Impressive engraving by Jesse Kaufmann. Note how the scope rings have been engraved to perfectly match the engraving pattern on the Remington 547 action.
Who says fine craftsmanship is dead? There’s a modern day engraving wizard up in South Dakota, Jesse Kaufmann, who produces some of the most handsome engraving we’ve seen. Jesse, who operates Black Hills Gunstocks and Engraving LLC, is a true master at metal engraving and he also does superb stock checkering. Here are some examples of Jesse’s engraving work:
This 14-minute video showcases dozens of Jesse Kaufmann’s Engraving examples:
About Jesse Kaufmann, Master Engraver
Jesse Kaufmann was a professional stockmaker for Dakota Arms for over a decade. In 2009, he was inducted in the American Custom Gunmakers Guild as a checkering specialist. In January 2017, Jesse was awarded his Master Engraver certification by the Firearms Engravers Guild of America. With his broad skill set, Jesse is able to offer his clients a unique and complete package of stock work, finish, checkering, and engraving for a custom package that is all completed under one roof by his own hands.
Jesse Kaufmann’s work has been featured in American Rifleman, American Hunter, FEGA’s The Engraver, Sports Afield, Waidmannsheil Journal of German Gun Collectors Assn., Gun Digest 71st Edition, Modern Custom Guns Volume 2, Dangerous Game Rifles 2d. Edition. For more info, visit BlackHillsgunstocksandengraving.com, email blackhillsgunstocks [at] gmail.com, or call Jesse at (605) 499-9090 after 5:00 pm. SEE Gallery of Work.
The U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (USAMU) has published a great series of reloading “how-to” articles on its Facebook Page. This post covers key factors to consider when loading ammunition for Match Rifles and Service Rifles, with a particular focus on self-loading “gas guns”. Visit the USAMU Facebook Page regularly for other, helpful reloading and marksmanship tips.
We offer some “cardinal rules” to help new gas-gun handloaders with safety and efficiency. These address both Match Rifle and Service Rifle versions of the AR15, M1 Garand, M1A, and M110. However, they can also improve safe reloading for many other auto-loaders such as M1 Carbines, FALs, SIGs, etc. The author distilled these principles many years ago to help focus on the essential aspects of these rifles.
RULE ONE: Service Rifles Are Not Benchrest Rifles
Gas-guns require a relatively loose fit between ammunition and chamber (vs. bolt actions) for safe, smooth operation. Many techniques, such as neck sizing and keeping cartridge headspace quite tight, are popular in the extreme bolt gun accuracy realm. However, they are of little value with Service Rifles, and some could even be hazardous. Before adopting a specialized technique, seriously consider whether it is appropriate and beneficial in a gas-gun.
RULE TWO: Never Compromise Safety to Obtain Accuracy
Example: If choosing a brand of great, but ultra-sensitive match primers offers possibly better accuracy at the risk of slam-fires in your design of rifle, don’t do it! You are issued exactly two eyes and ten fingers (best-case scenario). Risking them trying to squeeze 0.25 MOA better accuracy out of an M1A, etc. simply isn’t worth it.
RULE THREE: Tailor the Precision to Your Individual Skill and Your Rifle’s Potential
This has been addressed here before, but bears repeating for newcomers. If you are struggling to break out of the Marksman Class, or using a CMP M1 “As-Issued,” then laboriously turning the necks of your 600-yard brass is a waste of time. Your scores will improve much faster by practicing or dry-firing. On the other hand, if the reigning champions anxiously check your scores each time you fire an event, a little neck-turning might not be so far-fetched.
Verifying Load Improvements — Accuracy hand-loading involves a wide variety of techniques, ranging from basic to rather precise. Carefully select those which offer a good return on investment for your time and labor. In doubt? Do a classic pilot study. Prepare ammo for at least three or four ten-shot groups with your new technique, vs. the same with your standard ammo. Then, pick a calm day and test the ammo as carefully as possible at its full distance (e.g. 200, 300, or 600 yards) to verify a significant improvement. A little testing can save much labor!
This video explains the procedure for ordering an M1 Garand from the CMP.
