Target Shooter

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 Target Shooter 3
Welcome to the May Issue of .....................Target Shooter
9 IWA 2011
by Vince
Sections
Bottomley
6 Shooting Sport News


8 Shooters Calendar


20 Shooting Black Powder

Pistol by Chris Risebrook
24 Third Eye
Tactical 31 World Interclub Cyber
by Chris Parkin Shoot by John O’Sullivan

47 2011 Spring Action

Weekend
by Gwyn Roberts

71 Dry Fire by Don Brook

37 The Good, The
Bad and the Ugly
by Carl Boswell
Association Pages
74 NSRA

77 UKBRA

79 UKBR22

80 F- Class
53 Dealing
86 UKPSA
with the Wind
by Chris White 91 Gallery Rifle

95 Quigley Association

61 6mm BR
Norma by
Laurie Holland

4 Target Shooter
 Editor(s).
Carl Boswell and Vince Bottomley
Advertising and Office Manager
Yvonne Wilcock
email; admin@targetshooter.co.uk
Contributors
Vince Bottomley Tony Saunders Laurie Holland
Chris Risebrook Carl Boswell Don Brook
Alan Whittle Gwyn Roberts Ken Hall
Chris Parkin John O’Sullivan Chris White
Webitorial - May 2011

This month’s Webitorial contains some very important and exciting information for readers.
After much consideration, we will be launching next month’s Target Shooter as an iPad, iPhone or
iPod app.

This will, we feel, eliminate one of the major problems of an on-line magazine – downloading and
viewing on a desktop computer. Viewing the magazine on an iPad is almost more convenient that
reading a paper magazine!

Yes, we realise that not everyone has an Apple device but more and more of you have asked us for
this facility so, after much deliberation we have decided that we must respond.
Of course, the magazine will still be available, to download for free just as it has always been but,
we feel that an app. is the way forward.

The app. itself will be free to download as will the first month’s issue, but a small charge of 59p or
99 cents will be made for each subsequent issue and we hope that readers will embrace this small
fee. Unfortunately, the charges involved in offering an app. are considerable but we hope to at
least break even by the end of the year.

As always, we thank you for your continued support.

Vince, Carl & Yvonne

Carl Boswell - carl@targetshooter.co.uk and Vince Bottomley - vinceb@targetshooter.co.uk and

Yvonne - admin@targetshooter.co.uk

Copyright © Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd

Disclaimer
The website www.targetshooter.co.uk is part of Target Shooter magazine with all contents of both electronic media copyrighted. No reproduction is permitted unless
written authorisation is provided.
Information, prices and data is believed to be correct at the time of posting on the internet which is on or around the 1st of each month. Advertisements that are firearm
related are from companies or individuals that Target Shooter magazine believes are licensed to hold such firearms and accepts no responsibility if companies or
individuals are not so licensed.
Letters and photographs submitted by members of the public to Target Shooter magazine will be accepted on the basis that the writer has agreed to publication unless
otherwise stated. Target Shooter magazine has no control over the content or ownership of photographs submitted.
The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the publishers and relate to specific circumstances within each article. These are the opinions
and experiences of writers using specific equipment, firearms, components and data under controlled conditions. Information contained in the online magazine or on the
website is intended to be used as a guide only and in specific circumstances caution should be used. Target Shooter Magazine does not except any responsibility for
individuals attempting to recreate such testing using any information, data or other materials in its electronic pages.Publishers of Target Shooter magazine.

Target Shooter 5
 Shooting Sport News
An Open Invertation to all Bell- preceded if required by ONE
sighter. The team will shoot one after the
target Shooters other in any order they wish with
I am in the process of organising a Bell Target in the allotted time. Coaching is allowed.
Charity Shoot in aid of the Air Ambulance 5. Scoring, a clean shot is 5.1, touching rim
to take place on 11th September 2011 at the is 5 i.e. as per Bell target scoring
NALGO Social Club, Shire hall, Shrewsbury. 6. A detail will be 45 minuets duration with
15 minuets change over time.
I hope to make it an all day event, with 10 7. The Novice
targets. Lots of space for lots of Teams. a) should be any one who is not
registered with a bell target league;
The format of this shoot will have some subtle b) is not an air rifle shooter;
variations to the normal league team shoot. A c) should be over 14 years of age, and
team shall comprise of 5 shooters, BUT, ONE accompanied by an adult;
person must be a NOVICE.(see rules and d) may make use of a support ( supplied
regulations). by the organisers)
The score obtained by the Novice is to be e) with in the meaning of the word!
doubled and added to the scores of the other
Four team members giving a total Team score. General Conditions
Insurance:- If you do not have an up to date Air
The monies promised to all the team members Gun Membership card then the insurance is £1
is to be added giving a total sponsorship. This payable on registration
sum is to be multiplied by the total team score. All donations are to be received by the
The resultant of this calculation will be Trophy Shrewsbury & District A/R Ass. League’s.
Winners. I anticipate there being other awards! treasurer NOT later than the 1st October 2011
On that day monies received will be used for
All donations will be given to the Air the final calculation. Cheques to made payable
Ambulance, The Polar Bear League will fund to ’ Shrewsbury & District A/R Ass. League’
the Shoot. The presentation of Trophies etc. is to be
arranged with The Air Ambulance at a place
Rule and Regulations. and date suitable to them Mid October ’ish!
1. These shall be as per those for the Team entry forms and sponsor sheets will be
Shrewsbury & District Air Rifle sent to any club or persons that would like to
Association Bell Target League and will participate.
be placed on the table in front of each Please contact the Shrewsbury Secretary Ian
firing point, UNLESS otherwise stated Smythe for further information:-
below. e-mail icesmythe@talktalk.net or ring 01734
2. All team members MUST be sponsored, 821 690
otherwise the team is NOT eligible for Post to 19, Brookside Gardens, Yockleton,
the final calculation. Shrewsbury, SY5 9PR
3. A Range Officer (Appointed by the
organisers) will be responsible The principle object of the exercise is to raise
for the safety on the firing point. money for the Air Ambulance and show our
Any dispute is put to the Shrewsbury & Sport to the public as well as to encourage
District A/R League Commettee new-comers.
their descision is final.
4. Course of fire, Seven shots to count
6 Target Shooter
O bituary
– Ferris
Pindell
Ferris Pindell passed
away on April 11th 2011.
Pindell was the ‘P’ in the
famous 6PPC cartridge
– undoubtedly the most
inherently accurate
cartridge ever designed.

In collaboration with
fellow benchrest shooter
Dr Louis Palmisano (the
other ‘P’) gunsmith Ferris
developed the PPC
cartridge from the 220
Russian cartridge case
and changed the face
of benchrest shooting
forever.

No cartridge has ever

come close to un-seating
the 6PPC when it comes
to short range accuracy.

I was fortunate enough

to meet Ferris at the
World Benchrest
Championships in
America in 2005, where
the above photograph
was taken.
Ferris is on the left and
that’s Walt Berger on
the right of the picture.
Although in his eighties,
Ferris was as sharp as
a razor and was proudly
showing us his bullet-
pointing die – the first
one I’d seen. Another legend leaves the range.

Target Shooter 7
Calendar of events over the next few months
If your club or association has events you want to publicise here then email us.
7 May to 8 May - F Class League (Blair Atholl 14 May - World Cup - Fort Benning The
(Scotland)) competition runs from 14th - 22nd May
Contact Des Parr via the NRA
14 May to 15 May - NRA 300M Championships
7 May to 8 May - Target Rifle Skills Course (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
This weekend course is aimed primarily at those Contact the Shooting Division via the NRA
who have recently taken up target rifle shooting
to help them develop their individual skills 14 May to Range Conducting
Officer Course (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Contact Phyllis Farnan via the NRA Bisley)
Two day course - successful candidates will be
7 May to 8 May - Club Instructor Course - qualified to conduct live firing on MoD or TAVRA
Target Rifle (National Shooting Centre (NSC), ranges.
Bisley)
This is the first step towards a coaching qualifica- Contact Maureen Peach via the NRA
tion and is for experienced shooters who wish to
assist with training at club level. Applicants should 15 May - NRA Shooting Club Day (National
ideally have completed an NRA Skills Course. Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Multi-discipline NRA Shooting Club Day. Targets
Contact Phyllis Farnan via the NRA have been booked on Melville and at 100, 200,
600 and 900 yards. All disciplines welcome.
Open to all full members of the NRA who have
7 May to 8 May - An Invitation to all F/TR Class completed and returned the registration form
Competitors (National Shooting Centre (NSC), which is available by clicking on the link below.
Bisley) If you would like to attend you must book in at
The Match Rifle community are inviting F/TR least a week in advance by contacting Charles
class NRA members to join them at their Spring Perry at the NRA
meeting on the weekend of May 7/8th. This is an
opportunity for you to try your hand at the rang- 27 May to 29 May - Phoenix Meeting (National
es of 1000, 1100 & 1200 yards on the NRA long Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
range targets which are more generous than This multi-discipline meeting Is a must for your
those used in F class. Normal F/TR rules will shooting diary and has its roots in pistol calibre
apply in regard to the resting of rifles. firearms but there are also plenty of competitions
for Black Powder, Air and Fullbore from 15 yards
A prize is reserved for F/TR competitors who are right up to 1000 yards. This Meeting has over 75
also invited, with their partners, to the reception competitions to enter, giving you enough chanc-
on Saturday after shooting has finished at the es to earn yourself one of the much sought after
English Eight Club which is one of the oldest on Grandmaster Medals. In addition to the shooting
Bisley camp. there Is the Arms Fair held in the Bisley Pavilion.

An entry may be made for one day only. Contact Brian Thomas via the NRA

You should have received an invitation via the 30 July to 7th August 2011 - The World
NRA but otherwise it can be downloaded from Rimfire & Air Rifle Benchrest Federation - 2nd
the English VIII site at englishviii.org.uk. World Championships in Palmetto USA.

For further details, see the Calendar entry 25 Sep - Somerset Small Bore Shooting
entitled “The English Eight Club, National Association - Major Hutchinson Memorial Shoot
Rifle Club of Scotland & Welsh Rifle Association The Shoot will be held at the Long Ashton
Spring Meeting” Ranges.
Entry forms are available on the website. http://
Contact Karen Robertson via the NRA ssbsa.com/

8 Target Shooter
Last month we had a look at what was new in names – Blaser, Sig Sauer, Schmidt & Bender,
ammunition and components, this month let’s Zeiss, Khales etc. have massive displays in the
have a look at the new rifles on display. If we prestigious Hall One at IWA. Although I’m not a
were a hunting magazine, we would have lots hunter, one can’t help but admire this tradition
to talk about and until you visit IWA, you don’t which just doesn’t exist in the UK.
perhaps realise just how big the hunting scene
is in Germany. But what is there at IWA for the target shooter?

For many German men, hunting and all the In some respects, very little – in centrefire that
tradition that goes with it – including the ‘land is. Of course, all the smallbore and air-rifle
mode’ clothing - is a way of life that we just don’t companies had new stuff on display which
have in the UK. Check out one of the massive would no doubt excite the serious ISSF shooter
Frankonia stores www.frankonia.de if you are but very little caught my eye.

ever in Germany – there are about twenty in I did however spot this strange beast – listed
all. They are literally a one-stop department by Anschutz as their ‘Modern Sporting Rifle’.
store for the shooter, selling not only firearms, It looks like a very rugged semi-auto rimfire
shotguns, air weapons but all the paraphernalia complete with aperture sights but for which
that goes with it including ammunition, clothing, discipline?
optics etc. They even have their own ranges and
run their own shooting events. Most of the ‘big names’ do now offer some sort
of tactical rifle which comes closest to what we
It means that names like Mauser are just as might use for target shooting and there is a
big as Porsche to the Germans and these big definite trend towards the larger calibres and

Target Shooter 9
 Old Blaser LRS 2 – top. New folding stock below

almost everyone seems to have a 338. stock with a heavy fore-end but let’s start
However, some manufacturers don’t seem with Remington. Look at this – a factory rifle

to know exactly what they are doing with the complete with moderator! A first for Remington
‘target’ market but know that it’s something to do and something I never expected to see from an
with heavy barrels and funny-shaped stocks – American manufacturer – where moderators are
preferably in a strange paint finish. very hard to procure. Maybe Health & Safety is
changing things on range.........
Even Browning had one this year – with a
heavy-ish fluted barrel and a sand-coloured Blaser were displaying a new folding stock for

The Savage M10 BA

10 Target Shooter
their LRS 2 rifle and to be honest, it looks a whole on show with a fancy wood-laminate stock and
lot better than the old one. They’ve flashed it heavy fluted stainless barrel. It looked really
up with a few pic-rails and an M16 pistol-grip nice but for what discipline?
and it does look quite butch! Same straight-pull
action with quick-change barrel system - for I’d seen one or two mentions of the new Ruger
those who like it but for me, it does kind of ‘Scout’ rifle on the internet forums. This is based
restrict your choice of cartridge. on a Jeff Cooper theory of what the ideal hunting/
carry rifle should be like. To be honest –
I don’t personally shoot lever-action – or Gallery although I’ve no personal interest in such a
Rifle - but I know a lot of you do and we see weapon – I quite liked it!
pictures of tricked-up Marlins in the pages of this It handled quite nicely if you know what I mean –
magazine. I thought that this was a very
British discipline spawned following
the pistol ban, so I was surprised therefore
to see these Marlins, looking resplendent
in stainless-steel with laminate stocks,
short barrel, Pic rails already installed for
scope-mounting and an enlarged lever.

Last year, Savage Arms – now America’s

largest rifle manufacturer - wowed us with
their new 338 tactical rifle. These were
great value at under three grand. This
year, it’s much the same with a few Pic
rails added for that military look. There is
also a 308 version - which I have yet to
see in the UK.

Savage also had a very nice little ‘cus-

tom’ 22LR bolt-action magazine-fed rifle
Target Shooter 11
it felt right in the hand. Ruger have wisely opted than ever with heavy stainless barrelled-action
for an AI 10-shot mag. and the flash-hider looks and brown wood-laminate stock.
the part. What would you use it for? I don’t know
and I bet it kicks a bit in 308! Winchester also had a neat-looking tactical rig on
Ruger also had their version of a tactical rifle on show with a sand-coloured stock which looked a
show – with heavy barrel, bi-pod, black synthetic bit like a McMillan A5 (but it wasn’t) heavy black
stock with beaver-tail fore-end etc. plus the barrel and Pic rail atop the old Model 70 action.
latest version of their M77 which looks nicer But look at this strange beast from Tikka (below)

12 Target Shooter
 Steyr’s new 338 tactical rifle

What is it supposed to be? Heavy but very short The paint job looks a bit hurried but check out
barrel with threaded muzzle. No sights, very that bi-pod. - really nice. It comes as standard
strange laminate stock. I just can’t think of a use with the rifle but someone else is making it so it’s
for it – unless maybe there was a sniper incident possible to buy it separately. It’s a really rugged
in a wood yard................. piece of kit and although it’s not cheap, neither
is a decent F Class bi-pod.
Although there is a large Chinese presence at
IWA, we don’t get many firearms but I do like Of course, the classic amongst the tactical
this Norinco copy of the Winchester 1897 Trench rifles has got to be the Unique Alpine. The boys
Gun. It’s a bit basic – as was the original for that have a great package which ticks all the boxes
matter but with a bit of ‘aging’, it could look the for the professional or amateur shooter. No
part. big changes are necessary but for this year but
This is Steyr’s latest 338 tactical rifle (above). subtle modifications have been made to the

Target Shooter 13
 action and chassis-mounting, a fold-
ing-stock option and a new vented
fore-end hand-guard with a few Pic
rails added for good measure, plus a
neat looking bi-pod.

Roedale Precision usually have

something new for us to look at and
for the last couple of years proprietor
Pete Lincoln has been working on
his own AI-style chassis. Pete’s
chassis (previous page) is made in
the way that the AI used to be made
– CNC machined from one billet of
aluminium rather than a centre
casting with two bits welded on
Do you have a neat little bubble level on your rifle? either end. He had the ally bit
Why not really complicate things and fit one of last year and now he has finally
these! got someone to make the plastic
side-panels. Interestingly, he has
ditched the AI thumbhole design in
favour of a pistol-grip – so have AI!

