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Messages - Zapata
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« on: March 07, 2026, 08:31:44 am »
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« on: July 28, 2023, 10:05:53 am »
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« on: November 11, 2021, 05:55:54 am »
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« on: November 10, 2021, 06:24:36 am »
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« on: June 22, 2021, 07:54:51 pm »
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« on: June 21, 2021, 06:00:34 am »
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« on: May 16, 2021, 06:55:54 am »
The Government of Saskatchewan and the federal government have committed to completing the transition to a provincial Chief Firearms Office by the end of September.
The province has been working with the federal government to transition the program since the spring of 2020. The proposed timeline outlines the work to take place in the coming months by the province, the federal government and the RCMP to establish provincial oversight on firearms legislation. That work includes finalizing contracts and agreements, making logistical arrangements such as preparing office space, and hiring and training staff.
"When The Firearms Act was introduced in 1998, five provinces chose to manage the Canadian Firearms Program provincially," Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Minister Christine Tell said. "Saskatchewan is the first province to join them and transition from federal to provincial management."
The province hired Robert Freberg in August 2020 as the Chief Firearms Officer (CFO) designate for Saskatchewan. Since that time, he has been working to move this transition forward. While a provincially-appointed CFO will not have the ability to change federal laws or regulations, he will administrate The Firearms Act in Saskatchewan, which includes jurisdiction over the licensing, storage, transportation and carrying of firearms. The position of CFO is also responsible for licensing instructors who provide firearm safety training in the province.
"I look forward to working with the federal government, Canadian Firearms program and all of our provincial stakeholders to complete this important transition," Freberg said. "I am deeply committed to supporting and promoting the long standing heritage of responsible firearms ownership in this province."
The Government of Saskatchewan continues to oppose the federal government’s firearm control measures, including Bill C-21, which will do little to impact firearm related crime in our province, and unfairly targets law-abiding firearms owners.
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« on: February 08, 2021, 09:12:54 am »
Everywhere you turn there's a carbon-fiber barrel or stock on a rifle. Does the lightweight material really prove superior to steel and wood?
Across the thousand years that people have been using guns, there have been innumerable materials used to achieve the goal of launching a projectile at a target. In the grand scheme, carbon fiber is just another material applied to that end and not specifically devoted for it.
Muskets were greasy affairs, and anyone who is a muzzleloader aficionado will be familiar with all manner of mess. These shooters use everything from animal fat and butter to wax and entrails to work on their guns and load them. Greased fabric patches are wrapped around round balls and rammed down, waiting to be fired by flint striking steel.
Mass production in the era after the Industrial Revolution saw machine guns with barrels surrounded by water tanks as a means of keeping them cool. The first composite materials saw widespread use as laminated wood or wood-impregnated resins began to see action. Plastics and aluminum were next, and their adoption in arms was slow and faced great criticism.
Some people still won’t touch a “Tupperware” gun, despite the first popular models showing up over a half-century ago. Full steel guns are getting rarer as a result of this, and only fan favorites, like the 1911, are still in common use. Today’s most popular guns make use of steel in strategic places but are otherwise constricted primarily from polymers and aluminum.
Further cutting into steel’s territory is carbon fiber.
What Exactly Is Carbon Fiber?
Some treat the material as a brand itself, a status marker showing that an individual can afford an expensive barrel. The material is quite remarkable, and what it does for rifles, in particular, is great—but not completely necessary for most shooters.
The material itself is, in layman’s terms, composed of thousands of strands, each made from carbon atoms. Surprisingly, this isn’t a new material at all, but it’s new to firearms.
The original attempts to generate it for industrial applications goes back to the early 1860s, though it didn’t reach its commercial potential until about 100 years later. It’s essentially a fabric spun into a weave that’s then filled with resins or polymerized composites to achieve a sheet of what resembles cloth. Virtually all firearm applications of carbon fiber are mislabeled and would be more appropriately called “carbon-fiber reinforced polymer,” but that isn’t quite as catchy. This is the same general technology applied to archery equipment and water sports, like kayaking and canoeing.
To make carbon-fiber barrels, most companies use a variation of wrapping it around a steel barrel, commonly called a “liner,” though it could be thought of as a super-thin barrel itself. The attachment points on a carbon-fiber barrel are steel, such as where it threads into the receiver, and at the muzzle where you can thread on a brake or suppressor. Different companies do their wraps in special ways, and you can sometimes identify a brand by the appearance of the pattern in the fibers.
As far as stocks are concerned, many aren’t actually made 100 percent out of carbon fiber, but are instead a shell made of another composite sheathed in carbon fiber to add strength and rigidity. Other companies laminate layers of carbon fiber into fiberglass or other like materials to create a weave of layers that can then be shaped and bedded.
