More news, reviews and information at your fingertips

July 2010 Issue

Mini Rifle Targets

and Handloading
Equipment
Target Shooter 1
Make your own windflags – Part 2 • Air Action Shooting • New Products • and lots More…..
2 Target Shooter
 The Ultimate
Visual Experience

Premium Target Optics

for Dynamic Hunting
The new riflescope line made in Germany by Carl Zeiss stands for
uncompromising ruggedness, precision in optics and mechanics as well
as ultimate functional safety. Modern multi-layer coatings provide
outstanding image quality and brightness up to the smallest detail.
Duralyt stands up to the test when used in the field offering professional,
The new basic riflescope line by Carl Zeiss - experienced and young hunters three riflescopes at an affordable price:
with distinctive design and dark grey matt finish. 1.2 - 5 x 36, 2 - 8 x 42 and 3 - 12 x 50.

New: Duralyt Riflescopes

www.zeiss.de/sportsoptics

Target Shooter 3
Welcome to the July Issue......................

.......of Target Shooter

Sections
21 Front Rests - the Top
Ten by Vince Bottomley 6 Shooting Sport News

8 Shooters Calendar

10 Support Shooting Sports

12 Ghost International by
30 DIY Windflags David Thompson
Part Deux
by Carl Boswell 17 Shooting Black Powder
Pistol by Chris Risebrook

36 GBR Project Rifle by Vince

Bottomley

49 Shooting & Reloading 42 I Phone Scope Reference

.303 MkVII Bullets by by John Campbell-Smith

Nigel Greenaway 45 Mobile Devices - PDF

Veiwers by Carl Boswell
54 WMS Steel Challenge
Part 2 by Nigel Greenaway
70 Mini Rifle Turning
57 Handloading ‘Old Faithful’
Targets by Tim Finley the .308 equipment by
Laurie Holland

66 The Great Diggle Egg

Shoot by Vince Bottomley

76 Gun of the Month -

building a rimfire BR LV
80 Natural Aiming rifle by Andy Dubreuil
Point (NAP)
74 This Smallbore Business
by Don Brook by Don Brook

84 Profile on Dave Caughey

by Hayley Platts

93 Club Review
87 Pheonix
Meeting 2010 by 108 Letters
Gwyn Roberts
109 Advertisers Index

4 Target Shooter
 Association Pages
95 UKBRA

97 UKBR22 Editor(s).
Carl Boswell and Vince Bottomley
99 F- Class Advertising and Office Manager
email; [email protected]
101 Quigley Association Contributors
Vince Bottomley Tony Saunders Tim Finley
103 Gallery Rifle Laurie Holland Chris Risebrook Carl Boswell
Don Brook Alan Whittle Nigel Greenaway
104 UKPSA Gwyn Roberts Ken Hall Les Holgate
Hayley Platts David Thompson John Campbell-Smith

Webitorial - July 2010

This magazine deliberately opted not to comment on last month’s tragic events in Cumbria. We
are a target shooting magazine pure and simple and although the individual involved was a legal
keeper of firearms, he was not a target shooter and neither were his weapons target firearms.

However, we have been approached by the media and others but rather than attempt to write
something, I would refer readers to the excellent piece on the Cybershooters website at
http://www.cybershooters.org/june_2010.htm and also the NRA website at www.nra.org.uk

I will end by saying that we at Target Shooter magazine are shocked by these events and we
extend our deepest and sincere sympathy to the victims and all those affected by this tragedy.

Until next month. Vince, Carl & Andy

Carl Boswell - [email protected] and Vince Bottomley - [email protected] and

Andy Dubreuil - [email protected] 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
New 7.62mm Rifle Enters British Military Service suppressor come sound moderator adaptor. Specified
An optically sighted 7.62mm semi-auto precision rifle performance is 1-MOA grouping ability using standard
designated the L129A1 ‘Sharpshooter’ is entering service 7.62mm ball ammunition allied to an 800 metre hit
in Afghanistan in the hands of selected marines serving capability on a person sized target in the hands of a
with 40 Commando as this issue goes to press. Target- suitably skilled user. Sights are a 6X48 Trijicon ACOG
Shooter understands that 440 examples were procured incorporating a no-battery fibre-optic illuminated BDC
from the Lewis Machine & Tool Co. (LMT) of Milan, Illinois chevron form reticle, no doubt influenced by its currently
as an ‘Urgent Operational Requirement’ and delivered in being procured for 7.62mm L7A1 GP machineguns. The
January for infantry use with the Army and Royal Marines. photograph of the rifle shows a holographic sight has
The L129A1 will not replace any existing weapons been installed on top of the ACOG, presumably for street
according to the MoD, 7.62mm L96 (Accuracy fighting and snap shooting. KAC fold-down backup iron
International PM and AW) sniper rifles continuing in sights have also been fitted to the upper rail at British
service. LMT beat off competition from FN-Herstal, request. In line with the precision shooting role, it has been
Sabre Defence Industries, and Heckler & Koch, a major fitted with a trigger assembly providing crisp operation
achievement for this minnow amongst these large and a low (by military standards) 4.5lb pull-weight. The
international arms manufacturers. Despite regular rifle is supplied in a Pelican hard case complete with
criticisms of MoD weapons procurement seen here, the ACOG, eight KAC 20-round magazines, Dewey and Otis
specification, tendering and testing processes, as well cleaning tools, barrel-change driver, and bipod.
as value for money obtained
and short timescales, have British practice with this
been described as ‘model’ by rifle varies from that of the
American commentators. US Squad Designated
Marksman programme in the
British forces have adopted choice of barrel length and
American practice which optics, the longer American
sees a modified version of M110 fitted with a higher
the Knight’s Armament Co magnification S&B or
(KAC) SR25 rifle widely Leupold, while the British
issued as the M110 SASS to rifle is a handier, more flexible
designated marksmen at package that does the same
squad level to bridge the jobs as the SA80 series rifle
longstanding gap between in addition to the sniping role,
the skills and equipment of riflemen armed with 5.56mm recoil and full-auto fire issues aside. The rifle suggests
individual weapons and more rigorously selected and significant changes in British military thought, primarily the
trained snipers with long-range bolt-action rifles. As final abandonment of sole concentration on the 5.56mm
with the KAC SR25/M110, it is a ‘big AR’ in its looks, NATO cartridge purely for logistical considerations. The
straight-line layout, and controls, retaining the Stoner bolt value of improved individual shooting skills and kit in the
locking and piston-less operating systems. However, LMT wars we’re now fighting has been recognised, albeit given
has made improvements to Stoner’s work, primarily in the absence of the close cooperation between service
its ‘Monolithic Rail Platform’ (MRP). This is a one-piece and civilian target shooting communities that has proven
upper receiver and forend/handguard assembly machined invaluable to such developments in the USA, one
from a solid aluminium alloy billet to provide a single-piece suspects this belated conversion on the road to
integral M1913 specification sights/accessory rail running Damascus is only partial. Likewise, the (literal) bankruptcy
along the entire component; a fully free-floating barrel; of deploying precision munitions to deal with any threat
a QD barrel change system that allows removal and more significant than AK47 users is addressed, 7.62mm
replacement in around two minutes using a small LMT- cartridges costing pennies in the hands of a good shot
supplied driver/ torque wrench. As with other square with an accurate rifle replacing ‘chucking a Porsche’
section tactical front-ends, the MRP has M1913 (firing a missile costing many thousands of pounds) at
(‘Picatinny’) rails machined into all four surfaces for small groups of insurgents harassing British positions
multiple accessory attachment including a bipod and with a mortar or machinegun. Finally, although the MoD
various grip designs. LMT has also installed its ergonomic insists that no existing weapons are superseded, the
pistol grip and ‘SOPMOD’ telescopic buttstock on misbegotten heavy-barrel L86A2 Light Support Weapon
the L129A1, both favourites with US special forces’ member of the SA80 family is now deservedly redundant
personnel. given its reclassification as a ‘long-range rifle’ after failing
The L129A1 has a 16” match quality 1-11.25” twist rate abysmally in the light machinegun role and replacement
barrel with a recessed and tapered crown, the muzzle by the FN Minimi.
fitted at MoD request with an existing British flash
6 Target Shooter
Challenge shoot details All sighters will be convertible under NRA rules.
This shoot is open to all members of the Eagles Rifle There will be no warm up shots or ‘zero’ shots.
and Pistol Club and Note! Ammunition will not be issued by Eagle Rifle &
any shooter who holds both a valid FAC & Shooter Pistol Club.
Certificate. A commemorative medal will be issued to each
No entry fee but sponsorship is requested!! participant
Th shoot will be held at 300 & 600 yards, on Century At the end of the shoot, each shooters sponsor form
range Bisley. will be marked to confirm the number of shots fired and
Shooting will be from 08.30 to 17.30 (Lunch 12.30 – the score obtained.
13.30) Once each shooter has collected the monies stated on
Shooters will be squaded in pairs or threes. their sponsor form please can you send both the form
Targets will be standard NRA targets for the above and money to –
distances.. Mr Ian Wild
The shoot will consist of two sighters and ten shots to 39 Camelot Gardens, Sutton-On-Sea, Lincolnshire,
count at each distance. LN12 2HP.
Scoring will be a total possible of 100 points + V-bulls. Please make cheques payable to – Eagle Charity
Total rounds required 24!!! Shoot
All shots will be marked and scored back.

New from RWS! It also has a classic design chequered ambidextrous

The RWS LR-20 - multi-shot PCP Air Rifle – Carbine stock with rosewood capping, in beech or quality
Version! walnut.
This new RWS Carbine, the LR-20, has been 8 shot magazine, cylinder pressure gauge and
specially designed with advice from expert airgun threaded for a sound moderator – a truly versatile
shooters and like its larger counterpart – the LR- rifle.Reviews of the LR-25 are excellent and we are
25, is a UK made Air rifle featuring the unique sure the LR-20 will quickly follow suit!
ambidextrous bolt which can be easily changed from RRP start at £670.00 Contact RUAG Ammotec UK
right to left hand at any time. Ltd for more information. [email protected]

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.
5 to 6 July F Class League (National Shooting 15 July to 25 July NRA Imperial Meeting - Target
Centre (NSC), Bisley) Rifle Events (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Contact(s): Mik Maksimovic Bisley). Individual and team competitions for
Target Rifle discipline. Starting with warm-up
5 to 6 July MLAGB Pedersoli Challenge matches on Friday and Saturday, the Grand
(Wedgenock, Warwickshire) Aggregate begins with the Daily Telegraph
An Open Competition for pistol, rifle and musket. competition on the Saturday afternoon.
Contact(s): David Spittles Entry forms will be available in February 2010.
7 to 26 July NRA Imperial Meeting (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) Karen Robertson at the NRA
NRA Imperial Meeting. This series of matches
16 July Wind Coaching Course (National Shoot-
is divided up into disciplines with competitions
ing Centre (NSC), Bisley)
for Service Rifle, Civilian Service Rifle, Cadets,
Short wind coaching course.
Historic Arms, Schools, Gallery Rifle and Pistol,
Match Rifle and Target Rifle. It finishes on the
Contact(s): Phyllis Farnan via the NRA
26th July with the Queens Final followed by Prize
Giving.
17 July to 23 July NRA Imperial Meeting - F
Contact(s): NRA Imperial Meeting Class Rifle Events (National Shooting Centre
(NSC), Bisley) Individual and team competitions
26th July- 6th August Rimfire and Air Rifle for F Class Rifle competitors. Starting with
Benchrest European Championships 2010. Plzen warm-up matches on Friday and Saturday. F
in the Czech Republic - http://www.erabsf.org Class International team match and individual
finals on the following Friday. Karen Robertson
at the NRA
3 Aug Highpower Rifle Association Match
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) 21 Aug 5th Historic Breech Loading Loading
80 round XTC. Details can be found by clicking Competition (Battle Hill, Co Durham)
on the links below.
http://www.highpowerrifle.co.uk Download Entry Form
Contact(s): Highpower Rifle Match Entries http://www.consetthistoricrifleclub.co.uk
Contact Griff Elliott
28 to 29 Aug Gallery Rifle National
Championships (National Shooting Centre (NSC). 22 Aug HBSA Open Long Range Classic &
Some of the events being shot are 1500, Bianchi Veteran Championships (National Shooting
Match, Timed & Precision 1, 2 and 3, Multi-Target, Centre (NSC), Bisley) AM 900, PM 1000: classes
Precision at 25 and 50, Phoenix A, for Classic (pre-1919) and Veteran (pre-1946)
Advancing Target and Speed Steel Challenge. rifles, including Service, Sniper, Match and Target
Contact Brian Thomas Rifles and for Post-Veteran Early 7.62mm Target
Rifles. Contact Mark Hodgins
27 to 29th Aug - UK National Rimfire and Air Rifle
Championship - held at Paul Lane Rifle and Pistol 28 Aug to 29 Aug Welsh Open (National
Club. Cotact via the UKBR22 website Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
http://www.benchrest22.org The Welsh Open will be held on 28 - 30 August
with the traditional Queens 1,2 & 3 format starting
26 Sep Somerset SBSA – Open Shoot. (Rifle) on Saturday lunchtime plus a match rifle
Long Ashton Ranges. Tel. 01275 836442. Email. competition on the Monday morning.
[email protected] http://www.welshra.com
Contact(s): LouLou Brister
1-3 October: Field Target World Championship,
Hungary more details: http://www.fieldtarget.hu/ 11 Sep NRA Open Day (National Shooting
ftob2010 Centre (NSC), Bisley)
more info:[email protected] Contact Libby Gendall via the NRA

8 Target Shooter
 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 [email protected]
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.

Welcome to GT Shooting.
The premier shooting sports shop in Surrey

Fullbore & .22LR Optics

Black Power Ammunition
Air Rifles and Pistols Reloading equipment
Used rifles and Pistols and more...

Our premises are located at

53 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Surrey, CR5 2RB
www.gtshooting.co.uk

Tel: 020 8660 6843

Fax: 020 8660 6843
We are conveniently situated near the M23 & M25.Shooter
Target 9
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am - 5.30pm
 ‘Supporting Shooting Sports’
An introduction to Iron Plate Action Shooting
After the handgun ban, many practical shooters took In any given event there are a number of ‘stages’
up other disciplines or bailed out of the shooting - each stage is a different array of five steel plates
circuit all together. A few however wanted to try fixed to a wooden stand approximately one metre
to re-create the excitement of Practical Pistol off the ground. The plates vary in size from 8”x 8” to
competitions with the equipment that was legally 24”x 12”. One of the five plates is painted a different
available. colour to the other four (usually yellow or red) and
There were two options, either Airsoft replica this is known as the STOP plate. The stop plate must
imitation firearms or Co2 multi shot air pistols. It be engaged last.
became apparent quite quickly that the Airsoft
guns lent themselves perfectly to IPSC Practical The shooter begins by standing in the ‘box’ facing
Shooting and the more powerful Co2 multi shot air down range, the instruction from the Range Officer is
pistol (with some tuning) were perfect for Iron Plate given “Load and make ready” ……..the gun is loaded
Action Shooting (IPAS) the UK version of ‘Steel and holstered and the shooters hands are in the
Challenge’ as it is known around the world. ‘surrender’ position - the shooter is ready.
The RO, with shot timer in hand, gives the command,
IPAS is the fastest growing sport for Co2 multishot “Shooter, are you ready?”……. “Stand by”…….the
air pistols in the UK; it is extremely exciting and has shot timer is engaged and the shooter waits for the
an extensive competition circuit with events taking inventible “beep” to sound……as it does he goes
place throughout the year across the country in to action, the shooter engages four plates in any
culminating in the National Championships held order he chooses and then the stop plate. A good
November of each year time is around 3 seconds!
The shooter gets five ‘runs’ on each stage with his
The object of the sport is very simple - shoot fast and worst time being discarded, so there is only one
don’t miss! ‘throw away’ the other runs must count.

10 Target Shooter
At the end of the stage the RO gives the command to shooters, keen not to be left behind in the wake of
unload and show clear - the gun is re-holstered and his continued success asked if they too could have
the next competitor is called to the line. guns modified for them and so Action Air Shooting
The times for each shooter for each stage are added came into being.
together and the competitor with the fastest overall
time wins….simple! At present Action Air Shooting offers two types of
Co2 pistol with various optional extras available.
Safety, as always, is a number one priority and the The Colt 1911A1 SuperSpeed & the Smith Ultralite
IPAS association are very proud of its 100% safety Revolver. There are two divisions, Open (with
record. It is very simple to set up, all you need optics) and Standard (iron sights) and both guns are
are five steel plates on suitable stands, a decent available for either division.
multi-shot air pistol, safety glasses (worn at ALL Every gun is built to order (so there is a waiting
times whilst on the range) and a shot timer. list) and each has between 8 and 11 hours of
A small amount of space is required and cardboard gunsmithing before it is ready. Many custom parts
can be used for backstops, the .177 lead pellet are fitted as standard, such as the lightweight
simply falls to the ground after impacting with the aluminum shrouds for the revolvers which are 55%
steel plates but not before sounding a very satisfying lighter than the original part. For speed shooting
‘ding’. this lightened front end allows for an even faster
IPAS is an inclusive sport, with men and women, draw and target acquisition. The gun is lighter whilst
young and old from all walks of life taking part. It is retaining its potency, this combined with a fully tuned
fun, fast, competitive and above all it doesn’t cost a trigger makes for an outstanding performance. The
fortune to do. customer can choose a variety of options such as
The Action Air Shooting company was borne out double-action only , ‘bobbed’ hammer even the
of desire to obtain, produce and provide the best trigger-guards can be machined so they can be
possible equipment for the sport of competition IPAS use with a speed holster, such as those from Ghost
for those who wanted to compete at a serious level. International or Safariland.
The gunsmith at STC - himself a very accomplished The attention to detail, the finish and the overall
IPAS competitor - spent years fine-tuning and performance of an STC Custom Air Pistol from
increasing the performance of his own gun, a Co2 Action Air Shooting is vastly superior to that of an
Colt 1911 A1 air pistol from German manufactures ordinary ‘off the shelf’ air pistol. A truly bespoke
Umarex and this gave him a clear advantage. Other piece of kit these guns are supplied with a unique

Target Shooter 11
build number, chronograph reading to show the new to firearms keen to learn good gun control and
average FPS of each gun, a 10m benchrest test- gun safety in a controlled environment both benefit
target to show accuracy and Cordura double gun from an STC Co2 Air Pistol.
bag. If there was a better made Co2 multi shot air pistol
STC guns can are also ideal as a training aid for available anywhere else in the world we’d use it!
users of real firearms outside of the United For further details full please contact us at info@
Kingdom. Seasoned shooters looking for a cost actionairshooting.org
effective training system or instructors with students

12 Target Shooter
 Ghost International by David Thompson

Ghost International Limited came about as the result Sandro is one of Italy’s highly regarded gunsmiths
of the cooperation between three individuals who for both IPSC as well for Special Operations Units
had a visionary goal to develop one company that throughout Europe. Over the years he has invented
would combine the civilian sport shooting world most of the products to come from Ghost
with duty equipment that was suitable for both law International.
enforcement and military units. They believe that the
combination and mix of knowledge and experience Roberto Amadini is the owner of Ghost International.
of both these worlds would assist in delivering He is an experienced shooter and range officer for
the perfect end result in each product they both IPSC and IDPA. His ties with both the IPSC
manufactured. world and with law enforcement and the military
enables Ghost to trial their products in the field.
Since 1975 Sandro Amadini has been the owner of
Amadini Custom, one of the leading manufacturers Marco Pescarolo is the owner of Pieffemme, which
of IPSC belts, holsters and magazine pouches. is a factory specialising in producing injection

Target Shooter 13
Ghost also make a
competition holster for Smith The revolver holster offers all
and Wesson K, L and N frame the same advantages as their
revolvers competition pistol holsters

moulded ABS parts for European companies such Ghost Competition Holster
as Porsche and Alfa Romeo. This factory has a Practical pistol competition shooting has lead to
Computer Aided Design – Computer Aided the development of holsters whose task is to both
Manufacturing ( CAD-CAM ) unit capable of securely hold the pistol and also allow the shooter to
transferring designs into finished parts. present the pistol to the target in the least amount of
Ghost International is an Italian company, which time possible. A holster that is gaining in popularity,
was officially founded in 2004 after years of product which is designed to securely hold, and then present
research and development. In the late 1990’s plans the pistol to the target in the shortest time possible
were already made for the founding of the company is the Ghost Holster. This rig offers you a positive
and both modular and rotation holster and magazine locking mechanism to keep the pistol securely in the
pouch systems were patented. Fine tuning of the holster. The rig also is a lightweight design that will
products was undertaken with close cooperation not weigh you down an already heavy gun belt.
with top IPSC competitors and various police and This holster comes in several different configurations
military user groups. to suit various makes of pistol. It has a black carbon
In 2004 Ghost launched their modular holster system fibre body and is attached to your belt with a high
which caused a revolutionary turn in the building of impact black plastic clip by tightening down on four
holster systems worldwide. All major holster builders hex head bolts. The holster comes complete with an
followed soon with comparable systems. Ghost then instructional manual and two Allen wrenches, with
gave the holster a rotation system for use in vehicles which to attach the holster to your belt and also to
and motorcycles. Again, the rest of the field followed. adjust its height and angle of rake.
Ghost is now an accredited ISO9001 quality This holster has a specifically shaped wedge is
certified company and as of 2005 most of their used to secure the trigger guard. The holster can be
products now has a NATO Stock Number ( NSN ). attached to a belt that is no more than 37 mm ( 1.5
Ghost has the flexibility to use their basic items and inches ) wide using the supplied Allen wrench. The
make changes to them in order to make specialised holster is then adjusted into a position to suit the
products to suit customer needs. user by loosening the various locking screws with
the second Allen wrench. Remember to retighten
them all after you have finished making your
adjustments. In the holstered position the pistol
should not be pointing at your leg or foot. There are
four axes of adjustment to get the perfect position
for the user.