RULE FOUR: Be Your Own Efficiency Expert
Serious Service Rifle shooters generally think of ammunition in terms of thousands of rounds, not “boxes”, or even “hundreds”. Analyze, and WRITE DOWN each step in your reloading process. Count the number of times each case is handled. Then, see if any operations can be dropped or changed without reducing safety or accuracy. Eliminating just two operations saves 2000 steps per 1000 rounds loaded. Conversely, carefully consider any measurable benefits before adding a step to your routine.
RULE FIVE: In Searching for Greater Accuracy with Efficiency, Look for System Changes
For example, instead of marking your 300-yard rounds individually to differentiate them from your 200-yard ammo, would a simple change in primers work? If accuracy is maintained, using brass-colored primers for 200 and silver for 300 provides an indelible indicator and eliminates a step! Similarly, rather than spending hours selecting GI surplus brass for weight and neck uniformity, consider splurging on some known, high-quality imported match brass for your 600-yard loads. Results should be excellent, time is saved, and given limited shooting at 600 yards, brass life should be long.
RULE SIX: Check All Your Primers Before Packaging Your Loaded Ammo
This seems simple and even intuitive. However, many slam-fires (which were much more common when M1s and M1As were the standard) are due, at least in part, to “high” primers. Primers should be seated below flush with the case head. The USAMU has addressed this at length in a previous column, but each round should be checked for properly-seated primers before they are packaged for use.
If you couldn’t attend SHOT Show 2023, don’t despair. You can now access complete digital editions of the official SHOT Show Daily Magazines provided to SHOT Show attendees and exhibitors. CLICK HERE to access all the SHOT Daily magazines distributed at SHOT Show 2023. In addition, you will find FREE digital issues of SHOT Business magazines from 2022.
Each of the four (4) issues contains a major product review, and many interesting shorter features. We highly recommend the major feature stories. In the Day 1 Edition, check out the Guns 2023 article starting on page 28. In the Day 2 Edition, look for the Optics 2023 article starting on page 38 and Ammo 2023 on page 22. New Knives are featured in the Day 3 Edition. In the Day 4 Edition, there is a summary of new Accessories starting on page 22. CLICK HERE to see ALL FOUR SHOT Daily 2023 magazines.
Even if you’re not interested in the latest retail trends it’s worth browsing all four issues, because there are a number of articles relating to Second Amendment issues, range operations, hunting, and competitive shooting. In addition, you’ll find many shorter items of interest to rifle shooters.
Need some informative reading material for winter days? Here’s a vast resource available free from Sierra Bullets. Here are links to over 60 articles with information on bullets, ballistic coefficients, wind drift, up/down angles, temperature effects, tailwind effects and much more. Most of these resources come from the respected Sierra Reloading Manuals, 4th and 5th Editions. There are enough articles to read one per week for a year!
SHOT Show 2023 ran January 17-20, 2023. Here are FREE digital magazines covering many new products displayed at the show. We’ve embedded three digital versions of the SHOT Daily print magazine provided to SHOT Show attendees. You can navigate page by page with the left/right white arrows in the gray box below. To quickly scan through an entire 60+ page digital magazine, use the slide bar. When you find content you want to read, use the zoom control or click the FULL SCREEN brackets icon at lower right.
We highly recommend two big feature stories. In the Day 1 Edition, check out the Guns 2023 article starting on page 28. You can also read the New Rifles section of this story on the SHOT Show Website. In the Day 2 Edition, look for the Optics 2023 article starting on page 30.
CLICK Full Screen (brackets) icon at lower right of dark gray box to read.
Recommended Stories: Guns 2023, pages 28-40; New Products, pages 64-66
CLICK Full Screen (brackets) icon at lower right of dark gray box to read.
Recommended Stories: Ammo 2023, pages 22-29; Optics 2023, pages 30-40; New Products, pp. 54-58
CLICK Full Screen (brackets) icon at lower right of gray box to read.
Recommended Stories: Knives 2023, pages 22-26; Electronics 2023, pp. 28-32; New Products, pp. 48-50
This discussion of rear bag designs and fill levels may offer some new insights for many readers. By “tuning” your rear bag you can reduce hop on shot-firing and help your rifle track better. All that can translate to better scores, particularly with large-caliber rifles.
