In the spirit of the season, German Salazar offers this gift to our readers: free books. In his Rifleman’s Journal blog, German notes: “I can think of no better gift than knowledge, in this case knowledge of the early days of ballistic science, organized competitive shooting, the NRA and much more.”
Google, a company we all know for its internet search service, has undertaken a massive project known as Google Books under which they are scanning and making available millions of out-of-print books with uncertain copyright ownership.
Below you will find a list of books, each with a clickable title link and brief description. The title link will take you to the Google Books page for each book. You can read the entire book online, or you can download it to your computer as a PDF file and save it (or print it). You can also create your own Google Library and save the books there for access from any computer. Most of these books are hundreds of pages long, so consider your paper and toner supply before printing!
The Bullet’s Flight From Powder to Target, Franklin W. Mann, 1909, 384 pages.
This is the original and still widely read and highly regarded book on internal and external ballistics. Dr. Mann was a tireless experimenter and had the resources to pursue his interest with the best equipment available. A close friend of Harry Pope as well as other notable experimenters in the early days of smokeless powder, Mann’s work is thorough and well documented. If you’re interested in ballistics, this is the foundation that you must know in order to understand the ensuing century of work in that field.
Irish Riflemen in America, Sir Arthur Blennerhassett Leech, 1875, 216 pages.
This book chronicles the Irish rifle team’s trip to America in 1874 to compete against the best of America’s riflemen as organized by the Amateur Rifle Club of New York when the fledgling NRA ignored the Irish challenge. The book also includes a great deal of history of Irish target shooting and an account of a hunting trip in the American West by members of the party. Well worth reading.
The American Rifle, Townsend Whelen, 1918, 637 Pages.
Townsend Whelen was — and remains for many of us — the dean of American firearms writers. Here is a man who truly did it all and wrote about it with the authority of experience and the modesty of a true gentleman. Despite his roots in Philadelphia society, Whelen sought outdoor adventure and hard living and he found it; we are all richer for his ability to document it so well. This book, written immediately after (and during) the Great War gives a great insight into the period from a rifleman’s perspective: equipment, reloading, shooting — it’s all here. A long book and worth every page.
Suggestions to Military Riflemen, Townsend Whelen, 1909, 243 pages.
Townsend Whelen’s pre-war book on marksmanship which brought him to national prominence in the military establishment. Whelen, who coached the national championship winning Army rifle team at Sea Girt in 1906, covers all aspects of shooting the Model 1903 rifle, including long-range shooting. There is also an appendix covering the Krag-Jorgensen as it was still used by various state guard units at the time. Positions, sights, zeroing, windage, score books, slow-fire, rapid-fire, long-range, ammunition, vision; it’s all here. Every topic you see covered in a modern book on marksmanship was covered by Whelen in this book. You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been — this is a “must read” for the serious marksman and student of history.
Modern Rifle Shooting From the American Standpoint, W. G. Hudson, 1903, 155 pp.
Dr. Hudson was one of the leading lights of the early smokeless era (as well as the Schuetzen era), a contemporary and friend of Mann and Pope, Hudson was a tireless investigator of all things related to accuracy. This very hard to find book is an introduction to target shooting with a detailed overview of equipment and practices and is well illustrated with many plates of top level equipment of the day; a real gem.
Manual for Rifle Practice: Including Suggestions for Practice at Long Range, George Wood Wingate, 1879, 303 pages.
Wingate was the central figure in the founding of the National Rifle Association of America. Like Whelen’s manual 30 years later, Wingate’s book was adopted as the training manual by many military organizations. An authoritative view of marksmanship instruction in the day of the Trapdoor Springfield, Sharps, Remington Rolling Block, and Peabody military rifles. Includes diagrams and instructions for their care.
How I Became a Crack Shot — With Hints to Beginners, W. Milton Farrow, 1882, 204 pp.
Milton Farrow was one of the top shots of his time. Well-bred and highly educated, modesty was not among Farrow’s virtues. This makes for entertaining reading as he describes his travels and his many shooting accomplishments. The Hints for Beginners section has advice that remains sound even these many years later.
The Gun and its Development, William Wellington Greener, 1907 (8th Ed.) 786 pages.