Using the Ghost

Over the past few years I have tested out the Ghost
holster using various CZ, Glock, Grand Power,
Sphinx and STI pistols and Smith and Wesson
Two types of magnetic magazine pouch are made,
revolvers. With the rig unlocked the pistol can be
a magnet on its own and a magazine pouch with a
magnet attached to the front of the pouch. lifted cleanly and presented to the target. I tried

14 Target Shooter
 One of the most popular holsters on the IPSC release lever will fall naturally under your thumb. The
competition circuit, the Ghost holster has an release lever is rotated upwards to lock it, preventing
unlocked position and two locked positions when the pistol from being drawn. The release lever can
the pistol is inserted into it
be pushed forwards and down with your thumb.
This will disengage the wedge that locks the trigger
guard. The pistol can now be drawn from the
holster and presented to the target. Initially practice
with a pistol which you have confirmed is unloaded to
become familiar with this holsters system of
operation. The tactical thigh rig ( TTR ) is secured
to your belt at waist lever via an adjustable web
strap. Two cordura straps are placed around the
upper thigh and locked in place with plastic locking
clips. The holster locates on the TTR via a modular
keyway. Press down the button on the outside of the
holster and slide the holster along the keyway until it
locks in place.
Two belt systems are supplied with the holster;
some rapid turns and jumps and disengaged the a waist belt and drop belt that positions the pistol
locking mechanism to draw when I had completed lower and away from the body for use with Level IV
these movements. The time required to draw and tactical armour. The holster is attached using the
fire was faster than anything I have used previously. same modular keyway. Both have slots through
The pistol is securely locked in the holster when it which to thread a belt. Also supplied is a modular
needs to be and can then be presented in a quick attachment for the holster that can be screwed onto
smooth draw upon demand. As well as being used any flat surface. This allows the holstered pistol to
with bullet firing pistols the Ghost can also be used be positioned under a counter, in a vehicle, boat or
with air soft pistols. Practice, training and familiarity aeroplane. Each adoption system allows the holster
are mandatory with the use of this or any other to be rotated and locked at a specific angle, thus
holster. Do not use a loaded pistol during this increasing its versatility. To go along with the Ghost
training and familiarity period. Practice with an III there are also matching magazine pouches and
unloaded pistol until you are completely competent belts. All items are available in black, green and
in its safe use. white colours.

Ghost III Tactical Thigh Holster New Products

As a further development in their line of holsters Ghost have reciently intruduced a concealable
Ghost have developed a duty holster suitable for holster, which is for the Glock 17/22 9mm and .40
law enforcement and military use. This one holster S&W pistol. Made from the same tough materials
can be used as a tactical thigh holster, belt holster they use in their other holsters it would be very
with Level IV tactical body armour and as a standard suitable for plain clothed work and also very
belt holster. The Ghost III has been designed for law suitable for those who use Glocks in IPSC
enforcement and military use. Particular attention Production Division and IDPA competition. Initially
has been given to the safety systems and to the available for the Glock 17/22, Ghost intend to
choice of quality materials to give a long lasting produce it for other makes of pistol as well. Another
product to combine reliability with comfort. The new product is a magazine pouch that uses a
fixing of the holster group to different modules allows magnet instead of a convensional box into which
the user to always have the same grasp on the the magazine. This was designed for stages in IPSC
pistol and the same safety systems. The fixing competition where you start with an empty pistol and
system of the holster body to different modules is all magazines position on a table. On the start signal
also very practical and secure. you grab the pistol, load it and shove the aditional
Ghost has taken the locking mechanism from their magazines into the magazine pouches, which is time
competition holster and has further developed it to consuming. With the magnetic magazine pouch you
produce this duty holster. The holster is molded to simply slap the spare magazine against the magnet,
a specific pistol type, which in this case is the Glock which is much faster. Two versions are available;
17. When the pistol is inserted into the holster a a magnet on its own or a conventional magazine
wedge locks into the trigger guard. This, combined pouch with a magnet attached to the outside of it.
with the molded shape of the holster securely retains
the pistol. The author is a competitor on the European IPSC
As you grasp the pistol with you dominant hand the competition circuit. www.practicalhandgun.com

Target Shooter 15
 Tel/Fax 01722782432
Email; [email protected]/ Website; www.westlakeengineering.com

The Taurus ML Revolver is converted from a Taurus .357 Magnum Long Barrelled Revolver.
The cylinder is removed and a Yoke extension fitted, this contains the spring loaded
plunger that frees the action when the yoke is closed. As this extension cannot be removed,
it prevents the re-fitting of the original cylinder. The Barrel is shortened to approximately 5
¼ inches and the wristbrace is removed.
A new cylinder is made which has pockets for shotgun primers at the rear with a small
flash hole through into the chamber at the front. The chamber is made to accept .357” lead
wadcutter bullets. The conversion of your pistol costs £330.00. Extra Cylinders are £180.00
each. If you do not have a pistol I can order a new pistol from the Importers.

16 Target Shooter
 Shooting the Black Powder Pistol
Part 7

by Chris Risebrook
Another diversion this month into the realm of manufacturers made imitations under such names
derringers. A natural successor to the muff pistol, the as Beringer, Heringer, Derrringer et alia.
derringer was the brainchild of Henry Deringer (one The pistol really came to fame (?) in 1865 when
“r”) who began his career in 1806 in Philadelphia Lincoln was assassinated with one of Henr’ys
making muskets for the government through his pistols. Lincoln’s physician said the pistol had
friendship with General Andrew Jackson. However, the word “Derringer” marked on it. In fact he had
his name is synonymous with the large calibre misspelt it, but from that point on, all such pistols
(usually .41) short barrelled muzzle loading pistols became known as Derringers and the word entered
which he started making around 1825. So successful the dictionary accordingly. Although an early convert
was this genre of pistol that competing to percussion, Deringer never adopted breech

Pic 1

Target Shooter 17
 Pic 2

loading, but William H. Elliott, a Remington now obsolete cartridge which was originally loaded
employee patented the double barrelled derringer with 13.5 grains of black powder with a 130 grain
shown in photo 1 in 1865. Like most breech heeled bullet. Later smokeless loads produced about
loading derringers, it is chambered for .41 rimfire, a 100 ft. Ibs. Although generally considered pretty

Pic 3

Pic 9

18 Target Shooter
 gutless, both presidents Garfield and McKinley were 1910, and Remington Arms UMC Co. * 1910-1935,
assassinated with 41s, so they could not have been after the acquisition of the Union Metallic Cartridge
all that bad. The pistol itself was produced from 1866 Co. Both the photo 2 guns are 1910-1935. There is
to 1935 with very few alterations, which is curious some barrel wear on the blue gun, probably due to
since it has an inherent weakness - the hinge, which lack of cleaning after using black powder cartridges,
for some reason was never reinforced The guns but there is no sign of wear or even use, on the
shown in photo 2 are unusual in that the hinges are chrome gun. Apart from some lurid tales of the gold
not cracked, but a great many guns do display a rush and wild west eras involving southern belles,
crack, usually on the left hand side. About 250,000 ladies of easy virtue, and Mississippi riverboat
of these pistols were made in their near 70 year gamblers, in practice the majority of these guns
production run, so they are not scarce, even this probably saw little, if any use. Bearing in mind that
side of the pond; but prices of good examples, they were not intended to be used at more than card
particularly with intact hinges are getting silly. table ranges, it is surprising that they bothered to
Although no longer produced by Remington, the incorporate such luxuries as sights, or even rifling.
design is still produced today, but not in 41 calibre. Photo 3 shows a pretty pair of Colt Thuer No.3
Several companies in America make these guns derringers, also in .41 rimfire - Thuer invented the
-with reinforced hinges - in a plethora of calibres up ejector mechanism. These pistols were originally
to 45 Colt, and sometimes well beyond. Versions made by the National Arms Company, subsequently
have even been made in 45-70 - Ouch! The pistols bought out by Colt, and production ran from 1875 to
bear numbers under the barrel and duplicates on the 1912. They do not have the hinge weakness of the
frame, but these are not serial numbers, but more Remington, but, of course, they are only single shot.
parts batch numbers. I had assumed that if these Back in the 1960s, Colt made .22 versions of these
numbers matched, it would indicate the barrels and guns in various finishes, including matched pairs of
frame belonged together and were not a marriage, lord and lady derringers - gold plated and with walnut
but the difference in the degree of wear in the and pearl stocks respectively. Unfortunately, these
plating of barrels and frame of the gun shown in charming little artifacts are now forbidden to us but
photo 2 makes me wonder if this is so. Dating is at least we can have the original .41s as curios,
usually by the legend on the barrels; E. Remington although the prices will make your eyes water!
& Son = 1865-1888, Remington Arms Co. = 1888-

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Tel: 0161 430 8278 or 07941 958464
PUTTING SHOOTING FIRST

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Target Shooter 19
20 Target Shooter
Front Rests – the Top Ten!

by Vince Bottomley
Above - World F Class Champion, Gary Costello uses a Farley Co-axial – say no more!
Last month, we had a look at back-bags – for so do you really need one? The only advantage
benchrest competition and F Class shooting. of the co-axial is speed – if you need to shoot fast,
Following our video report on the new SEB rest – consider a co-axial. In benchrest, we are always
the Neo – in our March issue, we were accused trying to ‘beat’ the wind – get off our five shots for
of something akin to a ‘sales-pitch’ rather than an group before the wind changes. With a co-axial,
unbiased review. Ouch! there is just one movement to get back on aim
That comment came from one who signs himself but with the tripod there are two – windage and
‘Tag’ on the UK 22 Benchrest Directory forum and he elevation and those two adjuster knobs are not
also challenged us to carry out an unbiased review to hand – unlike the joystick. Also the joystick is
of the top ten front rests for benchrest and F Class particularly handy if you need to drop down to the
competition. sighter-card to check out a wind-change. It’s just
Unbiased? OK, I’ll try but I must emphasise that a few seconds - rather than a frantic knob-winding
these are my personal opinions, so that in itself is exercise.
a bias. However, I can state that no one has given If you shoot benchrest for score – i.e. firing one shot
me a free rest and no one is paying me to say nice at each target rather than shooting a five-shot group,
things about their product. Hopefully, no one will be then speed is not so important and personally,
suing me after reading my comments! I wouldn’t be bothered with a joystick – get a good,
I have not actually used all the rests reviewed but solid tripod rest. Although the F Classers don’t
I’ve seen them all ‘in the flesh’ so to speak and had a need to shoot quickly, it’s very difficult to reach the
play with them and maybe shot the odd group. Some windage and elevation adjusters on a tripod rest
I have owned and used in benchrest competition from the prone position and the co-axial rest places
for many years and I currently have a modified the joystick knob just a couple of inches from the
Cicognani (with a heavier base) for 100/200 yard trigger – very convenient and probably why you see
benchrest and a mk1 SEB for 600/1000 yard more co-axials in F Class than benchrest! Of course,
benchrest. I have also used the SEB for F Class the F Classer’s grassy platform is nowhere near
competition. as stable as a concrete bench-top so, even if you
Co-axial or tripod? do persevere with a conventional tri-pod rest, you
Before we get into the ‘meat’ of this article, perhaps will still need to ‘manipulate’ the back-bag for fine
we should say a little about the two basic types of adjustment and hold onto it whilst you take the shot.
front ‘machine’ rest – the tripod and the co-axial (or A joystick is much easier.
joystick) rest. The co-axials are more expensive, Incidentally, there are two ways to shoot a co-axial.

Target Shooter 21
 The Sinclair Rest. www.sinclairintl.
com This rest is very similar to the
Hart and, like the Hart, it has grown
over the years. It’s quite heavy (a plus)
with a cast-iron tripod base and it has
a very large diameter column. Like the
Hart, it lacks a rack & pinion vertical
adjustment to enable the rest to be raised
or lowered (other than fine adjustment)
without getting up from your seat. Again,
a good basic rest.
I used one in my early benchrest days
and still use it for rimfire benchrest.
From Sinclair, the rest costs $298 for the
basic pedestal and $370 with all the bits
and pieces.
The Hart Rest ***

Some like the tension set tight so

that it holds the weight of the rifle
just like a tripod rest whilst others
(me included) like it loose. If you
shoot ‘loose’ then you must hold
onto the joystick when you pull the
trigger. This takes some practise
as, without realising it, you may be
flinching and moving the knob as
you release the shot – not good.
Get someone to watch you shoot.
It helps to keep the joystick still if Here’s Toni Young with her basic Sinclair rest shooting ben-
you can rest your hand on another
chrest at 1000 yards. She won Factory Sporter class last time
bag.
OK, let’s have a look at the top ten
out.
– in no particular order but I am
awarding stars! We’ll start with the tripods and move As I was preparing this article, Sinclair launched
onto the co-axials. Let’s start off with the ‘daddy’ of another rest.
all rests – the Hart – though to be fair, daddy is a bit Still a tripod but with a solid base to increase weight.
‘long in the tooth’ now! This is a great looking rest and predicted price is

The Hart Rest. The Hart family www.rwhart.com

have involved themselves in benchrest for almost
as long as it has existed as a formal discipline and
make a number of accuracy items, including bullets
and barrels. Their simple tri-pod front rest was
initially just that – a very basic pedestal with three
levelling screws and a flat top for a bag.
Over the years, as the sport has moved on, up-dates
have come along in the form of a windage top,
front-stop, speed-screw, different levelling-screws
etc. and so equipped, the Hart rest is still the equal
of any tripod rest, in that it will offer you a very stable,
multi-adjustable shooting platform. The basic
pedestal is $243 and with all the whistles and bells
$370. I have seen shooters using the Hart rest in the
UK in the early days of benchrest – but I have never
used one myself.
*** The new Sinclair rest

22 Target Shooter
 JJ Industries rest

$599. It looks a bit like the JJ Industries rest featured billet aluminium - when you are not shooting with it.
below and maybe that’s no coincidence. This is a I’d never used one until quite recently and then only
serious rest but I’m still surprised they didn’t go for briefly but I can say, without reservation, that it was
a joystick as this would have extended the market the most solid, stable platform I have ever rested
into the F Class shooters. Not seen one in the flesh a rifle on. A beautiful rest in every respect but very
yet but I wanted to include it, so our top-ten is now expensive at $875.
top-eleven! If it performs as good as it looks, my ******
rating is The Bald Eagle Rest. This is perhaps the most widely
***** used tri-pod rest in America and it was also the very
JJ Industries rest. www.jjindustries.com If you first rest I ever owned. It is a serious competition rest
really do like the good old tripod rest and just can’t with all the features you could want in a tripod rest.
get on with these new-fangled joysticks, then maybe It’s a well-made, well thought-out rest and, before
this rest is for you. the joysticks came along, you couldn’t get better.
It is a masterpiece of engineering and you will I bought mine from the man himself, Bill Gebhart,
be happy to gaze at it for hours - admiring the way back in 1993 when a couple of us went on a
beautiful CNC machining used to carve this rest from benchrest fact-finding holiday in the USA. If you like
to travel abroad to shoot then you will love this very

This is an original Bald Eagle – now you can have it with

the ‘catapult’ base like the Cicognani

Target Shooter 23
 ‘engineered’ a few mods. to make them
more useable. Again, no rack & pinion,
so you have to get out of your seat to
make major height changes – very
annoying and not conducive to intense
competition shooting. I don’t think I have
ever seen a Caldwell at an international
benchrest match. Norman Clark is the
UK agent for Caldwell products www.
Caldwell rest normanclark.com
*
light tripod rest. I used the Bald Eagle in the early Cicognani rests. There may be other
days of UK benchrest competition. Bald Eagle has tripod rests out there but this is the top ten – not
now been sold to Woodstock International www. top twenty – so our last tri-pod is the Italian
woodstockint.com and I couldn’t find any prices Cicognani. www.varidecicognani.com I first
met Varide Cicognani at the World Benchrest
**** Championships in Italy in 1999.
The Cicognani ‘catapult’ rest – very similar to the American He was selling from the back of
Bald Eagle. Very light and compact a van and was offering all the
benchrest goodies we normally got
from the States but for a fraction of
the price. I bought a speed-screw
and a barrel-vice (which is still in
regular use) and since then, he has
expanded his range enormously.
It used to be much cheaper to
import from Cicognani and over
the years, I must have had a dozen
rests off him for fellow shooters but
now the Euro has gone the same
way as the dollar – so it isn’t so
cheap! The Cicognani tripod rest
is as close as you will get to a
Bald Eagle rest so it’s definitely a
good rest. Nice and light as well.
There are lots on the UK circuit but
they are getting more expensive –
like 610 Euros for the fully spec’d
Caldwell rests. If nothing else, Caldwell made the model.
tripod rest affordable and, when I last checked,
you could buy the small one for around £150. It ****
introduced a lot of shooters The piggy-back joystick rest. www.shadetreeea.
to benchrest shooting – not
necessarily in competition but
Les Holgate with his Farley piggy-back.
they began to see the sense in He’s quite happy with it
shooting off a front rest when
ammo. testing and the like. This
did tempt a few shooters into
benchrest competition but then
they began to see the failings
of the Caldwell. I’m not going to
‘rubbish’ the Caldwell as it’s still
the best rest you can buy for the
money by a long way. It has a
very heavy base, which is good
but the top is a bit lacking.
A few diehards still use them in
competition but they have usually

24 Target Shooter
 the money............
I’ve seen a few shooters try a piggy-back in an
attempt to save money over buying a proper co-axial
only to sell it on after a few competitions. Not cheap
either at around $ 375. If you are serious about your
shooting, bite the bullet and buy a proper co-axial
rest. If you are an F Class shooter you might like
to have a look at the new Shadetree tripod base
designed especially for F Class.
**
The Farley rest. The first joystick to break into the
benchrest scene was the American Farley. www.
farleymfg.com Like Hart, Farley are legends in
benchrest and the Farley rest is still one of the best
– and most expensive – once you ship it over here!
But, unlike a barrel, a rest should last you forever,
so remember that when you are pondering over the
Another example of a piggy back cost. Like the man said “Buy the best and cry once!”
system The Farley is also a great favourite with the F Class
guys - it’s heavy, very robust, well engineered
and weather-resistant. You won’t regret buying
com Shooters who already have
a conventional rest often wonder
if they would be better off with a
joystick. Shadetree (and a few
others, including Farley) give you
the opportunity to try a joystick
without going the whole hog. The
piggy-back joystick top fits in place
of your normal windage top but uses
your tripod base. Clever.
Drawbacks – the one I tried (the
Farley) had the joystick working
back to front – i.e. when you want to
go up, you move the joystick down. UKBRA 1000 yard Factory Sporter Champion Ian Kellet with
OK maybe, if you have never used his Caldwell co-axial rest to which Ian has fitted a new top.
one that works the right way round On the next bench, you can see a Sinclair tripod rest
but I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the
action either – not as nice as a proper joystick but for a Farley whatever your discipline. I don’t own
one but I’ve tried one and they
The Farley rest are all you could want from a
co-axial. Incidentally Varide
Cicognani is offering the Farley for
800 Euros which sounds like a fair
price to me as you will not pay VAT
or duty.
******
Caldwell’s Co-axial. They brought
us the cheap ‘n’ cheerful tripod rest
and they have done the same with
their ‘Fire-control’ co-axial rest. It
looks a bit weird but if you must
have a joystick but can’t justify
£450 for a SEB, Caldwell have
made it possible.
It works but it has a few
shortcomings and the odd ones I see

Target Shooter 25
 Phil Gibbon – UKBRA
600 yard Factory Sporter
Champion with his mk1
SEB. Note long base-
screws and rotating base

Pimp my SEB! This mk1 SEB belongs to American F Class shooter Shiraz Balolia. Nice! Note the
bag ‘keeper’ – essential to keep your front bag in shape. Don’t transport your rest without a ‘keeper’
co-axial and he won the UKBRA 1000
yard Factory Sporter Championship
last year. Again, get in touch with
Norman Clark www.normanclark.
com
**
The SEB rest. www.sebcoax.com
Sebastian Lambang is an Indonesian
and he loves his benchrest. I’ve met
Seb a couple of times at the World
Benchrest Championships and not
only is he a very nice guy, he is also
a very talented engineer. He saw the
advantages of the Farley co-axial but
on the benchrest circuit have usually been modified he didn’t simply attempt to copy it –
to take a proper front-bag. By far the cheapest co- he set out to improve it and he did address a couple
axial at around £275 but, you get what you pay for. It’s of the Farley’s shortcomings.
worth noting though that Ian Kellet uses a Caldwell Seb clearly thought that two posts were better

The SEB Neo is almost cranked up to full height on Diggle’s 600 yd benchrest range.
Keep hold of the joystick as you release the shot but rest your hand on a bag for
maximum steadiness

26 Target Shooter
than one – and who can dispute that – though the No need to be messing about with extra-long screws
Farley works perfectly well with one column. The other – just crank-up top – and there is a knob on either
improvement was the rotating base. One of the side – unlike the Farley. If you like to shoot ‘loose’
problems of setting up any rest is judging the Seb has built in a bit of ‘up-lift’ to support the weight
alignment. The front-bag must be absolutely square of your rifle, so no need for a counter-balance weight.
to the fore-end. After setting-up your rest, you Finally, the joystick tension is now spring-loaded and
invariably have to get up off your chair again to a cinch to adjust – two thumb-screws.
‘square’ it up - even more annoying if you are By removing just two screws, you can even
shooting F Class where you have to get up from the dismantle the rest for transportation – a boon if you
prone position. The SEB’s swivelling base is a boon. go to overseas shoots and you can rig it with the two
Having said that, it’s not too difficult to modify a levelling-screws to the front or a single screw to the
tripod rest to swivel and my own is so modified. front. With a single screw to the front the rest is more
The downside of the SEB mk1 is the tension stable when you are running the rifle quick and you
adjustment. It uses four screws with lock-nuts and slam it against the front-stop. Any negatives? Just
it’s quite tricky and fiddly to get the tension exactly one – you can’t swivel the base like on the mk1! I
right – unlike the Farley. At around £450 though really liked that feature on my old SEB but the host
it’s a great rest. I’ve used one for a couple of years of other features on the Neo outweigh that one so for
for 600 and 1000 yard benchrest and I love it. I run me it’s a winner.
mine loose and it’s silky-smooth and helps me get Interestingly, a couple of the guys using Farleys
five aimed shots off in around 15 seconds. I use a have modified the base so it will swivel like the mk1
counterbalance weight on the front to support the SEB. Now if Seb would offer a swivelling base as an
weight of the rifle - if you screw-up the tension screws option on the Neo, that really would be the ‘dogs’!
to support the weight of the rifle, the action becomes Unfortunately, no price as yet but Brian Fox is the
jerky and speed is lost. I was 100% happy with my sole UK importer www.foxfirearmsuk.com
SEB – until I saw the SEB Neo! Fox Firearms are the *******
UK importers www.foxfirearmsuk.com Has this helped you to choose a new rest? I hope so
***** but, before you spend your ‘hard earned’ I leave you
The SEB Neo rest. Am I leaving the best rest until with one more photograph. At the moment a photo is
last? In my unbiased opinion – yes! How is the Neo all I have so I can’t include it in our top ten.
better than the mk1 SEB or the Farley? If you shoot It looks a bit like a SEB Neo doesn’t it? But, believe
F Class, you will love the extra height the Neo offers it or not, it was made in the UK. Up to going to press,
– a full 10 inches from ground-level! I’ve not seen it for real but I hope to shortly.

