ISSC will soon be shipping its new SPA 22/17 series of rimfire rifles. These rifles all feature a fast, biathlon-style, Straight-Pull Action (SPA). This allows for rapid cycling without having to lift your head off the stock. Watch the video below and you can see how you can easily work the toggle action with thumb and two fingers. ISSC offers the SPA 22/17 in three popular rimfire chamberings: .22 LR, .22 WMR, and 17 HMR. We think the 17 HMR version of this little rifle would be a great “carry-around” varmint rig. And the “Target” model, as chambered in .22 LR, seems ideal for the popular “Rimfire Tactical” game.
The Austrian-made SPA 22/17 is offered in three (3) different stock versions: Wood stock (with raised comb), Polymer sporter stock (with Snabel-style fore-end), and a “Target” model (with a folding, Accuracy International-style thumbhole stock). All variants come with 10-round magazines. The rifles are currently offered in three popular rimfire chamberings: .22 LR, .22 WMR, and .17 HMR. The ISSC SPA 22/17 series of rifles is distributed in the USA through Legacy Sports International.
We’re told that the first shipments of ISSC Spa 22/17 rifles should be arriving by mid-May, with larger shipments scheduled for June, 2013. We expect these rifles to be pretty popular, so you may want to get in line. Here’s a video from Legacy Sports showing how the straight-pull actions work:
ISSC is located in Ried, Austria. The company’s design and engineering work is accomplished at the company’s ESC subsidiary, located in Ulm, Germany.
It was Christmas in April this weekend, as our new GEN II Joystick Bipod system arrived — thanks to Sebastian (Seb) Lambang of SEB Coaxial. We’re anxious to try this sophisticated new system on a variety of rifles, both small-bore and big-bore. Designed for F-TR shooters, we think the new Joystick bipod (aka “Joy-Pod”) may also prove popular with tactical shooters and varmint hunters who need a lightweight, yet easily-adjustable front support. Like his coaxial front rests, Lambang’s Joystick Bipod controls both horizontal (windage) and vertical (elevation) with a single control arm. In addition, the GEN II “Joy-Pod” offers cant adjustment with its tilting head.
Gross height can be easily adjusted on the vertical legs, both of which feature a column of precision-machined teeth (like on a jack), with a positive quick-adjust locking mechanism. The whole Joy-Pod system weighs about 21 ounces, and SEB even provides a handy nylon storage case.
We’ll be field-testing our new Joy-Pod in the near future and we’ll let you know how it works. SEB is not soliciting advance orders just yet — as there may be some final mods on the production version. Price hasn’t been set yet, but it should be competitive with the popular F-TR wide-base bipods on the market. If you’re intrigued, you’ll find many more hi-rez product photos on Seb Lambang’s Facebook Page.
Sinclair Int’l announced that it will reveal a new heavy-duty Varmint Shooting Rest at the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits next week. The new rest (photo right) features a beefy center post with large-diameter control knobs. There is a rest-top control for windage, and you can quickly adjust the 3-lobe bag to handle different rifles. Using the quick-release handles, slide the bag side-plates in and out for various forearm widths. Price has not yet been set. Geoff Esterline of Sinclair says: “A bunch of Sinclair folks will be there in Booth #3433 to talk shop with our customers. We’ll be unveiling our new Sinclair Heavy Varmint Rest at the show. Attendees can enter a drawing to win one of three shooting rests. So drop by and sign up for your chance to win.”
Beefy Sinclair Competition Shooting Rest on SALE
In related news, Sinclair has put its popular Competition Shooting Rest on sale. The price has been marked down from $669.99 to $599.99. That’s a pretty good value compared to other high-end rests with this kind of quality and precision control systems.
Here are some user comments from our Forum members:
Great rest. Easy to convert to left hand as well. — Geronimo Jim
I have one and really like it a lot. I’ve not encountered any issues with mine. — DReever
A friend has one, I have used it. All machining is top-notch like all Sinclair stuff. I prefer a joystick, but if I wanted a knob-type rest I would buy the Sinclair. Very nice having the elevation and windage knobs close to each other. — Zfastmalibu
The only thing I do not like about them is the horizontal adjustment pivots instead of going straight side to side… which can put the rear stock and rest in a little bit of a bind if you have to go far. I do like that the Sinclair is quite a bit heavier than the J.J. Loh rest. I think you would be plenty happy with [the Sinclair rest]. — Bozo 699
Following our story on the Sinclair Int’l East Coast Fullbore Nationals, folks wanted to know about the bipods used by the winning F-TR squad, Team Sinclair. Some sharp-eyed readers noticed that three out of four Team Sinclair shooters were sporting a compact, parallel-arm bipod. This nice piece of kit is the ultra-light-weight (17 oz.) Rorer Spec Bipod produced by Duplin Rifles in North Carolina. The Rorer Spec Bipod is sturdy and easily-adjusted, yet it is one of the lightest wide-track bipods on the market.
