax, and the SEB Co-axial rest.
In this feature, Vince explains how to adapt a heavy BR front rest for F-Class use in the field. He also explains how to optimize a front rest on the bench and how to use the windage and elevation controls to best effect.
Vince’s article on front rests is definitely worth reading. Plus, on the same page, you’ll find other informative features including a discussion of Case Preparation, and an interesting article on barrel cleaning.
CLICK HERE to read Vince Bottomley’s Articles on Accuracy.
Photos copyright Vince Bottomley, All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
September 3rd, 2009
The September edition of Target Shooter, the FREE digital shooting sports magazine from the UK, is now available online. There are some excellent articles in this edition. On pages 61-65, you’ll find Laurie Holland’s comprehensive review of the Forster Co-Ax Press. This is probably the most thorough Co-Ax test you’ll see anywhere. Holland puts Forster’s unique reloading press through its paces — decapping, full-length sizing, and priming cases — and concludes that the press is a winner. If you’re considering buying a Co-Ax, this article is a “must-read”.
Vince Bottomley contributes two major stories in this month’s edition. First, Vince reviews two Sightron 36X target scopes, comparison testing the new “Big Sky” 36X scope alongside the earlier Sightron 36X SII model. In addition, Vince showcases his latest project gun. This is a 6.5×47 tactical rifle in an Accuracy International chassis. Apart from the AI folding stock, the gun uses mostly American components. It features a Surgeon action, Bartlein gain-twist barrel, and Jewell trigger. The finished rifle sports a handsome Dura-Coat camo finish from North West Custom Parts in Manchester, England.
You’ll find many other items of interest in this month’s Target Shooter e-zine, including a Benchrest Air Rifle, an intro to Gallery Guns, plus reports from the Imperial Match and the F-Class World Championships held in Bisley, UK. There’s 92 pages of reading, cover to cover, and the price is right. Target Shooter magazine is FREE, just CLICK HERE for the latest edition.
September 1st, 2009
 The latest digital edition of Shooting Sports USA is now available FREE online. This September 2009 edition covers many regional shooting events, plus you’ll find a four-page in-depth report on the 2009 National Pistol Matches at Camp Perry. Over 700 handgunners competed in that event.
The September issue also features an excellent technical report on eyewear lens color and vision. Iron sights shooters should read this article. The author explains how choosing the correct lens color can help improve your ability to see your sights (and the target) more clearly. The article discusses the factors to consider when selecting lens colors for various disciplines and/or weather conditions.
This latest edition provides news briefs and short gear reviews. In addition, you’ll find a comprehensive calendar of upcoming shooting events. All NRA shooting disciplines are covered — from Air Pistols to F-Class rifles. The calendar is organized by discipline, within which events are listed state-by-state.
August 3rd, 2009
The August issue of Target Shooter, the excellent UK-based webzine, is now available FREE online. As usual, this edition is chock full of interesting feature articles written “by shooters, for shooters”. You can either read the monthly e-magazine online, OR you can now download the entire August issue to your computer. This lets you peruse multiple articles at your leisure. (For readers with a slow web connection, reading offline may be more convenient, once you’ve downloaded the file.)
 Among the featured articles this month are an authoritative section on rifle maintenance and scope-mounting by Vince Bottomley (p. 13), a user’s guide to the Redding T7 press by Laurie Holland (p. 55), and an excellent guide to Rimfire Ammo selection and sorting by Carl Boswell (p. 40). If you follow Carl’s procedures (including the visual inspections shown at right), you’ll experience fewer unexplained “flyers” — we can guarantee that.
Complete F-Class Worlds Report
Amazingly, Target Shooter’s August issue contains a detailed, 4-page report on the 2009 F-Class World Championships which concluded just a few days ago in England. You’ll enjoy the reports from the field and interviews with top F-Classers from around the world. In addition to the match report, the August Target Shooter profiles Britain’s Gary Costello, the winner of the Individual World F-Class Championship.