The little four-barrel cutie above is

billed as a ‘non-leathal’ personal
defence device. It fires a range of
cartridges from flares to rubber balls.
It’s Russian, dirt cheap and what’s
wrong with it? Why can’t our wives

Barrett’s BORS bullet-drop system

14 Target Shooter
 Now if Ikea made guns.......................

We don’t see much of this gunmaker (Heym( in the UK but they make some neat looking
tactical rifles
No trip to IWA would be complete without a visit
to the Barrett stand. I was keen to see their
new 416 cartridge. This was developed when
California decided to ban its residents from
owning the 50cal. Barrett and a very impressive
cartridge it is – but very HME for the UK at over
8000 foot-pounds unfortunately! In retaliation
to the California ban, Barrett will not sell the
416 to any Californian Government or Police
departments – only private citizens! Well done
and girlfriends carry one in their handbag? Barrett.
I’d read about Barrett’s BORS bullet-drop

More 50BMG stuff – the SAN 511

Target Shooter 15
 German Sport Guns (GSG) really played
to our fantasies this year with this
authentically boxed WW” Schmeisser -
complete with cap!

The miracle of CNC and the lack of patents see if it could be of any use to the target shooter.
means that almost anyone can now turn out Answer? Clever though it is for the military, it’s
impressive weapons. This Prague company not much use to us – it measures temperature,
had a variant of just about any M16/AR15 you barometric pressure and shot inclination but
could dream up – if only............. there is nowhere to factor-in the wind, our
biggest challenge.
system for scope adjustment and was keen to
Of course, it’s not all
Now how did that get in there............................? guns – this is the latest
Leatherman ‘Gunsmith’
tool. Actually, it did
have some very useful
attachments which could
be handy on-range for
running repairs (previous
page).

We are fast running

Mini- rifle fans have never had it so good with a massive range of what Mike SJ last
month called ‘tacticool’ weapons. H&K, Uzi, Sig, Colt etc. whatever takes your fancy

16 Target Shooter
 This is one of Vittorio’s actions – beautifully made to rival any custom action I have seen

out of space and there is loads more to tell Next month, we’ll have a look at optics and a
you about but I must introduce you to my few of the other bits and pieces that make up the
good friend Dr Vitorrio Traveggia from It- IWA exhibition.
aly. Dr Traveggia is a great long-range
shooter, engineer and innovator and every year,
his stand is one of the highlights of my IWA
visit – he always has something new – and tasty!
Check out www.bcmeuropearms.it

The same action in tactical format. The

stock is all CNC aluminium made by
BCM, as are the scope-rings

Target Shooter 17
Kelbly 179mmX130mm 6/16/10 7:16 AM Page 1

Introducing Kelbly’s Tactical Rifles.

bringing benchrest precision to the tactical
market. With loads of options to choose from,
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Introducing the first hunting and tactical scopes

with 10 times power ratio on a variable scope.
March 1x-10x-24mm and 2.5x-25x-42mm. 1/4” clicks
and 25 MOA per revolution. All lenses in scopes are
cemented in place, and do not rely on O rings to hold
point of aim. Argon gas purged.

18 Target Shooter
 Enhance your TIKKA T3!
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detail, we provide some custom parts. For immediate delivery: Bolt shrouds and bottom metals for either AICS or
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For more info, prices and ordering: www.alutek.eu

Currently seeking international dealers
Target Shooter 19
 Shooting the Black Powder Pistol

with Chris Risebrook

Muzzle-loading rifle aspirations! in getting it up there in the first place, without
getting a hernia! Photo 1 shows my Heath
Quite high on my list of things to do Robinson solution to the problem complete with
before shuffling off mortal coil is to shoot a beloved Strela. All you have to do is lift it on and
muzzle-loading rifle and, as times a’passing, it’s off the stand. I bought the Strela in about 1964
maybe time to go shopping! and, I have to admit that it is in better condition
than its owner! However, I have noticed it has
The first candidate was a Bristlen rifle by put on weight these last few years.
Pedersoli. This would be ideally suited for the
MLAGB 50 metre off-hand competition. The The problem with the Bristlen was that there
trouble is, these rifles are expensive at over was no bullet-mould. The butt carried various
£2000 new, so a second hand example at about weapon-control stickers, so it must have been
half that price was tempting. At about 16lbs. it’s used in international competition. Even if the
a heavy brute to shoot standing but I am so owner bought his bullets, it seems unlikely that
used to my Strela, which weighs over 17lbs and he did not also have the correct mould. Judging
which I use off hand, that the Bristlen would not by various blogs on the internet, these rifles
be a problem. are fussy as to their fodder and, the correct
bullet for this rifle is a .447 minie ball weighing
The difficulty is not in holding up the rifle but 360grains, and you won’t find many of those

Picture 1

20 Target Shooter
 Picture 2

in your favourite gunshop! Many thanks to all weapons. Amongst their output were Potsdam
those people round the country who all tried to type military pistols, target pistols much in the
help. The best guess was to size down a .451 style of Boutet, Comblain falling block rifles,
but that would have been too heavy. You could Vetterli bolt action rifles and even bulldog type
probably get away with almost anything at 25 revolvers in .450. They were also one of ten
metres - including patched ball but my guess is factories commissioned to convert the Swiss
that only the correct bullet would stabilise at 50 rifles to breech loading in 1863, using the
metres. Milbank Amsler system, which was very similar
to and easily confused with, the Springfield
I did find the correct mould - but that was in trapdoor conversion.
Tennessee priced at $100 but, by the time I
had paid customs duty, storage fees, postage The lock plate is engraved with the maker’s
and heaven knows what else plus VAT on all name and inspection and proof marks and the
the above, there would not be much change top of the barrel is struck with the bear emblem
from £250. The last item I bought from America within a shield as the Berne Canton mark.
came with a list of charges as long as your arm
- everybody and his cat seemed to get a nibble The calibre is the later 10.4mm, and - glory
and, of course, without the mould the rifle is of be - it has its original mould! Being a military
little practical use or value. The other problem is rifle, it also has a triangular bayonet which, once
that like all replicas, their value just keeps going detached from the rifle, has to be the world’s
down, so I decided on Plan B! See Photo 2. unhandiest weapon. See Photo 3. The bayonet
fits into a tubular socket on the right-hand side
Now this is the real thing - a military target rifle and is held in by a spring catch, which is a pig
made to the 1851 Swiss pattern by Beuret to release. It is a good tight fit but it makes for a
Freres of Liege and St.Etienne for the canton of very unwieldy weapon. As a knife, the bayonet
Berne. Until 1842, the Swiss used a smoothbore is absolutely useless - there is just nothing to
in 18mm and each canton was responsible get hold of. The rifle - without bayonet is 52
for its own procurement. In 1851 the Federal inches long with a 33inch barrel. Total length
government took over the weapons supply in with bayonet is 70 inches!
rifle form in first 10.5mm and later 10.4mm. The
Freres brothers were in business from 1836 to The barrel is two key hooked breach, which
1879 and seem to have produced a plethora of makes for easy cleaning and the ramrod has a

Picture 3

Target Shooter 21
 Picture 4

sliding brass muzzle protector to avoid damage The problem with the Swiss rifle lies with the
to the bore. Rifling twist is about one turn in sights. Whereas the Bristlen had an aperture
33 inches. Bearing in mind its age, the barrel sight adjustable for elevation and windage,
is quite presentable. There is some pitting in this one has only a very fine open sight and a
the grooves but the lands are sharp. The plain miniscule front blade. The sights are incredibly
walnut stock has its fair share of dents and fine and the open rear-sight is really too close to
scratches, but that is hardly surprising after 160 the eye. The rea-rsight has a coarse adjustment
years. only for elevation – out to 1000 metres! At
that range it would be more like artillery laying
There is no half-cock, which is quite normal for - probably best to stick to a howitzer! The
target rifles and the double set-trigger works foresight is drift adjustable for windage.
very well. Pull the rear trigger to set and touch
the front trigger to fire. The screw between One curiosity is the detachable ‘acorn’ on the
the triggers alters the weight of the final heel of the butt. See Photo 4. This is simply
release. The front trigger can also be used as a a coarse screw-thread which screws into the
conventional trigger. This is quite different from wood, but is has a knurled a ring and a hole
the Strela, where the front ‘trigger’ is merely a for a tommy bar, so it is obviously meant to be
lever to set the rear trigger and it has no use as removed. It must have served some purpose
a conventional trigger as such. but, for the life of me, I cannot see what. I

Picture 5

22 Target Shooter
thought it might be a worm to remove a stuck use when swaging bullets in the pistol days. It
ball but there is no provision to attach it to a rod. had gone hard but was persuaded into the gap
Anyone got any ideas? There are a number of in front of the band and left to harden again.
these rifles on the internet, both muzzleloading Hopefully, this will provide sufficient lubrication
and breech loading, and they all have this acorn. but, after all that messing about, I discovered
Incidentally, the fitting of double set-triggers was that someone is achieving good accuracy with
standard on all these rifles, so a high degree of 10 thou. patches.
marksmanship was clearly expected.
I have no idea of the correct charge, so I propose
A good clean produced the usual ‘crud’ from the to start at 25 metres with 30 grains of FFG and
barrel but there is presently no air passage to work up from there. The rifle weighs about 10
the nipple; there is some blockage which needs lbs., so recoil should not be a problem with
to be cleared before it can fire. I managed to find modest charges. It will have to wait for my next
a home-made nipple wrench to fit and it takes trip to Bisley to have the chamber cleared, so
No. 10 caps. The mould, shown in Photo 5, is that will give me time to have another casting
in excellent condition and inevitably, has steel session to provide a usable quantity of bullets.
handles. This means it reaches optimum casting
temperature at “Ouch!” degrees. Hedging gloves The real advantage of this rifle over the Bristlen is
are a necessity! Like many moulds, the first 20 that, with any luck, it should at least hold its value
or so produce ‘wrinkled prunes’ whilst it comes and may even prove a worthwhile investment.
up to temperature, then it finds the sweet spot Well, that’s what I tell myself; sometimes I almost
and then reverts to ‘prune’ mode as it overheats. believe it!
There is no sprue cutter, so it is necessary to
hack off the substantial sprue on the base.

The result is shown in Photo 5. There are no

lube grooves as such but rather a driving-band
at the base. I found some old Iwox we used to

Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd

295 London Road
North End
Portsmouth
PO2 9HF
Opening Times Tel 02392 660574
Mon 9.30 - 5.30 Fax 02392 644666
Tues Closed
Wed Closed E-mail sales@portsmouthguncentre.com
Thur 9.30 - 5.30 Website www.portsmouthguncentre.com
Fri 9.30 - 5.30
Sat 9.30 - 5.30
We stock a full range of Rifles, Pistols, Air Guns, Shotguns, Ammunition,
Reloading Equipment and Accessories. All major brands stocked including BSA,
CZ, Air Arms, Marlin, Ruger, Umarex, Uberti, Cometa, Pedersoli, Berreta, Lincoln,
Webley, Pedersoli, etc.

Target Shooter 23
Third Eye Tactical - a follow-up by Chris Parkin
Last year, Vince called in on Third Eye Tactical in is more or less on my doorstep, so I went along
West Yorkshire and discovered some fine products to have a look at four of their current products in
for the shooter. Now, we’ve sent Chris Parkin back more detail. I spent about three hours with Craig,
for a closer look to find out what’s new from this the owner, designer and programmer, seeing the
innovative company. machines in operation and really having a good
chat about what shooters - both sporting and target
Heckmondwike, the location of Third Eye Tactical, types - want from their gear.

24 Target Shooter
We discussed his designs, materials and some inclination built-in.
very interesting prototypes for future ideas. I also
saw a lot of gear that showed just how confident The rails and scope-rings available from Third Eye
the industry as a whole is in Craig’s abilities and are machined in-house from 7075 T6 grade solid
products. aluminium bar, a material Craig is keen to point out
is roughly four times the price of the 6000 series
The items I took away and looked at in detail were aluminium alloys that many manufacturers use.
his 30mm and 34mm scope rings, bolt on picatinny The heat treatment of this alloy means it exhibits a
mounting rails, a muzzle brake and `Spartan’ lot of the tensile strength and hardness properties
sound moderator. required for a scope ring but without resorting to
the weight of steel. Steel is great but requires an
Any scope is only as good as the mounts that hold anti-corrosion treatment which is often prone to
it onto the gun. These days, some custom actions damage whereas aluminium can have a simple,
have Weaver/Picatinny scope-rails machined attractive anodised coating. From a personal point
into the top of the receiver, as this style of mount of view, I prefer to match materials together with
has become an almost universal choice amongst similar properties, especially when bolting £2000
discerning shooters. It’s a good idea to consider worth of scope into it!
adding a Pic rail to your gun if you want a solid,
accurate universal mount or if you just want to add The underside of the rails are machined to
elevation to your riflescope with a 10 or 20 MOA dimensions that Craig has personally measured
from the actions they are intended to fit, not what
manufacturers and other after-market product
suppliers use. These can often be somewhat
vague and thus exhibit poor fitting tolerances.
Short and long action Remington fittings are
obviously available but Third Eye also machine
for Howa, Savage, Stiller, Nesika and many more,
both in flat and 10 and 20 MOA inclinations. The
Company has multi-axis measurement machines
that can virtually reduce a solid component back to
its original blueprint design.

The rings are fully machined in one operation.

The Mizak CNC machines used are a little more
advanced than is required for making scope rings
(Evo Engineering has numerous contracts for some
serious gear supplied to motorsport that I cannot
possibly mention!) but their advanced capabilities,
multiple tool selection and axes of movement
allow them to achieve a full machining run on each

Target Shooter 25
separate ring without it having to be transferred to Even though each pair of rings is marked up 1
another machine. Accuracy is paramount – and and 2 on both upper and lower section to ensure
guaranteed by this method! matching parts are paired back up during fitting,
The rings are a standard Weaver/Picatinny fit with Craig assured me that it is a needless effort as they
an integral lug that mates with the rail. Large metric are as perfect as they can get anyway! The point
fasteners mean nobody has an excuse for using where the upper and lower halves of the ring meet
the wrong size Allen key and they are also less is relieved so that it will not crimp or damage the
likely to be rounded off by the ham-fisted (me!). scope tube and the finish is a very smooth black

26 Target Shooter
anodising or a very unusual green/grey colour components. It is undeniable that lowering felt
which looks great with a drab-green tactical rifle. recoil has benefits with accuracy from a shooter’s
I was so impressed with these rings that I bought point of view although it is often beneficial to tweak
and fitted a set to my 260 Rem tactical rifle. the load when adding anything to the end of a
Muzzle-brakes and moderators are love - hate barrel to remain within the barrel’s harmonic sweet

Target Shooter 27
spot. Sound moderators - once the domain of your barrel diameter and ensure the bore-hole is
vermin shooters and deerstalkers - have recently opened up to the correct diameter for your chosen
become more popular with target shooters. bullet. This was done for me personally by Craig,
seamlessly fitted to my barrel and then a quick
The police are also becoming much more aware of two minute session in the bead-blasting chamber
the noise-reduction benefits and dreaded Health ensured that its matt finish would not stand out
& Safety implications. They do reduce noise and from the barrel. Again, a slight re-zero was all that
recoil but do require some attention to make sure was required after fitting the brake.
everything is kept clean and a little care is needed
to not shoot them too hot as they will create a lot Craig is a very keen shooter himself and visiting
more mirage than a bare barrel will. the factory gave me a real look into his design and
manufacturing processes. He really knows what
The `Spartan’ moderator is a reflex design, fully he is doing and it is really nice to be able to both
modular and can be disassembled for cleaning. buy and use home-grown products from our own
The internal muzzle-thread and primary gas vent British engineering industry. I’m really looking
can be changed depending on the thread size on forward to what he promises will be arriving in the
the barrel of your rifle and the baffles themselves future.........watch this space.
are available in either 6mm or .30 cal maximum
bore sizes. The moderator is rated up to 30-06 Check out the video on uTube, posted by
calibre and I gave it a thorough workout on a large Craig himself of a scope ring being machined
.30 cal rifle and it did a very good job. Not the very from solid bar. http://www.youtube.com/
quietest but light and compact and adding only watch?v=9Rscui45sGA
four extra inches to the barrel length and only 490
grams in weight. Contact 01924 404312 or visit www.
thirdeyetactical.com
However, on-range it needed a 2 MOA sight
adjustment for a 100 yard zero but did not affect
accuracy at all. I have since bought the kit to shoot
it on my .222 and .243 rifles with 6mm baffles and
a smaller half-inch UNF internal thread for the
slimmer barrelled guns. Craig saves weight by
making only the parts of the moderator that are in
the direct path of some very hot and fast moving
gasses from 316 stainless-steel bonded in place.
The rest of the unit is 7075 T6 aluminium and I
have to admit, from an aesthetic point of view, it is
a lot sleeker and better looking than some of the
larger steel designs.