Tuning Your Rear Sand Bags
Over the years, noted gunsmith and a Benchrest Hall-of-Fame inductee Thomas ‘Speedy’ Gonzalez has learned a few things about “tuning” rear sandbags for best performance. On his Facebook page, Speedy recently discussed how sand bag fill levels (hard vs. soft) can affect accuracy. Speedy says you don’t want to have both your front and rear sandbags filled up ultra-hard. One or the other bag needs to have some “give” to provide a shock-absorbing function (and prevent stock jump). And you want to tune your fill arrangements to match your shooting style. Free recoil shooters may need a different fill levels than bag squeezers (who a softer bag but harder ears).
SAND BAGS & HOW TO FILL THEMby Speedy Gonzalez
I was asked several times by competitors at the S.O.A. Matches and F-Class Nationals as to how I fill my sand bags for benchrest competition. Here is a copy of a reply I gave several years ago:
Back in the old days, Pat McMillan told me: “You can not have two bags filled so hard that you gun bounces on them in the process of firing round at your target, especially if you have a rig with a very flexible stock. The bags must be set up in a manner for them to absorb the initial shock of the firing pin moving forward and igniting the primer.
Then [they must] maintain their shape and absorb the second shock wave as well the rearward thrust and torque of the rifle. What happens to the rifle when this is not done? Well let me tell you. The rifles have a very bad tendency to jump and roll in the bags. This causes many of those wild, lost shots that one can’t explain.”
Here’s some Good General Advice for Bag Set-up:
1. You should not have TWO hard bags [i.e. both front AND rear] in your set-up.
2. Heavy sand magnifies these phenomena.
3. If you are a bag squeezer, pack ears hard and leave bag pliable enough to squeeze for the movement required. You may pack front bag as hard as rules permit.
4. Free recoil shooters pack both bags firm, but not so hard as to allow stock jump. Especially if you have a stock with a very flexible forearm.
5. We use play-ground sand, also know as silica sand. I sift mine to get any large impurities out then mix it with 25% to 50% with Harts parakeet gravel to the desired hardness that I am looking for. The bird gravel keeps the sand from packing itself into that solid as a brick state.
Speaking of bricks — another thing that happens when shooters employ that heavy zircon sand is the ears form a low spot under them from recoil and then tend to rock back and forth with the rifle causing many low shots to crop up. Edgewood makes an Edgewood/Speedy rear bag specially reinforced under the ears to eliminate this scenario.
Shown below are the latest SEB Bigfoot Bags. Note that the bags sit perfectly flat — there is no bulge on the bottom even though the bags are “packed to the brim with sand”.
General Thoughts about Bag Construction and Ear Materials
I do not like the solid double-stitched leather bottoms. While this seems like a good idea, I see more shooters have problems because of them. They tend to slide around the bench and or slide with the rifle on recoil. The standard Protektor with Cordura rabbit ears and an Otto ring bag with a Cordura front would be what I would suggest to the new shooter or one of the Edgewood / Speedy rear bags, these mimic the “Donut” and feature a ring of leather around the bottom circumference that keep the bottom from rocking on the bench or ground[.]
One last note –If you use the Cordura bags, keep them sprayed with a good silicon spray or “Rain-Ex”. This keeps them from getting sticky. — Speedy
SHOT Show 2023 is three days away. The 2023 event kicks off with Industry Day at the Range on Monday, January 16, 2023. Then the indoor event runs Tuesday the 17th through Friday the 20th. There will be over 2600 exhibitors from all 50 states and dozens of nations. This year continues with SHOT Show running in TWO large exhibit halls — the Venetian Expo and the relatively new Caesars Forum. Total exhibit space for the 2023 show in these two venues is more than 800,000 net square feet — equivalent to more than 18 acres (about 14 football fields). And with these twin halls, SHOT Show boasts 13.9 miles of aisles!
SHOT Show FACTS AND FIGURES
– The “SHOT” in SHOT® Show stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade.
— SHOT Show 2023 will have 800,000 square feet of Exhibit Space with 13.9 MILES of Aisles. The floor space is equivalent to 14 football fields.
— 2023 SHOT Show will have more than 2,600 exhibitors, including the Suppliers Showcase.
— More than 55,000 professionals in the shooting, hunting, outdoors and law enforcement industry are expected to attend, along with 2000+ media members.