Duplin Rifles — Rorer Spec Bipod
Weight: 1 pound, 1 oz. (17 oz.) | Finish: Clear- or black-Anodized Aluminum
Price: $350.00 delivered in USA | Options: Custom faceplates; Custom mount engraving ($35)
For more information, or to place an order, contact Duplin’s main man, Clint Cooper. You can send email to clint [at] duplinrifles.com or call 910-289-8217.
Duplin Rifles
4527 Hwy 117 South
Rose Hill, NC 28458
This story first appeared last year. We’re featuring it again by popular request.
Some of our mechanically-skilled readers chamber their own barrels or bed their own stocks. But these are relatively simple tasks compared to the jobs of constructing an entire rifle plus building an advanced front rest from scratch. Well that’s exactly what Forum member Steve B. (aka Essexboy) did. He built his own rifle and an impressive twin-belt-drive pedestal rest. (Click photo below to see large version). And get this, Steve’s home-made rifle was victorious in its first-ever match. Steve reports: “I shot my first Comp with the rifle this weekend and managed to win with a score of 239-21!” (The match was shot at 300/500/600/1000/1100 with English scoring of 5 points for center bullseye).
Do-It-Yourself F-Open Rig from England
Steve, who hails from Essex in the UK, constructed virtually every component of his skeleton-style rifle except the 28″ HV Bartlein barrel (chambered as a 6mm Dasher) and the Tikka 590 donor action. Steve also did all the design and fabrication work on his one-of-a-kind front rest. Steve tells us: “Over the last year or so, I made this rifle stock and rest. I managed to make it all on a little Myford Lathe, as you can tell I’m no machinist but it saved me a load of money — so far I’ve got about $200 invested plus the barrelled action. The stock is aluminum except for the stainless steel bag runner. The rifle came in at one ounce under weight limit for F-Class Open division.” Steve did get help with the chambering and barrel-fitting, but he hopes to do all the barrel work himself on his next project.
The gun is very accurate. Steve notes: “I have shot the rifle to 1100 yards and it shoots well. Last time out the rifle dropped just one point at 1000 yards and 5 points at 1100 yards [English scoring system]. I know it’s not pretty, but it got me shooting long range F-Class for peanuts.” Message to Steve: Don’t worry how it looks. As another Forum member observed: “Any rifle that shoots well at 1100 yards is beautiful….”
Steve started with a Tikka 590 action: “The whole stock was made on a small (6.5×13) lathe and a vertical slide. This caused a few head scratching moments, figuring out how to hold the T6/HE30 alloy for the milling/turning operations, but it did teach me a few things. The hardest parts were clamping the longer sections (such as the fore-end) and keeping it all square. Due to the short cross-slide travel I had to keep re-setting the parts. I managed to keep all measurements to .0001″ (one thousandth). I’m most proud of the trigger guard (photo below). This took a full day but came out really well, even if I say so myself.”
Belt-Driven Front Rest
We’re impressed with Steve’s ingenious front rest. Steve explains: “The rest is belt-driven and still in the experimental stage — hence no powder coating or polishing yet. I may have gone over the top as the key moving parts (the pulleys) run on three (3) types of bearings: radial; reamed bush; and a ball race. The main post runs on a radial bearing and the feet even have bearings in them, so when I raise the main body up (for rough height adjustment) the foot stays static.”
Will Steve build another rifle? Steve says he will, and he’s upgraded his tools: “Since building the rifle I have acquired a bigger lathe (Harrison m250) and a milling machine. For the next project I hope to be able to do the barrel work (threading, chambering, crowning) as well.” The next gun might be another Dasher. Steve explains: “After extensive reading on AccurateShooter.com, I chose the 6mm Dasher chambering, as I have a shoulder problem and can’t shoot a rifle with a lot of recoil.”
Brownells has released its first-ever Personal Protection & Home Defense Catalog. This full-color, 64-page Catalog (issue #1) features the most popular accessories, parts, holsters, magazines, cleaning supplies, and ammunition for home defense and personal protection. Additionally, the “Preparedness” section features an array of compact flashlights, knives, multi-tools, first-aid kits and emergency bags, plus less-lethal devices like the C2 Taser, collapsible batons, and pepper spray.