Last but not least is the Third Eye muzzle brake.

I had it made and fitted to my .300 Winchester
Magnum, which has proven to be a very competent
long-range performer on steel-plate shoots. It is
quite ‘barky’ and with a 208 grain bullet, it must
be shot carefully to avoid flyers caused by poor
recoil control. A muzzle brake turned it into a bit
of a pussycat, albeit one with a serious purr! Yes,
brakes do make more noise for the shooter but you
can’t cheat physics!

The brakes feature both radial and longitudinal

holes to vent muzzle gases, very similar to the
popular Vais design. They are made and supplied
to your gunsmith as a ‘blank’ with just the critical
features pre-machined. All your gunsmith has
to do is cut the external profile to blend in with
28 Target Shooter
 DIGGLE RANGES ‐ 150TH ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND 
BANK HOLIDAY 28TH, 29TH & 30 MAY 2011 

 
Our fabulous 1000 yard range is 150 years old this year and to celebrate, we want to stage the most 
spectacular shoot ever seen in the UK.  

On Bank Holiday Monday 30th May, one hundred shooters will be invited to compete for a 
prize of £1000 cash 

To win this prize you must break a hen’s egg with one shot at 1000 yards! Not easy but then again you 
don’t get the chance to win £1000 every day! 

For those who are not used to shooting at 1000 yards, the day before, Sunday 29th May, will be devoted to 
free practise at 1000 yards. Turn up anytime and sight‐in your rifle. 

One the Monday, competitors will be allowed one marked sighting shot at 1000 yards before making their 
attempt to break the egg. 

ONE SHOT – ONE THOUSAND YARDS ‐ ONE EGG ‐ £1000! 
This event will never be repeated – if you are a long‐range rifleman – or woman – you will 
want to say “I was there!” 

e‐mail vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk to secure your entry 

We want this prize to be won by someone – we want a shooter to break the egg – so, if no one breaks it on 
the first shot, another attempt will be allowed. 

Why not make a weekend of it? On Saturday 28th May, we have a car boot sale of shooting related items 
on the main car park and there are two competitions for you to enter if you wish – a 300 yard F 
Class/Target Rifle shoot and a competition for lever‐action rifles at 100 yards. 

 
Target Shooter 29
30 Target Shooter
 Fermoy Rifle Club - World Interclub Cyber
Shoot

April 16th & 17th saw the completion of the exciting Australia and USA.
new concept in ‘recession beating’ international
shooting competitions - pre-entered teams The concept was born when in discussion about
shooting on their own range, or range of their our planned April International. Kieran Barry, our
choice, and emailing results in to a central club secretary, suggested that we would have
location. many more competitors if they did not need to
travel. Initial doubt turned to enthusiasm when
Fermoy Rifle Club in Ireland hosted the we considered the possibilities. Kieran and Mike
international interclub events in 50m Benchrest Doherty agreed to organise the Gallery Rifle
and Gallery Rifle over two days, with club teams events and John O’Sullivan with Gavin Murphy
participating from Ireland, UK, Italy, Finland, stuck to what they knew – Benchrest shooting.

Benchrest
In the 50m Benchrest
competitions, the Light Varmint
event attracted 34 teams from 16
clubs representing 6 countries.
The Heavy Varmint event had
entries from 22 teams from 17
clubs representing 5 countries.
As teams completed their two
cards on their selected date of
either Saturday 16th or Sunday
17th, scores were submitted by
East Coast Shooting Club, (ECSC) Wicklow. email to the control centre in
Fermoy.
Target Shooter 31
 considering the conditions.
Richard Lightfoot’s team from
Melbourne soon followed with
a good HV score but had to
abandon the LV due to rising
winds. That was nothing to the
SKA team from Finland who had
to contend with rapidly melting
snows causing flooding, coupled
with high winds. After a journey
of 200km they needed to make
some repairs to the range before
Jens Lagas could get his team
to the benches. USA, U.K. Italy
and Ireland teams had mixed
levels of wind to contend with,
but nothing so stressing.
As expected the results came in
The organisers shot their cards in the local slowly on Saturday until late in
range, starting early on Saturday. Before sitting the evening. The scoring team retired (briefly)
to the benches the weather was fine and winds to a local sports bar to watch Munster Rugby.
were a modest 8 to 10 km/hr... promising. At least they might get an Irish win, albeit in a
However, as always in Fermoy, the sound of different sport! We were of course anxiously
the first shots announced to the wind that it was checking the Blackberries for more results.
time, not only to pick up, but to swirl quite a bit Some more of the Irish scores were now coming
also, just for fun. We knew before the cards through. The organising team who shot as the
were scored that we would certainly not have to ‘Flexibles’, Gavin Murphy, Pat Cullen and John
explain embarrassingly high scores to the world O’Sullivan, were leaders for about two hours but
on Sunday evening. only on the basis that few other results were in.
We knew that our 1446 in LV and 1464 in HV
Back at the control centre the first results were would not count for much when the ‘big hitters’
in from Bill Collaros in Woolahra club in Sydney. results came in. Munster won the rugby as a
Despite having been hit by a rain storm with consolation.
high winds they braved it out and opened the
days scoring with a 1460 - very respectable, On Sunday, the leader board changed
dramatically with every incoming
result. It was late into the evening
before a picture emerged. The
Hilltop team from Ireland were
looking good but First Modesto of
California in LV and then the big
scoring Paul Lane club from UK
in both LV and HV knocked them
and everyone else, down the
rankings. The Italians came in
late with the Lucensis team from
Lucca in the LV and the Tricolore
team from Reggio Nell Emilia
club in the HV both jumping up
to the medals.

Modesto, California The Saint Giles Yarners club,

who also shot on the Paul Lane

32 Target Shooter
 SKA team, Finland

range, then pushed their way into a very credible worked like a dream. The instant a team’s
third place in the HV class, displacing the Hilltop scores are entered, the overall placings were
HV ‘A’ team by 2 points. automatically adjusted.
This was fun. We enjoyed putting it together and
Gavin Murphy’s computerised score model staying with it until the last result was counted.

Gavin Murphy FRC Ireland

Target Shooter 33
 across the world.
Suireside visit FRC
We have to develop this concept. I would like to
see this run a few times per year with different
clubs/countries taking turns. We will certainly
help anyone to learn from our experiences
(and mistakes).

It should be noted that the WRABF committee,

particularly Carl Boswell and Bill Collaros, gave
us huge encouragement, support and advice.
Thanks guys.

The winning teams were:

Light Varmint: 
TSN Parma, Italy 1st      Paul Lane Club  (U.K.)          Paul
lane LV       1489  75x             
(Jake Healy, John Stephenson, John
Farrell)
2nd      Modesto (U.S.A.)     
Modesto LV         1486  79x             
(Dale Bakken, Melvyn Johnson, Gisele
Johnson)
3rd       Lucca (Italy) 
Lucensis LV         1486  50x             
(Franco Vito, Enrico Bianchi, Mazzucco
Nicola)

Heavy Varmint:
1st       Paul Lane Club (U.K.)          
Paul lane HV      1492  78x             
(Graham Readhead, Alan Lomax, John
Farrell)
2nd      Reggio Nell Emilia (Italy)    
Tricolore             1490  76x             
(Roberto Giarletta, Giovanni Rossi, Pino
Leone)
3rd      St. Giles Yarners (U.K.)      
The Yarners        1486  81x             
(Brian Kelly, Colin Rose, Robb
Harrison)  

Gallery Rifle
In the Gallery Rifle competition, Kieran
Barry and Mike Doherty had a busy
TSN Prato, Italy
weekend combining organising, running
It was probably more exciting back at the and competing themselves in the full
control centre than anywhere else as the results range of events offered to the competing clubs.
unfolded.
With four clubs competing from Ireland –
However, the most enjoyment for me was Fermoy, Harbour House, Loughbo and Suirside
contacting and competing with wonderful, and 3 from the UK – Derby R&P Club, Aldershot
dedicated sporting people here at home and RPC and Portishead, the wide range of classes
34 Target Shooter
and events on offer were hotly contested. Suireside
visited the Fermoy range to make the local shoot all
the more competitive.
The events on offer were: The Place to
1. Gallery Rifle Smallbore 1500 match

2. Gallery Rifle Smallbore Timed & Precision 1

Shop at Bisley
3. Gallery Rifle Under Lever 1500 Match The NSRA,
4. Gallery Rifle Under Lever Timed and Precision1
Lord Roberts Centre
Due to the range of events and having individual and Now in stock ~ the popular
team competitions in each, Kieran and Mike tried Morini CM84E ISSF ‘Longarm’ Free Pistol
to complete as much as possible of their shooting
on Saturday to be available at the control centre
on Sunday. They eventually made it on Sunday
afternoon just as the results were coming in. Price: ~ £1236.00
FAC Required
The Gallery competition was close in many of the
events. Leads were changing with each result posted.
The results of all the competitions are too extensive
to list here but – in keeping with the cyber-spirit of
the event, detailed results for both the Benchrest
and Gallery events, including all individual and team
scores can be seen on the Fermoy website www.
fermoyrifleclub.com

For benchrest only see the UK benchrest directory

forum http://benchrestdirectory.forumup.co.uk
A wide range of pistols and rifles available, -
(Target Shooter is pleased to carry this report of
Anschütz, Walther, Morini, BSA, Air Arms,
what for me is an entirely new concept. With the Webley Limited, Steyr, Feinwerkbau.
increased costs of travel – not only overseas but Accessories from leading manufacturers Centra,
within our own country - increasing to the levels Gehmann, HPS, VFG, Walther; AHG, Knobloch,
where many cannot justify it, this could be the Champion, Opticron, Hawke, BSA and many more.
solution. With the possibility of Skype connections Shooting Mats from Evans and HPS.
and large screens in each club, the concept could Gun Safes from Bratton Sound.
Ammunition from Eley, RWS, HPS Target Master,
be improved further – Ed. )
SK, Lapua - including Air Gun Ammunition
Optics from Tasco, BSA, Hawke, MTC, AGS.
Clothing from Kurt Thune, Realtree, Holme,
Anschütz, Gehmann, AKAH.
We stock guns and Accessories for Field Target
Wind and melting Snow in Finland and Hunter Field Target Disciplines
With many more items too numerous to mention so
come browse and ask if you don’t see what you
want. You’ll get a warm welcome, the best objective
advice, the right product at the right price with a
comprehensive after sales service.
Further information from out website
www.nsra.co.uk
Shop Tel: 01483 485510
Shop Fax: 01483 488817
E-mail: sales@nsra.co.uk

Target Shooter 35
 To introduce our selves we are the United Kingdom Association of
Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest Shooting. By that we mean "True
Benchrest Shooting". The Association is recognised by rimfire
shooters across in the UK, with partners across Europe and the rest of
the world, as the presentative body that promotes rimfire and air rifle
benchrest across this country and with other partners in European and
World events.
Visit our website for news about national and international
competitions that all can ‘have a go at’. From novice to champion
shooter, everyone is welcome
www.benchrest22.org

☆ 2007 Pan American Games

3x20 Gold Medalist
☆ 2007 WC Milan 3x20 Silver Medalist
☆ 2008 Olympian 3x20 Fifth Place
☆ 5-Time NRA Camp Perry
3x20 Junior National Champion
☆ Multiple Women’s NRA Camp Perry
National Champion
If you want to shoot like
a champion, choose Lilja!
www.riflebarrels.com
Lilja Precision Rifle Barrels, Inc
PO Box 372 • Plains, MT 59859
Tel: 406-826-3084 • Fax: 406-826-3083

36 Jamie Beyerle
Target Shooter
 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!!!!!

By Carl Boswell
Above - a first attempt at a rimfire benchrest rifle build - the CZ 452 with modified loading
ramp, bolt, trigger, stock with barrel tuner
Not exactly the title I was intending but, I just the discipline for Target Sports magazine in
had to. Sorry, but I received my third copy of this 2004. This was year that we really started
iconic film for my birthday recently. It’s great a to see interest developing in the UK, with the
favorite of mine! birth of the UKBR22 Association and similar
developments abroad.
Anyway, onto this month’s theme. In fact the title
is pretty apt, if we have a closer look at some of Call me naïve - and I know you will - but I was
the rifles currently used in rimfire benchrest - or adamant that a Ruger could attain the necessary
at least the ones available to us in the UK and accuracy. I had seen a US website where they
Europe! did use semi-autos in some club shoots, which
was the basis of my own interest in rimfire BR.
This is not however aimed particularly at the They also shot with the cheapest ammo, with
new competitor to rimfire benchrest and I would everyone given the same batch! However, that’s
always advise that new shooters use what they another story.
already have in their cabinet for their first foray
into the sport. I am really talking to the shooterAround a thousand rounds later, I eventually
who already enjoys benchrest and is now accepted that the semi-auto would not be
considering the purchase of a rifle to be more accurate enough. The rifle was just not
competitive. comparable to a bolt-action, even though the
barrel was of ‘match’ quality. An obvious move to
My own history in benchrest actually started a bolt-action needed to be made but which one?
off with the Ruger 10/22. Yes I know - a semi I have had five rifles during my career in rimfire
auto! It was the only sporting/target rifle I had benchrest but I have tried many more. The ones
in my cabinet at the time when I was getting into most widely used in the UK and Europe are
rimfire benchrest back in 2004. (Rimfire BR was rifles based around the various Anschutz Match
well established in quite a few countries in 2004 actions.
and had been for some time. The concept of
Air-rifle benchrest did not come along until the A Starting Point.
year after, in 2005, with mutual development My first investment in rimfire benchrest may be
between Italy and the UK). I remember getting much like your own and came with the purchase
in touch with Vince, who wrote a piece about of a CZ model 452. I did not own a rimfire

Target Shooter 37
Another attempt at a rimfire build, basing this one on the Anschutz 54 action
target rifle like many shooters, as I was first and accuracy of the CZ would be sufficient.
foremost a pistol shooter. What I really wanted The CZ was a good purchase after I configured
was a Suhl 150 or a Russian CM2, after testing it specifically for rimfire benchrest - hopefully
both in France. (I think Vince has recently making a £250 rifle into a £600 rifle. The
acquired a Russian rifle for a rimfire BR project modifications included a single-shot conversion,
rifle so watch out for this). Both were superb a Shehane benchrest stock, a barrel-tuner and
and had such potential - especially the former, few other elements I wanted. This rifle was also
which has been the basis of many a BR project the basis for my first article in Target Sports
in the USA. magazine, having been inspired by Vince! So if
you have back issues of this magazine then you
As neither were readily available in the UK and will know how this little project developed over
I could not source one in France, the CZ came the space of six months. The development work
in as the viable option. It was another rifle I and the rifle helped me win several postal titles
had tried at the same time as the others. One and the first UK National title.
prerequisite for this new rifle - it had to be cheap
- and like the Ruger, I was adamant that the I used this rifle for several seasons and, although

The Feinwerkbau models are excellent off the shelf rifles and something to consider - here
with Paul Barker who was in the UK team 2010

38 Target Shooter
 ordered my next rifle!
There are many good rifles
available that offer a similar
starting point for the would-be
rimfire accuracy buff, some new,
some second-hand. Typically
the Finnfire (no longer made but
you can still pick them up) the
Anschutz 54 or sporter models (I
went this route as well for another
article), the Suhl (the poor man’s
Anschutz), the Martini, the
Remington 40x (rare but they
are around), the Kimber etc,
etc. However, to be competitive,
you will maybe have to change
the barrel, modify or replace
the stock and purchase a barrel
tuner, like the Harrel.

