Building a benchrest rifle

[Lee Martin]

Match #180
Black Creek Gun Club, Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS

We had a nice turnout on a warm, but rainy day. The wind wasn’t bad, nor was the mirage. I shot OK, but kept leaving an X uncovered on most of my targets. 19 X’s wasn’t bad, but you need more than that a Black Creek to win. The highlight of the day was seeing Chuck Boller get his first win. He started in June of last year and is quickly taking to the sport.


___________________________________________________________________

Match #181
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS

This was the cheapest, or maybe better put, the weirdest winner’s patch I ever won. I shot next to Dean Breeden, who is in the Hall of Fame. Great guy, always helpful, and one of the best score shooters the IBS has ever seen. But for some reason, he let his membership lapse. The IBS by-laws are clear – you must be an active member to be eligible for the win. Dean shot a phenomenal 24X score, dropping the one X on his last bull. I was close behind with a 250-23X. Due to the membership rule, I got the win (even though I didn’t really earn it).





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

[squawberryman]

Ten years ago that math started winning. Two posts in and this is what you bring?

[Lee Martin]

Dwightholmes - it's been years since I did that math. I'll have to see if I can reverse engineer my calculations. But when I ran the numbers, they seemed right (that's not to say I didn't make a mistake however). Thanks for taking an interest in the thread.

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

[Lee Martin]

Match #182
Georgia Mountain Shooter’s Association – Eastanollee, GA
IBS 200/300 VFS Nationals
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This year’s IBS 200/300 Yard Nationals were held in Eastanollee, Georgia. This is my fifth trip to the range and it’s a place I enjoy competing at. Normally, the conditions are tame. This year’s Nationals gave us a lot of switchy wind. Gusts were 15 – 20 mph and they flipped on a dime.

Saturday was the 200 yard leg and I started off strong. After three targets, I was in 2nd or 3rd place as I recall. Then came frame #4. At the Nationals, you rotate benches after each target. That means you only shoot over your flags once. When I got to target #4, I found flags that weren’t to my liking. For one, I’m used to propellers. These had none. I closely watch those to gauge intensity. I also stagger the height of my flags, with the closest being the shortest and the farthest being the tallest. These flags, however, were set at the same height all the way to 200 yards. It made seeing anything on the flags past #1 very difficult. Not only was this a challenge, but the wind was the fiercest on this frame. Sort of felt like I was shooting blind. I struggled and dropped 3 points. Now trust me, this isn’t a good excuse. To do well at the Nats you have to perform over whatever lies ahead of you. I stayed clean on target #5 and finished in 9th place.

Sunday was 300 yards. My gun did well on the warm-up and target #1 before disaster struck. My Sinclair Competition rest has an elevation speed screw held in place by two e-clips. One of those e-clips bent and snapped off, rendering the rest next to useless (and you guessed it...I didn’t have any spares). My friend Chris Allen, with whom I was sharing a bench, let me use his SEB. I’ve never taken to joystick rests and it took some getting used to. The rest itself is rock solid. Truth be told, it didn’t put me at a disadvantage. But mentally, I was off beyond that point. I fought the conditions all day and dropped a bunch of points. There was no time at 300 where I felt confident in my holds. Put another way, I was guessing on POAs across very tricky wind. In benchrest, it’s called “being lost on target”. I finished the 300 yard competition at the bottom. I shrugged it off and reminded myself how lucky I am to compete in events like these. When I got home, I fixed my rest and added e-clips to my range box. Live and learn.

View of 200 yards behind my gun:







Jim Cline (left), my good friend Chris Allen (right):





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

[Lee Martin]

Match #183
Black Creek Gun Club – Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS

We had a nice turnout for a wild day in terms of temperature. It was 33 degrees upon arrival. When the match finished, it was 70. I’ve never seen temperature shift that much during a match. As the cold ground warmed, the mirage played hell with our optics. By far the worst mirage I’ve shot at Black Creek. At times, the reticle bounced a full ring-and-a-half. It made hitting X’s all the harder. I shot well enough to get the win. If you had told me beforehand, I’d only hit 18 X’s, I would have deemed it bad day. But considering the mirage, I’m pleased.





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Match #184
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club, Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yards VFS

This kicked off the Fairfax 200 Yard UBR Winter League. Note, UBR targets are scaled to the caliber. So, there’s no caliber advantage. The wind was pretty switchy and periodically blew hard. You just had to wait and test with sighters. I had 1st place halfway through, until Chuck Boller nailed all 6 X’s on frame #3. He got the win, giving us flip-flop results week-over-week (he was second behind me at Black Creek. A week later I was 2nd behind him).



Once I finished target #4, I had a few minutes left and three rounds in the block. I waited for a condition which looked like it would hold and sent three as fast as I could fire. Probably 10 – 12 seconds in all. At 200 yards, they printed tight:

Center hold on the dot. The wind was mid right-to-left. They landed exactly where I expected them to. For reference, the circle they're touching the outside of is 0.900". It looks way big blown up.