Originally published in 1881, Greener’s book covers all aspects of the firearms world at that time and this 8th edition has many updates. While much of the text focuses on shotguns, there is a great deal of other material in this massive tome, including coverage of gunpowder and explosived, pistols, rifles, target shooting, rifle clubs and much more of interest to the modern rifleman. Many great period advertisements at the end will make you wish for a time machine!
Cartridge Manufacture, Douglas Thomas Hamilton, 1916, 167 pages.
This book is a well-written, technical presentation of small arms cartridge manufacturing during the Great War. An inside look at all processes at the Frankford Arsenal including case manufacture, bullet manufacture, loading and packaging. A useful historical treatise on the topic.
Conventional .308 Winchester brass has a large primer pocket with a large, 0.080″-diameter flash hole. Last year, Lapua began producing special edition .308 Win “Palma” brass that has a small primer pocket and a small flash hole, sized 1.5mm (.059″) in diameter. Tests by U.S. Palma Team members showed that the small-flash-hole .308 brass possibly delivers lower Extreme Spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD) with some bullet/powder/primer combinations. All things being equal, a lower ES should reduce vertical dispersion at long range.
Why Might a Small Flash Hole Work Better?
The performance of the small-flash-hole .308 brass caused some folks to speculate why ES/SD might be improved with a smaller flash hole. One theory (and it’s just a theory) is that the small flash hole creates more of a “jet” effect when the primer fires. Contributing Editor German Salazar sought to find out, experimentally, whether this theory is correct. German explained: “During one of the many internet forum discussions of these cases, Al Matson (AlinWA) opined that the small flash hole might cause the primer flash to be propagated forward more vigorously. In his words, it should be like shooting a volume of water through a smaller nozzle, resulting in a flash that reaches further up the case. Now that kind of comment really sparked my curiosity, so I decided to see what I could see.”
More Primer Testing by Salazar
You can read more about this test and other primer experiments on RiflemansJournal.com.
Large and Small Flash Hole .308 Cases — But Both with Small Primer Pockets
To isolate the effect of flash hole diameter alone, German set up a test with the two types of .308 case that have a small primer pocket: Remington BR brass with a 0.080″ flash hole and Lapua Palma brass with a 0.062″ flash hole. NOTE: German reamed the Lapua brass to 0.062″ with a Sinclair uniforming tool, so it was slightly larger than the 0.059″ factory spec. The Remington brass has a .22 BR headstamp as this brass was actually meant to be re-formed into .22 BR or 6 BR before there was factory brass available for those cartridges.
German set up his primer testing fixture, and took photos in low light so you can see the propagation of the primer “blast” easily. He first tested the Remington 7 1/2 primer, a primer known for giving a large flame front. German notes: “I thought that if there was a ‘nozzle effect’ from the small flash hole, this primer would show it best. As you can see from the photos, there might be a little bit of a flash reduction effect with this primer and the small flash hole, the opposite of what we expected, but it doesn’t appear to be of a significant order of magnitude.”
Next German tested the Wolf .223 primer, an unplated version of the Small Rifle Magnum that so many shooters use. German notes: “This is a reduced flame-front (low flash) primer which has proven itself to be very accurate and will likely see a lot of use in the Lapua cases. With this primer, I couldn’t detect any difference in the flash produced by the small flash hole versus the large flash hole”.
Remington BR case, 0.080″ Flash Hole, Wolf .223 Primer.
Palma case, 0.062″ Flash Hole, Wolf 223 Primer.
German tells us: “I fired five or six of each primer to get these images, and while there is always a bit of variance, these are an accurate representation of each primer type and case type. You can draw your own conclusions from all this, I’m just presenting the data for you. I don’t necessarily draw any conclusions as to how any combination will shoot based on the pictures.”
Results of Testing
Overall, looking at German’s results, one might say that the smaller diameter of the small flash hole does not seem to have significantly changed the length or size of the primer flame front. There is no discernible increased “jet effect”.
Share the post ".308 Winchester — Large vs. Small Flash Hole Test"
Conventional .308 Winchester brass has a large primer pocket with a large, 0.080″-diameter flash hole. In 2010, Lapua began producing special edition .308 Win “Palma” brass that has a small primer pocket and a small flash hole, sized 1.5mm (.059″) in diameter. Tests by U.S. Palma Team members showed that the small-flash-hole .308 brass possibly delivers lower Extreme Spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD) with some bullet/powder/primer combinations. All things being equal, a lower ES should reduce vertical dispersion at long range.
