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February 7th, 2008
At SHOT Show, MTM previewed a versatile new range box that doubles as a rifle cleaning stand. Sized 25″ long x 11.5″ wide x 8.75″ high, the MTM Shooting Range Box is about the size of a large toolbox, with plenty of room inside. The range box comes with two removable, rubber-padded cradles that hold a rifle securely for cleaning. This means your range box does double duty, and you don’t have to haul a separate cleaning stand around. We liked the prototype version on display. It’s plenty big, and has a long enough “wheelbase” to work effectively as a stand.
The gun cleaning kit top section has a see-through plastic top. Underneath are trays with divided slots for small parts, patches, brushes and sundries. There is a special insert for jags and mops (see photo). The two trays can be positioned four different ways, to suit your requirements. The long section in the front will hold bore guides, and large cans of spray solvents/lubes. The unit is deep enough that most bottles of cleaning solvents will sit up-right, and the box is made from chemical-resistant polypropylene.
The base section holds twin adjustable gun forks (cradles) with over-molded rubber padding. These will support rifles or shotguns with a firm, non-marring hold. The base section offers plenty of deep storage for supplies and ammo. The bottom base is big enough to hold a large MTM R-100 ammo box. The new range box/rifle holder, MTM Catalog item RBMC-11, should start shipping in Mid-March of 2008. Midsouth Shooters’ Supply lists the MTM Range Box at $26.76, item 008-RBMC11. That’s the best price we’ve found — other vendors are charging $35.00 to $42.00.
January 31st, 2008
There is one subject on which we should all be in agreement — the need to wear quality, protective eyewear whenever one uses a firearm. Sadly, it’s not uncommon, at the range, to see shooters wearing no eye protection, or wearing cheap, “dime-store” glasses that can shatter on impact.
 We’ve created a comprehensive Guide to Protective Eyewear. Forum member ChuckW2 told us: “That was the most important article that has ever been posted on this site. I am amazed how many people do not wear glasses while shooting or hunting. Great read….” If you haven’t done so already, read the story. We guarantee you’ll learn something new.
The Eyewear Guide explains the safety standards that apply to protective eyewear and reviews the best lens materials currently available including Polycarbonate, Trivex™, and SR-91. You may not have heard of Trivex, but it is probably the best material out there right now — it’s tough, lightweight, and has better optical properties than Polycarbonate. SR-91 is a good choice for those who need a polarized lens. Our Eyewear Guide also includes a section by Danny Reever on Prescription Shooting Glasses. Danny discusses the available options in lens materials and has many helpful recommendations.
Along with our reviews of lens materials, tint properties, and frame design, we highlight a study done by the NRA’s American Hunter magazine. 10 popular brands of eyewear were tested, with some very interesting results. The testers observed that price does not necessarily assure quality. The $12 Bollé VX and the $5.95 Pyramex Rendezvous both worked better than some much more expensive brands.
On the other hand, don’t select eyewear simply because it’s cheap or easy to find. American Hunter editor Jeff Johnston observed:
“It’s a mistake to assume that any plastic-lens sunglasses off the rack at the local 7-11 are made of polycarbonate and therefore are effective as shooting glasses—cheap plastics are not polycarbonates; in fact, wearing them could be worse than wearing nothing, as they can introduce sharp shards of plastic to your eyes in addition to the projectile(s) that caused them to break.”
January 30th, 2008
Beretta, which now owns both SAKO and Tikka, has just introduced the new SAKO A7, based on the SAKO 75, but designed to sell at a lower price point. It retains many of the better features of the SAKO 75, including adjustable trigger (2.2 lb. minimum pull), three-lug bolt with 70° throw, and ergonomic stock. The A7 offers a new 3-round detachable magazine, with an improved latching mechanism drawn from the SAKO 85.
To learn more about the A7, visit www.SakoA7.net, a whiz-bang Flash-enabled website with photos and specs. Caution–the site has obnoxious sound effects and navigation like a video game, but we guess Beretta’s marketing gurus decided “bells and whistles” would sell more rifles.
Unlike most SAKOs, the A7 lacks a dovetail on the top of the receiver that would allow you to mount rings directly to the action without the need for a separate scope rail. In deference to American shooters, who seem to prefer separate mounting rails, The A7 ships with Weaver-style scope mounting blocks front and rear. In our view, the dovetail is actually a cleaner, lower-profile, and more rigid set-up for a hunting rifle, but this is one more example of building a product the consumer thinks he wants, whether it makes sense or not.
Notably, Beretta is marketing the new SAKO A7 with an accuracy guarantee — One MOA for five shots. While that’s not spectacular, few other major gun companies (Cooper being the notable exception) provide accuracy guarantees for their hunting rifles. SAKO claims that “Each rifle must place five shots within one inch at 100 yards or it doesn’t ship.” Sako A7 gun weight (without scope) averages 6.5 pounds, while length of pull is 14 inches. Calibers and twist rates are shown below. Unfortunately, no fast-twist 6mm barrels are offered with the .243 Win chambering.
