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I’ve always thought of a bore scope as being a nice to have thing but not essential. I’m too tight to pay for a Hawk-eye so I took notice when the likes of Erik Cortina started using a Teslong borescope. It cost about £120 including postage - well worth it considering you get a 4.5” display that you can record photos ( SD card), also usb / mini usb cable connections for pc or mobile (so video possible) 3 lens sets that go up from 22 cal. Bottom line is it works and works very well. Model is ntg 450 with memory flex cable. The cost of the display is worth it to me ( I think this is about half the cost of the unit but available without it). The unit seems very well made but obviously a ‘best China’ product. Uses, obviously seeing barrel condition / throat wear but more important for me is seeing how effective my cleaning methods are. Of the barrels that I have looked through I am not surprised that my Krieger 338 is the best but the AI 308 border barrel is not far behind. The cz pistol barrels by comparison look like crap - showing much more copper build up and tooling marks.

This is a good place to start: There is a balancing act between not wasting time reinventing the wheel and experimenting for yourself. One example and it is about reducing ES is equating seating pressure to neck tension...... I took 6 fired cases - 3 I left uncleaned and 3 I polished the crap out of the inside of the neck with steel wool and polishing paste. I then neck sized them with the same bushing ( and trimmed them) - so equal neck tension but massive difference in seating pressure (or so I could feel on the co-ax press with the polished ones being much lighter to seat. . Next 6 more cases that had been through the Lem cleaner - inside of necks left like that - 3 through the same bushing die as before and three through an expander mandrel which which enlarges the ID by about 0.0005”, so neck tension had changed - on the co-ax hard to feel the difference when seating a bullet. Real world testing for me - rounds loaded with just the Redding body die and bushing neck die produced less ES and marginally better groups than ones loaded with the neck bushing die and expander mandrel after - this seems contrary to what others have found - I don’t really care - I can find what works for me.

Mark, use a ballistic calculator and change your MV to match the variance you are getting with ES and see how relevant it is at the distances you shoot. For example, 15fps may not be worth loosing sleep over at 200m or 300m but I know for me15fps at 1km makes a 14cm vertical spread before I start adding in other factors. To meet Andy’s criteria of 1/4 moa I need single digit ES ( FPS)

Edi, tickets remain valid for next year apparently ( quote from email I received below): “Already purchased tickets remain valid. You will receive an e-mail or postcard with a corresponding voucher code in time before IWAOutdoorClassics 2022. However, if you insist on a refund of the purchase price, please contact the visitor service.”

One small point is that you need an accurate and consistent way to measure velocity and ES. The two top choices atm seem to be magneto speed and Labradar. I’ve used them together and got very consistent readings. The same can not be said for my Chrony - light conditions alter the readings a lot.

Also pre IWA ( 4,5 March) Enforce Tac is cancelled/ postponed. Hope the Northern Shooting Show is on in May - we would like to exhibit there.

Not that one - ( don’t think I like that universal holder). I have the basic one: https://www.rcbs.com/priming/hand-held/hand-priming-tool/16-90200.html though I would hope that there’s something of better quality available these days. My wish list would be stainless construction ( not pot metal), uses standard shell holders and has a primer feed system (tray type).

Was it blue? - if so different bit of kit ( Dillon rf100 collator - auto primer sorter for Dillon 1050 / Mark 7). The RCBS hand prime is like the Lee hand prime but the RCBS uses standard shell holders - big plus and is a bit less crappy. The c21 kit Terry posted a picture of above looks excellent - I would go with the one with the primer feed tray.

Ivey mounts were the benchmark for adjustable mounts when I was messing about with a 50 bmg. You can get an extra 200 moa maybe more out of them with some models. Obviously negatives with scope height above barrel to get required slope on the scope - so your objective has enough room not to bang into the barrel. No idea on U.K. availability. https://iveyshooting.com/

RCBS hand primer. Try mine when you are over Derek. They are not expensive but easy and fast to use. Changing primer size is easy enough and they use standard shell holders. Tried the k&m crap with meter - single priming did my head in - does same job as RCBS but less efficiently.

Also depends on target and background behind the target. Ballpark at 60-70x 300m on black paper targets. 550m on white paper targets. 1km + on white steel targets. These are what I’ve been able to achieve more often than not. Weather can make it a bit better or a lot worse. Sometimes you can be better off at 30x. I wear normal contact lenses for shooting, bit of a pain to read the turret clicks.

Viperteks, thank you for the enquiry. I will send you a pm.

Last update on this tested: Hornady 285 Eldm, 92.0 grains RS 76 , Lapua brass, CCI mag primer, 95.54mm COAL. at 100m, sub 1/2 moa 5 shot groups, at 300m, sub 1/2 moa 5 shot groups 550m, small plate cca 10cm, consistent hits 800m, range of plates-smallest 13cm diameter. Some but not consistent hits on this . Go to a 20cm ( 1moa ) plate - consistent hits. Shooting off basically sand berms - not ideal conditions. I think it’s a very good half moa load. Very consistent ES speed ( 4 m/s) and relatively temperature stable.

Pops, the river only flows one way regarding U.K. gun laws. There are better people than me who have stayed in the U.K. and given to the sport Bob at SGC springs to mind, he brought the straight pull AR15s to the U.K. market, invested in the cnc machines to make uppers and lowers - no crystal ball but I think without Bob there would have been no AR 15s in the U.K. He then made them lever release, won a court case that they were indeed legal that cost him around 100k I believe and I guess he also had a loads of stress with it. In the end the government just bans it. Yet you call them a ‘pi$$ take’. Where is the incentive to invest time, effort and money into anything where the government change the goal post on any whim they like? I am pragmatic, I allow local people to use my range for free, I allow the police to use it and I invite U.K. shooters over. This benefits not just me but the local hospitality services and RFDs. Really good luck to people making an effort in the U.K. like SIS and PRL etc .

