Target Shooter

1
2 Target Shooter
L aunching the brand new airgun marque of Prestige Airguns, the Kub family comes in a trio
of exciting carbine-format models - the SB (side-bolt), RB (rear-bolt) and SL (side-lever) - each
available in .177 or .22 and with ambidextrous thumbhole or sporter woodwork in walnut.
The Kubs weigh-in at just 6.5 lbs., yet are stacked with features - including an adjustable butt pad,
plug-in charging, on-board air gauge, adjustable two-stage trigger, re-settable safety, threaded
muzzle and a 10-shot rotary magazine. Notwithstanding its compact dimensions, a Prestige Kub
also returns upwards of 100 full-power shots per air-fill thanks to its self-regulating firing valve.
Against feather, fur, metal or paper targets, the new Prestige Kubs are the connoisseur’s choice for
handling and performance. A pride born to make your shooting more rewarding.

Target Shooter 3
 Welcome to the 6th month

.......of Target Shooter
Sections
14 Experience the
Imperial by Chris 6 Shooting Sport News

White 10 Shooters Calendar

12 Support your Local Gun

Shop
21 Sightron Scopes
By Vince Bottomley 31 What the Guys from Border
Barrels used at the Open F
Class World Championship

24 HFT Scopes Part 36 Event Review - Derby

5 by Tim Finley Open 2009 by Jim Smith

by By Andy 44 Steyr LG100 for Air Rifle
Benchrest by Carl Boswell
38 UK Rimfire and 50 Profile on Annie Chick by
Air Rifle Benchrest Hayley Platts
Championship by 57 Project Rifle by Vince
By Andy Dubreuil Bottomely

59 Gun of the Month

53 Sniper Rifle No4
60 Shooting Website of the
Mk 1 By Nigel Month
Greenaway
71 John Morrison Offset
Scope Mounts by
Andy Dubreuil
61 Redding T7 &
Forster Relaoding 73 Club Feature

Presses By Laurie 75 Field Target and BR50 in

Holland Portugal by Sérgio
Rita and Pedro Mateus

90 Letters
67 Gallery Rifle
Basics Part 3 91 Advertisers Index

by Gwyn Roberts

4 Target Shooter
 Association Pages
80 UKBRA

81 UKBR22
Editor(s).
82 F Class UK Carl Boswell and Vince Bottomley
Advertising and Office Manager
84 Quigley Association Andy Dubreuil. email; admin@targetshooter.co.uk
Contributors
86 HFT News Vince Bottomley Andy Dubreuil Chris White
Tim Finley Laurie Holland
87 Gallery Rifle Carl Boswell Hayley Platts
Nigel Greenaway Gwyn Roberts
88 UKPSA Stanley Shaw Ken Hall
Webitorial - September 2009
Circulation figures are everything for a magazine – or in the case of an on-line magazine like Target Shooter,
it’s all about ‘unique visitors’. We have invested in some pretty sophisticated software which tells us how
many individual hits we have each month, how many are ‘repeat’ hits and even which countries the hits
come from.
Of course, we need a good ‘unique visitor count’ to pull in advertisers and therefore we are always thinking
of ways to publicise Target Shooter and thus increase our readership base.
The third member of our team, Andy came up with a brilliant idea – we would e-mail every shooting club in
the UK that we could get an e-mail address for telling them about Target Shooter. Well, I thought there would
be a few dozen but Andy came up with no less than 300 e-mail addresses! Three-hundred active shooting
clubs in the UK – can you believe it? In fact there must be more – those were just the ones we found the
e-mails for.
Then I got to thinking – what do all these clubs and their members do? Every club has access to a shooting
range – it may be indoors or outdoors, 25 or 50 yards even 100 yards or maybe more. My own club has a
very full shooting calendar with competitions every weekend which are listed on our club website but what
do the rest of you do?
Why aren’t we shooting 25 or 50 yard rimfire benchrest up and down the country every weekend? Or 22
mini-rifle or gallery rifle, or if you have a 100 yard range, centrefire benchrest. If you go beyond 100 yards
you can run just about any discipline you choose but we never seem to hear about it. It tends to be the same
few clubs who use our monthly events calendar.
If you are running competitions then wouldn’t you welcome a few more entries? If you don’t run competi-
tions, why not think about it for the future? If you need any advice on how to get started with any form of
competition then you only need ask – that’s why Target Shooter exists – to promote target shooting in all its
forms.
Come-on- let’s hear from those 300 clubs out there. Tell us what you do. Let’s get the nation shooting and
get those ranges full!
Thanks to your loyal support, we have established an enviable readership base in just four months
Carl Boswell - carl@targetshooter.co.uk and Vince Bottomley - vinceb@targetshooter.co.uk and
Andy Dubreuil - admin@targetshooter.co.uk
Copyright © Trinity Digital Publishing Ltd

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

Target Shooter 5
 Shooting Sport News

H undreds of Gunners Snap Up Milbro’s

New Tin.
The tin is currently available at a premium only for
.177 pellets, though we hear that Some of Milbro’s
pellet range should be available in a .22 version by
Airgunners flocked to snap up Milbro’s new the autumn.
snap close tin at this year’s CLA Game Fair. The
company was mobbed with shooters anxious to try
out the new tin which is designed to cut down on
pellet spillages.
Milbro Sports’ General Manager Ross Marshall
said “ We were overwhelmed by the numbers and
the #interest shown. On Saturday in particular, we
couldn’t get off the stand for a moment, even for
the most essential of breaks! The tins were flying
of the stand and one shooter even came back
twice for more tins.”
Wide coverage in the magazines before the
show, from trade magazines to more general
publications such as The Field, ensured strong
interest.

U nusual / Collectable Rifles

Looking at what dealers have in stock, we’ve
noticed two gunshops have rare and/or collectable
‘Model 393’ with a triple-lug bolt. It is brand new, has a
Scandinavian sport/target style
cheekpiece walnut stock with a long, deep,
adjustable

longarms of interest to target shooters. Norman rounded, and heavily stippled forend, 22.5” semi-heavy
Clark in Rugby has four rare Parker-Hales barrel, and appears nicely made and finished. An
including a set of three development prototypes Internet search suggests the 393 is an uncommon
for the 7.62mm M85 sniper rifle, one of which is a model and all
non-firing mock-up. The fourth is the .223 Remington examples found
P-H Lano prototype rifle made shortly before the were ‘sporters’.
company went into receivership and which was With Kongsberg
originally intended for UK cadet use, ultimately to having got out of
be the basis of a new ‘family’ of precision rifles to the riflemaking
replace uncompetitive Mauser 98 based models. business some
It Producing little interest here, it went to Australia years ago and
and was passed around the state rifle associations the serial number
doing much to influence that country’s TR shooters A001, this may
to adopt .223, now widely used down under in the be a one-off rifl
target sports. (This was written up in depth in a the first of a very
series of articles by Australian gunsmith and writer Greg small production
Matthews in ‘Guns Review’ magazine many years ago.) run. Price? –
Norman will only sell the M85s as a set, but the LANO is less than that of
available as a standalone purchase. For further a heavy-barrel
information and prices, contact Norman Clark Scandinavian
Gunsmith at 19 Somers Road, Rugby, telephone 01788 ‘sporter’ at £1,150!
579651. York Guns Limited,
Website: www.normanclark.com Common Road,
Dunnington,
York. Telephone:
Up in the north east, York Guns Limited has
01904 487180.
unearthed a Norwegian Kongsberg target rifle –
Website: www. The four rare Parker-Hale
no, not the 7.62mm Mauser 98 action, laminated
yorkguns.com rifles for sale at Norman
stock 1st generation TR job older readers might
remember, but a modern .308 Winchester Clark Gunsmith

6 Target Shooter
G unsmithing Tools
Most shooters have had the misfortune to own an
otherwise fine rifle or shotgun whose appearance is marred
W EBLEY LAUNCHES
“KARBINE” VERSIONS
OF THE SIDEWINDER ™ AND
by damaged screw-heads, maybe a bad scratch from a COBRA ™
poorly fitting tool slipping – worse still, done the damage
themselves using unsuitable household tools. There’s no Webley (International) Ltd
excuse for ‘bodging’ these days with quality gunsmithing (Webley) of Willenhall, West
tools available at a reasonable outlay, two examples from Midlands, UK, announced
Norman Clark Gunsmith’s comprehensive collection of today the introduction of
Wheeler Engineering tools illustrated here. The first is the “Karbine” versions of
“72-Piece Basic Professional Gunsmithing Screwdriver Set” their highly successful
comprising two drivers with grippy handles, different length Webley-Venom Sidewinder
steel shanks and bit holders with 72 interchangeable bits ™ (side-lever) and Webley-
comprising no fewer than 54 hollow-ground flat examples Venom Cobra ™ (rear-bolt)
to match every slotted-head screw you’ll likely meet, plus 8 Pre-charged pneumatic
Allen, 4 Phillips, and 3 Torx bits, contained within a (“PCP”) air rifles.
sturdy ABS carrying / storage case. It retails at £74.55. The
“Since their introduction in
other tool is one I regard as extremely useful, but many of my
January 2009 the
gunsmithing friends say they don’t need, confident in their ‘feel’
Sidewinder/Cobra range has
of how much to tighten things. This is ‘The FAT Wrench’, a
become our top-selling PCP
screwdriver style torque wrench that can be set to slip at any
setting between 10 and around 65 in/lbs. Its handle is around family and Retailers and
five inches long and Consumers alike have
an inch and a half been asking for a shorter
thick (125mm by version to aid
35mm) with inlaid maneuverability in the field”
black rubber said Mike Hurney, CEO of
high-grip panels. Webley. “The new “Karbine”
It is adjusted by models are a full four inches
pulling a large rear (10cm) shorter, and half a
end cap back from pound lighter than their
the tool body and full-size brethren, making
twisting it, the them compact, lightweight
setting showing and eminently pointable” he
on a scale on the added.
body. Recommended “Despite the significant
settings are given for reduction in the size of
bedding, scope base, the air tube, a new, more
and scope ring screws, efficient valve system
and a square drive ensures that the gun in .22
adaptor plus ten bits calibre will easily deliver 75
that cover most jobs
plus full-power shots-with the
are included. It is
.177 comfortably exceeding
priced at £61.82.
55 plus shots” stated Simon
Atkins, Webley’s Technical
Norman Clark
Gunsmith, 19 and Quality Manager.
Somers Road, Webley-Venom Sidewinder/
Rugby. Tele- Cobra “Karbine” Availability:
phone 01788 Immediate
579651. Website: RRP: from £575
w w w. n o r m a n - www.webley.co.uk
clark.com
Target Shooter 7
S tocks
HPS are of course most
famous for their Gemini modular
Target Rifle stocks but I didn’t
know that they also do a
tactical style stock complete with
detachable magazine to suit the
Quadlite action. Like the Gemini,
these are made from aluminium,
anodised black or grey and with
wood-laminate or plastic grips
and come with a fully adjustable
butt - see at; www.hps-tr.com

F REE Henry Krank Catalogue

West Yorkshire retailer and importer Henry
Krank & Company Ltd. has produced a much
revised catalogue, a superb 129 page full
colour bound document copiously illustrated
with colour product images on heavy, glossy
paper. And.........it’s provided FREE on
request, not even postage charged! If you’re
into sporting or military rifles and ammo,
repro’ muzzleloaders, black-powder pistols,
revolvers, and top quality (Pedersoli) BPCR
rifles – in fact, anything to do with BP
shooting – airguns, shooting books, handloading,

antiques and collectables...........and much, much

more, you need a copy. To get one, telephone
Henry Krank (the shop staff that is, as there is
no such individual to be found there!) or go onto
the company’s website (also much upgraded)
and click onto the catalogue link on the home
page. Incidentally, Henry Krank’s website now
lists the shop’s current antique arms and
secondhand book holdings, both regularly
updated.
Henry Krank & Company Ltd: telephone 01132
569 163 / 011 32 565 167
website: www.henrykrank.com

8 Target Shooter
B arrel cleaning - Kroil
A couple of issues ago, we covered
barrel cleaning and I mentioned Kroil. Kroil is
Unfortunately, Kroil is not readily available in
this country but I’ve just found out that gunsmith
Norman Clark of Rugby always has Kroil in stock.
an America product sold as a penetrating oil. It Norman’s new premises carry perhaps the UK’s
says on the tin that it will “creep into openings as most comprehensive stock of useful items for the
small as one millionth of an inch”. accuracy shooter and is well worth a visit. Website;
This claim prompted a few America shooters www.normanclarkgunsmith.com
to use it to remove copper in the hope that it
may get between the copper and
the barrel steel. I don’t think it does
but it still has a place in barrel
cleaning and I like to put a splash
of it in my Butch’s Bore Shine.
Some shooters, using moly-coated
bullets exclusively, clean with Kroil
and nothing else but I’ve never
subscribed to this and wouldn’t
recommend it - I use the same
cleaning regime for moly and ‘clean’
bullets.
Butch’s is a very good bore cleaner
but some feel that it gets the barrel
‘squeaky’ clean – too clean maybe
and this increases the tendency
for the barrel to pick up copper.
Adding a dash of Kroil to your Butch’s
hopefully reduces this tendency.

Y et more on barrel cleaning

We also reminded you not to
forget to clean the action and chamber – but
jags specific to your chamber - see pic. These
beautifully made jags are shaped like your
cartridge with a slot to take a cleaning patch.
bemoaned the fact that dedicated There is also an attachment for cleaning the
chamber-cleaning tools just aren’t readily action lugs. HPS website at www.hps-tr.com
available. Well, John Carmichael of HPS put
me right on that one. He does chamber cleaning

Target Shooter 9
Calendar of events over the next month
If your club or association has events you want to publicise here then email us.
Sat 05 Sept - NRA Open Day (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley) - The NSC is
hosting, on behalf of the NRA, another series
of pre ticketed Open Day events. Visitors will
be able to try shotgun, air rifle, fullbore rifle,
sporting rifle, laser clays, precision snap,
practical and historical rifles to name but a
few, all with one-to-one coaching.
Sat 05 Sept to Sun 06 Sept - NRC of Scotland
Open Championships (Blair Atholl (Scotland)
http://www.nrcofs.org
Sun 06 Sept - Welwyn Phoenix RC Guest
Day (National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Guest days for potential new members -
please apply via the website link below at
least ten days in advance.
http://www.welwynphoenixrc.org.uk/
Sun 6 Sept - Sussex County RA XX Cup (National
Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Sun 6 - Sun 13 Sept - MLAIC European
Championships, Spain
Friday 11 Sept - 2009 British Pistol
ChampionshipsThe Championships run
from 11th to 13th September. Location:
Lord Roberts Centre
Sat 12 Sept - Start of Probationary Members
Course 2009/4 (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Bisley) This course is primarily a course in safe
handling and provides an introduction to Target
Rifle, Gallery Rifle and Black Powder Pistol. Each
course consists of four separate lessons. Course
date to be allocated once entry conditions are
fulfilled. All applications for Probationary
Membership should be made to the NRA
Membership Secretary. http://www.nsc-bis-
ley.co.uk/common/asp/courses/courses.
asp?site=NSC
Sun 13 Sept - Kent CRA Autumn Open Prize
Meeting (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Bisley)
Contact(s): Bruce Roth
Sat 19 Sept to Sun 20 Sept - Class League
(Diggle (England)) Contact(s): Mik Maksimovic
10 Target Shooter
Sat 19 to Sun 20 Sept - Surrey RA Open Meeting
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
The Surrey Rifle Association - Autumn Open
Meeting, a great weekend’s shooting with high
quality competition. Queens I, II and III format.
http://www.surreyra.org
Sun 20 - Sun 27 Sept - MLAIC World Long
Range Championships, Camp Butner, North
Carolina, USA
Sun 20 Sept - National Muzzle Loading Skeet
Championships, Lakenheath Clay Target
Centre
Thurs 24 Sept - Commonwealth Shooting
Federation (ED) The competition runs from
24th - 27th September. Contact: Isle of Man
Sat 26 to Sun 27 Sept - The English Eight
Club and Irish Eight Club Autumn Meeting
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Match Rifle & F-Class Rifle
Sun 26 Sept - East of Scotland Meeting (Blair
Atholl (Scotland)
The East of Scotland Open Championships for
2009 are scheduled to take place at Blair Atholl on
Saturday 26 September. The event includes both
TR and F Class and offers discounted entries for
seniors, students and schools. Course of fire is 2
& 17 at 400, 500 and 600 metres with a final of 2
& 15 for the top 12 TR shooters and top 4 F Class.
Entry forms will be available in due course at the
Imperial Meeting at Bisley and by e-mail from
baitkenshooting@hotmail.com
http://www.scottishrifleassociation.org.uk/
Sat 26 to Sun 27 Sept - Range Conducting
Officer Course (National Shooting Centre (NSC),
Bisley). Two day course - successful candidates
will be qualified to conduct live firing on MoD or
TAVRA ranges.
Contact(s): Maureen Peach
Sun 27 Sept - Welwyn Phoenix RC Guest Day
(National Shooting Centre (NSC), Bisley)
Guest days for potential new members - please
apply via the website link below at least ten days
in advance.http://www.welwynphoenixrc.org.uk/
Contact(s): Welwyn Phoenix RC
 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 11
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am - 5.30pm
 ‘Support your local gun shop’
Fox Firearms
Most of you will have seen
magazine advertisements
for Fox Firearms but few, if
any, will have seen the shop.
There is a reason for that –
Brian Fox doesn’t have one! Brian will soon offer a
British made rifle action
Like many of us, Foxy felt a
bit lost when our pistols were
stolen from us back in 1995.
Brian had never shot a rifle
but thankfully, he found his
way to Diggle Ranges and a
door to a whole new world
of shooting opened up.

It didn’t take Brian long to

realise that a lot of our stuff
emanated from the States
and he saw a marketing
opportunity and began
importing. As time went by,
he refined his stock list and
began to cater for shooters
who were accuracy-minded
and were willing to pay for
the right stuff.

