Catch-22

Personally I think you can easily go 2-3x firings of the brass before you ‘need’ to anneal. It’s really only at that point the brass is beginning to harden to a point that annealing will really help. So if you had 200x pieces of brass and you shoot 100x in an afternoon, then you could get roughly 6 shoots in before you really need an annealer. So not urgent I’d say. But once you have one, it’s easy enough (and probably helpful) to anneal brass each time it’s used. I have one of Lubo’s machines (goes by the name of ‘Raptor Calls’) and it’s great value for money. Just reach out to him via PM and he’s a gent to deal with.

Occasionally. I will also gently press, place, featherly touch, nestle, nudge, push, bump, caress etc.

That’s what I meant. Prevents clamp from sliding. To me that’s extra rigidity in the setup because when you slam your barricade stop against an obstacle, the stop/forend doesn’t then move about. Deepest, most sincere apologies if ‘rigid’ wasn’t the word you were looking for! Would ‘less slidey’ have been better?

If you use the Area419 ARCA clamp, there is a section of the clamp that fits within the ‘toothed’ slots when you clamp down. So it still slides, ARCA as normal when loosened. When tightened, the ‘teeth’ engage, a bit like mini picatinny. The Area419 ARCA rail can be used with other ARCA mounts, thy just won’t engage the ‘teeth’ of the rail ‘tis all.

That looks like an Area419 ARCA rail that’s been cerakoted. It is ‘toothed’ to provide extra rigidity and stop the ARCA mount sliding back and forth too easily. https://www.area419.com/product/arcalock-univ14/

As stated previously, you might need to up the sensitivity. Perhaps a lighter bullet (a .17cal 17gn bullet is small) may be harder to pickup? Alternatively, check the positioning of the bayonet to muzzle. Or change the battery if it’s been in there a while.

SKB iSeries 6018-8. Fully waterproof/airline approved mil spec case (alternative to Peli). I used it to bring over my IMPACT/MPA gun, clutch of barrels and various other goodies. Has 3 layers of foam and nothing’s been cut. The impressions in the foam are from the gun and stuff being transported. Should fade over time. Case has only been used for transportation from the US, never been on the range or elsewhere. Unfortunately there’s the plastic wrap from customs papers on the lid which isn’t coming off without being scraped off...which I didn’t want to do. Otherwise case is perfect. This is a very BIG case! Dimensions approx; L = 152cm W = 45.5cm D = 20.3cm REDUCED to £325 - big saving over the $580 I paid (minus import and VAT). Collection only please.

SKB iSeries 5014. Fully waterproof/airline approved mil spec case (alternative to Peli). I used it for my Defiance/Eliseo tube gun with spare barrel, scope, moderator, bipod and mags. Only the middle 50mm foam has been cut, but the 50mm foam below hasn’t been touched. Case has only had light use, in and out of the car too and from the range. Dimensions approx; L = 128cm W = 38cm D = 15cm ONLY £100! Collection only please.

Highwood Classic Arms have had 1903A1’s for sale in the past. Might be worth giving them a call to see if they’re able to source one for you...or contact the previous buyers to see if they might consider parting with theirs? http://www.highwoodclassicarms.co.uk/classicmilitaryrifles.htm

The RAT is a great bit of kit 👍 Alternatively you could look at RRS ARCA to Picatinny QD mount. I use these on the bottom of an ARCA rail to connect my Tier One EvO Tac pod. RRS QD ARCA mount: https://soar.reallyrightstuff.com/SC-LR RRS picatinny rail to ARCA QD mount: https://soar.reallyrightstuff.com/CA-R-50

Can’t answer with regard to a McMillan A5 but one of my Defiance/Eliso tube gun barrels is a 1.35” straight bull barrel that’s 30”. It is extremely heavy. The Eliso chassis is heavy in itself but the barrel makes it very front heavy. The forend tube of the chassis is long and heavy too, but as I mount my over barrel Phoenix/Fortmeier bipod I don’t have any issues. I think the longer forend the better, as it will balance better with a bipod.

Hmm...a new line of products on the horizon perhaps?? For me, shooting a target/PRS type gun, I look for the following in a mod; 1. End of barrel mod vs reflex. Personally i dislike reflex types as I think they affect barrel harmonics more than an end of barrel. Plus reflex leave the barrel hotter for longer 2. Material & construction. Pointless if it’s made of materials that will rust or corrode by gas cutting or carbon/powder residue. I also prefer them to be strippable so I can clean everything now and then. 3. Weight. End of barrel on a 26” barrel will be like a massive counterweight if not careful. Whilst price isn’t a big deal for me, I’d still prefer to sacrifice weight for the sheer cost the Titanium moderators go for. Personally I think they’re silly money.

Nice. Yeah I experienced the same. Same charge, same POI but my ES/SD numbers fell dramatically with Muroms. The CCI450s were total crap, like ES around 45fps and SD around the 20s. With Muroms my ES/SD are now single digits.

As I said before, Lapua brass is the best. Unless you load to max pressure, you’ll get 20x reloads off each price of brass (especially if annealing) before it gets scrapped. Here for £109 per 100 https://www.cdsgltd.co.uk/lapua-brass-65creed-100.html

Definitely one brand, ideally from the same lot (though this second point is more valid for competition shooting). Different brands will have different internal case capacities, thus giving you varying levels of pressure/velocity and consequently consistency. Different brands of brass also have different metallurgical makeups, so they will become work hardened at different rates, all of which affects consistent neck tension. Annealing definitely helps mitigate the work hardening but it’ll still be inconsistent when using different brands of brass Lapua is arguably the best brass, quickly followed by Norma. Hornady is usually soft. S&B is generally a bit ‘thicker’ and so has lower internal capacity.