Why Might a Small Flash Hole Work Better?
The performance of the small-flash-hole .308 brass caused some folks to speculate why ES/SD might be improved with a smaller flash hole. One theory (and it’s just a theory) is that the small flash hole creates more of a “jet” effect when the primer fires. German Salazar (Rifleman’s Journal Editor) sought to find out, experimentally, whether this theory is correct. German explained: “During one of the many internet forum discussions of these cases, Al Matson (AlinWA) opined that the small flash hole might cause the primer flash to be propagated forward more vigorously. In his words, it should be like shooting a volume of water through a smaller nozzle, resulting in a flash that reaches further up the case. Now that kind of comment really sparked my curiosity, so I decided to see what I could see.”
More Primer Testing by Salazar
You can read more about this test and other primer experiments on RiflemansJournal.com.
Large and Small Flash Hole .308 Cases — But Both with Small Primer Pockets
To isolate the effect of flash hole diameter alone, German set up a test with the two types of .308 case that have a small primer pocket: Remington BR brass with a 0.080″ flash hole and Lapua Palma brass with a 0.062″ flash hole. NOTE: German reamed the Lapua brass to 0.062″ with a Sinclair uniforming tool, so it was slightly larger than the 0.059″ factory spec. The Remington brass has a .22 BR headstamp as this brass was actually meant to be re-formed into .22 BR or 6 BR before there was factory brass available for those cartridges.
German set up his primer testing fixture, and took photos in low light so you can see the propagation of the primer “blast” easily. He first tested the Remington 7 1/2 primer, a primer known for giving a large flame front. German notes: “I thought that if there was a ‘nozzle effect’ from the small flash hole, this primer would show it best. As you can see from the photos, there might be a little bit of a flash reduction effect with this primer and the small flash hole, the opposite of what we expected, but it doesn’t appear to be of a significant order of magnitude.”
Next German tested the Wolf .223 primer, an unplated version of the Small Rifle Magnum that so many shooters use. German notes: “This is a reduced flame-front (low flash) primer which has proven itself to be very accurate and will likely see a lot of use in the Lapua cases. With this primer, I couldn’t detect any difference in the flash produced by the small flash hole versus the large flash hole”.
Remington BR case, 0.080″ Flash Hole, Wolf .223 Primer.
Palma case, 0.062″ Flash Hole, Wolf 223 Primer.
German tells us: “I fired five or six of each primer to get these images, and while there is always a bit of variance, these are an accurate representation of each primer type and case type. You can draw your own conclusions from all this, I’m just presenting the data for you. I don’t necessarily draw any conclusions as to how any combination will shoot based on the pictures.”
Results of Testing
Overall, looking at German’s results, one might say that the smaller diameter of the small flash hole does not seem to have significantly changed the length or size of the primer flame front. There is no discernible increased “jet effect”.
Share the post "Large vs. Small Flash Holes in .308 Win Brass"
How Easy it is to Have Fun with Rifles and Equipment You Probably Already Have….
Forum member Rod Vigstol (aka Nodak7mm) has written a great Introduction to F-Class for shooters getting started in this rewarding discipline. Rod’s article, which appears in German Salazar’s Rifleman’s Journal website, covers F-Class basics and addresses concerns that “newbies” may have when trying a new shooting sport. Rod stresses that most guys who own a varmint-hunting or tactical rig likely have nearly all the gear they need to give F-Class competition a try.
Rod explains: “If you’re reading this, you have more than just a general interest in the shooting sports and in the awesome rifles that shoot tiny groups at insane distances. You probably even have friends that enjoy shooting as much as you do. The quandary you may find yourself in is your friends haven’t quite jumped into it head-first like you have and they haven’t spent a lot of money and time obtaining the equipment you have to go shoot these matches. But you know what? Your prairie-dog shooting buddy or coyote-hunter friend can attend these matches and shoot alongside with you. He or she more than likely already has the basic equipment needed to shoot a match.” Most varmint shooters already have a suitable, accurate rifle and the following equipment:
• A variable-power scope in the 4.5-14x range or higher.
• A front bipod like the trusty old Harris 9″-13″, or maybe even a basic pedestal front rest.
