Building a benchrest rifle

[Lee Martin]

Match #150
Black Creek Gun Club – Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100/100 Yard Aggregate

This was the second 100/100 yard aggregate event I ran at Black Creek this year. I’ve scheduled these in June and September. 21 competitors showed up, so the format seems to be popular. Weather conditions were typical Black Creek. Switchy wind that would blow hard for a few seconds, die down giving ample time to shoot a few bulls, then change on a dime. It’s one of those places where if you’re patient, you can make it work. If you’re not, it’ll bite you.

In the first match, folks kept complaining about shots dropping straight down. Moreover, the flags didn’t show them why. I went into the last frame tied with Michael Poole, but I had the tiebreaker. If I could hit all 5 X’s, the win was mine. If not, my fingers needed to be crossed. I cleanly hit 4 and missed the 5th by a hair. Michael on the other hand took all five. He finished in 1st with 21 X’s, I was second with 20. No sweat. He’s a great competitor and earned it.

“It works until it doesn’t” - Again, I kept hearing about shots dropping straight down. I went through the entire first match not seeing this. On the 3rd frame however, I did. Shooting sighters, the gun tore one ragged hole over the dot. Three shots in a row measured just over 0.10” spread. I wiped out the first X on record, wiped out the second X on record, and moved to the third. Nothing, and I mean nothing looked different on the flags. I pulled the trigger only to see the bullet fall completely out of the 10-ring at 6:00. My jaw dropped. After 2,600 rounds at 100 yards on the barrel, this is the first 9 it shot. It dropped me to 12th place in match 2 and 11th place in the grand agg. Had I not lost that point, I would’ve taken 2nd in the agg. This only goes to show how a few hundredths of an inch in VFS can change everything.

Joey Whittington showing patience as the flags aren’t giving him what he wants:



Michael Farrish on the line:



Small talk among competitors as targets are changed:




Match #151
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club – Manassas, VA
IBS 200 Yard VFS

If I haven’t mentioned it before, 200 yards is my favorite distance. I have more wins at 100, but I believe I learn more at 200. Hold offs are bigger over conditions that span twice as far. We started with mild stuff. I hit 3 X’s on the warm-up and 4 X’s on record #1. Then the “green” came in. Green is left-to-right wind and it tends to move the bullet more than right-to-left. That's because the barrels are right-hand twist. Meaning the bullet is already spinning that way. Push harder on that rotation with green and you add spin drift. I muddled through frames 2 thru 5, losing two 10’s on the day. Both times I was holding almost to the middle of the 8 ring and just getting the right side of the mothball. Honestly, I was afraid to hold more left for fear of a big let-up, which we frequently saw. Both 9’s were just outside the 10-ring at 3:00. I ended-up in 5th place. What was neat about the results were the calibers. Wayne France won with a .30, Mike Morgan took 2nd with a 6 PPC, and Wayne Shaw was third with a .22 PPC (Wayne’s .22 PPC has been shooting great this year). They were the only shooters who stayed clean.

This Saturday’s match at Black Creek should be interesting. We’ll be seeing the remnants of Hurricane Ian. The forecast calls for heavy downpours and significant wind.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #154
Sulphyr Springs Rifle Club – Muncy, PA
IBS 100/100 Yard Aggregate – Ricky Read Memorial Match
______________________________________________________________

This past spring, the IBS lost a beloved competitor. Ricky Read started shooting benchrest in the 1970’s and achieved great success in the sport. Never a bad word towards anyone, Ricky was a gentleman shooter. He was quiet, but always quick to help and offer advice. In May, he shot a Sunday match at Sulphyr Springs. That week he passed away from a stroke. Perhaps he knew it was coming. His life-long friend Gary Slawik summed it up best. Ricky had extractor problems in that May match. Now Ricky wasn’t one to waste ammunition. If it wasn’t working, he’d pack up and come back another day. But in May, he extracted every shot by taking the gun off the bags, inserted a cleaning rod down the barrel, and knocked out the empty case. He did this for every round and completed the match. Having suffered a stroke the previous year, this was quite a chore. To celebrate Ricky’s life, Gary arranged a 100/100 yard aggregate match to memorialize him.