His market widened and

soon he was importing
Barnard actions and True-
service with a very quick turn-round.
flite barrels from New Zealand, stocks
from Canada and when Litts were unable
As there is no shop, he doesn’t tend to get
to continue with their American Kelbly
bogged-down with all those silly little things
link for the fabulous Stolle rifles, Brian
that seem to fill up the shelves of many
picked that one up as well. He is currently
gunshops but he can offer a good range
involved in a consortium that is hoping to
of consumables in the form of powder,
offer a British made rifle action and you can
primers, bullets, brass and leaning stuff which
bet it will be competitively priced.
can be ordered via the telephone. His latest
acquisition is Berger Bullets and, as always,
He was not slow to cotton-on to the
he is offering these at very competitive
equipment-obsessed benchrest shooters
prices.
and front-rests and back-bags from Sebastian
Lambang in Indonesia joined an ever
Have a look at the website at www.foxfire-
growing inventory. He carries an amazing
armsuk.com
stock of barrel-blanks from Trueflite,
If products are not listed, Brian can usually
Bartlein and several other makes and he
get it - quickly.
can offer a barrelling and rifle-building

12 Target Shooter
 Fox Firearms UK
PUTTING SHOOTING FIRST
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE THE VERY BEST VALUE CUSTOM
PRECISION RIFLES FOR TR, MATCH, F-CLASS, AND BENCH-REST
THE 2009 F-CLASS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
RESULTS PROVE YOU DON’T NEED A BARNARD
ACTION, TRUE-FLITE BARREL, AND BERGER
BULLETS TO REACH THE TOP OF YOUR GAME –
BUT THEY SEEM TO INDICATE AN ADVANTAGE

www.FoxFirearmsUK.com
tel: 0161 430 8278 or 07941 958464
Target Shooter 13
 Experiencing the 2009 Imperial

by Chris White
The burning issue for TR shooters at this year’s Above - Focused and on the line
Imperial was how would the ammunition perform?
After the near dismal performance of last year’s with ammunition as close as possible to Imperial
RG, the first year when the NRA were in the open ammunition, and for that reason many shooters regard
market as opposed to accepting an ammunition it as a “warm up” for the Imperial. So, for TR shooters,
issue from the MOD, expectations were high. This the story of this year’s Imperial really starts there.
year the chosen supplier was RUAG who supplied
ammunition under the RWS headstamp. One What follows is my personal experience which I hope
or two alarm bells had rung since the NRA had will give those who were there another perspective to
(apparently fairly superficially) progressively tested weigh against their own experience and those who
various brews of sample batches from RWS and weren’t there an insight into what it was like. So our
asked for modifications, however the fact that the story starts with the Commonwealth (it may really start
ammunition was loaded with a 155 Sierra bullet earlier than that but we will come to that in due course).
seemed to bode well.
For me going to the Commonwealth was a bit of a
Whilst we could still debate the topics around trauma. I last shot the meeting in 2004 and whilst
issue ammunition let’s not get distracted with we did not know it, it was to be Mary’s last visit to
that right now. Whatever the pros & cons we are Bisley, a place which she loved. Whilst the passage
currently stuck with it. As an aside, on a visit to the of time may dull the pain it doesn’t take it away and
Radway Green factory as far back as 2001, I it still hurts to be without her. Quite frankly, I did not
had suggested, to a member of RG’s senior know whether I could hack it. As it happens I did.
management, that using a Sierra bullet for their NRA
ammunition rather than their in house produced, At short range (200 to 600 yards) I shoot a Barnard
Geneva Convention compliant, 155 grain FMJ bullet, with a 30 inch 1 in 14 Krieger barrel and quarter
may well eradicate a large measure of the shooter minute Higginbottom sights; and at long range (800
dissatisfaction that their product engendered. Why to 1,200 yards) a Steyr SSG with a solid action,
they chose to ignore this free advice and why no one behind a 1 in 12 Krieger and Higginbottom sights
at the NRA cottoned on to the idea is a mystery to me. with quarters on the elevation and halves on the
windage. Both rifles were pillar bedded, by myself,
Traditionally the British Commonwealth Rifle Club’s into Anschutz ‘Supermatch’ thumbhole walnut stocks.
open meeting at the beginning of July is shot The former being bedded onto Devcon and the latter

14 Target Shooter
onto Epreven. The Barnard has a quasi two-stage
trigger and the Steyr a proper two-stage trigger, both
rifles have height adjustable foresights and are shot
with two point leather slings. The Barnard has had
3,580 rounds up the barrel, and the Steyr 6,420.
Before the Commonwealth both rifles were rendered
squeaky clean by the application of ‘VMS’ bore paste,
which is not as aggressive as some other brands,
followed by a rigorous cleaning to ensure non was left in.
In the case of the Barnard there was a small
discontinuity in the elevation plot after three rounds
whereupon the rifle settled down. As we will see
later there may have been other factors at play.
In the case of the Steyr it took a little longer to
settle down. On this basis I decided to take both
rifles to the Imperial dirty and not clean them
until I returned home. Elevation spread in both rifles,
once they had settled down, was around the minute,
which although I do sometimes shoot tighter with
handloads, was no cause for lost sleep; besides I
heard no complaints about the ammunition and the
‘usual suspects’ put in some outstanding scores.
What could have been a concern was that
most errors of wind judgement resulted in shots
downwind, in this case out to the right. This was not
an experience unique to myself and on this basis a
number of zeros were altered. For reasons we do
Everyone getting ready for the match
not need to go into here the Steyr had recently had
an exhaustive (and exhausting!) check of its wind
zero and I was certain it was correct. I also had
a high level of confidence that the Barnard zero
was, if not correct, within less than a half minute.
So, then, the scene is set and the Imperial was
approached with some measure of confidence,
or was it? The Yorkshire Open, shot the weekend
before the Commonwealth would have been won
but for three uncalled shots (handloads) about two
minutes high (one at 400 and two at 600 yards).
This was subsequently assumed to be due to
some filth (probably case neck varnish) in the
barrel from some commercial ammunition, shot the
weekend before, in an ‘issue ammunition’ competition.
I chose to travel South on the Sunday prior
to the TR events so as to have a mini-break
before the serious stuff started. This was
pleasant and relaxing but the odd, occasional,
heavy downpour was not exactly spiritually uplifting.
On the Thursday, I decided to head for the
Dorset coast and travelled down the A303
exiting onto the A358 heading for Chard,
stopping at the George in Donyatt for lunch. It may
not have been the best pub lunch I’ve had in my
life but if I’ve had a better one I can’t remember it!
Thursday morning involves a TR team match, ‘The
Target Shooter 15

Opening Shot’ shot at 900 and 1,000 yards (2 + 15
at each range). Many see this as an ease into the
meeting and an opportunity to establish their long
range elevations. Usually I elect to coach and not
shoot and this year was no exception. We will, no
doubt, get into the detailed mechanics of team
shooting at some time in the future.
Suffice it to say that the coach’s job is not to teach his
shooters how to shoot, it’s not that kind of coaching.
His job is to give his total attention to wind conditions
to ensure the maximum probability that the wind
correction set on the shooter’s rearsight and the
actual wind strength coincide at the time of shot
delivery.
Briefly this involves the coach assessing a
forthcoming wind condition, setting this on the
rifle and giving the shooter a series of commands
which result in the shooter firing the shot when that
correction is valid. Success depends, obviously, on
the coach’s wind reading ability and the shooter’s
ability to fire a straight shot very quickly after the
final command. In reality this Utopian condition
exists only in the strongest of International teams.
Often, at club and county level, the coach is hung
on the dilemma of seeing the wind drift before the
shot has gone. He is then faced with the decision
of whether to stop the shooter firing, start again and
disturb the shooter’s rhythm with the potential for a bad
shot or to let the shooter fire on a wind setting which
is not optimum but is close enough to save the point.
It ought to be obvious that the former action is nerve
wracking for the shooter and the latter equally, if
not more, nerve wracking for the coach. Usually I
follow the second course and take the pain. For
those who have not experienced this, take it from
me that a conciencious coach will find this extremely
stressful and subject himself to soul searching grief
16 Target Shooter
over every shot which
goes sideways.
My lot was to coach the
Durham B team which
consisted of one very
experienced shooter
(GB Veteran), one
student, one recently
graduated engineer
and a slightly less
recently qualified doctor.
The two graduates had
a back ground of public
school shooting and the
student a background
of shooting in the
County Cadet Force.
This was a situation
where if everything did go right we may get a
reasonable result but where there was enough
inexperience for things to go wrong.
Nevertheless, I was rendered speechless when after
the shoot the doctor returned from a scouting exercise
to announce that we had come second being pipped
on V bulls by the Army Rifle Association ‘A’ team. Yes,
I did beat myself up for not seeing a pick-up at 900
yards which cost a point but the team were ecstatic.
The following morning I was again in stress mode
when I captained and coached City of Newcastle in
the Astor final. Not only did I need to do the job of
coach properly but I needed to select the right team,
including the other coach and just to add to the
stress, City of Newcastle won the match last year
- largely as a result of our aforementioned ex-cadet
replacing me due to my ill heath. Talk about pressure!
This match is two sighters and seven to count at 3,
5 and 600 yards for teams of six shooters and two
coaches. The Team must have at least two Class
O or T shooters and no more than two class X.
More points were dropped than should have been
at 300 yards but we held it together at five hundred
and put them all in at 600. I thought we ought to
have done a bit better but the doctor pointed out
that this was the club’s highest score ever having
dropped only six points out of 630 (last year they
dropped nine). Again his feverish scouting activities
revealed that we had been pipped on V bulls by ‘Old
Guildfordians’. At which point we realised that whilst
we may have been seriously outclassed on paper,
team spirit, straight shooting and northern grit had
done the job. I was pretty chuffed at the prospect of
two silver medals before I had even thought about
pulling a trigger!

The Weather forecast for Friday was lousy and
it was fortunate that we had got through the
Astor with no more than an occasional irritating light
drizzle. Friday is ‘warm up’ day with the Admiral
Hutton at 900 and the Century at 500 and 600 yards.
The former I got through in the dry, with a heavy
overcast, shooting a reasonably tight elevation,
misreading the wind to lose three points but
working very hard with the wind knob to save the
other seven. Not so with the Century, which starts
at 600 where I shot in a downpour which loosened
the group up enough to do some damage. Five
hundred was merely wet and cold with a more than
acceptable elevation but two points lost to unseen
drop-offs.
As the meeting progressed it was obvious that
many of us were loosing points to drop-offs that
just were not seen and pick-ups which were either
not seen or seen but underestimated. Generally
the wind was considerably more aggressive than
one is used to at Bisley. For example I thought I’d
got a good detail when I was squadded to shoot
the Lovell (1,000yards) at 0830 on Saturday. What
looked like a fairly stable ten minute wind proved
to be a fourteen minute wind picking up to close
on sixteen and dropping off to twelve and the
Donegal at 300 yards later in the morning flicking, very
quickly from 3 to ¾ a result of rapid angle changes.
This then was fairly typical of the whole week.
Winds were generally strong and usually it was
either raining or there was a heavy overcast
resulting in no mirage or when there was one, the
wind was too strong for it to be of any use. I do not
propose to bore you with a blow by blow account
of it, merely to highlight incidents of significance.
The first occurred during the ‘Duke of Cambridge’
on Sunday morning. I was squadded with two other
shooters sporting GB shoulder titles with me in the
middle, on target 25. The left-hand man was a
shooter of some repute. I read the wind at about 9 for
the first sighter and on the basis of developing
experience put 10½ on the gun to be rewarded with
a downwind water-line magpie correcting to 13.
Tempering judgement with observation, the next
went with 12 to make a V bull. By shot 5 I had held
it together with both my colleagues having slipped
a couple out to wind, indicating how difficult it was.
When the right-hand man fired he was rewarded with
a three o’clock magpie. I saw nothing at all on the
flags but looking along the line there were a handful
of magpies, wide inners and the odd outer. I ought
to have put a minute and a half on but I really could
not see anything.
Had something happened or was it transitory? The
previous shot had been right handed. I took the
coward’s decision and set the sight to the mean of the
wind plot at 12 - damage limitation. As it happened it
had been transitory and the shot leaked out up-wind.
Now comes the entertaining bit. The left hand man
had a good look around, left his sights alone and
delivered the shot. Nothing happened. The targets on
each side of us did not go down until the appropriate
shooter had fired so it did not look like a cross-shot.
The ‘message four’ went and the target reappeared
clear whereupon our friend frowned looked at
me and said “Is it likely that I could have missed?
Surely I couldn’t have missed!” I did not think so.
The ‘message seven’ was passed and the butt
officer’s dummy appeared with the end result of a high
right handed hit scoring ‘one’ being shown. That’s it
under NRA rules that’s what you get. The right
hand man shot getting a left handed outer. The
surrounding targets showing bulls V bulls and the
odd inner. I corrected on my last shot, absolutely
certain that the wind had not dropped from 10½ to
5½. A post shot check of the flags looked good and
I was sure I has delivered a straight shot. The target
reappeared with a high left-handed magpie which
would have needed me to see white in the foresight
when the shot broke, which I had not. All three of us left
the point feeling we had been mugged by the marker.
More next month.
Target Shooter 17
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20 Target Shooter
 Sightron 36 power scopes.
By Vince Bottomley
Good quality scopes don’t get any cheaper and,
as most come from America (even if they originate
in Japan) the exchange rate doesn’t help but the
Chinese alternative is not an option if you are
serious about your shooting – optics are definitely
not the place to start making compromises. Walk the
line at any F Class or benchrest shoot and the names
of Nightforce, Leupold and Weaver will be prominent
and for good reason – they offer reliable, clear
optics with accurate adjustment. OK, I may have left
a couple of names off the list – March for one and of
course Schmidt & Bender. Arguably, these are the
best of the bunch but they are even more expensive
– so rarer.
Weaver T36 for comparison. Middle, the
Sightron Big Sky and bottom, the previous
36X model
Above - the Big Sky mounted on my
benchgun
In the July issue of Target Shooter, we tested the
Sightron 8-32 scope. The Sightron is Japanese
made but marketed by an American company and
recently they have caused something of a stir in the
US – and that doesn’t happen unless the product
is pretty good. I certainly found this with their 8-32
model and it’s also very competitively priced in the
UK - now that we have a new importer in the form
of Aimfield Sports. If you missed the test, it’s still
available in our archive and at just over £700 the
8-32 Sightron is great value and quite a few F
Classers are now using them.
Target Shooter 21
The Sightron scopes we
Close-up of the eighth
now looking at are the 36X
MOA adjusters – and
models – these are fixed
power scopes designed that essential ‘Made in
primarily for the 50/100/200 Japan’ logo
yard rimfire or centrefire
benchrest shooter but
because of their light weight
(17 ounces) they could find
their way onto a few F/TR
rigs and even 600/1000 yard
benchguns – which can have
a bit of a weight problem with
a two-pound Nightforce!
The Leupold 36 BR was
always the serious
benchrester’s scope of choice.
It weighs under a pound and
I actually have two 36X Sightrons to review
has superb optics and build-quality but for some
and one is a bit more expensive than the other.
reason, Leupold discontinued it. The replacement was
They look quite similar but the latest model is
even better but it was heavier and more expensive,
dubbed the S11 Big Sky and is claimed to be an
so weight-conscious benchresters looking for value
improvement on the older model but Sightron intend
switched to the Weaver T36 – a very similar scope but
to continue with both. So what are the differences?
an ounce or so heavier. Good value though at around
£400 – if you can get one direct from the States.
Both scopes are finished in matt-black and utilise
When Sightron introduced their 36X, I waited to
a one-inch body-tube. Overall length, weight,
see what the US benchresters said about it and I’m
objective and ocular lenses are the same size.
pleased to say – it’s all good! Benchresters favour a
They both focus via the object bell but the Big Sky
very fine crosshair with a one-eighth MOA dot and
doesn’t have a lock-ring, so slightly
Compare the object bell – Big Sky doesn’t need a lock- more convenient to use. The turret
ring and is not marked with adjusters move in one-eighth MOA
distance scale increments and have dust covers.
The Big Sky adjusters certainly
have a nicer, more precise feel but
neither scope is over-endowed with
adjustment – barely 30 MOA and
don’t forget, you could lose half
of this on mounting. Of course,
this won’t worry the short-range
benchrester but for long-range
shooting you will certainly need a 20
MOA rail.

I’ve shot both scopes on my 100

yard 6PPC benchgun in practise
but not yet in competition but I will
do before the next issue of Target
this is exactly what the 36X Sightron has. When you
Shooter. Meanwhile, if you are interested in a
see it for the first time you might struggle to even pick
Sightron, Aimfield www.aimfieldsports.com
out the crosshair – it’s that fine but most shooters get
import a good selection to cover the hunter/
used to it and lots of F Class shooters are happy with
stalker with lower magnification stuff and the
this type of reticle, as it permits very precise aiming.
target shooter with a full range of zooms and a few
Body-tube is one-inch diameter and focussing is via
fixed power. The scopes come with a ‘no-quibble’
the object bell. In benchrest, we rarely need to adjust
guarantee should you be unfortunate enough to
the focus, so side focus isn’t really necessary but
need it.
for F Class – not so convenient, though in fairness,
many F Class shoots are at long-range with the scope
always focussed at infinity so again, not a problem.

22 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 23
Hunter Field Target Scope Test
Part 4

Tim Finley
This is hopefully, well probably, maybe, the suitability for the sport over three years ago, that
last part of the mammoth HFT scope test is why some of the scopes which have featured
series that is until the next
new HFT scope comes along!
This part focuses on the two
latest scopes which although
not made for the difficult
discipline of Hunter Field
Target shooting the Bushnell
6500 2.5-16*42 and the
Barska Benchmark 4-16*50
are both useful as HFT
scopes. I will also in this
article publish the full
parallax error results on all
the thirteen scopes I have
tested and give my personnel 15, 23, 25, 40 and 45
recommendations on three yard range test cards
scopes in terms of price and
performance. I started
looking at HFT scopes and testing them for in the last four articles are now no longer made,
but I have included them to
cover the second had market.
The two new scopes featured
here are hot off the press as it were.
The Bushnell 6500 is a 30mm
tubed scope with a lot of
things going for it, I am a fan of
Bushnell scopes and this
has the Bushnell Rainguard
coating on the lenses and the
new Firefly reticle system,
coupled a side-wheel parallax,
optional sunshade and superb
multi coated optics it’s no
Range testing takes a wonder why the scope has
long time taken off in a big way with the top

24 Target Shooter
 HFT shooters. Once such man is Peter Sparkes
Falcon enhanced who won the first round of the 2009 UKAHFT
mildot series he used the scope on with a 59ex60, the
next round he cleared the course with a 60ex60
and in his first three rounds he used it on he
scored an impressive 87ex90. He now leads the
2009 series and looks set to win it. I managed
to loan one of the new scopes from another top
shooter who is about to start using the scope,
I cannot name him as he is currently using a
sponsored scope from another manufacturer.
Thanks to him for letting me test his new scope
for parallax error, this does not involve fitting
rings to the scope as the test is to ascertain the
maximum amount of error by moving the head
to show the extremes of the sight picture, which
The 6500 mildot reticle you cannot do if the scope is mounted on a rifle.
The 6500 is called that due to the
magnification ratio of 6.5 which is more than
the usual 3 or four times
ratio, the scope has a
The 6500 is waterproof massive range of 2.5 to 16
AND made in Japan times magnification. Of
course HFT needs a Mildot
reticle and the 6500 mils on
ten times magnification. The
number 10 is picked out in
red as opposed to the rest of
the indexing numbers
being in yellow. I measured
the reticle on a calibration
sheet at 15 yards as I do on
all the scopes I test and it is
a true Mildot reticle on ten
times magnification. The dots
are not too big and I am a
real fan of the Bushnell Mildot
reticle. The added feature of
the 6500 2.5-16 is the FireFly
glowing reticle technology,
you can charge up the reticle
by shining a torch down the
scope at the eye bell. Of
course we cannot do that in
HFT as it is deemed to be
altering the scope once you
are on the course. In the
real world the reticle does
still have a slight glow when
you have to view and shoot a
target which has been
The 6500s sidewheel positioned in a dark area.
The reticle stands out enough

Target Shooter 25

Barskas 1_25 mildot on 10 mag
to be able to pick your aiming mark. This is a
definite advantage to the HFT shooter, even
over the ones with illuminated reticles. You
have to remember to turn the reticle off or risk
flattening the battery and the illumination has to
be set on one level before you start shooting a
course. The FireFly system is always there for
you to use when you need it. The Rainguard
coating is a fabulous thing too coupled with
the additional 75mm long sunshade there is
no chance of the lenses being made unusable
in adverse weather conditions, very useful for
this country. The side-wheel parallax has a 10
yards to infinite range, I set this to 23 yards to
measure the amount of parallax error at 15,
25 and 45 yards. The adjustment turrets are ¼
minute of angle value with pull up to reset
and push down to lock turrets. With a 42mm
diameter front objective lens it is ideal for HFT
having an exit pupil of 4.2mm when shot on
The Barska 4-16
Benchmarkin the
test cradle
26 Target Shooter
the Mildot true ten times magnification. I must
say the scope is one of the best scopes I have
tested for the price and features, it is not cheap
with an RRP of just short of £800, but it can be
bought for £415 if you know where to look.
The last scope in the test is a Barska
Benchmark first focal plane scope. I am a
massive fan of the first focal plane scope,
not many are made compared to the much
more common 2nd focal plane scope, mainly
due to the increased manufacturing costs.
Variable magnification scopes with a reticle
positioned in the first focal plane means any aim
points on the reticle remain the same what ever
magnification the scope is tuned on to. To the
casual observer the reticle appears to change
in size, although it actually remains the same
size relative to the increase and decrease in the
field of view due to the change in magnification.
A reticle in the second focal plane will not
appear to change in size even when the field of
view increases and decrease with any change in
magnification. The amount of image you see
decreases with an increase in magnification
and increases with a decrease in magnification.
Meaning if you use the second dot down in a
mildot scope for 50 yards on 10 mag then wind the
mag up to 16 the second dot will no longer be 50
yards. I cannot see any plus points with a variable
magnification scope having a reticle in the
second focal plane. Barska’s Benchmark series
of scopes have reticles in the first focal plane
so they can be used as the same aiming marks
regardless of what magnification they are
set on. The only down side was the fact that
Barska did not make the reticle a true
Mildot, I measured it at 1.25 Mil. South Yorkshire
Shooting Supplies the sole UK distributor and
now bring in the whole range
of Benchmark Barska’s. They
are at the top end of the US
firms product range, hence
the name Benchmark.
They are a 30mm body
tubed series of variable
magnification scopes, all
have side-wheel parallax
adjustment and 1/8 minute of
angle windage and elevation
click values at 100 yards. The
range consists of a 4-16*50
a 5-20*50, a fixed 40*50 and
the test model an 8-26*50,