Moving onwards
The ‘off the shelf’ route is
Anschutz rifles are the main rifle used within Europe, but do really about the Anschutz or
consider a stock designed for benchrest Feinwerkbau. There is also the
Cooper TRP 3, made specifically
I do not use it anymore, I still have it and would for rimfire benchrest and Fox Firearms in the UK
never sell it. This CZ was my first real project, import them www.foxfirearmsuk.com I have
customised completely by me and it gave me not had any experience of the Cooper but is
real satisfaction in using it and winning with it. supposedly a good ‘entry’ rifle. The Feinwerkbau
The question is why don’t I still use it? This rifle 2700 would be preferable, as generally speaking
was good for getting top scores of 246/247 on the barrels are very consistent. This is from
good days but it just was not 100% consistent - observation and trying these rifles at matches.
it would sometimes shoot in the high 230s and The Anschutz 1913 or 2013 just needs a better
I just outgrew it - pure and simple. You reach a barrel. The issue here is modifying what is
stage where you know it’s the rifle and not you! designed as a prone target rifle for benchrest, in
The CZ, or a rifle of similar ilk, like a Kimber or terms of the stock and a few other parts.
Marlin, will get you only so far and they are great
starter rifles. But, I have to say this again, it will After spending a few years playing with and
only get you so far! I was told this by my peers modifying a few rifles myself, it made sense to
but did not listen or believe it - until the day I go the whole hog and have an Anschutz 2013
Stock design for benchrest is very important - the Cicognani - below first - is common in
Europe, made of wood and based around the McMillan edge stock - below second.

Target Shooter 39
A customised Feinwerkbau, seriously hits the spot
fully customised. I had this built in 2007, ready barrel. Most serious benchrest shooters in
for the first European championship. Originally Europe have done this with their Anschutz.
I wanted a Shilen or Lilja barrel. The barreled- Remember, Anschutz sell barreled-actions only,
so you end paying for both.

I would also look at the specialist US actions

and barrels if you intend having a rifle built
for you. Yes, lots of money but, if I was
paying between £1200 and £1800 for a rifle
or barreled-action that will maybe place in
the top twenty, then personally I would spend
another £1000 on a rifle that gives me a shot
at a national title or better still, one that will
hold its own internationally.

If you are interested in an Anschutz or

You do get the complete redesigned rifles and other target rifle conversion then Cicognani
some like this one shoot very well of Italy is a good place to look at - http://
www.varidecicognani.com/2009/prodotti.
action was new but eventually, you will want to asp?idp=3&idsp=92. Another gunsmith
replace the factory barrel, even if it is a select in the UK who has had some success is

The multitude of customised Anschutz rifles in Europe are a great resource

40 Target Shooter
Bedding the action, whatever one you go for is vital for accuracy. Here is where a competent
gunsmith really come into their own
Steve Kershaw in Yorkshire - http://www. well, has won a number of matches and is a joy
stevekershawfirearms.co.uk/. Both have built to shoot.
a few medal-winning rifles.
Having used the Turbo, my personal observation
Moving Upwards is that, in comparison to the Anschutz, it is slightly
My Turbo action fitted with a Broughton barrel more consistent, less finicky with ammunition
is my only experience of a US action. Both and about half a millimeter more accurate. This
are specialist custom made products for rimfire means I will still hit the tens with 2013 but have
benchrest. What can I say.... this rifle is the best a better chance of hitting the x’s, with the Turbo.
rifle I have ever shot. It is a rifle I never intended If you look at the top twenty winning (and high
to buy but, it came up for sale the opportunity scoring) rifles in the USA, the list currently stands
was too good to miss. I am still happy with the at about 75% Turbo actions, with a variety of
Anschutz 2013 I own, as it still shoots extremely barrels like Shilen, Lilja or Broughton. Says it
Devices like a barrel tuner are common in rimfire benchrest. The Harrel below, with extra
weights and bloop tube, is a common one.

Target Shooter 41
Craig Young at the 2008 World Championship with his Turbo actioned rifle - it is a winner

all really! o’clock firing-pin is the future, the other stating

it is just a fad. Fad or not, it is being developed
The Future independently in a variety of countries. I guess
There is currently a lot of controversy surrounding we could finish off this article as The Good, the
rimfire actions. One camp predicts that the 6 Bad and ......... the New. Not very catchy however
Another Turbo below - again this one is a world class rifle taking many medals and titles.

42 Target Shooter
A 6 o’clock firing pin on an Anschutz 2013 bolt. The first I saw back in 2008. Although not a
commercial venture new actions are now available with this configuration
and I explored this type of action a while ago in on the band-wagon. It’s natural and in some
a previous article. ways helps progress.
To some extent, the future is what you make it. Do
As always, when shooters start winning big-time your research, but inevitably it will come down to
with something - like a specific barrel, or tuner, what you are prepared to spend. An interesting
or whatever it may be - others are quick to jump series of research articles by Geoffrey Kolbe of
The new Falcon action by Baity custom in the USA - come with a choice of 12 or 6 o’clock
firing pins - seen here with Broughton barrel. We will have one of these soon for testing.

Target Shooter 43
Border Barrels can be viewed at http://www. a Lilja, Shilen or Broughton Barrel, the
border-barrels.com/articles/rimfire_tests. latter being my current favorite.
htm The latest research explores the possible
or potential benefits of a 6 o’clock firing pin and 2. A target rifle action like the Anschutz
makes interesting reading. 2013, with replacement barrel - Lilja have
a great reputation and are easy to get to
The internet forums are another good sources of fit for this action.
information, although they can offer conflicting
advice. Personally I researched the 6 o’clock Funnily enough, this is exactly what I have
firing pin back in 2007, seeing one on a modified ended up with - both of which are superb rifles.
Anschutz 2013 at the European Championship Although the choice is quite extensive, it’s a
that same year. It was not a commercial matter of what you can get hold of and how long
enterprise but the opportunity to have an action you are prepared to wait.
with such a firing pin configuration in Europe has
recently become greater. Have a look at Baitys Now that I have some experience of what a good
website - http://baityscustom.com/ The costs rifle will do, I know that it is essential to have
....... well these are comparable to a good target a great action and a great barrel. Put all the
rifle that can be bought to develop for this sport. parts together in the correct way and you have
yourself a winner, pure and simple. Starting
It all comes down to is what you want! cheap is not really the way to go - if you are
If I was just starting in this sport but with the serious about the sport, even if only competing
knowledge I have now, the two options I would in national leagues. Like many others, I’ve
go for are: followed he cheap route but inevitably you will
trade up, no doubts! Trying to sell your first rifle
1. A specialist benchrest action like the Turbo to finance the next one is not recommended - go
(or the Hall, or the new Baitys - these for broke and get the best you can afford right
latter two I have no current experience off. Don’t mess around, if you can afford it go for
of, but I am hoping for the future) with the full custom rifle.
What rifle would I go for? I have both and I am very pleased with the Anschutz custom and
the Turbo. Both are sound rifles. Building a custom rifle makes all the difference. The next
venture is a Falcon action with Broughton barrel - we hope to see this in the near future

44 Target Shooter
Outside the US, we must to some extent, make Remember, just taking part in our sport is great
do with what is available, which mostly means in itself. Winning is not everything but really,
rifles based on the Anschutz. Going for a full that is what we are in this game for - even if it is
custom rifle is a big step - it’s a lot of money to winning against yourself! Until next time.
fork out but then again, a new target rifle does not
come cheap - well into the £2000 range. Rifles
like these will need to have extra components
and possibly a new barrel. A specialist rimfire
benchrest barrel, action, trigger, stock and tuner
will cost you about £1300 for the parts, plus VAT.
The gunsmithing is on top of this. If these parts
are put together properly the rifle will be a far
better tool for the sport.

Target Shooter 45
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Target Shooter WE IMPORT IS BY FAR THE BEST VALUE IN THE UK
 by Gwyn Roberts
The first competition of the 2011 Gallery Rifle events.
season got underway over the weekend of
26th/27th March with the NRA’s Spring Action With the ridiculous cost of fuel as it is at the
Weekend at Bisley and, once again it proved moment, I didn’t really think that many shooters
to be an excellent opportunity for us all to blow would enter this year to be honest but it attracted
the cobwebs out and get back into the swing of a very good turnout of 181 competitors in the
things again. end who shot a total of 993 individual matches
safely between them. As always, this event (and
For many of us it’s the ideal opportunity to make every other) was only made possible thanks to
sure that our sight settings are correct (or adjust the dedication and help of our volunteer Range
them accordingly) before going on to shoot the Officers and Stats Crew who were once again
two big events of the year being the Phoenix and ably led by Match Director Brian Thomas, along
the Nationals - you can’t afford for your sights with Sally Agnew and Sally Philcox, so thanks
to be off an inch or so at either of these major very much to you all.

Ash Dagger on the barricades Considering the time of

year, the weather was
very good and it stayed
dry and reasonably sunny
throughout the whole
weekend, which was good
news for both the R.O’s
and competitors alike. It
was nice to hear the usual
friendly banter between
rivals and club mates on
the line and meet up with
old friends again for a beer
or too in the evenings, as
this is what makes our

Target Shooter 47
 Chris West shooting the TP3 match

sport the success it is today. this is what it’s all about at the end of the day,
enjoyment! For many, it was the first time that
Everybody I met was enjoying themselves, they had picked their rifles or pistols up since
regardless of how they were shooting and shooting the Nationals or the Winter Action
meeting last year and this did
show in a few of the scores that
Sara Tacket enjoying her pistol shooting
were posted during the weekend.
Simple brain-fade, a lack of timing
practice or a combination of both
certainly caught a few of the
top performers out, resulting in
some below par performances in
some events (compared to their
usual high standards that is) but
thankfully, it wasn’t all doom and
gloom for the majority of those
competing.

One example was Keith Cox who

was the only shooter to clean the
GRSB Timed & Precision 1 match
out of the 49 people who shot it,
scoring 300 with 18x’s. He also
won the Bianchi rimfire match with
a 1914 152x which is the second
highest score ever achieved with
a .22 rifle so well done to Keith.
Dave Wylde also shot an excellent
score of 119 14x to win the Multi
Target GRSB match, whilst Paul
Tasker equaled his Phoenix record
score of 119 in the Embassy Cup
12g semi auto event.

48 Target Shooter
 Layne Chisholm racks up another win!

Once again, nineteen year old Gaynor Chinnery shotgun or a .308 rifle.
showed the boys how to shoot an LBP in the
T&P3 match dropping a total of only 4 points to Midway UK will once again be generously
take the overall win with 246pts and Alan Whittle sponsoring this years Phoenix along with a host
won the Multi Target GRCF Classic event with of other members of the shooting trade and it
117pts and 11x’s which again is impressive will take place at the end of this month from the
shooting considering he was using iron sights! 27th - 29th May. This is certainly an event not
to be missed so if you haven’t entered already,
The British GR records are set pretty high now make sure you get onto the NRA website (or
in some of the disciplines but the Spring Action Galleryrifle.com) and either download an entry
meeting still managed to produce 3 new high form or enter online as spaces will fill up very
scores and these were Phil Stead’s 592 26x in quickly.
the Timed & Precision 2 LBP match, Mel Beards’
1910 138x with his LBR and my 1918 168x with Please understand that the Phoenix is open to
a Marlin in the Bianchi match so well done to everyone, regardless of shooting or physical
these guys also! It was very encouraging to see abilities and it’s not just for the top 1% of shooters
a dozen or so ladies taking part in this year’s in the country. As long as you are safe, you are
event but I still didn’t see any juniors out on the more than welcome to come along and join in
range over the weekend. Are there any out with the 550+ other like minded shooters who
there shooting Gallery Rifle and if not, why not? will be taking part and both the Range Officers
and other competitors will be more than happy
The flagship event of Gallery Rifle shooting to help you along on the day. All you need to do
is obviously the Phoenix International and it is ask!
attracts shooters from Ireland, Belgium, Holland,
Germany and even South Africa (amongst I think it’s fair to say that you are pretty much
others). It offers 128 individual competitions for guaranteed to have an enjoyable weekend of
you to enter (not including the team matches) both shooting and socializing at the Phoenix, so
which are shot between 10m and 1000 yards do try and get there, even if it’s just for the day
using everything from a .22lr pistol, to a 12g as you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve never
Target Shooter 49
 Iron sights can still score well

actually shot in an open competition before and year? This is an ideal way to get to know the
maybe find the whole scenario a bit daunting range officers on a personal level, whilst seeing
to start with, why not start by helping out on and learning exactly what goes on during the
the ranges instead rather than competing this actual competitions at the same time. Getting

The ever helpful Colin McMichael loads

50 Target Shooter
 Scoring each others targets

acclimatized this way will certainly help make touch as soon as possible with Brian Thomas at
that first step onto the competition ladder a lot brian.thomas@nra.org.uk or give him a ring
easier, and you will also be helping out the sport on 01483 797777 extension 148.
at the same time so it’s a win - win situation.
If you are able to help in anyway please get in For your information a few minor rule changes/
clarifications have been made that have
immediate effect, and these will be in force at
Gaynor Chinnery and father Mike
the Phoenix. They are, in a nutshell:

1. Timed & Precision Two - Magazines for GRSB

and LBP must be separate and individual and
not taped or otherwise fixed together.

2. Record scores - A record score shall stand if
attained by a shooter who adopts an alternative
position by reason of either a temporary or
permanent disability.

3. Lead bullets - No metal/copper-plated/

jacketed or copper-washed centre-fire bullets
may be used on any hard targets i.e. Bianchi
plates or Speed Steels.

Target Shooter 51
 Browning Buckmark Long Pistol

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Available from Westlake Engineering
Tel. 01722 782432 ags.westlake@virgin.net

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52 Target Shooter
info@intershoot.co.uk
 Dealing with the Wind (but first we must learn
to plot!)

by Chris White
The ability to plot shots quickly and accurately winner, David Calvert (above) is a ‘dyed in the
is the hall mark of a competent and successful wool’ plotter.
shooter. Many may poo-poo it as needless Whilst there are many other advantages to
mumbo-jumbo. If you are a sceptic, don’t just accurate plotting, what we are interested in
take my word for it - the 2010 Queen’s Prize here is its application to wind judgement and,

Figure 1
Target Shooter 53
 Figure 2
its application to establishing and maintaining a We have our static data recorded so that the
proper ‘wind zero’. diagram (often erroneously called a score sheet)
can be referred to later and we have the position
Like many things in shooting, there is more of the two sighters marked.
than one way to do this. What I am going to
describe is the currently accepted best method. What we are going to look at first is the
If, like me, you were taught an alternative, many construction of the elevation plot because this
moons ago, I recommend you change your is a bit easier to understand than the wind
spots and follow the method which I am about to plot. Once you can plot elevation quickly and
describe. The plot we are going to work through accurately you will find it easy to plot wind
is derived from a shoot in the 2009 Trafalgar correctly.
Meeting shot, appropriately enough, with a rifle
once belonging to a renowned wind-judge of Obviously, if the sighters are representative of
yesteryear - the late Rear Admiral Hutton. where the actual group will form, 19 minutes is
not enough elevation. At this point we need to
I chose this for no other reason than I had a blank ‘guesstimate’ where to start our elevation plot.
plotting diagram on my desk and an image of In this case I chose 20 minutes. Look at figure
the plot on my computer. So let’s make a start. 2 above.

Figure 1 on the previous page, shows the Twenty is marked on the mid-line of the elevation
diagram as it stood after the firing of the first two plot. Going up the plot on the diagram represents
sighters. At this point we need to understand a need to have less elevation on the rifle (this
that one square on the diagram represents one concept is fundamentally important). Bear with
‘rifle minute’. That is the amount a movement me, it will become clear later. So the numbers
of a minute on the rearsight will move the shot. above the mid-line are decreasing and those
There is a difference between a rifle minute and below it are increasing. Now to constructing the
a true minute but that is not really relevant at this plot.
stage.