More Carbon-Fiber Barrel Guns And Accessories:
The Pros and Cons Of Carbon Fiber
The main con of carbon-fiber parts is that they’re expensive, usually two to three times the cost of comparable steel or aluminum versions. This is what has earned them the reputation as status symbols in several shooting communities. Their use in handguns is limited, to say the least, as the material is really only used for grips or cosmetic enhancements due to the fact that most handgun parts are pressure-bearing or moving. Thus, carbon fiber today is really a rifle thing with minor accessories available for other gun types.
The short, thick carbon-fiber barrel on this compact precision rifle build makes it so that it’s well-balanced and can fit just about anywhere. The heat-resistant SHTF+ wrap from KE Arms keeps rapidly dissipating heat away from the optics and the aluminum KRG forend during long strings of fire. It’s so small that it can drop right into a Hill People Gear pack and away you go!
The short, thick carbon-fiber barrel on this compact precision rifle build makes it so that it’s well-balanced and can fit just about anywhere. The heat-resistant SHTF+ wrap from KE Arms keeps rapidly dissipating heat away from the optics and the aluminum KRG forend during long strings of fire. It’s so small that it can drop right into a Hill People Gear pack and away you go!
Is cost the only detriment? Well, in my experience, carbon fiber can be misapplied for certain roles. To illustrate best practice, I built or received three rifles that make use of various carbon-fiber parts from several different manufacturers. It’s possible to make a rifle that’s too light for a given role, and it’s also possible to be severely disappointed by what you receive if you buy into the hype.
The cons discussion here is meant to be honest, and, despite common claims, a carbon-fiber barrel isn’t any more accurate than a steel barrel, considering that it’s itself a steel core with steel rifling. The mechanical and physical principles of accuracy don’t change here, nor does relative velocity of a given bullet when fired through carbon-fiber-wrapped barrels of plain steel barrels. Simply adding a carbon-fiber barrel to your rifle isn’t guaranteed to make it shoot better. The basic thing a carbon-fiber barrel offers is substantial weight savings over a steel barrel of the same contour, with the added benefit of faster heat bleed-off and rigidity to weight.
So, wouldn’t it be more accurate if it’s stiffer? Well, take into account that most standard carbon-fiber barrels are meant to mimic the profile of common heavy barreled guns, the idea being that common stocks would still work without much fitting. The common profile for these barrels is the same as the military M24 contour, with the next popular contour being Remington Sendero, a heavy-class hunting profile thinner than M24 but thicker than a standard hunting-weight barrel. Side by side, a 24-inch M24 contour carbon-fiber barrel won’t outshoot a 24-inch M24 contour steel barrel on paper, but it’ll weigh only one third of what the steel barrel weighs as a rough rule of thumb.
There are some out there who claim a carbon-fiber barrel will last longer than a plain steel barrel, sometimes to the tune of twice the accurate life. This means, in theory, that a .308 Winchester with a carbon-fiber barrel would have an expected accurate life of 10,000 or more rounds, so you’d never need another one if that were true.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the rifling that wears out but rather the throat and start of the rifling. These areas are susceptible to heat-imposed damage and eventually erode enough to make it so that the bullet has to jump or enter the rifling off-center. High-volume shooters with hot cartridges like 6.5 Creedmoor—a round known for poor barrel life—are enthusiastic about carbon-fiber barrels due to their ability to radiate heat quickly as opposed to steel.
Now, a reality check is that this really only applies to people who shoot their 6.5 CM enough to see a reduction in accuracy, not their barrel being blown out into a smooth bore. What does this mean? The average person will never in their life shoot a barrel “out,” and shooting a barrel out for a competitor means they might go from shooting ¼ inch at 100 yards to ¾ inch at the same distance over 3,000 rounds, which is the general “accurate” life of a standard 6.5 CM barrel.
What you need to understand is that carbon-fiber barrels give a slight edge to high-volume competitors at ranges past 800 yards against steel barrels, but this isn’t the norm for most people, and there’s no reason you won’t get a decade of use out of a steel barrel for use in competition before you start to notice it’s no longer consistent at those long ranges.
The positives of carbon-fiber barrels are primarily centered around weight savings and accuracy for a given complete rifle weight. It’s true that you can shave literal pounds off a rifle by switching to a carbon-fiber barrel, especially if you had a heavy-contoured barrel on your existing rifle. If you have a mountain-class light rifle, remodeling your rifle to use a carbon barrel will allow you to keep the short length but add tremendous stiffness and accuracy for the same weight. Short, light rifles suffer from heat-related accuracy problems more than other guns, and it’s very noticeable.
