AccurateShooter.com offers dozens of FREE, printable targets for target practice, load development, and fun shooting. We also offer a few samples of the most popular NRA Bullseye targets. One or more of these printable targets should work for most training purposes. However, some readers have asked “where can we get the real targets… exactly like the ones used in NRA, IBS and NBRSA shooting matches?”
Sources for Official Shooting Competition Targets
Here are four sources for official match targets: ALCO Target Company, American Target Company, National Target Company, and Pistoleer.com. All four of these vendors carry nearly all the NRA High Power and Smallbore targets, including the new, smaller F-Class Targets. All three sources also have international 300m and 300m-reduced-to-300-yards targets. Other NRA-licensed target vendors are
Central Target Company (Kentucky), (502) 895-3390; and U.S. Target Company (Michigan), (800) 746-6836.
National Target and Pistoleer.com sell IBS targets for rimfire (50 yard) benchrest, short-range centerfire Benchrest (100, 200, 300 yards), Hunter BR Rifle (100, 200, 300 yards), plus the official 600-yard and 1000-yard IBS targets. Neither National Target nor Pistoleer.com lists a separate line of NBRSA targets, but we are told that National Target supplies NBRSA matches.
Pistoleer.com Ph: (618) 288-4588 12 Schiber Court Maryville, IL 62062
Alternate NBRSA Target Source
NBRSA 600-yard and 1000-yard targets are also available from Karl Huntstiger, wfo13 [at] aol.com, 2901 E. Cortez Street, Phoenix, AZ 85068. We are informed that Karl gets the targets from NationalTarget.com. But if an item is out of stock with National Target you can contact Karl — he’ll know where to find what you need.
Most “tactical” shooters are already familiar with the Pod-Loc, created by Terry Cross (KMW Long Range Solutions). But varminters and our foreign readers may not know about this product, a simple adjustable handle that makes a world of difference when shooting a Harris swivel bipod.
The Pod-Loc is a “must-have” accessory for anyone using a Harris swivel-model (S-series) bipod. This unique device (priced about $25.00) transforms a Harris Swivel into an easy-to-use platform for target-shooting or varminting. The Pod-Loc cures the one major flaw of Harris Swivel bipods — the tensioning system. It is very difficult to dial out all “bipod flop” using the standard Harris tensioning knob. You just can’t get enough torque on the standard knurled swivel adjuster without resorting to a pair of pliers, and that would mar the metal. The Pod-Loc solves that problem with a short handle providing more leverage. With one hand, you can lock the bipod rock-solid, and just as easily reduce tension any time you want.
Using the Pod-Loc is easy, once you get the handle situated right. With the handle at a 4 o’clock position, the rifle should be free to swivel. Adjust the cant angle until your gun is positioned correctly for the terrain. Then just rotate the handle clockwise until you feel resistance. You can set the Pod-Loc so the rifle can still swivel a little with some effort, or you can crank the handle over farther to the left (clockwise) and effectively lock the unit in place. Once you’ve set the tension, the spring-loaded handle can be rotated out of the way without altering the tension setting. Just push the center button, pull straight back on the handle and swing it to 3 o’clock or 9 o’clock as you prefer. We advise doing this when you are carrying your rifle in the field.
Installation is a little time-consuming, but if you follow the instructions below, it shouldn’t be difficult. No special tools are required other than a pair of pliers, a flat-blade screwdriver, and a 1/4″ socket with driver. You really do need exactly the right socket however.
Now through the end of January, Midway has three items on sale that caught our attention.
Dewey 44″ Cleaning Rods for $25.99
First, MidwayUSA has marked down Dewey nylon-coated 44″ cleaning rods from $31.49 to $25.99. The sale price applies to both 22-26 caliber rods (item 971244), and 27-34 caliber rods (item 268904). For most target rifles, a Dewey rod is a very good choice when considering both price and performance. Dewey rods have nice handles, good bearings, and durable nylon covers. Plus Dewey stands behind its products. The 44″ length should work with barrels up to 28″ (without muzzle brake). Note, however, these rods have a male tip, so you’ll need an adapter (which Dewey provides) for use with male-threaded jags.