— Firearms and ammunition are a $7.1 billion industry. The total economic impact of the gun/ammo/hunting industry is more than $63 billion, which supports more than 342,000 jobs.
— SHOT Show generates millions of dollars in revenue to fund NSSF programs including Firearms Training programs, Project ChildSafe, National Shooting Sports Month, and the +ONE mentoring initiative.
— This is the 45th Annual SHOT Show and the 24th in Las Vegas. The first SHOT Show was in 1979 in St. Louis, Missouri. Las Vegas has been home to the show continuously since 2010. However, the 2021 SHOT Show was virtual due to the pandemic.
SHOT Show is a Massive Event — 800,000 Square Feet of Products
Based on current bookings, SHOT Show 2023 will encompass over 800,000 net square feet. That’s the equivalent of 14 football fields. There should be over 2600 exhibitors this year. CLICK HERE to search for exhibitor booths by company name. View the 2023 SHOT Show layout here:
CLICK HEREfor full floor-plan with Venetian Level 1, Venetian Level 2, Caesars Forum, and Supplier Showcase. From that page, click tabs for each location. When on a page, zoom to see individual booth numbers. Mouse over any booth to see the exhibitor (example below for Vista Outdoor in booth 11838).
Today is Friday the 13th. For those of you who are superstitious — maybe you should avoid climbing ladders, playing the stock market, or using power tools today.
When it comes to shooting, there are many things that shooters chalk up to “bad luck”. In fact, most of these instances of “bad fortune” just come from a failure to anticipate problems. When you have a major, critical problem at a shooting match, i.e. a “train wreck”, this can be the end of your weekend. In this article, Ballistics Guru Bryan Litz talks about “train wrecks” and how to avoid them, even if you are shooting on Friday the 13th. As Bryan told us: “I don’t believe in superstition — we make our own luck!”
How to Avoid “Train Wrecks” In Competition
In any shooting competition, you must try to avoid major screw-ups that can ruin your day (or your match). In this article, past F-TR National Mid-Range and Long Range Champion Bryan Litz talks about “Train Wrecks”, i.e. those big disasters (such as equipment failures) that can ruin a whole match. Bryan illustrates the types of “train wrecks” that commonly befall competitors, and he explains how to avoid these “unmitigated disasters”.
Urban Dictionary “Train Wreck” Definition: “A total @#$&! disaster … the kind that makes you want to shake your head.”
Success in long range competition depends on many things. Those who aspire to be competitive are usually detail-oriented, and focused on all the small things that might give them an edge. Unfortunately it’s common for shooters lose sight of the big picture — missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.
Consistency is one of the universal principles of successful shooting. The tournament champion is the shooter with the highest average performance over several days, often times not winning a single match. While you can win tournaments without an isolated stellar performance, you cannot win tournaments if you have a single train wreck performance. And this is why it’s important for the detail-oriented shooter to keep an eye out for potential “big picture” problems that can derail the train of success!
Train wrecks can be defined differently by shooters of various skill levels and categories. Anything from problems causing a miss, to problems causing a 3/4-MOA shift in wind zero can manifest as a train wreck, depending on the kind of shooting you’re doing.
Below is a list of common Shooting Match Train Wrecks, and suggestions for avoiding them.
1. Cross-Firing. The fastest and most common way to destroy your score (and any hopes of winning a tournament) is to cross-fire. The cure is obviously basic awareness of your target number on each shot, but you can stack the odds in your favor if you’re smart. For sling shooters, establish your Natural Point of Aim (NPA) and monitor that it doesn’t shift during your course of fire. If you’re doing this right, you’ll always come back on your target naturally, without deliberately checking each time. You should be doing this anyway, but avoiding cross-fires is another incentive for monitoring this important fundamental. In F-Class shooting, pay attention to how the rifle recoils, and where the crosshairs settle. If the crosshairs always settle to the right, either make an adjustment to your bipod, hold, or simply make sure to move back each shot. Also consider your scope. Running super high magnification can leave the number board out of the scope’s field view. That can really increase the risk of cross-firing.
