MidwayUSA is running some good bargains this month. For starters, MidwayUSA has announced a huge sale on Leupold VX-III scopes. (Midsouth Shooters Supply and Grafs.com are also offering specials on Leupolds currently.) Check MidwayUSA product listings for discounts up to $140.00. Here are sale prices on some popular models:
Leupold VX-III EFR Target Scope Adj. Obj. 6.5-20x40mm
Fine Duplex Matte, Product 468522, $529.99 marked down from $669.99.
Leupold VX-III Rifle Scope 4.5-14x40mm
Duplex Reticle Matte, Product 588146, $429.99 marked down from $529.99.
Leupold VX-III Rifle Scope 3.5-10x40mm
Duplex Reticle Matte, Product 385745, $399.99 marked down from $479.99.
Lapua Brass and Budget Items Discounted Also
You’ll find particularly good prices right now on nearly the whole line-up of Lapua brass. 6mmBR brass is $69.99 (discounted from $77.99) while and .308 Win brass is just $60.99/100, marked down from $67.99. There are some cheaper sources for Lapua brass, such as Bruno Shooters Supply, but this is a good deal for MidwayUSA.
Other “stocking-stuffer” reloading accessories are on sale. Frankford Arsenal Digital Calipers are marked down to $19.99. That’s a great deal on very functional calipers… not the best mind you, but perfectly acceptable as a back-up set. These are currently out of stock, but MidwayUSA expects more inventory 12/15 and the $19.99 price is good through the end of the year. Also through Dec. 31st, 22-caliber BoreSnakes are marked down from $14.99 to $12.99. While we much prefer (and recommend) cleaning with a one-piece rod and good bore guide, the BoreSnake is a useful “field expedient” cleaning device. It is particularly useful for AR15s and for rifles with enclosed receivers which cannot use a breech-entry cleaning rod.
AccurateShooter.com has many readers outside of North America. One of those is Robert Chlapek, a precision rimfire shooter from the Czech Republic. Robert shoots a variety of smallbore disciplines, including many ‘Czech Specialities’ with innovative and challenging targets.
The “Best Rifle” for just $250.00
Robert uses an amazingly accurate old Suhl 150 for many events. With his Suhl, Robert has harvested many trophies and awards (see photo at left). Robert obtained the rifle for a song — just $250.00 in US dollars. Robert explains how he acquired this wonderful rifle: “For my disciplines, I needed a very accurate rifle, without too many modifications. And because of my financial situation, I needed a cheap one. One day I met with Mr. Zdenek Jerabek (father of Tomas Jerabek, Czech sport shooting and Olympic representative) and he offered to sell me his old Haenel Suhl 150. He asked about $250 (it was not very good price, because in that time, normal price of Suhl 150 here in Czech Republic was about $100-150). And the rifle stock and finish were in very bad condition. But he said to me, ‘Robert, this is maybe the best Suhl in Czech Republic’ and he shows me the amazing history of top scores by this rifle, so I made a decision and bought it. I put a new stock and new finish on it, bought a Weaver 4-16×42 V16 scope — ideal optics for my disciplines, and started to compete with this wonderful rifle. I have best results with RWS R50 ammunition, perhaps the best for this East German rifle.”
Czech Rimfire Disciplines — Beyond the Ordinary Bullseye Game
In addition to regular bullseye matches, Robert shoots a couple disciplines that are popular in his country. Robert explains: “In Czech Republic, we have national discipline (organized by Czech shooting federation) named ‘Disappearing targets to 50 meters’. This is a 22LR rimfire discipline with two categories. First is with scoped rifle, the second with iron sights. This old discipline has three stages:
1) Shooting 20 rounds at classic round targets at 50 meters.
2) Shooting at disappearing targets from 17 meters to 50 meters.
3) Shooting at disappearing targets at 33 meters and after that, shooting five (5) running targets at 50 meters.
For the ‘Disappearing Targets’ event, maximum score is 460 points. All targets are shot from the prone position. With iron sights, you can use only your rifle sling. In scoped rifle class, you can use a front rest, but the scope magnification is limited to 4X power.”
Smallbore Sniper Matches
Robert’s second discipline is “Smallbore Sniper”. Chlapek told us “This is a new discipline we organized with some friends three years ago and it is now very popular for smallbore shooters in Czech Republic. We have no restrictions on the rifle used. Our stages are very interesting, but a little difficult I think. This discipline is much better than benchrest in my opinion, but we don’t have comparable benchrest tradition as in the USA.” To learn more about Smallbore Sniper discipline, CLICK THIS LINK for match results, photos, and much more.
