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Post by Lee Martin on Aug 28, 2017 19:33:58 GMT -5
How long will it take you to recoup the money invested in the bullet making operation with you making your own? Break-even is 16,000 bullets for 6mm. Thirty caliber is around 13,500. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by Markbo on Aug 30, 2017 13:52:25 GMT -5
Sooo...how many barrels is that?
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Post by Lee Martin on Aug 31, 2017 19:21:14 GMT -5
Sooo...how many barrels is that? The law of averages says 16 for 6 PPC. .30 BR or my .30 Stingray is 2 - 3. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by Lee Martin on Aug 31, 2017 19:34:29 GMT -5
The Next Chapter – Rail Gun _______________________________________ Get sucked into benchrest and be prepared to evolve. Trust me on this. Four years ago, I just wanted to build a bag gun. That led to bullet swaging, my .30 Stingray, and endless equipment purchases. Earlier this year, I mulled over the idea of buying a rail gun. It’s a really big step. The cost is high and the opportunity to compete in the unlimited class is small. Very few east coast events schedule these monsters. But the chance to shoot in such a niche circle intrigues me. I’d venture to say there are way less than 1,000 rails in existence. To the benchrest outsider, a rail gun looks robotic. A common misconception is these devices automatically put shots in the same hole. That couldn’t be more untrue. To compete at the highest level of BR, you must be proficient in three shooting disciplines: 1) Bag management 2) Load tuning 3) Wind doping Rails only eliminate the first variable. As the shooter, you still have to assemble the right load and dope wind. By taking away rest influences, you can absolutely hone the last two. It’s no secret - shooting a rail will improve your varmint gun skills. I elected to order a Jay Young model. Jay has produced rails since the 1990s and many of the top unlimited shooters use his platform. I recently spoke with Jay and he couldn’t have been more helpful. Estimated delivery is early ’18, which gives me time to gather components (trigger, action, rings, and scope). He’ll set mine up for left-hand and anodize it in medium grey. Here’s a photo of his work:  There are no rules when it comes to rail guns. Mounting, weight, footprint, and adjustments can be whatever your heart desires. In the next segment, I’ll talk about the different types of rails. Some examples:     And a short video of rails in action: -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by Markbo on Aug 31, 2017 23:14:06 GMT -5
Holy smokes. You have jumped off the high dive now!!!
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Post by moosemeat on Sept 1, 2017 20:49:52 GMT -5
That right there is the F1 car of precision rifles. 1 purpose. Very few limitations.
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cmillard
.375 Atomic
MOLON LABE
Posts: 1,989
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Post by cmillard on Sept 2, 2017 5:14:58 GMT -5
Have you decided on what round to build one of these brutes around?
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Post by bradshaw on Sept 2, 2017 10:28:08 GMT -5
The Next Chapter – Rail Gun _______________________________________ Get sucked into benchrest and be prepared to evolve. Trust me on this. Four years ago, I just wanted to build a bag gun. That led to bullet swaging, my .30 Stingray, and endless equipment purchases. Earlier this year, I mulled over the idea of buying a rail gun. It’s a really big step. The cost is high and the opportunity to compete in the unlimited class is small. Very few east coast events schedule these monsters. But the chance to shoot in such a niche circle intrigues me. I’d venture to say there are way less than 1,000 rails in existence. To the benchrest outsider, a rail gun looks robotic. A common misconception is these devices automatically put shots in the same hole. That couldn’t be more untrue. To compete at the highest level of BR, you must be proficient in three shooting disciplines: 1) Bag management 2) Load tuning 3) Wind doping Rails only eliminate the first variable. As the shooter, you still have to assemble the right load and dope wind. By taking away rest influences, you can absolutely hone the last two. It’s no secret - shooting a rail will improve your varmint gun skills. I elected to order a Jay Young model. Jay has produced rails since the 1990s and many of the top unlimited shooters use his platform. I recently spoke with Jay and he couldn’t have been more helpful. Estimated delivery is early ’18, which gives me time to gather components (trigger, action, rings, and scope). He’ll set mine up for left-hand and anodize it in medium grey. Here’s a photo of his work: There are no rules when it comes to rail guns. Mounting, weight, footprint, and adjustments can be whatever your heart desires. In the next segment, I’ll talk about the different types of rails. Some examples: And a short video of rails in action: -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" ***** Lee provides us beautiful photos of amazing hardware, these RAIL GUNS. As usual, precision shooting contains lessons for all marksmen & markswomen. Note his list of must haves: 1) Bag management, 2) Load tuning, 3) Wind doping. Assumed (therefore unmentioned) are intrinsic accuracy of rifle, load and scope, without which there is no reason to step to the firing line. As handgunners we should look at bag management. Translation: POSITION, HOLD, SQUEEZE, FOLLOW THROUGH. A recurrent theme of technique, GRIP PRESSURE, demonstrates how important it is to hold with just enough pressure to maintain CONSISTENCY. Cannot become a sharpshooter without consistency. There is no such thing as a champion who fights his or her gun. That is a lesson beyond the beauty of these shooting machines. David Bradshaw |
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Post by cherokeetracker on Sept 2, 2017 10:38:53 GMT -5
David I know you must mean : "Cannot become a sharpshooter WITHOUT consistency".... with all due respect.