Lee Universal Decapping Die for $7.99
There are many situations when you may want to remove primers from fired brass without running them into a sizing die fitted with a decapping rod. We often do this with pistol brass that’s slated to be loaded in a progressive press. Popping the primers first allows you to clean and inspect the primer pockets before loading the brass — and it also reduces the effort to run the progressive. If your rifle brass is dirty, you may want to de-cap before sizing. Lee makes a simple, inexpensive decapping die that every reloader should have. It will quickly pop out a primer without touching the rest of the case. The Lee Universal Decapping Die will work with cartridges from 17 Fireball all the way up to 45-70. However, NOTE that the decapping pin supplied with this Lee die is TOO LARGE for LAPUA BR and PPC flash holes — you’ll need to either turn down the pin, or decap with a different tool for the Lapua cases with .059″ flash-holes. With the exception of those cases, the Lee decapping die works very well and it’s a bargain. This month at MidwayUSA it’s on sale for just $7.99 (item 136543).
Bore-Store Synthetic Fleece Storage Sacks
In this Editor’s opinion, Bore-Store storage bags are the best option on the market for storing rifles, shotguns, and pistols in a gun safe or storage cabinet. They are much less bulky than soft gun cases, so you can fit more guns in your safe. The thick, synthetic fleece pile cushions your gun, safeguarding against dings and scratches. The fabric is breathable, so moisture doesn’t collect on the gun, and the fabric is treated with silicone AND a rust inhibitor. I have Bore-Stores for every firearm in my collection. Over the years they have kept my rifles rust-free and protected fine metal and wood finishes from scratches. MidwayUSA now has a wide variety of Bore-Stores on sale. For example, the 46″ Scoped Rifle case (item 570-349) is marked down from $13.49 to $9.99. This will fit rifles with barrels up to 28″ and maybe 29″ with a little stretching. The 42″ AR15 Case (item 360-601) is marked down from $15.59 to $10.49. This case is extra-wide, with plenty of clearance for pistol grip and carry handle. Other Bore-Stores for handguns and shotguns are on sale through the end of January.
When working on firearms, one is constantly in need of hex (allen) key wrenches in a variety of sizes, both metric and SAE (English). You can get a folding (swiss army knife-style) allen wrench set, but that may not give the reach you need and you can’t apply much torque. For heavier jobs, such as loosening heavily-torqued action screws, you’ll want a set of T-Handle wrenches.
Color-Coded 10-tool Hex Key Sets Harbor Freight has attractively-priced hex key wrench sets in both metric and English (SAE) sizes. Each $5.99 set comes with a nice, powder-coated metal storage bracket with tool sizes clearly marked on the front. The handle tops are conveniently color-coded in bright primary colors, and key sizes are stamped in the handle. The color coding is really, really useful. For example, I know that a yellow (5mm) metric key works for the action screws on my Tikka, while a green (5/32″) SAE wrench fits the action screws on my Savage. A purple (1/8″) SAE key fits the door jam tensioner on my gun safe. It’s easy to look at the tool holder on my workbench and pick the right hex key.
The SAE Hex Key Set (item 37861-4VGA) contains 10 tools, 3/32″ to 3/8″. The Metric Hex Key Set (item 37862-4VGA) has 10 tools from 2mm to 10mm. The shanks are constructed from carbon steel. Each set is just $5.99.
This Editor has been using the Harbor Freight Hex Key Sets (both metric and SAE) for over a year now, and they have performed well. The handles haven’t slipped, the tips haven’t rounded off, and nothing has rusted. Now I wouldn’t use these bargain tools to wrench a race-car engine, but for simple around-the-house tasks they work fine. I also put the appropriate action-screw hex key(s) in my range kit whenever I go shooting. I really like fact that each tool size has a different color handle with the size stamped in the plastic. The mounting bracket is nicely made and clearly labeled. At $5.99 per set, it’s hard to beat this tool deal.
Torx T-Handle Wrench Set for Just $9.99
Harbor Freight also offers other budget-priced T-handle sets, including a 7-Piece T-Handle Torx Key Set containing T15, T20, T25, T30, T40, T45 and T50 Torx keys. Each key in this $9.99 set has two drive ends: one long to provide up to 25° tilt angle for access in hard-to-reach areas, and one short for extra rigidity under high loads.
The Daily Bulletin displays the most recent articles on the first page. To see older articles you can simply use the “Older Posts >>” link at the bottom of this page. That’s handy for scanning back a few days. However, we now have nearly 1300 posts, generated over the past two years. All those older posts are archived! If you’re looking for a particular story posted some months ago, it’s best to use our search tools, which are on the right side of the page.
Folks email us regularly saying: “Hey, there was an interesting item in the Daily Bulletin, but I can’t find it now.” Take heart. Every Bulletin story is saved in our archive. You can always navigate to all previous posts using our multiple navigation tools.