Heat dispersion for hunters isn’t really a big deal and only comes into play when you’re at the range practicing or developing loads for your rifle. Some hunting rifles with skinny barrels are hard to zero and lose accuracy after just a few rounds due to heat buildup. The weight savings is nice in the field but isn’t much of a factor unless you’re climbing or walking. A stand hunter isn’t benefited by this much at all, considering the stationary nature of that type of hunting; weight just isn’t that important, since you’re just walking up to the blind with a nice thermos of coffee, snacks and a book to read.
There really isn’t too much of a debate around carbon-fiber stocks. Stocks are somewhat basic in nature and haven’t changed all that much in the last hundred or more years. A carbon-fiber stock is quite rigid, but not as stiff as a metal chassis. The weight savings over wood, composite or polymer stocks isn’t the same ratio as barrels, so expect to shave about 10 to 20 percent in total weight over a comparably sized conventional stock.
A Look At Upgrades
The three rifles in this article are designed for very different purposes, and all make use of carbon-fiber parts to achieve their ends. The first of these is a top-shelf hunting rifle from Mesa Precision Arms; it was built from the ground up to take full advantage of modern materials and techniques. It’s a hunting rifle chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor, and capable of ½ MOA at ranges to 1,000 yards. It does take considerable practice to use so light a rifle at so long a distance, but it’s not ethical or even likely that you’d be firing on an animal at target distances like that. This rifle excels at ranges inside 800 yards and is a charm for the pack-in hunter with multi-species tags.
Many patterns are unique to a given manufacturer. This barrel is from Proof Research, and it bears their distinctive “Damascus” pattern.
Many patterns are unique to a given manufacturer. This barrel is from Proof Research, and it bears their distinctive “Damascus” pattern.
The Mesa has a carbon-fiber stock and barrel and a titanium action. This is a specialty product that’ll almost certainly not be in the safe of the recreational deer hunter. This rifle retails around $5,000 as featured in this article, but it’s truly peerless in terms of raw performance, even against other rifles that use nearly identical components. The lightweight package is specialized and fully tuned with minor details you won’t see, and it shows in field use. This product is representative of just what can be accomplished when technology and craftsmanship are applied in unison. There’s a vast difference in a custom carbon-fiber rifle built by a company that specializes in those materials and a company that simply adds to a product in their existing catalog.
The next rifle is my personal deer rifle, the action custom blueprinted by the fine folks at Precision Rifle Company in my native Michigan. They’re a leader in making accurate rifles that use straight-walled cases, mine being a 14.5-inch pin-and-weld .450 Bushmaster. This rifle uses an AG Composites Alpine Hunter carbon-fiber stock.
Why use a target-style carbon-fiber stock on a big-bore rifle with a cartridge good to 200 yards? The rifle is a special build in that it’s completely specialized for Michigan hunting. I’m an open-field stalk hunter, for the most part, and I rarely if ever use a stand, instead remaining on the ground in blind corners of wheat, soybean or corn stubble. This rifle has the shape necessary for positional shooting unsupported but is light enough that it can be carried easily over distance and in dense cover. A carbon stock makes total sense in this respect, as I can save weight while getting the benefits of a more robust stock.
The last rifle is another specialized custom-built Remington 700 in a KRG Whiskey 3 folding chassis. The rifle uses a rather unique barrel setup, that being a Savage-style finished-chamber with a barrel nut assembly. It’s from X-Caliber barrels, which also manufactured the standard steel barrel on my .450 Bushmaster. The barrel nut setup makes it so that you can install the barrel yourself at home on a standard, non-trued 700 action. The result is a drop-in carbon-fiber solution if you want to try your hand.
This barrel is chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor and is 16 inches long. The idea was to make a compact rifle for tactical shooting competition that made good use of 120-grain bullets at high velocity. The 6.5 CM is hot, and this short, stiff barrel bleeds heat while being exceptionally compact with no loss of accuracy or velocity. It launches 120-grain bullets at 2,700 to 2,900 fps, depending on factory or hand-load used. It shoots inside .308 Winchester at virtually all distances with almost no recoil.
While the AG Composites stock here is on a short-range rifle meant for 200 yards and in, it demonstrates light weight and superior ergonomics that make it great on a modern stalking gun.
While the AG Composites stock here is on a short-range rifle meant for 200 yards and in, it demonstrates light weight and superior ergonomics that make it great on a modern stalking gun.
Specialized uses like this strongly favor carbon-fiber barrels. High-round count and mobility are key here, and a carbon-fiber barrel makes total sense to keep the rifle cool while saving weight and fatigue when moving it. Choosing to build a rifle around a bullet can change your approach, and this one went through several iterations with expert input to get it right, and the X-Caliber barrel here made all the difference.
