Our Aussie friend Stuart Elliot of BRT Shooters Supply recently filmed some interesting videos at the QTS range in Brisbane, Australia. Stuart told us: “I was shooting in an Air Gun Benchrest match here in Brisbane, Australia. I finished my target early and was awaiting the cease fire and took a short, slow-motion video of windflag behavior.” You may be surprised by the velocity changes and angle swings that occur, even over a relatively short distance (just 25 meters from bench to target).
Here are windflags in slow motion:
The flags show in the videos are “Aussie Wind Flags”, developed by Stuart Elliot. These are sold in the USA by Butch Lambert, through Shadetree Engineering.
Looking for work in the gun industry? The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has you covered. NSSF recently launched a new online job resource to help job seekers locate potential employers. With an active nationwide database of job opportunities, this new, improved platform replaces the NSSF’s previous job posting service, which was pretty basic. The new NSSF Jobs Site site offers robust search features, plus a modern, mobile-friendly interface. It’s easy to upload your Resumé, and the Job Alert feature can send you new listings via email as soon as they post. Using “advanced search” you can filter job offerings by location, category, or experience/education requirements. Visit jobs.nssf.org for current employment opportunities in the shooting, hunting and outdoor industry.
In the just-released June 2015 issue of Shooting Sports USA, you’ll find an excellent profile of SFC Emil Praslick III, a legendary figure in American shooting. As a marksmanship instructor and coach for the USAMU, Praslick has been a mentor for many of America’s greatest marksmen. Praslick has also served as a wind coach for many civilian teams over the years, guiding them to victory in high-level championship events. SFC Praslick plans to retire later this year, when SFC Shane Barnhart will take over as coach of the USAMU Service Rifle Team.
In a wide-ranging Shooting Sports USA interview with writer John Parker, SFC Praslick offers many interesting insights. Here are some highlights (after the jump):
This Editor has a MidwayUSA injection-molded gun cradle, now sold as the Tipton Gun Vise. This product has worked well for everything from an 18″-barreled lever gun to a 32″-barreled F-Class rifle. The unit has proven invaluable for many tasks: cleaning barrels, stock refinishing/bedding, scope mounting, trigger adjusting, bore-scoping barrels, and checking throat length with a Hornady OAL tool. To be honest, I can’t understand how any serious shooter can get along without a product such as this (MTM makes a similar plastic cleaning cradle). That said, The unit isn’t perfect. This gun vise will NOT fit rifles with forearms wider than 3 inches. And if your butt-stock is very shallow (vertically) from comb down to toe, it may not fit the clamping system very well. But, for 95% of the rifles out there, the Tipton Gun Vise works great.
Bargain Pricing on Amazon.com
The Tipton Gun Vise is on sale on Amazon.com for $39.89.
That’s a very good deal for a product you’ll use for years.
Our friend Darrell Buell has a new Beast — a monster 64-inch-long .375 CheyTac that weighs more than 70 pounds! Designed for ultra-long-range shooting (two miles and beyond), this beast represents the state-of-the-art in extreme long-range rifles.
Darrell reports: “This rifle is pretty much purpose-built to shoot 2+ miles extremely accurately. It is a .375 CheyTac (lengthened) built on a BAT 2.5″ action. The custom 35″, 1:10″-twist Brux barrel is a fat, 2″-diameter ‘straight taper’ with fluting. A custom 5″-long muzzle brake is fitted at the end. All barreled action work was done by R.W. Snyder Custom Rifles. The stock was created to fit the build by PDC Custom, and the massive muzzle brake as well.” The “bridge” at the end may look like a barrel block, but it’s not — the barrel completely free-floats. (The Picatinny rail on top of the bridge allows use of an overhanging bipod as an alternative to the JoyPod).
Darrell has lots of elevation on tap: “With 150 MOA in the Ivey rings, another 20 MOA in the scope rail, 55 MOA in the Nightforce Competition scope, and 10 MOA in the FCR-1 reticle, there’s an impressive +235 MOA available.”
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has pledged to donate $2.00 to the NRA for each new Ruger firearm sold between the 2015 and 2016 NRA Annual Meetings, with the goal of giving $4,000,000. Ruger’s donation will benefit the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA).