54 Target Shooter
 Figure 3

What we are going to do is plot ‘corrected that shot. In this case 18 minutes. Looking at the
elevation’. That is, we are going to plot the diagram we can see that the shot fell 1¾ minutes
elevation which should have been on the rifle to low so we move the pencil 1¾ downwards and
hit the centre-line. Starting with the first sighter make a dot.
(conventionally marked A) we start with our Likewise with the second sighter (B), which fell
pencil point on that position on the graph which 1½ minutes below the centre-line we start with
coincides with the elevation set on the rifle for our pencil point on 19 minutes, move it down
Figure 4

Target Shooter 55
 Figure 5
1 ½ minutes and make the dot. Our plot now pencil is moved down a little under a minute.
looks like figure 2. Shot 10 went a minute high so the pencil is
moved up a minute from the sight setting. This
Here the plot is telling us that a reasonable shot, however was ‘called’ as a high shot. This
estimate of the mean, corrected elevation, at this is identified with a ring around its mark on the
stage is 20 minutes. So 20 was set on the rifle plot. We have now completed our shoot and our
and this found the ‘waterline’. So we place the elevation plot so the diagram will look like figure
pencil point on 20 and since the shot is neither 6 on the next page.
above or below the mid-line this is where the
mark is made. With shot 2 the shot has fallen If the called shot had occurred in the middle
half a minute below the centre line so the pencil of the shoot the ring would have served as a
is moved down half a minute (figure3). reminder to ignore that point on the plot.
Likewise with shot three. By this time we see
that the group is starting to stabilise around a To recap, high shots require less elevation, so
mean elevation of 20½ minutes. For shot 4, 20½ the numbers on the plot come down the plot in
was set on the sight. As it happened the shot ascending order. The apparent, mean elevation
landed about ¼ minute above the centre line so is read off by projecting an imaginary line from
the pencil is lined up with 20½ (the elevation on the centre of the developed plot to the column
the gun) and moved up the plot a ¼ minute, we of figures at its left hand edge. Group centres
now have the plot developed as in figure 4. are not always stable so this ‘corrected mean
elevation’ may need to be revised during the
Shots five six and seven were all on the waterline shoot.
so the mark is made opposite 20½ on the plot.
Shot 8 fell ¾ of a minute low so the pencil is The best way to learn how to do this is to practice.
lined up with 20 ½ and then moved down ¾ of a Dig out some of your old diagrams and plot the
minute. (figure 5 above) corrected elevation. It is important that you can
plot swiftly and accurately. Quick enough to
Similarly shot 9 is almost a minute low so the allow you to make decisions regarding elevation

56 Target Shooter
 Figure 6
before it is your turn to shoot again and still Now to the wind plot.
leave enough time for you to assess the wind The mechanics of wind-plotting are identical to
conditions. that of plotting corrected elevation. Remember

Figure 7

Target Shooter 57
 Figure 8
this though. The wind plot can only tell us what since the wind appeared to be worth about
was right when the last shot was fired. It cannot two minutes left, I started (in this case) at two
tell us what windage we will need for the next minutes. The numbers decreasing to the left and
shot. (Except under very stable conditions). increasing to the right. In the case of my own
Nonetheless it is a very important decision plotting diagrams, the short range ones have
making tool as we will learn later. the windscale exaggerated but the distance
between each line still represents one minute.
The first thing to understand about the wind plot
is that the numbers on the plot increase in value Figure 7 on the previous page, shows the plot
away from the direction the wind is coming after the first two sighters. Sighter A was fired
from. In the case we are looking at, the wind with 2 minutes left on the gun and the shot fell
was blowing from the left; therefore as the wind 1½ minutes right of the vertical centre-line. So
strength increased it would blow shots to the the pencil point is placed against 2 and moved
right. This means that more windage is required 1½ minutes to the right. Sighter B was also fired
on the gun, so the numbers increase from left to with 2 minutes left and fell on the centre-line so
right and vice versa in the case of a wind coming the mark is made against 2 minutes.
from the right.
Shot 1 was fired with 2¼ left on the gun and fell
I have seen many instances where shooters plot on the vertical centre-line so the pencil point is
right wind on the right hand side of the plot. This placed against 2¼ and the mark made there.
is wrong and means they are not plotting but
mentally calculating the value of the true wind. Shot two was also fired with 2¼ but the shot
The whole purpose of the plot is to eliminate the fell ¾ minute to the right of the centre-line. So
need to indulge in mental arithmetic! the pencil point is placed against 2¼ and then
moved ¾ to the right and the mark made.
In this instance I have annotated the right-hand The plot now looks like figure 8 on the opposite
end of the plot - ‘left’. page. Shots four and five were both shot with
We have to start the plot somewhere and 2½ left on the rifle and fell about ¾ and ½ right

58 Target Shooter
 Figure 9
of the centre-line. So the pencil-point is lined up was fired with two and five eighths minutes left
with 2½ and moved these amounts to the right. and the shot fell half a minute left of the vertical
The plot now looks like figure 9 above. centre line so the pencil point is place between
The remaining shots are plotted in the same 2 ½ and 2¾ and moved ½ to the left.
manner, so at the end of the shoot the plot
looked like figure 10 below. For example shot six

Figure 10
Target Shooter 59
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60 Target Shooter
HANDLOADING BENCH - 6mm BR
NORMA (Part 1)

by Laurie Holland
This month’s topic is the compact but potent 6mm performance of the bigger 6.5s and 7s at the
BR Norma. ‘BR’ is for benchrest, so one would longest ranges, it’s very strong in between.
expect it to be more than ordinarily accurate too
– and it is, in the right rifle of course. That’s not to say it cannot be used successfully
at very long distances, a 6BR shooter briefly
Many shooters in this country think of it as holding the world 1,000yd benchrest record
an out an out competition job, but it is a truly only three or four years ago. US National
versatile design, making a great long-range fox F-Class team member and former US F-Class
and vermin cartridge and working well on small Champion, John Brewer prefers it to 6.5-284
deer, just achieving the English 1,700 ft/lbs ME Norma up to 600yd, believing it to have superior
legal requirement and comfortably ‘deer-legal’ in accuracy and of course, producing less recoil
Scotland, for roe deer at any rate. and rifle disturbance on the bags. Given settled
conditions and a free choice (which one hasn’t at
What sort of competitive disciplines see this ‘six’? this level thanks to the need for team members to
Oddly enough, given the name, few benchrest shoot the same thing to facilitate accurate wind
matches, or those shot over the usual 100 and coaching), Brewer says the smaller cartridge
1,000yd ranges anyway. You’re more likely to can be superior at longer ranges too right up to
find it used in F-Class at intermediate ranges. the 1,000yd mark. However, the key words here
However, appearances may well increase on are ‘in settled conditions’.
some ranges given the introduction of 300yd
‘precision’ competitions shot off benches, now However, it doesn’t have things entirely its own
augmented by PSSA building a 600yd benchrest way in the medium range stakes by any means,
facility on Diggle Ranges. there being a growing band of highly competitive,
similarly sized 6 and 6.5mm precision jobs –
Competitive shooters in continental Europe the Tubb 6XC; 6mm Swiss Match; 6.5 x 47mm
have adopted the 6BR in a big way for their Lapua and various ‘wildcats’ based on the BR
300-metre three-position shooting, displacing and other cases.
.308 Winchester. These facts point to the
cartridge’s competitive niche – while it does not Remington v Norma
quite match the all-conquering PPCs’ grouping I could have called our subject ‘6mm BR
ability at 100 and 200yd or the external ballistic Remington’ and that’s the moniker you’ll normally

Target Shooter 61
 Barnes’ .308 x 1.5” in 1978; Norma setting
new specifications and obtaining CIP listing in
1995.

Case dimensions are identical for the pair

except for the early Remington form being
shorter at 1.520 inches compared to 1.560
inches, the difference entirely in the neck
length. Remington didn’t manufacture BR
cases and ammunition until 1989 and Sierra
Bullets says the case-length was increased
to 1.560 in. at that time; others disagree,
suggesting Remington continued as before.
Since I’ve only ever used Lapua brass
(packages marked up as 6mm BR Norma),
I can’t say who is right, but the US manuals
find it listed under in those American loading
use Remington manufactured cases and quote
manuals that cover it. What is the difference, if
maximum and ‘trim-to’ lengths of 1.560 in. /
any, between Remington and Norma versions?
1.550 in., identical to the Scandinavian models.
There is a substantial chronological gap between
them, the American company regularising
Either way, the real differences lie up front in the
the dimensions of ‘wildcats’ based on Frank
barrel and barrel throat. Remington conceived
its design as a short-range
accuracy cartridge loaded with
60 – 75gn bullets, cartridge
overall length (COL) set at
2.200 inches, bullets thereby
loaded to protrude around a
half-inch from of the case and
barrel throating dimensions
specified accordingly.

With short bullets the norm,

a slow rifling twist of one turn
in 14 is the SAAMI standard.
Norma followed a lead set
by some gunsmiths and
competitors who realised the
BR case had enough powder
capacity to give heavier, more
ballistically efficient bullets
usable MVs for longer-range
shooting. This required the
barrel to have a suitable twist
rate allied to ‘long throating’,
of course – nothing new in
this and applied to many other
cartridges over the years
including 284 Winchester;
.223, .22-250 and .260
Remington.

The 6mm BR Norma version

is designed around 105/107gn
match bullets seated to
give a maximum COAL of
62mm (2.441 inches) and the
standard rifling twist is 1 in 8.
62 Target Shooter
 a considerable influence on both
NATO and Warsaw Pact small
arms development, the Soviets
producing the 7.62 x 39mm for
use in the AK47 and NATO two
competing designs, the British /
Canadian / Belgian 280/30 (7 x
43mm) cartridge which lost out
to the American T65E3 (7.62 x
51mm NATO) thanks to US Army
pressure.

However, it quickly became

obvious that whatever the latter
cartridge’s strengths, and there
are many, it failed in the assault
rifle role being over powerful for
full-auto fire. This started a run of
short cartridge experimentation,
this time by freelance designers
and ‘wildcatters’, one result being
Frank Barnes’ .308 x 1.5” of 1961,
in which the 7.62 / .308W case was
shortened to precisely 1½ inches
(38mm) and its taper reduced.
This cartridge impressed many
designers and Remington’s Mike
Walker used it as the starting
point for the ‘BR family’.
Meanwhile, on the other side
of the Iron Curtain, an unknown
Russian had taken the 7.62 x
Why two ‘official’ names for what is obviously no
more than loading variations? SAAMI (US) and
CIP (EC) bodies’ standards include the barrel
throat and twist dimensions – change those
and you have a different cartridge, so Norma
couldn’t stick with the Remington name even if
it had wished to. Shooters almost invariably use
‘6BR’ as a shorthand title, then discuss the barrel
specs. Obviously, if you’re having a rifle built or
rebarreled for the cartridge, the gunsmith will quiz
you closely on what you intend to use the rifle
for and intended loads, before recommending a
rifling twist rate and throat configuration.

6BR v 6PPC
The original Remington set-up and intended
use were very close to those of the 6PPC
and at first glance they look nearly identical.
They even have common, if distant, roots in
Adolf Hitler’s ‘Third Reich’. Half way through
WW2, the development team at the Polte,
Magdeburg plant produced the 7.92 x 33mm
that saw limited wartime deployment in the
original ‘Sturmgewehr’ or assault rifle, the
MP43 / StG44. Post ‘45 this combination had

Target Shooter 63
39mm M43, necked it down and made some calling it the 220 Russian and that, as most TS
other changes to provide Soviet Olympic readers know, was the genesis of the .22 PPC
shooters with a light recoiling, accurate Running and its 6mm sibling.
Deer cartridge. The Finns adopted the design
Why these genealogies matter is because
they give two apparently similar cartridges
noticeably different case and powder
capacities, not to mention powder column
diameters. The M43 / PPC family has a
0.445 inch case-head and lower-body
diameter; the 308W / Barnes / BR family,
0.473 inches, hence around 12-15% larger
internal volume depending on the make of
case.

Nobody knows for certain why the PPC

delivers such an unbeatable degree
of short-range accuracy. One possible
factor is the powder capacity is exactly
right for the purpose, giving just enough
bullet velocity to buck the wind, while the
similar but slightly larger 6BR has a little
too much oomph but with the consolation
prize of better performance at long ranges.
The variation in case-head diameters also
affects the ease and cost of building a rifle.
A good .243, .308, .22-250 can be rebuilt
as a BR by simple rebarrelling, their having
the same diameter bolt-face. Ideally, 6PPC
64 Target Shooter
requires a smaller diameter bolt-face which previously forked out a considerable sum for
could mean an expensively modified bolt or specially made UBBR brass? Take one set of
even a new action. Often however, it will work 6mm (or .22, or 7mm) BR dies, not cheap at
satisfactorily with the 308 bolt-face. that time given they would have been listed in
a limited production / wildcat die series. Then
Varmints and Pistols throw in a set of very expensive special-order
I said Remington produced BR specifications in ‘form-dies’ to re-form the 308 dimensioned
1978 but it was to be another 12 years before cases into BRs. Finally, take a great deal of time
anyone saw a Remmy manufactured BR case and effort and probably a few tears as the odd
or cartridge. That was because the company case concertinaed during the process.
saw it as a ‘factory wildcat’ available as one
of a trio of calibres – 224, 6mm and 7mm. As The smaller the calibre, the more steps and work
well as drawings to allow toolmakers to produce were involved (Table 1). Given the outlay involved
reamers and dies, Remington produced a basic of both time and money, you can understand
case – the .30 UBBR (unformed basic bench why there weren’t many BR shooters around
rest), a high-quality .308 Winchester case with 25 or so years ago but the problems didn’t end
unusually thin walls. there! Users found the brass had a tendency to
undo some of the reforming work during each
The ignition department was different too, with firing giving increasingly hard chambering and
a small rifle dimensioned primer pocket and extraction and requiring more work on the cases,
undersize flash-hole (current Lapua examples or even having to discard them prematurely.
have a nominal 1.5mm or 0.059 in. compared
to the standard 1/16 or 0.625 in.), tests having With .220 Russian brass available and requiring
shown these features facilitate a more consistent far less work to be turned into PPC cases,
charge-burn. benchrest shooters abandoned the BR, giving
its competitor a 10-year start. So, we’ll never
So, how did a would-be BR shooter actually know if the BR could have matched the PPC in
obtain a collection of correctly dimensioned benchrest accuracy given the same amount of
cases for the appropriate BR version having development.