Cost And Benefits
The truth of it is you might not be benefited by carbon-fiber upgrades if your end use doesn’t involve weight savings or heat dissipation. Cost is certainly a factor here, and the price of upgrades can usually buy you a whole new rifle or a new scope. Carbon-fiber barrels aren’t cheap and can run well over $1,000, not even counting chambering and fitting. Carbon-fiber stocks are more feasible, but they don’t provide significant performance enhancements at the end of the day as compared to conventional stocks.
As this technology marches on, it’ll certainly improve and begin appearing in more places. Today’s carbon-fiber game is still in its infancy. In 10 years, it’ll be likely that this material will be cheaper to produce and will find more end uses, but in our time, it’s still a specialized product best suited for the few who want to pay for a perceived edge.
The article originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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« on: February 06, 2021, 06:51:22 am »
A machine gun crew weighs many environmental and scientific factors to deliver maximum effective use of the platform in combat, as can be seen above with these Soldiers laying down suppressive fire with an M60 while fighting in Southeast Asia.
Life in the beaten zone is apt to be uncertain, but understanding this old military term is essential to fully appreciating one of the most effective types of firearm ever made. The machine gun has been with us since the turn-of-the-century era (19th to 20th). That’s more than 120 years of reliable service. Made in factories over all the world, in a great variety of sizes, shapes, calibers and operating systems, the machine gun has long been a source of impactful firepower for the infantry of the world. Before we get to the beaten zone, we have to look at the cone of fire.
Machine guns don’t fire a bunch of a shots at a time, but they do fire single shots in rapid succession. As long as the gunner presses the trigger, the gun obediently delivers another shot. Depending on many factors like the ground, stability of the mount and other things, the trajectories of a group of shots form a cone—literally, a cone of fire. All those bullets start at the same spot in the barrel of a machine gun, but the paths vary a bit when they leave the muzzle. Eventually, gravity calls all those shots back to the ground. Their pattern of strikes on the ground is known as the beaten zone. It has been designated thus as least as far back as the late 1950s when this writer was a weapons platoon leader in the 3rd Marines. Actually, “beaten zone” was heard well before World War I.
When a machine gun puts a stream of bullets into the air, the effect sort of resembles a garden hose spraying a stream of water. The pattern of water striking the lawn is somewhat elliptical and becomes longer or wider depending on how you tilt the hose. Essentially, the machine gun does the same thing. When these guns were first introduced to the battlefield, they were often used almost like artillery. Massed machine guns were set up to fire parallel to each other. The cone of fire of each gun was close to its neighbor. If you had enough guns, you could cover a vast expanse of ground with bullets—one massive beaten zone. The organization of infantry units in the Great War included entire battalions of infantry soldiers armed primarily with machine guns. In time, we came to understand that mortars and artillery were a more efficient way to do the same thing.
If the ground on which the fight is taking place is relatively flat, certain aspects of the beaten zone can be used to even greater advantage. When the machine gun is placed so that the cone of fire is nearly parallel with the ground, the beaten zone stretches out in length. If you are shooting over level or uniformly sloping ground, the bullet’s trajectory will not rise above the height of an enemy soldier. This is called grazing fire, and it can extend out to as far as 750 yards. It is an often-sought, seldom-realized condition that maximizes the potential of the machine gun. Infantry tacticians always try to get their machine guns placed to maximize their ability to produce grazing fire. But, in either offensive or defensive fighting, they also try to do something else.
They try to get the long axis of the beaten zone to coincide with the long axis of the target. We already know what the beaten zone is, so the long axis is simply an imaginary line that divides it in half. The target is a group of enemy troops. Invariably, they are going to be in some kind of formation. Draw the same imaginary line and divide the formation in half. If it’s at all possible, get the long axis of the beaten zone right on the long axis of the target. This ideal type of engagement is called enfilade fire.
Consider an incident that was at least rumored and perhaps actually happened in Vietnam. A Marine rifle squad with an M60 machine-gun team attached was on a patrol well into a disputed area of Vietnamese countryside. They stopped along the banks of a shallow river and hunkered down in the undergrowth. In time, a lone North Vietnamese soldier emerged from the trees on the far bank and looked cautiously about. He signaled, and the remainder of his platoon stepped quickly into the river and made ready to cross. Apparently, whoever was in charge wanted to get across as quickly as possible.
He put his troops in a column and hastened to get across. The machine gunner pulled the butt of the M60 into his shoulder and lined up his sights on the closest. He waited until the oncoming column of enemy soldiers was about halfway across before he pressed the trigger. It was over in two or three long bursts.
Now, I think you should understand cone of fire, beaten zone, grazing fire and enfilade fire. It is the essence of the machine gun as fightin’ iron.