My top three HFT scope picks
the 50mm being the size of the scopes objective
of course. The fixed 40 mag is the only one of
the range not currently brought in by SYSS. The
Benchmarks have a minimum parallax setting
of 50 yards which makes them a pure full-bore
scope. I did contact Barska about removing the
objective lens locking ring to which they stated
it would void the warranty. But if you wanted
to use the scope at Airgun ranges you do not
have to undo this locking ring at all. I have lost
count of the number of full bore specification
scopes I have re-parallaxed down to make them
useful at short Airgun ranges, some scopes are
easier than others and the Barska is very easy to
alter. The objective lens carrier can be
unscrewed to move the objective lens out. This
lessens the parallax distance from its factory set
50yard setting, on the 4-16 you only need to turn
the lens out about 2mm. First turn side-wheel
parallax down to its factory set minimum of
50yards the screwed then screwed the lens out
looking at a twenty three yard target on the full
magnification until it becomes clear and when
you move your head looking at a mark lined
up with the crosshair the crosshair does not
move of that mark. That means the scope is
parallaxed for that range. There is a very small
diameter rubber “O” ring behind the locking ring
which is exposed as you screw the objective
lens carrier out, just be very, very careful not to
damage this. This process does not vent any of
the gasses inside the scope and does not mark
or harm and of the optics of body of the scope
in any way, the Benchmarks parallax side-wheel
is not marked up in yards anyway so it does
not make the indexing marks on there useless.
The only difference is the 50 number marked on
the bottom limit of
travel on the wheel
is now 23 yards not
50. The 4-16 needs
to be re-parallaxed
to 23 yards when on
16 mag it was clear
at 40 yards and
useable at 45 yards,
the maximum range
in HFT. The small
gap made on the
objective lens can
be covered by black
insulation tape,
but I normally tape
it up and also fit
the front of the scope with a Butler Creek flip
up scope cap. This keeps the front ring set to
the re-parallaxed setting you want and seals
it from the elements. It depends upon the
user of the scope of the Benchmark scopes,
if you think it would make a good HFT and
Sporting Field Target shooting scope, which
it does, it is up to the owner of the scope as
it voids the warranty. That being said I did
re-parallax a 4-16 Barska Benchmark scope
from SYSS and tested it for HFT use. The
scope is very well made for the price, the 50mm
objective lens looks smaller then 50 due
to the 30mm diameter of the body tube,
“Benchmark” the name of the range is written
clearly on the left hand side of the objective. The
zoom ring to alter the magnification has clearly
been manufactured to tight tolerances with
each marking of 4,6,8,10,12, and 16 indexing
into a ball bearing notch, very nice and only
usually seen on scopes costing ten times as
much. It rotates with a satisfying stop into each
magnification mark, the adjustable eye bell has
also been made to the same tight tolerances.
It has a massive adjustment range there is
no slack in the movement of the lens carrier.
The windage and elevation turrets are housed
under screw on protective caps, the turrets are
marked up from zero to 7.5 minutes of angle
with as mentioned before each click moving the
reticle an eighth of a minute at 100 yards. There
is another bit of quality to the Benchmarks. They
use a coil spring not the more normal leaf type
spring behind the erector tube which they call
the “Accu-lock” system. Once reset I carried out
the parallax error test, the results for this and all
Target Shooter 27
 Exit Pupil = Objective lens dia
Magnification
TABLE ONE
Exit pupil Objective lens Mils on Made Cost
AGS 3-12*44 SWAT 4.4mm 44mm 2 Mil’s on 10 China £160 ( Note it is 2 mil)
Barska 4-16*50 Benchmark 5mm 50mm ANY China £225 ( Note it is 1.25 mil)
Bushnell 6500 2.5-16*42 4.2mm 42mm 10 Japan £787 – Can be found for £415
Bushnell 10*40 4mm 40mm 10 Japan £220 rrp - Can be found for £160
Bushnell 4-12*40 3.8mm 40mm 10.5 Japan £385 ( Note it’s a special reticle Not a Mildot)
EB Sniper 10*42 4.2mm 42mm 10 Japan £426 rrp- Can be found for £290
Falcon Menace 10*40 4mm 40mm 10 China -------- No longer in production
Hawke SR6 3-12*44 4.4mm 44mm 10 China £130 rrp
Hawke SR12 6-18*44 3.6mm 44mm 12 China £150 ( Note it’s a special reticle Not a Mildot)
Hawke MAP 3-9*40 4.4mm 40mm 9 China £55 ( Note it’s a special reticle Not a Mildot)
Leupold 3-9*33 EFR 3.6mm 33mm 1 ¼ at 9 USA Not made but $499 rrp for non Mildot scope
Leupold 2.5-8*36 MK4 4.1mm 36mm 8.7 USA $1300 rrp
Lightstream 4.5-14*44 4.4 to 3.1mm 44mm ANY Japan £389 rrp
Lightstream 3-12* 40 4.4mm 40mm 9 Japan --------- Now not in production
MTC Viper 10*44 4.4mm 44mm 10 China £150 rrp ( Note it’s a special reticle Not a Mildot)
Schmidt and Bender 10*42P3 4.2mm 42mm 10 Germany £615 for 30/30 ret P/A for 100m. £850 for P3Mildot if they will make it
Zeiss 3-9*36 4mm 36mm 9 Germany £300 2ND HAND ( Note it’s a 30/30 reticle)

the other scopes are at the end of the article. I small parallax error readings? As for value for
have been impressed with Barska scope for a money the Hawke Map reticle and the 3-9*40
few years now, even wining a few trophies in LBP scope at £55 has to be the best value for money.
and Mini-rifle events. If you are bright enough to Look at the tree tables to see the full results,
realise how useful first focal plane reticles are table one gives more detail the exit pupil size
take a look at www.rimfiremagic.co.uk. To sum of the scopes and price, table two gives the
these two scopes up the Bushnell is the latest reticle image at 15, 25, 40 and 45 yards.
king of the hill and despite the 1.25 Mildot reticle Finally table three gives the actual measured
TABLE TWO
15 yards 40yards 45 yards VFM Rangefinding Reticle Optics Overall
AGS 3-12*44 SWAT Target blurred / Reticle clear Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 7 7 2 3 4
Barska 4-16*50 Benchmark Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 9 8 7 7 7
Bushnell 6500 2.5-16*42 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target bit blurred / Reticle clear 8 8 9 8 9
Bushnell 10*40 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 10 8 9 8 10
Bushnell 4-12*40 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 8 8 7 8 7
EB Sniper 10*42 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 9 9 9 7 9
Falcon Menace 10*40 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 9 8 9 8 8
Hawke SR6 3-12*44 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 10 8 9 8 8
Hawke SR12 6-18*44 Target blurred / Reticle clear Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 10 8 9 8 8
Hawke MAP 3-9*40 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 10 7 8 7 9
Leupold 3-9*33 EFR Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target bit blurred / Reticle clear 8 8 7 9 9
Leupold 2.5-8*36 MK4 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both Pin Sharp Target a bit blurred / Reticle clear 7 8 10 9 10
Lightstream 4.5-14*44 10 MAG Both clear (13y ret blurred) Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear see below
Lightstream 4.5-14*44 14 MAG Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle bit blurred 9 8 10 8 8
Lightstream 3-12* 40 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 8 8 7 8 6
MTC Viper 10*44 Target clear / Reticle blurred Both clear Target blurred / Reticle clear 10 8 7 6 7
Schmidt and Bender 10*42 Both clear (10y target blurred) Both Pin Sharp Target a bit blurred / Reticle clear 9 9 9 10 11
Zeiss 3-9*36 Both clear (10y ret blurred) Both sharp Target clear / Reticle blurred 8 6 6 9 7
ALL TESTED ON 23 YARD PARALLAX APART FROM THE ZEISS

the Barska is a very good scope. parallax error at 15, 25 and 45 yards. I do hope you
To give an overall summary I rate the fixed ten enjoyed the series as it was a lot of hard work,
magnification Bushnell scope the 3200 10*40 as but it did teach me a lot about what makes a
the best overall, I and many others have won good HFT scope, if only a manufacturer would
titles with it. The old war horse the EB Sniper make one from scratch, erm they are and I
has won more trophies and titles than any other am helping with the design, watch this space.
HFT scope out there, is that due to the scopes

TABLE THREE
ACTUAL PARALLAX ERRORS FOR ALL 13 SCOPES - MEASURED IN MILDOTS AT 15,25&45 YARDS
Scope Mil on 15 25 45
AGS 3-12*44 SWAT 2mil on 10 ¾L½R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
Barska 4-16*50 Benchmark 1.25 on any ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
Bushnell 6500 2.5-16*42 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½ L&R
Bushnell 10*40 10 ½ L&R 1/8 L&R ½ L&R
Bushnell 4-12*40 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
EB Sniper 10*42 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
Falcon Menace 10*40 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½ L&R
Hawke SR6 3-12*44 n/a ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½ L&R
Hawke SR12 6-18*44 12 ¾ L&R ¼ L&R ¼L½R
Hawke MAP 3-9*40 n/a ½L¾R ¼ L&R ½ L&R
Leupold 3-9*33 EFR 1.25 on 9 ¼L½R 1/8 L&R ½ L&R
Leupold 2.5-8*36 MK4 8 ½ L&R 1/8 L&R ½ L&R
Lightstream 4.5-14*44 10 MAG Any ½ L&R 1/8 L&R ½ L&R
Lightstream 4.5-14*44 14 MAG Any ¾ L&R ¼ L&R 2/3 L&R
Lightstream 3-12* 40 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
MTC Viper 10*44 10 ½ L&R ¼ L&R ½L¾R
Schmidt and Bender 10*42 10 ½ L&R 1/8 L&R ½ L&R
Zeiss 3-9*36 n/a ¾ L&R ¼ L&R ¼L½R

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

Target Shooter 29
 Duracoated AR15 in .204 built to
customers specifications

Strictly by
appointment only
Savage benchrest in a
custom anodised Mcree
Precision chassis

Full Spec Custom .22LR Spikes

Tactical M4  Duracoat Specialist.
 .22 AR’s Specialist .
 Full Custom and
Semi Custom Rifles
built to order.
 Custom 10/22’s built
to order.

30 Target Shooter
 What the boys from Border Barrels used at
the Open ‘F’ Class World Championships
Over the past four years, the boys at Border
Barrels have been taking a very active part
in the preparations leading up to the World
Championships at Bisley in July this year (2009).
No less than five of our lads were participating in
the World Championship events. In the
individual Open Class championships, 145 of the
best shooters from around the world had come
together to find out who was going to be World
Champion for the next four years. Four of our
lads competed in this class and they came in a
very creditable 7th, 9th, 12th, and 17th. Three of
them went on to represent the Great Britain team
of eight in its romp to victory, which top-scored
every range over the two days of team shooting.
The past four years have been a rapid learning
curve for ‘F’ Class shooting in the UK. First was
Adam
Above - Adam’s rifle
the realisation that the ubiquitous 6.5-284 Win.
cartridge everyone was using four years ago
was not cutting the mustard. In South Africa,
the host country’s team led the way home in the
team competitions using a straight 284 Win. or
variants thereof. The heavier 7mm bullet could
carry through gusts, puffs and eddies of wind
much better than 6.5mm bullets – even having
the same BC. But, upon mature reflection, the
straight 284 Win was a considered little
underpowered and preference here in the
UK quickly settled on the 7mm WSM as the
cartridge of choice. Meanwhile, similar
development was going on stock design, bag
design and front rest design. Having access
to the gunsmithing tools and machines used
in their everyday jobs, the dedicated ‘F’ Class
shooters at Border Barrels could quickly try
out new developments and variants as they
worked their way towards the “ultimate” ‘F’
Class rifle to use at the World Championships.
So, after four years of hard work, sifting and
sorting through the huge combination of
choices available, what did our boys end up with?
Lee Tomlinson’s rifle features a Lawton action
(right hand bolt, left hand port). There has been
some discussion about the use of a US made
Lawton two lug Remington clone action against
the 4 lug RPA Quadlock or Quadlite. Would a
two lug action shoot as well as the theoretically
stiffer counterpart? The answer seems to be
that if the lugs are lapped in properly, there is no
reason why a two lug action should not perform
just as well as the more symmetrically supported
bolt of the RPA or its antecedents (Paramounts
Target Shooter 31
and Swings). And, most important from Lee’s
point of view, the bolt lift on a two lug action is much
lighter than on a four lug action which will have a
shorter bolt lift, so there will be less disturbance
of the rifle on the bags when loading a new round.
The barrel is a Border barrel in 5R rifling
(.278 bore, .284 groove) having 8.5” twist. 5R
rifling (popularised by the great US barrel
maker, ‘Boots’ Obermeyer) does not have such
a sharp angle in the corners of the grooves as
conventional concentric rifling, so the
bullet seals better in the barrel. Having an odd
number of grooves is supposed to confer
better in-bore-yaw stability to the bullet as well.
There is no doubt that the 5R barrels shoot
well. Whether they shoot better than 6 groove
or 4 groove barrels with conventional rifling is
arguable, but there is no doubt in our minds that
the 5R barrels foul less. Instead of the usual
intense fouling on the top of the land and the
middle of the groove, there is just a uniform
Dan
light copper wash all around the barrel - if there
is any fouling at all. Aficionados will note that this brass to ensure uniformity and best accuracy.
the bore diameter is a little on the large side. The stock was a Robertson Composites
Before Berger Bullets changed the jackets on (Canada) GBF stock, which the lads at
their 180 grain 7mm bullets, they were Border Barrels helped design. The front of the
blowing up rather too often. So, to counter this, fore-end, which sits on the front rest, is thin
Dan increased the bore diameter so that the to keep the rifle low and the recoil straight.
bullet was being engraved less. The barrels The rest of the fore-end is thick for maximum
shot well and the problem was overcome. Then rigidity. The other feature of the stock is the
Berger made the bullets with thicker jackets - large grip with a ‘shelf’ on which to rest the
but the barrels still shot well, so why change a right hand. The stock has the usual 3-way
adjustable butt and an adjustable cheek piece.
Lee’s scope was the 9-36x56(35) IOR
Dan’s rifle

good formula? scope with the MP8 ‘floating dot’ reticule. He

Lee’s cartridge of choice was the 7mm WSM, using
Winchester brass, with a 180 grain Berger bullet
perched on top. Powder was Hodgedon H1000.
Muzzle velocity was about 3070 ft/sec. Careful
case sorting and preparation was needed with
used it throughout on power 20, where the
hatch lines on the reticule were spaced by
exactly one minute and so matched the turret click
adjustments. Lee found this very useful for
holding off for the wind by a precisely known

32 Target Shooter
 finish.
Lee’s rifle
The barrel, once again, is a cut rifled Border with 5R
amount. As did all the lads, Lee did his own rifling (.278 bore and .284 groove). Twist was 8.5”.
gunsmithing in his own time; chambering, Like his brother Dan, Adam used the
threading and fitting the barrel to the action necked up Norma 270 WSM brass for his
himself, and bedding it into the stock himself. cartridge, topped out with the Sierra 170 grain
Lee came 7th in the individual shoot for the bullet, driven by H1000 powder for a muzzle
World ‘F’ Class Championships and shot for the
victorious Great Britain team in the team event.
aniel Brough’s rifle features an RPA Quadlite
action, with a big blue knob on the bolt handle.
Dan heads the cut rifling barrel shop here at
Border Barrels, so he made the barrel he shot. He
was probably the only competitor who ‘made his
own barrel’. The barrel was a cut rifled Border with
5R rifling (.278 bore and .284 groove). Twist was
8.5 inches. Dan had Les paint the barrel black.
Dan’s cartridge of choice was the 7mm - 270
WSM. The 270 WSM case is slightly shorter
than the 7mm WSM, but with a range limit of
3250 ft/sec., case capacity is not a problem and
nothing is lost by loosing a bit of case capacity.
What you gain is the ability to use Norma brass.
All European brass is better than any American
brass, and Norma make the 270 WSM brass,
but for some reason do not make the 7mm
WSM brass. So, that is the reasoning behind the
Lee
cartridge choice. Dan used the Sierra 175 grain
bullets, pushed along to 3050 ft/sec. by a good
Christian dollop of Hodgedon H1000 powder. velocity of around 3050 ft/sec. Adam also chose
The stock on Dan’s rifle is a McMillan F Class stock. to use the Nightforce NXS 12-42 with the CH3
Dan’s choice of scope was the Nightforce reticule, which he wound up to 42 power and
NXS 12-42 with the CH3 reticule. Dan’s left alone. Adam’s wind reading method was -
method of judging the wind was to aim off like his brother Dan - to use ‘The Force’ and not
and say, “That seems about right.” Then pull bother himself too much with wind tables and
the trigger. What can I say, it worked for him! other matters ballistic. He enjoyed himself...
Dan came 12th in the individual shoot for the Adam came 9th in the individual shoot for the
World ‘F’ Class Championships and shot for the World ‘F’ Class Championships and shot for the
victorious Great Britain team in the team event. victorious Great Britain team in the team event.
Like Lee, Adam Brough chose to use the
Lawton action, but a more conventional right
hand bolt with right hand port. The stock is a
Robertson GBF in a rather natty black and silver
Target Shooter 33
 BORDER BARRELS LTD
Newcastleton
Scottish Borders
TD9 0SN
Tel: 013873 76253 email: info@border-barrels.com
www.border-barrels.com

.22 LR RIMFIRE BARRELS

OK FOLKS.... Today we are going to talk about rimfire barrels; what makes ‘em shoot, what makes ‘em shoot real
good, and why you should choose one of our barrels if nothing but the best will do. So, listen up, you might learn
something.

The first thing we will talk about is the choke. The what....? No, you don’t have to put your hands around the barrel
and grip it real hard. But the fact is that any barrel that shoots lead bullets must have bore and groove dimensions
that are smaller at the front than at the back. That is a copper bottomed, gold plated fact you can take to the bank.
We choke our barrels by a method of progressive
lapping, so that there is a uniform, smooth
tightening of the barrel dimensions as the bullet
goes down the barrel, with a final tightening in
the last few inches before the bullet exits.

Of course, most manufacturers don’t go to that

sort of effort. Lapping barrels is a skilled job which
takes time and costs money. They just put the
barrel in a large hydraulic collet and squeeze the
end to make sure that is the tightest bit. So, the
bullet rattles and shakes down the barrel and gets
a final straighten up so it will hopefully fly right as
it is spat out the end. Well, it works sometimes.

And then there is the stress. No no.... nobody gets

stressed making your barrel and you won’t get
stressed using it. But if there is stress in the steel,
The top barrel is a drop-in replacement barrel for a 20 series Anschutz. The 19
then the first shot down a cold barrel will
series Anschutz below has just been re-barrelled with a cut rifled Border barrel.
generally head off in some direction you would
rather it did not go, and it could take several shots before the barrel warms up and bends just the right amount to
start putting the shots somewhere close to where they should. Our barrels don’t do that, because our barrels don’t
have stress in ‘em in the first place – the first shot goes where the rest of the shots will go. So, if the wind changes
and you want to wait it out until the wind comes back again, you can do so with confidence that your next shot will
go where you point it.

So, if you are thinking of putting a new barrel on your rimfire rifle because yours is over the hill or you think you
need something better, give us a call.

A good-as-you-can-get cut rifled Border barrel will cost £655 including proofing and VAT. If that sounds rather a lot,
think about one of our Archer button rifled barrels. They are heat treated to remove any stress and progressive hand
lapped just like our cut rifled barrels for just £487 including proofing and VAT.

If you are worried that your rifle will be away for weeks and weeks and you will get behind with your league cards,
fear not. We can make the barrel, have it proofed, get you to send in your rifle and we can get it back to you by
return. Hell, if you bring it yourself, we will change the barrel while you wait and give you a cup of tea! You can’t ask
34 than that. Target Shooter
for better
 www.FoxFirearmsUK.com
Tel: 0161 430 8278 or 07941 958464
PUTTING SHOOTING FIRST
VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE THE VERY BEST VALUE CUSTOM PRECISION RIFLES FOR TR, MATCH,
F-CLASS, AND BENCH-REST
WE STOCK HUNTING RIFLES BY COOPER, KIMBER AND PFEIFER AND COMPETITION-
WINNING RIFLES FROM KELBLY AND KEPPELER, AND ARE TRADE AGENTS FOR THE
SUPERB BARNARD ACTIONS, AND RECORD-BREAKING TRUE-FLITE AND BARTLEIN BARRELS

WE ALSO STOCK PROFESSIONAL BORESCOPES (from £533) AND A RANGE OF HIGH-POWER

SCOPES FOR COMPETITION AT AMAZING PRICES (eg 8-32X50 WITH 30mm TUBES FROM £100)
ALONG WITH STUNNING BINOCULARS AND SPOTTING SCOPES

SEB LAMBANG BENCH RESTS AND ACCESSORIES ARE THE BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE. WE
STOCK HIS FULL RANGE AT LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICES, ALONG WITH THE BUDGET
CALDWELL RANGE- BERGER BULLETS TO YOUR DOOR- EXPORT TO EUROPE, NO PROBLEM!
SEE WEBSITE FOR FULL SPECIFICATIONS AND CURRENT STOCKLIST
EVERYTHING WE IMPORT IS BY FAR THE BEST VALUE IN THE UK

Target Shooter 35

Derby Rifle continues to put on probably the best
Action Weekend outside of Bisley/NSC. Held on
Saturday, Sunday 27/28th June, in uncommonly good
weather, saw 75 competitors from all corners of the
UK descend on the Twyford range, many of whom
camped on site to enable them to shoot on both days.
Originally the Derby Open was just a 1500 event but
with increased range capacity and newly installed
turning targets it has grown remarkably and now
offers 1500, T&P1, T&P2 and Multi-Target in all four
disciplines; S-B & C-F gallery Rifle, LBP and LBR.
Additionally this year T&P3 was included for LBP and
LBR.
With good conditions scores were very high and
with many of the National Squad in attendance the
competition was fierce. John Robinson claimed most
of the small-bore events but Gwyn Roberts and Ash
Dagger stopped him making a clean sweep. For
winning the small-bore aggregate John won the 10/22
stock donated by North West Custom Parts but very
generously gave it to Teresa Carnall from LCBM who
had been drooling over
it! It was Taff Wilcox who
stopped John in the CF
events. Clive Ferguson
and Graham Trimmer
shared the honours in
the LBP competitions,
however in the LBR events
thing were spread out
between Bob Peace, Mick
Tedesco, Jim Smith, Doug
Green and Ted George.
By Jim Smith
duo of Melville fame, making a rare excursion and had tee
shirts especially made to commemorate the occasion.
A few years ago DRPC experimented with their prize
table and it proved very popular, now winners can choose
from trophies or shooting accessories and shooting
related items or the trusty favourite of wine, spirits and
beers.
Five companies supported the competition and
this boosted the prize table considerably and these
generous sponsors deserve to be mentioned –
Learning Processes Limited
North West Custom Parts
Wentworth Sporting Services
Fox Firearms
Phoenix Firearms
The host Club put on a BBQ both days and gave
out 250 bottles of water to cool the competitors and
even arranged a fly past by a Spitfire on Sunday
afternoon. To complete an excellent weekend even more
than usual stayed for the Prize giving. For a full set of
results please see the website below;
http://www.drpc1999.com

For various reasons

some of the long time
supporters of the event
were missing but it
was great to see many
new faces taking part.
Particularly “Pinky &
Perky” the well-known RO

36 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 sales@portsmouthguncentre.com
Thur 9.30 - 5.30 Website www.portsmouthguncentre.com
Fri 9.30 - 5.30
Sat 9.30 - 5.30
We stock a full range of Rifles, Pistols, Air Guns, Shotguns, Ammunition,
Reloading Equipment and Accessories. All major brands stocked including BSA,
CZ, Air Arms, Marlin, Ruger, Umarex, Uberti, Cometa, Pedersoli, Berreta, Lincoln,
Webley, Pedersoli, etc.

