The Gun Pimp

Wow - no idea of any of this - an amazing read!

Gunpimp says - McQueen

If you are interested in Diggle (10 miles NE of Manchester) we shoot TR/F Class twice per month at all distances from 300 to 1000 yds using electronic targets. No SSC needed. PM me (Membership Sec) if you want more info.

I must admit, I never do this - that's the hottest bit of the barrel - leave a 'cooling' gap around it! You won't see a benchrest rifle so bedded. I've built the last two 1000 yd record breaking benchguns - both with 30 inch heavy profile barrels - you don't need bedding forward of the action if you've done your action bedding properly. Other reason - don't work with a switch barrel.

Stacks of stuff on You Tube

If you do your own barrel work, then chopping off the chamber plus maybe a bit more - depending on what the borescope reveals - is something I frequently do. Example - my 6mm Dasher had done two seasons of benchrest - about 600 rounds with testing. I could maybe have squeezed another season out of it but it would likely 'go south' half way through the season so, top n tail and squeeze another year out of it. However don't expect the kind of accuracy you'll get with a new barrel. If you do it yourself, it costs nothing and gives me another season rather than scrapping the barrel. If I had to pay a gunsmith to do the work then - no. It will cost just as much to chamber and thread your old barrel as with a new one so you may as well start with a new tube.

Yeh we take 'em down after the shoot. Takes about half an hour to strip and repackage the electronic bits and put the frames away. We have two sets - one set for benchrest and one set for F Class.

Couldn't agree more - the first car I got with electric windows I thought "When that fails the window will be stuck in the 'down' position and it'll be raining". That's exactly what happened but who'd go back to wind-up windows? We get some pretty horrendous weather at Diggle but our Shotmarkers have survived a whole day in the rain on many occasions. Yes, we have taken simple measures to waterproof them but on the whole they are superb.

Yes - nothing like verifying the shots on a paper target - though even this can be subject to errors. I once remember a group being shot on a very wet target at 1000 yds. It was measured by butts using a digital caliper equipped with spikes to go through the bullet-holes. But, the wet target had 'wrinkles' and when we got the target back to the Range House after the shoot for a proper measure and flattened it out - the group was about a quarter-inch bigger. Clearly the real group size was 'as measured' in butts but the paper said different.... Once we started using electronic targets, we have to accept the result - though I think we said we would draw a line under the existing paper-target records and preserve them. It was a still day for Darrel's shoot (as still as we get at Diggle) so I don't think the targets were affected too much by the wind. Over the Christmas downtime we are going to do some tests to establish the effect of the target 'tilting' due to the effect of wind.

Eskdalemuir is a fantastic facility and, with the growing interest in ELR - with several countries now hosting competitions other than America - this range could be a great venue for European competitions. The ELR rules have been revised (in a sensible direction) and it would be great if Mark were to get involved and perhaps host a shoot next year.

Nick, a tumbler can be used. All you need is a small round container with a screw-on lid which will hold about 100 bullets. Put a small amount of moly powder in with the bullets and seal the lid with a bit of tape. Lob it in your tumbler (with media still in place) and leave for a couple of hours. Tip bullets into an old towel and remove surplus powder. You will now have 100 bullets which will give you less velocity than un-coated ones. You may be able to recoup the lost velocity with more powder - if there's room in the case. But, after all that - what have you gained? Hannam's sell the moly powder.

I really just built mine as a light (to carry) gun for McQueen comps. I must admit, I was shocked at the 3000+fps velocity out of a 22 inch barrel. Got a 50 in the first ever comp so more than happy with the accuracy.

A couple of use are getting good velocity and accuracy with Vit N160 using 105gn Bergers. Check out my load dev. in Target Shooter on http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3076

Maidment - I just bought one. These mats are made by a top F Class shooter. See my write-up on http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3125

Nick, ask Brian Fox - he knows a place in Ashton.

Just had a look at their website - got some decent looking gear at good prices - might go and have a look.

Kevin - bargain of the century! I'm thinning my stuff out, otherwise I couldn't resist it at that price.

One-third MOA at 1000 yards! Good luck with that - this year, in the UKBRA 1000 yd Championship, I would estimate that around 700 5-shot groups were shot - no one got a 1/3 MOA group! Please bring your rifle along to one of our shoots and clean-up!

And why did he do it? Well, I was lucky enough to shoot with Bill at the Hawksridge 1000 yd benchrest range way back in 2004 and I asked him. The reason he took out the taper was simply to aid extraction when 'running the gun' - i.e getting five shots of in about 10 seconds.

John, Have you done any load dev with the 33XC yet? Powder choice etc?

Great pics, great weather - thanks for sharing.

I've just build a rifle on the MDT ESS chassis - you might like to have a look at it on Target Shooter http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3051

We are currently using Shotmarkers (Diggle Club and the UKBRA) but we have some experience of the Silver Mountain targets. Click on the link to read the Target Shooter review. http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=2813