At MEDIA Day 2013, we checked out McMillan’s interesting hydraulic recoil mitigation system for the TAC-50 tactical rifle. Named the TAC-50 A1-R2, this shock-absorbing device reduces the peak recoil from the 50 BMG cartridge by approximately 90 percent (90%). Additional recoil reduction is provided by the proprietary muzzle brake offered on the TAC-50 A1-R2.
The heart of the new TAC-50 A1-R2 recoil mitigation system is a proprietary hydraulic piston in the buttstock. As the rifle is fired, the piston compresses, softening the recoil by lowering the peak recoil force and spreading out the recoil over several milliseconds. The sensation for the shooter is that of a long push, rather than a violent punch.
Without the R2 recoil mitigation system, the peak recoil from a 50 BMG cartridge is approximately 7,500 lbs. of force. From start to finish, the recoil lasts 1 millisecond in a machine rest. With the R2 system, the peak recoil is only approximately 520 lbs. of force. What’s more, the force is spread out over 6 milliseconds. While the total recoil energy is roughly the same, the hydraulic piston lowers the perception of recoil dramatically for a shooter by lowering the peak force and spreading the recoil out over time.
McMillan developed the new R2 system in partnership with customers using the TAC-50 weapons system. Extensive testing with electronic load sensors and high speed photography documented the recoil mitigation. The result is a 50-Caliber rifle that is significantly more comfortable to shoot.
Story Tip by Ed LongRange. We welcome reader submissions.
Thomas “Speedy” Gonzalez, a Hall of Fame shooter, will be teaching a “PRECISION BEDDING” class at Murray State Junior College (Tishomingo, OK) the week of June 10-14, 2013. The class will be limited from 12 to 14 students.
Speedy tells us: “We will go over the theory and physics of bedding and different materials, processes and procedures used to ensure a long-lasting and accurate bedding job. I will demonstrate [how to get best results] through proper control and knowledge of the bedding process and we will spend the remainder of the week bedding rifles students bring with them to class. A full list of tools will be post on Murray State NRA web site. I look forward to seeing some of you there.”
To register for the Precision Bedding Seminar
at Murray State, contact either:
Pacific Tool and Gauge is running a SHOT Show Special with big savings on bolts, bottom metal, chamber reamers, gauges and more. SHOT Show Special prices are offered for FOUR DAYS ONLY: January 15 through January 18, 2013. If you see something you want in the Specials list below, don’t hesitate. You can save $20-$30 (or more) on these SHOT Show Special items.
Call (541) 826-5808 to order and mention the SHOT Show Special. Remember deals expire at the end of the day on January 18, 2013!!
PT&G 2013 SHOT Show Specials
CHAMBER REAMERS
Custom and Wildcat Chamber Reamers
(Sm to Med) with removable pilot — $135 each
Standard SAAMI or CIP Chamber Reamers
HSS with removable pilot — $110 each
Carbide with removable pilot — $175 each
BOTTOM METAL
Remington “Stealth” Detachable Mag Bottom Metal — $99 each
L/A: BDL bolt in black | L/A: M5 black | S/A: M5 black
(Not including mag box and no engraving)
Remington & Winchester Trigger Guard — $79 each
Long Action and Short Action Aluminum in the white
(Not including follower or spring)
ONE-PIECE BOLTS
RH custom size on the OD. L/A or S/A, with or without flutes
Your choice of extractor type — $175 each
RH standard size .699 OD, with or without flutes.
Your choice of extractor type — $149 each
HEADSPACE GAUGES
Small to medium — $25 each
Large (50BMG) gauges — $42.50 each
PT&G Expands Plant, Adds New Products, Launches Custom Shop
Dave Kiff, founder of PT&G, tells us there are many positive new developments at his company: “We will have new products coming out for 2013. There will be 14 new reamers, fixtures and rifle parts coming out after SHOT Show [plus] we are adding more bolts and bottom metal. Plus, we are now able to sell overseas with our ITAR in place.”
With ever-increasing demand for its products, PT&G has grown dramatically in recent years. The company has invested $2.5 million dollars, expanded its production facilities, and added many more highly-trained staffers. Dave notes: “We have gone from 49 people to 126 toolmakers and office staff. Two years ago I decided to grow to meet the demands and needs of our customers and added machinery, buildings, and new employees. It has been a long, hard road but… we are just about over our growing pains.”
New PT&G Custom Shop
Dave has started a custom shop with fast turn-around. Dave says: “We are offering a 48-hour delivery on emergency tools and a 1-6 week delivery on tools that a gunsmith can wait on[.] We are able to stock SAAMI and Match grade chamber reamers on the shelf.”