The weather was perfect. North-Central Pennsylvania is gorgeous this time of year with the leaves changing. I’ve shot Sulphyr a few times before and always enjoy competing there. The range is nestled in between two large hills with a stream flowing to the right of the firing line (the club was founded in 1941). Being walled in, the conditions are usually mild. Sunday was no exception. The wind was extremely light to non-existent. I finished 3rd in the overall agg. The X’s I missed were really close with the exception of one which split the 10-ring.



Wayne France on the line:



View of the range cabin:





My gun in Match #2. Note the stream just to the right:



Looking back at the range from the cabin:



The awards table and a framed photo of Ricky. The picture was presented to Ricky’s family after the match:



-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #155
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, Virginia
IBS 100 Yard VFS
______________________________________________________

The weather forecast called for temperatures near 80 degrees and 5 mph wind. When I heard that, I figured it would take 22 X’s (or better) to win Saturday’s match. Turns out the weather forecaster missed big time. Right as the event began, mother nature picked-up in a nasty way. Now I’ve shot Black Creek when it blew hard. Say 15+ mph. But I’ve never seen the wind swirl like it did this past weekend. You could see it in the flags as they’d do an abrupt 180-degree switch with little warning. This was also evident in the leaves swirling in a circle on the ground. Even worse, the leaves on the shooting line roof were being blown off and fell right in front of our muzzles. My fingers were crossed that a bullet wouldn’t nick one and get deflected. When trying to hit a 0.0625” dot at 100 yards, it doesn’t take much. Shot timing was critical. Touch the trigger on a hard switch and you’d blow a 9. I must admit, I was simply trying to land the 10 ring. If X’s came, all the better. Patience was the order of the day. Force a shot and you could be in trouble. Of the 13 competitors on-hand, only 5 managed to stay clean. Again, if you told me the night before I’d only get 18 X’s, I would’ve thought “bad day”. But 18 was enough for the win.





-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #156
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS

November’s match started Fairfax’s Winter League. As with the past few years, they’re run under UBR sanctioning. These are still “Score” benchrest events, though UBR has a slightly different target and scoring system. Rather than 5 record targets with 5 record bulls per, UBR runs 4 record targets with 6 record bulls each. Moreover, hitting the 10-ring dot isn’t an “X”, it’s counted as an 11. So, a perfect score is 66 per target or 264 for the whole event. The targets are also scaled for .22, 6mm, and 30-caliber. In other words, the .30-caliber rings are 0.067” smaller than the 6mm’s. The .22’s are 0.019” larger than the 6mm’s. This basically makes the targets caliber neutral between .22, 6mm, and .30.

The day was unseasonably warm, and the wind was manageable. Unlike most days at Fairfax, it predominately blew in one direction – right to left. Intensity was between 5 and 10 mph when it was present. There were small windows of virtually no wind. I shot well throughout the match but had to chase Nick Cornell. He managed to drill 4 of the 6 dots on frame number one. Since the first target is used as the initial tiebreaker, I had my work cut out for me. On target number 4, I decided to get aggressive on my hold offs. I can’t remember if I’ve explained this before or not, but you can shoot “safe” in benchrest score. I’ll illustrate this (note – the 10 ring is 0.90” and the dot is 0.10” – they look big in these photos but are small at 200 yards):

With the wind blowing right to left, I could hold at 4:00 on the ten-ring and get the 10 (the hold is the X, the green circle is where the bullet landed). Sometimes I’d nick the dot, sometimes I’d miss it high left. But if the wind let up, I could still clip the 4:00 portion of the 10.



On the sighter, I was hitting the dot often, but it necessitated holding in the 9-ring as shown below. There’s risk with that POA however. If the right-to-left wind lets up or even worse, switched left-to-right, you’d blow a 9 and lose a point. Knowing I had to catch-up to Nick, I held 9-ring and got 3 out of the 6 dots. And I didn’t get caught in a let-up or switch. No 10’s were dropped.



After target #4, I went to pull targets and noticed Nick may have only hit one dot. And that was questionable. I scored mine and got a 63 (three 10’s and three 11’s). Nick did clip the dot giving him a 61. That was enough to tie us on the overall score, but he had the tiebreaker. I ended-up in second but was pleased.