The fastest and easiest method to find older posts is simply to search by keyword, or click one of the topic headings. If you want to see a video, for example, just click on “Videos”. If you’re looking for all stories about scopes, click “Optics”. To find a particular item, such as the story on Barnard actions, just type “Barnard” in the search field and click “Search”. Our search works very fast! Try it, you’ll like it.
You can also access archived posts by clicking on a Month (such as March 2008), in the archive list. This will bring up the most recent dozen posts from that month. To see older posts within that month, use the “Older Posts >>” Link again.
There are many “for charity” shotgun tournaments held each year, but the “Shoot for the Future” shotgun event in Nashville, TN, is special — in this program, the folks who are being helped get to do the shooting. Wheel-chair-bound shooters participate side-by-side with able-bodied shooters. Proceeds from the event are used to help persons with disabilities, and help fund spinal-cord injury research. The event is organized each year by volunteers and by physicians from the Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center.
On January 7, 2009, Shooting USA television will feature the “Shoot for the Future” charity tournament conducted at the Tennessee Clay Target Complex in Nashville. Shooting USA’s “Sighting In” segment includes interviews with disabled shooters and doctors from the Vanderbilt Medical Center, such as neuro-surgeon Peter Conrad. Conrad noted: “Our [disabled patients] are not only engaged in … being part of the community, but they’re participating as active competitors in the tournament, and that’s inspiring to anybody.” Conrad also predicts that developments in medical science may, in a decade, allow some of the wheelchair shooters to walk again. The YouTube video below previews the 1/7/2009 broadcast. (Editor: Do watch the video — it has an uplifting message.)
The next “Shoot for the Future” wheelchair shotgun tournament will be held on Saturday, October 3, 2009, at the Tennessee Clay Target Complex, 1100 County Hospital Road, Nashville, TN. For more information, visit the Shoot for the Future website.
If you’re interested in developing a program for disabled shooters at your club or shooting facility, contact the NRA’s Disabled Shooting Services Program, under the direction of Vanessa Warner. Call Vanessa at (703) 267-1495 or email: disabled-shooting [at] nra-hq.org.
First, we’d like to wish all our readers a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year. We hope that, in 2009, you’ll have time to enjoy your precision rifles, and spend more time at the range, hopefully with good friends that share your “addiction to accuracy”.
We are working on a major site upgrade for 2009. This should make the site faster and easier to navigate (with better access to the archives). The Forum, Bulletin, and site content will be better integrated. Plus we can make the Classified Ads section in our Forum much more user-friendly. We also plan more product tests. We have a brand new 6-6.5×47/6.5×47 switch barrel rifle ready for testing. This will help us provide data for a planned 6.5×47 Cartridge Guide. We’ve also assembled six chronographs for a chrono comparison “shoot-out”. And we will continue to showcase a wide variety of accurate rifles in our ongoing “Gun of the Week” feature.
But to do all that, we need your support.
As your Editor, Moderator, Photo Guru, Videographer, and Site Programmer, I’m maxing out on the number of hours available in each week (I work 7 days a week on the site). For the site to continue to expand its content, we need to bring in paid helpers. Right now, Google Analytics estimates the site reaches over 50,000 shooters every WEEK. If the majority of those users could provide a small donation every year, we could deliver MORE stories, MORE tests, MORE Gun of the Week features, and provide more of the photos and videos everyone enjoys. (Yes commercial sponsors help greatly, but their contributions alone won’t do the job.)
In the past quarter a couple dozen guys have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who use the site regularly without contributing one penny.
Here’s my proposal. First, if you have used our FREE Classifieds to successfully sell your rifles or shooting gear, consider sending in a dollar or two from your sale proceeds. Second, for those who use the site regularly, consider donating One Dollar a Month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee and much less than many websites now charge for their “premium content areas”. Consider this — what do you pay for a movie ticket these days? Probably $7-8 dollars for 90 minutes of escapism. For a buck a month you can help this site provide a YEAR’s worth of info, tests, and shooting news that you won’t find anywhere else.
Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just scoll down to the bottom of this page and click the DONATE Button to make a donation. You don’t need a Paypal account to contribute. Any sum is welcome — donations need not be large. If 20% of our readers gave even $5.00 a year we could hire a staffer to do research, create videos, and help with field tests.