Be mindful that your friend chooses a scope with a reticle that corresponds to the turret clicks. Eg, a MOA scope with elevation and windage in MOA needs to have a reticle that is also MOA. Same with MIL, MIL reticle must have MIL turrets. Most modern scopes have matching reticles to turrets but some older designs or those at the lower end of the price range still have mismatched values. Vipers are nice, I once had the Gen1 Viper PST 6-24x50 FFP in MIL and was perfectly fine, especially for just starting out. Also worth noting that with FFP you don’t need to place it on max magnification in order to have corresponding clicks to reticle marks. Reticle to turret clicks match at any magnification. If using a SFP scope, when not in max magnification you’ll need to run some conversions to match clicks to reticle hash marks. It’s for this reason why I and a lot of other people prefer FFP.

To me, it looks like there was a manufacturing defect...or perhaps something that damaged the cases during transport etc. They look to have clean cuts in the brass by something sharp (like a cutter or punch) and when you shot them there was gas leakage from the cut into your chamber as the brass was expanding during firing. I’d definitely take a close look in your chamber, if you can, to make sure it’s ok. Are these the only two cases like this? And is there any damage to the box they came in? I would consider contacting PPU’s main U.K. distributor (is it Henry Krank? Or Hanhams?) and show/tell them what you’ve got and provide the lot number.

Stick with the 6.5CM. Use an appropriate bullet (eg the 147gn - 150gn) and an upper charge, and you’ll easily sail past the 1200m mark. I have a big 338Norma Mag boomer. Love it though I do, you’ve got to Factor in the cost of a setup for a new gun; gun, scope, rings, dies, brass, powder, bullets, primers, gun bag/box etc etc. Any new gun is a very, very large investment - increases so as you go up calibre’s. Your 6.5CM will do everything you want on pretty much all U.K. ranges. By saving money on a whole new gun, you could spend that money on the best reloading gear, consumables, multiple barrels and have many tens of thousands of rounds practice down range - all improving your technique and reading the wind skills - all of which is probably a better idea I think. It does obviously lack the big ‘BOOM’ however .😎😂 Just my opinion.

Good news for ODRC shooters. It seems that range dates are soon to be published. Ranges being requested include Sennybridge J2 and J3 and Rogiet Moor (though these are seemingly more tricky). Awaiting news from Warminster IR2. Kingsbury is sadly still shut. Hopefully I’ll get a shoot in this year! 👍

I’d say that it doesn’t look like your usual ejector swipe as such, as most of the case head looks ‘swiped’. I guess that could happen as the bolt is rotated to unlock and the case head is scraping against the face of the action perhaps?? But if you look carefully at the ‘P’ in the middle picture and the ‘ree’ in the bottom picture, that looks more clearly like the ejector swipe, as it looks more distinctly round. The primers don’t look flattened though.

I’ll take this please! PM how you’d like to be paid. Cheers

I have long thought there’s a potential market to hire out particular bits of equipment to help you try before buying. Anything like rifle mounts, bipods, drag bags, shooting bags, range finders, Reloading presses etc. Possibly even scopes, dies, chronys etc. With suitable hire costs ranging from a week to a few weeks, P&P and insurance included, you could rent bits of kit to see if you want to take the plunge on a new one. Buying new then selling 2nd hand usually means you loose a tonne of cash. A small rental fee would be tiny in comparison! Btw, I’m patenting/copywriting the idea if anyone starts such a business! 😋

Get a Magneto. Results are very very similar to the Labradar but is easier to carry around and setup. If you have a picatinny rail on the fore-end of the rifle, you can use a 3rd party mount by M&K machining to run the Magneto on the gun without strapping it to the barrel, which can alter POI.

Yeah definitely go up a charge. If 44.9gn is as good as or similar to 44.3gn and 44.6gn, then you’re on a good node and 44.6gn will be the middle of that node. Being in the middle, you have at least 0.3gn of flexibility either side of 44.6gn, meaning as conditions change (hotter weather induces higher velocity, even if just a smidge) or as your barrel speeds up or slows down, you are still in a central node of harmonic stability. That’s the benefit of the OCW approach. When you choose your load and play with seating depth, I would consider starting at touching lands and go all the way out to 0.80” jump, loading 3x rounds at each 0.10” interval. You could load 5x rounds for each interval, but I think your shooting shows enough consistency to only require 3x rounds per interval. But up to you. You’ll then be on the sweet spot. Heres an interesting read on some research done about bullet jump and how in all instances, a longer jump was more beneficial than loading to the lands. https://precisionrifleblog.com/2020/04/28/bullet-jump-research-and-load-development-tips/ Good luck!

Did you see any pressure signs at 44.6gn? What I mean; hard extraction, shiny spot underside case rim from ejector, flattened/cratered/pierced primer, gas leak from around primer? If not, then I try a charge at 44.9gn. Your loads at 44.3gn and 44.6gn look to have nice low vertical. They also look to shoot a consistent POI. If 44.9gn shows similar low vertical, same POI and tight groups, then I would argue that 44.6gn will be your ‘middle OCW node’. From there, load more 44.6gn but with a variety of seating depths (don’t be afraid of huge jump, even 0.50” to 0.80”) to find what your bullet likes. Seating depth will really tighten things up. But so far, I’d say you’re on the right track and putting in some good groups. A chrony will be a must though, to determine your ballistic solution if you want to shoot further out.