• A rear sand-bag or similar sand-sock to rest the butt stock.
• A basic shooting mat from Midway or at least a piece of carpet or canvas to lay on.
Rod also provides a handy checklist of items to bring to the range. These include: Canvas or carpet strip (to set under bipod), Notebook, Kitchen Timer, Cleaning Rod, Camp Chair, Elbow Pads, Shooting Hat, and Open Bolt Indicator (OBI). Along with rifle, bipod (or front rest), rear bag, and ammo, that’s pretty much all you need.
Rod encourages all shooters to give F-Class a try — even novices. Rod explains: “We have all been rookies, newbies, new kids on the block or whatever. So we all have a good idea of what may be going on in your mind, the questions and concerns you may have. I’m telling you this sport is full of fantastic people who deep down find it far more fulfilling to help a new shooter get started than running a clean target. You just have to take the first step to get involved.”
Following shoulder surgery, our Contributing Editor German Salazar moved to F-TR shooting, replacing his sling and iron sights with bipod and scope. German has done remarkably well for an F-TR newbie, winning his first two 500-yard matches (in F-TR class) at Phoenix-area ranges. German has been shooting his “old Palma rifle with a scope and bipod attached”. This rig features a Gilkes-Ross action in a Robertson/Sitman Highpower Prone stock with an Anschütz 5020 trigger and 30″ 1:11″-twist Krieger barrel. The rifle is fitted with a Canadian-made Rempel “Ski” bipod and a Leupold BR 24X scope.
On his Riflemans’ Journal website, German has crafted a helpful article with advice for “sling shooters contemplating a busman’s holiday into F-Class.” Even seasoned F-Class shooters can learn something from German’s observations in his F-TR: Scoping it Out article. Here are some highlights from the article:
Carpet Under the Bipod
“I quickly learned that a piece of carpet was an essential component under the bipod. Without the carpet, [on dirt surfaces] the bipod tends to dig into the dirt with every shot, resulting in odd elevation shots. On the concrete it isn’t quite as essential, but it smooths the recoil movement appreciably and is worthwhile. [I used] a short-nap carpet remnant for this, but my car floor mat also worked well.”
Clicking vs. Holding Off
“I’ve been shooting iron sights and clicking sight knobs for most of my life; trying to hold off made me very uncomfortable and the reflex pull of the trigger just wasn’t there. Once I returned to holding center and clicking, I was more comfortable and was able to execute my shots more quickly and cleanly. By zeroing the windage knob I can also easily return to a previous setting when conditions warrant.”
Reading Mirage with Spotting Scope
“In conversations with other F-Class shooters in our club, I found that few were using a spotting scope to see mirage; they were largely relying on the rifle scope. However, the rifle scope is focused on the target, as it must be to eliminate parallax, and thus cannot show mirage with the same clarity as a spotting scope that is focused roughly halfway down the range.”
Positioning Your Spotting Scope
“I position the spotting scope in the same manner as I did when shooting from the sling. It is very close to me and can be used without moving the head from the cheekpiece. The object, as always, is to minimize movement in order to maintain a consistent position and to minimize the time lost between the last glance at the mirage and breaking the shot.”
Becigneul Case Turning Motor, by German Salazar
Although there have been a variety of similar devices and ‘case lathes’ offered for sale in the past, they’ve been priced fairly high. Paul’s unit is reasonably priced ($220.00) and built like a tank. The motor turns at about 180 rpm which is just right for neck turning. What’s really nice is that the motor has enough torque to hold its speed throughout the whole operation and a/c power to run all day long!
The unit’s design is fairly straight-forward: a surplus electric motor turns a Forster case-holding collet. Paul makes a nice knurled collar to open and close the collet.Power is controlled by a household type wall switch attached to a long cabe. The whole assembly is mounted on a nice hardwood base.
Video of Paul Becigneul’s Case Turning Motor in Use
In operation, it works very well. The collet has enough clamping power to hold the case after a quick hand-tightening, no wrench is needed (although you can use one if you are so inclined). A quarter turn of the collar opens the collet and a quick turn of the wrist tightens it back up. As with any powered case neck turning device, the case wobbles a bit as it turns. This doesn’t matter a bit as the turning cutter is held in your hand (which is free to move) and the cutter’s arbor is the actual alignment device. The wobble is the same or less than what I had using a power screwdriver with a K&M holder.