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« on: January 18, 2021, 08:12:39 am »
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« on: January 14, 2021, 09:49:34 am »
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« on: January 14, 2021, 09:45:24 am »
Lying there on the gun shop's counter is a used .30-'06 Sprg. bolt-action mounted with what is supposed to be a pretty good used scope. You're going with your buddies on a deer hunt out West and didn't want to mortgage the house to buy a new rifle and a high-tech scope. The friendly guy behind the counter convinced you to part with your hard-earned cash for the used rifle.
But now you're having second thoughts. You're thinking, "Was buying a used rifle and scope the right decision? Did I just get taken to the cleaners?" The answer to the first question is "yes," it is possible to get a good used scoped rifle for less than you can buy one new.
The answer to the second question is "Maybe." There are definitely things to know and things to look for when shopping for a used rifle. I ought to know, because I grew up as one of those friendly guys behind the gun shop counter.
My grandfather started the family gun shop: Hatfield's Sporting Goods, in the old river town of St. Joseph, Mo., in 1920. Mom helped grandma with the books and grandpa, dad and my uncle manned the counter. During my childhood, at any given time we had over 1,000 guns on the rack—trap, skeet, field-grade shotguns, .22s, varmint rifles, target rifles, deer rifles and even a couple of heavy bolt guns for African hunting—most of them used.
The men of the family were gun traders of the true essence and I was put to work behind the counter every day after grade school. Many of our customers brought in guns to trade, and I was taught how to methodically inspect a used gun, what to look for and what to avoid. Back then, trading was the easiest way to get value out of a used gun, but times have changed and there are now a number of options.
When buying a used rifle, cash is king and price is often negotiable, so if you have a trade-in, it's often better and usually more profitable to sell it. One of the best places to turn old guns into new cash is on the internet.
Several websites have recently been established specifically for selling used guns. GunBroker.com is a gun auction website where you can put your gun up for auction to web surfers across the nation. There's no charge, but if your gun sells, GunBroker takes a small percentage fee.
However, if you don't want to hassle with the internet, there are auction houses such as Rock Island Auction Company that specialize in auctioning guns. A third alternative to trading in is selling your gun on consignment. Most gun shops do consignment sales these days, putting your gun on their rack and taking a small percentage when it sells.
Now, you've cashed in that old shotgun and, with green-backs clenched in your fist, you're ready to go cut a deal on a used rifle...almost. The most popular centerfire rifles on the used market are bolt-actions, and the majority of them were produced in popular deer-hunting calibers such as .30-'06 Sprg., .270 Win. and .308 Win.
American manufacturers such as Ruger, Browning, Winchester, Remington, Savage and several others have been making good bolt guns for decades; there are a lot of good used ones on the market, but values can vary greatly depending on the company, model, year of production and even the caliber.
If you're not a gun trader, the best way to get a handle on current used gun prices is to buy a copy of the Blue Book of Gun Values, and take it with you when you go shopping. Along with the book, take a bore light. You may not be able to tell if a rifle's bore is really good by looking at it, but you can certainly tell if it's really bad.
Now you're ready; armed with the gun value book, bore light and cash, head to the local gun shop and get your feet wet. You don't have to buy a rifle on your first visit. Besides, shopping for a rifle is a lot of fun, so take your time.
I've found that most guys who work in gun shops are in that line of work more from the heart than from the head. They like guns, like to talk about guns and are usually more than willing to help someone less knowledgeable. Having spent decades on the other side of the gun shop counter, I can assure you that if you tell that helpful fellow that you're shopping for a used bolt-action deer rifle, you don't have a trade-in and you brought cash, you'll get his undivided attention.
Once you have his attention, he'll probably ask you how much you want to spend. At this point, don't lock yourself into too narrow a price range. A good answer might be, "I'm willing to spend up to X, but I want a good used bolt-action with a good scope, in something around a .30-'06 Springfield."
Once the shop owner lays out a few to look at, pick one and start checking it out in detail. First, though, with the rifle pointed in a safe direction, cycle the action several times and inspect the chamber and magazine to ensure the gun is unloaded. Then look the rifle over for general wear, cracks in the stock, burred screw heads, missing parts and general signs of abuse, amateur gunsmithing or neglect.
If the rifle appears to be in good overall shape, check to ensure it's not loaded, point it in a safe direction, then throw it to your shoulder and look through the scope. You'll immediately be able to tell if the stock has been shortened, if the stock's comb has been modified, if the barrel and action are straight and properly mounted in the stock, and if the scope is clear and the crosshairs perpendicular to the action.