Frank Brownell Receives Honor From American Custom Gunmakers Guild
Frank Brownell, longtime President and now Chairman of the Board of Brownells, Inc., was recognized by the American Custom Gunmakers Guild (ACGG) on Thursday, March 28, 2013, during the Brownells 7th Annual Gunsmith Conference & Career Fair.
Guild members surprised Brownell by presenting him with an Honorary Life Membership to the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. Brownell is the first and only non-craftsman to receive the prestigious award, according to the President of the ACGG, Michael Ullman.
“I was totally taken aback by this award,” said Frank Brownell. “I love the incredibly beautiful, functional guns the folks in the Guild build. Their craftsmanship is simply superb [and] their passion is creating these amazing works of art[.] I am deeply honored, and thank them all so very much.”
Our IT guy, Jay (aka ‘JayChris’ in the Forum) shoots F-Class with a 31.5″-barreled rifle. He wanted a quality soft-case that could protect his F-Class rifle and the large Nightforce 12-42 NSX scope on top. After looking at many options, Jay selected the Bald Eagle BE1021 Long Rifle Case. Jay tells us: “I just bought one of these, after seeing a couple guys with them at the range. They can easily handle a long prone or F-Class rifle and have good padding (similar to the Creedmoor case) and seem well-built. I also noticed a lot of the sling shooters showing up with them.” Bald Eagle offers this case design in two colors: black (BE1021) or red (BE1020). The BE1020/21 soft cases measure 55″ long by 13″ tall. There is a large, zippered compartment on both sides of the case.
Amazon Buyer Review (by Gonzos):
This is a well-made, sturdy case for large rifles with a scope. Easily fits my 31-inch barreled F-Class rifle with a 12X42 Nightforce scope on it. I have no problems with it at all — in fact this is my third one. I wish the side pocket was full length (to hold a cleaning rod) but other than that it is perfect.
Bigger is Better?
Yes, size matters — at least when it comes to gun safes. Is your current safe bursting at the seams with your ever-growing firearms collection? Perhaps you need a little more vertical clearance for your Lahti L-39 or favorite Punt Gun? Well Superior Safe Co. has a solution for you — a humongous safe that stands 10-feet tall and weighs more than a pick-up truck. For reference, the young man in the picture, Greg from Pyramyd Air, is an honest 6’3″ tall.
Sized Right — For a 7-Footer
Now if you’re not an NBA center, the lock placement on this jumbo safe is not very practical. We note that the keypad is a good foot above Greg’s head, making access somewhat difficult for the “vertically challenged” customer. We’re not sure what Superior Safe hand in mind there — unless this mega-safe was really created for Shaquille O’Neal or Yao Ming. Still, Americans love big stuff — big cars, big houses, and, of course, big guns. At least if you purchase one of these monsters, you’ll have the peace of mind that a smash-and-grab thief can’t roll it away on a hand dolly. Superior Safe, which displayed this yellow giant at last year’s NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits, explains that this is a “custom model” not on the normal price list — face it, if you need to ask about the price, you can’t afford it. Joking aside, if you really need this kind of capacity for a firearms collection (with a punt gun or Lahti), you’d be wise to consider a custom walk-in vault, built into a room in your house. (Safe photo courtesy Pyramyd Air.)
What is a Punt Gun? A punt gun is an extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. Punt guns could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound of shot at a time. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. Punt guns were too big to hold so they were often mounted directly on the punts (boats) used for hunting, hence their name. Generally the gun was fixed to the punt, requiring the hunter to manuever the entire boat to aim the gun. Firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards from recoil. Sometimes fleets of punt gun-boats were used together. In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. In the United Kingdom, a 1995 survey showed fewer than 50 active punt guns still in use. UK law limits punt guns to a bore diameter of 1.75 inches (1 1/8 pounder). Learn more at Wikipedia.com.
Lahti L-39 photo, courtesy Gordon Greene, originally appeared in The Gun Zone.
The new 34th Edition Blue Book of Gun Values has just been released, and is available now for $29.38. The Blue Book of Gun Values, by S. P. Fjestad, is the top-selling book in our AccurateShooter Bookstore which operates through Amazon.com. The 34th Edition of the Blue Book has 2,408 pages, easily making it the highest page count of any firearms book currently in print. This resource includes nearly 1,500 gun manufacturers, almost 20,000 gun model descriptions, and over 175,000 prices!