Email : stuart@ospreyrifles.com

Tel : 0161 4083555

Osprey Rifles
‘The Savage Specialists’

We still have a limited supply of precision target actions

for sale at £500 for your next custom project. The new
RRP is £920 so grab a bargain while you can
Target Shooter 37
URL : www.ospreyrifles.com
 UK Rimfire Air Rifle and Rimfire Benchrest
National Championship
The 2009 National Rimfire and Air Rifle
Benchrest Championship was held at
Portishead Shooting Club in Somerset; in the
heart of the West Country and what an event
it was . This event was held over the Bank
Holiday weekend, with a
practice day on the Friday and then the main
events over the Saturday and Sunday. Medal
presentations were on the Bank Holiday
Monday.
The UKBR22 (United Kingdom Air Rifle
and Rimfire Benchrest Association) ran this
event, but was an open event and had nearly
40 competitors taking part in Light Varmint
Scott - one of the junior shooters
cleaning his rifle just before his
detail
38 Target Shooter
by Andy Dubrueil
Set up and ready!!!
and Unlimited Air Rifle and Rimfire Benchrest.
Portishead Shooting Club has been around since
1948 and has held events in the past but I don’t think
it has had anything as big as this in the last 20yrs
of its history. Ken Stockham (secretary) has been
at the club since he was a boy and has been part
of the British team for the past four years. He was
asked to hold the event at Portishead, at the time I
don’t think he realise how much work was going to
be involved in putting on such an event, but being
Ken he gets on with the job and puts 150% into it .
He has had a fantastic team of volunteer
members that have put hours and hours into
getting the club ready for the championship.
They have been work parties contributing during
weekends and even people taking time off from
work during the week to help out. Scrubland
has been cleared, and the car park had been
extended. The major work was creating new firing
points that had not been touched for more than 40yrs.
Friday was practice day and the day that most people
arrived on, but the weather decided to make it as hard
as possible for people to practice with heavy down
pores of rain and high winds to batter the range. But
everyone seemed up beat and made the best of the
conditions and got as much practice in as possible .
 the officials did a great job in
being professional in their task .
The weather was a complete
contrast to the day before as it
was bright sunshine and very
warm but had a stiff breeze
at times. The air rifle hunter
got on the way with scores
averaging around 242 and
increasing through the day as
competitors got used to the
conditions.
On the 50m range the
Rimfire was seeing the 10 ½
lb boys make their mark, but
the winds were very stiff and
saw scores averaging 243 but
a stunning performance from
our very own Carl Boswell
Those windflags look fast!!!!! putting a 250 and 11 10x’s on
his first card, well done to him.
On the air gun side there were some interesting air Back on the unlimited 25yd I
rifles to be seen one especially from Air Arms that was was shooting well with my first two cards being 250
a one off. The S400 had been modified specially for 17 10x’s and 250 22 10x’s and was in the running
Benchrest and had a few extras added to it. (A review for a medal. I had been working out of the back of
on the S400 in forth coming issues of Target Shooter ) my car due to not having too much room to clean my
Saturday saw the 25yd unlimited which was rifle during matches. I had closed the boot of the car
indoors with the big guns of unlimited Rimfire. with the rifle on it cleaning bench, it was two hours
The rules are that you have to obliterate the 10 to before my final card and had been busy with been
RO on the 25yd
range. One of the
Honest guv - it was this big!! guys went to my
car to bring my
rifle down to me
and as I placed
it on the rest I
notice the rifle was
extremely hot, I
looked through
the scope and
all I could see
was a blob for
the target. By
leaving the rifle
open in the car
I had cooked
the scope and
all I could see
was a haze, I
frantically tried
to focus as
much I could
score a 10x, this is just as well as a majority were but it made no
hitting maximum scores of 250 and it was down to difference and I had no choice but to shoot it
the 10x to decide the scores. Scoring such a target as it was, all I could do was aim at the centre of
is a black art and needs keen eyes to make sure the blob and hope for the best. At the end of the
they are scored, properly which is not easy when card I had thought to myself I would be lucky if I
you have a huge amount of targets to score but was in the 230’s the chance of a medal had been

Target Shooter 39
 This is not a Darlek on the right, but the level of precision used to score each
card
blown by a stupid mistake. These things happen
and you learn from these mistakes and I will not
be doing this again. To my amazement I had done
a 249 15 10x’s how I did so well I don’t know but
I have trust in my rifle and ammo, what I hope is
that readers will learn by my mistake and don’t
leave your rifle in the back of a car in the sun light.
With the 25yd out of the way now I was worried about
how the rifle would stand up to the 50m. I got home
At times there was
chance to chat.
40 Target Shooter
and left the case open to see if the scope would
settle, to say the least I had a restless night. The next
morning I got to the range and was relieved to see
that the scope was back to normal as I sighted up on a
target, so now I was able to concentrate on the match.
Being England the conditions had change once
again with it being cloudy and drizzle with the wind
picking up once again.
The unlimited air gun saw scores on average of 245
which is fantastic for the conditions and
the Rimfire saw scores of 246 being the
even a best and heavy gust of winds at times.
For the Air Rifle and Rimfire unlimited
would see their scores go forward to
the world postal’s so it was a double
competition for those guys in the teams.
At present team A for Rimfire is top
of the leader board but there is still
Australia and the USA to shoot this
month so we have to wait to see how
they get on. On the Air Rifle side of things
the air world postal’s team A and B are
top and are going to take some beating.
Most of the competitors had come from
clubs that have been building up their
members in benchrest over the past
couple of years. Paul Lane Club from
the North had brought down a team
We may be seeing a bit more of Colin - shooting for
6 months and taking away medals

of 12 with a fantastic group of juniors like Bunty Score X's Place

Jenkins, Peter Jenkins and Jake Healey. We UK Nationals Air Hunter Individuals Results 2009
also had the Buxted Boys from the South East of C Renwick 737 31 1st
England and they had their very own Scott M Golloghly 728 15 2nd
Greyson who is a national junior and is top of his A Simpson 723 18 3rd
First Junior
game at preset and did a fantastic job at the weekend.
S Grayson (J)
S Grayson  (J) 702 18 1st
Portishead saw its own Steve Rogers put in a
UK Nationals Air Unlimited Individuals Results 2009
fantastic performance, since he had never shot
C Boswell 737 20 1st
outdoors before. He finished 8th in the unlimited G Kingaby 735 24 2nd
section and he should be very proud of what he P Barker 733 29 3rd
has achieved, as he had beaten some of the top First Junior
shooters in his class. Steve even manage to do S Grayson  (J) 721 21 1st
a personal best of 242 which is even better than UK N ti
UK Nationals .22   50m 10.5lb Individuals Results 2009
l 22 50 10 5lb I di id l R lt 2009
scores he has achieved indoors, so we will be C Boswell 737 24 1st
encouraging him at the club to spend more time B Kelly 730 13 2nd
on the outdoor range. And not for getting North J Farrell 726 12 3rd
Waltham’s very own Rosie Evan’s, this lady has First Junior
just taken up the sport of benchrest and has won C Stockham (JL) 708 10 1st
UK Nationals 50m .22 Unlimited Individuals Results 2009
the 50m unlimited junior medal, well done to her. It
C Boswell 741 18 1st
was good to see so many juniors taking part as they
B Kelly 733 21 2nd
are the next generation and they have shown the
R Harrison 732 17 3rd
older ones a thing or two. They may not have the 1st Lady
best of equipment but they have proved they can G Stockham (L)  713 9 1st 
shoot and hopefully with time and good mentors 1st Junior
like John Farrell who spends a lot of time with the R Evans (JL)
R Evans (JL) 709 15 1st
1st 
Paul Lane juniors they will go further in the sport. UK Nationals .22   25yrd 10.5lb Individuals Results 2009
The weekend saw some great shooting and here B Kelly 750 50 1st
are the top winners, as you can see from the scores J Healy (J) 750 40 2nd
sheet to the right: B Jenkins (JL) 749 41 3rd
First Junior
I personally think that the event was a tremendous J Healy (J) 750 40 1st 
UK Nationals 25yrd .22 Unlimited Individuals Results 2009
success, but this was down to Portishead Shooting
B Kelly 750 62 1st
Club and the work that they have done over this year,
C Rose 750 59 2nd
the range crew should also get a pat on the back. R Harrison 750 53 3rd
Form the guys that had the job of changing the targets 1st Lady
in the butts to the Range Officers on the firing line, M Hayes (L) 737 36 1st 
and we should not forget the crew that fed us right 1st Junior
through the weekend, it was fantastic food and I have P Jenkins (J) 749 57 1st 

Target Shooter 41
 Colin Renwick - Air Rifle
Hunter gold medallist
and overall Air rifle Aggregate
winner

to say I feel big as a house, many thanks to them .
2011 it will be World Championships in the USA.
During the coming months the team will be chosen
and we will be looking for sponsors to help with tak-
ing shooters to these championships, so if you’re
a company and interested in sponsoring you can
contact the team through the editor of Target Sports.
Finally congratulations from all at Target Shooter to
all the winners and to everyone that took part you

The Superb Portishead Team

- without who the nationals
would not have happened

Benchrest is still relatively new in the UK thanks to

UKBR22 founding member Pat Phelps he should
be very proud of the associations record and its
achievements. Many of the competitors spoke
amongst themselves and want to encourage more
shoulder to shoulder shooting for the future. The The Medallists
problem for a lot of clubs in England is that they
don’t have the benches to accommodate benchrest
shooting but most of the clubs have built their own
benches with a cost of around a £150 per a bench. made it a great weekend to remember and you
It may seem a lot of money for a bench but if you should all be very proud of your personal achieve-
buy them direct from manufacturers you could be ments. We look forward to what the team can
looking in the region £300. The sport needs more achieve in the Czech Republic in 2010.
clubs to look at taking up benchrest shooting for Full scores and pictures can be found on
the future. UKBR22 have sent a team to previous
Europeans and World Championships and next
the UKBR22 website at;
year a team will be going to Czech Republic. In http://www.benchrest22.org/
42 Target Shooter
 Target Shooter 43
 The Steyr LG100 for Air Rifle Benchrest

By Carl Boswell
After writing some quite technical stuff and a few Weaver T36 scope and an air splitter designed and
reviews since we started this magazine, I thought made by Pete Dutton of Hunter Field Target fame).
it would be good to get back to how I started off This is a bit of a picture diary article so I have
with writing. That is to modify a rifle for benchrest. done it all in one – to keep it simple. As this
(For those that remember years ago I modified a project is a simple one this makes sense – hopefully!
CZ 452 and then an Anschutz 1407). This
article is about developing the Steyr LG series
My idea for this particular piece came last year
for air rifle benchrest. Air Rifle BR has become
as Colin Renwick and I used his Steyr LG110 at
increasingly popular over the last few years – the
the World Championship in Milan. As we both
USA have been shooting it for at least two years,
came away with individual and team medals, the
Australia are developing as I write this – others
rifle serviced us very well. With this in mind, we
like Portugal are coming onto the world scenetalked to Steyr about the chance of developing a
as we speak and there is an article about this
benchrest specific model. As the market is very
further in this issue of Target Shooter. (This
small, and the fact
particular article actually brings in a few other
that the recession
products that I have been testing recently – the
started to bite, this
was unfortunately
PIC 1 - LG 100 as it was, with aluminium the wrong time
block on the forend and FT stock - both of to try this type
these were removed as they are not the best of development.
for shooting benchrest PICs 2 and 3 - show the
As we shooters front stock before and
are an inventive
after the bedding process.
breed I started to
develop the idea
myself, so the
design I came up
with, based on
rimfire stocks, is
what you will see

44 Target Shooter
 off cuts at the
Phoenix meeting
– originally I was
going to import
some laminated
‘Diamond Wood’
from the US, but
this would have
been the expensive
option. The first
part was the stock
forend. The LG
series has a hand
rail slide mounting,
so it was relatively
easy to fashion the
PIC 4 - The roughed out rear stock - where shape I wanted
it joins to the rifle needs to be accurately based on rimfire
made and hand fitted designs and hand
route a grove to fit
here in this article. There is nothing really new the basic curvature
in the design, but it takes the LG100/110 to the of the LG stock. Now the next part is the risky bit
point where it can be used as a specific benchrest as I then bedded the new forend to the stock to get
model and away from the HFT/ FT design that we the best fit so it would not slide or move during
tend to see. (This would be my only complaint of shooting. I used a basic epoxy bedding compound
the LG110 used last year, as I felt the rifle did not to achieve this and plenty of barrier gel and tape,
track properly due to the design of the FT stock) so not to affect any of the rifle. (Pictures 2 and 3
show the before and after bedding process). This
As the LG110 has gone up in price over the last is a relatively easy feat to accomplish, as long
year – as the recession bites and the pound sinks as you make sure that everything is covered and
lower in value this is due to exchange rate and
nothing else – I started looking for a second-hand
model so I could attempt the modifications I
wanted. In fact knew someone who had an LG100
FT model that had been upgraded and is basically
the same as the LG110. My luck was in, as he wanted
to trade this in to finance an upgrade to a benchrest
specific rimfire rifle. A quick handshake later and
the LG100
was mine
to fashion
as I wanted.

Picture 1
shows the
LG as it was.
As this was
a prototype
and I
w a n t e d
to get
s t a r t e d PIC 6 - The three final pieces drying with
PIC 5 - Make sure that quickly, I the last coat of paint in my makeshift
purchased workshop
each part of the new
s o m e
stock is well primed
hardwood
Target Shooter 45

the bedding compound does not get into places
it should not be. You will need to ensure the new
forend has the slides attached and then screwed
down to put pressure on the bedding compound
as it sets for a ‘good fit’.
The rear stock itself was the most difficult part, as
this requires that the aluminium connector – which
feeds into the rear of the action housing – be
absolutely perfect. If you have a milling machine
this will be a relatively easy thing to accomplish.
If not, do what I did and produce this the old
fashioned way. This does need to be hand fitted,
so keep testing in your rifle. The process takes
some time but it is worth it. Once this is done the
PIC 8 - The rear stock fitted and locked in
place - the tracking is now a lot better
46 Target Shooter
PIC7 - The rifle with all the new
furniture and painted parts on it
new connector needs to be fitted to the wood
that will eventually turn into the stock – this can
be done with stainless machine bolts or screws.
(Personally I added epoxy to ensure a very good
tight fit that would not move). The modelling of the
stock form, to get the required angles is time
consuming. Using a calliper and measuring
throughout the entire process is what takes the
time. I did this by hand, carving every point, using
rasps, then files for the main parts of the forming
process - always comparing to the form of the rifle
so I was achieving the best fit possible. If you have
any machine tools then good luck to you! This will
aid the process, but be careful when forming as
the material gets removed quickly and the size(s)
PIC 9 - The forend pice also locked down
- both this and the rear stock have stock
tape on them to aid tracking
 housing – creating a blind hole. (See picture 4). The
housing itself came out of the rifle by loosening
a few bolts and could easily be worked on. This
may not be the case with the model you have
and a lot of investigation of the rifle is needed
before you start a project like this. This is where the
disclaimer comes in; you do this at your own risk
and any work I have done will probably void any
warranty. (As the rifle was second hand this really
did not matter). However, always take care when
working on a rifle and take it to a qualified gunsmith
if you are unsure. In this case Harry Preston at
Steyr UK, as his services is second to none and he
is qualified to work on all Steyr air rifles and pistols.
After the shaping, forming, bedding and finishing,
the wood is primed with a few coats of cellulose or
acrylic grey primer and sanded to form, ensuring
all holes, gaps and lumps are filled or reduced at
this stage - (See Picture 5). The priming process is
important, as this will protect this solid wood – so
don’t skimp!
The colour work is basically up to you. I might
have tried something a little more adventurous
if I’d had the time. But to be honest I quite like
the metallic grey I have chosen. Each piece,
including the trigger guard housing, was sprayed
to match. Again you can use either a cellulose or
acrylic paint. I tend to use acrylic with plastics, but
testing the paint on each surface is a good idea.
Pictures 7, 8 and 9 show the new furniture in place
PIC 10 - One of the final pieces - on the rifle. The rear stock fits very well and that
the butt plate is made from plate extra machine screw holds this firmly in place, with
aluminium. The logo is a badge the standard ‘lever’ aiding this locking process.
prepared on computer.
The last part to make was the butt plate (Picture
10), which follows the angular form of the stock.
you are aiming for come very quickly. You can see
from picture 4 how this rough form developed.This was produced from 5mm aluminium sheet,
Using grit paper to refine the shape to cut and ground to form and the logo added as a
final after thought.
complete the process, this was possibly the only
Now comes the phase of testing this new
time I used a machine tool during the process.
‘handy work’ as I have had this up and
(I tend not to use machine tools as, a) I like the
running for a few weeks. The rifle is topped off
process of using my hands and, b) for the sake of
producing articles like this one I think that most
people do not have access to heavy type of
machinery. I am therefore trying to PIC 11 - Pete Dutton’s air splitter - in the
make this accessible to everyone). initial stages of testing - more on this at a
Just remember that the whole process later time
is about hand fitting the stock, so
compare and measure everything, even if
it is a dozen times. There are a number of
LG models out there so have a look at how
yours fits together first.
You may find that adaption of the stock
housing is also needed. I needed to put a
machine screw through the new stock into the

Target Shooter 47
with a Weaver T36 scope and Bulzeye Pro
scope enhancer – both of which will be reviewed
on this rifle and a rimfire rifle in the near future.
The last piece of custom furniture is the air
splitter made by Pete Dutton (Picture 11).
Again this is something I am testing at the
moment and first impressions are very good. This
product is new to me, although I know a number
of other people who use air splitters on their air
rifles. I will let you know how this works out as I
want to work on the the rifle itself a little further
and test it over the next few months.