If you don’t like Paypal, you can send a check. Make the check payable to our Asst. Editor Jason Baney, list your Forum Name (if any), and mail the check to:
Molded polymer stocks are light and inexpensive. However, they tend to be flexy and hard to bed. Savage has engineered a solution to this. The new Savage “AccuStock” employs an aluminum inner section combining a bedding block with a “spine” in the forearm. According to Savage: “With its integral aluminum spine that runs from the action down the length of the forearm, the AccuStock is the most rigid factory polymer stock in the marketplace. No matter how hot the weather or the barrel, the forend stays rock-solid and the barrel remains free-floating.”
The aluminum cradle surrounding the action is more than a conventional bedding block. The AccuStock uses a wedge bolt to push the recoil lug back into the aluminum spine to prevent any movement forward and aft, while the bedding cradle squeezes the action from the sides when the action screws are tightened. That is something new, and it seems like a promising design. Savage explains: “Pillar-bedded and v-block stocks, as good as they are, only apply bedding pressure on one axis, up and down.” By contrast, the new AccuStock is designed to grip the action from the sides as well as the bottom.
The AccuStock bedding block system will be initially offered in just two Savage models, the Model 10 FCP, and the Model 10 Precision Carbine. The 10 FCP comes in .308 Win and .223 Rem, and features a 24″ fluted, heavy barrel, a detachable Box Magazine (DBM), and a new (for Savage), factory muzzle brake. The Model 10 Precision Carbine will also be chamberd in .308 and .223. It will have a 20″ medium-contour barrel, detachable box magazine, but no muzzle brake.
The NRA offers a new website dedicated to the interests of hunters, particularly big game hunters. The NRAHuntersRights.org website offers current news items, gear reviews, and stories about hunts in the USA and abroad. There is also a Trophy Gallery and a state-by-state directory of Places to Hunt. The site also allows readers to share their views via a Hunters’ Blog and Forum.
Site Features More Than Politics
NRAHuntersRights.org might be better titled “Hunters’ News”. The site is more a general interest resource for hunters than a platform for gun rights advocacy. While it does have links to gun rights stories, most of the content covers the basics… where to hunt, how to hunt, and what equipment to hunt with. You’ll also find interesting historical stories. Currently, HuntersRights.org features a video about Teddy Roosevelt’s .405-caliber, lever-action 1895 Winchester, the rifle Teddy called “Big Medicine.”
In the video, National Firearms Museum curator Phil Schreier explains that the 1895 Winchester accompanied the former commander in chief on a 1910 safari in Africa, as well as Roosevelt’s famed 1915 expedition to Brazil to find the source of the Amazon River. Roosevelt used his .405 to hunt moose, bear and elk stateside, too.
Smith & Wesson has announced a recall of the bolts of all i-Bolt rifles manufactured by Smith & Wesson prior to December 1, 2008. This applies to all i-Bolt rifle chamberings. The potential problem is a flaw within the striker mechanism that would allow discharge without pulling the trigger. S&W’s recall notice explains: “A condition that may exist with the bolt supplied with some rifles that would allow the striker to become disengaged from its locking tabs during cycling of the bolt, allowing the rifle to fire without the trigger being pulled. In the interest of consumer safety, we are initiating this recall to allow for the prompt inspection and, if necessary, the repair and replacement of each bolt.” Owners need not return the entire rifle, but you may be asked to return your bolt assembly for inspection, and (if necessary), repair.
Smith & Wesson advises all i-Bolt rifle owners to contact Smith & Wesson directly at 1-800-331-0852 or send email to ibolt@smith-wesson.com to arrange for the inspection and repair, if necessary, of your bolt. You may also use THIS LINK to enter your i-Bolt return information. Smith & Wesson can then provide a prepaid UPS shipping form and shipping instructions.
Most “tactical” shooters are already familiar with the Pod-Loc, created by Terry Cross (KMW Long Range Solutions). But varminters and our foreign readers may not know about this product, a simple adjustable handle that makes a world of difference when shooting a Harris swivel bipod.
There are many “for charity” shotgun tournaments held each year, but the “Shoot for the Future” shotgun event in Nashville, TN, is special — in this program, the folks who are being helped get to do the shooting. Wheel-chair-bound shooters participate side-by-side with able-bodied shooters. Proceeds from the event are used to help persons with disabilities, and help fund spinal-cord injury research. The event is organized each year by volunteers and by physicians from the Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center.
In the past quarter a couple dozen guys have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who use the site regularly without contributing one penny.