“We’re bringing back the One Million Gun Challenge with a twist,” said Ruger CEO Mike Fifer. “Our goal is to sell two million firearms in a 12-month period. With that, we pledge to donate not one, but two dollars to the NRA for every new firearm sold. We accomplished our goals to support the NRA in 2012, and … we believe we can do it again.”
Ruger ultimately sold 1.2 million guns in the first challenge, which took place from 2011-2012.
NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox said, “Ruger’s 2 Million Gun Challenge is a model of good corporate citizenship in defense of American freedom. By supporting the NRA’s fight to defend the right to keep and bear arms, Ruger … advances the rights of American gun owners and hunters.”
For more details about the 2015-2016 “2 Million Gun Challenge” and to track its progress, visit Ruger.com/2Million. To learn more about Ruger firearms visit Ruger.com or Facebook.com/Ruger.
On some internet shooting forums, self-declared “experts” advise new rifle shooters to stick to low-end factory rifles. These “experts” (many of whom don’t own a single really accurate rifle), claim that it will take years for a new shooter to learn how to shoot a rifle accurately. So, the argument goes, the accuracy offered by a precision-chambered rifle, with a custom barrel, is “wasted” on a new shooter.
We disagree with that viewpoint, at least when it comes to rifles shot from a rest. Certainly it takes time for a complete novice to learn how to handle the gun and to work the trigger smoothly. However, we’ve seen relatively new shooters, with help from a skilled mentor, do remarkably well with precision rifles right from the start. With a good bench gun, many new shooters can shoot well under 1 MOA on the first day. This editor has personally seen some inexperienced ladies try their hand at benchrest shooting, and within a month or two they are shooting on a par with the “good old boys” in serious competition.
Here’s a true “Blast from the Past”, a video featuring our friend Stuart Elliott of Brisbane, Australia. This 2011 video has now racked up nearly 680,000 views, making it probably the most-watched long-range benchrest video ever uploaded to YouTube. The video shows Stuart shooting a 10-shot Heavy Gun string at the Brisbane range, Queensland, Australia, in July 2011. In this example, Stuart elected to “run a condition” with his big, .300 WM Heavy Gun, shooting fast with slight hold-off adjustments as the wind increased during the string. The cartridge is a .300 Winchester Magnum, loaded with moly-coated 190gr Berger VLDs. Stuart has an unusual bolt configuration. After each shot, Stuart removes the bolt completely with his right hand, and then uses the bolt to “shuck” the fired cartridge while loading the new cartridge with his left hand. That sounds awkward, but Stuart makes it all look easy. Stuart runs BRT Shooters Supply, a leading vendor of precision shooting equipment (including March scopes), in Australia and nearby regions.
The AccurateShooter.com Shooters’ Forum hit another membership milestone. We’ve surpassed 28,000 registered members. Now we hope to reach 30,000 members in the next few months. If you have considered joining our Forum, but haven’t done so yet, there’s no better time than now. As a Forum member, you’ll be part of an active community of serious shooters. You can get valuable advice on shooting and reloading from top shooters such as National Champions Larry Bartholome, Sam Hall, and Derek Rodgers. As well, many top tool-makers and barrel-makers visit the Forum, such as Dave Kiff (PT&G), Frank Green (Bartlein Barrels), and John Perkins (21st Century Shooting). CLICK HERE to Register.
Machinist/gunsmith Paul Fakenbridge (aka “Boltfluter” on our Shooters’ Forum) recently completed an interesting upgrade to his favorite 22BR varmint rig. This rifle, Paul’s “Rock Chuck Killing Machine”, was originally fitted with an HS Precision fiberglass stock. Now Paul’s 22 BR sports new hardware — a sleek new Eberlestock M2 Cobra Chassis in “Dry Earth” color. The $995.00 M2 Cobra is a one-piece metal stock system that mounts a Rem-700 type action in a V-block. The cheekpad height and LOP are adjustable via spacers. The M2 Cobra uses AICS-type mags and can fit Picatinny rails on the side.