So there you have it – short and sharp as it is Now its time to see how well it
in limited space, but as it is a relatively easy works!!!
project to do I think that running this in one
your own risk. All I can do is point the way. One
article is the way to keep the enthusiasm burning.
last thing if you do attempt it – make sure the
Remember this can be done to any air rifle – you
stock conforms to the current rules as anything
just need to discover how. If you try this project,
else would be very embarrassing. Until next time.
let me know how it goes and maybe send some
pictures in so I can post them in the association
Footnote - A Steyr LG110 was used at the
pages. I have a few others of my own if people
recent UK National Rimfire and Air rifle
want them – sorry no CAD drawings for this one.
benchrest championships - It helped secure first
This is a picture diary of what I have attempted,
place in both the the Hunter and Unmilited Class.
you may find other things to do or issues I have
Colin Renwick who owns the rifle also achieved
not come up against. As I said earlier, taking on
overall aggregate for the two air rifle events .
a project like this can be daunting so you do it at

48 Target Shooter
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Target Shooter 49
 PROFILE ON ANNIE CHICK

By Hayley Platts
I find myself featuring many young talented
shooters coming through the system which is a
very encouraging sign for our sport. Not only do
we seem to have so many youngsters shooting
well, but I am inspired to find how many of them
are utterly dedicated to a thoroughly professional
training regime. With it they are finding success
nationally and internationally as well as fun and
friendships along the way.
This month in Target Shooter it is the turn of Annie
Chick who is a member of the prestigious England
Academy.
It all began at the age of 11 when Annie gained the
Scouts Master at Arms badge in 2004. Two years
later she joined a rifle club and only a year later
Annie competed in her first shoulder to shoulder
match in Leeds. Annie’s initial interest in shoot-
ing came about through her father who was al-
ready involved in the sport and she explained that
he gave her the enthusiasm to try. Annie goes
on to say that “it was clear I was able to shoot
reasonably straight, which made me want to
carry on. My coach encouraged me to apply to
the Great Britain Junior
Squad and has always
been a huge source of
encouragement to me”.
moment, she will be committed to a further six
training weekends during the year. It is clear that
Annie’s motivation is to be shooting in competition
and her plans for the coming year mean that she
will be aiming to achieve optimum performances in
around ten matches, at various levels both on the
national and international scene.
Annie’s regular coach at home is Tony Wade, a
former coach to the Great Britain squad , and
whilst Annie says her Dad does tries to offer
advice she doesn’t always listen!! An abundance of
coaching sources are available toAnnie as she has the
benefit of the coaching team at the England
Academy and the Junior Squad. She is
appreciative of all of this information but is
mature enough to process and analyse what she
has been told and then use what she finds works
for her. “This can be a bit stressful sometimes, but
it is worth it in the end”.
In her shooting career to date, Annie is proudest
of some performances which haven’t necessarily
brought forth any medals. Easter 2008 was when
Annie first started shooting the three positional
discipline seriously and by the time the Junior

Annie is a member of
the Rotherham Chantry
Rifle & Pistol club and
trains there a couple
of times a week. You
also need to factor in
all of the additional
squad training sessions
which include the GB
Junior Squad training
weekends which
amount to nearly one
per month, and now
that she has gained
a coveted spot in the
England Academy, Annie Chick in Prone postition
albeit a prospective
membership at the

50 Target Shooter
International tournament came round in August at
Bisley Annie had made some rapid improvements.
Whilst she says her standing was not memorable,
her kneeling and prone certainly was, and found
she was top scorer in both of those segments
of the event. It was only in December 2007 that
Annie started shooting air rifle and a couple
of months later competed in the British airgun
championships at Bisley. Annie is obviously
naturally talented as she achieved two personal
best scores and came 3rd in Class D; something
she was delighted but surprised about! In April
2008 while competing in Oldenburg Germany,
Annie shot a personal best score of 578/600 in the
prone event. This is the goal she had set herself
and in doing so achieved a minimum qualification
score and a bronze medal.
Particularly pleasing for Annie was the fact she
had a bad string in the middle of the shoot but
managed to pull herself together and regain
control of the match. She says she learnt a lot
that day which she can now carry forward. This
was Annie’s first international medal and what she
terms her first significant achievement in .22 rifle
shooting.
Another fine day’s shooting came last summer at
the inter-regional match where she repeated her
3P performance at the junior international and
finished 4th in the women’s prone, only being
beaten by top shooters such as Michelle Smith.
Goals for the future during 2009 are to improve on
her 2008 performances. Annie aims to get into the
women’s air rifle final at Oldenburg this year and
to get into the top ten of the women’s 3P event at
the British .22 Championships. In the long term
Annie would love to be part of the England team
at the Commonwealth Games while she is still a
junior, and also aspires to shoot for Great Britain at a
future Olympics, citing 2016 as the earliest
realistic possibility for her.
Annie has been busy this summer taking her
GCSE’s and is philosophical in saying “I
know that my education must come before
shooting, which means that sometimes I don’t get
to train or compete as often as I’d like”.
However she has still managed to bring home a
bronze medal in the prone event from the junior
friendly match in Oldenburg Germany this
summer.
Good luck to Annie with her future shooting and
academic aspirations and we shall no doubt be
seeing her name featuring at the top end of result
sheets in the coming years.

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Target Shooter
 The Sniper Rifle No.4 Mk1(T)

By Nigel Greenaway
As a regular participant in the various historic sniper Above - Pic A - Complete Equipment
matches I get to see many different sniper rifles but Schedule for a No.4(T)
one of the most popular is the Rifle No.4 Mk1(T),
replacement L42A1 sniper rifles as they entered
which many consider to be the finest sniper rifle of
service. The No.4(T) had an illustrious service
WW2. Their value continues to climb with prices
record and is probably still the rifle to beat in the
reaching £2,000-£2,500 for a complete rifle with
Classic class of the McQueen sniper competition –
scope and if you start adding scope tins, leather
to find out why read on.
slings and lens caps, Scout Regiment spotting
scopes and wooden transit cases - then the price will
As a 14 year old cadet at school I was introduced
be even higher. All this has resulted in a veritable
to firearms in the guise of a .22LR No.8 rifle.
cottage industry of miss-matched rebuilds made up
Thereafter, I soon progressed to shooting a No.4
from genuine rifles, non-matching scopes and mount
rifle and the horror stories about the kick of a .303,
brackets, all the way through to out-right fakes where
proved to be unfounded. I spent the next four years,
the only genuine item is the No.32 sniper scope.
2 or 3 times a week, being taught how to shoot by
a Great Britain National Rifle coach. Hence, I have
I hope to guide the reader through the history
always had an affinity with the No.4 and it was always
of these rifles and their associated scopes and
an ambition to acquire the “Rolls Royce” version.
equipment, with details of manufacturers and
production figures followed by an article on what
My personal experience of shooting a No.4(T) dates
to look for when trying to distinguish between a
back to 1986 when my future wife lent me £500 to buy
genuine rifle and a fake. Lastly I will cover the
the Complete Equipment Schedule you see in the
rifle’s shooting ability and how you can reload to
picture - an all matching1944, BSA made, No.4(T)
maximise its long range accuracy. A good No.4(T)
complete with its No.32 Mk3 scope and leather lens
and good handloads will shoot to just over one
caps in their metal Case, Sighting Telescope, No.8
minute of angle and will regularly hit an 18 inch
Mk1, all contained in the wooden Chest, Small-Arms,
wide Fig 11 at 1000 yards. These rifles were still
No.15 Mk1. At the time it was my intention to use the
seeing action in 1970 in Northern Ireland and
rifle in Practical Rifle competitions because I could
there were certainly some still in use alongside the

Target Shooter 53
 Pic B - Inter war No.3 Mk1*(T)
not afford the cost of a Springfield Armoury National
Match M14 and scope – about £2,500 at the time.
What a wise investment that proved to be, especially
after the 1988 ban on centre-fire semi-auto rifles.
Pic A
The rifle was used to win the inaugural South
London Rifle Club 600 yard Sniper rifle competition
(now part of the Trafalgar meeting) against stiff
opposition from that year’s Royal Marine sniper
cadre. It was the start of a long friendship with the
late Pete Bloom as it was he that donated the Scout
Regiment spotting scope as an annual prize – I’ve
been a dedicated student of British sniping and
sniper rifles ever since.
World War 2 – introduction of the No.4(T) sniper rifle.
Pic B
At the start of the war the art of sniping had all
Pic C - Indian soldier with
ex-Trials Rifle No.4(T)
54 Target Shooter
but been forgotten and Britain was equipped with
a WW1 designed sniper rifle, the original P14
Mk1*(T) redesignated as the Rifle No.3 Mk1*(T),
fitted with the Model 1918 telescopic sight. 2000 of
these had been produced but many had been sent
overseas to the Australia and New Zealand. The
only modification it received during WW2 was the
addition of a wooden cheek piece – authorised in
September 1940. Something more modern was
urgently required and the only rifle suitable was
the No.4. However, the No.4 did not enter general
production until mid-1941 and the only No.4 rifles
on hand were the inter-war Trials rifles – 2500
of which had been produced in the early 1930’s.
Approximately 1,403 Trials rifles were used by RSAF
Enfield in the conversion to No.4 Mk1(T) sniper rifles.
Pic C There is speculation as to whether some of
these early Enfield conversions may have also
utilised some early run-of-production rifles from
Maltby, Savage and BSA. Between September
1940 and March 1941 a design of telescopic sight
and mounting bracket was finalised, utilising an
initial design that dates back to 1939, when it was
envisaged that these scopes would be fitted to
Bren Light Machine Guns! Hence the windage or
deflection drum, on what became the No.32 Mk1
scope, was located on the left side so that it would
not foul the Bren magazine.
The official introduction date for the supply of the
No.4(T) to the military was February 1942 but
supplies of the Enfield converted rifles were
issued to the Commandos in November1941 (also

Pic D - Close up of 1941
dated scope tin
supported by the fact that one of my scope tins is
dated 1941). Pic D I examined a Trials No.4(T)
recently and the current owner was told that it had
been used by a Commando on the St Nazaire raid of
March 1942 – although I wonder what use a sniper
rifle would be in the middle of the night in a built up
area where the average engagement distance would
be measured in tens of yards rather than hundreds!
Another vital addition to the No.4(T) was the fitting
of a leather two piece 1907 pattern sling as fitted
to the American 1903 Springfield rifle. The wooden
cheek pieces were not initially fitted to the Enfield
converted rifles but were subsequently retro-fitted.
The triangular sling swivel that replaces the front
trigger guard or bedding screw was not fitted until
late 1944 but many were subsequently retrofitted. In
September 1942 a contract for 12,100 of the new
sniper rifles was placed with Holland and Holland –
the rest they say is history.
No.4(T) Combat Record
In 1993 I decided that I would start researching first
hand accounts of WW2 British snipers because very
few books had been written on the subject. Sniping
is a very lonely form of combat and many surviving
veterans seemed destined to take their stories to
the grave. I ended up collecting stories from many
conflicts - from WW1, WW2, Korea, Aden, Northern
Ireland and the Falklands. Here is one that involved
the No.4(T).
Pic E
Sgt Tom Nowell MM of the Duke of Wellington’s
regiment never told his daughter about his wartime
experiences as a sniper. Our correspondence of
letters and questionnaires unfortunately coincided
with him having a heart attack. It was whilst he was
recuperating in hospital that his daughter saw my
letter and asked what it was about. She encouraged
him to write back to me and he eventually ended up
writing a book. In my attempts to elicit stories and
rekindle old memories I would make suggestions along
the lines of – tell me about the longest shot or is there
a humourous story. I ended up with both in one story.
The sniping in Korea was often at long range, from
hill top to hill top, with the valleys in between being
no-man’s land. Tom had observed a dozen Chinese
carrying supplies up the side of one hill to reinforce a
position. The supplies included Jerry cans of
diesel or petrol. The distance was over 1000 yards
so they thought they were safe. Tom, in observing
this activity, realised that he would be lucky to hit
more than one before they went to ground so he
decided to call up support from local tank and mortar
units. However, these units wanted an accurate grid
reference and Tom had no map but they all knew
where “Pheasant” hill was. In mounting frustration
Tom decided that he would shoot a tracer round into
the middle of the group and the observers from the
other units could spot the fall of shot and direct their
own mortar and tank fire. Setting his sights to 1000
yards, aiming slightly high and with adequate lead,
he shot at the man carrying diesel or was it petrol?
The tracer arched across the valley, penetrated the
victim’s leg and carried on in to the jerry can which
E - Sgt Nowell’s sniper section - Korea
proceed to ignite and send up a ball of flame – it was
definitely petrol. Whilst his Chinese comrades tried
to douse the flames by flinging dirt at him – life got a
whole lot worse as mortar and 105mm high
explosive tank rounds started to fall around them.
Tom was congratulated for his brilliant target
indication and so ends a long range story with a dose
of black army humour thrown in for good measure.
Those who used the No.4(T) praised its
toughness, reliability and accuracy. Yes it was a bit
heavy and optically the scope was not as good as a
German optic but it was more soldier proof and had
windage adjustment on the scope instead of the mount.
But before you all rush out to buy a piece of sniping
history and invest £2000 or more, a little research
might be in order to distinguish between a right
one and a wrong ‘un. Next month I’ll cover all the
manufacturers of the different marks of No.32 scope
and all the relevant rifle, scope and mount bracket
markings.
Target Shooter 55
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Rifles. New Rifles, Double Rifles and Shotguns built to RINK GRIPS TO YOUR SPECIFICATION
specification. Air Guns Serviced & Repaired.
If we do not have what you want let us quote you. www.checkmateguns.co.uk
• Tel Shop: 01905 797060 • Fax: 01905 796620 • Tel Trade: 01905 796610 Sales@checkmateguns.co.uk
56 Target Shooter
• Web: www.wildcatrifles.co.uk • Email enquiries@wildcatrifle.co.uk Robert Clevely,
Tel/fax; 01257 260132, Mob 0777 34 555 61
SS06.09/58/a
 Target Shooter Project Rifle – Part 2
In part 1 and 2 of our project rifle build, we
gathered together all our rifle components,
chambered the barrel and fitted it to the action. If
you recall, we are using a US Surgeon tactical
action, Bartlein gain-twist barrel chambered in 6.5x47
Lapua and an Accuracy International folding stock.
The AI stock has a V shape aluminium bedding
block design to take a circular action of Remington
proportions, so most popular actions will fit. It does
not require a full bedding-job but the Surgeon
action is not quite what we could describe as
‘drop-in’ but modifications are minimal and
were detailed in part 2 of this feature. After
overcoming a small problem with the installation of the
Jewel trigger and firing a few test rounds, the
The AI plastic bits
Vince Bottomley
whole lot was handed over to Wayne at North West
Custom Parts for one of his special paint jobs.
Although applying a camo paint job may seem
straight forward, it’s anything but and I have seen
some awful attempts at my local range. Some
work, some don’t work so well and you need to
have an eye for colour, where to apply it and what
to leave it unpainted. Wayne came up to the range
a few weeks ago with one of his McRees stocks
sporting a really nice paint job which caught
everyone’s eye and at the time, I made a mental note
that I would have the project rifle done the same.
There are a number of paints and finishes on the
market specifically for firearms and the two best
known are KG Gun Kote and DuraCoat. Of the
two, the KG finish is the toughest but it requires a
high-temperature bake so it can’t be used on wood
or plastic stocks, just the metal parts.
As the AI stock has plastic side-plates,
the KG finish is out so I’m going for the
epoxy-based DuraCoat. Gentle heat
can be used to speed up the hardening
process but if any parts are heat
sensitive, the paint will harden sufficiently
in a day to be handled but it takes two to
three weeks to reach full cure.
I remember when we built Rob Hunter’s
tactical rifle. Rob had the whole lot
DuraCoated – the bi-pod, magazines,
even the bolt. Off he went to
Czechoslovakia for a rigorous sniper
competition needing lots of rounds fired
Target Shooter 57
in all conditions. When he got back, the first thing I
wanted to see was the bolt – amazingly, there was
very little of the Duracoat missing – just around the
lugs - impressive and enough to convince me that
this coating is plenty tough enough for anything I will
throw at it in normal range use.
course the cartridges will easily load into a 308 size
mag. I have already test-fired the Surgeon and using
my favourite load with Alliant Reloader 15 and Lapua
108 grain 6.5 Scenars, it was easily grouping under
half MOA. I love this load out to 600 yards but for longer
ranges, a heavier bullet would be a better proposition.

I opted to leave my bolt un-coated - except for the The excellent Forster dies are available for the
shroud and handle. The action and barrel are plain 6x47 and 6.5x47, including a bump bushing
green but the side-plates on the stock now have body-die. This allows you to accurately re-size
a tasteful mottled camo finish which looks great. the case and neck to ensure not only accuracy
I’ve left the Nightforce scope and rings in their but a slick-operating rifle – essential for rapid-fire
natural matt-black and I’ve left the metal bits of the tactical competitions. The Forster Benchrest Ultra
AI stock also in black. This breaks up the camo Seater die is just about the best I’ve used for loading
a bit so it doesn’t look over-done. OK, in a true straight rounds with a conventional press and Tim
‘warfare’ environment we would paint the whole lot, Hannam is the UK Forster importer. Team this die
including the scope but let’s not get carried away! up with a Forster Co-axial press and you will have
just about the best reloading set up you can buy.
Wayne showed me lots of other camo patterns
including the ‘urban’one in the pic below. This is on a Although I’m using Lapua Scenars, there are a
Sako TRG 22 and the whole lot is painted – even the few other 6.5 bullets appearing on the market, like
scope, bi-pod and moderator. This is what the owner Sierra’s 120 grain Matchking (which is significantly
wanted and he is very pleased with it. Clearly I’m a shorter than the Scenar), the Norma 130 grainer
bit boring when it comes to paint jobs but you can be and a range of match bullets from Berger starting at
as wild as your imagination! Of course, camo isn’t 100 grains and going through to a 140 grainer. Only
the only finish – 145 different shades are available Lapua currently offer brass but this is a plus – brass
and if you look on the NWCP website www.nwcus- doesn’t get better than Lapua but it isn’t cheap! Is
tomparts.com you will see a bright orange example. the 6.5x47 a barrel-burner? Well, I’ve had a couple
and they don’t seem too bad. The power-load is not
You will recall that our rifle is chambered for excessive a 6.5 so it should be good for 2000 plus
Lapua’s 6.5x47 cartridge which is becoming a great rounds.
favourite amongst tactical shooters as it offers less
recoil and better ballistics than the 308Win. and of
Hopefully, we can shoot the rifle in a McQueen
comp or a tactical shoot before the next issue
If you want to see what all these bits look like
but I’ve already had some interest in the rifle so
when they’re screwed together then have a I hope I can hang onto it long enough to enjoy it.
look at our Gun of the Month feature.

58 Target Shooter
 Gun of the Month

Vince’s Project Rifle - Gun of the month for

September - see the article on the previous
pages

SECTION 5
firearm solutions to suit you

Section 5 deals in all forms of these specialised weapons -

revolvers, semi-automatic pistols and rifles, and dart guns.
We have one of the largest and most comprehensive stocks of
these weapons in the UK, ready for immediate sale, magazine or
cylinder restriction, De-Activation or export to approved countries.
TRAINING

DE-ACTIVATION

HUMANE DISPATCH

Email: sales@sect5.co.uk Web: www.sect5.co.uk Tel: 07549 945 292 Fax: 0845 280 1620
Target Shooter 59
 Shooting Website of the Month
The website for this month is www.field-
sportschannel.tv. Now this is primarily a
website related to field sports of every
nature. However, most of us shoot a variety
of firearms and that extends to shotguns
as well. The very nature of this website is
interesting as it is an internet based television
channel. As we at Target Shooter believe this
type of electronic format is the wave of the
future, I think that the field sports channel is
a good example of extending what we do in a
different direction. Let’s face it, even some
of the very big publishers are now either
thinking of or producing electronic versions of
their magazines – for a price. These websites
are free. Charlie Jacoby is a well respected
editor, having been involved in a number of
shooting magazines and even set a few of them
up. I believe he has great plans for the future.
Programs are available now and are updated
every couple of weeks.
The website has just launched in August, so
has not been running that long. I really think
60 Target Shooter
this
new
service needs
pointing out to people. My
belief is that this, and we are truly the
wave of the future – to the point where we
probably have portable hand held electronic
‘books’ where we can download our favourite
publications and videos to. (Hands off as this is
my idea- but you can do this on some phones
now).
All in all a very good service and free to the
shooters in the UK and abroad! (When we
say free it’s hard to believe there is not a
catch – having set this magazine up we have
encountered this – there isn’t so have a gander.
Until next month.
A LOOK AT THE REDDING T7 AND
FORSTER CO-AX RELOADING PRESSES
(Part 2)

By Laurie Holland
Having looked at the Above - There is no ram, instead a moving
Redding T7 last month, carrier or ‘guide block’ that holds the case and is
it’s now the turn of the guided / aligned in the press by twin steel rods.
somewhat lighter, but carrier (‘guide block’ in Forster terminols both
even more expensive passing through and fixed to it. The linkage and
Forster Co-Ax, the sole operating handle are situated above this ‘guide
model produced by the block’ and pull it upwards in relation to the press
precision reloading frame on operating the handle instead of the
tool manufacturer in familiar push-motion from below.
Lanark, Illinois. The
Co-Ax is an unusual Having noted the operating handle is situated
design, perhaps even
unique, a word I use
with extreme caution
as claimed shooting
innovations rarely turn
out to be so! How to
classify it? I would
describe it as a
radically modified
‘C-frame’, the upper
horizontal ‘arm’ holding
The Forster Co-Ax, a the die, although not
tall narrow press with securing it in the usual
the operating handle manner. Things change
situated above the frame. radically down below
The optional extra short where instead of the
handle has been fitted lower ‘arm’ being drilled
with the longer standard for a cylindrical ram, we
(supplied) handle sitting find twin vertical 0.635”
to the right. (16mm) diameter steel
guide rods set on
each side of the press With the press-handle fully up,
which slide through both upper and lower frame the operating links are vertical.
‘arms’. Instead of a ram, we have a cartridge case

Target Shooter 61

Half-way through the handle operating
stroke, they slope backwards at 45°, and
the guide block’ is three-quarters of the way
through its travel.
in a diametrically opposite position to that on a
conventional press, I’ll add it is in the form of an
inverted ‘Y’ casting with the downward facing
arms pivoting on either side of the top of the press
frame. They project downwards another couple of
inches below the main pivot points to be attached
to the steel operating links that move the
carrier. With the handle-to-links junctions also
pivoting on big steel pins, the linkage per-
forms some interesting manoeuvres as the
handle swings through nearly 180°, supplying a
sophisticated mix of variable mechanical
advantage to make the press both powerful
and ‘sensitive’ at different parts of the cycle.
There’s nothing unusual about this, all
presses designed to provide ‘compound
leverage’, but the Co-Ax seems subjectively
to have more.
Coaxial
‘Co-Ax’ is of course an abbreviation of
coaxial, indelibly associated with television
aerial cables and similar in most people’s
minds. However, the dictionary definition
of the word when used as a term in
geometry is more relevant to our reloading
press.
“Coaxial means that two or more forms share
a common axis; it is the three-dimensional
linear analogue of concentric.”
62 Target Shooter
Now there’s an interesting word – concentric – a
concept, aspiration even, that lies close to the heart
of the precision handloader.
Basics
Let’s give the Co-Ax a ‘once-over’. It is a tall
narrow machine, and may require a different operator
seating position / height from that employed with
a conventional press, primarily because of the
operating handle position. At 15lbs, the
cast-iron frame Co-Ax falls in the middle of the weight
range of its O-frame competitors, the Lee Classic
Cast and Redding Boss weighing less, the RCBS
Rockchucker, other Redding models, and Lyman
Crusher II more. It sits on a narrow (4”X3”) base
with four rather small holes for the securing bolts. At
first sight, the mounting arrangements seem flimsy
compared to those on other large presses, but a
statement in the company’s instructions gives a
pointer: “Due to the extreme mechanical advantage
which is in inherent in this press, two ‘C’ clamps will
suffice when the press is taken to the range.” I found
this counter-intuitive as surely a super-powerful
press needs massive mounts? But think on – the
more efficient the tool, the less pressure needed on
the handle to perform heavy-duty tasks, therefore
less torque placed on the frame and bench. A key
element in this and the way the tool works generally
is the long handle throw, getting on for double that
of a conventional press. You don’t get anything for
nothing, the price for all that mechanical advantage
At full press operation, the links are again
nearly vertical, with a quite different amount of
mechanical advantage provided. Note the positive
stop on the handle casting.