January 27th, 2008
Last month we featured a new shooting platform from Alamo Four-Star in Texas. Alamo’s DCLW (for “Deros Compact Light Weight”) system featured an innovative, gimballed rifle cradle mounted to a special tripod. This cradle was attached with rocker arms to a rotary head, allowing the rifle to traverse 360 degrees and move up and down up to 75 degrees from horizontal. (READ Dec. 22 DCLW Report).
Equipped with its own dedicated ultralight tripod, the original DCLW system weighs just 4.1 pounds and can be used in all shooting positions: prone, sitting, kneeling and standing. The DCLW was built ultra-light because that’s what the military requested for its troops.
Today we feature a version of the DCLW designed to mount to commercial tripods. Called the “DCLW Head”, this unit can be mounted to virtually any tripod that has a quick-release or screw-on optic mount. The makers of the DCLW Head even offer a machined mounting piece that fits directly into Manfrotto-style tripod quick-attachment mounts. Below you can see the DCLW Head fitted to a photo tripod.
CLICK HERE for FLASH VIDEO showing DCLW Head.
 One of the best features of the DCLW gun support system is that it allows a spotting scope or laser rangefinder to be mounted close to the bore axis, inline with the barrel. So, when you elevate or traverse the rifle your scope or LRF moves right with it–following the movement of your muzzle. Put your crosshairs on a new target and your spotting scope or rangefinder will be centered on the target as well. That’s a great feature for varminters–or anyone shooting targets at unknown distances.
Shown below is the DCLW Head mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. You can also see that a spotting scope is clamped on a Picatinny Rail just to the left of the rifle, in line with the barrel.
CLICK HERE for FLASH VIDEO showing DCLW Head.
CLICK HERE for SECOND VIDEO showing DCLW with original lightweight tripod.
January 26th, 2008
These days, if you want to do serious load development and ballistic testing at the range, a laptop is becoming more and more useful. While a hand-held PDA can calculate come-ups and even handle a spreadsheet, having the large screen and full keyboard of the laptop is very handy.
Currently, many of the better chronographs, including CED, PACT, and the PVM-21 offer optional direct-to-PC interfaces that allow you to track and archive shot and string data, as well as perform various data comparisons. The PVM-21 has a very sophisticated program that tracks multiple bullet design and ballistics variables.
Thanks to a donation from Joe F. in California, we recently acquired a new Windows laptop computer to use for field testing and doing research for stories. The performance and features of the computer, a Dell 1500 Vostro, were good enough that this editor wanted to recommend the product for those of you looking for a low-cost Windows-based computer for home and field use. (NOTE: Apple Macs are great and the latest versions will run Windows natively using separate partitioning and the “Bootcamp” software. However, for a variety of reasons, including cost and backwards compatibility, we wanted to stick to the Windows platform.)
QuickLOAD software running on the Dell laptop:
The Dell 1500 computer arrived fully charged and every port and switch worked perfectly. The machine was immediately stuffed with three ballistics programs, software for three brands of chronographs, plus QuickLOAD, QuickTARGET, QuickDESIGN, Excel, Firefox, GIMP, and PhotoShop. All that software ran just fine.
Here’s what I like about the Dell Vostro:
GREAT Value: Given its feature set, the Dell 1500 is very inexpensive. The base promotional price (before a few upgrades), was $549. This price included 2.0 Gigs of RAM, built-in Wi-Fi, a 250 Gig hard-drive, and a 1.4 gHz dual-core Intel processor. For you non-computer geeks, that’s a very healthy configuration for the price.
Easy Networking: Conventional networking proved incredibly simple and trouble-free. To connect to the office computer I merely activated networking on both machines, then plugged an ethernet cable from the router into the laptop. Voila, I was networked. No muss, no fuss.
Effortless Wireless: The wireless networking is amazing. I opted for the best Intel “next-gen” extended range 4965AGN Wi-Fi card (a $79.00 upgrade). The impressive Intel software found my network all by itself the first time I turned on the machine! The Dell comes with a switchable (on/off) radio unit that automatically scans for networks. I basically was able to access the internet within minutes of turning on the machine for the first time. I later set up secured wireless access, which required reading my router manual, but there were no glitches. I want to stress how easy it was to hook up to a wireless network. And I can even access the ‘Net away from home if I go to a “hot-spot” with Wi-Fi (or pay for a roaming plan). Again, the computer does all the work–it finds the Wi-Fi channel and simply asks “Do you want to connect?”