Shown below are some other interesting targets shot in Czech Club competitions. We love the match-stick targets … now, that’s challenging!
If you want to see Olympic-class shooters in action, head to Colorado this weekend. Approximately 220 rifle and pistol airgun shooters from across the United States as well as Canada, France, Great Britain, South Africa and Sweden will gather at the U.S. Olympic Shooting Center in Colorado Springs, CO, December 5-7 to compete at the 2008 USA Shooting 3 X Air Match. This three-day event serves as a qualifier for the Bavarian Airgun Match to be held in Munich, Germany in January 2009.
Among the athletes competing will be two-time Olympian Jason Turner, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in Men’s Air Pistol. Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center Resident Athletes and 2008 Olympians Jamie Beyerle and Emily Caruso will compete in the Women’s Air Rifle event. Vying for titles in pistol will be 2008 Olympians Brian Beaman and Brenda Shinn.
NRA President John Sigler has established a committee to consider NRA sanctioning of Multi-Gun (3-Gun) competitions. The new Special Committee on Multi-Gun Competition met initially on October 25, 2008 at NRA Headquarters. Task Force members include: NRA Pres. John Sigler, Chairman, Bill Allen, Vice Chairman, Gregory Coker, Andrew Horner, Denise Johnson, John Gangl, David Power, Steve Sutherland, Mr. Randy Luth, and Aaron Hampton, SFC. Committee members were chosen from Multi-Gun match organizers and firearms manufacturers with specific products for multi-gun competition.
Multi-Gun competition is a fast-moving action shooting sport employing rifle, pistol and shotgun or any combination of these firearms. Multi-Gun matches feature scripted “stages” in which competitors move from target to target with loaded firearms, engaging both paper and reactive targets. Multi-Gun matches sanctioned by the NRA would be a major change from the traditional bull’s-eye precision competition normally associated with the NRA. There are a number of large Multi-Gun tournaments bidding for NRA sanctioning. With these tournaments as a base, the NRA could introduce this exciting tactical competition to local affiliated clubs across the USA.
Multi-Gun matches feature “fast and furious” action. In the video below, Chris Tilley competes at the 2007 USPSA Multi-Gun Nationals.
Tired of shoveling snow, or scraping ice off the windshield of your car? Well in the “bottom half” of the world it’s summer time. Grab a seat on a 747 and in 12-14 hours you could be enjoying the summer sun in Australia or New Zealand.
Here’s a story of a New Zealand adventure that should whet your appetite for a down-under diversion. Forum member Mike in NZ reports on his “Aerial Safari”, a trip to hunt NZ’s “red hind” deer:
“Under the shadow of the Matemateaonga Range in the central North Island of New Zealand there is a magical piece of land. Initially broken in out of native bush in the early 1900s, it was left to revert during the 1930s before being partially developed again during the late 1940s. Now it is run as a hunting block catering for local and overseas hunters.
“Aotearoa”, meaning “long, white cloud”, is the native Maori word for New Zealand.
The country is a rolling contour, and is a mixture of rough pasture, scrubby gullies and native bush. It bounds onto the Wanganui Forest Park, which is thousands of acres of dense bush. The only access is by jet boat up the Whanganui river, or by air. (There’s a flattish piece of land on the property that is quaintly referred to as an ‘airstrip’.)
The area is a hunting paradise containing good numbers of free range red deer, fallow deer, wild pigs and goats. It is run as a privately-owned hunting block. I have been fortunate enough to be able to hunt there over the past six years, and have just come back from a typical meat-hunting trip.
There were six of us (Mike, Mike, Chris, Al, Colin and Jeff), and the idea was to take a couple of meat animals each. Transport was by air (Cessna 206). This is a six-seater (including the pilot), so we elected to do two trips. The first trip caried five of us plus the pilot and a bit of gear. For the second trip the back four seats are removed allowing plenty of room to take lots of gear in, and (more importantly) plenty of room to (hopefully) take meat out at the end of the trip. Beats walking….
Hardware consisted of one Tikka T3 in .223 Rem with a Leupold 3-9 variable, one Rem Model 7 in 7-08 with a similar scope, one Sako Finnbear in .270 Win with a Redfield vari, one .223 Rem Zastava with a cheapo scope, and two scoped No. 4 Enfields in .303 British.