Target Shooter 65
Likewise, one had to be a mighty keen ‘varminter’ give one away to American sporting shooters 25
to go through this amount of hassle to gain a bit years ago. Remington 700s could be made to
extra performance and accuracy over a good 22- feed – just; other factory actions with tapered
250. Moreover, the BRs gave such users and magazine boxes presented a near impossible
their gunsmiths another headache – magazine challenge.
feed problems. Single-shot bolt-action varmint
rifles are widely used today but you could hardly With this list of downsides, one wonders how

66 Target Shooter
the BR cartridge survived irrespective of its growth of benchrest shooting over it.)
performance – and in fact, it very nearly didn’t.
Speciality long-barrel pistols turned out to be its As with other less specialist 6mm cartridges like
salvation thanks to the 7mm version turning out .243 Winchester, 10T can of course be chosen
to be a superb performer in this application, both as a compromise allowing the use of 90gn match
for handgun silhouette competition and ‘hunting’, bullets alongside 70-87gn ‘varmint’ bullets,
it being used on wild hogs, whitetail deer and but 8T offers much more flexibility without any
pronghorn antelope. The 7mm BR would give a apparent loss of performance with the 75 to
140gn bullet 2,250fps (1,573 ft/lbs ME) in a 15 90-grainers. To give an example of required
inch barrel Remington XP-100 single shot bolt- twists, I’ve included a couple of photographs of
action or break-action Thompson-Contender. It a selection of top-quality Berger bullets courtesy
was these sales that encouraged Remington of their distributor Norman Clark Gunsmiths Ltd.
to belatedly manufacture 7mm BR cartridges and Table 2 lists the manufacturer’s quoted ideal
and brass, which in turn much simplified the twist rates.
handloader’s task in reforming cases down to As with all 6mm cartridges, there is a fantastic
the 224 and 6mm versions, the latter model also choice of bullets available for F-Class;
factory produced for a while too at a later date. short-range benchrest (now with new home
produced Orion and G-C Bullets models); thin-
Bullets and Twists jacketed high accuracy ‘varmint’ bullets from 55
As noted, the US SAAMI spec for the original to 90gn weight; medium game bullets for deer.
Remington version was (and remains) a very
slow 14T and today’s Norma version is a I mentioned the barrel twist range can extend
markedly different 8T. One might in fact specify to 7T or 7.5T. These super-fast twists are only
a barrel with a rifling twist anywhere within a needed for the heaviest of bullets – the 115gn
range of 7 to 14 to the gunsmith, although both Berger VLD and 115gn DTAC (David Tubb
extremes are rare. So, how do we decide? As design). Since the DTAC is no longer than the
always, the process starts with the use the rifle 105gn Lapua Scenar, one can get away with
will be put to, hence the bullets that are to be the ‘standard’ 8T rate, as demonstrated with my
loaded. experiences with the HPS Ltd.- built FC704 /
RPA F-Class rifle reviewed in the March issue.
In practice, 8T and 12T are the two most widely
specified twist rates by a large margin – the Scuttlebutt has it that the rival 115gn Berger
former for shooters who wish to use long match has an over-long jacket for the calibre, this
bullets in the 95-107gn range and/or the heavier thin benchrest quality J4 component being
expanding deer bullets. This twist rate will also over-stressed, while the DTAC works well thanks
perform well with light bullets down to the 70gn to the use of a thicker, heavier Sierra produced
mark, therefore offering great flexibility. The jacket. DTACs are available from Norman Clark
12” twist rate is usually specified by short-range as well as HPS Ltd. for those who want to try
target shooters and/or ‘varminters’, being ideal them and although designed for the larger Tubb
for bullets up to the 75gn mark, and also able to 6XC cartridge running at 3050 fps, they can be
stabilise specialist flat-base match bullets in the driven at a very useful 2800 – 2900 fps by a 6BR
80-90gn range that can give top performance at rifle with suitable length barrel. The hot news is
600yd. (This range is currently receiving much that Tubb has taken his design further with a
attention in American reports thanks to the rapid sharp polymer tip 117gn version, that improves

Target Shooter 67
ballistics slightly over the current hollow-point 6BR dies come with the small decapper pin of
design, but more importantly gives much greater course, and if you rely on that it’s a good idea
BC consistency (hence elevation consistency at to get some spares, otherwise Sod’s law will
ultra long-ranges) without any need to uniform ensure your sole example will catch on the case
bullet tips in a meplat trimmer. body and snap as you prepare ammunition just
before the most important match of the season!
Dies and Brass
Although called 6mm BR Norma, I’ve never Most manufacturers now produce 6BR die sets,
come across this company’s loaded ammunition Lee Precision unusually missing out on this one,
or brass in this country, and have yet to meet even though it has the 6PPC in its range. I chose
anyone who has. Everybody uses Lapua cases Forster ‘Benchrest’ dies, moving onto a special-
which are widely available – very reasonably order neck-size as described in ‘Handloading
priced too considering it is near benchrest quality Topics’ back in January to reduce the amount
as it comes from the box. A few dealers list the brass is worked.
Remington cases, but again I’ve never actually
seen any. Do you need or want to specify a tight-neck
chamber when the rifle is built, as is usually
As noted previously, the design uses small rifle done with the PPCs even on fox rifles? There
primers and has an undersize flash-hole, a is a growing consensus that a full-house small
nuisance especially for people like me who like diameter chamber neck section and heavily
to deprime fired cases as a separate operation turned brass is not required for the 6BR, in fact
prior to cleaning and resizing. You can take a may be counter-productive. While 6PPC tight-
Lee or whatever deprime die and turn the pin neck chambers are usually specified at 0.262
down, or alternatively buy the recently introduced inches which requires the neck thickness to be
Redding version specifying the small diameter reduced to around 8 to 9 thousandths of an inch,
stem for 20 calibre cartridges which happily also some top 6BR shooters have gone for 0.271 to
has the small diameter pin as required by BR .272 inch and the neck just ‘cleaned-up’ with the
and PPC cases. neck-turner for uniform thickness and cut slightly
into the shoulder to avoid the ‘dreaded doughnut’

Table 1 
Reforming Steps .30 UBBR to 7mm or 6mm BR 
1. Push neck back to its new position with the form die No.1. 
2. Reduce case length in a trim die or with a tube cutter. 
3. Thin the neck walls with a special inside‐turner die. (The die supports the case while a 
cutter tool is inserted and rotated to reduce wall thickness from the inside.) 
4. Reduce the neck diameter in one or more steps to the desired calibre using suitable 
sizer dies with the expander removed or with special form dies. 
5. Full‐length resize with 7mm or 6mm BR sizer die. 
6. Final case trim down to 1.550”. 
7. Chamfer the case mouth edges. 

Table 2 
forming at the neck/shoulder junction.
Ideal Twist Rates for the Six Berger Bullets 
Others don’t even reckon this is needed,
Bullet Model      Twist (one turn in ….)  just a minimum spec chamber at 0.274
66gn High BC flat‐base Match  13  inches allowing standard unmodified
88gn High BC flat‐base Match  10  Lapua cases to be used.
95gn VLD Match    9  Next month, I’ll move onto primers and
70gn Varmint flat‐base    13  powders and report my results with 90 to
71gn Varmint BT    12  107gn match bullets on the range.
80gn Varmint flat‐base    12 

68 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 69
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Target Shooter
 This Smallbore Business

By Don Brook
Dry Fire - just how important is it? learning to hold the rifle still and release a dry shot
without moving the rifle. He taught me to breathe
Of monumental importance, that’s how much! correctly, to ‘feel’ within myself and to develop a
I do not know of one champion shooter, in any competition spirit that became second to none.
discipline for the precision events that has not spent
countless hours in dry fire. Not only is it a lot cheaper As such, I did spend those hours dry firing - at a spot
than spending the same countless hours in live fire, on the hallway floor and I learned….. Tom taught
the true value of dry fire lies in the self discipline of me to release a dry shot with my Lee Enfield 303
the exercise. (with a striker pin fall of about an inch!) that did not
move the rifle.
Some tell me they get bored easily with dry fire and,
many tell me there is no result to gain any benefit The result of this training saw me fire my first possible
from it. Some are also just plain lazy and do not want 50 (at 800 yards) just six weeks after I started
to go to the trouble of getting fitted out in their gear shooting. I have always appreciated his interest as
and so on. a mentor and he taught me a great deal even after I
switched my interest to smallbore. So much so, that
Well, I never had any of that trouble, I was always I seriously doubt I would have reached the heights I
eager to get behind a rifle as I really enjoyed the did, without Tom’s direction.
feeling of my favourite sport, even in my quite young
days. I was 14 when my Father introduced me to Dry fire is extremely important if you have designs on
fullbore shooting with a SMLE .303 and enrolled me getting to where ever your goals may take you.
in my local rifle club. He reckoned that if I was going
to be a shooter, being always interested in firearms The time spent in dry fire is even more crucial if your
(as most boys are) then he wanted me to get into interest lies in ‘position’ shooting, where the three
somewhere where safety was the prime interest! So positions you need to learn are demanding enough
it came to pass - it did affect the entire rest of my to almost require full time training. Australia did not
life……. have a great deal of shooting support in my early
days, and our early champions did do a great deal of
Lysaghts Rifle Club had a couple of extremely good work on their own.
fullbore shooters amongst the members and I was
lucky (in retrospect) that I came under the wing of a So what are the requirements of dry fire? How can
shooter who was a very good coach. Tommy Hann, it become interesting enough to promote the long
placed my feet in the right direction and I was hooked hours of training? Is there light at the end of that
on the sport immediately. tunnel? Sometimes it feels as if there never is but the
One of the things Tom insisted on was dry fire, struggle allows the development of mental strength,
Target Shooter 71
of being able to achieve! I also vividly remember my first international prone
shoot, which happened to be the 1972 Munich
Some years ago I met one of the best in the world, Olympic Games English match. (Yep, that is in the
Lanny Bassham and I would like to relate a story he deep end, big time!) where I fired seven tens as
told me, concerning dry fire where he related to his sighter shots, but it took me NINE minutes to get my
beginning in the marksmanship unit at Fort Benning. first shot away. The shot was smack in the middle,
Lanny Bassham was told to dry fire and so his time and I was just NOT going to let a crappy release go! I
at the firing point was consumed by dry fire until he relaxed, fired three or four dry fires and then went on.
thought he had hold of it standing. In due course
Lanny went to Bill Pullum the coaching legend of the Boy, did I learn a lot about me that morning!
USAAMU and asked if he could shoot live shots at
his target, as he had been dry firing for nearly four Another item about dry fire is that there are no short
months. Pullum said… “Yep, and I will watch..” cuts, in any of the positions. It is very important to
replicate the exact same methods you employ in live
Bassham jumped at the chance, worked really hard fire, even to the exact same reloading technique. I
on the shot, and fired a ten…. have seen many, particularly in the prone position,
that just re-cock the rifle and proceed when they
“Lanny” says Pullum, “When you can work as hard normally take the rifle out of position when firing live
on your dry fire, as you did on that shot, come and ammunition. To vary your standard techniques is
see me again” and walked off….. inattention to detail and amounts to laziness.

The amount that Lanny did after that resulted in Training dry fire is replicating the same techniques
his climb to the top, including Olympic glory. And I and you can train in a new technique such as
realised after that story how much credence the top shooting very fast, or leaving the rifle in the shoulder
shots place on the dry fire routines they develop. to facilitate this as a method new, or out of your
Just learning to get really good shots away. normal process. The attention to detail is a factor
that needs to be addressed and never varied once
When I developed my own skills, I always trained you decide on the training method to be installed.
with a mix of dry and live fire, particularly position
work standing and kneeling. I would work on the Yes readers, it is crucial that your learning techniques
positions to allow the natural point of aim to coincide allow for a heap of time on the floor in any of the
with the correct aim and dry fire three or four shots to three positions and this also applies to full bore, even
every live fire round I loaded. with the bigger target dimensions they employ.

Always I tried to repeat the ‘hold’ sequence and shot What about the available electronic gimmickry that’s
release so that a good solid shot was released when out there now - the training electronics such as Sam
I did load a live one up the spout. trainers, and others?

I remember the first competition 100 I fired standing, These are very useful as they do give a lot of
which was in the New Zealand 3x40 championships information back to the shooter and you can keep
at Rotorua. I dry fired five shots within those ten an eye on ‘hold’ dimensions and shape, trigger-
record shots, even then. I needed this to get the release effects, sighting accuracy and so on. They
‘rubbish’ out of my mind! also teach a good follow-through sequence, which is
hugely important.
The pay factor came when my KIWI friends said “Shit
Brooksie, NO ONE shoots a 100 on their feet!” But You should be aware though, that in the case of
they didn’t know that those ten shots actually had 15 300m and full bore, the electronic systems cannot
aiming functions! (I didn’t say anything either!) monitor the effects of recoil, nor can you glean any
information of how to control this outside of the follow
I can also relay my personal best kneeling through sequence. As a coaching tool though, I think
performance, fired in Munich, where I shot a 396 every small bore club in the world should have one!
and within those 40 shots I fired 16 dry fire releases. If nothing else, they do get the shooters to dry fire!
Why? To get rid of the ‘rubbish’ in my head, to stop
the overriding nervous tension that sometimes used Another gem for you all…”We are what we train to
to creep in. This taught me to relax within the match be, excellence then becomes not just an act, but a
itself, to ‘get back to the basics’ and, I always related habit” (Aristotle)
to the story above of Lanny Bassham, if I needed a
‘boot in the backside’.

72 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 73
Target Shooter Magazine is a publication of Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd
 National Small-bore
Rifle Association
The Young Turks on the Block On its own this would constitute a great indicator
of things to come. However to this has to be
At any time a sport looks to its leading youngsters added her other achievements in 2010. Two
to show their progress at international level. This Golds and a Bronze at the Commonwealth
is particularly true in the build-up to an Olympic Games. The only individual rifle medal at the
Games, and most especially when you are the World Championships. Two more Golds at the
host nation. Commonwealth Championships and several
other medals at other internationals around
Last year it was Jen McIntosh who led the way Europe. An excellent haul at a time when Jen
with a very impressive debut in Fort Benning and still had one more full year as a junior.
Belgrade at the start of her World Cup career.
In the Three Positions Rifle events she finished Another shooter with more time in hand as a
10th on both occasions, the highest placing by junior is Kristian Callaghan. In 2010 his double-
a British woman in this event at a World Cup Gold in Rapid Fire and Standard Pistol at the
for more years than we care to remember. This Junior Nordic Championships may have been in
stunning start included several new British and competitions with a relatively small field. On the
Scottish records and progress up the World other hand they were both events for which the
Rankings to a position in the top 25. required pistol is a prohibited firearm in Great
Britain, and where he was competing against
good-quality Scandinavian
shooters who have no such
access problems.

Kristian had already been setting

new British records regularly with
his 5-shot air pistol in the similar
courses of fire that we can shoot
over here. Now 2011 as seen him
arrive on the record books with
his .22 cartridge pistol as well.
During March in Wiesbaden and
Dortmund he raised the British
Junior Rapid Fire Pistol record to
560, and then 561. Prior to this
Adrian Steele had held it for just a
couple of months short of twenty
years with his 557 in Brunswick,
when the course was shot under
slightly easier conditions using
.22 Short ammunition and a more
anatomically-helpful grip.
Jen McIntosh

74 Target Shooter
 In this case the rap came
from James Huckle, who
although he ceased to
be a junior at the end of
2010, will not have his 21st
birthday until September
this year. Having started
with rapid success as a self-
taught field target shooter,
he quickly chose to transfer
to the ISSF Code when he
recognised this as being the
only route to the ultimate
pinnacle of the Olympic
Games.

Together with Jon

Hammond and Neil Stirton,
he successfully negotiated
the Elimination Stage of the
Men’s 3x40 and then scored
Kristian Callaghan
1168 in Qualification round,
one point short of the British
The most recent event where one of the current record set by Alister Allan in
British crop of youngsters hammered at the 1990. This took James into the final in seventh
door was the World Cup in Changwon, Korea. place, where he added 99.1 for sixth place and
a total of 1267.1. This beat
the late Malcolm Cooper’s
last remaining small-bore
British record of 1263.9,
which Malc set in Zurich in
1989 – 15 months before
James was born!!

Sadly for James, the final

icing on the cake was not
there, but just agonisingly
close. The two Olympic
Quota Places available
in the event went to the
shooters in 1st and 3rd
places, but James was next
in line as the other three
shooters ahead of him had
already secured Quotas in
earlier competitions.

Also were it not for the ISSF

Rule that says he is no
longer a junior despite being
some months away from his
James Huckle 21st birthday, his Changwon
shoot would have given

Target Shooter 75
him one equal and one new European Junior international events. So far just three shooters
record. However James’ position and potential in rifle and pistol events have achieved these
is confirmed by his first British record as a senior scores – Jen in Women’s Air Rifle and Jon
and by his new World Ranking of No. 18, he Hammond in Men’s Prone Rifle, both at the
being the only shooter under the age of 21 in Sydney World Cup, and James in 3x40 at
the current Top 60. Changwon.