XP Available: I went with Dell because it is one of the few vendors that will sell you a laptop with XP instead of Windows Vista. Compared to XP, I’ve found that the Vista OS typically takes twice as long to boot up and Vista runs many applications 20-30% slower. Vista also still has serious incompatibility issues with some programs and drivers. With the XP OS, every application and all peripherals worked flawlessly.
Versatile Hardware: The Dell has the full range of ports, including an 8-in-1 Memory Card reader port. This means that I can take pictures and video with a camera, and simply remove the Flash data card from the camera and plug it right into the computer, which reads the card as a separate drive. Fantastic. Because the wireless transceiver is all internal, I still have an open port for a 54mm Express Card. I can also pipe Video from a camcorder directly into the computer.
No Bloatware: I run NOD32 for virus protection and prefer FireFox as a browser. The Dell 1500 did come with Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Microsoft Works installed, but other than that, it ships with very little annoying, junk software that takes hours to remove.
Good Performance: Battery life is good. Even with the basic, six-cell battery, I was able to run the machine 3.5-5 hours between charges. Run time depends on screen brightness level and how much you access the hard drive. A larger nine-cell battery is available at extra cost. I don’t have any system to meter the processor performance, but when browsing the web with an ethernet hook-up, pages displayed instantly. Some programs actually opened faster than my desktop computer.
Tough Construction: The unit is pretty heavy (6.5 lbs. with six-cell battery), but it is nice and sturdy. It has a magnesium frame and there’s no flex around the screen or the keyboard. Key “feel” is very good and the touchpad is one of the best I’ve tried.
What are the negatives? The screen is average. Brightness is good, but there’s no separate contrast control. I opted for the low-glare, standard screen after reading many complaints that the high-polish “True-Life” screen produced annoying reflections. It would be nice if the computer were smaller and lighter, but if you want a smaller format, Dell offers the Vostro 1400 (14″ diag. screen) for less money. I’m happy with the 1500 with its 15.4″ diagonal screen. That lets me view the AccurateShooter.com Forum at full width, and still see two rows of program icons on the left.
CONCLUSION
So… there you have it. If you want a good, rugged laptop for under $600 that will run any Windows program, even arcane chrono and ballistics software, the Vostro 1500 is worth a look. And if, like me, you prefer XP over the slow and troublesome Vista, Dell is one of the few companies that will sell you a Windows laptop with XP. For under $600 (base price), I think the Dell is a heck of a unit. Dell even threw in free shipping! I do recommend the Intel Wi-Fi upgrade — it has better range when the signal is weak, and can transfer data faster when the signal is strong. You can spend more for a faster processor and higher-RPM hard drive, but I think the base unit with 2 Gigs of RAM is plenty fast.
January 25th, 2008
 Folks have asked about recommended handgun storage in gunsafes. There are many options, including hanging your handguns on the inside door panel with straps or hooks. The problem with placing handguns on the safe door is that it’s just too easy for Velcro to work loose, or a peg to come out. End result is a dropped pistol. Also, placing your handguns on a door makes them highly visible. That’s a bad idea if your safe is placed in an open area such as a garage or game room.
 Our first choice is to place handguns in lockable, sliding drawers inside the safe. Tucked inside silicon-treated Bore-Store bags, and then laid flat inside a drawer, handguns are safe, secure and out of sight. Unfortunately, few safe-makers offer sliding drawer options. If you have a large-enough safe, you can fit your own lockable drawer unit or small file cabinet with locks. These can be purchased at office supply stores or Home Depot type outlets.
If you have limited space in your safe, we recommended the vinyl-covered metal handgun racks from Versatile Rack Company. The 4-Gun rack has approximately the same footprint as a single handgun laying flat. These racks have a strong, welded-steel frame, vinyl-coated to protect the finish of your pistols. We’ve found these work for virtually all size handguns, both semi-autos and revolvers, even when the guns are placed in Bore-Store bags. In fact the fit is just about perfect if you first place a handgun in a Bore-Store bag, which provides about 1/4″ of padding all around the gun.
Versatile offers two models, for either 4 guns or 6 guns. These can be purchased directly from Versatile starting at $29.99. But other vendors such as Midway USA, sell them for less. MidwayUSA currently charges $19.99 for the 4-gun version (item 953075), and $24.99 for the 6-gun rack (item 275638). Click HERE for a 360-degree view of the 4-gun unit. There is also an optional stacking unit, shown below.
One other interesting design is the rotary handgun rack. Cabela’s sells a 9-Gun Rotary Pistol Rack (item IJ-229069) that looks well-built, and is fairly compact. Priced at $49.99, it spins to allow easy access to your handguns. It features foam-padded cradles, and an oak-verneer finish. Unfortunately, with a compact 11.5″-diameter base, there is not enough clearance for scoped revolvers or pistols with red-dot sights. And, from a safety standpoint, we’d rather see the pistols stored muzzle-down than muzzle-up. Still it looks like a clever, compact design that will work with most handguns.