___________________________________________________________________________

Match #157
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS

Match 2 of my 2022-2023 Winter League was held under heavy rain. Bad weather and all, we had 15 competitors show up. The rain made for a wet one, and the wind was light. It blew in a few different directions but rarely went above 5 mph. And if you were patient, there were moments of dead calm where you could quickly squeeze in two to three record bulls. My gun shot tight, though I fought shots going high. Of the 4 X’s I missed, each was just above the dot at 12:00. Others experienced the same. Jeff Green won the match with a 250-22X. I took second with a 250-21X.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[cmillard]

Great job Lee!

[Lee Martin]

Match #158
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS
___________________________________________________________

Match 2 of the 200-yard Winter League happened this past Saturday. The weather was in the low 30’s but the wind played nice. It was a bit switchy yet never went higher than say 5 to 10 mph. Mostly right-to-left which is the condition I prefer at Fairfax. The other thing I liked about last Saturday was the fact there was wind. That range when it’s dead still can be problematic. For whatever reason, when there’s no movement, bullets go where you don’t expect them to.

Because I like right-to-left at Fairfax, I waited for mild orange and held 4 o’clock; either in between the dot and the 10-ring or right on the 10-ring line when the wind was a hair more intense. And that worked beautifully. Like last month, it came down to Nick Cornell and I but this time I took him on the tie-breaker for the win:



-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #159
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yards VFS

January was a month of third place finishes. The Black Creek match gave mild temperatures and moderate wind. Pretty average for that club. My gun hung around all day as I bounced from 2nd to 3rd place. In the end, I didn’t have enough to catch Jeff Green. If I could’ve taken five X’s on the last target, I would’ve won on a the tie-breaker. But I narrowly missed a X. At 21 X’s, Wayne France had the Creedmoor on me, so I ended-up third.



_____________________________________________________________________

Match #160
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS

Fairfax’s third match of the Winter League was a wild one. The wind was nothing short of nasty, with gusts approaching 25 mph. Patience paid off, but the windows of ‘shootable conditions’ were extremely narrow. So bad was the wind, a competitor fired into the sighter box and the bullet stray 7 inches to the left (and into a record bull). Surprisingly, I had it figured out pretty well. I stayed with right-to-left wind and held aggressively. Like the week before at Black Creek, I went into the last target with a chance to win. That is until Nick Cornell drilled four X’s. I was only able to get one of the six X’s and took 3rd for the second week in a row.

Before the last target, we decided to shoot a three-shot group into a pre-determined sighter bullet (upper-center). We each put some money into the pot and fired away. I ran the last target fast because I saw something I liked. With time, and open sighter bulls to work with, I tested a three shot group (incidentally, I hate three-shot groups and would’ve preferred doing five). Anyway, I laid three shots in a nice cluster under brutal wind. Wasting no time, I went up top and fired another three into the sighter that counted. It looked good. Even more surprising was its shape. If you rotated it about 60 degrees, you could almost superimpose it on the test group. It must’ve been luck because doing that in really hard wind isn’t easy. My three-shot 200 yard group measured 0.327”. I thought I may have won the group shoot until Dean Breedan’s measured 0.324”. He got me by 0.003”. I did like the fact he was also shooting a .30-caliber. We took the top two places against a host of 6 PPC’s, 6 BRs, and even a .22 PPC.



Test three-shot group (for reference, the 10-ring measures 0.90”. Pretty small at 200 yards):



My 0.327” group. Notice how similar it looks to the above:



-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #161
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yards VFS
__________________________________________________________

The fourth match of our 2023 Black Creek Winter League was shot under frigid conditions. It was 16 degrees when we arrived and only warmed to 26 degrees by the time we were done. Ten competitors were brave enough, or dumb enough depending on how you look at it, to show. The wind was moderate but moved bullets high and left when you didn’t expect it. Wayne France, who was on the bench to my right, experienced this as did I. I shot well and had rookie Alex Oliveri on my heels all day. I was able to eke out the win but damn near blew it. On target #3, my fingers felt frozen. I could hardly feel the tips. On the last bull I roughly positioned the reticle while watching the flags. Then I placed my trigger finger in the guard as I went to make final adjustments (the wind changed a bit). Unfortunately, my index finger was so cold I lost track of where it was relative to the trigger itself. “Bam!!!!”. The gun went off before I was ready. My stomach went into knots as I peered through the scope. By the grace of God, I drilled the X. Sometimes you need a little luck.