This proved the gun was in-tune, which is something I found throughout the day. It also shows why in Group shooting it pays to be capable of running shots. It doesn’t always work as you can get caught in a shift or let-up. In Score shooting, we don’t have that luxury. It takes time to get from bull to bull. You can still shoot rapidly, but not as fast when you’re constantly changing POA. I’m not suggesting Group is easier than Score. It isn’t. They’re just different with respect to the pace of running shots.

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

[Lee Martin]

Match #185
Black Creek Gun Club – Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS
_________________________________________________

This was the second match of our 2023/24 Black Creek Winter League, and the turnout was solid. 23 competitors in all. The weather was cold and damp, but the wind was manageable; on the order of 5 to 8 mph. From the start, there were two issues I had to contend with. First, I shoot LT-30, which is very stable across a wide range of temperatures. It’s when the air is damp that the gun sometimes (and I stress sometimes) jumps tune. Rain was headed into the region and the humidity was over 80% according to my Kestrel. The second issue was the bench I drew. Bench #1 butts up against a berm and can be finicky. High scores have been shot from it. Conversely, a lot of folks have dropped full points on #1. As the wind flows right to left, it rolls up the berm and into the over-hanging tree branches. The downward force can send shots straight down. This isn’t something you see over the flags. On the warm-up, I paid close attention to both the flags and the branches and did well. Two 3-shot groups showed the gun was in tune, as they printed ragged holes.

Scott Decker and I ran close throughout the first four frames. Going into the last target, I had a 1X lead over him. I knew he was shooting exceptionally well and there was pressure to close with a high X count. I got all 5 X’s and secured the win.





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

[bradshaw]

Dec 7, 2023 14:12:05 GMT -5 Lee Martin said:

Match #185
Black Creek Gun Club – Mechanicsville, VA
IBS 100 Yard VFS
_________________________________________________

“.... I shoot LT-30, which is very stable across a wide range of temperatures. It’s when the air is damp that the gun sometimes (and I stress sometimes) jumps tune.... wind flows right to left, it rolls up the berm and into the over-hanging tree branches. The downward force can send shots straight down. This isn’t something you see over the flags.... shooting exceptionally well and there was pressure to close with a high X count. I got all 5 X’s and secured the win.”
----Lee Martin

*****

Consistency built on eliminating everything between trigger finger and target. Nuance of light & wind.

1961, Camp Perry. 600 yards downrange, long red range flags stream from tall poles in a steady west wind. Shooters have two sighters to zero before going for record. Prone with Garand M1 National Match. Targets rise from the pits on steel tracks. Without a spotter, I rely on my spotting scope and target setter's the spotter disk poked into a bullet hole to make correction. My first misses the board... the target setter waves Maggie’s drawers. I’m on the far left of a wide firing line----position #2----shooting north into Lake Erie. My second sighter draws another red wave across the target----Maggie’s drawers. A scan from my spotting scope reveals quite a few shooters striking 3 o’clock from insufficient windage.

Like me, the shooter on my left, and a few to my right with 9 o’clock strikes. Suddenly I am forced to appreciate a berm, close on my left, running perpendicular to the firing line. It has me in the lee of the wind. So now it’s a SWAG to remove most but not all of the 1-inch per click left windage on my M1. First shot for record scores 5. (Predecessor of the 10-ring target.)

A triangle measured at the target
Reading sights is also about reading conditions.
Lee’s rifle is a superb shooter, with superb ammo. As long as rifle & ammo hold, sharpshooting defines performance.

Jargon
* Shooter----an exceptionally accurate rifle or handgun.
* Shooter----a marksman or markswoman.
* Sharpshooter----a masterful marksman or markswoman.
David Bradshaw

[Lee Martin]

Match #186
Fairfax Rod & Gun Club – Manassas, VA
UBR 200 Yard VFS
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Another great turnout for our 200-yard Virginia Winter League. In a sport that’s struggling to grow, we’re attracting a fair number of new competitors in VA. 22 shooters in all, and being caliber neutral UBR, there were 7 different cartridges along the line - .30 Stingray, .30 BR, .30 WW, 6 PPC, 6mm BR, a .22 Waldog, and the old .243 Winchester. Like the prior week at Black Creek, the weather was mild. Light winds at around 5 mph and temps in the 30s early, rising to the low 50’s.

My .30 Stingray got off to a good start, hitting 4 of the 6 X’s at 200 yards (on a .30-cal target, the dot is 0.100” wide). Scott Decker was again shooting well and had a solid 2-point lead over me going into the last frame. I shot tight but didn’t figure I’d catch him. He dropped off a hair however, allowing me to come around him for the win. This is the second week in a row that’s happened between Scott and me.



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

[bradshaw]

Lee and I had a long jawbone last night, the usual menu of general and specific info which exhilarate the mind and, hopefully, a shooter’s marksmanship. The deeper we plumb nuances of Bench Rest and Handgun Silhouette, the closer their respective rhythms appear. Not visually----the two disciplines look nothing alike. Rather, the almost-never articulated mental play of steering a bullet to the target.