Now to join your conversation about bag management, I believe that hard bags are much better for accurate shooting. Learning to follow through has been an important aspect of handgun shooting for me. Hunting or target shooting.
Charles
May I add that the consistency holds true for the position of the grip? Low or high ?
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Post by bradshaw on Sept 2, 2017 19:05:23 GMT -5
David I know you must mean : "Cannot become a sharpshooter WITHOUT consistency".... with all due respect.
Now to join your conversation about bag management, I believe that hard bags are much better for accurate shooting. Learning to follow through has been an important aspect of handgun shooting for me. Hunting or target shooting.
Charles
May I add that the consistency holds true for the position of the grip? Low or high ?
*****
Charles.... thank you for the correction.As for hand position, high or low, let the target be the measure. A low grasp may help, if to hold high on the grip batters the hand. A grip which fills in behind the trigger guard eliminates the high/low debate, as the revolver rests on the middle finger, a hand position which naturally repeats.
David Bradshaw
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Post by Lee Martin on Sept 7, 2017 19:16:22 GMT -5
Lee provides us beautiful photos of amazing hardware, these RAIL GUNS. As usual, precision shooting contains lessons for all marksmen & markswomen. Note his list of must haves: 1) Bag management, 2) Load tuning, 3) Wind doping. Assumed (therefore unmentioned) are intrinsic accuracy of rifle, load and scope, without which there is no reason to step to the firing line. David – you’re absolutely correct. None of this matters if the rifle isn’t properly set-up. The last 41 pages detail some of the mechanical aspects – barrel, fire control, bedding, scope POA, action tolerances and alignment, harmonics, and chamber integrity. The three points made above solely rest on the shooter. And “bag management” is a bit vague. I really should’ve called that “gun handling”, because it goes way beyond how the stock tracks. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by Lee Martin on Sept 7, 2017 19:19:58 GMT -5
Neck Turning _________________________________ After 4 years and a lot of case prep, I wised-up. My K&M shellholder is designed for drills. So I chucked it in a cordless and what a difference. What used to take 5 minutes by hand is now under a minute. Here’s video of the process. On PPCs and .30 Stingrays, I get to final thickness in two passes. The first removes most of the brass. The second is a skim cut for smoother finish. 6.5 Grendel is the parent, necked to .30-cal on a matching K&M mandrel. A rough pass takes the wall from ~0.0145" to 0.0110”. Using a second turner, I reduce that to 0.0103”. This nets 0.002” chamber clearance with 0.3085” bullets. The above video is the first, heavy cut. Another batch of .30 Stingrays ready for fire-forming. I also ordered decals for the ammo boxes.  -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by moosemeat on Sept 8, 2017 19:38:00 GMT -5
I am curious to see how the 30 stingray does in for score matches. Didnt there used to be a cartridge similar to that called the 30 American?
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Post by Lee Martin on Sept 12, 2017 19:47:53 GMT -5
I am curious to see how the 30 stingray does in for score matches. Didnt there used to be a cartridge similar to that called the 30 American? The .30 American was a small primer .30-30 Winchester. I'll get into its history in another post. But in short, when Sako PPC brass tightened in 1986, benchresters convinced Federal to punch match quality .30-30's with small primer pockets. The flash hole was downsized too. There were a host of wildcats done on those Federal hulls. The most common was the 6mm American. I have 6 and 30 Americans in my cartridge collection and the original articles surrounding their development. I'll piece it together in a forthcoming 'Benchrest History' segment. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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Post by Lee Martin on Sept 12, 2017 20:05:19 GMT -5
Match #14 – VFS 100, FR&GC ___________________________________ I shot a 100 yard varmint for score match on Saturday. The conditions were mild, and even with a tired barrel, I stayed clean on the 10 ring throughout (a perfect 250). More X’s would’ve been nice, but I’m in the mix with a PPC. Assessing the targets, there were 5 missed X’s that would’ve scored with my .30 Stingray. I’m eager for the jump in caliber.  I’m also learning more about LT-32. The prior Saturday, I tested the gun in heavy rain. High humidity is usually where LT gets finicky. I started with 28.3 grs and the bullet 0.004” ahead of jam. 3-shot group #1 was so-so. I bumped the bullet back another 0.004”, or jam. A hair better but still not tight enough. I pushed them back 0.004” more and they went same hole. This was confirmed by a second 3-shot group. The vertical was gone and it held up across switchy wind. I kept seating deeper in 0.004” increments. The groups stayed crisp until 0.016” from jam. Because I preload for score shoots, I’m looking for a way to tune at the range (in time I may go with a tuner, but that’s another thread). Depth allows me to adjust real time if I seat the bullets long. This was put into practice on Saturday. All 50 rounds were pre-loaded 0.004” beyond jam. During the warmup, I tried two depths. The first was 0.004” ahead, the second was 0.004” back from jam (0.008" apart). On the sighter, I fired three of the jam+4. They looked OK. Then I tried jam-4. Those ran tighter and showed much less vertical. Before record #1, I bumped some back 0.008” and they held all day. The X’s I missed were wind push, not vertical. The barrel just eclipsed 1,500. I’m retiring it and chambering my third 6 this week (a 13.5 twist Lederer HV). New brass is already turned and fire-formed for this blank. Give it a few years and I'll have quite a used barrel collection. -Lee www.singleactions.com"Chasing perfection five shots at a time" |
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