2. Equipment Failure. There are a wide variety of equipment failures you may encounter at a match, from loose sight fasteners, to broken bipods, to high-round-count barrels that that suddenly “go south” (just to mention a few possibilities). Mechanical components can and do fail. The best policy is to put some thought into what the critical failure points are, monitor wear of these parts, and have spares ready. This is where an ounce of prevention can prevent a ton of train wreck. On this note, if you like running hot loads, consider whether that extra 20 fps is worth blowing up a bullet (10 points), sticking a bolt (DNF), or worse yet, causing injury to yourself or someone nearby.
[Editor’s Note: The 2016 F-Class Nationals will employ electronic targets so conventional pit duties won’t be required. However, the following advice does apply for matches with conventional targets.]
3. Scoring/Pit Malfunction. Although not related to your shooting technique, doing things to insure you get at least fair treatment from your scorer and pit puller is a good idea. Try to meet the others on your target so they can associate a face with the shooter for whom they’re pulling. If you learn your scorer is a Democrat, it’s probably best not to tell Obama jokes before you go for record. If your pit puller is elderly, it may be unwise to shoot very rapidly and risk a shot being missed (by the pit worker), or having to call for a mark. Slowing down a second or two between shots might prevent a 5-minute delay and possibly an undeserved miss.
4. Wind Issues. Tricky winds derail many trains. A lot can be written about wind strategies, but here’s a simple tip about how to take the edge off a worse case scenario. You don’t have to start blazing away on the command of “Commence fire”. If the wind is blowing like a bastard when your time starts, just wait! You’re allotted 30 minutes to fire your string in long range slow fire. With average pit service, it might take you 10 minutes if you hustle, less in F-Class. Point being, you have about three times longer than you need. So let everyone else shoot through the storm and look for a window (or windows) of time which are not so adverse. Of course this is a risk, conditions might get worse if you wait. This is where judgment comes in. Just know you have options for managing time and keep an eye on the clock. Saving rounds in a slow fire match is a costly and embarrassing train wreck.
5. Mind Your Physical Health. While traveling for shooting matches, most shooters break their normal patterns of diet, sleep, alcohol consumption, etc. These disruptions to the norm can have detrimental effects on your body and your ability to shoot and even think clearly. If you’re used to an indoor job and eating salads in air-conditioned break rooms and you travel to a week-long rifle match which keeps you on your feet all day in 90-degree heat and high humidity, while eating greasy restaurant food, drinking beer and getting little sleep, then you might as well plan on daily train wrecks. If the match is four hours away, rather than leaving at 3:00 am and drinking five cups of coffee on the morning drive, arrive the night before and get a good night’s sleep.”
Keep focused on the important stuff. You never want to lose sight of the big picture. Keep the important, common sense things in mind as well as the minutia of meplat trimming, weighing powder to the kernel, and cleaning your barrel ’til it’s squeaky clean. Remember, all the little enhancements can’t make up for one big train wreck!
For many years, the Swarovski Optik website featured a blog with interesting technical articles. (Unfortunately some of these articles have been taken offline.) In the “On Target” series of blog stories, Swarovski provided a handy explanation of how optics systems work, with exploded diagrams of rifle scopes, spotting scopes, and binoculars. We’ve reproduced the key diagrams here. CLICK HERE for Swarovski On Target Archive.
Scope Terminology Focusing Lens
The focusing lens is an adjustable lens inside the optical system for focusing the image at different distances…. In the case of rifle scopes, apart from focusing, the focusing lens also facilitates parallax compensation.
Objective Lens
The objective lens is the optical system’s front lens group facing the object and operates like a converging lens. Its purpose is to display an image which, at the image plane, appears upside down, laterally transposed and reduced, and which is subsequently displayed correctly again by the reversal system.
Diopter Adjustment
For rifle scopes, the reticle can be focused using the diopter adjustment on the eyepiece, thereby correcting any visual impairment. [Editor’s Note: Movable eyepiece diopter adjustment is not offered on all rifle scopes. It is a useful feature on Swarovski and other premium scopes. This allows shooters who need eyeglasses to get a sharply focus image even without wearing corrective lenses. Of course shooters should always wear ANSI-certified eye protection. With the diopter, folks who need correction can use inexpensive, non-Rx safety eyewear instead of expensive prescription safety glasses.]
Reversal System
The purpose of the reversal system is to reverse the image by means of prisms in binoculars and telescopes, and lenses in rifle scopes….The lens reversal system is needed in rifle scopes to control the variable magnification and move the exit pupil[.]