Next, work the action. The bolt handle should lift smoothly without binding. The bolt body should slide rearward effortlessly, with no tight or rough spots. If the action works well, remove the bolt and inspect the bolt face. The firing pin hole should be perfectly round; the locking lugs should be concentric, smooth and free of burrs, chips and cracks.
Test the extractor spring with your thumb; the spring should be sufficiently stiff to not move under thumb pressure. Closely inspect the extractor claw for chips and cracks. An extractor flexes more than any working part of the rifle and is the part that fails most often, so inspect if very carefully.
With a bore light, inspect the barrel's chamber for any obvious irregularities such as pitting. Remove the bolt, place the bore light into the breech end of the barrel and look down the bore from the muzzle. Again, you probably won't be able to tell if the bore and rifling are really good, but you will be able to see if they are really bad.
If the bore is pitted or the rifling scarred, don't buy it at any price. Without an accurate barrel, you don't have a rifle. While you're looking at the muzzle end of the barrel, carefully inspect the barrel's crown. It should be perfectly concentric, smooth and free of dents, burrs or imperfections. A bad crown means poor accuracy, in most cases. If the rifle in question has passed these inspections, it's time to try the trigger.
The trigger can tell a lot about the rifle in many cases. First ask the clerk if you can dry-fire the rifle and test the safety. With the action cocked, if the rifle has a two-position safety, move it into the rear on-safe position and pull the trigger, the rifle should not fire. If the rifle has a three-position safety, the safety should be "on" in both the rear and middle positions. If the safety functions properly, push the safety "off," mount the rifle and slowly squeeze the trigger.
The trigger should have no creep and break crisply at a reasonable pull weight of 4 or 5 lbs. If the trigger pull is very light, the factory trigger has been modified or an aftermarket trigger installed. This can be good or bad.
A modified trigger might mean that the former owner of the rifle was more than just a casual hunter and perhaps the rifle has been very heavily used and doesn't have a lot of barrel life left. On the other hand, it might mean that the rifle has had a lot of loving care and the former owner just wanted something different.
In any case, most reputable gun dealers will guarantee their used guns; if they don't, shop elsewhere. Once you have narrowed your selection down by inspection and price range, the quality of the scope might be the factor on which you make your final decision.
Weaver, Redfield, Leupold, Burris and Bushnell have been the predominant quality scope companies in America for decades. If the rifle has one of these brands on it, chances are it's good—though there are plenty of other quality makers. However, question the clerk about the scope, find out if it's still made and what the new retail price is. Also make sure there is some kind of guarantee on the scope, because if the scope is bad, a new one can cost as much as a used rifle.
At this point you've been to all of the gun shops in the area and have a Model 77 Ruger, .270Win with a 3-9X Redfield picked out that the shop owner claims hasn't had a box of cartridges through it. You've looked up the rifle in the Blue Book of Gun Values, you know what the scope is worth, and the shop owner will guarantee the whole rig. With an asking price of just over half the price of a new rifle and scope, you've already got a great deal, but now you're not just an average customer, you're a gun trader, and it's deal time.
You'll need ammo, a good sling and possibly a soft case. Put these things with the rifle, and in your best poker-faced southern drawl, ask the merchant what he'll take for the works. Even if he gives you a good price, you might bid him something a little less. If he balks, show him your bankroll.
That strategy doesn't always work, but speaking from experience behind the gun counter, it always puts the negotiations on a serious footing and, what the heck, he expects it, because that's how you buy a used rifle.
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« on: December 06, 2020, 09:47:27 am »
Precision and accuracy shooting
I’ve always said you can’t buy capability. Only practice can turn you into an accomplished precision shooter. However, neither can you practice your way to great skill without certain critical equipment.
Whether you jump into the precision shooting scene with both feet and buy one of today’s excellent purpose-designed rifles or just want to stretch out your favorite deer rifle, you’ll need the right accessories. Let’s assume you’ve got the rifle or at least a foundation in the form of a potentially accurate barreled action. What do you really need to get the best out of it?
Appropriate stocks for long-range precision include (from l.) hand-laid fiberglass composite, laminated wood and chassis-type.
Stocks
Whether you prefer wood, or composite or a machined metal chassis-type stock, it needs to be rigid to promote accuracy and stable to promote consistency. It must be impervious to whatever nature throws at it. This means laminated wood stocks, hand-laid composite stocks and well-executed machined-aluminum chassis. Wood is too susceptible to moisture, and common injection-molded plastic just isn’t rigid enough, and it becomes malleable when it’s hot and brittle when it’s cold.
If you need a different stock, research the type you prefer and shell out the money. It’s worth it. Boyds Gunstocks offers usable laminated wood stocks, and McMillan offers some top-notch models. Stocky’s Stocks carries most of the good composite versions at good prices. And chassis stocks can be found at myriad online retailers.