If you like the look of wood, Sportman’s Guide offers a two-tier 12-gun rack for just $39.99. This will hold a large collection of pistols in a relatively compact space, 15.5″ wide x 13″ x 11″ high. There is green felt lining the slots for the barrel/slide and grip base. However, you can see from the photo that the barrel slots are cut pretty low and pretty narrow. This unit gives you a very compact footprint, but the trade-off is a tight fit on larger handguns.
If you have large hunting handguns with top-mounted scopes, or bullseye pistols with fat target grips, consider the Hyskore Modular Rack which holds guns with the barrel on top and level, so there is plenty of clearance for scopes. Hyskore racks are made of soft, closed-cell foam that won’t scratch metal and won’t absorb moisture. Guns are stored in individual foam bins that can be connected together horizontally.The width of each individual bin can be adjusted to fit even very wide target grips. Hyskore racks come in sets of three foam bins. Using 3/16″ threaded crosspins, you can combine the bins into one, long secure unit running the full width of a shelf.
CLICK HERE for Hyskore Rack DEMO VIDEO
January 24th, 2008
We found this cleaning pad (item AX8A-85517) in the latest Sportsman’s Guide catalog. This will help to protect the finish of your firearms while you’re working at your bench. The 16″x54″ Rifle Cleaning Pad uses a unique Zorb-Tech® fabric to absorb oils and solvents. Waterproof backing prevents chemicals from soaking through to your bench-top. The fabric has a soft, felt-like nap that is gentle on your gun’s finish and won’t scratch precision metal parts.
Made in the USA, these stain-resistant pads can be machine washed and dried. Priced at just $11.97, this pad is a useful addition to any loading bench. (NOTE: The same pad, with blue fabric and white NRA logo, is sold by the NRA Store for $12.50). Sportsman’s Guide also offers a 16″x20″ Handgun Cleaning Pad, item AX8A-85517, for $6.97.
January 23rd, 2008
Forum member Eric Springman has created a nice product for long-range benchrest shooters. He crafts solid-aluminum “Record String” shell blocks for 600- and 1000-yard shooting. These have a wide, stable base, and the top section is angled for easy access. The blocks hold up to 10 record-string rounds and up to 10 sighters, using 10 holes in the base and 10 more in the upper section. The shell blocks are offered with two hole sizes: “Standard” for 6mmBR up to 280 Ackley size cases, and “Magnum” for WSM through 300 WBY/300 Ultra cases. Eric’s shell blocks are CNC-machined and feature a nice brushed finish. The top sections are securely bolted to the base. Price is $65.00 delivered to the 48 states.
To order, or if you have any questions, contact Eric at:
springmanrifles [at] hotmail.com
Springman Rifles
2260 Pike Peak Rd.
Allenwood, PA 17810
Phone: (570) 547-1905
January 18th, 2008
Butch Lambert of ShadeTree Engineering just sent us these “Spy Photos” of his latest creation, a 6.5-lb, low-profile front rest designed for F-Class competition. The rest features wide, stable legs, large, easy-to-adjust screw knobs, and Butch’s JoyStick Rest top that adjusts windage and elevation with a single control.
Butch tells us: “This is my latest rest assembly, a new product designed for F-Class. It weighs 6.5 pounds with the Edgewood bag and heavy sand. It has a needle thrust-bearing under the mariner wheel. Please note, the photos do NOT show the finished leg screws. On the bottom of each leg, the leg screws will ride on a 2″-diameter discs with tungsten armor-piercing bullets on the tips.”
For more info, visit the ShadeTree website, or call Butch at (972) 524-2247, from 9am to 5pm Central Time.
January 16th, 2008
There’s a new tool available that should make the gunsmith’s job quite a bit easier. It’s such a logical, clever design, you wonder why somebody didn’t think of it years ago.
Co-Designer Nat Lambeth reports: “The photo shows a new tool called the Lambeth/Kiff Micrometer Adjustable Reamer Stop (Patent Pending). This is a add-on device that controls the depth a reamer can cut. It uses the reamer itself as the micrometer pinion and the barrel tendon face as the anvil. It does not matter where the tail stock or carriage is located, it measures off the reamer. It functions with a floating reamer holder too. These new Micrometer Reamer Stops have 50 indexing marks and will allow for .0005″ adjustments. The gunsmith can preset the Micrometer Adjustable Reamer Stop to about .020″ out and ream without worry. Then re-measure, adjust once, and make the final cut right on the money.”
These tools are available from Dave Kiff at Pacific Tool & Gauge, Nat Lambeth at NLambeth [@] embarqmail.com, and several gunsmith tool suppliers.
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