For more information, email Paul Becigneul via: pbike4466 [at] directv.net. In 2012, the basic unit cost $220.00 each collet was $10 and shipping is $20 to most U.S. locations.
Editor’s Comment: In the video, Paul uniforms case flash-holes with a Lyman tool (from the inside) and then uniforms primer pockets (from the outside) with a K&M tool. While we do believe that flash-holes should be inspected to ensure there are no obstructions or flakes blocking the hole, we have not found that flash-hole or primer-pocket uniforming produced measurable improvements in accuracy with Lapua 6mmBR brass. In fact, in our tests using a manual K&M flash-hole uniformer, ES/SD actually got worse after the flash-holes were “uniformed”.
Keep in mind also that many deburring tools for 0.059 (PPC-size) flash-holes actually over-cut substantially, reaming the holes to as wide as 0.068″. The Lapua PPC/BR flash hole is spec’d at 1.5mm, which works out to 0.059055″. Most of the PPC/BR flash-hole uniforming tools on the market use a 1/16″ bit which is nominally 0.0625″, but these often run oversize — up to 0.067″. If you like to uniform your primer pockets, be our guest (this can be useful with lesser-quality brass). But before pocket-uniforming dozens of cases, you might do a comparison test (by shooting uniformed vs. un-uniformed ammo) to see whether this operation actually improves accuracy with the brass you are using.
Share the post "Gear Review: Paul Becigneul Case Turning Motor and Collet"
Recently, an AccurateShooter team including contributing writer German Salazar visited the Nammo Talley facility in Mesa, Arizona. We were given access to the new Rimfire Service Center and the .338 Lapua Magnum loading facility. The Rimfire Service Center is a brand new facility dedicated to supporting top-level rimfire shooters in all disciplines, including Prone, 3-Position, Silhouette, Benchrest and more. Lapua has over 2 million rounds of various grades of match ammunition on hand for shooters to test and purchase. The RSC has a 100-meter test tunnel where groups are measured under ideal conditions with electronic sensor-equipped “paperless” target frames placed at 50 meters and 100 meters. Shooters can make appointments to visit the center and test ammo in their own rifles. A detailed report on the RSC has just been released on German’s Rifleman’s Journal website.
.338 Lapua Manufacturing and Testing
The .338 Lapua Magnum facility is a super-sized version of the rimfire facility. With a 300-meter tunnel and pressure testing equipment on hand, Nammo’s engineering and loading staff have the ability to develop perfect loads for government clients with a variety of specific requirements. The loading facility has equally impressive technology and is well worth reading about. CLICK HERE to read German’s article about the .338 LM facility.
AccurateShooter.com will have more information on these two state-of-the-art facilitites, including video footage in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!
Share the post "Salazar Spotlights Lapua Rimfire Service Center and .338 LM Plant"
Successful long-range shooters know that careful weighing of powder charges helps them achieve superior long-range accuracy. By maintaining powder charges within very narrow weight tolerances, hand-loaders can produce ammo with more consistent muzzle velocities from shot to shot. Low Extreme Spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD) numbers translate directly to reduced vertical dispersion at very long ranges (although velocity is not the only contributing factor to vertical spread). In pursuit of load weight uniformity, many of our top long-range aces have invested in the latest, high-tech magnetic force restoration (MFR) digital scales (such as the Sartorius GD503). These laboratory-grade MFR scales are extremely stable (with minimal drift) and they can reliably measure to .005 grain, that is five thousandths of a grain. That is less than the weight of one kernel of typical extruded powder. For example, with Varget, there are three to four kernels in one-tenth of one grain of Varget. That means each kernel weighs .025 to .035 grains.
With the capability of modern modern MFR scales to measure less than one-hundreth of a grain, we have a new frontier in precision reloading. You’ll note, in the preceding paragraph, we said that one-tenth of one grain of Varget is three or four kernels. Well, “which is it?” you might ask. The answer is that it might be three, or it might be four, depending on the size of the individual kernels. That’s a disturbing uncertainty that we simply had to accept… until now.
Powder Kernel Uniforming — A Breakthrough
We now have the tools and the methodology to resolve the inherent uncertainty in individual kernel weight. Using the new technique of powder kernel uniforming, first pioneered by German Salazar, we can now, for the first time, ensure that every kernel of powder that goes into a cartridge is virtually the same weight — the same, in fact, within 0.01 grain (one-hundredth of a grain) TOTAL spread.