British Shooting has now announced the final Here’s hoping for further successes for our
selection arrangements for the 2012 Olympic shooters in the remaining qualifiers for Quota
Shooting Team, details of which can be seen Places and MCSs, which start with the Fort
on their website, www.britishshooting.org. Benning World Cup on 14th May and for which
uk. The criteria for consideration for selection the European Championships in Belgrade in
includes the need to have achieved a Minimum August will be of special importance.
Consideration Score at one of a small number of

Malcolm Cooper - a prolific British target shooter

76 Target Shooter
 From The Bench
VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN
WHEREBY ACCURACY NUTS
CAN KEEP UP TO DATE WITH
THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA

Competitions Small group Bruce Lenton 6PPC Stolle 0.13 in

The first shoot of the 2011 competition year took
place at Diggle Ranges the first weekend in April. Our Factory Sporter
100 yard shoot on the Saturday produced a decent 1stAndy Woolley 6PPC Sako 0.5364 in.
HV turn-out though Factory Sporter shooters were
down to just two. Conditions looked reasonable but 2ndStuart Benson 223 Remmington 0.9 in.
tiny groups were few with just three ‘ones’ recorded
– the best a splendid 0.13 incher by Bruce Lenton. Small group Andy Wooley 0.368 in

Results: Heavy Varmint The following day, at 1000 yards, the weather
1st Steve Dunn 6PPC Dunn Stolle 0.2604 inches was again fair and Stuart Benson, using a 308
(av. of five, 5-shot groups) Remington almost put the whole field to shame with
an outstanding 5.6 inch group. Stuart briefly held the
2ndIan Dixon 6PPC Walker BAT 0.296 in. UK record with this rifle about five years ago with
another five-inch group and since it has had many
3rdVince Bottomley 6PPC TGP BAT 0.2994 in. hundreds of rounds down the barrel. Fortunately,

Light Gun winner Jack Gibb

Target Shooter 77
Mike Weatherhead’s 5.5 inch group just saved the Small group: Stuart Benson 5.636 inches
Light Gun entry from total embarrassment!
Our other April competition was a 100 yard ‘score’
In spite of his great shooting and a sub. ten-inch shoot. We always shoot for ‘group’ and for me,
agg, Stuart didn’t claim the Factory Sporter win – shooting for score was a new departure. The
that went to Phil Gibbon, with his 6.5-284 Savage. equipment – scope, rifle, rests etc. are identical but
here we shoot 20 ‘bulls’ with a one millimetre diameter
Jack Gibb comfortably claimed the Light Gun win X ring. The 10-ring is about 10m in diameter. Two
with his 6.5-284 Barnard which he accredits to his cards are shot in total, so about 50 rounds in all with
new 8 – 80 March scope! sighters.

Results: Light Gun Results - Heavy varmint:

1st Jack Gibb 6.5 Barnard 7.965 (av. of four, 1st Jeanette Whitney 6PPC TGP Stolle
5-shot groups) 393.14X (ex. 400)

2nd Steve Dunn 7mm BooBoo BAT 9.009 in. 2nd Vince Bottomley 6PPC TGP BAT 391.10X

3rd Mal Roberts 7mmWSM BAT 9.045 in. 3rd Bruce Lenton 6PPC Stolle 389.8X

Small group: Mike Weatherhead 7mmWSM Factory Sporter :

Walker Sako 5.5 inches 1st Jack Mills 223 Browning 202

Factory Sporter Next 100/1000 yard benchrest weekend at Diggle is

1st Phil Gibbon 6.5-284 Savage 9.14 in 7/8th May. E-mail vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk

2nd Stuart Benson 308 Remington 9.551 in Also – don’t forget our once in a lifetime 1000 yard
egg shoot on May 30th Bank Holiday Monday.
3rd Alan Seagrave 6.5x55 Tikka 14.045 in. Break an egg at 1000 yards and win £1000!

78 Target Shooter
The Benchmark - Rimfire & Air Rifle Benchrest News
Rimfire benchrest comes to Diggle – 25th 3rd John Farrell 478.16X
April 2011
Heavy Varmint:
Although Diggle has long been a venue for 1st Jake Healey 497.24X
centrefire benchrest shooting, the first official
rimfire shoot was held there by the Northern 2nd A Lomax 490.18X
Area guys and gals on Easter Monday.
3rd Richard Healey 490.15X
It was a superb warm sunny day but with
switching winds providing a challenge for most John Farrell is doing his best to get more
of us at 50 yards. For me, it was a steep learning outdoor ‘shoulder to shoulder’ matches going
curve but a very enjoyable day in the company but, he needs your support. Find out where the
of some great folk. I look forward to repeating next one is by e-mailing John on j.farrell2@
the exercise. ntlworld.com
As you will see from the results, it was something
of a Healey family whitewash with Young Jake
Healey taking the HV win and Dad Richard
winning the LV. Both will be going to the World
Championships in America in July as part of the
GB Team.

Results: Light varmint
1st Richard Healey 487.25X

2nd J Stephenson 480.18X

Target Shooter 79
 The Long View
News from the GB
F-Class Association
by Les Holgate

GB F-CLASS ASSOCIATION LEAGUE My real worry however when the GB-FCA

ROUND 1, DIGGLE 16/17th April circus heads Digglewards is that the Pennine
mist hampers visibility and forces a late start -
It’s the same every year as the new shooting particularly likely at this time of the year and,
season comes around isn’t it? You know what sure enough, the M62’s Windy Hill summit was
I mean – after ‘The Europeans’ the previous well shrouded with dense gray stuff on the way
November, there’s all the time in the world to sort there – OMG! But no, the range was clear,
out your handloads, sight a new scope in, get a as seventy bleary-eyed competitors turned
new rifle or barrel run-in and suddenly it’s the up at 8.00 am or before to be signed in and
end of March and it’s only days away to the first given their squadding details. The first shots
round of the season at Diggle and everything went downrange at 8.50am from the 500 yard
becomes a great rush. firing-point and, the sun was shining – Phew!

As I’m the poor sod who organizes the Diggle Capacity Entry
rounds, that just compresses those timescales For the second year, the season opener was
and increases pressure further. Then there’s the Association’s sole ‘short-range’ meeting,
the weather – what’s it going to do this year? restricted to 500 and 600 yards, two matches
Do we pack the waterproofs and Gore-Tex lined at each distance for a total of 75 scoring
warm stuff or the shades and sun-block? Tell rounds over the two days, the final 600 yarder
you what, take both and a bit more! 15 rounds, the other three 20 – well that was
Plan A but, events forced a change to Sunday’s

80 Target Shooter
 programme. 60 shooters are as many as we the firing lines.
can handle at Diggle in the long-range events With seven targets in use, we managed to
but 500/600 yards makes things like butts-crew accept seventy entries this year - even turning
changeovers a bit quicker and we can access a few away, at the cost of running five details
the range house throughout the meeting, all this and shooters having overly long waits. Still, it
letting us cram a few more warm bodies onto was warm enough to happily lounge around on

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Target Shooter BARRELS 81
AND BARTLEIN
the hillside and talk shop in the spring sunshine!
the side to be in the ‘Four’, and just over another
A small fleet of pick-up trucks and 4x4s took inch to be in the ‘Three’ at 600 yards. Stray
competitiors to and from the butts too – if we’d outside of the One-ring into the acres of empty
stuck the odd pedestal-mounted 50BMG M2 on white Corex surrounding the target centre, and
the load decks, the motley crews being ferried you didn’t get a point at all – a ‘no score hit’ to
around wouldn’t have looked out of place on the use the jargon. The no-score zone was only one
Benghazi-Tripoli highway! MOA away from the bull! Needless to say there
were more than a few zeros in the Sunday F/TR
In the event, no fewer than 68 shooters turned in 600 yard details! Why quarter minute (instead
scorecards - 37 of them F/TR against 31 Open of half minute) rings that we normally use – no-
entrants. Also of note were four Spanish visitors, one seems to know! Let’s hope that the long-
Senors Sanchez, Cabrera, Cubillo and Pavon range targets are not similarly configured.
plus Roderick Formosa from Malta, all of whom
used rifles supplied by Osprey Rifle’s Stuart Saturday
Anselm who also allowed them to run-in his new Anyway, to give the 36 F/TR lads and one lass a
Savage custom .223 Rem F/TR rifle on its first chance, I’d assigned them to the first details on
match outing. the Saturday - traditionally the quietest weather
of the weekend, and glory be, the winds were
Quarter-MOA light even if the visibility was distinctly hazy
Benchrest-quality rifles, heavy 7mm bullets at thanks to residual mist. “Can you see those
3,000 fps, and only 500/600 yard distances! damned scoring rings through your scope?” was
Gawd, that’s going to be easy – everybody a frequent refrain along the firing-line as people
should max out! Right, that’s your opinion but set their rifles up and adjusted scope parallax.
you haven’t seen the targets yet (or shot at
Diggle!). The new NRA short-range design was The F/TR question of the day was how were
black with a half-MOA white centre aiming mark/ reigning League Champion Adam Bagnall and
V-Bull and white scoring rings that moved out a World Champion Russell Simmonds going to
half-MOA for the Bull-5 line, then only quarter- shape up in the new season? There was no new
MOA for each subsequent score line out to the kit, both were shooting 155 grain bullets (like
‘One’! That means that a perfectly aimed shot almost everybody else), so it was all down to
from a rifle that shoots zero-size groups only shooter form. Us northerners who can watch the
needs the wind to move the bullet four inches to Altcar 101 brigade at play had noted they’d got

82 Target Shooter
a lot of practice in over the winter and the ‘word’ four ahead of Laurie. Adam was one of a quartet
said that Adam had shot some unbelievably to score 90 on this match leaving him fourth on
high scores on the Lancashire coast range, so aggregate seven points down on Russell.
odds-on favourite if you’re a betting man?
Match 1 at 500 yards said otherwise, Russell Open Class followed F/TR on Saturday, most
putting in a blistering 99.11v, highest score for of the top shooters in Details 4 and 5, the wind
the match in either class as it turned out, whilst having risen noticeably by the time they shot at
Adam was in fifth place on 95.12v behind fellow 500 yards. Match One winner Ian Boxall shooting
101 shooter Paul Harkins, Diggle’s Laurie a Surgeon in 6mm Crusader (an ‘improved’ 6mm
Holland with his .223 Rem and 101’s John Remington, but using RWS 7X57mm brass as
Cross. Small target or not, around a third of the his starting point, not Remy stuff) just held off
F/TR shooters broke 90. David Kent on Vs with his 7WSM, both on 98.
Gary Costello was hot on their heels with 97.12v
Match Two, 2+20 at 600yd that afternoon saw with his new 7mm SAUM, who in turn pushed
much clearer conditions, but a wind that was Pete Wilson into 4th on V-count.
definitely more ‘frisky’, from the usual Diggle
5 o’clock. Russell again took stop spot, but at As with the F/TR shooters, a third of the
a much lower 93.6v, leading Paul Harkins as field broke 90. Two usually high scorers had
runner-up again and Les Dawson now in third. miserable times, Greg Thompson on 80.4v due
At the close of a long day, Russell led F/TR by to rifle problems, likewise local shooter John
a mere two points over Paul, who was in turn Campbell on 80.3v for reasons not known to

Target Shooter 83
your reporter. Back at 600 yards, it was Ian The Open boys made short work of this distance
Boxall again on an excellent 96.4v, the hot 6mm in gentle early morning conditions, Gary Costello
obviously performing as well as its owner and taking the medal on 75.11v with David Lloyd,
this time Ian had a two point lead over David Mark Daish, and Mark Ellis on the same score
Kent but with a totally recovered John Campbell but in that order on V-count, Ian Boxall in 5th
in third on 93.6v. Open places as the day’s leading a large group of shooters scoring 74
shooting finished were Ian, David, and Pete with a 10v count. Two thirds of the class broke
as the top three with five points between them, 70. At the other end of the field, Greg Thompson
Gary Costello in fourth, a further three points and John Campbell were suffering again and
adrift and just holding off Mark Ellis. both retired after this match.

Sunday With one match to go and a 20 round effort at

The weather forecast said ‘sunny, warmer too’ – that, Ian Boxall led David Kent by three points
which it was – and with a complete wind change on aggregate , who in turn was holding off Pete
from Saturday’s westerlies to a super-light ENE. Wilson by another three a couple of points ahead
‘Only one or two mph strength’ it said. Hah! It of Mark Ellis – close enough for the leader board
was the same as the day before, only stronger to change but a slight opening-out of the top four
and more variable in both strength and direction. or five. At 600 yards, warm with a frequently
Open ran first now, shooting at 500 yards as switching light to fresh wind, it was David Kent’s
before, but Match 3 was reduced to 2+15 as the turn to shine winning Match Four with a super
Spanish F/TR visitors had a plane to catch mid- 97.14v, that was matched by an on-form Gary
afternoon and wanted to shoot this one match Costello taking second but with 9 Vs, Hugh
at least. Inglis, Mark Daish, and Ian Boxall following only

84 Target Shooter
one and two points adrift. It was a fine finish by that the range flags didn’t show and flag
David Kent, but not enough to pass Ian Boxall indication changes that didn’t represent the
who took the Open Class aggregate and his first wind, Russell shot an excellent 92.7v, but that
GB-FCA league round win by a point, with Gary paled by comparison against a heroic 97.10v
Costello in third place, four points behind David. from Adam, right up with David Kent’s winning
Returning to Match Three and 500yd earlier in Open score. Paul Harkins - reliable Mr Number
the day, it was ‘outsiders’ Paul Dobson (who Two - split them with an excellent 94.7v. Further
had missed the previous day’s matches) and back, Laurie Holland ‘dolloped’ with a terrible
Andy Duffy who took the first two F/TR slots on spell of ones and twos mid-match for 74.4v in
excellent 74.7v and 73.6v scores with the still 17th Match place and dropping him right down
improving Adam Bagnall on third with 72.7v. the leader board.
Russell Simmonds had a poor match by his
standards down in 11th place on 67.3v, five points This fine result put Adam in first overall place
adrift of Adam and losing most of his aggregate from Russell by a clear two points, the ever-
lead. consistent Paul Harkins just behind them in third
and two more 101 shooters, Messrs Cross and
As the Match finished, F/TR aggregate positions Donaldson taking fourth and fifth. In fact, the
were Russell on 258.19v, and Adam on 257.25v. Scousers took six of the top ten places, showing
In fact, there was only a single point between what regular practice at Altcar and post shooting
each of the first five, the other trio being Paul visits to the boozer does for skill at arms if not
Harkins, Laurie Holland and John Cross with the soul. Again, the season’s warm-up league
still more right on their heels – very close and all round was an enjoyable and close-run event
down to the final 2+20 at 600 yards! showing that you don’t have to shoot at 1,000yd
In this Match, characterised by wind-changes to get closely fought matches, moments of
elation and despair.
Aggregate Top Places (HPS = 375.75v) 

Open        F/TR  It’s worth noting that the top

1  Ian Boxall  363.29v   Adam Bagnall    354.35v  three F/TR shooters would have
2  David Kent  362.34v   Russell Simmonds  351.27v  placed fifth, sixth and seventh in
Open Class!
3   Gary Costello  358.38v   Paul Harkins    350.24v 
4  Peter Wilson  355.34v   John Cross    348.22v 
5  Mark Daish  350.21v   Steve Donaldson  343.22v 

 
Target Shooter 85
The Hadrian IPSC Level 3 Shotgun Match - catered not only for buck and birdshot, but also
by Tony Saunders slug shooting. Lined along a large and sheltered
banked area, replete with wooded sections, it
Now, it may be something of a coincidence that offered a good venue and always had a good
every time I have previously ventured north turnout despite the very long drive for those living
towards Carlisle, it has been raining. After all ‘darn sarf’ – which was pretty much most people.
the Lake District isn’t named after its reputation Those travelling from Dorset could expect a
for prolonged dry spells, so maybe it shouldn’t good 8 hour drive and also found a use for those
be a surprise to me! knitted gloves they all had - but never needed.