Enhanced Certification System
Dave has created a new certification system: “[We have] put together a certification-auditable form that is stapled to the invoice and is filed so that if a customer has a question on a reamer size we can look up the tool and read the inspection data. This is working great.”
Classic hunting rifles never go out of style. We thought our readers would enjoy some photos of a special Jack O’Connor Tribute rifle in .270 Winchester. This unique Model 70 is a featured SHOT Show 2013 rifle. It is being auctioned on Gunbroker.com, with proceeds to benefit hunting and shooting sports. Bids are currently approaching $7,000.00 with bidding open through January 18, 2013.
Winchester Repeating Arms states that this 2013 SHOT Show Winchester Model 70 will be the last-ever Jack O’Connor Tribute rifle. The stock for this rifle is AAA grade Claro Walnut with Ebony forearm tip and shadowline cheekpiece. The rifle’s metalwork has been hand-engraved by the artisans at Baron Engraving. The rifle features a featherweight contour, free-floating barrel with target crown.
Interestingly, the Leupold 4X Mountaineer riflescope mounted on this rifle is an original 1950s-era Mountaineer from the vaults of Leupold & Stevens.
Sporting Classics offers a collection of great Jack O’Connor stories from the pages of Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Petersen’s Hunting and other popular magazines of his day. This 440-page book, entitled Classic O’Connor: 45 Worldwide Hunting Stories, is a sequel of sorts to Sporting Classics’ popular compendium, The Lost Classics of Jack O’Connor.
In this collection, Jack O’Connor recounts his worldwide hunting adventures, during which he pursued everything from ducks to grizzlies, pheasants to kudu. Classic O’Connor presents several of the author’s greatest gun stories and a large selection of never-before-published photographs of the celebrated sportsman and his family on hunting adventures around the world. The book is illustrated with 40+ drawings by acclaimed artist Ron Van Gilder. Hardcover with dust jacket, the book lists for $35, but it can be purchased on Amazon.com for just $23.07.
The Hunting Rifle by Jack O’Connor
Another O’Connor title worth reading is The Hunting Rifle, still considered one of the definitive works on selecting a hunting rifle and cartridge. One owner of The Hunting Rifle explains:
“It would benefit every hunter to take the time and read this book. It offers a corrective to the spirit of things that have gripped the hunting scene lately. Today, if one reads a hunting magazine, [one is] offered the view that you need the fastest and loudest cartridges, rifles with special finishes and the most expensive of anything. Ole Jack reminds us that many have killed game with ‘lesser’ guns for a very long time, and that these new gimmicks will not make you a more lethal hunter.”
Barrel tuners have been used successfully in rimfire benchrest for many years (see photo below). While there are competing theories as to how and why barrel tuners work on rimfire rifles, there is no question that the accuracy of some rimfire barrels can be improved with the addition of a tuner. By changing the position of weights at the end of the barrel, we’ve seen shooters shrink their average group size as well as adjust the “sweet spot” for different lots of rimfire ammo. On the other hand, tuners can be the source of great frustration; some installations may yield little or no benefit. A shooter may have to experiment with a variety of different tuner designs (and weights) to find the optimal configuration.
Centerfire Tuners–Still a Work in Progress
In centerfire benchrest competition, the vast majority of competitors do not use tuners, though a few short-range shooters such as Gene Bukys and Jackie Schmidt have enjoyed considerable success. Gene has won major championships with tuned rifles. In 2011 Gene won both the Super Shoot and World Benchrest Championship (WBC), and Gene recently set a new NBRSA Sporter Class Grand Agg Record.
Centerfire benchrest guns typically employ shorter barrels with a much fatter contour (larger diameter) than rimfire rifles. Because centerfire rounds produce much higher pressures and velocities that a 22LR, a centerfire barrel also exhibits much different vibration characteristics than a typical rimfire barrel. Nonetheless, there are pioneers working with centerfire tuners who believe that tuning may be the “next leap forward” in centerfire accuracy.
Shown below is a switch-barrel benchrest rifle built by Forum member Eddie W. of Texas. It features a dual-port Hall “M” action with a ShadeTree Engineering Tuner crafted by Butch Lambert. The gun is designed to take both a 6PPC barrel for group shooting and a 30BR barrel for score shooting. The gun was barreled by Wayne Shaw, and Eddie did the stock work himself. Eddie reports: “It is a very accurate rifle.”