For a reloader looking to achieve “perfect” load weight uniformity, powder kernel uniforming offers the ultimate control over powder weight. The method we devised to uniform individual kernels consists of kernel core-drilling. The propellant we chose for this kernel-uniforming test was a new prototype (not yet commercially available) EuroChemie RL “X” propellant. This was chosen because it offered relatively large, can-shaped kernels that could be drilled relatively easily.
Core-Drilling Kernels with Micro Drill-Bits
The center of each kernel was bored out with a micro-drill. But here’s the key. Before drilling, we first weighed each kernel. Then we selected a micro drill bit of appropriate diameter to achieve uniform weights. With the heavier kernels (in the 0.04 gr range) we used a larger micro-bit. With the lighter kernels (in the 0.02 range), we selected a smaller diameter micro-bit that removed less material from the center of the kernel. Obviously, many kernels were ruined while we perfected the drilling process. It required great patience and a very steady hand. But after a few dozen hours of drilling, we had a batch of uniformed kernels that were all within plus or minus .005 grains (.01 grain ES). Now we were ready to do some testing.
Proof That It Works
All this time-consuming work to drill holes in individual kernels would be pointless, of course, if it did not produce meaningful accuracy gains. The proof, as they say, is “on the target”. We were curious to see if our uniformed powder kernels would out-perform unmodified kernels, so we did some field testing. We prepared two batches of 6mmBR ammo in Lapua brass, with full case prep, and bullet base to ogive sorting (we wanted to eliminate as many variables as possible). Bullets were Lapua 105gr Scenar Ls, which proved to be some of the most consistent projectiles we’ve ever measured.
One set of rounds was loaded with a carefully-weighed charge of unmodified kernels. Case to case charge weight was held to .05 grain (half a tenth uniformity). Then we prepared a second batch of cartridges with uniformed kernels, using the exact same charge weight, also held to .05 grain (half a tenth) tolerances. We took these rounds to the range, and did a “round-robin” test at 800 yards, shooting one of each type in sequence (i.e. one uniformed on right, then one non-uniformed on left) until we had two 10-round groups. The test was done with a rail gun fitted with a 1:8″ twist, 28″ Krieger 0.236″ land barrel. The uniformed-kernel ammo was shot at the right diamond, while the non-uniformed rounds were shot at the left diamond. Conditions were good, so we simply “held center” on every shot. No attempt was made to correct for wind as our primary concern was vertical dispersion.
Ammo with Uniformed Kernels Shows Significantly Less Vertical Dispersion at Long Range
As you can see, the uniformed-kernel ammo out-performed the non-uniformed ammo. The difference is quite clear. The rounds with non-uniformed kernels (on the left) produced a 10-shot group with roughly 3.0 inches of vertical dispersion. On the right, our ammo with uniformed kernels produced a group with 9 of 10 shots showing roughly 1.75 inches of vertical dispersion (we did have one high flier among the uniformed-kernel rounds). Additionally, we had a lower 10-shot ES and SD with the uniformed-kernel ammo. We repeated this test two more times and the results were similar. The targets speak for themselves. If you are looking for ultimate long-range accuracy, powder kernel uniforming is a “new frontier” you may wish to explore. With all other factors held constant, we were able to reduce vertical dispersion by more than an inch at 800 yards by drill-uniforming our NitroChemie powder. That’s huge in the long-range game.
Yes, the kernel-uniforming process is incredibly time-consuming and tedious, and a set of micro-drills is not cheap. We also freely acknowledge that the process may be much less productive with narrow-kernel propellants that are hard to drill. (Also EuroChemie powders are preferred because the burn rate controlling compounds are impregnated throughout the entire kernel — not just the outside.) But the potential for significant accuracy gains is there. We proved that.
Is it worth the huge investment of time to drill your powder kernels? That’s a question each reader must ask himself. But if you know the competitor on the next bench over has uniformed his kernels, can you afford not to do the same? Sometimes the extra effort is worth it, just for the peace of mind you get knowing you’ve done everything possible to achieve “ultimate accuracy”.