After a 15-minute flight, we made a couple of low passes over the ‘airstrip’ to make sure that everything looked OK (well, as good as it was going to get anyway), and then touched down. There were no baggage handlers or airline hostesses to greet us, so we carried our gear up to the lodge, had a bit of lunch and got organised for an evening hunt.
I headed down to some grass and scrub river terraces that are normally pretty productive. The wind was in my favor, and I opted to drop down to the terraces through the scrub rather than take the track down as that would mean that there would be less chance of being seen from the bottom. I was doing a slow sneak around the bush edge when a red hind appeared grazing around the edge of a finger of scrub at about 100 yards. I slowly sunk down and did a quick little crawl to a handy little rise to use for a rest. As I eased the rifle up onto the rise the deer saw the movement and was instantly on alert.
I was considering a neck shot, but as the deer was on the verge of doing a runner, I played it safe and put the crosshairs straight up the front leg and a bit under half way down. Allowing for the fact that she was slightly facing towards me, I squeezed the trigger, the .223 cracked and the deer trotted about 10 yards and piled up.” Here she is, a New Zealand Red Hind:
Now through December 8, 2008 (at midnight), Cabela’s is offering a heck of a deal. Buy anything in the store totalling at least $100.00, and Cabela’s will deduct $20.00 from the final cost. Yep, that even applies to sale items and “Bargain Cave” items. Is there a catch? Yes, you can only use this offer one time (so you can’t do multiple hundred-dollar orders to get multiple $20 savings.)
To qualify for this offer, click the link below. Enter an email address. Cabela’s will send you an e-mail with your Cabela’s Buck Rebate Number and Code. Supply this code when you “check-out” with your purchase.
What to Get for $100.00?
Consider purchasing some Black Hills remanufactured .223 Rem ammo. This is the same ammunition the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit uses in 600-yard matches. Very accurate, it can produce 2″ groups at 300 meters in accurized match rifles. The Black Hills “Blue Box” ammo comes 50 rounds per box. Black Hills offers a variety of .223 Rem loads from 52 grains to 77 grains. Loaded with 69gr Sierra MatchKings, the Black Hills ammo is $39.99 per box of 50. You could purchase three (3) boxes, and your total cost (after $20.00 rebate) would be $99.97 (not including shipping).
Leupold has announced that the VX-III Series of scopes will be discontinued. A new optics line (with enhanced features) will be introduced in 2009 and will be called the VX-3. The new features are not yet known, but in the meantime, you’ll find big discounts on current Leupold VX-III optics at major vendors.
Midsouth Shooters Supply has deeply discounted its 2008 Leupold VX-III models. VX-IIIs are now Clearance Items marked down as much as 15%. Midsouth tells us: “Our inventory is limited and will not be restocked until the the New 2009 models are out.” Below is a sample of discounted Leupold VX-III scopes at Midsouth.
The AccurateShooter.com Daily Bulletin becomes more popular all the time. On December 2, 2008, we hit an all-time high in readership: 12,005 pageviews in a single day. As you can see from the chart below, this reflects a steady, positive growth in readership. We want to say “Thanks” to our readers and encourage you to tell your friends about the Daily Bulletin and our website, AccurateShooter.com. As readership increases, so does our ability to offer up-to-date product news and match reports. We take pride is delivering new product info “hot off the press” so you can read it here first.
This ain’t your grandpa’s Savage… that’s for sure. Gary Eliseo, innovative designer/builder of the B1, R1, R5, and RT10 tubegun kits, has been working on a top-secret, single-shot prone rifle based on the Savage Target Action. The prototype has been finished and tested. Eliseo tells us: “Here’s the S1 prototype stock for the new Savage LR Target action I’m now currently testing. It’s chambered in 6BRX, so far it’s performing very well.”
The new Eliseo S1 features a drop-in Savage Target Action that bolts to a milled aluminum sub-chassis. The prototype retains the factory Savage Accutrigger, and Savage bolt handle. There is a +20 MOA extended scope rail fitted to the top of the receiver, while a fully adjustable CSS (Competition Shooting Stuff) stock with cheekpiece is attached at the rear. Because the mounting socket for the buttstock is part of the chassis, the S1 will allow very short length of pull, so this rifle would be ideal for juniors as well as adults. The S1 prototype uses a conventional barrel with a shoulder, but Gary says the kit will work with a barrel nut system. This means S1 owners can install “pre-fit” barrels using a barrel nut.