Gary’s rifle was built by American gunsmith Alan Warner and is chambered as a 7mm-270 WSM. (The 270 case is used because it has a slightly longer neck and slightly less capacity). The action is an aluminium Stolle Panda with RBLP configuration. The scope is a March 10-60X mounted in Kelbly rings. The stock is an Alex Sitman Master Class laminated long-range thumbhole model. Sadly, the handsome gray/blue stock broke at the thumb-hole during shipping from the USA. However, Pet Walker of Walker Customer Rifles in West Yorkshire restored the stock to better than new condition, providing Gary with a beautiful rig that carried him to victory.
August 2nd, 2009
 Tony Boyer is, without question, the greatest short-range Benchrest for Group shooter who has ever lived. In a rare interview for the August 2009 issue of Precision Shooting magazine, Tony shares many of his “secrets of success” with his friend (and fellow benchrester) James Mock. James also interviews Tony’s wife Faye, a superb shooter in her own right.
This Boyer interview is now, for a limited time, available online. CLICK HERE to READ INTERVIEW. Every short-range and mid-range benchrest shooter should read this article word for word, at least twice. Tony reveals insights that may surprise you, and will certainly enlighten you. You may be surprised that Tony is now shooting a .268″ neck.
And in the article Tony challenges many commonly-held ideas. For example he doesn’t think vertical is mostly load-related: “Most shooters think that vertical groups are caused by too light a powder charge. This may be true, but more often than not, the rifle has more to do with this than the load. If the rifle is muzzle heavy, this can cause vertical. Also, the way the action is set in the stock can cause vertical as can handling problems…such as shouldering the rifle.”
Barrel Quality is All-Important
What is the main secret to Benchrest accuracy? Throughout the interview, Boyer stresses the importance of barrel quality. Tony can quickly identify barrels with winning potential. He has “developed a system that takes no more than 30 rounds to determine if it is going to shoot”. Tony needs that kind of efficiency because he burns through barrels very quickly: “Contrary to what many say, I rarely shoot a barrel more than 600 rounds in competition. I can remember only one barrel that exceeded 1200 rounds.”
When asked if there was one paramount “secret” he could share to help new shooters, Tony replied: “If you have the means, buy as many barrels as possible. A great barrel is the real secret of this game. There are barrels out there that shoot better than they should. They have been given the name ‘hummer’. I can assure you that they exist.”
July 27th, 2009
At Camp Perry, the Hough Theater stage saw many people honored as Smallbore 3-Position champions Saturday night. Specialist John Hein of the United States Army won the title of National Overall Champion. Leonard Remaly was named Senior Champ.
And while the Award Ceremony honored all the Smallbore 3P winners equally, it was Any Sight National Champion Greg Drown that drew the only standing ovation from the crowd. One reason was because of his score. The other is because he shoots from the seat of a wheelchair.
 “I developed multiple sclerosis gradually between 1995 and 2000,” explained Greg. “It was a shock.”
A lifelong competitive shooter, Greg has earned a few titles in his time –- but nothing on the scale of an NRA Championship. “I”ve won state titles, regional titles, even qualified for the 1984 Olympic Trials, but this was a surprise. I think it was Friday, when the weather turned, that’s when I knew I had a chance.”
 Weather plays an important part in every tournament Greg shoots. Because of MS, his ability to shoot is often hampered by fatigue. “It plays havoc on the body,” said Greg. “Hot muggy days, like we had here in 2008, those are really tough. But this year it was raining and cool. The weather was perfect.”
As everything fell into place and the shots found their mark, Greg began to think about scratching another goal off his list. “I have a book,” he said. “List of goals and things I want to accomplish. Coming on stage tonight for this ceremony was one of them.”
This story comes courtesy the NRA BLOG, which is providing extensive, daily-updated coverage of the NRA National Championships.
July 9th, 2009
 The July, 2009 edition of Shooting Sports USA is now available online (for free). Click this link to access the current issue. This should launch a special browser that displays Shooting Sports USA in a familiar page-turning format, just like a print magazine. Of course, using the navigation buttons, you can also flip forward or back.
On pages 16-19 of the July issue, you’ll find an excellent article on the “Mental Game”. For this story, Shooting Sports’ Managing Editor Chip Lohman interviewed seven of America’s top competitive shooters, each of whom offers insights into the psychology of winning.