A brand new UK
manufactured rest - maybe a
review for the future........

Target Shooter 27
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AND BARTLEIN
 DIY Wind Flags - Part Deux - the Sequel

By Carl Boswell
Last month (Target Shooter June issue) I left found in you local DIY store. A lot of the ideas here
you with the two 360 degree windflags. I made came from this website.
these many years ago and they work well at short
distances up to thirty five meters or so. This month For this project, you will need corroflute, the sizes
I will look at the dual-vane wind flags I have been and shape are found in the diagram Pic 2. (There
preparing, leaving the 180 degree to next month. are other designs if you want to look for them and
(I have realised that I will run out of words/ space I have experimented with a few). Some carbon
if I try to do it all in this article). I always find these fibre or stainless steel rod and some Delrin rod.
DIY ‘describe and make’ articles very hard to write. Delrin is a high slick and strong material that can
What do you keep in and what do you take out? be used for a number of applications - joints, bore
Hopefully the photos and diagrams will help with guides, etc. This can be obtained from a variety of
your production of one. suppliers at your favourite auction website. You
will also need a piece of 20 to 30mm thick plastic
The dual-vane flag is just an elaboration on (the best is nylon ‘bread board’, polystyrene sheet
the single-vane flag. The latter provides good (approximately 25 to 30mm thick), nuts bolts and
indication of direction, elements of wind speed but fixings.
the dual-vane will help you determine the angle of
the wind a little better. Having two ‘panels’ on the The vane itself is made from three pieces of
flag to look at, you will be able to see parts of the corroflute - two vanes and the support ‘bridge’.
inside of the second panel as the wind turns to an The dual-vane flag can be quite bulky, thus not
angle, thus able to judge this change of direction a easy to transport. Therefore I wanted to make
little more accurately. (See Pic1) them so they could be easily taken apart. This was
accomplished by gluing a plastic channel onto each
There are a number of dual-vane designs around vane which the bridge could be slid into. (See Pics
– again, a good place to look is on the Doug 3 and 4) After various experiments the best way of
Weeter’s website at http://www.thewindisnotyour- reinforcing the channel and attaching the ‘bridge’
friend.com/flags/flags.html to each one is using insulating tape on all joints.
A very valuable resource, this website looks at Yes, this works, is very strong and can be taken
making these products from scratch or via parts apart very easily and reassembled with the same
30 Target Shooter
 PIC 1 dual vane windflag

or new tape. (See Pics 4 & 5) Vinyl can then be There are two ways to attach the support bar to the
added ‘to taste’ to help show the angles the flag is vane. One is by using 4 - 5mm rod that will fit into
turning through. the holes in the corroflute, simply sliding it in – easy
and quick! The other way
is to use approximately
8mm diameter carbon
fibre rod and screw this to
the vane on the support.
I personally went for the
carbon fibre rod as it was
easy to get hold of at a
local modelling shop. (See
Pic 5)

In designing your
dual-vane windflag, you do
need to consider how the
overall thing balances.
It should be perfect and
this may mean adding a
weight at some point to get
at least a 2:1 ratio along
the support bar. (See Pic
6). A weight of about 7
to 9 ounces should be
sufficient but this will be
determined by the weight
of the vane at the back
and the materials you
have used. Therefore a
PIC 2 plan bit of experimentation

Target Shooter 31
 PIC 3 the assembly channel

PIC 4 assembly and tape pattern

may be in order. Weights can be made from any the magazine and I will send the files). Anyway
heavy material and brass is as good as any for back to basics. The prop can be made from
this. The balance-point or fulcrum should be where nylon plastic sheet, like those used in kitchens,
the whole flag attaches to the stand. Where the with a hole saw. (Please don’t go cutting the wife’s
flag meets the stand does need to be considered favourite board though). The hole saw will provide
carefully so the overall flag has equilibrium. This an absolute centre and keep the prop concentric.
can be achieved by moving the fulcrum point up Once this is done, the blades of the prop can
and down the main support bar, but refer to Pic 6 be cut from polystyrene sheet, again found at a
for the diagram of the ratio needed for the flag. local modelling shop or online. The trick here is to
ensure that the blades are at the correct angle and
Having used Delrin as the basis for the pivoted around 55 to 60 degrees would be optimum. (Pics
chassis, (see Pic 6) I just used a ¼ ‘female’ thread 7 and 8). Once the prop is constructed this needs
and inserted it into the Delrin. Cutting a thread to be attached to the support arm and held in place
with a tap is just as easy. As the flag needs to turn with split pins/ taped bolts. This is the last feature
easily, the mounting on the flag and the stand will of the flag that needs to be produced – except for
need to turn. This can be achieved just by having the stands.
a hole in each piece. Some would say that
I am overzealous and using them will make
the flags twitchy but I added bearings to both
mounts, allowing the flag to move with great
ease. The idea here is that they will indicate
the slightest movement of the wind, even in
stable conditions. A screw can be added, to
‘brake’ the pin inside the bearing if movement
is too much on windier days.

The prop can be as easy or as hard as you

want to make it. I can show you here the
easy way as this is what I have space for
and this is what most would want anyway
to get started. (If anyone wants this more
PIC 5 central arm assembly
complicated design they can email me via

32 Target Shooter
 PIC 6 dual vane diagram

Instead of making the stands, which would be very as noted above, you will have to get this type of
time consuming, I went for some lighting stands I thread on your windflag mounting, but check the
found cheap ‘online’. (Having a single metal pole thread first. (The mounting is below the fulcrum of
is another alternative, but not as stable) These the vane). If you look at Pic 6 and 10, this is similar
are perfect for the job and what you will get if you
buy windflags commercially. Most of these stands
come with a standard ¼ inch threaded screw fit so,

PIC 7 prop marking out

PIC 9 finished prop

to what you should have but the weight on mine is

PIC 8 diagram for prop angles behind the prop.

So there we have it. This is short and sweet I know,

but the information should allow a competent
‘handy Andy’ to make a couple of these flags. They
do work and practising with them will only benefit
your shooting.

Next month - the last in this series – we will

consider the 180 degree wind flag, how to use
them and reading the wind conditions through
observation. This is the skill you are trying to

Target Shooter 33
 develop through making these flags. It is worth the
effort to have these out in the garden for a while,
looking at them and seeing what they are telling
you – i.e. what the wind is doing. I know most of
you have better things to do with your time but if
you want to shoot well, it is a necessary evil though
- see diagram to the right. Until next time.

My thanks to Doug Weeter for all of his kind

assistance.

☆ 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

34 Jamie Beyerle
Target Shooter
 Knowing your conditions
Helps to keep your aim true
Weather Meters

Easy to use

Accurate

Wind speeds

Cross Winds

Air Pressure

Humidity

Temperature

Dew Point

Wind Chill

Altitude

Time and Date

Graphical Display

Data Logging


ORDER ONLINE FROM

www.r-p-r.co.uk
Tel: 01590 679755
Target Shooter 35
 The GBR rifle action and a new
Project Rifle

by Vince Bottomley
Last month, we featured a new all-British action ‘all-rounder’ – a Jack of all trades – the kind of gun
– the GBR. You may recall that it is the result of you might choose for your first rifle - as it could be
collaboration between Fox Firearms, Staffordshire used for a variety of disciplines. Normally, I prefer to
Synthetic Stocks and Rhino Rifles and is build something for a specific discipline but this gun
unashamedly a Remington clone but with a couple should be competent for F Class, tactical shoots,
of nice improvements. Of course, it’s made to much even a bit of long-range benchrest .
higher standards than any Remmy and fit ‘n’ finish
is approaching that of the best American custom The underside of the action is cut away to take an
actions. integral box or detachable magazine, as the shooter
requires and for the build we’ll be incorporating
The guys involved have now given me an action so GBR’s own bottom-metal designed to take the
that we can put together a ‘project rifle’ for Target Accuracy International magazine.
Shooter and this time, it will be something of an
The tenon thread is identical in
length to a Remington (but the
thread is 18 tpi as opposed to
16tpi) and the GBR even copies
Remington’s ‘third ring of steel’
by recessing the bolt-nose into
the back of the barrel. Remington
claim that this is an added safety
feature in the event of a serious
blow-up and although it’s
exceedingly rare for rifles to blow,
a bit of extra safety cannot be
criticised – especially as it’s often
the adjacent shooter who gets the
worst of it. Having said that, from
a gunsmith’s point of view, it just
makes a little bit of extra work.

Although our action looks like

36 Target Shooter
 The chambered Bartlein barrel – note the ‘ring of steel’
formed by the bolt-nose recessed into the barrel

stainless-steel, it is in fact made from chrome-moly Before we discuss calibre and our chosen cartridge,
steel with a stainless-steel bolt. Using two different let’s have a look at the stock. We will be using a Bell
metals is one way to prevent galling and production & Carlson ‘tactical’ stock which is designed to fit the
GBR actions will be blued. Mine is ‘in the white’ Remington action and comes with a built-in aluminium
as I intend to DuraCoat© the action and barrel. bedding-block. This is an excellent system
The screwed-on Picatinny rail is also a GBR item. as the block extends right along the fore-end adding
The Picatinny is quickly becoming ‘the standard’ strength and stiffness. However, I’ve had ‘issues’
on both sides of the Atlantic as it is made to a set with this type of bedding system before. In theory,
specification, which means that if you use QD the half-round bedding block should provide a
mounts, your scope will transfer from one rifle to perfect bed for our round action but seldom is
another without problem. Now, you could realistically everything perfect in this world. In reality, we will
buy one really top-class scope and use it on several probably find that the action is riding on high-spots
rifles – providing you are prepared to make a careful on the bedding-block – exactly the opposite of what
note of your settings. we are trying to achieve. We can also have issues
with the action screw-holes – if these are drilled

This is Bell & Carlson’s top of the range tactical

stock featuring adjustable butt and cheek-piece. It
has now been adopted by Remington as a factory
option

Target Shooter 37
 The aluminium bedding block

slightly off, our barrel could be over to one side of and butt-plate which could be useful if the rifle were
the channel – which looks really ugly! We will only to be shot off-hand but my rather heavy barrel will
find this out when we drop our barrelled-action into not encourage this type of shooting.
the stock for the first time and I’ve a bit of work to do
before we get to that stage. Yes, the barrel. I’m fortunate here that we have a
Bartlein. I don’t think you will buy a better barrel
On the plus side, the Bell & Carlson is a good solid though certainly others are as good but Bartlein
stock which will nicely lend itself to a variety of have made a name for themselves in the few short
disciplines and it will also sit quite nicely in the front years they’ve been around. Success means full
bag of a benchrest pedestal – useful for ammunition order-books and that’s why you will have to wait a
testing. The butt underside incorporates a ‘hook’ while if you want one and why I feel very fortunate
but there is also a flat section which will sit nicely on to have one spinning in my lathe! Incidentally, our
a back-bag should we choose to shoot F Class or barrel is fluted, which will help keep the weight
benchrest. There is also an adjustable cheek-piece reasonable even though I intend to finish it at 28

I’ve finished the fluted Bartlein at 28 inches

with a nice, sharp recessed crown

38 Target Shooter
 This shot nicely indicates the
difference in length between
the 6.5x47 (bottom) and the 260
Rem.

inches. more – go for a 6.5-284. As I’ve already said, our

rifle is an all-rounder and we are not going for a
Right, before we go any further, we need to talk tight-neck but, our reamer is ground to give us a
about cartridges. As regular readers will know, I love ‘no-turn’ neck. Before we go any further, let’s clarify
my wildcats – wilder the better – so my choice of these two terms.
cartridge may come as a bit of a surprise. For
reasons which will become clear, I want this rifle to The tight-neck (sometimes referred to as a
appeal to any accuracy-minded shooter whatever fitted-neck but this is slightly different) is designed
discipline they shoot. I don’t want to put off anyone to give a clearance between the neck of the loaded
by going for some fancy barrel-burning wildcat which round and the chamber-neck of perhaps one
will require neck-turned and fire-formed brass and thousandth of an inch. In benchrest competition
the like. ‘KISS’ is my mandate for this project – ‘keep it may be even less than that but for me, one
it simple, stupid’! thousandth of an inch clearance is just fine.
However, to run a tight-neck chamber, you must
The cartridge I’m going for is the 260 Remington. have the necessary equipment to accurately turn
This is an often over-looked cartridge and most necks and measure the necks, otherwise you are
shooters wanting an accurate 6.5 are now going for ‘skating on thin ice’. Also, your brass and chamber
the 6.5x47 Lapua. For those of you not familiar with must be kept scrupulously clean – something which
the 260 Rem., this 6.5mm is based on the venerable is difficult to do outside of benchrest competition -
308 Winchester case. The case is best formed by which is shot under cover with plenty of time to clean
necking-up the 243 Win. from 6mm to 6.5 mm, which your rifle. F Class for example is shot in the open
is easily accomplished in one pass, rather than in all weathers and running a tight-neck in these
buying inferior 260 Remington brass. If we use conditions in a competition with a high round-count
Lapua brass, we are well on the way to an accurate, is asking for trouble – stick to what I call a ‘no-turn’
low re-coiling cartridge which will give acceptable neck.
results all the way out to 1000 yards.
My no-turn neck is arrived at by loading several
The 260 is often ‘improved’ by steepening the rounds using the brass and bullets we intend to use
243/308’s 20 degree shoulder angle to 40 degrees. in the rifle – in this case Lapua brass and Lapua
This will increase powder-capacity slightly but it bullets – it’s no good me making our measurements
just isn’t necessary and it will involve a fireforming from say Winchester brass and Sierra bullets – it’s
process that will use-up barrel-life and cost money essential to measure from the actual components
– take my advice and leave it standard! If you want you will use. Seat several bullets in the cases and

Target Shooter 39
measure across the neck with a micrometer – NOT is significantly shorter than the 123 grain Lapua
a digital calliper, it’s not accurate enough! Take the Scenar. I initially thought of using these in my
diameter of the largest one measured and add three own 260 Rem tactical rifle with a 308 mag. but my
thousandths of an inch. This gives me the dimension shooting buddy Paul Harper finally convinced
of the reamer neck. It’s pretty close to a tight-neck me that Lapua’s 123 grainer is the better option.
but it just allows that extra clearance for a ‘field’ rifle. Amazingly, Paul won not only our club Tactical
Even three thou. is not a lot – half the thickness Championship but also the F Class Open
of a bank-note – so please, keep your brass and championship - which takes in all ranges out to 1000
your chamber CLEAN if you are playing with these yards - with his 260 Rem. tactical rifle fitted with a 24
tolerances! inch barrel and shooting off a Harris bi-pod! If you
really want something faster, try Lapua’s 108 grain
Our 260 Remington will give us excellent velocity Scenar which will be knocking on the door of military
with the 123 grain Lapua Scenar bullet and will range velocity limits!
nicely fit our 308 AI magazine if we load these
bullets to an overall cartridge length of 2.8 inches.
The velocity will comfortably exceed that of the That’s about it for this month. We have all our
6.5x47 Lapua and the 243 Lapua brass is much components – including a Timney trigger. Yes, I
cheaper than the 6.5x47 cases, which now retail at could have opted for a Jewel but I wanted to keep
close to £100 per 100! Although the 260 Remington things in perspective as this is not a benchgun so,
has been around for sometime, it never really caught the Timney set at about a pound will be fine.
on as a target round as there were few 6.5mm match Being a Remmy clone, the GBR will take any
bullets available in America. Thankfully, that’s now trigger suitable for a Remington and the Timney is a
changed and we have a good choice of 6.5mm good trigger at a sensible price. The barrelled action
match bullets from most of the major manufacturers is now on its way to Dave Wylde at South Yorkshire
but remember, the heavier match bullets are fairly Shooting Supplies for one of Dave’s special tactical
long and if you wish to load from a 308 mag., you Dura Coat© finishes. Next month, we will drop the
have to push the bullet deep into the case. barrelled-action into the stock and shoot it to see if
any further work is needed to obtain a good bed.
Sierra now make a 120 grain 6.5mm Matchking which

40 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 41
 Setting up scope reference information on
the IPhone by John Campbell-Smith

Target Shooter reader, John Campbell-Smith iPhone for reference when I was out and about.
kindly sent us this article which was a little bit I went to the following url and selected the BR/
beyond my knowledge and Nokia but I hope it BR-I option:
will inspire some readers to have a go. http://ballisticprograms.swarovskioptik.
I have an iPhone and a Swarovski Z6 scope. com/step2_us.html
I wanted to get the reticle information onto my Which takes you to the following url:

42 Target Shooter
http://ballisticprograms.swarovskioptik. in the field.
com/BR_en.html
I then entered my data, got the following
information and took a screen shot:

I then generated data for x 30 and x 10 as well

and created a PowerPoint presentation with
three slides. I added some very basic info to the
screen shots to confirm the magnification but
lots of stuff could be layered on top of the screen
shot above.
I then created a .pdf:
I then used Quickoffice to upload the .pdf to my
iPhone.

http://www.quickoffice.com/quickoffice_
connect_suite_iphone/
Above is how it can be seen on my iPhone as
follows:
Selecting Quickoffice
Opening 243 reticle...
Selecting a page
And finally zooming in:
Nothing special about any of this, and really the
sole objective is to show how easily reference
material can be put on an iPhone for reference

Target Shooter 43
44 Target Shooter
Rifle Work Ammunition Development
 Re-barreling work Assistance in Ammunition Development up to and
 Fitting of Moderators and Muzzle brakes - Reproofing of including .50 BMG
Rifle required
 Trigger work – See Trigger work

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Please feel free to contact us at any reasonable time to discuss any requirements that you may have.

Using Mobile devices -

PDF viewers

By Carl Boswell
Those who have anything to do with new article suggests a lot that you can do with
technologies know that it moves swiftly, not your phone to help you on the range. Not only
always in the right direction and we end up this but there are lots of applications that are
purchasing new products to stay at least with the being developed for the shooter, such as the one
rest of the field. Why in a target shooting magazine we reviewed last month, the article this month,
are we talking about this? Well the previous Mil Dot Ranger Finder, Winchester Ballistics

Target Shooter 45
 people, etc. Quite easy to navigate
(there is a good tutorial) and the text
only facility is a must for easy reading.
This App is now supported by a very
easy to use file transfer system via
the developers website, which does
make it top of this particular league.

• Fast PDF £1.79 – Excellent

interface and is a really easy
application to use - much like I-Books.
This could be the best of the three
to be honest, but it does not support
external links at the moment, which
is a big drawback for a digital
magazine. The developers have said
this will be a feature in a forthcoming
upgrade, which could potentially
make it comparative to GoodReader.
I did find the app a little slow to render
pages, so I was left hanging around
thinking it had completely frozen.
Until these issues are resolved I
would assign it to 2nd place.

• PDF Expert £2.99 – A little simple

and does not have the features - I
wanted - of the other two. I found
this hard to get files onto – something
and even a few games. The other reason is the
fact that this magazine is digital in its nature.
Yes, lots of you out there do view your monthly
issue of Target Shooter magazine on your phone,
as there are lots of the ‘apps’ out there to aid this.
The launch of the iPad and the new iPhone brings
the nature of digital viewing to an even more
accessible level - away from the fixed desktop
computer we have all become assigned too.
Personally, I have been investigating a number
of .pdf readers to help view the magazine, some
of which are reviewed below. Some of these
are very close in nature and ease of use to
the magazine viewers/ software that are being
developed at the moment. Now the .pdf
format is a great little tool, but magazines are a
bit more than that. However it is the format that
is accessible by all and one of the formats we
offer, especially those who use Apple products.