So, you can imagine my look of resigned Sadly, increased complaints about noise has
expectation when a message came through meant the gradual erosion of shooting freedoms
that the build team for the inaugural Level 3 for CSAC (how often have we heard this
match at Carlisle Small Arms Club’s (CSAC) story!). To this end, it became necessary last
new venue had been struggling against high year to find a new location for IPSC matches
winds and rain and that the match may have and it was to be used as the venue for the
to be downgraded from a Level 3 to a Level 1! British Open L3 shotgun match 2nd to 4th July.
This was understandably cancelled due to
In previous years, CSAC has hosted Level 1 and the shooting incident in Cumbria last year.
3 IPSC shotgun matches at a fantastic ground
not far from the A69 near Carlisle. The range The Hadrian match was the first Level 3 IPSC
Stage 4 - A tight mix of targets and no-shoot penalty targets partially hidden by tyres.
Keith Wilson – Winchester SX3

86 Target Shooter
 A long shot at a partially hidden target.
Winchester SX3 with pistol grip.

shotgun match on this years’ calendar. The new of the area has remained largely unchanged
venue was part of farm land near Hallbankgate, for a thousand years, except for the gradual
Cumbria at Moss Hill Farm. The whole area taming of land for agriculture. England really
is of typical Cumbrian rugged beauty, with does have some fantastic countryside and
swelling lowlands set against distant burnished it was a majestic spot for a shotgun match.
fells. One doesn’t have to stray far from
the road to feel as though you are the only For the build-team though, the last few days
person for miles and I would imagine much leading to the match saw gale-force winds and

Sam Taylor - Benelli M2 shooting Hull Sterling Game #5’s 32g

Target Shooter 87
 UKPSA Chairman Rob Adam checking shot timer as Glenn Forbes adopts start position.

virtually horizontal rain. Centred on a rise above So, with most of the staging ripped, broken or
the road, the new range has no natural barriers missing, it looked very much like the first match
to divert the relentless wind around it and the would not have enough stages to qualify for
day before the match saw the majority of the its Level 3 status. With low spirits, the match
stages destroyed overnight – a terrible blow for directors Vanessa Duffy and Kevin Strowger
the crew who felt that all their hard work had felt they had no choice but to warn all potential
been in vain. competitors that they may face a long journey to
Long stage with multiple targets and no-shoots. Very easy to forget where targets are
and fail to shoot at some.

88 Target Shooter
a downgraded match if they couldn’t rebuild the seconds to bring the shotgun up from holding
stages in the next 12 hours. it horizontally in one hand by their side (the
‘trail’ position) to shoot seven targets arrayed
It was a chancy gamble. By issuing this in a semi-circle of 180 degrees. Some were
statement, they felt that it was only fair to warn large ‘popper’ targets with one being weighted,
shooters but knew that by saying it, competitors others were small 150mm square plates at
may choose to not make the journey and floor level. Four seconds isn’t a lot but Michael
miss a good match - if only they could pull smoothly shot all seven comfortably in the time.
out all the stops to get the stages rebuilt. It
was also April 1st but unfortunately no hoax! Sam Taylor was also shooting his first Level 3
match with his recently converted Benelli M2.
After a 4:00 am start on the day of the match, Sam squeaked ahead of Michael Siva-Jothy by
we arrived to a windy and wet entrance manned a hair to win the Best Novice trophy. This special
by several figures clad in heavy waterproofs and trophy is only available at a novice competitor’s
an expression to match. However, despite the first L3 or above match – one chance to win it
seeming bad start, the rain slowed and stopped and it goes to the highest novice score of the
by 9.00am and the wind fell as the sun struggled day. We put his success down to much loading
out from the rusty sky. About two-thirds of the practice and also the sugar-rush from a large
stages were up and ready, with the remainder intake of candy shrimps in the car on the way up!
being worked on as we started to shoot. It really
was a triumph from adversity and testament to It was also good to see the introduction of a
the guys and girls who rallied to make it happen. Virginia Count stage. Stage 3 was a 7-round
stage featuring 4 metal targets, three frangible
Of the 10 stages initially planned, the match (clay) targets and two no-shoot penalty targets
became a 9 stage, birdshot-only match with a shot from 7 to 12m away.
good mixture of short, medium and long stages.
Among many of the regular shooters, it was For those who are not familiar, a Virginia Count
good to see quite a lot of new faces at a Level 3 stage is one where the competitor must only fire
match. Shooters to watch out for in the coming one shot per target. So with seven targets, each
years included Michael Siva-Jothy, who was a competitor must shoot one round at each target.
very fast shooter and made the seven plate, If the shooter misses a target, they can choose
fixed-time stage look easy. to reshoot it but it would mean they would not
The shooter had a fixed time of only four have enough shots left for the remaining targets.

Target Shooter 89
It would also mean that they would be unable to 1st Place Nicholas Hockley 100%
engage the final target and thus incur additional 2 Place
nd
Iain Corrigan 85.17%
penalties for non-engagement as well as a miss. 3 Place
rd
Pete Starley 64.54%

It is therefore crucial to not be tempted to take Modified Division
an additional shot if you miss. Simply shoot 1st Place James Harris 100%
once at each target, carefully and as quickly as 2 Place
nd
Colin Alden 98.55%
possible because it is still shot against the clock. 3 Place
rd
Keith Wilson 88.61%

There was also the use of a weak-hand stage. Standard Division
If you normally shoot with the gun in your right 1st Place Barry Sullivan 100%
shoulder, you must use shoot the whole stage 2 Place
nd
Dan Boswell 96.25%
with the gun in your left shoulder. Vice-versa if 3 Place
rd
Dave Dowding 95.38%
you are a left-handed shooter.
Standard Manual (pump) Division
This is one of those stages that few people 1st Place Ken Trail 100%
practice and thus are often missing out on 2 Place
nd
Walter Robinson 94.86%
the chance of a good score. I have lost 3 Place
rd
Brad Fox 81.02%
count of the times I hear a collective groan
at this type of stage (often from myself too!). The best novice trophy was won by Sam Taylor
with 60.78% - just, just beating Michael Siva
The match was shot over two days, giving the Jothy with 60.63%. Both shot in Standard Auto
time to run the shooters and range officers Division. Well done to all the winners.
through the nine stages. Shooters on the
Sunday had the better weather but everyone
who attended said how much they had enjoyed
the match. Range Masters were Martyn Spence
and Ken Trail and they would like to join Vanessa
and Kevin in thanking the range crew, build-
crews and everyone who supported the event.

The scores on the doors:

OpenDivision:

90 Target Shooter
Gallery Rifle & Pistol News

The edge of reason part 2 – Classic long Entering the data into the ballistics calculator
range gallery rifle gave the following bullet drops, velocity and
energy values, assuming a 50 metre zero:
Last time I looked at my strategy for the standard
100/200/300 yard GR Match shot at the annual The bullet drop at 300 yards required just over
Phoenix Meeting but, to make best use of the a ¼” rear sight adjustment (calculated using the
half day this match takes I intent to shoot it principle of congruent triangles –should have
twice and I have therefore entered the classic listened more closely when I was at school)
event in addition to the standard match. Much so no issue there then. A fine spring outing
has been said about the rifle specification for to Salisbury Plain Ranges demonstrated that
classic shooting and will be using my 24” Marlin at 100 and 200 yards the performance was
Cowboy, so no more about the rifle but what adequate so back to 300 yards.
about the round?
At the longest distance, the round would not
My Cowboy is chambered in 44 Magnum and hold a group, with several of the shots reporting
the rules require both rifle and ammunition to be making enlarged holes probably due to becoming
in the ‘spirit of the original’. The 44 Magnum unstable – back to the drawing board and not
is a relative newcomer introduced by Smith and much preparation time left!
Wesson in 1955, thus it is disqualified from the
classic critical date 1919. The round is permitted Pre 1919 High Velocity Loadings
so long as it is only loaded to 44 Special levels The principle of ‘spirit of the original’ is that of
and thus I went to the reloading manual and saw self regulation, the presumption being that the
that 9.9 grains of Vihtavouri N 350 behind a 200 competitor satisfies themselves that they are
grain bullet gave 1079 fps from handguns. using period equipment and unless challenged
by competitors or match officials, the rules rely
on individual integrity. I was tempted to buy a
So charged, I fire a ten shot group at 50 metres box of 44 Magnum FMJ, hope nobody noticed
from the rest and to my delight it gave a one hole and have done with it, the Magtech brand with
group, with only a single stray a few millimetres a 240 grain FMJ bullet gives in excess of 1600
away from the main event. Over the chronograph fps in the Marlin – but my conscience wouldn’t
it gave 1376 fps, a considerable increase on the stand it - then salvation, such a loading did exist
book value for handguns and thus was in danger before 1919.
of leading the barrel if it were not for the fact I
would only be shooting a maximum of 42 shots Winchester introduced a 44/40 WHV (for
for the entire match. Winchester High Velocity obviously) in 1903
for the stronger Winchester 1892 action rifle. It

Range Velocity Impact Energy

0 1376 -0.5 841
100 1069 -5.63 508
200 923 -41.07 378
300 829 -117.17 305
Target Shooter 91
 200 grain lead bullets - couldn’t hold a group
at 300 yards

pushed a 200 grain ‘metal patched’ bullet at 1500 looked slightly longer than the plain lead cast
fps, soon to be increased to 1570 fps in 1910. bullets that had proved unstable in previous
The UMC (Union Metallic Cartridge Company) trials. Comparing the 44/40 cartridge case
also introduced their version, headstamped with the modern 44 Magnum shows that they
PETERS and the HP designation at the higher are dimensionally very similar with the case-
1570 fps velocity. All boxes of these cartridges volume of the magnum being 39 grains of
were marked as not suitable for handguns and water, compared with the 40 grains of the older
1873 Winchester actions, but accidents must cartridge.
have happened as they were soon withdrawn My assertion therefore is that loading a 44
from sale. Magnum to near WHV velocities is entirely in
the ‘spirit of the original’ and having had success
What was ‘metal patched’ I hear you say? It with Vihtavouri N350 before I saw no reason to
turns out it merely meant ‘jacketed’. My search change, so having loaded a range of slightly
for a 200 grain FMJ in the UK was a failure and higher charges than before, I am off to the range
I had just about given up when I bumped into to conduct grouping and velocity test before my
Jonathan Avetoomayn (who shoots with the GB last long range opportunity in early May to see
Gallery Rifle Team) at the Spring Action Weekend if any of the new loads are 300 yard capable.
at Bisley. Jon produces specialist GR bullets I will report on my final load selection and my
under the brand name JAKA Precision and he performance at the Phoenix Meeting next time
agreed to make up some of his ‘Baseguard’ – see you there!
bullets at the appropriate weight. The bullets I would like to thank Jonathan Avetoomayn of
are a variation on the lead ‘gas-check’ design JAKA Precision for supplying a range of bullets
and they represent excellent value for money. for my test.
E-mail: jaka.precision@ntlworld.com for
details. Warning - the loads shown in this article
have proven to be safe in my firearms but
The literature that came with the bullets indicate it is recommended, in accordance with
that a baseguard bullet can be driven at 1400 good reloading practice, that you start 10%
fps without significant barrel fouling and they below the indicated loads and work up in

92 Target Shooter
A good 50 meter group does not always
convert into a good 300 yard one

Heavy FMJ and full house 44 Magnums not in

the spirit of the original

Target Shooter 93
 The excellent JAKA Precision baseguard
bullets

increments to the maximums given. For those who are able to stay until the Monday
morning you can come along to Melville Range
Forthcoming Events for the first of the annual 1500 International
All the fine spring weather has made it a pleasure Matches of 2011. The GB Gallery Rifle Team,
to get out and shoot and we can only hope that again Captained by Ashley Dagger, will be
the spell continues for the most important of taking on an even greater challenge this time
annual GR events the Phoenix Meeting to be round as there will be small bore and centrefire
held at the National Shooting Centre, Bisley matches shot shoulder to shoulder with the
from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th May. The NRA overseas teams from Ireland, Germany and this
Website describes the meeting thus: - year South Africa. Good luck to all the teams
I will be reporting on the outcome in the next
This multi-discipline meeting is a must for issue.
your shooting diary and has its roots in
pistol calibre firearms but there are also After the Phoenix the next classified match is
plenty of competitions for Black Powder, the Derby Open over the weekend of 25th/26th
Air and Fullbore from 15 yards right up June. This is an excellent well-run event with
to 1000 yards. This Meeting has over 75 an equally excellent prize table and I have no
competitions to enter, giving you enough hesitation in recommending this meeting - first
chances to earn yourself one of the much timers can be assured of a warm welcome.
sought after Grandmaster Medals. In
addition to the shooting, there is the Arms As usual, full details of forthcoming events are
Fair held in the Bisley Pavilion. available on www.galleryrifle.com

I would just say that it is the ‘must do’ Bisley

event of the year.

94 Target Shooter
 A regular column whereby Ken Hall keeps us up to date
with black powder cartridge rifle shooting in the UK.

QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION - firers engage a bucket silhouette at 400 yds and
ANNUAL TEAM BUFFALO CHALLENGE - a ¾ size buffalo at 600 yds, which is fired at
23/24th April Diggle Ranges and the other, the Team Buffalo
Challenge is fired at Bisley ranges in Surrey.
The Quigley Shooting Association (QSA),
the Single Shot Black Powder Cartridge Rifle On the Friday before the shoot, Dave Malpas
Club of Great Britain (SSBPCRCGB) and The and I made the journey to Bisley, arriving in good
Yorkshire Buffalo Hunters (YBH) compete in time to allow for a leisurely tour of the camp and
two team competitions each year. One is the check out the Lord Robert’s Centre. Being Good
Team Steel Challenge, in which the teams of six Friday, the NRA and the traders were closed so

Co organizer Carole Silver checks the scoring

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 looking quite respectable.
John Ellins original Alexander Henry .45-100 from
1870
The SSBPCRCGB were ahead on 418
points, the YBH on 394 as and the
QSA on 368 as we adjourned for lunch.

After lunch and after some spending

with the traders, it was down to the 600
yard firing-point on Century range. The
course of fire is the same but on the
standard buffalo target, which looks a
lot smaller from back here. The wind
at Diggle can be very trying but we
were expecting nothing more than
a simple crosswind to contend with.
Some hope! The wind was just as
unpredictable here on the flat as up in
the Pennines! Add to that a heat haze
and barrel fouling, scores inevitably
began to suffer.

Carl Hanson of the YBH and Mark

Silver of the SSBPCRCGB managed
the best scores of the afternoon with 77
and 69 respectively bringing the final
scores to 707 for the SSBPCRCGB,
648 for the YBH and 624 for the QSA.

John Gilpin presented Steve Bonfield

with the truly unique trophy, aptly titled
‘The Buffalo Challenge’. Certificates
The scorers bench went to the top three scorers, Carl
Hanson on 162 points, Mark Silver
we were unable to spend any cash in the shops on 156 and Steve Bonfield with 153
but we did manage to soak up some rays and points. All firers received a commemorative
down a few beers with friends. certificate and medal. Thanks are due to all
the team members who made the day so
On Saturday morning the teams made
their way to Short Siberia for the first John presents the Buffalo Challenge
stage of the competition. This consists trophy to steve Bonfield
of 20 shots to count at 200 yards on a
very realistic and anatomically correct
image of a buffalo - facing head on at
a three-quarter angle. Sadly this year,
due to the unexpected unavailability
of many key firers, the QSA and
the SSBPCRC were unable to field
full teams. However, competition
organiser, John Gilpin, decided that
all who attended would shoot but
only the top five scores would count
towards the team result. At the end of
the morning’s shooting, scores were

96 Target Shooter
 Top scorer Carl Hanson collects his
certificate from comp organiser John
Gilpin

enjoyable, especially to John and Carole Silver ubiquitous.

for organising the event and making it run so
smoothly. Possibly due to the previous day’s downpour, a
field of only 13 black powder firers assembled
THE QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION. at 400yds for stage 1, which as usual consisted
APRIL QUIGLEY COMPETITION. of two sighters and fifteen shots to score at the
Quigley bucket. Most managed scores in the
Saturday 2nd April, a dullish, mainly dry morn- 40’s, but Dave Malpas was on a roll and hit 13
ing, followed by some clearer skies in the after- buckets, going in to lunch with 67 points against
noon, of course the snaking Diggle wind was nearest rival Dennis Richardson with 54 points.
After lunch, stage 2 was the
Winner and Runner up Dave Malpas and buffalo silhouette at 600 yds
Steve Maris and top scorer on this stage
was Richard Healey with 55
points followed closely by
Steve Maris with 51 points.

The final scores were as fol-

lows.

Pos. Shooter. Score.

1. Dave Malpas 111

2. Steve Maris 94
3. Dennis Richardson 91

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 Next time in.....

The June 2011 issue will be out at the beginning of the month. Lots of follow up articles, new
reviews, news and as ever packed with the articles you want to read. Watch out for new formats of the
magazine, as we are ever developing to bring you the best of all Target Shooting Sports.

98 Target Shooter