Pops, a few U.K. ladies and gents would say that I have given them the opportunity to enjoy something the U.K. government took away from them. How much has your ‘engage and influence’ been working then? Any chance of repealing any prat of the pistol ban.....no I didn’t think so.

1066, what you say is sadly very true. I made a decision some 20+ years ago after the pistol ban to get out of the U.K. and move to a European country where I now have my own commercial range, semi-auto everything, ccw, ( full auto is possible if my clients are able to use it, eg police, security companies etc. The range is full auto certified). It’s also my day job as a professional small arms training instructor Fighting this or any firearms licensing battle in the U.K. is a hiding to nothing and the rest of the shooting community will happily sacrifice your part of the sport just to be the last to be eaten by the sharks. Re Mars or lever release - if something is not illegal it is then legal until the law is changed of course. I really admire your work with the Target Master, annealer and we spoke about the pressure seating unit. Not many will understand this but I don’t want to survive changes or restrictions. I want to leave something behind ( hopefully just not yet) that someone else can build and improve upon. I have made substantial financial and time investments to do what I want - it’s hard to see the incentive to do the same in the U.K. very sadly.

Hi Dave, it’s all good I know you were just joking. Have a look though 20” braked 338 lm ( 285 Eldm’s). Other than me being an idiot and lifting my head - single loading instead of using the mag for some unknown reason the bipod stays put - recoil moves directly back but no bounce. IMG_3173.MOV Sorry was off topic. Guess the hoptics is going to keep my face a bit more comfortable.

Dave, water off a ducks back, last week at the range it was why are my arms so short that I have to have the bipod so close. This was by a mate who’s done everything he can to turn an AX into a belly benchrest rifle including a 6br barrel for it.......

Got one ( Hoptics) on the AXMC, nice laser cut design. The 3m sticky seems strong . Will know if it’s durable in a year or so.

Dave, appreciate your thoughts when you get to take one apart on how you think it will hold up to 80,000psi all the time. It looks like a one piece 7075 alloy receiver, so there is either a collet system or in barrel locking but at some point you have alloy supporting the barrel or collet.? The bolt handle as an extra lug / safety feature is also then less robust. on a positive note Sig deserve credit for coming up with a complete system - rifle, scope and rangefinder to scope / ballistic calculator that reduces the work flow.

John, I don’t think that it was quite true when it was written. I vaguely remember some of the articles in PS magazine about the likes of P.O. Ackley annealing brass by seating cases in a tray of water - gas torching the necks and pushing the cases over in the water. Thankfully a little easier these days. Even he Houston warehouse test eluded to case neck preparation as being one of the most critical aspects in the reloading process. Andrew, certainly agree wind can affect vertical dispersion as well as horizontal but what annoys me is when I am making what I think are good shots and I get more vertical than horizontal spread. Eg last month at 1km I was using Lapua factory 250 grain lockbase ammunition ( not the best thing to use) but I wanted the brass to reload. Wind was fairly constant and I had about a 10cm horizontal spead but 40cm vertical spread - the shots were like a line up and down the target. It would have been quite depressing on a one moa circular gong. I would probably have started chasing the error making it even worse - one shot high, next shot low routine.

Andrew, I think that you are right in that we ( shooters) tend to infer much from what we can actually measure. For example I’ve measured the H20 capacity of the odd case but to measure capacity of say 500 cases you tend to weight them and infer capacity- +/- 1 grain seems the norm but where did that come from and also when you trim the necks you change the weight without changing usable capacity. Also how do you measure neck tension - We can measure seating pressure but from advice on here you need a constant force source to get reliable readings. AMP have developed such a machine ( their video shows the relationship between annealing and seating pressure ). Annealing, I think most competitive shooters now do it but didn’t Brian Litz say that there was no evidence for it showing accuracy improvements. I think that it comes down to where you set your own goals - for me I want consistent single digit ES over a Labradar. If I don’t at 1km I have at least a 6” vertical dispersion before any other factors. I am not there yet, often but not 100%. I try to make things more consistent in my reloading process. In the end the barrel determines the accuracy potential all I can do is make the reloading as consistent as possible - somethings like neck mandrels are cheap enough to try but the Autotrickler took more thought.

The collet system is much better. The Wilson die I have uses a grub screw to clamp the mandrel in and it concerns me what the tolerances are. The mandrels I have are basic neck turning mandels marked T and E. for turning and expanding. In this case .33 cal for 338 lm. The tension with the T mandrel is ok - slightly reduced from using no mandrel but unable to measure any difference in neck diameter with decent callipers. Obviously a tubing micrometer is needed.

TS, if it’s only one rifle in sand don’t think I would worry. Don’t remember if you ever went to Bzenec but it’s a sandbox that’s a shooting range - seen a lot of rifles, particularly custom rifles with match type triggers have issues there. The AI with AW trigger survives better than most anything else.

Modern thinking seems to be to use a Wilson neck mandrel as the last case prep process before priming, adding powder and seating the bullet. I have a Wilson sizer and mandrel ( 338 and 308). However I wonder if it is really a good process to do? Limited testing that I have done has not been conclusive. I can and will do more testing but wondered what other people’s thoughts were. I use Redding comp bushing dies in a CoAx press - the dies are somewhat free floating so in theory self align. It occurs to me that although a mandrel die does the same thing unless the mandrel itself is perfectly vertical within the die any alignment error would be introduced into the case neck.. Also it is said that the mandrel makes the inside of the neck more concentric. Does this not happen when seating a bullet anyway? If the mandrel simply lowers neck tension or reduces neck tension variations due to lower neck tension I don’t see the point - I can achieve that with a larger bushing. Thoughts and experiences appreciated.