• GoodReader £0.59 - Excellent interface, this

is a really easy application to use! Supports
external links, so you can view websites
directly from Target Shooter magazine, email
46 Target Shooter
 about the IPAD and IPhone that some Maybe more at a later date as we develop
people are a bit dissatisfied about. It works our own software to bring you Target Shooter
well enough, once you have the file you magazine in the future.
want, but it could be tricky for new users. Just All of these apps can be purchased via Itunes of
goes to show that the more you pay does not course, but the websites are full of information
always give you the best product. and support so well worth a visite;
Usable, but I would like to see more for my
money. GoodReader
http://www.goodreader.net
So why do you need a viewer for these mobile
devices – because downloading it straight from Fast Pdf
the internet is not the best way to view - your http://fastpdf.eu/
magazine cannot be saved for later viewing, etc.
Out of the bunch I would go for GoodReader at Pdf Expert
the moment and at the price it will certainly not http://readdle.com
break the bank. These technologies develop
by the day and new ones are always
coming out. The experimental software Target Shooter on the IPhone
I have seen would blow your mind.
For those of you lucky enough to own an
iPad, this will extend a lot of your experiences
with computing and using digital media – in
a very positive way. The iPad, for those of
you who don’t know what it is, it’s a portable
‘tablet’ computer with direct access to the
web through wi-fi or through a phone network.
Wi-fi is obviously free in your own home.
Having used one in an Apple store for a
limited time but based on my own
experiences of the iPhone, this product is
nothing short of phenomenal. Fast, elegant,
portable, easy to use, the iPad has such
potential!!! Drawbacks? It is sometimes
difficult to get files onto it unless you use
iTunes, which is the interface for such a
device. (You don’t have to pay for this
as it is just using your computer). Other
potentials drawbacks are no flash content,
which is both good and bad depending on
your point of view. Transferrring files is not
that easy but can be done via SD cards (if
you buy the attachment).
For me the iPad offers such potential, even
with the cyber wars going on out there, for
software dominance. For all forms of digital
viewing this is the best thing that has
happened since ‘sliced bread’. Have a
look at your local Apple store - but I will
be there first! It does not come cheap
at £429 but the e-book readers – which
are not computers – are around £200,
whilst a netbook will cost you in the
region of £300 but they are just not as fast.
Target Shooter 47
48 Target Shooter
 Shooting and Reloading .303 MkVII
Flat based bullets

by Nigel Greenaway
their early lives. The reason
is that the Mk7Z was loaded
with nitro cellulose instead of
the very hot burning cordite.
Cordite burns so hot and
aggressively that it wears out
the lead of the rifling. The
barrel reaches a point where
all accuracy is suddenly lost
as hot gases flow past the
base of the round before it is
properly set up in the rifling.
This is why armourers were
trained to always inspect for
wear in the lead using special
gauges. It is a peculiarity
of the burning characteristics
that a well cordite worn
barrel could have excellent
I suppose I’ve been shooting .303’s for the best rifling at the muzzle –
part of 33 years now and for the first 15 years something that can catch the unwary when
I would have exclusively used flat based MkVII purchasing an old rifle. Nitro has completely
174 grain military rounds. I then ventured in to opposite burning characteristics and wear is
the realms of reloading and managed to squeeze usually evident at the muzzle.
even more accuracy out of this popular round,
courtesy of the excellent Sierra 174 grain Match- So what happens if you purchase an old .303
King. However, this is a boat tail round better with pristine looking rifling at the muzzle end
suited to barrels in good condition, preferably and your carefully hand loaded boat tail bullets
ones that experienced Mk7Z ammunition in end up scattered all over the target. One option

Target Shooter 49
is to replace the barrel, the cost of which might wanted to shoot a .303 Martini Enfield and a
be over half of the value originally paid for the Long Lee but found that the modern MkVII
whole rifle. Alternatively, you might try loading rounds shot nowhere near the sights, which
flat based bullets because these could stretch originally would have been graduated for a 215
the life of the barrel by another 1,000 – 1,500 grain round nosed bullet. I have experienced this
rounds because the flat base resists gas flow in the past using a .303 Martini Enfield Artillery
past the base before set up better that boat tails. Carbine in a rapid fire competition. At 200 yards
Unfortunately, the availability
of MKVII profile surplus bullets
dried up long ago. There are
a few manufacturers who
produce flat based 150 grain
soft point bullets but you
shouldn’t really be using these
for target shooting and you will
need a variation on your FAC
to obtain them. Try getting
such a variation unless it is for
deer stalking. Thankfully an
enterprising company- BES
- has solved the problem by
manufacturing a MkVII profile
flat based bullet.

BES is run by a retired

gentleman who originally
50 Target Shooter
 bullets in the centre compared
to two MKVI rounds. The
quality of BES bullets is such
that they supply them to
Kynamco for producing
hunting rounds where
penetration is required. It
wasn’t long before BES was
asked to reproduce a MkVII
174 grain profile bullet.

The task is very much a labour

of love and involves eleven
separate stages on a single
stage, hand operated press.
Each bullet is hand inspected
and rejected if it does not
meet the grade. The original
MkVII round had aluminium or
you had to aim 2.5 feet low to hit the centre of even cardboard in the tip so
the chest height bull using MkVII ammo. I had that the centre of gravity was somewhat pushed
some old MkVI 215 grain ammo and this shot towards the rear (not too far because .303 has a
exactly to point of aim and I won the competition. reputation for tumbling). If the complete jacket
BES have produced a 215 grain copper was filled with lead then the weight would
jacketed bullet for a number of years now – the massively exceed 174 grains. After much trial
two rounds on the left are BES with one of their and error a soft plastic BB was found to be ideal

Target Shooter 51
as when the lead is compressed it forces the BB
to follow the profile of the tip. The new round is
about 1.5mm shorter than an original but the
weight and profile of the base is correct – which
is what matters most. The picture shows an
original MkVII on the left with the BES bullet in
the middle and a Sierra 174 grain boat tail on the
right – you can see that the Sierra is the shortest.
The loaded .303 rounds are a Prvi Partizan on
the left, BES centre and Sierra on the right.

So how good is cottage industry production on

the target? The short answer is excellent – in
fact I was stunned to find that they beat my
Sierra handloads. This might mean that my
Canadian No.4(T) is getting a bit worn in the lead
but the results speak for themselves. The five
round groups were shot at 10 second intervals at
100 yards on a rather steeply sloping firing point
which is not conducive to the most accurate of
shooting. In the past my Sierra handloads have
achieved just over the inch but on the day only
managed 2.3 inches compared to 1.5 inches for
the BES bullets.

The BES bullets were from an early batch which

was slightly undersized at .310 but they still shot
really well. Current production has been bumped
up to .3105 so they should shoot even better!
Cost for 215 grain or 174 grain bullets is £17.50
per 50 plus postage. You can telephone orders
on 01302 330726 or email [email protected]

BES also produces .577 Enfield and .594

Snider bullets in weights from 480 – 600 grains
at £25/100 plus postage. As you can see from
the picture the Snider bullets are, just like the
originals, hollow based and hollow nosed. I
know of no other manufacturer that is producing
correct hollow nosed Snider bullets and I look
forward to trying them out in my 2-Band Snider.
The small bullets in the picture are 120 grain
.310 cadet rounds (I imagine these would also
be usable in a .303 as an indoor practice round).
Swaged Martini Henry and Sharps bullets are
also available – ring for details.

My thanks to the proprietor for showing me

around his production facilities but my special
thanks to him for his labour of love in
endeavouring to produce high quality .303
bullets that will keep some of these old girls
shooting for many years to come.

52 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 53
 The WMS Steel Challenge - Part 2

by Nigel Greenaway
Following Chris Parkin’s excellent review eighty degree arc. It was also an opportunity
of the WMS Steel Challenge in June’s issue for Andrew to assess us and our ability before
it was somewhat coincidental that I shot at deciding whether he and his staff would
the same venue on 12th June. I and eleven want to manage such a large group. I like to
other experienced Practical Rifle and Civilian think that our ability to quickly start hitting
Service Rifle shooters met up for what turned targets influenced his decision in a positive
out to be a very full and fun day of shooting. way, particularly following a challenge to hit
The day tested our rifles to the limit of their a steel disc at 750 metres in 3 shots. This
ability, back to 1,100 yards against a series of was achieved with one shooter achieving
steel targets. We finally packed up at 6.30pm three consecutive hits with no sighters.
and our host, Andrew Venables, told us we
had experienced about 15% of the available One aspect of the day that was new to many
targetry on the 5,000 acre estate. The facility
of us non- stalkers was the up and down hill
is near Llangurig, Powys – about 25 miles shots. These can be up to a 40 degree angle
east of Aberystwyth, comprising steep hills which, even over medium ranges, can have a
and valleys, 900-1,000 feet above sea level marked affect on point of impact. The picture
and a fair number of sheep. shows Neil Beeby (the organiser) and myself
shooting down hill at about 400 yards. Some
The purpose of our visit was to establish of the targets were small steel discs on the
whether it would be possible to organise an edge of a small reservoir – great for spotting
introductory day for 30 or more shooters, fall of shot if you miss. If you hit you hear a
probably split into groups of six or 3 pairs resounding ”clang”, if you miss you see a big
– one shooting and one spotting. These splash. But what happens if the angle is 40
groups would be shooting in different areas, degrees at this range – how do you measure
directions and ranges – all at the same time. the angle accurately and where do you set your
This will take some organisation and some sights? None of us had any angle measuring
fair amount of discipline from the shooters devices so we had to guess. In the above
– you can’t go wondering off when different example the new sight setting would be
groups are shooting over a hundred and about 310 yards – a difference of about 3

54 Target Shooter
minutes for a .308 or a clear miss over the top We finished the day shooting at 1,100 yards
if you fail to make an elevation adjustment. – a distance that I don’t think anyone had
One gadget that solves this problem is an ever shot at before. It was an experience
Angle Cosine Indicator (ACI) – currently that I will always remember and one that we
marketed by www.snipersystems.co.uk and hope to be able to repeat on a larger scale.
sold to many armed forces around the world. Andrew was an excellent and knowledgeable
It is a device that attaches to the scope host and I look forward to meeting him again.
using a special scope ring or it can attach to We hope to be able to arrange another event
the scope base. When the rifle is held at an later on in the year. Shooters will have to be
angle, the ACI indicates the cosine number prepared to pay much more than a typical days
of that angle by means of a highly visible practice shooting at Bisley and, if full value
index mark; for mathematical simplicity is to be derived from the distance shooting,
you treat these marks as decimals or a suitable calibre rifle should be employed.
percentages, hence 87 would be .87 or 87%.
The line of sight distance to target is then Andrew can be contacted on 01686 440782
multiplied by the reading which produces a or 07767-365804, email andrewvenables@
reduced range and consequently a reduced aol.com
elevation figure that is then applied to
the sights. The cosine marks go up in
increments of 5 degrees start- ing at “0” so
you can also work out the angle of the shot
if you wish (making it compatible with most
etched reticule based sighting systems,
and also the Mildot Master). Alternatively
an Angle Degree Indicator is available with
all readings in degrees. Whichever system
you prefer I would strongly recommend
purchasing one before visiting WMS or
going on a stalk in hilly country.

Target Shooter 55
56 Target Shooter
HANDLOADING ‘OLD FAITHFUL’ THE .308 WINCHESTER - 9

By Laurie Holland

Above - My original Lee ‘Loader’ kit – you can still buy one for the .308W – and it works, but
is very basic
We now put bullets to one side and look at loading and trying different makes in several cartridges to
the beast – tools and techniques this month, starting see how much difference changing this component
on powders, loads and results next. There are two makes. (Also, the new smaller primer pocket /
other components of course, primer and rifle. I’ll flash-hole Lapua .308W ‘Palma’ brass has finally
look at the former in a future feature, covering tools arrived at Tim Hannam, and I’ll compare it to
standard specification cases.) I’ll only say that
most cases were primed using the semi-sensitive
Lee Auto-Prime hand tool. Tests involved two
rifles with three barrels between them, a factory FN
SPRA2 (Special Police Rifle) 24” tactical job and a
single-shot Barnard / Eliseo F/TR tubegun, the latter
using two barrels with different twist rates.

I looked at case measurement, preparation and

batching way back in Parts 2 and 3, so won’t go into
these again, suffice it to say that I do everything to
my ammunition! How much all this effort achieves

Left - Lee Hand press and a .300 H&H

Collet die set. Cartridges loaded with this gear
group into under 0.5-MOA despite the rifle
being built on an antediluvian Winchester
P’14 military action

Target Shooter 57
 “............ also stepping onto that slippery slope
that sees you spend evenings with piles of
brass, a neck measurement micrometer, and
neck turning gear”

is questionable, but I know that I can’t blame case internal capacities to require changing maximum or
defects or variations for a wayward shot. I use Lapua optimum loads, and their thin necks may not be a
brass for match ammunition and have used old thin, great match to the rifle chamber, I increasingly use
light (160gn) 1980s Norma cases for practice and Lapua for everything. Rejects from the preparation
some tests, but as they have sufficiently different process, or ‘match cases’ that have been fired more
than half a dozen times, are filling the development
/ practice slot.

Lee ‘Loader’ and Collet

I have a choice of four presses, six die sets (three
of them bushing types), and a full set of case
preparation tools. Things weren’t always so – I
started off in a modest way with a young family,
mortgage, and the family tabby to support
alongside my shooting. I’ve loaded for a baker’s
dozen of .308W rifles over the last quarter century,
seven of which were first generation 7.62s for the
‘Target Rifle’ discipline, all past their salad days,
dirt cheap, and whose purchase represented a
Left - A quintet of Lapua cases whose necks
have been given a ‘clean-up’ turn to 0.015”
thickness
58 Target Shooter
triumph of hope over common
sense or experience. They were
marked by tight bores and the use
of military actions, but fortunately
target rings were large, ranges
short, and rifle-ammunition
combinations that probably grouped
between 1.5 and 2-MOA were good
enough, and a lot better than the
available milspec 7.62mm.

I’ve always handloaded, only a

few hundreds of the 30,000 or so
.308W / 7.62mm rounds I’ve fired
in total ‘factory’. Since I couldn’t af-
ford a bench press and 7/8X14 tpi

All of my .308W
ammunition is
now loaded on a
Forster Co-Ax, a
great design that
produces
concentric
results and keeps
Above - Forster Case-Neck Graphiter, Krazy
primer residues
Kloth (new behind and a well used example
completely
in the left foreground), Sinclair primer pocket
contained
uniforming tool used gently to clean
within the
residue out of primer pockets, and (front
spent
foreground), Sinclair’s new 0.081” flash-hole
primer
uniformer
collection
system dies, nor had I anywhere to mount one, the budget
Lee ‘Loader’ was my salvation. This is a simple
neck-sizing die kit in which one knocks the case into
the tool with a soft-faced hammer, then ejects it with
a rod. I’d buy 100 once-fired Winchester cases at a
time, and after returning from the range on Sunday
teatime, the second task of the evening after
cleaning the rifle would be to get the ‘Loader’ out
and decap the 50 cases from the day’s shooting,
resize their necks, and re-prime them with a Lee
Auto-Prime, a safer and faster method than that
employed in the ‘Loader’. I’d then have an MTM
RM50 box full of primed cases ready for charging
and bullet seating, usually done on the Friday
evening, ready for the next weekend. The ‘Loader’,
Auto-Prime, hammer, and RCBS 5-0-5 scales
(shop-soiled and sold at a discount by a sympathetic
gunshop assistant ) cost me less than a couple of
titanium nitride coated bushings for my Redding
‘Type S’ sizer die now. Even after comparing the
real cost at 1985 prices against today’s devalued
pounds, this was cheap kit.

Nevertheless, it did the job if slowly, noisily, and

Target Shooter 59
 Redding Type ‘S’ FL sizer a neck measurement micrometer, and neck turning
die and ‘Competition’ gear. I’ll pause at this point to note that the moral of
seater die set in Forster this little history is to point out that the old adage of
‘horses for courses’ applies to handloading as much
rings to suit the Co-Ax – a
as any other activity – you don’t need £1,000 worth
really superb set of dies of gear to produce perfectly acceptable ammunition
for most rifles in most applications. I know that many
disagree with me, but I’ll just remind doubters that
the law of diminishing returns applies.

Cleaning to Sizing
So what do I do now? Most of my loads use
neck-turned cases and being fireformed to the
Barnard’s ‘minimum SAAMI’ chamber, fired
examples generally come out of the rifle with
light powder fouling on the neck alone. I used to
employ wet cleaning methods – ‘Micro-90’ chemical
solution, later an ultrasonic bath, but now I simply
wipe the fouling off with a Krazy Kleaning Kloth,
available from Sinclair International, or in the UK
from Trent Firearms (www.trentfirearms.co.uk). The
carbon fouling on the inside of the neck is brushed
hard using the largest diameter of the three bristle
brushes in a Forster Case-Neck Graphiter (without
using the supplied mica powder) leaving a smooth
coating. I now prefer this to squeaky clean brass
as the fouling acts as a lubricant in bullet seating
and gives more consistent bullet grip, this method
as well as saving time and effort. (A recent
conversation with a top 1,000yd BR shooter
revealed he’s come to the same conclusion.)
with a lot of wear and tear on the knees (using the
kitchen floor as a workbench). Relief came with in This done, it’s off to the Forster Co-Ax press with
the form of more Lee products, the Hand Press and either a Redding ‘S’ bushing sizer or Forster
introduced shortly afterwards, the Collet (neck-
sizer) die set with its dead-length seater. This Forster’s BR ‘Ultra’ die set
portable press is surprisingly powerful and will with the addition of a new
full-length sizes .308W cases, although it becomes Bushing-Bump (NS) die
hard work after a while. I used this pair on .308 for (centre), more excellent kit
many years, also building up quite a collection of
Collet die sets for other cartridges running from the
.22 Hornet to .300 H&H Magnum. Meantime, I’d got
a bench and the first of many presses to bolt on it,
these becoming increasingly sophisticated, powerful
and expensive over time, even if this gear was
reserved for the heavier jobs or loading large
quantities in a session. By now I was loading for
better quality secondhand .308W rifles, and was
still using the Collet die set (now on its second sizer
having worn the original out) when I bought my first
new .308 rifle, an FN SPR, a few years back and
later started using it in long-range F/TR. However,
measuring bullet runout on rounds loaded with out
of the box but batched Lapua brass gave too many
results on the high side (0.004-.008”) for my liking,
and that’s when I decided more sophisticated dies
were needed, also stepping onto that slippery slope
that sees you spend evenings with piles of brass,

60 Target Shooter
 Set up ready to go at 350 yards

Above - The bits that do the work in bushing sizers – Forster top left and Redding titanium
nitride coated examples in front. The pencil lead shows the point the case-neck is sized to
– the slightly oversize section behind in front of the neck-shoulder join is a plus as it helps
centre the loaded round in the bore
Bushing-Bump die installed. The Redding is a runout if the brass is good quality. Lubrication is by
full-length (FL) type that employs Redding or Imperial sizing wax thinly spread by the thumb and
Wilson bushings and also has an expander ball forefinger, only used on the outside of the neck with
for use with non-turned brass, although it can be the Forster die.
dispensed with if desired. The Forster is a neck-sizer
(NS) that also resets or ‘bumps’ the case shoulder Pockets and Trimming
position according to how the die is positioned in the After sizing, there are two jobs before priming –
press, its bushings usable only in this make and type primer pocket cleaning and a case length check.
of die. I use the latter exclusively for my Barnard F/ Since all primer pockets have been cut with a
TR rifle’s ammo, having measured fired cases in uniforming tool, the most efficient way to clean them
a Hornady case headspace gauge and set the die is to use this device again, but now with a thumb and
to bump the shoulder back by 0.001”. It lacks an forefinger hold producing a couple of twists and light
expander ball, although one can be fitted if desired, pressure – the objective is to remove carbon, not
so should really be restricted to turned-neck or metal. Incidentally, the appropriate photograph also
otherwise very consistent brass. (Using the bushing shows Sinclair’s new 0.081” flash-hole uniformer
alone on cases with inconsistent necks moves the up front, a use-once preparation tool, but having
out-of-roundness to the inside walls and requires the just got mine, I’m using it on each box of cases as
bullet to swage it out during the seating operation they’re cleaned and prepared for their next loading.
doing nothing for the cartridge’s concentricity.) The It only removes a small amount of metal from my
Redding gives a moderate FL size, and if I want to Lapua cases, an apparently consistent amount at
use cases fired in other rifles, I go back to an old 1986 that, but takes a lot more out of the old 160gn Norma
dated Lee die, the first 7/8X14 type I bought, that examples, and the amount can vary significantly with
not only gives a substantial dimensional reduction, these.
but produces cases with startlingly small amounts of

Target Shooter 61
 Set up ready to go at 350 yards

Above - Stoney-Point (now Hornady L-N-L) bullet comparator body plus headspace gauge
# ‘D’ on the callipers to measure the base to shoulder datum line measurement on a fired
.308W case. The sizer die has been set to reduce it by 0.001”
If cases have grown beyond the maximum SAAMI another tenth of an inch, before seating the gauge
length of 2.015” (trim-to: 2.005”), there’s no with its stem just inside. Carefully chamber it and
alternative to getting the case-trimmer out, and the gauge is pushed back into the case to give the
perform my least favourite handloading chore. I actual chamber length. A tightly chambered
always do a whole RM50’s worth of 50 cases even if custom rifle won’t produce much clearance above
only one or two exceed the limit, so that everything the .308W’s 2.015” max length, but factory and
restarts at a uniform length. The Wilson / Sinclair ‘tactical’ rifles are often ‘chambered long’, so you
lathe tool with individual case-holders cuts mouths may be able to let your cases grow another 10 or 15
square – more so than with any design employing a thou’ beyond SAAMI max before trimming.
cone-shaped pilot to support the case-mouth – and
soon gets through 50 cases. A tip is to measure your After trimming you have to take the sharp edges off
rifle’s chamber using a Sinclair Chamber Gauge the case mouth using a chamfer tool. While I use a
in the appropriate calibre, a soft leaded-steel neck standard Hornady model on the outside, I have one
diameter button atop a bullet diameter stem. You of the earliest so-called VLD inside chamfer tools to
have to sacrifice a sized case, trimming it back appear, a Holland’s (no relation) multi-fluted carbide
job that produces a long, shallow-angle chamfer for
easy and smooth bullet seating. It wasn’t cheap, but
is very easy to use and gives a mirror smooth finish
to the cut unlike those from standard tools.