Resource tip by EdLongRange. We welcome reader submissions.
Happy New Year to all our readers, and especially the 66,660+ members of our AccurateShooter Forum. We hope 2023 brings you happiness in your lives and success in your endeavors. We also wish for small groups, high scores, and successful hunts in the New Year. And, yes, we wish for mankind’s victory over COVID, and other viral pandemics, so we can fully return to our normal lives.
Forum Members — Upgrade Your Membership to Get Unlimited Classifieds for 12 Months.
Looking Forward to 2023 Every year we work to improve AccurateShooter.com. We have continued to upgrade the Forum, adding enhanced security measures, with background checks on all sign-ups and enhanced scammer detection. On the content side we have expanded our popular Deals of the Week and Sunday GunDay features. And we’ve added a Video Showcase every Saturday. We also now offer more product reviews in our Daily Bulletin. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy our feature articles, our Deals of the Week, our match reports, and our Forum Classifieds. The formula seems to be working — our audience is bigger than ever, with Forum membership growing substantially year after year.
Forum Membership Increased 10% in 2022
Our Shooters’ Forum grew significantly over the past 12 months. Total registered membership grew by about 10% as Forum ranks swelled to 60,670+ members! More people are successfully buying and selling through our Forum Classifieds services than ever before. Silver and Gold members get unlimited Classifieds for 12 months. Gold members also get custom Avatars and other privileges.
We need your support. For 19 years the site has relied largely on volunteer efforts. But as the site grows, we need the assistance of Forum moderators, product testers, web gurus, and computer software experts. Those guys don’t work for glory alone.
Consider this — you could pay $25 for a couple medium pizzas. For the same twenty-five dollars you can become a Silver Forum member for an entire YEAR and help this site provide info, tests, tech tips, bargains, and shooting news.
And consider the benefits — Silver or Gold Members get unlimited classifieds for 12 months. If you were to sell just ONE $1500 rifle through Gunbroker.com, you would pay $66.50 in fees! That’s much more than our Gold Membership — just to sell one single rifle.
In the last quarter of 2022 about 540 site users have donated or upgraded their Forum membership. That’s less than 1% of the current membership. We thank all those who have generously contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who access the site every week without contributing. With more donations and more Forum upgrades, we can deliver more premium content and offer more services to our members.
How to Contribute
If you ARE a Forum member, you can help the site by UPGRADING your membership. CLICK HERE to UPGRADE.
If you are NOT a Forum member, you can still help by making a donation. Donating is simple and easy. Just click on the orange “Donate” button at right. If you have a credit card, you don’t need a PayPal account to contribute.
IMPORTANT: After you click on the orange button a PayPal screen will load. You’ll also see a field that says “0.00”. Fill in the amount you want to give. For example, to give $25, type 25.00 in the amount field. You choose the amount.
Help Support this Site by Making a Secure Donation.
If You Don’t Like PayPal, You Can Send a Check.
Make the check payable to: Jeff Williams. Please list your Shooters’ Forum Log-In Name (if any), and mail the check to:
Jeff Williams
P.O. Box 240
Solon Springs, WI 54873
About Jesse Kaufmann, Master Engraver
Back in the old days, Pat McMillan told me: “You can not have two bags filled so hard that you gun bounces on them in the process of firing round at your target, especially if you have a rig with a very flexible stock. The bags must be set up in a manner for them to absorb the initial shock of the firing pin moving forward and igniting the primer. 
– The “SHOT” in SHOT® Show stands for Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade.
Train Wrecks (and How to Avoid Them)
4. Wind Issues. Tricky winds derail many trains. A lot can be written about wind strategies, but here’s a simple tip about how to take the edge off a worse case scenario. You don’t have to start blazing away on the command of “Commence fire”. If the wind is blowing like a bastard when your time starts, just wait! You’re allotted 30 minutes to fire your string in long range slow fire. With average pit service, it might take you 10 minutes if you hustle, less in F-Class. Point being, you have about three times longer than you need. So let everyone else shoot through the storm and look for a window (or windows) of time which are not so adverse. Of course this is a risk, conditions might get worse if you wait. This is where judgment comes in. Just know you have options for managing time and keep an eye on the clock. Saving rounds in a slow fire match is a costly and embarrassing train wreck.