-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #162
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS

Match #4 of the Fairfax Winter League was another challenging day when it came to the conditions. The temperature wasn’t bad. The same cannot be said of the wind. There was a solid push throughout with gusts well over 15 mph. It also swirled. Interestingly the wind wasn’t as bad from 100 to 200 yards. The first span is what you had to watch. In shooting sighters, I found the first two flags moved the bullet more than usual. I laid off those until they let-up a bit. I was able to find a nice hold at 4:00, moving between the edge of the 10-ring and 9-ring depending on the intensity (I shot when the tails started to drop. At full movement, the bullets were easily swayed 3+ rings). Even when there was some left-to-right mixed in, the right-to-left seemed to dominate. In fact, when it went mostly green, I held center 10 when the left-to-right was mild. However, I mostly waited for orange (ie, right-to-left on the flags) and held as noted above. That seemed to work. I went into the last target with a solid 4-point lead over second place. The wind blew harder, so I shot five sighters and figured out my hold. As I went to the record bulls, my target came loose from the upper right edge. The match director stopped the clock, we all stepped back from the benches, and the target crew tended to my frame. When they returned, the wind was totally different. I fired a few more sighters, found a new hold, and ran them. It was enough to get the win.

Note the good mix of cartridges. Since UBR uses scaled targets, you see a lot of 6mm’s and even some .22’s.



Match #5 next month will decide the Winter League. Nick Cornell won November and January. I won the December and February matches. He’s a damn good shooter, so I’ll need to be on it if I hope to take the Winter League for the second year in a row.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Match #163
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yards VFS

This was the 5th and final match of the Black Creek Winter League. The series champion is decided by the best 3 out of 5 combined scores. I had a good shot at winning it again this year, but had to do so through heavy wind. The weather report called for 20 - 30 mph gusts. And while it never reached that level, the wind was hasty and swirled constantly. Good friend Chris Allen and I ran neck and neck most of the day. Yet as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get past 4 X’s (which wasn’t bad considering the conditions). He had a 1X lead over me going into the 5th frame. I’d need a 5X target to have a chance at the win. I stuck with the orange reads (ie, right-to-left push) which worked most of the time. Left-to-right was moving the bullet more than I like, necessitating aggressive hold offs. I almost caught him but missed the last X by a hair. We tied with 20 X’s and he got me on the tie-breaker. I was able to win the Winter League for the 3rd straight year.



______________________________________________________________________

Match #164
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS

Unlike the prior week at Black Creek, the weather report held water. It called for 30 mph wind and at times we had just that. The rest of the day was well beyond “breezy”. Nick Cornell and I came into the last match tied for the Winter League championship. After some friendly banter, we went at it on the firing line. I was patient throughout and shot a lot of sighters. As careful as I was, it was impossible not to get caught in abrupt wind shifts. A few times I held way out for right-to-left wind only to go on a quick let-up or complete switch. Points fell fast. On target number 5, Wayne France and I were vying for the win. Both of us dropped a bunch 9’s and neither of us hit one X. I thought I may have matched his 5th score, which would’ve given me the win on the tie-breaker. But when the paper was yanked, a bull I thought was a 10 scored a 9. He got me by a point. I did outpace Nick though for the Winter League championship (for the second year in a row).

These scores are indicative of the nasty wind we faced:



-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[Lee Martin]

Benchrest Legends – Homer L. Culver
_______________________________________________________

If not for Homer Culver, I wouldn’t have entered the world of benchrest. When my dad and I met him in the 1980’s, our most accurate rifle was a 40-XB in .22-250. Topped with Weaver glass, we thought that was the pinnacle. But Homer opened our eyes to another level of precision – short range benchrest. Along the way he taught us everything from bullet swaging to fabricating actions. Equally important was his knowledge of this sport’s origins. Being a bit of a history buff, I became the proverbial sponge. In return, my father helped him machine his powder measure inserts. He also became his primary care physician. Small gifts compared to his patient mentoring.