Automatic shellholder in the open position with
the ‘guide block’ fully lowered. Note the second
pair of smaller jaws on the outside edges of the
jaw-plates (next to the stamped letters ‘S’) for the
.222 Remington ‘family’ and similar sized cases.
being more arm movement, but I’ve never felt this is
a problem in use.
It is a complex machine compared to the average
O-frame and Forster says there are more than 1,000
operations in its manufacture while tolerances are
kept down to tiny levels in various key areas.
Fortunately, it comes virtually ready to use out of
the box – mount it, screw the spent primer tube
and catcher bottle together and attach them to
the guide block, slot the tubular handle into the
yoke and you’re virtually ready to go, only needing
minimal adjustment to the automatic shellholder to
suit the cartridge you start with. Setting it up reveals
another huge difference from every competitor –
you don’t screw the die into the top of the press, but
insert it into a slot in the upper ‘arm’ of the frame. It
accepts all makes of standard dies, but you may
have to change the locking rings to Forster models or
similar slim designs (the press comes with two
A .308 Win case is automatically gripped and
centred as the press is operated.
Forster ‘cross-bolt’ rings). The ‘locking’ ring
performs a different function here in that it holds /
positions the die in the press, a job performed by
the die / frame threads on conventional designs.
Once adjusted in their rings, changing dies is
simplicity itself, no turning umpteen times, no need
for Hornady L-N-L QD inserts, but this is not the
only or even main reason for adopting a system that
will leave some handloaders uneasy. The loose fit in
the frame seems all wrong to non-engineers, but is
designed to let the die ‘float’ and self-centre.
Alongside a self-centring shellholder arrangement,
you get perfect case and die alignment, so a high
degree of cartridge concentricity should be achieved
assuming use of good quality dies and brass – our
‘coaxial / linear analogue of concentric’ definition
resurfaces.
Automatic
If nothing else were unusual about Co-Ax
design and operation, the automatic shellholder
arrangement would mark this design out. While a
regular press only needs three components to hold
Spent primers and burnt primer residue is
completely trapped and enclosed in a jar
beneath the press keeping the tool’s
mechanism press clean.
the case – ram, wire circlip shellholder retainer,
shellholder – the Co-Ax has a flat assembly on the
guide block comprising 18. Its heart is two sliding
coil spring-tensioned ‘shellholder jaws’ in the form of
rectangular plates which to quote Forster are “made
from special steel carefully machined, hardened
and ground.” Semi-circular knife-edge scallops fit
around the case body or extractor groove to grip
it. Raise the press handle to lower the guide block
to its lowest position, and the shellholder is pushed
onto the tip of a pointed screw which forces the jaws
apart to let you insert a case. Pull the handle down
and as the guide block / shellholder rise, the jaws
slide closed and grip the case firmly – really firmly.
That ‘s all there is to it and it handles every size of
case from .22 Hornet to .45-70 Government? No –
the ‘S’ jaw plates supplied with the press have two
sets of scallops, large and small, one at each end
with the larger sized pair set up by the factory for
immediate use on a range of cases from .218 Bee
Target Shooter 63
 The on-press priming assembly with a large-rifle primer in the spring-loaded holder
and protruding into the case-holder with the press handle fully up, but no case in
position.

to .444 Marlin and the belted magnums. However,
they’re too big for the .222 Remington cartridge
‘family’, so if you load .308 Win and .223 Rem, you
have to take the assembly apart and reverse the jaw
plates each time you change cartridges – not a big or
complex job, but not as quick and easy as switching
conventional shellholders. If you want to go to the
extremes of case-head diameters, you have to buy
an additional set of ‘LS’ dimensioned jaws for .22
Hornet and similar on one end of the plates, .45-70,
.348 Win, .416 Rigby and other fatties on the other.
holding block has to have its jaws adjusted to
hold the case securely and also align its primer
pocket with the primer holder. This is done by
pulling the press handle down to the horizontal
position, slackening the jaws’ retaining setscrews,
sliding a sample case in and fitting a ‘primer
locator’ into the primer cup below with the correct
sized end for the primer pocket facing upwards.
Push the handle back up while moving the case
around in the jaws until the ‘locator’ slides into the
pocket and centralises the case, then tighten up

Sticking to this part of the press, let’s look at the

spent primer arrangements – on being knocked
out of the case they fall though a small diameter
metal tube into a plastic collector jar. Very good, but
primer collection is not unique these days. A real
plus is that gritty burned primer residues go the
same way too – Forster claims no dirt is released
onto the working parts of the press, and that they
proved this in eight consecutive days of decapping
fired cases at the Camp Perry national matches. My
own experience with the press backs this claim up.

Priming
Lacking a ram, the Co-Ax cannot perform this task
in the usual manner with a swinging arm locating
the primer under the shellholder as the case is Press handle partly
withdrawn from the sizer die. Instead, there is a down, case and primer
two-part priming assembly, a steel block on the in position ready for
top of the twin vertical guide rods to hold the case, priming.
and therefore mobile, and a post with the usual
spring-loaded primer holding cup screwed into
the top of the frame, two sizes supplied. The case

64 Target Shooter

the jaw retaining screws with a (supplied) Allen key.
This is so accurate that you’ll likely find you need
to reset the jaws for different makes of case, as I
found on trying Norma and Lapua .308W brass. The
case is inserted into the top assembly, the primer
into the lower one, and the handle carefully raised
to bring the case down onto the primer and seat
it. Forster says its mechanism is engineered with
minimal play or ‘slop’ compared to those on
competitor’s presses, and a positive inbuilt ‘stop’
ensures every primer is seated exactly 0.005” below
the case-head face, the press unable to push the
punch deeper, hence crush or distort the primer cup.
Although I usually use a hand-held priming tool, I
tried the press set-up with 50 Lapua cases and found
it works well with lots of ‘feel’ on the press handle.
A to Z
Forster lists 26 benefits or USPs (unique
selling points) for the Co-Ax in the information
leaflet / instructions that accompany the press –
one for each letter of the alphabet. I’ve covered
most of the claims in my description, but there
The quarter-century old Lee
Precision die was brought out of
retirement again to size a
selection of 1980’s Norma .308W
cases previously fired in a large
number of TR rifles.
are a few more that are interesting, one being that
the design allied to precision manufacture sees
no sheer on the press / die fit and movement,
maintains exceptionally consistent case
headspace, and that no torque is applied on the head
of the press to misalign the die or shellholder. How
did I find the various claims for a super-smooth and
powerful tool worked out in practice? Just as claimed
– this is a really powerful and smooth machine that
full-length sizes large cases with ease, and is nicely
‘sensitive’ on bullet-seating and priming. As with
the other 16 presses I’ve tried over the last year,
30 1980s Norma .308W cases purchased as
‘once-fired’ from a major TR match were full-length
sized. Neck-runout was pretty well as with every
other model tried – ie good – but headspace
consistency was exceptional, the extreme spread
being under two thou’, and 25 out of the 30 within
a one-thou’ range from 1.618-1.619”, in fact case
after case measured precisely 1.618”. It may be
an expensive press, but this is a Rolls-Royce class
model for the money!
Target Shooter 65
 Forster Co-Ax Press
The simplest, most powerful and most accurate press on the market,
bar none.
The press delivers perfect alignment of the die and the case because
the shell holder jaws are designed to float with the die, thereby
permitting the case to center precisely in the die.
Dual floating guide rods ensure perfect alignment.

Forster Benchrest Reloading Dies

Forster dies set the standards for quality and
precision. Pinpoint accuracy and uncompromis-
ing performance begin with dependable reload-
ing equipment that delivers time after time. The
perfect dies for benchrest and target shooters
seeking the very best accuracy.
Bench Rest Quality Dies

Original Case Trimmer Co-Ax Case & Cartridge Inspector

For the full range of Forster Products visit www.forsterproducts.com

UK distributor of Forster Products

Tim Hannam The Reloading Specialists
Peckfield Lodge, Great North Rd, South Milford, Leeds, LS25 5LJ
Tel: 01977 681639 Fax: 01977 684272 email: sales@timhannam.com

66 Target Shooter
 By Gwyn Roberts
As a few people have asked me recently what or “slack” in this design) you will feel a “stop” point
the difference is between a single and two stage at the end of its (longish) travel and this is the end of
trigger unit here’s a brief explanation! The Lever the first stage. At this point (start of the second stage)
Action and Ruger 10/22 style rifles that we use in the hammer and sear are engaged by about .001”
Gallery Rifle are fitted with single stage trigger which then takes only the slightest of movements to
units as standard. This means that they require a release the hammer forwards. The weight of both the
continuous pressure to be applied to the trigger first and second stage can be adjusted on the K.I.D
throughout its travel to overcome the sear spring from anywhere between 2lbs down to about 6 - 8oz.
and mechanical resistance, until the hammer finally
disengages and strikes the firing pin. Because of
Before actually starting to work on your trigger
the design, this generally means that there can be
control, it’s a good idea simply to sit down with your
quite a lot of “creep” (or “slack” as it is sometimes
(empty) rifle and spend some time just cocking the
referred to) felt in some units and the standard Ruger
action and cycling your trigger slowly all the way
one is no exception! They can however be modified
through its travel until it releases the hammer. The
internally to remove most of this problem and can be
aim of this is to be able to “feel” everything from
“tuned” to give around a 2½ - 3lb trigger release. The
the amount of physical “movement” of the trigger,
K.I.D 10/22 style two stage trigger units however
to any “flat” or “binding” points it may have, then
distribute the “weight” needed to release the ham-
eventually the “balance” or “hold” point just before
mer into two distinct segments. As the trigger is
the hammer is released. Gaining this “feel” for each
pressed rearwards during the “take-up” (no “creep”
of the individual triggers on your rifles will definitely
help you to shoot them more accurately!
Gripping too high or with too much pressure will make it Obviously, acquiring a good trigger
impossible for you to achieve a good trigger control! control is paramount to being a good
shooter but this fact is often overlooked
on many occasions by both novice
and experienced competitors alike as
it is rarely specifically practiced. Being
honest, how many of you have just
pulled on the trigger when the crosshair
was somewhere near the 10 or X ring
instead of making sure you simply
released the shot correctly? I can’t
believe I’m the only one to have done
this on the odd occasion, or am I the
only one who will admit to it? Good hits
and scores are achieved by perfect
trigger control and not perfect sight
alignment! For example, you could line
up the sights perfectly on the centre of
a target at 50m but yank on the trigger
and you’ll score an 8, a 7 or even worse.
However, if the sights gently hover back
and forth between the 9, 10 and X ring
and you release the shot “correctly” then
the worst you will do is drop one point.
Remember, it doesn’t matter who you
are, no-one can hold a perfectly steady
sight picture and you must accept this in

Target Shooter 67
order to progress!
Whether you refer to it as trigger pull, control, press,
release or something entirely different it doesn’t
really matter as long as you physically operate it
properly. Basically there are two types of “trigger
control” that are used to fire a shot. The first is when
the pressure on the trigger is continually increased
in a slow and smooth manner to a point where a
shot is eventually fired without that specific moment
being determined by the shooter, and it is known as a
“surprise” break (or release). The second is known
as a “controlled” release where the shooter increases
the pressure more quickly (but still remains smooth
& consistent) so that the shot is released within a
short time frame. Both the “surprise” and “controlled”
break have their good points but I think that the
method you should use will ultimately be determined
by the type of shooting that you are doing at the time.
For example, using the slower “surprise” release
will turn out to be just that when you add up your
Bianchi score card, as you will probably have less
than half the required number of shots on the
target because you would have shot far too slowly!
Likewise, shooting 10 shots off in 3.5 seconds in
a 50m precision match won’t get you the desired
results either, so it’s important that you master both
methods (or somewhere in between) then use the most
appropriate one given the
time restraints, weather
conditions, size and number
of targets that you are
shooting at!
be avoided at all costs as this will produce a poor
reaction against the trigger blade and give negative
results on the target and for anyone using a trigger
weight of around a 1½lbs or more you should try
using the pad of the finger as this will help you apply
a more consistent pressure. Any bending or curling
of the index finger to contact the trigger blade will
decrease its capacity for a slow and controlled
smooth movement, and will probably cause
sideways pressure against the trigger blade causing
the rifle to move as the shot is fired, with obvious
results. Dragging the side of your finger along the
side of a poorly contoured stock whilst applying
pressure on the trigger blade will also have a very
negative effect on accuracy and I had to relieve quite
a bit of material from the side of mine in this area in
order for it to fit me properly!
It’s not something that usually springs to your
attention doing everyday things like picking up a pen
or holding a cup for example, but your index finger
and thumb always work together as a team as it were
and this action is usually referred to as “sympathetic
movement.” In most cases, this means that the thumb
will try to apply equal and opposite counter pressure
in relation to the direction that is being exerted by
the index finger. In shooting terms, this is not a good

Whichever method you may

use it is vitally important
that your grip to trigger fit is
perfect, so that your finger
can extend naturally to the
trigger blade! With the finger
in this position, less
movement is required from
the tendons and muscles to
produce movement nearer
the finger tip and there is
also greater sensitivity in this
area. The pressure on the
trigger blade must be applied
smoothly and consistently in
such a way as to not induce
any movement other than Correct alignment and reach to the trigger blade is essential and
straight back in line with the
will help to maximise your performance!
bore. In order to achieve a
perfect trigger control you
must learn how to isolate your trigger finger so that thing as any side pressure being applied to the stock
it moves totally independently from the rest of your by the thumb will usually result in the finger moving
hand, and this will take many, many hours for you to towards it which can result in lateral movement on
accomplish, but it will be well worth the effort in the the target. It can also insulate the feel of the trigger
end! Pulling the trigger with the finger joint should finger which will affect its movement and operation,

68 Target Shooter
 Modifying your stock so that your trigger
finger does not “drag” against it will help
avoid any lateral deviation whilst increasing
the pressure on the face of the trigger!

resulting in poor control. Elevating or extending the
thumb can usually help to avoid this natural instinct
from occurring, but it takes practice! Applying the
grip pressure with just the middle two fingers will
allow the thumb and little finger to remain relaxed, but
don’t grip too tightly as this will lead to an increase of
tension in the forearm which will have a detrimental
effect on stability. From a performance point of view,
a good follow through after each shot is just as
important as the trigger release, and once again this
area will need plenty of work on. As soon as the shot
is released, the trigger blade must continue to travel
rearwards slightly, without it or your finger contacting
the rear of the housing or part of the stock. If either
of these points was to occur abruptly enough, it can
cause the rifle to move before the bullet has exited
the barrel, causing a pulled shot or a miss on the
target. If you have an over travel stop fitted to your
trigger blade, you must make sure that it is set up
correctly to avoid causing you any similar problems.
Correct breathing is also an important part of good
trigger control but because of the types of shooting
that we do, it can present problems at times! We
rarely fire just one shot, nor do we have plenty of
time to prepare for each following shot either so we
need to adapt to whichever situation we are in at the
time. Whenever you breathe in or out your body and
diaphragm will move so the best time to release a
shot is during the natural “pause” between exhaling
and inhaling which is usually around 3 – 5 seconds.
One major cause of bad performance is either try-
ing to hold in too much air, or simply not breathing
at all because some people concentrate so hard on
trying to achieve the perfect steady sight picture that
they simply forget to breathe! If someone asked you,
would you be able to tell them exactly which types of
breathing patterns you use when you are shooting a
particular match? Do you plan it or do you just take a
big breath in and hope for the best? During a match,
from when I take a sight picture and start loading,
to when the targets turn to face I try to oxygenate
as much as possible. On short multiple exposures
of between 2 – 5 seconds I will take either 2 or 3
controlled breaths depending on the “away” times so
that I am just at the end of the exhaling cycle as the
targets return to face each time. When shooting at
multiple targets I will usually take in a little more air
during each transition as doing it at this point this will
not upset the movement of the rifle. In matches such
as the 1500 where there is a bit more time to spare
at the longer distances, I will breathe after every 1
or 2 shots depending on the stability of the hold and
the type of rifle I am using, as I tend to shoot slightly
quicker with the smaller calibre. Again I make sure
that I oxygenate as much as possible during each re-
load as the more oxygen you can get into your blood,
the longer your respiratory pause will become. Cor-
rect breathing is another skill that will need time
spending on it to get it right, but finding what works best
for you will definitely help improve your overall score!
Here are few things to try that we use at my club
that may help you regarding your sight picture and

Target Shooter 69
trigger control! First of all turn the magnification up
to its maximum, and resting the fore end of your
rifle on a bench simply aim at a target at either 25
or 50m and you should see that the crosshairs are
still moving or bouncing around. If they aren’t, then
you are not looking at the sight! This movement is
simply caused by the way your muscles work and
there’s little you can do about it, and the purpose
of this exercise is to teach your brain what a good
sight picture looks like, and not what you think it
should be. A good sight picture is a semi controlled
movement of the crosshairs that remain consistently
within a pre determined area on the target, and NOT
remaining perfectly still! The second practice is to
dry fire from this position (using snap caps ideally)
taking into account all of the techniques mentioned
previously. If you look closely you should be able
to see the crosshairs deviate on the target as the
pressure on the trigger blade is increased and this
is where your time and effort will eventually pay off.
The aim is to acquire a technique which allows you
to release the hammer smoothly without seeing any
flinching movement of the crosshairs on the target.
Moving on next to live firing practice with a partner!
To get the full benefit of this exercise your partner
should load around half a dozen magazines with
between 1 and 10 rounds in each, or have a
good supply of dummy centre fire rounds in his
pocket that have no primer or powder inside. On the
firing line with the action forward and chamber
empty, your partner should then insert either a
magazine or a mixture of dummy and live rounds
into the magazine tube so that you don’t know what
the content is. All that’s left to do then is for you to
practice everything you’ve previously worked on,
and for your partner to closely watch the end of the
barrel. Your goal should be to visualise shooting
every shot “through the target” and follow through
smoothly with the trigger. With enough practice you
should eventually be able to “see” exactly where
the sight was in relation to the target when the shot
was released. Knowing where the point of impact
will be on the target this way is known as “calling
your shots.” The only thing your partner will be
calling is whether or not the barrel remains stable, or
if it drops or pulls to the side when the hammer falls
on an empty chamber! It is a very simple drill but it’s
also very accurate as it will always reliably confirm
whether or not you are using good trigger control or
not! Next time we will take a look at the kneeling,
sitting and weak shoulder positions that we use in
Gallery Rifle along with some tips on reloading and the
positioning of your ammunition during a competition!