It was during a discussion of fouling, of powder and powders, that the name of the Bench Rest Hall of Fame’s Jim Stekl came up. Jim Stekl worked in R&D at Remington (along with Mike Walker, daddy of the revolutionary Model 700 series). Stekl built the prototyped the XP-100 silhouette pistol, which included a 10-1/2” center-grip chambered in 7mm BR Remington, in the Remington hope IHMSA would approve it for Production category competition. At the risk of upsetting Remington folks, I poo-pooed the idea, as it would have all but eliminated other single shots.

The 7mm BR went on to great success in the steel game, as did Stekl’s 6mm BR. (One of the Hodgdon manuals has a photo taken as I had just shot 80x80 with a Remington Custom Shop XP-100 6mm BR (left hand
Georger Petersen walnut thumbhole, Bo-Mar rear, Lansing 4-D Globe front; Sierra 100 BTSP over Accurate 2460... as I recall). Among folks in the photo Jim Stekl. Stekl is as low-key a shooter as I know, and marveled at top level silhouetting. I held and hold Stekl in the same esteem. In conversation, Jim and I only touched on performance similarities of bench rest and steel. Seemingly opposite disciplines, united in rhythm.

I don’t pretend for a second the human physics and ballistic physics are the same. The two are polar. Rather, it is the stuff inside a competitor brings to the Firing Line to define performance. And now Lee tells me Jim Stekl’s 6mm BR is whipping up wins in 1,000 yard bench rest. While various 6.5mm’s are nowhere in sight.
David Bradshaw

[Lee Martin]

Thanks for sharing this part of our conversation David. Jim Stekl was instrumental in forming what we now consider the "modern BR" cartridge. Short, fat, 100% or near 100% load density, and an appropriate neck length. His 22, 6, and 30 BR experiments came about in the 1960's...a full 10 years before the 6 PPC. And you're correct in saying his 6mm BR (and variants like the 6mm Dasher, 6mm BRX, 6mm BRA, etc) dominate the 600 and 1,000 yard game. There a few folks shooting 6.5 and 7mm's on the .284 Win, along with some WSM based rounds. But if you look at who's consistently winning, it's a 6mm BR / 6mm BR wildcat. Nearly all of them use a 7 to 8 twist barrels with bullets in and around 100 - 110 grs (high ogive profiles)

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

[Lee Martin]

My dad recently finished a .222 Remington on one of his homebuilt benchrest actions. It turned out pretty well, so I thought I'd add it to this thread.



We took it out the other day and broke in the barrel. Haven't messed with load tuning yet, but it looks like a shooter. A few details:

- The action is a Martin right bolt, right port. 1.430" in diameter. Everything in it except the trigger is homebuilt. Dad even made the extractor

- It uses out standard 3-pillar design and bedding (not glued in)

- The stock is tiger maple planks which were epoxied together and contoured by my friend Wayne France. He gave it to me as a flattop, so we did all of the inletting on a Bridgeport

- Scope is the old 36X front paralax Leupold. My dad bought it in 1989 and it's still solid

- Rings are homemade out of aluminum. The same goes for the scope rail

- Barrel is a Shilen, 14 twist

- Trigger is a 2 oz Jewell

I'll post more on the rifle once we get it dialed in.

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

[weiler]

Many thanks for sharing Lee, will stay tuned on how load development goes.

I’m assuming your Dad will use his shop made arbor dies?

[Lee Martin]

Yes, he made an inline seater using the finishing reamer. It has an adjustable seating top, also homemade, incremented in thousandths. We do use it in a small arbor press.

BTW, in the other thread you mentioned LT-32. That's very close to H322, though not interchangeable. You may want to try this process for finding what your rifle wants. Using LT-32 and 50 - 55 gr bullets.

1) Seat the bullet at hard jam. I always start there before making seating adjustments

2) Load 20.0 of LT-32 and shoot three 3-shot groups. Then increase the charge to 20.3 and do the same. Then go to 20.6 and finally 21.0 grs. Watch for pressure signs along the way, but 21.0 should still be below max.

3) Pick the load that gave the best groups

4) Take that load and begin seating the bullet 0.004" deeper (or 0.005", just something in that range) and shoot more 3-shot groups. Depending on the bullet ogive, just touching the lands should be somewhere around jam minus 0.020" - 0.025".

5) If you have a bushing die, you can then test different neck tensions.

While I haven't used LT-32 in the .222 yet, I shoot it almost exclusively in my 6 PPC. I think you'll like it.

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

[squawberryman]

Lee is that a brass buttplate? Damn sexy rifle.

[Lee Martin]

Jan 4, 2024 9:33:09 GMT -5 squawberryman said:

Lee is that a brass buttplate? Damn sexy rifle.

He has done brass buttplates on a few of his rifles, but not this one. It's a piece of polished, clear acrylic.

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