COAL and Bullet Seating

We’ll take priming as done, likewise choosing a
powder and its charge weight, that being next
month’s subject, so the final task is bullet seating.
Actually, it isn’t otherwise we’ll have a case, or
loading block’s worth of cases, sitting on the bench
Left - Wilson / Sinclair case trimmer with .308W
cal case-holder and case in position for
trimming. The Holland’s VLD (inside)
chamfer tool is on the left foreground, a
standard Hornady model used solely for the
outside edges to its right

62 Target Shooter
 A line-up of .308W ‘seating dummies’ for the Barnard used to reset the seater die for each
bullet sit on a shelf in my components’ cupboard. Note the differences in COALs according to
individual bullet ogive form

full of powder grains up to the shoulders while stopping movement as soon as any resistance at all
wondering how we adjust the seating die to get the is felt. Usually the bolt won’t go anywhere near fully
correct COAL (cartridge overall length) for the rifle’s forward, so seat the bullet a fair bit deeper and try
chamber and throat. I’d normally use a Stoney-Point again. When the bolt closes enough that the base
OAL Gauge I bought many years ago (now sold as of its handle starts to line up with its receiver cutout,
the Hornady L-N-L OAL Gauge), a factory modified that’s the time to reduce bullet seating increments
.308W case, and the company’s bullet comparator to 20 thou’ or less (easy with micrometer topped
body and appropriate calibre insert affixed to Redding ‘Competition’ or Forster ‘Ultra’ seater dies,
callipers to identify the COAL that just puts the otherwise measure what a turn of the adjuster screw
bullet ogive into the rifling lands, before setting it produces on your die and work off that). You’ll likely
back 10 or 20 thou’ into the case for tangent ogive find a point where the bolt chambers the ‘dummy’
bullets, or moving it a bit more out into the rifling fairly easily, but the ogive is still touching the leade,
with VLDs. No go with the Barnard F/TR rifle! No as seen by rectangular rifling marks. Keep seating
matter what I did, the gauge wouldn’t give accurate the bullet deeper in yet smaller amounts until there
readings, the results being over length and the is no noticeable resistance at all to bolt closure, then
resulting cartridge refusing to chamber because start again with another case and ‘clean bullet’ (to
the bullet was hard into the rifling long before final see any marks on an unmarked jacket). You’ll likely
bolt closure. The ‘minimum-SAAMI’ chamber was find the lands are still just touching as evidenced by
stopping the gauge’s modified case from seating a wafer thin line – a magnifying glass is useful – so
fully before something touched. another 10 thou’ in will see you just off the rifling, and
lets you use that as your datum point for a longer or
How do you get around this? Plan B saw me use shorter COAL depending on bullet type. I keep an
the rifle chamber and inert ‘seating dummies’– inert ‘seating dummy’ for each bullet that I load in
easy with the Barnard action as removing the firing a rifle at the actual COAL I’ll load it to, and use it to
mechanism is a 20 second job simply requiring reset the seater die each time I load that model,
the bolt end-cap / shroud to be unscrewed and the marking the dummies’ bodies with a write-on-
innards slid out (to remove any cocking and everything pen with a narrow strip of 3M ‘Magic’
mainspring pressure providing resistance to bolt tape on top to stop it being wiped off with handling. I
operation). Old once-fired Norma cases were FL know there are other methods using a rod down the
sized and checked to ensure they chambered barrel with collars, but I use this one, sometimes
with no resistance at all, before just seating a even when the Hornady / Stoney-Point tool works
bullet in one. Here is the procedure to use. Try your fine, as a very precise, if a bit laborious, method.
over-length inert cartridge gently in the chamber,

Target Shooter 63
 What it’s all about ductile giving one or two
– trying to get (not thou’ ‘spring-back’ after
always successfully) pressures dissipate, so
near nil bullet runout. the necks had actually
expanded eight thou’
This is actually a
during firing – not too bad
‘seating dummy’ for
for a factory rifle.
the 210gn Berger BT
grabbed off the shelf to Resizing them in a
use in the photograph. standard sizer die with
Despite being an the decapper / expander
ancient and untouched stem removed reduced
Norma case bought as the neck O/D from 0.347”
once-fired and FL sized to 0.330”. Remember
in my oldest 7/8X14tpi ‘spring-back’, so cases
die, a 1986 dated Lee, have gone eight thou’
bullet runout measures in one direction then
only half a thou’ (seater eighteen or nineteen in
die: Forster ‘Ultra’) the other. At this point, the
neck’s inside diameter
has been reduced
to 0.298” (0.330”
minus 0.032” neck wall
thickness), and in the
final part of the normal
case-sizing process it is
expanded back by forcing
it over a 0.307” diameter
expander ball, pushing
the neck out by nine
Necks and Bushings to ten thou’, taking
Why use bushing dies? I mentioned that the old spring-back into account. So, total neck-wall
Norma brass is thinner than current Lapua, some movement in the firing–resizing cycle in this example
batches running at only 0.012” neck-thickness after is 0.008” + 0.018” + 0.009” = 0.035”, and it could
‘clean-up’ turning, while the thinnest of my prepped be more with some case-chamber-die combinations.
Lapua batches is two thou’ greater, the norm three. Do this a few times, and the brass becomes
The old Lee ‘Loader’ could produce very concentric work-hardened causing accuracy and case life to
ammunition with good brass and fired in a good suffer. Conversely, the Barnard cartridge starts at
chamber, but it would overly size all but the thinnest 0.336-0.338” depending on the batch of brass and
cases giving a very tight bullet fit. Many handloaders what I’ve turned the neck down to, and measures
like to feel lots of resistance on the press handle 0.341” on fired cases, so has gone through
as they seat a bullet, but light grip in barely worked 0.004-0.006” expansion depending on what it
brass not only usually gives the best results, but started as (the thinnest Norma cases rather more
also the greatest case life in accuracy terms before at 10 thou’). Bushing sizes one or two thou’ below
the neck brass becomes work-hardened. Standard the loaded cartridge neck O/D are used to individual
factory dies reduce the fired case-neck diameter a lot preference, so 0.334-0.337” depending on brass
before expanding it up again, and this is aggravated batch, a maximum sizing-down of 8 thou’, less with
by a typical factory rifle’s chamber dimensions. Let’s the thicker-necked batches. No expansion is used
compare what happened to an out of the box Lapua with the Forster die, so the maximum working is 14
case with 0.016” thick neck walls in my FN SPR thou’, and potentially as little as 11 with necks turned
and sizing with a standard sizer, to what happens to 0.015”. Bushing dies also let you play with the
now in the minimum-SAAMI chambered Barnard with amount of bullet grip, as you may find a particular
a bushing die. The unfired cartridge neck’s outside combination of case and bullet responds to a slightly
diameter (O/D) averaged 0.340” in the case of heavier bullet pull, or gives the smallest groups with
the FN consisting of bullet diameter (0.308”) and the bullet barely being gripped.
double the case-neck thickness of 0.016” and this
increased to 0.346-0.347”, determined by the chamber
dimensions, on firing. Cartridge brass is very

64 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 65
Target Shooter Magazine is a publication of Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd
 The Great Diggle Egg Shoot

by Vince Bottomley
The Egg Shoot is now a firm fixture on the Diggle Egg Shoot is not for you. You will be at Diggle Ranges
calendar, yet despite offering a prize of £100 for some six hours, yet you will fire only ten rounds.
for simply breaking a hen’s egg, it’s definitely a On the plus side, this gives plenty of opportunity to
‘marmite’ competition – you either love it or loathe it!
‘chill-out’, have a good old natter with like-minded
shooters and of course admire all of the interesting kit
Whereas many Diggle Club members give it a that the Egg Shoot always attracts. Remember, there
wide berth, others travel great distances to shoot are no rules regarding calibre, scope, weight of rifle,
the egg and we have many loyal entrants who means of support etc. so, providing you can carry all
we only see for this annual event. The Egg Shoot your gear single-handed to the firing points, anything
originated in America and one leading American goes. As such, we get everything from the humble
shooting publication described the Egg Shoot as 223 factory rifle right up to 1000 yard benchguns.
“Probably the greatest test of field marksmanship However, as you will see, exotic equipment is not a
yet devised.” The Egg Shoot is unique in that it prerequisite for success in this unique competition.
is the only competition I know of where sighting
shots are not permitted and maybe that is what The competition is in two parts. First we shoot the
frightens off a lot of shooters but appeals to the groundhog – a rabbit-size target – at 100, 300 and
field shooter who rarely has the luxury of sighters. 500 yards. Stage prizes are awarded at each distance
Also, if you like a high round-count, then maybe the plus a small-group award and the three sets of
stage points are totalled to give the overall winner.
After shooting at these three distances, you should
have a pretty good idea of your scope settings for
your one and only attempt at the egg – providing
that is, you managed to hit the target at 500
yards – 60% of the entry didn’t – including me!

Weather-wise, 2010 will go down as one of the

best – warm and sunny with just a light breeze, so
ideal for a relaxed day’s shooting. And so it proved,
with several respectable scores in the initial 100
yard stage. The groundhog ‘head-bull’ is a scant
0.75 inches in diameter and to get three shots in
Steve Dunn’s fantastic 0.065 there, out of a cold barrel, without cutting the line
inch group at 100 yards using a is damn good shooting by anyone’s standard. Each
22 BR shot off a bi-pod ‘clean’ hit in the head-bull scores 15 points but, cut
the line and that drops to a nine. Chris Parkin and

66 Target Shooter
The guys get to see their targets Lunch over, the big question on
after each stage everyone’s mind of course –
“How much wind do I need for 500
yards?” I decided to whack on an-
other minute. Hopefully, even if you
do not have a high score on the
groundhog, at least a hit on the A3
target will give you a bit of a clue for
your one shot at the egg. When the
targets came back from 500 yards,
mine, like many others was devoid
of any holes!

With a hit on the groundhog body

scoring only one point, you are doing
very well to get into double figures
on the 500 yard Stage and in fact
Chris Vaux both scored a max. 45 points shooting only one shooter did – well shot Mike
a 260 Remington and a 6.5x55 Swede respectively. Booth, an Egg Shoot regular and a keen field shooter.
Neither rifle was particularly ‘exotic’ and both shot off Mike rarely goes home without an award of some sort
Harris bi-pods. Good shooting guys! and this year he was shooting a particularly nice rifle
built around a BAT ‘S’ action with gunsmithing by Jim
For the next stage, we dressed back to 300 yards and Young of Scotland and stockwork by Mike himself.
at this distance most shooters will go for the ‘body-bull’
which is 1.5 inches in diameter and scores 10 points Whilst competitors were pondering over their scope-
for a clean hit, dropping to seven for a line-cutter. setting for their one and only shot at the egg, the Diggle
Believe me, it’s easy to miss at this distance and mine Club treasurer was counting out £100 should the worst
was one of the seven ‘zero’ scores – a nice group happen. Some years, no eggs have been broken,
but about a minute out on wind estimation. I was last year it was two. The white hen’s egg is mounted
shooting my 22 Dasher and after a reasonable 33 against a black background so that competitors
scored at 100 yards on zero wind setting, I thought cannot glean any information by seeing
that a quarter-minute of wind would be enough. another’s fall of shot but our butt’s girl places a patch
Out of a possible 30 available points (or 45 if you over each shot-hole with the shooter’s initials so
were bold enough to go for the tiny head-bull again) that afterwards you can see by just how much you
Darren Grundle’s 19 was the top score. Darren’s missed! But, before we get to that, let’s have a look
rifle? A bog-standard 308 Sako shot off the bi-pod. at who won what in the Groundhog competition.
Great shooting. With two relays at each distance, it
was now approaching lunchtime so it was back to the 100 yard Stage
Range House for a little refreshment and a chance to 1st Chris Parkin & Chris Vaux 45 pts
ponder over your target – after they had been scored. 2nd Mike Booth 39
3rd Darren Grundle 37
It’s always a great atmosphere at the Diggle egg shoot
Small group Steve Dunn
0.065 inches (that’s no misprint
– less than one-tenth of an inch!)

300 yard Stage

1st Darren Grundle 19
2nd Mike Hainsworth 17
3rd Mike McGuigan 15

Small group Darrel Evans

0.477 inches

500 yard Stage

1st Mike Booth 11
2nd John Dean 8
3rd Sam Newton 6

Target Shooter 67
 Overall
Jeanette gets ready for an
1st Darren Grundle & Chris Parkin 57
egg-shampoo! 2nd Mike Booth 53
3rd Chris Vaux 50

Stage 1 joint winner, Chris Parkin was the first to

shoot the egg with the rest of us watching through
our scopes and holding our breath. Chris pulled
the trigger but the egg stayed put. Next up was
Chris Vaux and watching shooters were treated
to the spectacle of a scrambled egg followed
by a loud cheer from Chris! Two shooters, one
egg broken! Third to shoot was John Dean,
CEO of Aimfield Sports, importer of Sightron
scopes and retailer of the best gun-bag around. John
was shooting a Howa built by Rhino Rifles and
All targets are carefully scored chambered in 6BRDX and fortunately, he
was using a Sightron scope for he also broke
the egg! Three shooters – two eggs broken!
Fortunately there were around twenty
or so other attempts before Les Holgate
broke the third and final egg. Les was an
egg-breaker last year as well. This year, he
was shooting his 284 BAT F Class rifle and
had failed to score at 300 and 500 yards so
some pretty good guess-work there Les!

That wrapped-up a pretty good Egg Shoot

for another year. It will be held on the same
May Bank Holiday Monday next year so, if
you fancy your chances, put it in your diary.
That’s John Dean of Aimfield Alternatively, if your club has access to a 100
Sports and he’s just won £100! – 500 yard range, why not consider running
your own egg shoot? I will happily supply
a sample target on request. It’s an easy
shoot to stage as butt markers aren’t needed
and it would be good to get a few more
egg shoots in different parts of the country.
Many of the pictures used in this article were
courtesy of professional photographer Steve
Thornton www.stevethornton.co.uk Between
us, we managed to photograph every shooter
and a CD containing over 120 pictures is
available for £5.00 including p&p – just e-
mail me at [email protected] All
proceeds to the Help for Heroes charity.
Small group Les Prior 0.626 inches

Happy egg shooters – the various stage and small-group winners proudly display their
targets
68 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 69
 MINI RIFLE TURNING TARGETS

by Tim Finley
Mini rifle as a sporting target even is, as you rifle targets are the IPSC cardboard “ Coffin”
know is taking off in a big way. More clubs targets as the norm. Certain clubs can and
are taking up the challenge and shooters are do supplement these with other targets on a
seeking out the clubs that do the discipline, to Mini rifle course of fire, Worcester Norton is a
the extent that they are joining these clubs. Mini club which has been shooting Mini rifle for a
number of years, when
Guns on the table for the log chop I shot there they had a
different type of target
on the turning targets
on one stage, it was a
fairly normal black circle
type and the “A“ or highest
scoring zone seemed
bigger than an “A”
zone on an IPSC target
from memory. Turing
targets are just what
they say they are, it is a
mechanical/electrical
system that as the
name suggest turns the
backer that the intended
cardboard or paper
target is placed upon.
On the stage I shot

70 Target Shooter
 Shooter ready controlled with the same single control unit. At
our club before getting the turners we came up
with other ways of spicing up mini rifle events.
Mainly with two banks of steel plates which must
be knocked over as part of the “coffin” shooting
stage’s . Thurnscoe my own club can have up
to 12 steels on a stage and Diggle too is able
to have six to ten steel plates at a time on a
stage. These reactive speed targets make a real
difference to how a mini rifle event shoots.
(Any stage with steels should be shot with eye
protection, Thurnscoe and Diggle have made
eye protection mandatory on any Mini rifle
event, even if no steels are being
shot. Worcester Norton has mandatory
eye protection although they do not
have any steel plates). Steel plates
have to be shot in an enclosed butt to
ensure the bullets knocking over the
steel plates are captured/retained
and both Thurnscoe and Diggle
already had this safe backstop system
in place before Mini rifle came to the
clubs. What can also spice up a Mini
rifle stage is being a bit more creative
with the ordinary cardboard coffin
shaded targets. The simplest way is to
Applying the safety before turn the target upside down or have it
moving to the next stage on it’s side, remember the top scoring
or “A” zone is not in the middle of the
at Worcester Norton they used three turning coffin shaped target. Shooters get
targets and it made it very challenging indeed. confused in the speed of competition as to
The turning targets systems themselves are where the “A” zone is. Even better is to have four
very expensive, our own club had to wait almost coffins on one backer to be shot at the same time
two years to have the money to buy two with them all at differing aspects. There is a next
turners and a control unit. The good thing is level to target difficulty, our resident club genius
additional turning units can be added and Ross Borough has come up with two systems
There are two With three seconds for
targets to shoot 4 shots on two targets
here it is HARD

Two targets with a swinging

arm in front

Target Shooter 71
 to bedevil the shooter. Both are very simple but
transform how the coffin targets are shot. His
first invention used a swinging/rotating arm to
cover up two targets. With a pivot in the middle
the normal resting position of the front arm has
two sections covering two of the IPSC targets,
one above and one below the pivot point. The
weighted end of the arm is rotated up to the
eleven o’clock position and then it is rested on a
One clay shot one to removable steel pin. This pin is sat in a hole in
go the backboard of the target frame. When the pin
is pulled out the front arm starts rotating around
the pivot point. The competitor has to place two
shots on each of the targets without hitting the
front swinging arm. The arms movement gets
slower and slower until it is covering up both
targets. A hit on the front swinging arm means
an instant minus ten points taken off your total
score for the stage. The really clever part is the
shooter themselves have to remove the pin to
start the arm moving, before they can engage
the two targets. There is a piece of string on the
end of the pin and with the gun at 45 degrees
the swinging arm covers the pointed downwards the competitor pulls the pin
two targets out via the string then attempts to put two shots
in the A zone of each target WITHOUT hitting the
masking arm. In practice the target has worked
faultlessly and really concentrates the mind of
the Mini rifler. The key to this devilish device is
to have the gun ready to snap up onto the aim,
a pistol grip stock opposed to a sporting one
seems to help with this. The safety catch cannot
be taken off until the string has been pulled and
the rifle brought to aim on the targets.
Ross then came up with another clever idea
involving clay pigeon targets and four coffins.
Two arms with blanking faces sit over two
the turning targets end on coffins. Below each blanking faces are two more
coffins. So four coffins must be double tapped,
the two hidden coffins can be uncovered
by shooting two clay pigeon discs, once the
clays are broken the blanking arms drop out
of the way to enable the other two coffins to
be shot. But the banking arms fall down the
cover the first two exposed coffin targets. So the
competitor must shoot the two visible targets
first, then brake the clays with more shots to
shoot the remaining two coffins. They worked
well in practice with some fun for those watching
The last of 12 as some shooters had tiny strands of clay left
steels on its way holding the blanking arms in position, which
down were then very hard to hit with a rimfire to
remove. The key with the clays was to aim at

72 Target Shooter
 12 steels or have a rifle or magazine
jam on you then there is
a fair chance you will get
to the second turner only
to find it facing away with
no more facing turns left.
A disaster as this has four
targets on it to double tap.
Ross even speeded up the
turners as we initially shot
them with three seconds
facing but after shooting
the edges NOT at the middle of the clay and at Bisley in the Phoenix
of course shoot the two visible coffins before meeting he changed them to 2 seconds in
attempting to smash the clays. order for us to get use to shooting quicker. The
It was when we received our two initial turning turners at Bisley are lightning fast although they
target units that our courses changed are not used for Mini rifle events just Timed and
significantly. Ross got his thinking cap on and Precision and Multi Target competitions, which
came up with a tricky start to a stage. The are very similar to Mini rifle but do not involve
shooter starts off as normal with an empty any fire with movement I.e. moving with the rifle.
chamber, bolt forward and magazine in. With a The turning target units we use are from Shield
45 degree downward angle on the rifle they wait International www.shieldtargets.com and are
for the beep of the timer. As the beep sounds Ministry of Defence units which have been
the range officer who accompanies the shoot- re-furbished, making them affordable to clubs.
er presses the control unit to start the turners. As mentioned before we can add additional
The first turner is in front of the shooter and isturning units now we have the controller as the
club funds allow. The two units we have can
has their opening pair of coffins on it. The firing
point is five to ten yards from where the shooter have totally different sequences of turns, which
begins so they must make their way to that point. we often have. Each unit is programmed via the
Depending upon how quick they are the first control unit, the sequence being transmitted to
turner can already be facing the shooter when each unit wirelessly. We charge £4 entry to Mini
they get there. It only faces the shooter for two rifle comps and we need this to cover not only
seconds with a five second “away” or edge on the price of the turning target system but the
no shooting aspect. The rule on the first turner coffin targets and patches. Normally a brown
is that once the shooter has begun shooting on cardboard coffin target will only last two events
it that is their only chance to double tap each of two stages before we loose where the A zone
coffin. If the turner faces
away after they have only The log chop Before
shot one target then they
have to move on. In practice
shooters get to the first firing
point take aim then wait for a
full exposure to take on the
pair of targets. All the while
the second turner is going
thro it’s own sequence of
2 seconds facing and five
away. However, it only does
this for a certain number of
faces and the shooter has to
shoot one or two other sets
of targets before they get to
it. If you are very, very slow
Target Shooter 73
 The log chop After a hot brass case coming my
way.
On the last log chop Ross
showed he is a damn good
shot too by breaking the last
strands of the load with two
shots, when it had turned
edge on. The rest of his team
were reloading and from
the standing position Ross
calmly blasted the wood into
two pieces with a double tap.
That meant his team won over
mine and I was sure we would
win when the log turned on it’s
is for scoring. We have taken our turners to side, ah well.
Diggle to spice up their Mini rifle events too, the
club is interested in getting their own as the units So it can be seen that there is no end to the
can be used for other shooting competitions. things you can do to make Mini rifle stages
Even up to 1000 yards from the control unit, interesting. Above all make sure the course of
which opens up even more potential. fire is safe, the rounds going through the targets
One other element which Ross has thrown in are caught and everyone applies safeties before
at the end of Mini Rifle events at our club is the moving. We now also check the safety catches
team “Log Chop”. This put very simply is where of all competitors before they are allowed to
teams of 4 or 5 shooters attempt to cut a piece take part in Thurnscoe and Diggle events. Next
of wood in half in the shortest possible time. month I’ll look at the types of sights we use for
The log consists of a 50*15mm by 600mm long Mini rifle and why.
piece of timber held at each end by string a red
line is spray painted in the middle of the wood
as the aiming zone. Two trestle tables are set
out at 15-20m from the safe backstop. Onto
these go the shooters rifles. All with bolt forward
122 Bohemia Road, St Leonards-on-Sea,
on an empty chamber and with safety’s on and East Sussex,
charged magazines inserted. Another 15-20m TN37 6RP, England
back away from the table stand the shooters 25 years in business and 30,000 items of outdoor kit available, all for you!
in a line opposite their own rifles on the table.
Using the same timers as for the Mini rifle events We sell everything from socks, trousers, jackets, air rifles, rifles, shotguns,
ammunition, telescopic sights, night vision optics, torches, rucksacks, tents,
they wait for a beep and then run towards the sleeping bags, military equipment, body armour,camouflage, knives, pyrotechnics,
survival aids, bivvi bags and catapults, through to soft air equipment,
table, pick up their rifles take the safety’s off paintball equipment, replicas,blank firers, archery, crossbows and gps systems.
and cock then fire at the log. It is not unknown The range of products covers hunting, camping, trekking, survival, security,
military, police, nature watching and various other activities.
for 100 top 150 rounds to be fired at the log.
Check out our website about the new
I was on the winning team in the pictures NEW SPOT-ON SHOTGUN LASER BORESIGHTER!
accompanying this article with a time of 19.2
seconds, the losing team was not far behind on
22.8 seconds. The also did this at Diggle at their
last Mini rifle event. It’s a fun way to end the day
for all the shooters. Eye protection is of course
mandatory for such an event, The teams of
shooters are in a line and so those to the right of Tel: 44 (0) 1424 429343 Fax: 44 (0) 1424 435308
the left most shooter will all get hot cases flying www.outdoorsman.co.uk
at them. I act as a range officer very often and I
wear eye and eye protection every time. Where
I stand behind the shooter I am sometimes get
74 Target Shooter
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 GUN OF THE MONTH
Building an LV rifle for rimfire benchrest –
part 2