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70 Target Shooter
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John Morrison Offset Scope Mounts

By Andy Dubreuil
In benchrest, we are always looking to find that ‘edge’ so long as they hold the scope in place properly.
- anything that might improve your competitiveness Here in the UK, getting hold of decent mounts is not
- it’s all part of benchrest shooting. There are lots always easy and we have a tendency to go with what
of shooting forums full of useful information and we can get. In the States on the other hand, it’s a
occasionally a new product comes on the market that different story and it’s easy to get quality mounts
makes you think - I wonder if that will work for me? that really do the job they were intended to but over
Barrels, actions, tuners, stocks and so on are here they can be so dammed hard to get hold of.
really the things that we look to first but the I recently read a forum thread relating to a guy who
more simple things - like scope mounts – can be was making offset scope rings. It sounded
something we don’t pay too much attention to, just interesting. The rings are offset by about 5
degrees and machined
from 6061 aluminium,
polished to a mirror-like
finish and are available
in 1” and 30mm. Most
popular rail and rifle
fixings can be
accommodated.
So who is this guy?
His name is John
Morrison and he works
in collaboration with
Harrel Precision, who
are best known for
their barrel-tuners,
muzzle brakes, powder
measures and many
other components for
benchrest shooters in
the States.
My Anschutz 1913 rifle
is currently fitted with a
Nikko Stirling 10-50x60
scope via a set of
Bisley 30mm high
mounts. The front of
the scope just about
Offset detail clears the barrel - not
ideal but it does the
job. When I spoke to
John on the ‘phone,
Target Shooter 71
 I wanted to know if his offset mounts would give
me the required clearance and would they fit the
Anschutz action? John has really only just got
started in producing these mounts but he was very
helpful and was honest enough to say that he had
only tried them on a couple of different rifles and
scopes. However, he would ‘punch the numbers’
and let me know if they would work. Within a couple
of days, John was back to say that there would be
no problem in fitting them to my rifle and the scope,
so I ordered a pair straight way.
After about a week the package arrived and you
know what it’s like when you get a parcel - like a kid
with a new toy – I couldn’t wait to see what was inside!
Well, after tearing the package to shreds, there they
were. The first thing that stands out is just how well
made they are - the dovetails are machined to a nice
sharp edge and have a single socket-head screw to
fit the rifle and the same for the tops of the rings.
When I attached the mounts to the rail of the
Anschutz action they fitted like the proverbial
glove. John takes the view that this is an important
feature of the mounts. After setting up the mounts
and scope it was time to take the rifle to the range
to see what difference they made.
As some of you may know, I’m wheelchair-bound
and one of the things which has been difficult for
me is getting up close to the bench to really see
properly through the scope. I was hoping that the
offset mounts would help me in this regard and I
wasn’t disappointed. As all benchrest shooters
know, for consistency it’s best to avoid touching
the rifle with your cheek and, even if you don’t
have my problem, these offset mounts will help
72 Target Shooter
anyone avoid touching the butt of the rifle. I found
myself feeling a lot more relaxed behind the rifle
than I had been in the past with my old mounts.
My other concern was adjustment – would
I still have enough on the turrets to enable
me to zero at 50 metres as well as 25 yards?
Fortunately, this was not a problem and I only
needed about 12 clicks to get the scope on target.
The offset mounts can of course be used be used for
centrefire and air-rifle as well as rimfire benchrest
shooting and as a competitive rimfire BR shooter,
these mounts have helped improve my shooting
that little bit more and just might do the same for you.
So what about price? For custom-made mounts
like these you could be forgiven for thinking that
they would be prohibitively expensive but that’s not
the case and John sells these great scope mounts
at just $60 - around £36 plus shipping. In my view,
a real bargain compared to what you can pay
for scope mounts here in the UK. John is in the
process in setting up a website called www.rin-
gwerx.com and he is able to take payment via
PayPal but even better news is that you can
purchase the mounts from Brian at Fox Firearms
www.foxfirearmsUK.com as he is now the UK
distributor.
John is working on several other items,
like a new rail for tactical rifles and other
projects which we hope to have the
exclusive on as and when they become available,
so keep watching Target Shooter for more details.
You can email John at john@ringwerx.com or
more information.
The Isle of Man Shooting Club
Club Feature
I really love the Isle of Man and it’s fair to say
that if they had a decent fullbore rifle range, I
would probably have moved there long ago!
I have visited the Isle of Man TT Races
every June for the last forty-odd years and,
mostly by accident, I have stumbled across the
Island’s shooting heritage, from wartime practice
ranges to their new pistol range (envy!) at Windy
Corner on the TT Course. There are several
shotgun ranges and smallbore facilities in some
of the most unlikely places. Unlikely places?
How about a 15 yard 22 range in a barn at the
side of the Sulby Hotel?
At this year’s TT, with the advent of our new
magazine, I thought I would try and spread the
word. In most cases this involved posting a few
Target Shooter visiting-cards but I knew that
the Sinclair smallbore range would be open on
a Monday evening.
If you have never visited the ‘Island’ you have
a treat in store. It is a beautiful place with that
same quaintness that you find on the Isle of
Wight – like holiday resorts used to be in the
fifties - I really love that feel. The IOMSC’s
range is however bang up to date and it nestles
in a lovely setting near to the village of St John.
You approach via a narrow track off the main
road, cross an even narrower bridge over the
river and into the spacious car park.
The site was gifted to the Isle of Man Rifle
Association by Mr Charles Sinclair in 1970. The
Club was established in 1992 and hosted the
Commonwealth Shooting Federation Games in
1997. In the intervening years however, many
hurdles were encountered – including a freak
The main club house adjoins on the left of
the picture
flood which destroyed a good part of the range
and it is well worth visiting their website to read
of how the many obstacles were eventually
overcome.
Today, there is no sign of such things and
the spacious modern clubhouse has a nice
atmosphere and I was warmly received by the
members. The Club is well equipped with toilet
and catering facilities and is disabled-friendly.
The main clubroom leads through to the range
itself where there are 32 prone firing-points
under cover, overlooking a flat, well kept
grassed area stretching down to the targets
and backstop.
Serious smallbore ISSF 50m competition
is the sole purpose of this Club and many
members shoot at national and international
level with the 2010 Commonwealth Games in
India high on the list of priorities. The club also
hosts top-level competitions which of
course demand the latest technology and
equipment such as the Gehmann controllers
which change targets automatically. Three
Position shooters are also catered for and I can
imagine that there is a fabulous atmosphere
here when large competitions are taking place.
Membership is open to suitable applicants
and non-members who comply with the Club’s
requirements may shoot as visitors.
Although the Island did not lose pistols when
we did, their firearm regulations are just as
strict as the mainland and if you have any
aspirations to shoot there please check before
attempting to enter the Island with firearms and/or
ammunition. Visit the Club’s website at www.
isleofmanshooting.com
Target Shooter 73
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Field Target and BR 50 in Portugal
By Sérgio Rita and Pedro Mateus
Field Target
In Portugal, the Field Target discipline is overseen
by the Portuguese Shooting Federation, this is
National Championship 2009
since the end of 2006 (http://www.fptiro.net/). This
organisation, is accredited and funded by the
Portuguese State. It promotes and organises
official shooting sports Championships across the
board, from Air Pistol to Medium Calibre Centerfire
fire arms within the Portuguese territory.
The Portuguese Shooting Federation has the
responsibility of preparing and taking the best
shooters in each discipline around the world.
Among those disciplines are:
• Most ISSF disciplines
• IPSC disciplines
• Field Target
• Benchrest
• Etc.
The first Field Target Championship under the
banner of the Portuguese Shooting Federation
took place in 2007. The Portuguese FT
Championship comprises four matches
throughout the year nationwide.
In terms of participants, the championship
nowadays has around 50 shooters (including 4
ladies) but the general consensus is that there is
a very good potential for a steady growth in the
years to come. Although this value may seem low
when compared to the number of shooters in other
Target Shooter 75

countries, it does represent a growth of more than
100% in just 2 years. Ages of the participants
range from 16 to 55, which show the enthusiasm
amongst the Portuguese ranks.
In Portugal, the maximum established power to
practice Field Target is 24 Joules (17.7 fps) as it
happens’ the same as our neighbour, Spain.
At the moment, the Championship is divided
between classes according to the defined rifle’s
powerplant: Springer and PCP (Max. 24J). There
are no divisions by Age, Caliber, Gender or Power
limit.
Shooters ready on the line
76 Target Shooter
National Championship 2009
The Championship events are supervised by
referees with specific training. All referees are
trained and credited by ANJAT - the Portuguese
Judge-referee shooting association. (http://www.
anjat.pt/regulamento.php)
During a match, the referee and the match
director’s team have the responsibility of checking
the equipment, to see if the rules are followed. In
each line all shooters start and end shooting at
the same time, at his command. The time limit is
the usual 1 min. preparation + 1 additional min. for
each target in the same lane.
But how did it all start?
The beginning of Field Target
in Portugal
Field Target was informally
introduced in Portugal by
some enthusiastic shooters
in the second half of the 90’s.
Back into those days, people
gathered from time to time
during weekends for informal
shooting, where most of the
days were spent doing
casual plinking or simply
bench rest shooting.
In 2001, the first online
Portuguese community fully dedicated to
Airgunning was created, the forum “Airgunning in
Portugal”. Back then, without knowing the impact
this forum would have, the first shooters started
to have a place to speak about their experiences
and expectations in then new world of outdoor
precision airgun shooting. As a result the
Portuguese community slowly started to grow.
In 2002-2003 informal weekend airgunning
plinking, benchrest and Field Target experiences
continued to grow among the airgun shooters
community.
In the beginning of 2004, there were more than
a dozen weekend regular airgun shooters and
for some of them it was time to do something
else. It was felt that the point of critical mass had
been reached and some voices rose willing to do
something serious promoting the Sport of Field
Target.
The date for the first formal and organised Field
Target match in Portugal was set for the 25th
September 2004 at 10.30 am. The circuit had the
Teams are using the same equipment found
in most countries around Europe
attendance of 11 Shooters and was comprised of
12 assorted targets (some homemade spinners
and some artisanal targets) divided into four
lanes. Each target was shot twice for a total of 24
possible hits and most of the shooters had no
experience at all.
Very different from today, if we compare the last
National Match with 40 participants shooting one
shot per target in a 60 target course with top
quality fall-flat resettable targets, property of the
Portuguese Shooting Federation.
Since that day 5 years have passed. In between
the Portuguese Shooting Federation was involved
becoming the FT Governing Body for Portugal
in 2006. A lot has changed since then. However,
the most important aspects remain; Field Target
in Portugal is a young but solid discipline and
continues to grow day-by-day in quantity and
in quality of the shooters, with the National
Championship totalling now 10 participating Clubs
and associations.
In this endless voyage of development, every
Target Shooter 77

Standard setup in Portugal
shooter counts, every club or association
deserves its share of success helping to grow the
discipline. Hopefully this number will increase in
the years to come.
Recommended Portuguese sites:
• viriato.net/airgunning/ (English Language)
• apft.com.pt/ (Portuguese Language)
• www.cptpp.com/ (Portuguese Language)
• www.ctc.com.pt (Portuguese Language)
Air Rifle and Rimfire Benchrest
Benchrest shooting as a regular and organised
sport has been practiced in Portugal, in both
airgun and firearm variants, since late 1990s. On
the airgun side it started along with Field Target,
practicing and following the traditional American
Sporter class in action
78 Target Shooter
centerfire approach to results based on the “group
size”. On the firearm side it followed the use of
both centerfire and rimfire, but in the mid to late
2000s, the sport began to focus on the Benchrest
50 (BR50). This being based upon .22 LR rimfire
and using the highly competitive and challenging
model of “score” (25 consecutive “bull’s eye”
targets on a A3 sized target at a distance of
50 meters, following British and European
established regulations and good practices).
In late 2008 the Portuguese Shooting Federation
(“Federação Portuguesa de Tiro”, FPT) gave
official recognition to the BR50, after 3 years of
organised and regulated matches held by national
federated clubs, leading to the first official national
championship, with 4 events, spread throughout
the country. In 2009 we now have more than 30
shooters from 5 different clubs involved in this
sport.
The best BR50 national scores up to this date
(August, 2009) are registered in official
competition as 240 / 5X for Unlimited class and
240 / 2X for Light Varmint class.
Suggested websites on the Portuguese BR 50
development (in Portuguese language only):www.
cptpp.com and www.fptiro.net .
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 VINCE’S REGULAR COLUMN WHEREBY
ACCURACY NUTS CAN KEEP UP TO
DATE WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF THE UKBRA

Competitions The following day, we were back to some decent

Our 100 yard benchrest shoot held at Diggle ranges at weather for our 1000 yard shoot - warm and sunny with
the beginning of August was wet to say the very least light winds. Once again we had a great entry and looked
but, winds were light and we soon saw some tiny groups. set for some small groups. The first one came from
The first one was in warm-up when Darrell Evans shot an Bruce Lenton shooting a six-incher in Match 1 - again
incredible 0.161 incher - with his Factory Sporter! with a Factory Sporter, one of those remarkable Savages
Unfortunately, warm-up groups don’t count towards chambered in 6.5-284. Bruce’s group was not bettered
the overall agg. but it did at least get Darrell a well by any of the other FS shooters so it earned Bruce the
deserved small-group patch. Darrell eventually took the win small-group award. The Factory Sporter win however
anyway, from Laurie Holland, whose unbeatable 204 went to Graham Watts, also shooting a 6.5-284 Savage.
Savage appears to have ‘gone off the boil’ a little. A check These rifles are incredible for a reasonably priced
with the borescope revealed a significant build-up of factory gun and we now have five of them regularly
copper so with a good clean Laurie will hopefully find his shooting 1000 yard benchrest.
early form. Andy Cowdrey (RGR BAT) opened the Light Gun Class
In Heavy Varmint, Ian Dixon remains dominant. Ian won with an ‘eight’ in Match 1 and followed it with a ‘five’ in
the Championship last year and appears unstoppable. Match 2 and looked like he would take the ‘small-group’
Kevin Phipps and Steve Newman from the Bisley award until Phil Sammons popped in a super 3.525
Benchrest Club paid us a visit and Kevin took third spot, incher. Andy’s run of single-figure groups was however
losing second place by just four thousandths of an inch to good enough to take the overall win with a seven-inch
Jeanette Whitney. agg. from Steve Dunn in second and your scribe in third.
Results: Results:
Heavy Varmint Light Gun
1st Ian Dixon 6PPC Walker BAT 1st Andy Cowdrey 7mm RGR BAT 7.251 inches
0.2106 inches 2nd Steve Dunn 7mm Dunn BAT 8.658
2nd Jeanette Whitney 6PPC TGP Stolle 3rd Vince Bottomley TGP 6mm BAT 9.791
0.27 Small group Phil Sammons 6.5-284 PRS 3.525
3rd Kevin Phipps 6PPC Stolle inches
0.274
Small group Ian Dixon 0.152 inches Heavy Gun
1st Les Prior 7mm Walker BAT 11.406 inches
Factory Sporter 2nd Mike Weatherhead 7mm SAG 12.775
1st Darrell Evans 6PPC Sako 0.4258 3rd Dave Wylde 338 Surgeon 14.538
inches Small group Mike Weatherhead 8.204 inches
2nd Laurie Holland 204 Savage 0.4606
3rd A Wooley 223 Rem 0.5344 Factory Sporter
Small group Darrell Evans 0.161 inches 1st Graham Watts 6.5-284 Savage 13.575 inches
2nd Ian Kellett 6.5-284 Savage 14.16
3rd Bruce Lenton
6.5-284 Savage 15.474
Small group Bruce Lenton
6.794 inches

Forthcoming Events
The weekend of 3/4th October
sees the final shoots of our summer
season of 100 and 1000 yard
shoots at Diggle. On Saturday 21st
October, our winter series of 600
yard shooting commences. E-mail
Eddy Robinson is seventy-something and he me on vinceb@6ppc.fsnet.co.uk
entered his first 1000 yard benchrest shoot in for more details. Keep our eye on
August taking seventh place with a best group the website at www.ukbra.co.uk for
of nine inches. He’ll be back! full listings of the latest results and
news.

80 Target Shooter
 In association with

competition in this,
but the 50m does
take up the interest
of the vast majority of
shooters.
If we, as a country,
want to develop
then our shooters
need access to 50m
ranges. The great
thing is that some
clubs share like Paul
Lane, as they have
guys coming from
Newcastle, which is
a fair old round trip.
The shame is these
guys that travel have
a club not far from
Having access to a 50 metre range to them with a range, but
practise on makes a world of difference they don’t seem to be
- support shooters on the UK by letting that welcome. (One
them use yours. of these guys also
represents the UK
This month – just after the nationals – I am writing a on a regular basis).
bit of a plea to all the shooters and clubs out there. Welcome to the plea – we are all shooters and to
be honest I hear that some clubs do not welcome
Where are all the 50 metre ranges? others that are outside ‘their form of shooting’. I find
The UK Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest nationals this quite sad to be honest as this is a growing sport
brought up one aspect that we need to try and and we, the shooters in this country, are doing the
address over the next few years. In the UK clubs job of those people that really want to see shooting
predominately have access to 25 metre/ yard ranges. A destroyed in the UK. How can that be?? Shouldn’t
lot of these are indoor! This came across in the amount we be sticking together and supporting one
of shooters competing in the indoor 25m another?????
competitions. As a nation we need to provide So what I ask is - come club secretaries, club
shooters with access to 50m ranges to practice on – committees, etc; support your shooters, your
and 25 metres outdoors. members, support your sport(s) and use your
Now the 25m/yrd competitions are competitive, facilities to help provide shooters with the chance
especially when shot outdoors. I have always thought to compete on an international stage. This can
so as I was involved in the design of this competition only bring a little more glory to the UK and the
and the actual target years ago when we first started sport – it’s the young ones that we need so let’s
this. We knew at the time that in the UK most clubs get them active in this and other shooting sports.
had access this type of facility and it would be a good If people want to start shooting rimfire and air rifle
way to introduce people to rimfire benchrest (as it benchrest then please contact us via this magazine or
was at the time). the UKBR22 website – Let us know if your are having
We now come to a stage where we are competing a good deal with support or having difficulties. Anyone
with countries throughout the world, the 25m is a is welcome to this sport, so let’s see it grow further.

Target Shooter 81
 The Long View
News from the GB
F-Class Association

The World F Class Championships may maybe a dozen guys who new each other
be over but the shooting carries on….. shooting against one and other, to the field
increasing to 50 or 60 shooters from all over the
After the ‘highs’ for both the GB teams at UK.
Bisley last month, (GB coming 1st in the Open
class and 2nd in F T/R) we are now back to Not only did shooting rapidly improve, it also had
normal again with our League competitions. the effect of advancing rifles and equipment. In one
The 2009 League Championship is still very weekend you could see what 50 other guys used
much up for grabs in both Open and F T/R and what worked and what didn’t and copy them!
Class and we have two more rounds to sort out
our winners. Another example of comparing notes on what
to use was the success of 7mm rifles at League
The next round will be at Diggle Ranges on matches (a calibre that has been in use at
the weekend of 19/ 20th September, followed my home range, Diggle, for the last 10 years
by our final event of the year, the European predominantly for 1000 yard Benchrest
Championships at Bisley at the end of October. shooting) which changed the average F Class
If you fancy trying the long range F Class at shooter’s mind-set away from the previously all
Diggle this September, why not come along conquering 6.5’s.
and give it a go. For the first time ever at
Diggle we are having paid markers, so no All these points generally fostered a spirit of
more pulling targets! There is still space left - if unity within the Association that I am sure
you would like an entry form just e-mail me at went on to help the GB shooters achieve
mrmister@tinyonline.co.uk the results they did in both Individual and
Team events at the World Championships.
Now that the ‘Worlds’ are over, we can take As far as I know we are the only country to
stock of the results from Bisley and I think it’s have a properly organised Association and
fair to say we have come a very long way in shooting League.
a fairly short space of time. I also don’t think
it’s an over-estimation to put a lot of the GB But what about the average shooter who
Team success down to the League shoots doesn’t qualify for the national squad but
organised by the GB F Class Association. attends as many League shoots as the
GB Team shooters? Well, they haven’t
Before these shoots and the formation of done too bad either. Apart from increased
the GB F Class Association, there may competition and a fund of knowledge to draw
have been individual ‘pockets of excellence’ on, we now have well attended, dedicated F
spread around the country but most Class shoots, that we run entirely ourselves for
shooters never met up to compete against our own benefit spread around the country.
each other. With the advent of the GB Any surplus from competition entry-fees are
League, F Class competitions went from ploughed back into the Association for the

82 Target Shooter
benefit of members. Where we used to get offering great discounts on many products
a round of applause for winning, we now and consumables to Association members
have our own prize-fund and medals and including Berger Bullets at really
we are looking into getting some even better competitive prices.
trophies to rival those that we used to see
presented to the TR shooters that we once The F Class Association would be nothing
shot alongside. We have also built up a without a strong membership base – it
substantial fund, some of which was used to doubled in the first year and then
help our Teams in the World Championships. doubled again! And not surprisingly – you will
recoup the membership fee as soon as you have
By conducting large properly organised attended your first two League shoots. Reduced
shoots, we have also caught the eye of entry fees for GBFCA members means that the
some of the suppliers that we all buy our more you shoot, the more you save. So, don’t just
equipment from. Aimfield Sports www.aimfield- keep thinking about doing it – come and shoot with
sports.com have long been a sponsor of the us. You don’t have to have an expensive custom
League shoots with their excellent gun-bags rifle as we also run the F/TR Class for 308 rifles.
and shooting-mats and now Aimfield have Just check out our website at www.f-class.org.
added the excellent Sightron scopes to their uk find the nearest F Class shoot and join in.
range and generously sponsored the Worlds as
well as our League.