H.L. Culver was born on December 4th, 1902, in the small western Kentucky town of Evansville. Common to rural America in that era, he took to hunting and fishing. The former piqued his interest in firearms. Combined with a natural curiosity for all things mechanical, Homer didn’t just shoot rifles, he analyzed them. In his early 20’s, he took a job as a machinist for a locomotive company. Employment was steady until the Great Depression hit. The local economy soon stalled, and Culver re-located to Maryland in 1933. Shortly thereafter he was working at the Navy Yard on the banks of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. It was here he honed his skills as a machinist. The equipment was large and so was the output. During World War II, he logged 7 days a week. The government honored Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. The other 362 days of the year, he was turning steel. Following the war, the Navy Yard downsized and eventually closed in 1946. Returning vets received preferential treatment for other positions so Culver transferred to Walter Reed Hospital. There he machined parts for prosthetic limbs. The production was smaller scale, but not its complexity. At Walter Reed he gained acumen in the tool & die side of the trade. Homer quickly used those talents to make bullet swaging dies, benchrest actions, and his famous powder measure.

I can’t recall exactly how Homer was introduced to benchrest but believe Col. Townsend Whelen played a part. Whelen lived in the DC-Metro area in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Culver knew him and Col. Whelen had deep connections to the precision game. The first match he attended was in York, PA in 1950. They hadn’t yet installed benches and shot from the prone position. Homer just watched. Later that year he observed the Dubois match and was hooked. In 1951 he built a .219 Donaldson Wasp on a Mauser action and began competing. From the outset, he was drawn to the speed at which things were progressing. That progress was made by Warren Page, Mike Walker, Al Marciante, G.R. Douglas, Gene Hudgins, Clyde Hart, Phil Teachout, R.K. Nelson, and Harvey Donaldson to name a few. Legends throughout, but back then they were just guys trying to squeeze the most from their rifles. By today’s standards, the equipment was primitive. There were many questions and few answers on how best to set-up a precision rig. Everything was trial and error. The windows in which they experimented weren’t narrow like there are now. When it came to cartridge selection, bedding, barrels, scopes, rests & bags, and bullets, it was ground zero. Most of the rifles were done on Mauser or Winchester receivers, some of which were sectioned and welded to add rigidity. Certainly Remington’s 722 action and .222 were big steps forward, but they weren’t end-alls. Competitors like Homer were always pushing the envelope.

In the early 1950’s, Culver married Edith Wenkenbach and moved to Arlington, Virginia. There he outfit a basement machine shop that spawned some of the sport’s early innovations. He began by tackling actions. Not happy with the rigidity of commercial receivers, Homer decided to make his own. The first came in 1953 out of steel, 1.40” in diameter by 8.0” long. Cutting the raceways was a challenge since he didn’t have access to a broaching machine. Undeterred, he leveraged the stoutest lathe at Walter Reed. Holding the action in a chuck, Culver placed an adjustable bit in the tailstock and dragged it end-to-end. Only removing a few thousandths per pass, the process was time consuming. Painstaking, but it worked and accommodated 722 bolts. Those small, round actions wouldn’t stay bedded though. To settle them, Homer Devconed the underside in a two-inch aluminum block. The action kept good contact with the block; the same could not be said of the block and wood stock. So, in 1956 he made two flat bottom receivers that fared better. They were large, 1.75” wide by 8.25” long. This led to a 1.75” round action of the same length and eventually a 15” long unlimited. In 1961, he machined a receiver out of all things...aluminum. It was round and had a steel insert for the barrel tenon and extraction cam. The smallest 10-shot group he ever fired was behind #21 in a 10.5 lb rifle. That action made a significant contribution to benchrest. Homer was good friends with Ralph Stolle, who lived in Maryland and worked in the print industry. He was also an accomplished machinist. Stolle asked Culver if he could use his aluminum design and flat-bottom pattern. With Homer’s help, the basis for the Panda was formed. Culver built 22 actions, the last being with my dad in 1989. By then, Remington stopped selling standalone bolts. That moved them to make their own from scratch. I don’t know what became of Homer’s, but our 6 BR is still going strong (note – I’ve seen Culver actions numbered as high as 30. I can’t reconcile that total, other than Homer said he built 22 by himself. I suspect some of the others were jointly done with Stolle and marked ‘Culver’).