Will we see more tuners on centerfire rifles? Only time will tell. Some folks believe that, since one can easily adjust the loads shot by centerfire guns (by tinkering with the powder charge and seating depth), tuners have limited utility. On the other hand, tuner advocates such as Gene Beggs believe tuners can help keep your group sizes small even as conditions (temperature, humidity) change. Gene believes that, with an appropriate tuner, you can spend less time fiddling with the load specs (changing your powder charge) and instead “dial in” your sweet spot using the tuner.
Do you have an older Anschütz model 54-actioned match rifle with a press-in barrel? Perhaps you want to re-barrel your Anschütz to get a few more years of precision shooting out of the old warhorse? Or maybe you want to adapt the Anschütz to a modern stock design for Silhouette, Rimfire Benchrest, or Prone shooting. If you’ve got an older Anschütz m54 that needs re-barreling, you need to send it to a gunsmith who has a proven track record with the model 54s, a smith who can remove the original barrel properly and then install either a new press-in barrel, or a screw-in barrel (after threading the action).
Mark Penrod — Recommended Anschütz Smith
Forum member Edward (aka EAL22) suggests sending Anschütz rimfire projects to Mark Penrod in North Manchester, Indiana. Writing in our Shooters’ Forum, Edward states:
“Penrod can fix you up. He can either press fit [a new barrel] or thread your action [for a screw-in barrel]. He has built guns both ways. Here are some photos of his work. It’s not a bench gun but a nice Anschütz in a System Gemini stock.”
Forum member Bill B. concurs: “I second the suggestion that you send it to Mark Penrod. I’ve just got done working with him on a Hall rimfire action to which he fitted two barrels, a Benchmark and a Lilja. I am building a prone position rifle. He was easy to work with providing good communication, and he’ll do whatever is needed to make your rifle shoot its best.”
Other Recommended Smiths — Bruce Hongista and MT Guns
Another recommended rimfire smith is Bruce Hongisto. Forum member Steve W., a benchrest shooter, says: “My suggestion is to email Butch Hongisto at Hongisto [at] fidnet.com. Butch does amazing work and has made two rimfires for Lapua to use in their factory accuracy evaluations in Finland. Write Butch and ask him which way you should go. He knows his stuff.”
In California, Chesebro Rifles (the successor to Mac Tilton’s MT Guns) has a vast selection of older Anschütz match rifles. Gunsmith Mark Chesebro can rebarrel an older model 54 as well as adapt older Anschütz rifles to modern stocks. Mark even is working on converting single-shot model 54s to repeaters fitted with sturdy, inexpensive CZ detachable magazines. I’ve held the prototype repeater conversion with a 24″ barrel, and it is very cool. I predict the rimfire tactical guys will be lining up to buy these single-shot-to-repeater conversions. Availability is still a few months away. For more info, visit ChesebroRifles.com.
Here’s a cool Torx driver from Brownells that belongs in every shooter’s tool box. The Magna-Tip Tactical/LE Field Torx Kit features a driver with five (5) Torx bits to fit popular scope rings and bases. A storage compartment in the handle holds the bits when not in use. A built-in magnetic socket in the handle holds each bit securely in the shank. We think this is a great new product. When Eyeballing a Torx screw, it’s hard to tell which size bit is required, and the short, L-shaped Torx wrenches that come with ring sets get lost all too easily. The $17.99 Torx Driver Kit, (Brownells Item 080-000-757), will help shooters keep all their often-used Torx bits safely in one place.
In the 1980s, Glen Eberle was an Olympic Biathlete with Team USA. Recognizing the benefits of a lighter, more durable rifle stock, Glen invented a radical new biathlon stock that literally “changed the game”. Glen’s lighter stock allowed biathletes to ski faster. His stock was also more rugged than conventional designs, so it could better survive the inevitable tumbles that occur in competition.
Since retiring from Biathlon competition, Eberle has built a successful Idaho-based company that supplies tough field packs and accessories for hunters and the military. But Glen never lost interest in stock design, and over the past few years he has developed an innovative new tactical chassis that is quite different than anything on the market today.
Eberlestock Model 11 Stealth Rifle Chassis system Fits Rem 700s
The Eberlestock Model 11 Stealth Rifle Chassis system is compact, light-weight and strong. Designed to fit Remington 700 actions, the Eberlestock model 11 chassis offers a drop-in, no-gunsmithing solution for tactical shooters. For the Rem 700 and Rem-clone actions, the Model 11 Chassis employs Accuracy Int’l Classic detachable box magazines (DBMs). The folding-stock version of the new Eberle chassis is very compact. Eberle claims it is “the shortest [folding-stock] sniper system in the world”.