This “must-read” article leads off with 5-time Olympian Lones Wigger, who explains: “Many inexperienced shooters use different techniques in training than they do during matches…. Their scores are usuallly acceptable during training, but when they shoot under match conditions, they completely change their technique. In a match, they shoot much slower and labor on each shot. As a result, they tire quickly and score much lower than in training. [But] as shooters progress, they learn how to train smart and utilize their training to combat match pressure, which leads to improved performance in competition.”
Shooting Sports USA also interviewed Julie Golob, a past U.S. Army Athlete of the Year. Julie has won 9 world titles and 16 National championships in action shooting. Julie offers this advice: “Ideally, you want to eliminate the distractions that you can control. I make checklists so I don’t forget any important equipment. Good preparation helps set the stage for peak performance. I [also] try to focus on the positive aspects of what I’ve doing. It’s amazing how easy it is to dwell on a bad shot…. I find I am able to recover much more quickly by beiing proactive. I move forward and apply what I know (from my training) will correct the issue. Don’t dwell on the negative. It only increases the odds of performing poorly.”
Other top shooters interviewed for the “Mental Game” story are:
Larry Carter: Four-time National pistol champion Carter holds many records, and has won titles both individually and as a team member shooting both rimfire and centerfire pistols.
Cory Cogdell: Trap-shooter Cogdell won the Bronze Medale at both the 2008 Olympics and the 2006 World Cup.
Launi Meili: Winner of 8 gold medals in UIT/ISS air rifle and smallbore disciplines, Launi is the only American woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in smallbore.
.
Jason Parker: Air rifle and 3-position shooter, Parker is a two-time U.S. Olympian who has earmed 10 medals in national and international competitions.
Brian Zins: Former USMC team member “Gunny” Zins is a nine-time National Pistol Champion who holds 26 national records in conventional pistol competition.
June 28th, 2009
Experienced marksmen know they should keep their rifles level when shooting. But they may not understand exactly what happens if they allow their rifle to be canted (tilted left or right), even a few degrees. While the physics are complicated to explain, here’s what you need to know: if you cant your rifle to the left, your shots will impact to the left, and lower, than your point of aim. Likewise, if you cant your rifle to the right, your bullets will impact low and right.
Effects of Rifle Canting
The effects of rifle canting are explained in great detail on the Long Shot Products Ltd. website. There, you’ll find a technical discussion of the Physics of Rifle Canting, plus a page with Sample Targets shot with canted rifles.
Referring to the above illustration, the Long Shot Products article explains: “Notice how the trajectory of the vertical hold stays within the vertical plane, so when the projectile drops, it drops into the line of sight and down to the center of the target. The trajectory of the cant hold does not achieve the same height as the trajectory of the vertical hold and the projectile diverges from the line of sight, thereby missing the target.”
The Long-Shot article makes two other important points. First, cant error increases with distance, and second, cant-induced windage errors are worsened by mounting your scope high above the bore axis:
“This component of cant error becomes more significant at more distant targets due to the increased original included angle between the line of sight axis and the bore axis (more elevation compensation) at the vertical hold.”
“Use of large-diameter objective scopes, mounted high off the barrel, exacerbates the cant error problem. To keep the scope elevation knobs centered for maximum adjustment, precision shooters sometimes use elevation-compensated scope mounting rings or bases. Although this solves the adjustment problem, it greatly exaggerates cant error because the distance between the bore axis and the line of sight axis increases and the included angle between the sight axis and the bore is larger, producing more windage error when canting.”
Test Targets Reveal Cant Errors
The Long Shot Products Ltd. website also displays actual Test Targets showing the effects of canting error. These targets were shot with air rifles and rimfire rifles, but the same effects can and will occur with centerfire rifles. Shown below is a target shot at 50 yards with a Feinwerkbau .22LR match rifle using RWS Match ammo (1012 fps MV). As you can see, canting the rifle 20 degrees to the left produced a huge movement of the point of impact. The shots from the canted rifle impacted 1.81″ Left, and 0.6″ below the point of aim.
CLICK HERE to view more Canted Rifle TARGETS.
|