An aluminum action made by Culver:



A steel, round action by Culver, marked 25:



Culver’s name is most synonymous with powder dispensing. In 1953, Homer designed a repeatable insert with click adjustments for the Lyman 55 measure. It also fit the older Ideal #5. The first one went to Bob Hart and Col. Whelen got the second. Within a couple of years, it was the standard for benchrest powder measures. Unlike the Belding & Mull, which was an accurate enough, the Culver had positive, ball detent click settings. You didn’t have to constantly test weigh charges. If you knew the calibration curve for your propellant, just dial it to the desired number and pour. All were machined from brass and the dots, calibrations, and signature stampings were filled with red paint. For one year only, circa 1983, he numbered a batch of 100. I was fortunate enough to acquire #31 and #85. Making the insert was no small task. Homer claimed it took over a day to produce one, though he ran a set quantity in stages. From 1953 to 1975, he did all the work himself. Having retired in 1966, he and had more time to devote to the measure business. Then In 1975 he developed health problems and Geza Nagy stepped in to assist. Geza assembled 200 Lyman’s using inserts Culver had already machined. For that reason, you’ll sometimes see these called “Culver/Nagy” conversions. By the time my dad met Homer he was over 80 and had made around 750. But it was becoming hard for him to stand in front of a lathe and mill for extended periods. My father offered to help and together they produced another 300. As I recall, the last run was in 1993, bringing to total to just over 1,000. The design lives on through Neil Jones’ and Linwood Harrell’s outstanding Culver style measures.

One of my six Culver powder measures:



Whenever possible, Homer competed with home-spun components. Not only did he swage his bullets, but he also machined the dies and converted the presses. How many sets he made is unknown, but he had been crafting .22, 6mm, .25, and .30 caliber since the 1960’s. Around 1990, Homer and my dad prepared one more set of 6mm’s from GraphMo. First, they turned an undersized cutter, which looked like the bullet sectioned top-to-bottom. Meaning one half was flat. That edge cut the ogive after step boring the blank. Final die dimensions were achieved with an inordinate amount of diamond compound lapping. They shot beautifully. Folks always sought his bullets and that speaks volumes about their quality. That quality emanated from his unwavering attention to detail. Take the J4 jackets he used for example. They were, and still are, a precision cup. Wall variation is 0.0003” or less, a dimension most of us view as sound. But Culver couldn’t live with that much imbalance. His fix entailed a small lathe he built with an adjustable carbide cutter. Every jacket he pointed was internally bored to <0.0001” wall thickness runout. If anyone else ever went to those lengths, I haven’t met them.

Homer with one of his measures, 1990:



Homer in front of his lathe. His shop was simple. One lathe, a table top mill, a drill press, and a grinder:



Throughout his benchrest career, Culver shot many different chamberings. In the 50’s and 60’s, he was partial to the .219 Wasp, .222 Remington, .222 & .223 based wildcats, and the .308 Winchester. Some of his best success came with the .308. In 1964 at the Nationals in Tulsa, he won the heavy gun class shooting a .308 on a Culver action. He also competed with cartridges he designed. One of the first was his .25 Dart. Based on the .220 Swift, Homer expanded the neck, pushed the shoulder back, and cut overall length to 1.90”. The sidewalls were straightened, and the shoulder was improved to 30 degrees. Loaded with his .25-caliber bullets, the Dart could really agg. I can speak firsthand to the Dart’s potential. My dad built one on a Martin action in 1992 and it’ll shoot tight with good bullets. Perhaps the most unique Culver wildcat is one which flew under the radar. In the 1960s, 6mm was gaining ground in BR, most notably the 6x47. However, it could be finicky. The 6x47 would print dots one day, then pattern like a shotgun when conditions changed. Homer believed a short, fat body may be the ticket in 6mm. Sometime in the 60’s, he trimmed his Dart and necked it to 6mm. He called it the 6 Screwball. The base measured 0.445”, length was around 1.50”, and the shoulder was 30 degrees. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? (hint - the 6 PPC)

Culver’s .25 Dart cartridge:



Homer at the 1962 Tulsa Nationals. He’s in the front row, third from the left:



Homer and Wally Hart, 1982:



For all of Homer’s accomplishments, I’d be remiss in not mentioning his wife, Edith. From the beginning, she competed with him and did quite well. Homer said her secret was she never practiced. Edith just showed-up, got behind a Culver rig, and went at it. Homer kept the gun in tune, she did the rest. In 1972 at Wapwallopen, PA, Edith took first place and Homer took second. It was not her first victory. Edith won the Eastern Regionals in ’63 and later the Virginia State Championships in Staunton.