Share the post "Powder Kernel Uniforming for Ultimate Long-Range Accuracy"
German Salazar, a top prone shooter and “head honcho” of the fine RifllemansJournal.com website, has crafted an excellent new article on stock design. Writing for Precision Shooting magazine, German compares traditional stocks, such as the MasterClass Prone, with more modern, modular designs, such as the Eliseo TubeGun and Ross Precision stock. German, who shoots match rifles built with each type of stock, explains the pros and cons of the different designs, and explains how to optimize the stocks’ adjustments for best fit and function. German also explains the best methods to attach and bed an action to each of the designs.
For a limited time, German’s excellent article is available online, courtesy of Precision Shooting Magazine. If you’re a High Power shooter, or you are interested in the design, construction, and engineering of modern competition stocks, this article is a “must-read”.
Report by German Salazar
The 2012 Berger Bullets Southwest Long Range Nationals fired last week at Phoenix’s Ben Avery Shooting Facility left competitors from all over the US and Canada smiling and ready to return for next year’s event. With over 200 competitors from 40 states and several Canadian provinces, this was truly a national level event and the scores reflected that intensity. However, it wasn’t just about the shooting; as at any large rifle match, renewing old friendships, seeing friends from the AccurateShooter Forum and enjoying time and a few meals with them are just as important.
The week began on Tuesday with a wind reading clinic by Mid Tompkins who knows more about how air moves across a rifle range than just about anyone. Next in line was Wednesday’s 600-yard match, a nice warm-up for the long-range shooting to come. Thursday we got down to business with a Palma team match. The sling winners were the US National Team composed of Trudie Fay, Bryan Litz, Justin Skaret and Peter Church. In F-Open, the winning team was Team Norma/Berger composed of Larry Bartholome, John Brewer, Danny Biggs, and Jim Murphy. The winning F-TR team was the Arizona State Rifle & Pistol Assn. squad, with Warren Dean, John Chilton, Steve Lockwood and German Salazar.
Individual shooting resumed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as one more team match at 1000 yards. Conditions throughout the week were picture perfect as cool mornings gave way to afternoons in the mid 70’s. One of the Canadian shooters mentioned that it was 35 below at home on Saturday while we were in shirt sleeves! The wind was challenging without ever being as vicious as it can be on certain days in Phoenix. More than one Eastern shooter was heard to comment that they had never seen wind as switchy as this. Overall, it tested one’s ability without reaching a level of frustration — just perfect. Trudie Fay was the overall winner in the sling category, Jim Murphy in F-Open and James Croft in F-TR, but many other shooters won cash and bullets from our generous sponsor Berger Bullets as well as many door prizes at the barbeque from Nightforce, Krieger, Leupold, Sierra and many others.
Put this match on your list for next year, it’s well worth the effort. We have 100 firing points (check out the photo below) and we’re ready to put them all to use!
All-Star Instructors Lead Clinic A training clinic was held on Feb. 7th (Day 1), with a true all-star cadre of instructors. The clinic started with Nancy Tompkins instructing sling shooters on proper position/shooting style, while Darrell Buell and Larry Bartholome did the same for F-TR and F-Open shooters. Mid Tompkins then conducted a lengthy wind clinic which featured a series of drills at 1000 yards to observe specific wind trends. Many shooters commented on the benefits of the exercise as well as the opportunity to get some ‘trigger time’ before the main event. Finally, Bryan Litz (photo right) gave a class on long-range ballistics.
Share the post "Match Report: Berger 2012 Southwest Long Range Nationals"
The .308 Winchester, a shortened version of the .30-06, has almost completely replaced the .30-06 in NRA competition. The .308 is required for Palma shooting, so it is also used by many Palma competitors in other long-range and mid-range prone matches. However, with the exception of M1 Garand matches, you won’t see many .30-06 rifles on the firing lines. Does that mean the .30-06 is obsolete? Is the .308 Win really much more accurate? Or does it just offer the advantages of reduced recoil and reduced powder consumption?
Cartridge photos courtesy Deuce45s.com, a leading source of specialized military cartridges.
In his Sibling Rivalry: .308 vs. .30-06 article on the Rifleman’s Journal site, German Salazar argues that the .30-06 remains a viable competition cartridge, particularly for the long-range game. This isn’t just a subjective opinion. German has data to back up the argument that the .30-06 can still do the job.