By Andy Dubreuil
I’ve shot benchrest for a few years now and, remain competitive.
like most, started off with a basic rifle and My journey began almost a year ago now with
equipment but as you gain experience and research via internet forums and talking to
move into the national and international arena, other shooters. Looking at all the different
then there is a point where you start to think components, listening to views and ideas of
about having something a little bit special to others leaves you in a state of flux, not knowing

76 Target Shooter
which way to turn. a lot more stuff to carry around so this got me
In 22 rimfire benchrest there are a number of thinking.
different classes and I currently had a Heavy Since the action on my original rifle is an
Varmint rifle so, at international events, I had Anschutz 1913 and only had two screws to hold
to borrow team members’ rifles for the Light the barrelled-action into the stock, it came to
Varmint class but it’s never the same as mind that it would be quick and easy to change
shooting your own gun. Many shooters have a stocks if I went down the route of having two
rifle for each class but this is expensive plus of them that ‘made weight’ for either class - a

Target Shooter 77
novel way of covering two classes with one rifle. me an insight into how barrels are made and
The LV class has a weight limit of 10 ½ lb and how well they have done on the international
this is not easy to meet as you have to think circuit. That left me with a simple decision - it
about the weight of the stock, action, barrel, had to be a Lilja barrel.
scope and any other devices that you want to Benchrest shooters are renowned for wanting
add to the rifle. Luckily, the stock I already had a rifle that looks different from everyone else’s
was extremely light so I had that covered. That and I’m no different, so for my new stock for the
just left the barrel and scope sort out. LV class, I again researched via the web and
Although there is a huge array of scopes out talked to friends; I wonder how hard all of this
there, if you are looking for one which is light would have been before the internet arrived?
and of good quality it cuts down the choice I wanted the stock to look different and act
considerably. Eventually, I came up with two in a way that I want but obviously within the
scopes to choose from - the Weaver T36, the rules. Eventually, I came across Parmoor
first choice of many benchrest shooters and the Stocks and after many discussions and viewing
Sightron Big Sky Series II 36x42. Both weigh photographs we a came up with a profile that
just over a pound so ideal if you are building an fitted in with what I was looking for. I do like
LV rifle. Reading the specs, I don’t think there natural look of wood and found an unusual
is much between the two but I had a chance laminate called ice wood. This is an almost
to look at the Sightron and being in the UK it white laminate with a black resin and once
was easier to purchase through Aimfield Sports shaped it exhibits very unusual features.
the UK Sightron importer - a great and friendly So with all the main components obtained, it
company to deal with. was time to find the right people to put the rifle
The next item on the list was the barrel and with together and in the next issue I will be talking
so many to choose from, I think it’s a good idea about the gunsmith who re-barrelled the rifle for
to speak to buddies who have different barrels me and what was involved.
to get their thoughts and more importantly, to Until then safe shooting.
check out the scores they are shooting with
them. Many of my friends have a Lilja barrel
and seem to be shooting extremely well with
them. A couple of magazine issues ago, I had
the privilege interviewing Dan Lilja, which gave

78 Target Shooter
2010_ELY_08 Adverts Sporting Rifle outlines.indd 1 16/4/10 11:01:21

Target Shooter 79
 This Smallbore Business

By Don Brook
The second segment of Natural Aiming Point. and adjust the body position to have the rifle point
(NAP) at exact elevation. (waterline.) before the breathing
sequences are commenced.
The first section of this article written last month dealt If the rifle is pointing above the aiming mark, once
with the lateral movements associated with the NAP. more around the forward elbow fulcrum point, then
This month there is a far more detailed input, and the hips are inched forward in small increments until
thus is extremely important as it deals with the the target is naturally in the foresight ring.
elevation quotient of the NAP. The lateral
disbursement is relatively simple, gaining this around If the rifle is pointing under the aiming mark, then the
the fulcrum point of the forward elbow, and concerns hips are moved also in small increments backwards
the position of the hips, and lower body. away from the fulcrum point of the forward elbow.
Once again the hips position is relevant in this This will bring the rifle muzzle upwards to effect
section as well, but it is nowhere near as detailed as correct elevation. You will have then achieved
the use of correct breathing sequences relative to a rough elevation point from which to refine the
getting the rifle to point dead centre! forward position. I can assure you, that this segment
I am quite sure you have seen the rifle muzzle move is crucial to high quality scoring. It is also extremely
up and down as the shooter breathes, and it is this important to recheck to see if those small
that I intend to focus on for this article, as it is totally movements have made any difference to the lateral
connected with position refinement according to rifle point of the rifle. If they have, you need to start again,
movement as you breathe. isolating the small discrepancies, continually refining
While the breathing movement is actually the last the “point” of the rifle, both laterally and the elevation
refinement you need to work on with your position, of the muzzle.
it is really important to have the rifle “point” at the This aspect of prone shooting needs to be
target initially before the final stuff can be understood that not even the slightest short cut,
undertaken. resulting in muscle strength to direct the rifle can be
Having isolated the lateral point at the target around entertained. I cannot stress this more urgently than
the forward elbow fulcrum, getting the rifle to point that.
exactly at the aiming mark (both left or right), the Keep working at these aspects until the rifle sits on
shooter needs to now address the elevation ”point” target like a brick outhouse! I warn you though, that
of the rifle, and many make the mistake of using this may take some time in your training, but the
muscle force to direct the aim. Brute force has no benefits are immense. There is no substitute for
place in prone shooting! hard work!

Prone is a relaxed state, and this is dictated by If you study photo “A” you will see a forward plan
position refinement coupled with your breathing form of the position you should be looking for. The
sequence. forward triangle (inverted) between the forward sling
The shooter needs to expel all the air from the lungs, point (1) the forward elbow (2) and the position of

80 Target Shooter
 Position plan form

the butt in the shoulder (3) shows the balance of the that the aim reaches the waterline and this is
position. crucial to the perfection of a relaxed natural aiming
You will note the sling is parallel to the barrel with the point as the rifle moves upward (2) All this takes is
buckle over the elbow and clear of any contact with about 1.5, to 2 seconds of breath intake, and the rifle
the forward arm. should fall away vertically, and with consistent depth
The forward hand, and the trigger hand are also away from ideal aiming. This actually regulates the
parallel with the barrel, as is the trigger finger. breathing depth, and aids in relaxation.
The head is upright with a relaxed neck, while the
cheek piece contact of the cheek is consistent and The second breath is taken (3) and once more
quite strong. The eye is dead centre in the rear peep. the vertical fall away is checked, together with the
Note also the power in the shoulders of the shooting depth consistency, and if the shooter is happy with
jacket and the lack of wrinkles in the leather of the everything preceding, the breath trickles out for
arms. This is a Stenvaag jacket, and in my opinion the third time allowing the final perfected aim to be
is the best I have seen in the aspect of fitting across reached AT THE POINT OF NATURAL BREATH
the shoulders. You can still get these through AHG EXPULSION. “A”
Anschutz.
It is once more crucial that if you have to regulate
Finally, though this is a full bore (NRA) rifle the aiming by intake, or forced expulsion of the final
illustrated, note the easily accessible position of the breath to achieve correct aim, then more work needs
ammunition box. to be done!

If your position looks like this, then believe me it will I reiterate, that when the natural breath expulsion is
work! achieved, the aiming sequence should be waterline
and then only final aiming details are carried out.
Now, we come to the crunch of assuming a natural
point of aim, as the final orientation is achieved by The rifle should not be forced in any way to achieve
breathing and position control combined. final aim, otherwise you often can reach stress
levels with breathing and oxygen retention that affect
POSITION ORIENTATION DIAGRAM. Elevation the sighting clarity drastically. (More on this aspect
control by attention to the breathing sequence. later.)

Once more you need to study the diagram closely Now, having reached the final aim (A) the aim is
where you will see the perfected aim prior to “final totally perfected while the trigger is operated, and in
aim” on the graphic. terms of seconds you should NEVER hold the aim
for any longer than four to five seconds to achieve
These three illustrate the elevation and aiming release. More also on this aspect later in the
perfection you are looking for. sighting segments.

As you breathe, the rifle drops away vertically from On the diagram I have indicated shot release at five
the aim so that you reach the lower foresight picture seconds, and the aim must be held as the follow
(1) Then, as the breath trickles out again, the through sequence is carried out (around two to three
foresight rises to the aiming point again (Dotted line). seconds) where you then start to breath again and
At this point you check visually through the sights the muzzle of the rifle drops away from the optimum

Target Shooter 81
 Breathing
Diagram

aiming picture. It became apparent to me at an early age that

Within this follow thru section it is really important attitude to accuracy is extremely important. So
to study the rifle movement under recoil. You look much so, that on an indoor range you should simply
for consistency of the movement, the vertical not drop a single point, because there is nothing out
strike of the recoil, and the resettle to optimum aim on the range to remove your shot from the ten ring.
particularly with a small bore rifle. The much more No wind, or inclement weather, and if a point is lost,
severe recoil of a 300m or NRA full bore rifle is a you need to look for finding out why.
different kettle of fish, but a small bore should The same applies to perhaps a windless day,
return to exact optimum aim after recoil. So much so, outdoors at 50m, either competition or training. Your
that aiming after the shot release, you could say to goals and attitude should be to shoot the match, or
yourself “ Yes, I could fire that shot again !” training round clean.
All tens, no matter how long you train for, or shoot a
The follow thru is crucial to utmost performance competition match.
accuracy, both in the analysis of the shot fired, and
the nomination factor of where the projectile should Just about every top prone shooter I know has these
strike according to your aiming details. In ideal goals set both for training, and competition. One of
weather conditions where your nomination is based the great German shooters, Hubert Bichler, a good
according to the aiming sequence is where the shot mate whom I have not seen for a while, always used
hole should be on your target. This means that the to set a goal to register a 100% performance prone,
nomination process is conducted at the moment of no matter what the match or challenge in front of
shot release according to your aiming. If you “call” a him. I learned a lot just chatting with, and watching
10 o’clock shot, then the shot hole should be there, him. I have seen him come off the firing point with a
where you expected it. 599x600, and cranky (mildly) with that one shot that
cost him perfection.
If a new chum to small bore follows these guidelines,
it should be noted that ideally it is best to train your This was the attitude I came to expect from my own
formulative processes in a windless atmosphere, or performances, and later on in the series in sections
even indoors. devoted to competing, you will come to understand
Sometimes it is not possible to train indoors at 50m, what is needed.
so the 25 yard small bore ranges around are a very Another little gem for you all. …… You only get out
good breeding ground for technique awareness. I of small bore what you put into it. It is funny but the
learned how to shoot well on our 25 yard ranges in harder you train, the luckier you get !
Australia, and really enjoyed the shorter distances. Brooksie

82 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 83
 Profile on DAVE CAUGHEY

By Hayley Platts
Educated in Belfast, Dave and some of his school mates all strong input into his shooting career but was adamant Dave
moved to University at St. Andrews in Scotland and looked needed to go to a different level to get the type of coaching
to continue their interest of being in the CCF (combined to elevate his level of skill. For one complete winter season
cadet force). The equivalent at St. Andrews was the Patrick ensured Dave competed in all the right competitions
Officer Training Corps which Dave says was more like a where his performances would be noticed, ensured he knew
‘dinner party club’ so several of the group all decided to join all the right people and established contacts enabling Dave
the rifle club instead. When Dave decided to give it a whirl to locate second hand equipment at decent prices. All this
instead of staying in on a Wednesday evening to study he helped to get Dave to the position of gaining a hard earned
took to the sport instantly. “I loved everything about it. The place in the Scottish ‘B’ squad - which is the development
precise preparation, the intense concentration and the fragile squad for athletes with no international experience but
balance between relaxation and control that means thinking obviously with talent from a club shooting background.
about missing a shot actually makes you miss a shot! Quite The shooting ability was not in question with Dave’s
a different sport from water polo which was Dave’s choice application to the Scottish squad seeing as he had just raised
while he was in school! his personal best from 586/600 to 595/600, however his
The first time Dave went shooting was October 1998 and eligibility was in doubt seeing as he had grown up in Northern
he was firing at an easy type of training called a ‘2-bull’ (two Ireland. However Dave was soon able to resolve this issue
targets, 5 shots at each) and he remembers shooting with a copy of his mother’s birth certificate, confirming that
8,9,9,10,9 on the top target 10,10,10,10,10 on the bottom she is indeed a native Scot.
target! Within a few weeks he was on the University team Following a few years on the very lower rungs of the
and within a year on the county and Scottish University international ladder as Dave describes it, his training
National team. In one of the local leagues Dave won the became more intense under the expert technical coaching of
most improved shooter for three consecutive seasons, Jim Cole-Hamilton and Cyril DeJonckheere. Dave now has
and won the same award within the Scottish Universities. established himself on the Senior ‘A’ squad and has moved
He is extremely proud to have been involved in the most a step up in international terms. 50metre prone has always
successful run of St. Andrews University rifle team. After a been Dave’s discipline but he is now concentrating his efforts
drought of somewhere between 19 and 21 years in which on three positional where he hopes to improve to the stage
Edinburgh had had a tight grip on the University title, St. where he is good enough to compete internationally in this
Andrews won every competition at least once and often more discipline as well.
during Dave’s four years at University.
Dave says apart from the competing, the social side of the Highlights so far include:
club was amazing with the most eclectic mix of people from *Winning the Scottish 50metre Championships where he
any organization in the university. He goes on to say that shot 594 & 595 with a good final ensuring a win by a clear
you couldn’t find a more tight-knit club when you consider margin. Dave says this is probably the result that put him
that when Dave joined two couples who met at the club got in contention for a Commonwealth Games team place this
married, and most of the rifle club members were on the autumn.
guest list! *Current personal best score of 596/600 in competition, with
Dave freely admits that his shooting career would not have a PB training score at 598/600.
gone above county level had it not been for the time and *First major international cap this summer for Great Britain at
encouragement his coach at St. Andrews, Patrick Jess the World Cup in Belgrade.
invested in him. It was always Patrick who ensured Dave Dave also recounts one of his lowest points when he had
got the most from his training sessions and advised on which an ammo malfunction at the Commonwealth Shooting
were the best value competitions to attend. Dave explained Federation (CSF) Championships in India earlier this year.
“Patrick at the time was almost working full time coaching One of his rounds wouldn’t go off and he wasn’t entirely clear
locals and students and running the nearby clubs and has on the rules. He therefore ended up rushing and missing
never been paid a penny for doing it. He’s the type of person when he could in fact have called for an ‘official malfunction’
that makes amateur sport in this country such a success” and been able to shoot again. Dave recalls this cost him a
Following Dave’s graduation Patrick continued to have a lot of places and this was particularly frustrating as he done

84 Target Shooter
extremely well to get in to the final having completed that
initial shoot whilst not feeling at all well. This is certainly
something shooters need to be aware of, not only during
internationals but in any competition - knowing exactly what
you can and can’t do so you can be fully equipped to deal
with any unexpected eventuality will be invaluable, not only
score wise but for peace of mind as well. I’m sure Dave is
now well versed in the shooting rulebook!
Not only training wise is Dave putting everything into his
shooting career but he has also made the decision to work
for himself part time in order to maximise his time to train.
This of course does have implications financially and as he
says money is tighter just at a time when he needs to be
investing more money on equipment.
The technical side of the sport also fascinates Dave - how
the rifles work. Whilst at University it was clear to see that
some of the rifles were almost at the point of being ‘retired’
so Dave wanted to understand for himself how they worked
by trying to repair them. He was amazed at the simplicity
of the mechanisms in a bolt action rifle and the material
available online to describe some of the processes for
maintaining and fixing them. A few years on Dave says “Now
that I’m a little further on in the sport I leave the mechanics of
my rifle to the professionals, since my competition calendar
gives me ample opportunity to have my rifle serviced by the
manufacturer every year. Although Anschutz look after the
important part of my rifle , it hasn’t stopped me tinkering
with the rest of it. Anyone who has shot with me before will
know my reputation for hacking lumps out of my stock and
fashioning my own parts”.
Dave’s ‘bespoke’ set up is described below. Basically it
is an older style HPS Gemini stock with a 1913 Match 54
Barrel and action, it is almost unrecognisable due to his
many customizations.

*The side panels on the stock replaced with very thin, smooth
contoured laminate to better fit my smaller than average
hand.
*The pistol grip shortened to an inch and with a removable
moulded grip for 3P.
*The cheek piece completely replaced by a sculpted wood,
putty, neoprene and chamois leather. Anatomical fitted cheek
piece (now on mark 5 incarnation!)
*The whole stock shortened by 16mm especially for his
standing position.
*Butt plate was a Gemini but has two custom made
components to create the ‘hook’ as well as MEC rubber grips
and other non-slip surfaces.
*Has his own trigger blade and shoe to allow a very precise
contact, very far back with a large side offset.
*Gehmann rear-sight has been slightly re-assembled to put
the iris inside instead of outside and has had the two piece
Perspex filter replaced with an optical glass filter from an old
camera.
*On top of this, Dave has re-assembled three separate slings
for his own unique configuration,He had a saddle-maker
adjust his glove to fit better and made his own attachments
for 3P in the form of palm shelf and standing rest.

Not only does Dave show great determination to advance in

shooting but has a thirst for improving his knowledge of the
technical aspects as well as having a genuine love and great
interest in the sport. To make the decision to work for himself
and only part time and sacrifice a higher wage in his quest to
succeed is admirable and you can only wish him all the best
with his shooting endeavours and a long illustrious national
and international shooting career.

Target Shooter 85
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86 Target Shooter
By Gwyn Roberts
The Phoenix Meeting scheduled for the bank of them arriving at Bisley on either the Tuesday or
holiday weekend at the end of May almost had to Wednesday in order for them to be able to shoot their
be cancelled this year due to some large brush own matches first. As is always the case though, a
fires that had been burning for nearly a week in the few of them were still trying to finish off their matches
Pirbright training area just next door to Bisley. on the Sunday morning, but thankfully I think they
Thankfully though, a last minute safety check by all managed to complete them in the end. Other
the M.O.D and Fire Service concluded that it should early arrivals to the Phoenix were a small group of
be safe to start shooting again and the go ahead to shooters from the SAHGCA (South African Hunters
continue the meeting was finally given to the staff and Game Conservation Association) who made an
at the NRA/NSC. This was certainly good news for 11 hour flight just to sample the delights of Gallery
the 560 shooters who between them had entered a Rifle competition first hand. Myself and fellow
record number of 3055 individual matches for this GB team mate Taff Wilcox managed to give them
years’ premier Gallery Rifle event. a quick crash course over the Wednesday and
Thursday, and although such a short time on the
The shooting for the competitors was to take place range isn’t really ideal to try and get up to speed, they
between May 28 & 30th but it started much earlier all certainly managed to pick it up quickly enough! As
for many of the R.O’s and range crew, with many none of the guys had ever shot on turning targets

Bianch R.O Doug Green

Target Shooter 87
 Gallery Rifle community and unfortunately due to
a number of reasons this year we weren’t able to
meet up with some of our oldest friends from both
Ireland and Germany. Thankfully though many of our
international friends did manage to make the trip
over this year and everyone enjoyed catching
up and discussing the days’ performances (and
disasters) together each evening over a cold beer or
two in the bar.