Edith was also the instigator of drawing benches and matches. The story as told by Homer in the December 1989 issue of Precision Shooting:

“Dear Dave,

In the October issue, page #38, yes, that is indeed Edith Culver, as you speculate that it may be. I not only recognize her, but the front rest, the cartridge block, and the action on the rifle (which I made). In fact, I made that whole rifle, except for the barrel of course. The lady shooting next to her is Bernice McMullen, who used to be the secretary of the NBRSA.

A little story on who started the idea of “drawing for benches”. When we started shooting in 1951, Edith noticed that certain shooters always got the number one bench at Dubois and Johnstown. Both benches were relatively protected from the wind…at Johnstown by a row of trees and at Dubois by a high bank. While not popular, as an idea, with the shooters at large, they just accepted the fact that this was the way things are. Not Edith. She promptly went off looking for Ed McNalley who was then NBRSA President and demanded to know why we didn’t draw for benches. Well, old Ed just about swallowed his chewing tobacco. This was going to upset certain elements of the insiders…. specifically, the ones perched on those preferred benches. Nonetheless, in fairness to the gentleman, he came to think it was a good idea and backed it. Bob Hart became involved in the matter…. which had folks all agitated on both sides of the argument….and helped put it through.
The fellow who had previously always had bench one got his nose all out of joint over this and shortly thereafter dropped out of the benchrest game. I suspect you would know who this was David (Editor: Yes, the gentleman came from Maine).

Homer L. Culver
1219 North Stuart Street
Arlington, VA 22201”

We never got to know the real Edith Culver. By the time we met Homer, she was suffering from Alzheimer’s. But Homer always spoke fondly of their time together in benchrest.

Homer and Edith at Wapwallopen in 1972:



Edith at bench #24, 1955:



Culver made other contributions to the sport, too numerous to list here. He was one of the first to offer primer pocket and flash hole uniforming tools in the 1950’s. His primer seater was eventually adopted by and sold through R.W. Hart. In 1984 the benchrest community recognized his accomplishments at the Super Shoot in North Lawrence, Ohio. Don Geraci did the honors of inducting him into the NBRSA Hall of Fame. He stayed active in BR, shooting well up into his 90’s. I feel fortunate to have spent time with him at the range and in his shop. Homer passed away on February 28th, 1999, at age 96. His beloved wife Edith died just three days earlier.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
"Chasing perfection five shots at a time"

[potatojudge]

I can't recall if I've posted this gun here, but your Culver action reminded me of this rifle. It's a Hart rifle SN 5. A call to the factory gave the following information:

Produced 3-25-64
22 caliber originally, chambering not recorded but I believe she said likely 222
Sold to Colonel TJ Jackson Jr in Alexandria, VA

He also used Remington bolts in the early builds before making his own.

[bradshaw]

LEGACY.... Lee, the torch has been passed, whether you like it, or not. History entering your bloodstream from standing with your feet on the ground. Great writeup infused with inside dope. To immediately follow your last exploit on the Firing Line with this story brings home like a focus of the sights the beauty of determination in PERFORMANCE.

Amazed to hear the first match, or matches, shot prone. In High Power Rifle, we treated prone like a sandbag. A riveting history. Technical perfection in support of the shooter’s own coordinations between mind & target.
David Bradshaw

[squawberryman]

Lee does everyone shoot conventional projectiles in BR or does ANYONE shoot lathe turned ones?

[bradshaw]

Mar 25, 2023 13:11:45 GMT -5 squawberryman said:

Lee does everyone shoot conventional projectiles in BR or does ANYONE shoot lathe turned ones?

*****

Greg.... Lee hand swages his bullets, and there’s probably a few who’d like to be shooting Lee Martin bullets. Can’t speak for anyone lathe-turning BR bullets. Believe the lathe work is do on the dies so it doesn’t have to be done on the bullets.

Left out of Lee’s history lesson----it covers the subject inn match reports----WIND, a ghost shared byrifle, pistol, and revolver sharpshooters everywhere.
David Bradshaw