Updated Products and Prices
New 2013 domestic and imported makes and models have been included. All gun values have been thoroughly updated for both modern and antique firearms, including the recent paramilitary style guns. Other features include the 80-page color Photo Percentage Grading System (PPGS) and serialization and proofmark sections to help in identifying firearms. The Blue Book of Gun Values is the firearm industry’s most trusted reference book with over 1.5 million copies in print.
NEW!! CD-ROM and Online Version of Blue Book
The Blue Book’s Publisher now offers a CD-ROM version of the Blue Book of Gun Values. Priced at $34.95, this contains all the information from the printed version of the 34th Edition Blue Book of Gun Values as well as over 3,500 color images packed on an easy-to-use disc.
The Blue Book of Gun Values is now available as an online subscription for $34.95. The online subscription contains the entire database of the current Blue Book of Gun Values, but it also has many features not available with the printed version, including quarterly updates, over 2,500 firearm images, complete search abilities, and inventory capabilities. You can also get a combo package of book and online data access. If you purchase the book directly from the publishers for $44.95, for an additional $5.00 you can get a one-year online subscription. You must use discount code 34GUNSUB5 at checkout to receive the $5 subscription.
Learn About Blue Book of Gun Values NEW Online Database:
Nine-Part Video Guide for Blue Blue Users
To assist Blue Book readers, Blue Book Publications has created a nine-part instructional video series on YouTube. Part 1, the Introduction, provides an overview. Each of the other eight (8) short videos explains a key feature of the Blue Book of Gun Values and how to best utilize it. Watch one or more videos, according to your interests.
Sinclair Int’l now carries Bullet Sample Packs from Bullet Proof Samples LLC. These 12-bullet packs are available for Berger, Barnes, and Nosler bullets in popular weights, types, and calibers. With the sample packs, during load development, you can try out a variety of projectiles without investing in an entire box of each type. That’s smart. Sample packs range in price from $5.99 to $15.99 (for twelve bullets per pack). Most of the Berger bullet packs are priced under $10.00, with many in the $6-$7 range.
CLICK HERE for the Sinclair Int’l bullet sample pack webpage. (Once there, select Barnes, Berger, or Nosler). You’ll also find the sample packs on page six of the Sinclair Int’l print catalog. To place an order, or for additional information, call 800-717-8211 or visit www.sinclairintl.com.
ISSC will soon be shipping its new SPA 22/17 series of rimfire rifles. These rifles all feature a fast, biathlon-style, Straight-Pull Action (SPA). This allows for rapid cycling without having to lift your head off the stock. Watch the video below and you can see how you can easily work the toggle action with thumb and two fingers. ISSC offers the SPA 22/17 in three popular rimfire chamberings: .22 LR, .22 WMR, and 17 HMR. We think the 17 HMR version of this little rifle would be a great “carry-around” varmint rig. And the “Target” model, as chambered in .22 LR, seems ideal for the popular “Rimfire Tactical” game.
The gun is very accurate. Steve notes: “I have shot the rifle to 1100 yards and it shoots well. Last time out the rifle dropped just one point at 1000 yards and 5 points at 1100 yards [English scoring system]. I know it’s not pretty, but it got me shooting long range F-Class for peanuts.” Message to Steve: Don’t worry how it looks. As another Forum member observed: “Any rifle that shoots well at 1100 yards is beautiful….”
Guild members surprised Brownell by presenting him with an Honorary Life Membership to the American Custom Gunmakers Guild. Brownell is the first and only non-craftsman to receive the prestigious award, according to the President of the ACGG, Michael Ullman.
Bigger is Better?
A punt gun is an extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations and private sport. Punt guns could have bore diameters exceeding 2 inches (51 mm) and fire over a pound of shot at a time. A single shot could kill over 50 waterfowl resting on the water’s surface. Punt guns were too big to hold so they were often mounted directly on the punts (boats) used for hunting, hence their name. Generally the gun was fixed to the punt, requiring the hunter to manuever the entire boat to aim the gun. Firing the gun often propelled the punt backwards from recoil. Sometimes fleets of punt gun-boats were used together. In the United States, this practice depleted stocks of wild waterfowl and by the 1860s most states had banned the practice. In the United Kingdom, a 1995 survey showed fewer than 50 active punt guns still in use. UK law limits punt guns to a bore diameter of 1.75 inches (1 1/8 pounder). Learn more at 
NEW!! CD-ROM and Online Version of Blue Book