German compares the actual scores produced by his .308 Win rifles with the scores from his .30-06 rifles. German analyzes scores, over a two-year period, shot by “matched pair” rifles (one in each caliber) with similar actions, stocks, sights, and barrels. For comparison purposes, German also includes score data from his 6XC, a modern low-recoil chambering.
RESULTS: .308 Has Small Edge at Middle Distance, But .30-06 Is Better at Long Range
Surprisingly, the .30-06 performed nearly as well as the .308 at middle distances. The .30-06 delivered 99.2% of max possible scores vs. 99.5% for the .308 Win. Notably, at 1000 yards, the .30-06 racked up 97.7% of max scores vs. 97.3% for the .308 Win. So, at 1000 yards, the .30-06 actually proved superior to the .308 Win. German explains: “This isn’t too surprising when one considers [the .308’s] limited case capacity for the bullet weights typically used in Long-Range shooting. They just run out of steam and dip perilously close to the transonic range as they approach 1000 yards of flight. The extra 150 fps or so that can be safely obtained from the .30-06 case really pays off at 1000 yards.”
Mid-Range Comparison
In NRA Mid-Range matches (500 and 600 yards), the average score and percentage of possible score for each cartridge was as follows:
If we look at the score averages, the .308 comes out on top at the Mid-Range distances… by 0.3% of the possible score. By the way, notice that the 6XC, as good as it is, simply straddles the .30 caliber cartridges; it is not the winner.
Long-Range Comparison
German rarely shoots the .308 in matches that are only 1000 yards; most of his 1000-yard .308 shooting is done in Palma matches which include 800, 900 and 1000 yards. To make the comparison useful, the Long-Range results are presented only as a percentage of the possible score and the 800- and 900-yard stages of Palma matches were NOT included.
In NRA Long-Range and Palma matches, the average percentage of possible score for each cartridge at 1000 yards was as follows:
Editor’s Note: Among the three cartridges German studied, the 6XC actually proved best at 1000 yards, delivering 98.9% of the maximum possible scores. The .30-06 was second-best with 97.7%, slightly better than the .308 Win at 97.3%.
You’ll want to read German’s full Sibling Rivalry article, which includes an interesting history of the .30-06 and .308 in High Power shooting, along with tables showing German’s actual scores with his .30-06, .308 Win, and 6XC rifles.
Share the post ".308 Win vs. .30-06 — Match Results May Surprise You"
In the spirit of the season, German Salazar offers this gift to our readers: free books. In his Rifleman’s Journal blog, German notes: “I can think of no better gift than knowledge, in this case knowledge of the early days of ballistic science, organized competitive shooting, the NRA and much more.”
Recently, an AccurateShooter team including contributing writer German Salazar visited the Nammo Talley facility in Mesa, Arizona. We were given access to the new 
Successful long-range shooters know that careful weighing of powder charges helps them achieve superior long-range accuracy. By maintaining powder charges within very narrow weight tolerances, hand-loaders can produce ammo with more consistent muzzle velocities from shot to shot. Low Extreme Spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD) numbers translate directly to reduced vertical dispersion at very long ranges (although velocity is not the only contributing factor to vertical spread). In pursuit of load weight uniformity, many of our top long-range aces have invested in the latest, high-tech 
For a reloader looking to achieve “perfect” load weight uniformity, powder kernel uniforming offers the ultimate control over powder weight. The method we devised to uniform individual kernels consists of kernel core-drilling. The propellant we chose for this kernel-uniforming test was a new prototype (not yet commercially available) EuroChemie RL “X” propellant. This was chosen because it offered relatively large, can-shaped kernels that could be drilled relatively easily.
Core-Drilling Kernels with Micro Drill-Bits
Proof That It Works
A training clinic was held on Feb. 7th (Day 1), with a true all-star cadre of instructors. The clinic started with Nancy Tompkins instructing sling shooters on proper position/shooting style, while Darrell Buell and Larry Bartholome did the same for F-TR and F-Open shooters. Mid Tompkins then conducted a lengthy wind clinic which featured a series of drills at 1000 yards to observe specific wind trends. Many shooters commented on the benefits of the exercise as well as the opportunity to get some ‘trigger time’ before the main event. Finally, Bryan Litz (photo right) gave a class on long-range ballistics.