An event the size of the Phoenix doesn’t just run

itself and it is only made possible with hard work and
dedication given by the volunteer Range Officers
and this year I must have met at least half a dozen
or so new people who were officiating this year, and
Incorrect scorecards - You must fill them in
a very good job of it they were doing too. It’s not easy
correctly! being on the range for up to 8 to 10 hours a day but
judging by the amount of barracking and grief that I
before, the timing and target acquisition on some of was getting by the majority of them they all seemed
the “shorts” stages did take some getting used to, as to be enjoying themselves, especially when the ice
did the racking action required when shooting with cream van made its daily rounds! We also had quite a
the Marlins but they all seemed to enjoy the new few new shooters joining us for the first time this year
challenges of Gallery Rifle. The amount of effort the and all of the ones that I spoke to were impressed
guys put into the practices certainly showed in the by the help and advice that they had received from
scores posted during their first full T&P1 match. Nic the R.O’s during their matches. Once again our
Roets shot a clean 300 with 23x’s with his Marlin, R.O’s did an excellent job ensuring that our matches
whilst Deon De Villiers dropped just a single point remained both safe and ran on time, making it a very
with his rim fire rifle. They also both managed to get enjoyable event for everyone taking part so a big
an X class “shorts” classification during their proper thank you must go out to all of them. Along with this
competitions later on over the weekend, with their must go a big thank you to Taff in the Army Target
team mates Andries Erasmus and Calvyn Vlok not Shooting Club for the excellent meals and service
far behind, so well done to them all. I’m sure next that he provided for our R.O’s and other range staff
time we meet up with our new South African friends during the course of the meeting. Match Director
they will prove to be a force to be reckoned with and Brian Thomas also had plenty of things to keep
I look forward to competing against them shoulder to himself busy with during this year’s event from
shoulder next year! Meeting up with both new and flying around the ranges making sure that everything
old friends is a big part of our shooting within the was going to plan, to attending the numerous meetings
that took place both day and night.
Frank Heymel from the BDMP team The one thing that stood out to me
was the fact that Brian was always
there to welcome in the R.O’s at
every meal time, without fail and was
always asking how things were going
or if there was anything that they
needed out on the ranges. It’s only a
small point, but I’m sure this personal
touch was appreciated by everyone
and it goes to show that the whole
of the Phoenix meeting is a big team
effort!

The record number of entries this year

meant there was an awful lot of work
to do for Sally Philcox & Sally Agnew
from the NSC, and the ladies on the
main reception desk but as usual
they were all as efficient as ever and
provided an excellent service for all

88 Target Shooter
 I really don’t know how the girls
Concentration is the name of the game in 1500 managed to keep their cool with a few
of the people they had to deal with at
the counter but they did, and all credit
to them for doing so. Knowing the
amount of work and effort that it
takes to run a meeting of this size I
don’t think I’d have the patience or
inclination to deal with a few of the
individuals that they had to put up
with though!

Out on the ranges, the weather for

this year’s meeting changed pretty
much every day from light showers
or overcast, to bright sunshine or
blustering winds making good
performances hard to come by for
a lot of people. It was definitely a
nightmare for anyone trying to shoot
a Bianchi match on Stickledown at
of the shooters. Due to the popularity of this NRA
various times throughout the Saturday and Sunday
flagship event many matches such as the “shorts”
as the strong gusts of wind just kept blowing you
were sold out before the shooting had even begun,
off the target. This isn’t what you want when you’re
but this didn’t present a problem for the vast majority
trying hard to hit the small bore steel plates or the
of shooters who had pre-entered their competitions.
moving target! Many shooters also experienced
It was, however, for some of the people who just
changes in points of impact on the targets at the
turned up on the day expecting to be able to shoot
same distances between one match and the next,
half a dozen matches or so (next to their friends as
which can only be attributed to the difference in
well) as they weren’t so lucky unfortunately.
lighting conditions on the day. Shooting 4 or 5 back
Everything humanly possible was done to try and
to back “shorts” matches I had to adjust my 25m
accommodate those with late entries and probably
settings by 6 - 8 clicks to get the shots into the X ring
99% went away to shoot on the ranges with a smile
in one match. Yet an hour later on the same range,
on their face. For the remaining 1% there’s not much
I had to revert back to the original settings, which is
anyone can do if someone doesn’t want an 8am
not what you need when you’re chasing every last x
slot because they have an hours drive to get to the
count that’s for sure. There seems to be a lot more
range, or they don’t want to wait a couple of hours in
people competing now with both LBR’s and LBP’s in
between matches, or they want to shoot all of their
both the Bianchi and Advancing Target competitions,
matches “today” because they are going to be busy
with 26 more shooters competing with their LBP’s
tomorrow.
in the Timed & Precision 1 match which is great to

The GR trophies - 1500, Bianchi & the Phoenix trophy

Target Shooter 89
 British & Phoenix Record
0921 - Timed & Precision 2 LBP
Phil Stead 596 29x

British & Phoenix Record

1301 - Phoenix A GRSB
John Robinson 197 28

British & Phoenix Record

1321 - Phoenix A LBP
Clive Ferguson 189 17x

British & Phoenix Record

1902 - Advancing Target GRCF
Taff Wilcox 180 32x

British & Phoenix Record

1921 - Advancing Target LBP
Phil Cowling 180 24x

Looking through the overall results there were also

some excellent scores shot by Chris Thompson,
Martin Hale, Alan Barker, Greg Rastall, David Payne,
John Crouch, Martin Hale, Doug Green, Paul Hunter,
Steve Foskett and Mick Tedesco within the various
Match Director Brian Thomas disciplines. Their scores certainly gave the top
see and hopefully this trend will continue to grow in boys a run for their money and it will make it very
the near future. Possibly for the above reasons the interesting on the line if they can repeat their
standard of shooting over the weekend wasn’t performances again at the Nationals in August.
really that fantastic with many of the various squad Another shooter who impressed me over the
members saying they had dropped points needlessly weekend was Jeff Kehoe from Ireland who said he
in quite a few of their matches for one reason or hasn’t shot much GR over the last 12 months or so,
another, but thankfully there were some new records yet he still managed to put in some very credible
set and they were: performances in some of his matches so well done to
him as well. Final congratulations must go to Welsh
Phoenix Record shooter Chris Lewis on beating John Chambers in
0721 - Timed & Precision 1 LBP the rimfire Speed Steels match. It certainly hasn’t
Michael Chinery 300 12x happened very often in the past, nor will it probably
happen again much in the future, but as they say….
British & Phoenix Record it did this year!
0902 - Timed & Precision 2 GRCF
Gwyn Roberts 600 44x I think the continued success of the Phoenix meeting
is that it appeals to such a broad spectrum of
shooters as it offers a huge choice of
disciplines to take part in, which in turn
Another top meal from Taff at the Army Target
can be shot with a wide variety of types
Shooting Club and calibers of firearm. Everything from
air and long range pistols, to classic
military or F class rifles are catered for
and many shooters will bring at least
3 or 4 different guns with them to shoot
with over the weekend. If you wanted
you could well end up requiring over a
dozen different firearms to shoot with
but that’s what helps makes the Phoenix
so unique. There really is something for
everyone and we are starting to see a few
of the top shooters from other disciplines
90 Target Shooter
 At 6pm each day we could all finish our
shooting and all that was left for the R.O’s to
do was clear up the ranges, but the day was
still far from over for one group of dedicated
people. Charles Murton and the rest of
his stats crew are the people that are very
rarely seen or heard from but whose job is
probably the most stressful and arguably
the most important one (other than safety
of course) during the Phoenix and again we
must offer them a very big thank you for the
excellent job that they do for us. When we all
get to go for a shower and start to relax for
R.O Jim Smith enjoys pointing out a miss to one of the evening the stats crew have got at least
his rival team mates another 3 or 4 hours worth of work left to get
through before they can start winding
The wind certainly made the Bianchi harder than down for the day. It takes up to half a
usual dozen people to hopefully decipher
and then input all of the scores into the
database every the day in order for our
scores to appear updated regularly
on the results board. At the end of
shooting on the Sunday afternoon, all
of this information has then got to be
checked and then re-checked again
before it is compiled into a set of final
results that are used for the prize giving,
which this year was held at the Bisley
Shooting Club. Presenting the prizes
this year was Mr Ian Robertson, a TR
shooter of considerable marksmanship
coming into Gallery Rifle now to take up a new skills who just also happens to be the
challenge, and likewise some of us are venturing Chairman of the NRA’s Shooting Committee and it
out into some of the longer range disciplines to see was nice for once to finally put a name to the face
how well we can do too. The wide variety of firearms as it were. The format was changed slightly this year
that are catered for at the Phoenix is complimented to try and reduce the amount of time that the prize
by the range of sporting goods that are offered for giving actually took to complete, and after the first
sale by the exhibitors who make up the very popular dozen or so events were called out without the
trade fair. The trade fair alone is the reason why winner actually being present to receive their award,
many people attend this event as pretty much things finally started to go smoothly and it was nice
anything that you could want or need will be to see a lot of new faces going up to the front to
available for sale somewhere along the aisles. From receive their prizes. A choking moment for me was to
the major importers like Midway UK to local firearms receive the Robert Owsianka Memorial trophy from
dealers from every corner of the country, there was his wife for the Timed & Precision 2 rimfire match.
certainly enough on offer to please most people and “Bob” sadly passed away at the end of last year and
once again it proved to be a great success for the many of us who had the privilege of knowing him
vendors and customers alike. and calling him a friend will certainly miss him on the
range.
Congratulations to the
64 shooters who earned
Grand Master medals this
year, and the results for
the three main Phoenix
Gallery Rifle trophies are
as follows:
LBR’s & LBP’s are definately becoming a lot more
popular The Sue Mansbridge
Rose Bowl

Target Shooter 91
(Aggregate of 1500 GRSB & GRCF) this year’s meeting for their generosity in supporting
1st John Robinson 2990 pts 227 x’s our sport, and I urge everyone to support them also
2nd Gwyn Roberts 2976 pts 236 x’s whenever you find it possible in the future as we all
3rd David Hackett 2974 pts 205 x’s need each other. A list of our sponsors is available
on the NRA website along with the full results.
The Bianchi Aggregate Trophy Results and photos of the event are also available
(Aggregate of Bianchi GRSB & GRCF) on the galleryrifle.com website. Finally, don’t forget
1st Gwyn Roberts 3810 pts 319 x’s that the GR National Championships will be held at
2nd Dave Emery 3724 pts 259 x’s Bisley at the end of August and it is open to every
3rd Mel Beard 3702 pts 273 x’s classification of shooter, so make sure that you are
there!
The Phoenix Gallery Rifle Champion
(Aggregate of 1500 GRSB & GRCF and Bianchi
GRSB & GRCF)
1st Gwyn Roberts 6786 pts 555 x’s
2nd Mel Beard 6593 pts 420 x’s
3rd Neil Hornsby 6250 410 x’s

I’m sure that everyone who was involved would

all agree that this year’s Phoenix meeting was a
huge success and our thanks again should go
to Brian Thomas and his NSC staff, the NRA,
and the rest of the organizers, range officers
and competitors from within the Gallery Rifle
community for making the Phoenix the special Ian Robertson presents Mel Beard with his
event that it is. It is also important that we thank Speed Steels trophy
Midway UK and the many other sponsors of

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92 Tel: Shooter
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The Mayfair Shooting Centre

Club Feature
Firstly, a little historical background - with apologies in Arizona and regarded by many as the world’s
to those among you who all ready know much of most prestigious firearms training establishment,
what is about to be explained in relation to legislative it was founded by the late Col. Jeff Cooper USMC
changes. The Mayfair Shooting Centre opened in retired, the ‘father of modern pistolcraft’. He
1981 as an indoor shooting range catering primarily graduated as ‘Expert’ with a pistol, the highest level
for handgunners and is located in part of a building achievable, and was later offered employment by
complex near Sunderland city centre that was the colonel.
formerly a sweet factory and, appropriately before
that, a munitions factory. The Chief Instructor at BKPA during this period,
Ray Coull, also a retired local police officer, was
In the very early nineties the Mayfair became part previously a Northumbria Police Firearms Instructor
of Blue Knight Ordnance of South Shields and was and Adviser, Police National Individual Shooting
renamed ‘Blue Knight Pistol Academy’. A centre of Champion, and naturally, a leading light in
excellence in the field of pistol and revolver shooting Northumbria Police Shooting Team. He is still
and modification, it was owned and operated by on-hand to offer his expert knowledge to members
retired police officer Ray Branch. A former member wishing to advance their skills and knowledge
of the record-breaking Northumbria Police Shooting further.
Team which set National records in Police
Competition that have never been equalled. A The vast majority of members at that time were and
graduate of Smith & Wesson Academy and Glock still are, civilians. However both police and military
Service Pistol Division, he specialised in building, personnel attended BKPA in their own time for extra
modifying and tuning competition pistols and practice, tuition and advice. The team has also been
revolvers used by police and civilian shooters. consulted by the authorities for advice on firearms
and ballistics, and some of their premises were used
A life member of the United Kingdom Practical for training and de-briefing purposes, using their
Shooting Association since its formation, he is also expertise and observations for evaluation purposes.
one of the first of only a small number of British
members of the ‘American Pistol Institute’. Located At the end of the nineties, following the national

Target Shooter 93
confiscation of handguns by the Labour We recently began booking military ranges in the
Government, the club reverted to its original name area for use by members and, as a result of the
of Mayfair Shooting Centre to emphasise the use growing popularity of this type of shooting in the
of all types of firearms still lawful to use in this north east, a new section has formed specifically to
country. Undaunted by the unreasonable restrictions cater for those who wish to do long-range shooting
and changes forced upon them, the club has gone with centre-fire rifles.
from strength-to-strength and is now the biggest club Many of the members shoot solely for their own
in the North of England, and probably one of the enjoyment, and meet regularly socially. Others travel
biggest in the country. all over the country and even abroad to compete in
major shooting events. There is however absolutely
The club caters for both sexes and people of all ages no pressure to compete at any particular level. We
and is proud to count among its membership people have varying degrees of interest and skill levels with
who have served their country in various conflicts all types of firearms and the level to which members
past and present. The oldest members are in their aspire and the goals they set for themselves are
80s, and there is an ever-increasing family and entirely up to the individual.
junior membership.
Why not come along and meet like-minded friendly
The Indoor all-weather 20 meter range consists of individuals of all backgrounds and walks of life
9 lanes with electrically controlled targets and is in a comfortable setting near the city centre. We
wheelchair accessible. Members mainly use .22 are close to all major transport links and routes,
rimfire rifles and pistol-calibre carbines, as well as including a local Metro station and are open
muzzle-loading and long-barrelled pistols but any evenings and weekends.
firearm that falls within the range safety parameters • For more information on membership and general
can be used. As can be gathered from the above, queries, contact;-
most types of firearms and shooting disciplines The Mayfair Shooting Centre on 0191-5641966,
are catered for and we also have a small practical www.mayfairshootingcentre.co.uk
shotgun section. email: - [email protected]

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

Competitions Factory Sporter 1st Phil Gibbon

The final round of our winter 600 yard series took 2nd Darrel Evans
place on May 30th - which was just too late for the 3rd Bruce Lenton
June edition of Target Shooter. As always, conditions 4th Mike McGuigan
were difficult and again penalties for shots off target 5th Ian Kellett
caught out several competitors – including me.
Smallest group of the year: Phil Gibbon
In Light Gun class, Jack Searle finally made it 2.218 inches
to the top step with his 243 AI Stolle but I could
at least claim small-group award for my 2.64 Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who
incher in the final Match. In Factory Sporter, Phil took part in the series.
Gibbon took another win with the 6.5-284 Savage
and shot small group with his 4.37 inch group. 100/1000 yard competitions 19/20th June
Although our 600 yard shoots have finished
Results: until the autumn, our 100/1000 yard
Light Gun championship is only at the halfway stage and our
1st Jack Searle 243AI TGP Stolle 100/1000 yards shoot were, for once, held in warm sunny
5.075 conditions. Winds however were typical Diggle and
2nd Jack Gibb 6.5-284 Osprey Barnard this is reflected in the scores with even the winner,
6.406 Ian Dixon, only managing to agg. in the ‘threes’.
3rd Vince Bottomley 6.5 TGP BAT
7.535 Entries for the short-range benchrest shoots are
currently about a third down on previous years and
Small group whether this is temporary remains to be seen.
Vince Bottomley 2.64 inches Unfortunately, a great deal of effort is required
to stage a 100 yard benchrest shoot, with special
Factory Sporter target-frames, moving backers, a dedicated target
1st Phil Gibbon 6.5-284 Savage 8.25 in. changer, plus upwards of a hundred targets which
need to be carefully measured afterwards. If entries
2nd Bruce Lenton 6.5-284 Savage 9.562 don’t improve, it could see a reduction in the number
3rd Graham Watts 6.5-284 Savage 10.187 of shoots next season. If you have made the not
inconsiderable investment in a dedicated 6PPC
Small group benchrest rifle, you need to come and use it,
Phil Gibbon 4.375 inches otherwise you could find it’s just an expensive
cabinet filler!
As that was the last round, we can now announce
our UKBRA Championship winners. Five rounds Results:
were contested – it should have been six but the Heavy varmint
January round was snowed-off! 1st Ian Dixon 6PPC Walker BAT
0.3102 inches
Light Gun 2nd Vince Bottomley 6PPC TGP BAT
1st Jack Gibb 0.3664
2nd Jeanette Whitney 3rd Graham Francis 6PPC Walker Stolle
3rd Vince Bottomley 0.3692
4th Jack Searle
5th Chris Hull Small group
Graham Francis 0.148 inches
Smallest group of the year: Brian Webb
2.035 inches

Target Shooter 95
 600 yard UKBRA 2010 Champion
Jack Gibb with his 7mm Saum
Factory Sporter Results:
1st Darrel Evans 6PPC Sako 0.514 inches Light Gun
2nd Andy Woolley 6PPC Sako 0.7308 1st Steve Dunn 7mmBooBoo BAT
3rd Darren Grundle 308 Sako 0.8476 7.906 inches
2nd Vince Bottomley 6mm Xtreme BAT
Small group 9.217
Darrel Evans 0.270 inches 3rd Bruce Lenton 6.5-284 Savage
10.01

Fortunately, attendances at our long-range Small group

benchrest shoots are still healthy and shooting Steve Dunn 5.392 inches
at 1000 yards still holds a fascination for many
shooters. We have an enthusiastic Factory Factory Sporter
Sporter following and as always we see some 1st Bruce Lenton 6.5-284 Savage 10.01
amazing groups. This time it was Bruce Lenton and 2nd Alan Seagrave 6.5x55 Tikka 10.684
his 6.5-284 Savage who managed to not only win his 3rd Andy Small 243 Win. Remington 13.453
class but also place third in the Light Gun Class with
his 10.01 inch agg. – an excellent performance but Small group
Alan Seagrave wasn’t too far behind with his 6.5x55 Bruce Lenton 8.473 inches
Sako, agging 10.68 inches.
Next 100/1000 yard benchrest weekend at Diggle on
31st July/1st August. Check out the UKBRA website
In light Gun Class, it was a battle between Steve at www.ukbra.co.uk for further information.
Dunn and myself which was very close until the
last match when Steve shot a five-inch group to my
nine! Steve’s group was also small group of the day.
Another group worthy of note was Steve Barret’s 8.4
incher shot with his 308 F/TR rifle.

96 Target Shooter
 In association with

Elliott Barker Leeds 25 yard bench rest league and division 3 of

Target Shooter Profile the Yorkshire 50m, both of which are shot at 2mm
bulls from the shoulder without rear sand bags.
For this month’s target shooter profile we are
taking a look at Elliott Barker, a member of the UK Over the winter2009/10 season his big
Junior Benchrest Squad who is well on the way to achievement was coming 3rd overall in the
becoming one of the UK’s leading junior benchrest Unrestricted 25 yard rimfire championship (and
competitors. 1st as a junior) with a perfect 1250 and 84, only
2 x’s behind 2nd place. Elliott’s scores so far in
Elliott started shooting at the age of 9 when he the summer season have been excellent and he
got a spring air rifle for Christmas and then joined is a real hope for junior medals in all events at the
Keighley Rifle Club with his father. It wasn’t European Championships next month.
long before the springer was exchanged for a
pre-charged rifle and Elliott began competing, to “I’m really looking forward to going to the Czech
begin with at club level before moving on to bench Republic, I’m a bit nervous but I’m sure I’ll
rest shooting in the Yorkshire leagues, initially with settle down when I get there. It will be a great
an air rifle but then with rimfire, and he now shoots experience to shoot alongside some of the top
in the higher divisions on an even footing with all guys in the world.”
the adults. No mean feat for a 13 year old. In fact
he is in currently in first place in division one of the For equipment Elliott uses a Feinwerkbau P70

Target Shooter 97
air rifle and a Feinwerkbau 2700 .22 free
rifle. “My Dad and I are working on the final
refinements to get everything just right before
we go. We’ve got a barrel tuner for the 2700 and
have spent a lot of time adjusting it and the torque
settings to tighten our groups and it seems to be
running pretty well now.”

When not shooting Elliott’s other passion is

rugby which he plays for his school and the
local side in Keighley, but now in the off season
there is plenty of time for practice and getting
ahead with all his competitions before going to
the Euros.

For the future he hopes to progress with bench

resting but also move towards prone rifle as
well. Like most juniors, the rifles are too heavy
for under 13’s, but now he is getting big enough
Elliott has started prone shooting and if he
can transfer the breathing, trigger control and
concentration from bench resting then he could
be a future hope for Olympic glory in years to
come.