Opt for a model with a somewhat vertical grip, which makes for more comfortable, stable improvised field positions.
Also, try to find a version with a lightweight adjustable cheek rest.Finally, be sure the fore-end is robust enough to accept your barrel profile. This latter particularly applies if your action has a heavy match tube or if you anticipate rebarreling it someday.LL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Action Bedding
Some experts hold that every rifle, even those with CNC-machined bedding blocks, will benefit from glass bedding. Other experts believe the opposite.
Pick your side. I’m something of a bedding anarchist. If your action is mated to a premium, machined surface—either chassis or bedding block in a composite stock—by a top-shelf manufacturer, and if it shoots well, I’m satisfied.
However, lots of today’s bedding blocks aren’t accurately machined, and lots of actions aren’t perfectly square, true and parallel. My 6.5-300 Wby. Mag. was one such gun. There was a discerniable bend in the action as the screws drew it into the skewed aluminum bedding block. Acraglas work performed by Roland Black—a bedding true-believer—literally halved the size of the groups that rifle produces.
Plus, no matter what a manufacturer’s literature says, all—and I mean all—composite stocks need bedding. A good buddy once spent $600 on a prime McMillan but mistakenly believed he could just drop his fresh Krieger-barreled action in. Groups were dismal. We bedded it, and it became a half-m.o.a. rifle.
Critical Scope Features
Gone are the days of capped elevation turrets and mil-dot reticles. Over the past decade, Nightforce and Vortex spearheaded a feature revolution in the optics world. The innovations they made standard showed shooters a new world of capability and forced other optic companies to up their game.
In addition to clear glass, maximum light transmission and minimum distortion, today’s savvy shooters want a certain set of features on their precision optics.First, the elevation turret must have durable, precision, repeatable guts. If it doesn’t dial predictably and last for thousands of repetitions, it doesn’t make the cut.
The turret must be equipped with a zero-stop-type mechanism that enables the shooter to dial down to his or her base sight-in distance without looking or counting dial revolutions. And if the turret has a zero lock button preventing it from inadvertently being spun off zero, that’s icing on the cake.
Lean toward turrets with easy-to-calculate rotation quantities, such as 20 m.o.a. or 10 mils per rotation. Second-rotation numbers on the dial are really nice, too.
If you’re trying to wring out precision from a hunting rifle, company-offered custom-engraved dials regulated to match your favorite load in yards are particularly advantageous.
A really important second feature is adjustable parallax. Precision shooting dictates the necessity of eliminating parallax, which is an optical anomaly that causes all kinds of grief if not eliminated. In the old days this feature was found on the front lens housing, but now the more ergonomic side focus turret is much more common.
If you want to shoot far, adequate internal adjustment is necessary. Typically, this requires the use of a 30mm main tube or even larger. Be aware that although the massive 34mm and 35mm tubes provide outstanding image quality and tons of adjustment, they are heavy, and rings are expensive and hard to find.
Bases & Rings
Scope rings are not all created equal. Neither are bases. For a precision rifle, install a one-piece cross-slot 1913-spec base. The one-piece design is not only more rigid but also squares up the two rings to one another. Apply thread lock and torque the screws to appropriate spec.
Purchase quality rings. They’re expensive, so plan to spend upward of $100. It’s worth it. Precision machined rings from Seekins, Nightforce, Leupold, Warne, Steiner, Hawkins and others typically offer perfectly round, true bearing surfaces. Cheaper rings need to be lapped to prevent scope body damage and consistency-robbing distortion when the screws are tightened.
A common tendency is to mount scopes in rings that are higher than they need to be. This exacerbates the struggle to attain a good cheek weld. Choose rings that position the scope as close to the barrel and action as possible¬—without actually touching. Try them first to be sure. Seekins makes arguably the best low-mount rings.
Torque scope ring screws only to manufacturer’s spec. Cranking them tighter will potentially compress the scope tube and compromise the mechanics of the erector housing and magnification adjustments.
Cant can be an accuracy killer at longer ranges. A spirit level like this one from Burris will ensure you’re holding your rifle true.
Scope Accessories
Canting a rifle isn’t a big deal inside 200 or even 300 yards. Past that, it can be a real headache, so get a scope level bubble.
A couple of years ago an old hunting mentor of mine lay behind a superbly accurate rifle and aimed at one of the biggest Wyoming mule deer he’d seen in a half-century of hunting big bucks. It stood 430 yards away, on a steep ridge that fell sharply off to the one side.
The buck also stood at a steep angle, his hindquarters dramatically lower than his shoulders. With one or two steps, the buck could vanish into heavy brush.