Fox Firearms www.foxfirearmsuk.com have

also recently come on-board and are now

2009 World F Class

Individual Champion Gary
Costello with his medals
and prizes from Sightron
and Aimfield Sports

Target Shooter 83
 A regular column whereby Ken Hall keeps us up to date
with black powder cartridge rifle shooting in the UK.

Q QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION 120, although brass cases for the larger
NEWCOMERS GUIDE TO SHOOTING designations tend to be harder to locate
THE BLACK POWDER CARTRIDGE and may cost from £1 to £3 each. When
RIFLE. PART THREE. shooting QSA competitions, any of the
standard .45 offerings is more than adequate
for the job, the most popular has to be the
In the previous entry to this series, I
.45-70, partly because of the cases being
wrote a little about some of the basics that
readily available at around £50/£70
apply in shooting the black powder cartridge
per 100 from manufacturers such as
rifle. In this article I am going to look at the
Winchester, Remington, Star-Line and
options generally available when deciding
Federal and partly because most dealers keep
on which calibre to choose.
a stock of this calibre which means you can
usually get your hands on one without a wait.
By far the most popular choice is .45
With a suitable bullet and load this calibre is
inch in one of several cartridge lengths.
capable of scoring well on targets at ranges
In 1873 the US Army introduced its’ new
up to 1000yds. The .45-90 is probably the
round for the Trapdoor Springfield Rifle, the
most flexible when it comes to customising
45-70-405 (.45 cal with 70 grains of black
hand-loaded ammunition, which will be
powder behind a bullet weighing 405 grains).
explored in a future article.
This proved such a pokey load for the
Springfield carbine (and the soldier shooting
Other calibres were developed
it) that the Army soon reclassified the round,
alongside the .45, smaller bullets such
reducing the powder charge to 55 grains.
as .40 cal were used in such diverse
Buffalo hunters, who had been quick to
calibres as .40-82, .40-70 and .40-65 which,
adopt the calibre, wanted a round with more
incidentally, still remains available off-the-
stopping power in order to take game at
shelf, albeit loaded with modern smokeless
greater ranges. Soon, a diverse selection
powder, by modern manufacturers PMC,
of .45 cal ammunition began to appear and
who specialise in loads for Cowboy Action
was rapidly adopted by most of the rifle
Shooting (CAS) in the United States. Most
manufacturers of the day. Today’s rifle
case manufacturers also supply .40-65 and
manufacturers generally limit that choice to
.38-55 cases at around £50 for 100. Although
.45-70, .45-90, .45-100, .45-110 and .45-
some marksmen have achieved very
84 Target Shooter
creditable results with these calibres in
Quigley type competitions, which are shot
at ranges of 600yds and less, the lighter
bullets tend to suffer at longer ranges,
especially with a strong crosswind blowing
although many experienced shooters are
now using custom made bullet moulds which
cast bullets weighing 500 grains and more.
Rifles chambered for the gigantic .50
cals such as .50-95 and .50-100 can be
purchased but they are perhaps more
suitable for the sport of silhouette shooting,
very popular in the US. To date I have not
seen one used in a Quigley competition, nor
actually in practice for that matter, though I
L to R 45-70, 40-65, 38-55
am sure there are some out there. (Let me
know if you are using one).
To sum up, if you are able to visit
your local club to see some of these rifles in
action and speak to their owners (you will be
made welcome, I promise), then you will find
the bewildering task of choosing the correct
calibre for yourself, made a little easier.
Questions and comments please to
khall6548@aol.com
QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION
N
Target Shooter 85
Hunter Field Target News
Peter Sparkes himself takes over the Target
Shooter UKAHFT page this month, take it away Peter.
This was the 2nd ever UKAHFT “Matchplay”
and once again to be held at M.A.D (Maldon and
District) in Essex, this is one of the new HFT breed
of clubs and is one of the best in the country, with
everything you would want from a club, good
members, perfect setting and a friendly atmosphere.
The Rules for UKAHFT Matchplay events
This is similar to the FT Showdown, but with 4 x 16
shot courses.
Round 1 is drawn out of the hat on the day,
after that it will go on the Christmas tree
affect i.e. winner from group 1 will then go head
to head against winner of group 2 and so on,
shooters knocked out in round 1 will then go into
a different competition, this is called the “Plate”.
Once a winner is decided both shooters to leave
the course as no need to carry on i.e. Joe Bloggs
and Fred Jones got 4 targets left and Joe is in front
by 5 so Fred can’t catch him so that’s game over.
Round 1 the first 64 shooters will shoot course A
,then for the 2nd round if you shot course A you
then shoot course B and vice versa, round 3 you
then shoot course C. First round for the “Plate”
shooters will be on a course announced on the day.
SCORING
The scoring is 2 points for a knockdown & 1 point for
a plate 0 for a complete miss. Any movement of the
faceplate that does not result in the target falling will
be scored as a miss unless the target is deemed faulty.
TIMING
This event is timed on every shot, with each
competitor is given 1 minute to shoot each
target, the timing will start when the competitor
enters the designated area & is be continuous. In
the event of a stoppage 10 seconds grace will be
added to the remaining time & the time re-started
as soon as the commence firing signal is issued.
DRAW
Each competitor is allocated a number; tokens
bearing these numbers will be placed in a bag &
be drawn at random. The shooter who is drawn
first in each pairing must shoot first and then go
alternatively for the remainder of the competition.
86 Target Shooter
SHOOT OFFS
In the event of a tie at the end of the course a
pairing must make their way to the shoot off lane,
this lane consists of two targets. Both target are
shot from the prone position in the same order
as the course was shot, if there is no winner after
shooting prone the shooters then shoot the same
targets from kneeling position in the same order.
If there is still a tie then the targets are shot from
the standing position until a winner is decided.
Right back to the day, once again M.A.D didn’t
disappoint with putting out 4 excellent challenging
courses.
Everyone gathered around for the draw, which is
fun in its self waiting to see who you get in round
one. Last years champion Vinnie Blackman got
drawn out with Steph Kirkwood, both are good
mates and travel everywhere together so all couldn’t
wait to see that result, I got drawn out with Alan
Hearn a newcomer to the sport and who had the
disadvantage of using a springer, but he was there
to enjoy, my Wife Jane the jammy git got a bye into
round 2 As the shooters started to come in, all was
interested in the results, Darren Lindsey had beaten
Richard Woods, and Steph took out Vinnie in round
one so he went into the plate.
In round 2 I got Darren Lindsey and this should have
been an interesting head to head, but both of us
were a bit off par and it wasn’t the bout it should have
been, although I took an early lead by 2 points that
all turned around with 4 to go when I did the ultimate
sin forgot to load a pellet which resulted in a 0. Then
after being all level, Daz took me in the shoot-off.
As the day went on shooters who you would
expect to go through were going out, Pete
Dutton, Darren Qunicy, Dave Lillywhite, Mike
Elliott etc But the crowning glory went to Ian
Harford who beat Nick Thomas in the final, both these
shooters are in their first full season and doing well.
Vince Blackman went on the win the plate this adds
to his matchplay win last year, but for me the shooter
of the day was plate finalist Larissa Sykes, Larissa is
only 13 years old and puts in some cracking scores,
but proved she can compete with the best at top level.
Gallery Rifle News
The Frome 3 gun at Shield in Dorset was well
attended as always with over 60 competitors.
The sun shone and there were lots of smiles
even after being caught out by some of the
“challenging” courses of fire. Iain Guy was
the winner with Phil Stead in second place
and top scorer from Frome R&PC members.
I was a Range Officer on the only stage where
you used all three guns (not at the same
time) and it was a great leveller. Experienced
competitors suffered what most of us do most
of the time – the buzzer goes and the brain has a
little rest while the body heads off in the wrong
direction replacing fingers with thumbs along
the way. It’s a good mid-season change from the
concentration and stresses of the classified
events.
A great day out so don’t miss it next year. Check
the Frome website for photos so you can see
what it’s all about.
This edition went to press (or the electronic
equivalent) before I attended the National
Championships at Bisley. More on this next month.
This month there’s the Pinewood 1500 where
you can put right the mistakes you made in the
Nationals.
In October there are three very different
meetings. Back to Shield for a Steel Challenge
and more exercising the shooting brain.
Then the Trafalgar. One for the traditionalists
with a very large menu of events for guns (and
some competitors) of advanced years. This
is where you’ll see guns 50 or even 100 plus
years old being shot at distances right out to
900 yards. This is the third biggest meeting at
the National Shooting Centre and is well worth
supporting so there’s no excuse for leaving that
old rifle at the back of the cabinet any more.
Followed closely by the Autumn Action
Weekend with the usual choice of Gallery
Rifle & Pistol events and the last chance to
get your qualifying scores in before next
year’s teams are chosen. A massive fireworks
display on the Saturday night too and a chance
to be on range an hour before everyone else on
Sunday when you forget to put your clock back.
This month’s article in the Gallery Rifle skills
series is about trigger control.
COMPETITION CALENDAR
September 19 Pinewood 1500
National Shooting Centre
Bisley
GRSB, GRCF, LBP & LBR
October 18 Shield Steel Challenge
Shield Shooting Centre
Dorset
GRSB, GRCF, LBP & LBR
October 17 – 18 The Trafalgar Meeting
National Shooting Centre
Bisley
October 24 – 25 Autumn Action Weekend
National Shooting Centre
Bisley
GR&P, Shotgun & Full Bore
Rifle
(Either contact the organisers direct or go to
www.galleryrifle.com for entry forms.)
GR&P = Gallery Rifle Centre Fire (GRCF),
Gallery Rifle Small Bore (GRSB), Long Barrelled
Pistol (LBP) and Long Barrelled Revolver (LBR)
Please go to the Gallery Rifle website www.gal-
leryrifle.com for more news and information.
Target Shooter 87
 competitors saw sunshine and storms
as they tackled the 12 stages. Held
Clare Stage 6 on farm land, the rain on Saturday
saw areas rapidly turning to mud
adding an extra dimension to the shoot.

Among the challenges facing

shooters this year was a clever
array of challenges and tricky
target placements designed to test
not only accurate shot placement, but
also the speed of loading, shooting
strategy and the physical demands
that practical shotgun is renowned
for. Plenty of movement between
firing points as well as high and low
apertures, tight no-shoot targets,
cooper tunnels and moving frangible
The British Open Championship Level III shotgun
targets activated by shooting a falling steel target.
match is the shooting highlight of the UKPSA practical
shotgun circuit. This year it was held for a second time at
The match was predominantly shot with birdshot (125
the remote and beautiful location of Border Guns PSG
rounds minimum required) with a long buckshot stage
club, deep in the Shropshire hills and within a stones’
of 16 rounds held along the stream bed at the foot of
throw of the famous Offa’s Dyke – now a national trail.
the valley. Solid Slug is not currently cleared for use at
Border Guns PSG club is a family run club held
Border Guns.
at the farm owned by Martin and Jo Davies, who
Building a match of this calibre requires hundreds
are keen shooters themselves. Martin in fact was
of man-hours and a considerable amount of targets
British Manual (pump) champion in 2007. Set amid
and stage hardware. I think it has to be said that
the sheep-studded valleys and deep, wooded
shooters are generally inventive when it comes to
slopes, Border makes for the quintessential practical
match design. Practical shotgunners are certainly
shooting venue that attracts shooters from both the
masters of the Heath-Robinson school of putting scrap
UK and abroad for its innovative and imaginative
wood, netting and discarded domestic items to good
stages, splendid hospitality and clean open air. One
use for creative stages and this year was no different.
competitor summed it up as “shooting with friends and
A waterfall stage took a standard speed shoot
a view!”
and added a curtain of water to distort the view -
shooting six IPSC standard steel plates with
2009 sees the tri-annual Level IV European Shotgun
three close no-shoot plates through a 14” square
Championships (ESC09), this year held in the Czech
aperture that had a curtain of water falling behind the
Republic and the UKPSA is sponsoring a number
aperture. This simple addition made a fast shoot that lit-
of teams to attend the nine-day, 22 stage event in
tle more tricky and caught a number of competitors out.
Tabor-Operany. Selection for each division has been
A long stage through a section of woodland saw 24
taking place over the last three level III matches at
steel targets interspersed with some close no-shoots
Harlow, Carlisle and finally the British Open, so
held in a series of walled off sections. Shooters who
tensions have been high and shooting performance
can deftly load on the move are able to shine on
under close scrutiny. Standard, Manual and Modified
stages like this and knock valuable seconds off their
divisions are all being represented, as well as a la-
time.
dies team headed by seasoned shooter and UKPSA
Chairman Vanessa Duffy, and including newcomer
The end of the three tiring days saw master
Caroline Norman.The core matches are run over four days
shooter Mike Darby lead the Standard division by
with very challenging slug, buckshot and birdshot stages.
a huge 10.3% margin and cement his inevitable
position in the British team. Second saw Dave
The one thing British shooters can count on is
Dowding shoot an excellent match with 89%, closely
uncertain weather, and this year was no exception.
followed in third place by Nick Towndrow with 86%.
Held over three days from Friday 30th July, the 56

88 Target Shooter

Frangible Targets Buckshot
Modified division was closer run, but won
by James Harris with Colin Alden following
closely at 97%, and Warwickshire RFD Pete Starley
gliding into an easy third place slot with 94%
using his new Winchester SX3 – a gun that is fast
becoming popular among semi-auto shooters where
the slick Benelli M2 currently reigns supreme.
Manual division has become the hot division this last
two years, possibly due in no small part to the arrival on
the scene of Benelli’s Super Nova shotgun two years
ago. This chunky replacement to the Benelli Nova is
both reliable and very easy to load quickly thanks to its
wide loading gate, and has become the replacement
for many Winchester 1200/1300 in the same way the
Benelli M2 chased out the Remington 1100’s
and 11-87’s.
The British Open has also seen manual shooter Iain
Guy quietly assume a confident and now
unassailable lead over the last two champions Martin
Davies (2007) and Neil Smith (2008), although it has
been a very close run fight for the top spot. Iain won the
British Open with Martin Davies in a well-earned second
place at 93%, and Adrian Sell in third place with 89%.
Open division is not a popular division in the UK with only
two competitors, and was won by Keith Marshall from
the Netherlands with Nicholas Hockley trailing at 74%.
What has been good to see this last 18 months is
an influx of new female shooters taking up the sport.
Caroline Norman, Alison Hatchard and Clare Holdich
have all completed mandatory safety courses and
taken part in the level III competition circuit. Clare
Holdich shot the British Open as her first match and
was awarded British Open Novice Ladies Champion
for a safely shot match with her Winchester SX3.
So, as the dust settles on the British Open for
another year, the teams now face the spotlight
of the Europeans looming in September. Over
thirty British shooters are attending the match
including the official teams and it’s good to see such
a strong and unified showing from a country where
shooting often seems to be a marginalised sport.
The Home Countries Championships at Harlow
in late October will close off the level III circuit for
2009. After the pressures of the ESC09, the wood-
land range of Harlow Town RPC should nicely round
off the PSG calendar in time for tea and medals and
the usual winter club shoots as we descend back to
darker nights and the anticipation of the 2010 season.
Pictures copyright Tony Saunders
UK Teams for European Shotgun Championships
Selected.
The three yearly European Championships are
#being held in Oparany, Czech Republic between
14th and 19th September. Team selection was
announced after the results from the British Open
were analysed. National Squad Director Ken Trail
was pleased to announce the following teams.
Men’s Standard Manual Team – Iain Guy,
Martin Davies, Nail Smith and Jonathan Holloway
Men’s Modified Team – Peter Starley,
Michael Scarlett, Colin Alden and Kevin Strowger.
Ladies Standard Auto Team – Vanessa Duffy,
Sharon Sell, Josie Adam and Caroline Norman.
Men’s Standard Auto Team – Mike Darby,
Barry Sullivan, Jim Starley and Dave Dowding.
A total of 30 UK shooters will be competing in
Oparany and a full match report will be given next month.
Carlisle L2 LBR Match
Cumbrian weather was not kind to those who
travelled north to participate in the second of this
year’s practical LBR matches. All ten stages were
shot in good order, despite the rain drenching
everything. But the shooters all stepped up to help
keep the match running. The rain eventually stopped
and the sun came out in time for the prize giving.
Congratulations to everyone who got through the day.
The eventual winners were Pete Starley in Open class
and Ian Chamberlain in Standard class. The next
scheduled L2 match will in Bedford on October 11th,
an indoor range which will it is hoped be a bit drier!
Vanessa Duffy
Match Director.
Words & pictures by Tony Saunders
Target Shooter 89
Letters
Guys,
Just a note to say well done on the magazine!
The quality and info is outstanding. Just to let
you know that you are attracting an almost cult
following here in the South African Field Target
community.
Well done and please keep it up!
Alistair Rooney by email
Our thanks Gary - the next sixth months should
be even better - Ed
Guys,
excellent online magazine again this month,
thank you for continuing the effort in getting
the magazine content sadly lacking in other
shooting publications.
Particularly interested in the article on .303
ammunition this month & it’s gratifying to
see others reaching similar conclusions to
testing I’ve conducted over many years.
I too get good results with the L/Enfield No4 &
RL15/180gS&B(weighed) combination although
also have excellent results using Acc2520 in lieu
of RL15 (It became difficult to find a few years back).
After the flattery, as you might have guessed, I have
a question albeit not related to the above topic. In
the Gallery Rifle article (latest August edn.) The
picture at the bottom of page 30 depicts a rifle
fitted with what I call a ‘mover’ base used to
offset the scope for l-r & r-l moving target
shooting.
Bianchi cup.
I have been trying to get hold of one of these
mounts for my Ruger 10/22 for some time
now. Do you, Gwyn Roberts or any of your
subscribers know where I might be able to
purchase one of these mounts from ?
Is anyone still making them ?
Appreciate your help & keep up the good work.
Thanks.
Regards - Darren Cottee
Hi Darren,
The mover base in the photo is one of a few
90 Target Shooter
that I have recently made up for a few friends
that has a bolt going through the two halfs at
the rear. As the pivot point is near the front,
tightening this back up after you have shot
the Mover match ensures that everything
consistently returns back to “zero,” and that
it also cannot be accidently moved over when
being bagged or used during another type of
competition. I also tapered the base so that I
retain the same scope setting everywhere
between 50 & 15m on my rifle and only have
to change it when shooting at 10m, which will
save a lot of wear and tear on the
turrets in the future. I may be able to make
a couple of them up in time to take down
to the Nationals but things are pretty
hectic at the moment so i’m not 100% on
this. There were some being sold in the
Pavillion at the Phoenix for £180 but I think
around £130 is a much fairer price (for a non
tapered one).
I made mine with a flat base for Marlins &
Tactical Innovation receivers but could make
a concave one I suppose but it will not be an
exact profile for a Ruger as I don’t know the
dimensions and don’t own one either.
Give me a bell if you have any more
questions.
Cheers Gwyn
Thank you for sending me the latest (August)
issue. I know of no better source of information but
particularly appreciate all news that has anything
to do with Lee Enfield .303 & .308. I´m also
looking forward to the next issue with the
promised review of the Forster press.
As I´m having a bit of a problem extracting
cases from my .308 converted No.5, Id also
appreciate any help in this respect.
I have recommended your magazine to all my
German and US shooting friends and to the
three US Enfield forums.
Patrick
If you have an issue, question oe comment then
please send letters via customer support on the
website.
 News
Our Thanks for the feedback you have provided to us. The last 6 months have been a bit of a
rollacoaster, but it has been fun. Our readers, approximately 10,000 to 11,000 on average per
month have been great. Hopefully the next 6 months will get even better. Our thanks.

customer.services@targetshooter.co.uk
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.

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Border Barrrels 34 Portsmouth Gun Centre Ltd 37
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Check-Mate Guns 56 RUAG Ammotec 35
Craig Whitsey 56 Rude Fat Dog 70
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Equiifix Shooting Bags 79 Shooting Bags 56
Field Sports TV Channel 23 Shooting Shop 79
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Guntrader 54 Targets Direct 76
Indelfa Industrial Electronics 79 Tim Hannam 66
Intershoot 51 UKBR22 - Rimfire and Air Rifle Benchrest 29
Low Mill Range Website UK Custom Shop 56
Merseyside Armoury 79 Viking Arms LTD 2
Midland diving equipment 29 Westlake Engineering 11
North West Custom Parts 30

Target Shooter 91
Next time in.....

Welcome to the seventh month of this free online shooting magazine for shooters in the

October 2009 Issue

On Test Reviews
Regular
Columns
Features ...and lots more
92 Target Shooter