The Model 11 Stealth Chassis is in Production Now
The basic Model 11 Stealth Rifle Chassis weighs 4 pounds and costs $1895.00. First availability will be for the Remington Model 700 short action. Next offerings will be for Rem Model 700 long actions, followed by stocks to fit models from other manufacturers. A variety of configuration options are offered, including folding butt-stock and a fore-stock with mounting rails. For more info, visit www.Eberlestock.com, or call Eberlestock USA in Idaho at 877-866-3047 or 208-424-5081.
Forum member “Tooms” sent us a report on his very special Sauer 202 with a 22LR conversion kit. Sauer 202 rifles feature a “Quick-change barrel system”. The barrel is clamped into the receiver with crossbolts providing tension. This allows barrels to be swapped in a few minutes with simple tools. Tooms, from Denmark, explains: “The rifle began as a Sauer 202 Avantgarde Gold in .308 Win. I have added a 6.5×55 match barrel, plus a wide flat-bottom match fore-arm with rail for handstop and bipod. The 22LR system [originally] cost $1000.00 [including] barrel, bolt, magazine well assembly, and magazine. The barrel is attached by three cross-bolts and the magazine well assembly is attached by one screw that fits into the barrel.”
Using this “Quick-change system”, Tooms can easily remove his centerfire barrel and swap in a .22 LR barrel. Then he places the factory conversion kit into the magazine well. This kit provides a rimfire bolt, a fitted sleeve for the rimfire bolt, and a track for the magazine. This is a full Sauer factory-designed system so it works flawlessly. With the bolt closed, you can see the “new” 22LR chamber in the front section of the loading port. On the silver section of the bolt you can see the rimfire extractor on the side.
The 22LR Conversion Really Works
The Sauer 202 Varmint rifle shoots very well with the 22LR conversion, as the 50m target at right shows. Though quite expensive, the conversion kit essentially transforms your centerfire rifle into fully functional, mag-fed precision rimfire. That makes the Sauer 202 much more versatile as a hunting platform. It also allows you to cross-train with inexpensive ammo. You don’t have to purchase another scope, trigger, or stock. And you enjoy the exact same stock fit and ergonomics whether you’re shooting centerfire or rimfire. In some countries where gun ownership is severely restricted, it may be easier, from a legal standpoint, to purchase a 22LR conversion kit than to obtain a permit for a second rifle.
To learn more about the complete line of Sauer 202 rifles visit the J.P. Sauer USA website. You’ll also find more information on the primary J.P. Sauer & Sohn German website, www.Sauer.de.
Wilson Combat now offers an Adjustable Lo-Profile AR Gas Block for direct gas impingement AR-type rifles. Wilson Combat’s new adjustable gas block replaces a standard AR gas block and allows you to tune your AR’s gas system for smoother cycling and enhanced reliability. Wilson Combat explains: “Adjusting your rifle’s gas port will lower or increase your bolt’s cyclic rate. This tailors your rifle’s performance to your unique needs.”
A simple adjustment of the hex screw at the front of the block modulates the gas volume allowing you to tune your rifle’s function to your favorite loads. This is very handy when shooting non-standard AR calibers, unusual hand-loads, or suppressed rifles. Adjustable Gas Block systems are sold as complete kits starting at $74.95. Wilson Combat offers two diameters (.750″, .937″) and three lengths (Carbine Length, Mid-Length, & Rifle Length), so you can select the right dimensions for your rifle configuration and barrel diameter. The blocks are Chromoly steel with a Melonited finish.
Package Includes:
Adjustable Gas Block (Melonite Finish)
Adjustment Set Screw (Installed)
Straight Gas Tube (Installed, Gas Tube Pin Installed)
Thomas “Speedy” Gonzalez, a Hall of Fame shooter, will be teaching a “PRECISION BEDDING” class at Murray State Junior College (Tishomingo, OK) the week of June 10-14, 2013. The class will be limited from 12 to 14 students.
With ever-increasing demand for its products, PT&G has grown dramatically in recent years. The company has invested $2.5 million dollars, expanded its production facilities, and added many more highly-trained staffers. Dave notes: “We have gone from 49 people to 126 toolmakers and office staff. Two years ago I decided to grow to meet the demands and needs of our customers and added machinery, buildings, and new employees. It has been a long, hard road but… we are just about over our growing pains.”
Centerfire Tuners–Still a Work in Progress
Mark Penrod — Recommended Anschütz Smith
In the 1980s, 
The 22LR Conversion Really Works