My friend dialed up his Nightforce scope, got steady and sent his bullet. Unfortunately, it was a whisker right—just enough to miss over the giant deer’s back. He later figured out he’d canted his rifle strongly due to the angle of the ridge.
My favorite economy-priced scope level is made by Burris and costs about $35. Mount it on the main tube just behind the front objective bell so you can see it with your non-shooting eye when in firing position. Calibrate it to the flat top of your scope turret.
Several competing models are available, too. Look for the offset versions; otherwise you have to lift your head from the stock and take your eye from the scope to see the level.
For a high-end product, serious shooters trend toward Accuracy 1st’s version, which costs a cool $100 but offers more precision and is less likely to get sluggish in very cold conditions. Another premium, innovative level is Warne’s $100 collapsible Skyline model.
Cheek Rests
Few modern scopes can be mounted low enough to allow a good cheek weld. This is especially so with precision scopes because of their large lens diameters and large main tubes, as well as the robust, cross-bolt type bases and rings precision shooters favor for their strength.
Stock makers have compensated as much as possible by designing high combs. However, there’s a limit, because the rifle’s bolt has to be able to clear the top of the comb when removed for maintenance.
A good cheek weld is critical. A while back, a good friend struggled with a fine new custom rifle. He was frustrated because he couldn’t get the gun to group better than 1.5 inches at 100 yards.
I cut some cardboard, rolled out the packing tape, and stacked shims atop his comb until he could lie prone with his neck completely relaxed, eye centered in the scope. His five-shot groups instantly shrunk to 0.75 inch.
For a price, shooters can order a precision stock with an adjustable cheek rest. That price comes in two forms—dollars and pounds—although recent cutting-edge versions from McMillan and Manners have shaved those pounds to ounces.
If you’re getting a new stock, and if you don’t plan to climb big mountains with your rifle, by all means get an adjustable cheek rest. If not, order an AccuPack strap-on by Spec-Ops Brand. Unlike most strap-ons, which add just a quarter inch of height and are basically useless, the AccuPack comes with closed-cell-foam shims and is adjustable for height. Weight is just four ounces. I use them on all my mountain rifles.
Bipods
Properly used, a bipod provides benchrest levels of accuracy. Modern technique consists of lying straight behind the bipod—rather than at an angle as many competitive shooters learned. This directs recoil straight back through the body, which minimizes muzzle jump and particularly sideways muzzle jump.
Additionally, the bipod is typically “loaded,” meaning the shooter puts forward pressure against it by scooting the body forward. You not only get increased stability with this method, loading your bipod provides superb recoil control as well.
Use the non-shooting fist beneath the toe of the stock to provide rear support or, even better, a bunny-ear sandbag or lightweight field bag. The instructors at the SAAM School at FTW Ranch recommend a padded shooting mitt for the non-shooting fist.
More Harris bipods are in use around the world than any other, and provide a great benchmark. They’re of high quality, attach to the forward sling stud, work beautifully and cost little more than $100. However, they’re also heavy, noisy, prone to snag in dense brush, and don’t have great amounts of adjustability.
Bipods that up the game and triple the price typically offer more adjustment, particularly in forward and rearward leg positions. Sometimes they’re lighter, too. Various interchangeable feet are available. Atlas, Warne, Modular Evolutions and Spartan Precision offer great options.
Timney and other manufacturers make great aftermarket triggers that can really improve your shooting.
Triggers
To get the best out of a super-accurate rifle, you’ve got to have a crisp, light trigger, ideally without discernable overtravel, which is rearward movement that occurs after the trigger releases the sear.
Heavy, gritty, inconsistent triggers interfere with clean shot execution. No matter how perfect your position, sight picture, and technique, practical shots from field positions unavoidably suffer from a poor trigger.
Thankfully, excellent aftermarket triggers are available for most rifle models. Cost runs from about $125 up to $250.
Jewell, Trigger Tech and Geissele are great manufacturers. Timney has a broad selection, including triggers for models infrequently pressed into service for precision work.
Many options are engineered for a specific task. Beware of accidentally ordering a two-ounce benchrest competition trigger. My favorites are adjustable to a crisp two pounds, which is heavy enough to prevent negligent discharges and light enough for really precise field work.
Whether you’re interested in getting into long-range rifle competition such as Precision Rifle Series or want to get a hunting rifle ready to handle any precision task, paying attention to these features will go a long way toward achieving your goals.
It’s not that difficult. Just think stock, bedding, optics and optics accessories, cheek rest, trigger and bipod, and you’re on your way.
Benedikt
14
« on: October 06, 2020, 02:41:12 pm »
15
« on: September 04, 2020, 06:48:26 pm »
This is my private forum, has nothing to do with ADSC. To answer your question, I personally feel that the challenges will be in our favour
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