Interested? Better tell Santa soon. Eliseo says he expects to have the first S1 production models ready for delivery “by Christmas time”. The full S1 kit, with CSS buttstock, will cost $925.00 not including action, barrel, or scope. To place an order, call (714) 630-5734, or email order.info [at] competitionshootingstuff.com .
Powered case prep centers are nothing new. RCBS has offered a little AC-powered unit for years with whirling brushes and chamfering tips. But Hornady has beefed up the concept, adding a drill-press type vertical case trimmer. (Unlike a drill press, however, the case is held in place and the cutter spins below it.)
The new Hornady Lock-N-Load™ Power Case Prep Center is a substantial unit, roughly 2 feet high and 10″ wide at the base. With four (4) attachment bolts, it should be very stable on the bench. There are six (6) power take-offs that extend horizontally from the bottom half of the unit. These all spin at the same time so you can quickly switch from one tool to another. Hornady provides the following tools that operate with the horizontal power take-offs: inside neck chamfer, outside neck chamfer, large flash-hole cleaner, small flash-hole cleaner, and a neck brush. An optional primer pocket reamer and an optional flash-hole deburrer can be purchased separately.
At the middle level of the Hornday unit a case trimming tool is centered in a black plastic tray to catch shavings. The vertical position of the cutter is fixed. You lower the case down on the spinning cutter to trim cases to length. A pivoting handle controls vertical movement of the case which is held by its rim in a shellholder mounted in a chuck. The rotary handle you see in the picture is NOT for power. It is used to adjust the starting height of the chuck/shell-holder assembly. By turning the crank you can move this whole sub-assembly up and down to suit different length cases.
The new Hornady Case Prep Center, product No. 050012, is slated for a 2009 release. MSRP is $431.67, with expected “street price” around $300.00. You should definitely watch the Hornady Video linked below, as it shows the case trimmer in action. If our written description of the inline vertical trimmer left you confused, it will quickly become clear once you watch the video.
Editor’s Comment: If you have hundreds of cases that regularly need trimming, the Hornady Case Prep Center could be a real time-saver, provided that: 1) the cut length can be adjusted with sufficient precision; and, 2) cases can be moved in and out of the holder quickly and efficiently. As for powered case-neck chamfering… we’re a little less enthusiastic about that. It is very easy to ruin cases by over-chamfering. If Hornady really wanted to do this right, it would have the chamfer tool run on the top half of the machine. Then the chamfer depth could be controlled very precisely, with a positive stop, so you couldn’t over-chamfer.
While Hornady’s Case Prep Center can certainly speed up trimming chores, you still have to trim and chamfer in separate steps. Consider that the Gracey Case Trimmer trims-to-length and chamfers (inside and out) all in one operation, processing up to 20 cases per minute. That’s impressive. We do like the powered neck brush on the Hornady unit, however. This could definitely help you prep a large quantity of brass more efficiently.
MidwayUSA is running some good bargains this month. For starters, MidwayUSA has announced a huge sale on Leupold VX-III scopes. (Midsouth Shooters Supply and Grafs.com are also offering specials on Leupolds currently.) Check MidwayUSA product listings for discounts up to $140.00. Here are sale prices on some popular models:
Lapua Brass and Budget Items Discounted Also
AccurateShooter.com has many readers outside of North America. One of those is Robert Chlapek, a precision rimfire shooter from the Czech Republic. Robert shoots a variety of smallbore disciplines, including many ‘Czech Specialities’ with innovative and challenging targets.
The new Eliseo S1 features a drop-in Savage Target Action that bolts to a milled aluminum sub-chassis. The prototype retains the factory Savage Accutrigger, and Savage bolt handle. There is a +20 MOA extended scope rail fitted to the top of the receiver, while a fully adjustable CSS (
Powered case prep centers are nothing new. RCBS has offered a little AC-powered unit for years with whirling brushes and chamfering tips. But Hornady has beefed up the concept, adding a drill-press type vertical case trimmer. (Unlike a drill press, however, the case is held in place and the cutter spins below it.)
At the middle level of the Hornday unit a case trimming tool is centered in a black plastic tray to catch shavings. The vertical position of the cutter is fixed. You lower the case down on the spinning cutter to trim cases to length. A pivoting handle controls vertical movement of the case which is held by its rim in a shellholder mounted in a chuck. The rotary handle you see in the picture is NOT for power. It is used to adjust the starting height of the chuck/shell-holder assembly. By turning the crank you can move this whole sub-assembly up and down to suit different length cases.