Top and below - Hi hopes for Elliot

at the forthcoming European and UK
national championship. Another of our
junior shooters representing their
country

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

Following the short-range League opener Following lunch, it was back to 1000 yards.
at Diggle in April and a trek north to Blair The sun was still shining but the wind had
Atholl in May for round 2, it was back to picked up and, as we in butts watched the
Diggle in June for Round 3 of the GB F Class antics of many of the Open shooters exploring
Association League Shoot but this time for our every ring of the target, we rightly began to
more normal long-range – 800 to 1000 yards. worry! No one broke 70 – which is unusual
and the best scores came from Simon Rogers
Diggle is famous for its inclement weather and Grant Taylor, both on 68. Amazingly,
but thankfully, the last few League shoots their scores were matched by F/TR World
have been blessed with extraordinarily good Champion Russ Simmonds and the scores of
conditions and this weekend was no exception Stuart Anselm and Adam Bagnall would have
and warm sun and a light breeze greeted taken third and fourth places in Open Class! But,
competitors on the Saturday morning. don’t get the idea that conditions had eased-up –
only six other F/TR shooters broke 60 – it’s just that
The F/TR shooters on the first relay got the we currently have some very good F/TR shooters
best conditions with very little wind and sure and to some extent, this is the buzz of shooting in
enough, our 2009 World Championship Team the GBFCA League – you are measuring yourself
members, Russ Simmonds, Stuart Anselm and not only against the best in the country but also
Paul Dobson lead the way with solid 72 ex.75 the World! It’s fine being ‘king of the hill’ in your
scores with Liam Fenlon, Adam Bagnall and own little club shoots but this is the arena where
Ian Dixon just one point adrift. The conditions you get to shoot against the very best. A League
also held for the Open Class guys and I was win – or even a Stage win – is a real achievement.
not surprised to see a ‘clean’ with Grant Taylor -
last year’s League winner - putting in a At the end of day one, the top ten scores looked
magnificent 75.5v. Peter Wilson stayed in touch like this:
with a 73 but Des Parr (72) and Gary Costello (71)
were only able to match the scores posted by the Grant Taylor Open 143.7v
best of the F/TR guys. Russell Simmonds F/TR 140.10 (Look
at that V bull count!)
This has become something of an emerging trend Stuart Anselm F/TR 139.7
as development of the 308 cartridge by the F/TR Adam Bagnall F/TR 138.4
shooters continues and certainly at 800 yards Des Parr Open 137.8
it is proving to be a viable ‘accuracy’ cartridge - Simon Rogers Open 137.4
especially when used in a rifle built to benchrest Liam Fenlon F/TR 136.8
standards. Bi-pods have also contributed to Gary Costello Open 136.5
this trend with some impressive contraptions Hugh Ingliss Open 135.7
beginning to appear but even so, the humble Peter Wilson Open 134.7
Harris can still hold its own and its light weight
allows maybe a better scope or heavier barrel to We normally list the Open and FTR shooters
be used. separately but surely the F/TR guys
deserve full recognition for their extraordinary

Target Shooter 99
The remarkable Russell Simmonds with his 308 F/TR rifle
performance. four points from Liam Fenlon, with Adam
Bagnall a further two points adrift in third.
Sunday morning could best be described Russell’s V bull count of 20 was way ahead of
as ‘damp’ – not raining but the ground was anyone else and only beaten by Open class
wet and the sun had hidden behind some winner Grant Taylor on 22 V bulls. Remember, that
ominously dark clouds but, as the Open V bull is just five-inches in diameter and Russell is
Class shooters took to the firing-point, a few using a 308 shot from a bi-pod!
blue patches began to appear. The wind was
stronger than the previous day but steady. Final results:
CLASS SCORE
Today, the 800 yard stage was a 2 & 10 shoot and 1 Grant Taylor O 266.22
Gary Costello, Des Parr and Hugh Ingliss came off 2 Russell Simmonds F/TR 257.20
the point with clean ‘fifties’. 3 Gary Costello O 256.16
Overnight leader Grant Taylor dropped one but 4 Des Parr O 256.16
he could afford that with a lead of six points. None 5 Hugh Ingliss O 253.15
of the F/TR shooters posted a ‘clean’ but Les 6 David Kent O 253.15
Dawson, Ian Dixon and Adam Bagnall dropped 7 Liam Fenlon F/TR 253.13
just one. Overnight F/TR leader Russ Simmonds 8 Simon Rogers O 252.12
dropped two and that meant that Adam 9 Adam Bagnall F/TR 251.07
Bagnall was now within one point with just the 10 Mark Daish O 249.07
1000 yard stage left. Second overnight Stuart
Anselm dropped six, so effectively ruled himself Finally, as always, thanks must go to Diggle Club
out of contention. members for putting on a great shoot. Next month,
3/4th July, the League makes its first visit of the
It did feel quite windy at 1000 yards and it would year to Bisley then, in August it’s back to Blair. Full
be so easy to drop points with a 308 when the details on the GBFCA website at www.f-class.
‘two’ ring is only one MOA away from the bull – org.uk
that takes some wind-reading skill and inevitably
big points would be dropped in today’s conditions.

Grant Taylor continued his domination of the

event with a fantastic 74.8v – just one shot
escaping from that ten-inch bull and a
full four points ahead of any his rivals but
perhaps even more remarkable, Russ Simmonds
shot an amazing 69.3v which was the fourth
best overall score in Open class! That well and
truly sealed the win for Russell by a healthy
100 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, END OF needed to keep things sociable, especially once
TRAIL SHOOT June 5th 2010. the liquor tents arrived. It was natural for these
hunters and mountain men to want to show their
In the early days of the American mid west at the prowess with tall tales and examples of their skills and
end of the trapping season, it was customary for the marksmanship.
trappers to gather where the riverboat was to land
in order to meet the traders and deal for the best Friendly (and sometimes not so friendly)
prices for their hides and pelts. Whilst waiting for the competitions would be organised, usually with some
trading to begin, some sort of entertainment was items of kit or provisions as prizes.(And perhaps

Ken Hall with his 38-55 Hi Wall

Target Shooter 101

 L to R Ken Jones Dave Malpas and Greg Hoskin annual End of Trail events in the
quaint old prairie town of Diggle,
nestled in the Pennine foothills,
and on a fine and fairly windless
day in June, held an event
consisting of competitions for
muzzle loading revolver, black
powder cartridge rifle and muzzle
loading rifle or musket.

Event 1, for muzzle loading pistol,

consisted of 12 shots at a
standard pistol target from 25
yards, followed by 12 shots at
a small figure silhouette from
50yards. This was won by Ken
Hall using a Euroarms .44 cal
Remington 1858, with a score of
141. Runner-up was Ken Jones,
using his Ruger Old Army in .44
the odd wife or two for the more serious). Axe and cal, with 136.
knife throwing, offhand shooting with muzzle loading
flint and caplock rifles and pistols, as well as the Event 2 was for muzzle loading rifle and consisted
occasional wrestling contest would keep the men of five shots at a modified turkey target at 50yds.
occupied as they awaited the riverboat’s whistle. Ken Jones took this one with his Lyman Tryon Rifle
These meetings or ‘Rendezvous’ as they became in .50 cal.
known, gradually attracted many famous hunters
and trappers and were eagerly awaited by Event 3, also for muzzle loading rifle, consisted of
competitor and opportunist alike. five shots at a “V” notch target at 50yds. Greg Hoskin
hit nearest the “v” to win this one.
With the expansion west came the days of the cattle
trails as enormous herds of longhorns were driven Event 4 was 10 shots at a reduced buffalo target at
eastward to feed the ever-growing population. At the 50yds with breech loading black powder rifles, Ken
end of these cattle drives, the men would continue Hall won this with his trusty Uberti Hi-Wall in .38-55.
the ‘Rendezvous’ tradition and organise ‘End of Trail’
events, along the same lines as their predecessors. Event 5, also for breech loading black powder rifles
consisted of 10 shots at a reduced silhouette of a
The Quigley Shooting Association organises its’ own mounted Indian; Paul Seymour won this using his
Cimarron ’76 in .45-60.
Paul with his Win’76
Black powder competitions
always seem to bring out the best
in shooters, and all who attended
had a really relaxed and
light-hearted day. The next EOT is
scheduled for Oct 9th 2010.

Ken Hall for QSA.

102 Target Shooter

Gallery Rifle & Pistol News

Since 2005 there has been an annual International body, the BDMP) from entering two teams will
Gallery Rifle Match on the Bank Holiday Monday hopefully be resolved and there is also the
following the Phoenix Meeting. The NRA elected expectation that South Africa will send a team to
Ashley Dagger from Frome and District Pistol Club next years Phoenix Meeting.
as Captain of the GB Gallery Rifle Team for 2010 More International action for the GB Team in
and Ashley selected two teams to shoot this year’s Ireland 10th/11th July and in Germany in
match. The format was two matches running November – I will keep you abreast of
side by side; the Phoenix Trophy (also this year developments.
counting as the European Gallery Rifle Coming up next is the Imperial Meeting Gallery
Championship) and the Phoenix Cup. The five Rifle Match, which runs from Wednesday 14th
man GB teams (red and blue) lined up against to Sunday 18th July. Squadded matches on
teams form Germany and Ireland who could Saturday and Sunday and unsquadded
field a single team each this year due to different “unlimited” entry matches throughout the meeting.
logistical problems – so their scores counted for Entry fees are modest (as little as £3 for a Timed
both competitions. The course of fire was the and Precision One – still known as the Police
standard 1500 centre-fire match with aggregated Match at the Imperial). Entry on the range at
score for the best four shooters counting toward Melville on production of your FAC and range
the final team score. safety card and if you are not an NRA Member
The final scores were GB Red Team (Phoenix (which we would encourage) you will need to get
Trophy) 5959 (426X), Ireland 5959 (408X), GB temporary “Meeting Membership” for £5 per day
Blue Team (Phoenix Cup) 5949 (412X) and or £20 for the whole meeting.
Germany 5920 (333X). The winners of the On Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th July Frome
Phoenix Trophy (by the narrowest of margins – host their popular 3-gun practical match at the
just 18X) and European Champions for 2010 are Shield Shooting Centre in Dorset. This is a very
GB. In the Phoenix Cup Ireland, with some very popular match so get your entries in soon. The
consistent team performances roundly beat GB format is three stages (shotgun, small-bore and
into second place. centre-fire) with 100 plus round count for each
The problems that prevented Ireland (firearms stage of practical shooting – this year’s “theme” is
licensing—yes they have problems too!) and “extreme pursuits”!
Germany (elections in their shooting governing Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th August brings the
Stourport 1500 plus shorts,
this match has been sadly
missing for the calendar for
the last couple of years but
makes a welcome return
in 2010. A great range at
Stourport with a very central
location and access from any
part of UK. This brings us up
to the Gallery Rifle National
Championships over the
August Bank Holiday
weekend – more of which
next time. As always entry
from available from www.gal-
leryrifle.com

Target Shooter 103

 points and incurring penalties both
for the miss and possibly for the
non-engagement of the target... you
really don’t want to walk by a target
and fail to see it.

So you can imagine the groans

and knowing looks as the match
kicked off and the first squad rolled
their kit and ammo boxes up to the
first stage. Stage 1 encapsulated
several ingredients designed to
make a competitor work for the
few valuable points available...
Imagine sitting on a chair with your
Ken Brown Memorial PSG Match 21st/22nd palms flat on a large table in front
May 2010 of you, spread so that your shotgun is directly
in the middle. The shotgun is in Option 2 start
The Ken Brown Memorial Level III PSG match configuration – which means you have an
is based at the wooded range of Harlow Town empty chamber with a closed bolt, and the
RPC, off the A414, a short drive from Jn 7 of the magazine loaded with 8 rounds (if shooting
busy M11 in Essex. Standard Manual or Auto) – more if you shoot
The match is one of six Level III UKPSA Modified or Open.
sanctioned, national competitions running in Directly ahead of you on the far edge of the
2010 and is a purely birdshot only event, so no table, no more than five feet away, are four
buckshot or solid slug stages to be concerned of the very smallest clay targets (mini clays)
with. Fifty nine shooters attended including the taped to thin garden canes so they appear to be
welcome return of two members of the Serbian floating about shoulder height.
team: Branislav Raketic and Igor Jankovic. At either side of the table, maybe eight metres
away in the woodland gloom are two large
The day was warm and
dry, with sunlight streaming
through the ruffling leaves
and adding to the challenge
of seeing the grey steel plates
against the dim backdrop of
the shrubby stage confines.
As I have mentioned more
than once in my earlier
articles, the Harlow team like
to place targets well off the
ground on long poles. These
are fiendishly hard to spot
(particularly in a wood!) when
shooting a stage against the
clock, and very easy to miss
– thus losing you valuable

104 Target Shooter

“lollypop” targets (which as the name suggest at least!
are just steel plates on a welded pole attached
to a pivoted base so they fall over when hit). A quick movement to straighten up and two fast
Ahead of you out at 10 metres or so and about 4 shots to hit the steels at either side of you, the
metres off the ground is a single, normal sized, ring of the shot off the plate face registering the
clay target on a thin pole thus making the clay hit before you have seen it fall... if you wait for
appear to hover in the dappled leaves. visual confirmation it would mean a slower time
– you need to be confident of your accuracy
“Shooter ... Are you READY!...” ... the RO stood such that you can fire and forget. Finally, a shot
just behind your chair shouts as your palpitating at the suspended clay target in the middle and a
heart starts to thump against your chest. Unless feeling of relief as you see it fragment and fall...
you object at this stage, he continues holding
the large yellow shot timer just back from your “IF you’ve finished, UNLOAD and SHOW
ear... “STAND BYYYYYY!” ... CLEAR” – the RO’s voices booms as he leans
forward to check as you rack the shotgun to
BEEEEEEEEEP! ... the start buzzer on the timer clear any remaining rounds from the magazine.
echoes in your head as you rise from the chair Both of you carefully check the receiver to
and grab the shotgun – lifting it to the shoulder ensure it has no cartridges left in the gun before
in one smooth motion. It’s a Benelli M2 – and the command “IF CLEAR, HAMMER DOWN”.
thankfully you remembered to press the shell This tells you to shoulder the shotgun and
latch release button after loading the magazine pointing at the backstop you pull the trigger.
thus allowing a cartridge to click forward and If there was a round in the gun, it would have
sit on the carrier. A swift, sliding hand catches chance to discharge in a safe direction at this
the charging handle, racking the bolt back and point.
feeding the cartridge into the chamber as you
lean forward to within inches of the first mini ... a dry CLICK! From the shotgun...
clay ... and fire – obliterating the fragile clay in
an instant before shooting the other three in a Then open the action, apply the safety, place
swift, smooth cadence. Well, that’s the theory muzzle vertically down and insert the breech
Target Shooter 105
 time to stand. Others
stood and leaned
forward to ensure
that the muzzle was
no more than inches
away from the first four
mini clays and to give
them a better view
of the other targets
further back.

Igor Jankovic from

Serbia shot all seven
targets, including
racking his Benelli M2
to chamber a round
in 4.63 seconds –
a blindingly fast
and accurate
demonstration of
shooting skill... but
then he is the 2009
European Modified
Division Champion, so
perhaps it was to be
expected.
flag.
You then relax – the stage is over!... and you Quite a few stages this time included clay
know before the time is announced (usually) targets – both stationary and moving
whether your time was one to be satisfied with. (usually flipped six feet in the air by a falling steel
Hopefully as the RO shouts “RANGE CLEAR – target). These latter type are what are known
FORWARD AND RESET PLEASE” to allow the as disappearing targets – and as such they are
scorers and resetters to move downrange, you usually shot for bonus score – with no penalty if
won’t hear a cry as someone points out a target a competitor chooses or fails to shoot at them.
you missed or worse, failed to shoot at. One Nine stages later, and with around 110 rounds
miss on a quick stage with only seven targets fired (not counting top-ups for misses and
will blow your score for that stage – as will a re-shoots) all the competitors ganged around
malfunctioning gun... or a reload because you the awards table for the prizes and medals.
fired and missed targets and had to re-shoot at Division scores below, but also a number of
them. other significant awards were made:

Now, a target placed no more than a gun Team Entry went to the Blue Team (Men). Teams
length away is going to be easy to hit right?... are optional and consist of four shooters who
ironically, it proved to be a lot more difficult than declare themselves before the match and pay
many thought. After all, the shot pattern three a small fee. The best three scores in each team
foot from the muzzle isn’t really going to have are aggregated and a special prize is awarded
spread an awful lot – maybe it’s about 0.8” if to the top team. Team members do not have to
you’re lucky. It might as well be a slug at that physically shoot as a team – they could be on
range and that means you have to be pretty separate days – it’s just their scores that count
spot on to hit a clay target that is barely more towards the final aggregate.
than two inches in size. Not surprisingly, the winning team included
Mike Darby who shot extremely well , taking
Many people chose to stay seated to save the 1st place in Standard Auto division. There are

106 Target Shooter

plans afoot to weld his gun shut to give the rest 2009.
of us a chance – but there are just unconfirmed
rumours, m’lud! Final Division Winners were:

Senior category winners were: Branislav Modified:

Raketic (SER) in Modified Division, Graham 1st Branislav Raketic (SER) – 100%
Hill (the Grumpy Pumper”) in Standard Manual 2nd James Harris (GBR) – 97.48%
Division and Barry Sullivan in Standard Auto 3rd Neil Smith (GBR) – 96.22%
Division.
Standard Auto
Top Lady was won by UKPSA Chair Vanessa 1st Mike Darby (GBR) – 100%
Duffy, the current European Ladies Champion 2nd Igor Jankovic (SER) – 98.69%
3rd Barry Sullivan (GBR) –
88.16%

Standard Manual
1st Martin Davies (GBR) –
100%
2nd Iain Guy (GBR) – 99.71%
3rd Adrian Sell (GBR) –
91.38%

Target Shooter 107

Readers Letters
Hi Guys, backgrounds. Our best with your future shooting
endeavours.
I just wanted to drop you an e-mail to express The team at Target Shooter
my thanks for a superb magazine. I have been
a rough and clay shooter over the last 30 odd
years and having recently retired I fancied Dear Target Shooter,
looking into target shooting as well. I have just I have just now been introduced to your ezine. I
attended and completed a very comprehensive am not a benchrestshooter but, at 63 years and
probationary course run by the NRA at Bisley crippled right leg, I no longer hunt so I spend my
which was an excellent introduction and time shooting from the bench at my local Gun
grounding in the safe use of firearms, Club. I enjoy all forms of shooting sports and I
and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone particularly admire the accuracy of the benchrest
interested in taking up the sport, the Instructors shooters.
are top notch and everything is aimed at making
you understand what makes you a safe shooter. There’s nothing like handloading for getting that
flyer responsibility where it belongs.
I found your on-line magazine by chance on the
web, and admit to having gone through all your Your website is superb and, as you Brits say,
archived issues (which is a great idea) and the “well played.”
information contained in those issues I found
extremely helpful, as I have a dodgy back and Best wishes,
knees, the main interest for me will be Benchrest Joel Wright
shooting, as this will be physically the most Comfort, Texas
comfortable way to shoot. U.S.A.

I am just waiting for the Police to carry out their

home inspection and questionnaire to hopefully when life deals you lemons ... take a nap!
issue my FAC and hopefully I will be up and
running, so to speak. I hope your readership
continues toincrease and the ads roll in. It’s good to hear from some of our readers from
around the world. This is one of the things that
Thanks for a great magazine. makes’ this magazine unique, in the sense that
it was originally intended for the UK market, but
Best regards for now is read by people in over 83 countries around
the globe. Fascinating to say the least!
Peter Hatton I am guessing that we all have so much in common
and that we want shooting sports to remain
alive, develop and prosper. Having competed
Our thanks for your contact. We try to make the with lots of people from around the world I would
magazine as diverse as possible, covering a say this is one of the things I enjoy most –
number of shooting sports. With this in mind we meeting them and developing friendships. Good
would like the readership to grow, develop and shooting to you and we hope you continue to
also help encourage shooting sports. Let’s face enjoy the magazine.
it there are lots of people out there that would Carl
like to push shooting sports even further to the
background. It’s good to hear there are people
are still coming into the sport from a variety of

108 Target Shooter

 News
Next month we continue with reviews and bringing you updates on what is happening in the
target shooting world. We are now truly into the summer months and the heat is blazing - so good
for a day at the range. Until next month, good shooting.
[email protected]
Happy reading and we hope you enjoy the magazine. The team at Target Shooter.
If you have any letters or news that you would like to air on a national basis then please contact us
at the magazine. This could be for those budding writers out there that would like to submit a full
article on specific firearms, competitions, shooting sports, etc.
The aim of the magazine is to include you the shooters in the United Kingdom and further afield.
So having a regular letters page or even a question and answer section would be really useful for
a lot of people out there. Let us know what you think!?
We would also like to have a gun of the month section - so send us your pic and spec and we’ll
include it in ‘gun of the month’.
Any news that your club or association thinks is worth viewing can also be sent in for selection.
What we would like is to get a letters page started with your views, news and perceptions about
all all the aspects of target shooting. So lets see those letters coming in and we will read your
thoughts in these pages.

Advertisers Index
Action Air Shooting 13 NSRA 85
AIM Field Sports 40 & Website Open Season/ KG Systems 28
Benchrest Directory 29 Phoenix League 16
Bes Products 52 Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd 9
Bratton Sound Gunsafes 75 Richard Paul Russell Ltd 35
Bulzeye Pro 48 Roedale Precision 53
Dolphin Gun Company 45 Rude Fat Dog 92
Eley LTD 78 Shooting Bags 41
Fox Firearms 19, 29 & Website South Yorkshire Gun Supplies 69
G T Shooting 9 Surrey Guns 86
Indelfa industrial electronics 86 The Outdoorsman Limited 75
Intershoot 83 Tim Hannam 20
Kelbly 28 UKBR22 - Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest 8
Lilja 34 Viking Arms LTD 2
Low Mill Range 29 & Website Westlake Engineering 16
March Scopes 56 Zeiss Optics 3
Mayfair Shooting Centre 95

Target Shooter 109

Next time in.....

The August issue will be out slightly early on the 24th of July. Lots of follow up articles, new
reviews, news and as ever packed with the articles you want to read.
All the latest information at your fingertips

August 2010 Issue

On Test Reviews
Regular
Columns

Features ...and lots more

110 See you next month.......................................
Target Shooter