The real A$$ whoopin' in a box

I have a book at home that covers many of the obsolete calibers of the world. There are references to arcane calibers of every shape and size. The most common thing among them is their lack of power. Most are so bad you might be better off with a sharp stick, I know you would be safer with a sling and a big rock.

Along about the early sixties a dude with a chronograph and an idea set about changing that forever. His name was Weatherby. He set about building the best hunting rifle in the world, and the most powerful.

The original Weatherby was a work of art in all respects. The wood was beautiful, the action was custom with a nine lug bolt, lapped until the action would slide open smoothly when the angle of repose was exceeded. Expensive as all get out.

When sales dropped off in the Eighties a grade of rifle for the rest of us was built. The Vanguard was a Weatherby built on a Belgian Mauser action, with a synthetic stock and chambered for a Weatherby round.

Walmart entered the picture and offered the rifles at a low enough price that I bought one because I thought it was priced wrong. One of my friends bought three. They come with a target from the test firing at the factory. Friends you have no excuses, if there is a miss, it was the shooter, not the gun. My target shows a three leaf clover at one hundred yards.

The .300 Weatherby Magnum boots a 165 grain bullet along at about 3200 fps.

I bought a decent scope and headed out to give it a try. The first shot destroyed the internals of the scope, knocked everything out of focus. It now wears a long eye relief 5 to 9 scope with a five inch eye relief. The 180 grain slug whacks you with 54 ft/lbs of free recoil. I weigh above 250 lbs, and it will pick me and the rifle up off the bench.

The Love of my life will not even stand behind me when I shoot it, she says the blast makes her teeth hurt. It makes my teeth hurt too, though for another reason.

All the little boy's want this,,,,,

After the first dust up in the Gulf I was asked if I would care to attend a class to certify new NRA firearms instructors. For free. The cost for the rest of the world was around $260 a person.

No brainer, I'm in!

I met some of the Special Ops folks that made that excursion the success it was. They were pupils, looking for a resume line for post military life. One character in particular, sort of stood out. I shouldn't say a lot about him because he would be too easy to find, based on the superlatives attached to his name. Let's just say his resume made James Bond look like a girl.

He's the only person I know of who looks on getting flash-banged in training, as something to take in stride.

We struck up a conversation regarding the weapons in the room, that we brought for the range session, and show and tell. I brought an HK93, he brought an AR 15 with an entry light. He was completely amazed that I hated the HK. I wasn't raised on ghost ring sights, and they just don't work for me. Additionally the curve at the rear of the action fits your cheek bone nicely to line up your eye with the sights, and give you a black eye after a long day at the range. This was in the era of the import ban, and the price of the HK was up to about $850 by then. He had financial reasons for wanting to swap, I had personal reasons. He is the generous sort and left the entry light attached. I added the Aimpoint scope. His comment, "If the other guy has one and you don't, by the time you can aim, you're shot"! 'Nuff said!

So I now own an AR-15 with a forward assist and barrel for the heavy NATO .223, with entry light and Aimpoint. I would love to have a holosight, but maybe later. He also threw in enough 30 round clips to give Billary the hives.

Strictly for social work.

I am STOOOOPID,,,

Not news, I'm afraid. I have been reading Matt G. for a while and didn't realise I hadn't linked him. Done it now, he's on the side bar. My apology for not doing it sooner.

And if you really want to get their attention.....

Then use a bigger hammer. A few years ago I had a business that sort of migrated to a handy man service. If you got the money, I will find the time, kind of. A coworker with a positive aversion to manual labor asked me to give him a price for painting his house. He mentioned he might barter a rifle for the work. It was a brick house. I researched the rifle and found it to be worth about fifteen hundred dollars. Needless to say, I went for the brushes.

So for about forty hours work I acquired a Browning "A" Bolt in stainless, with the boss system. It was topped with a Leopold 4 to 14 Police Sniper Scope. The rifle is chambered for .300 Win Mag

With a 165 grain bullet and a sand bag, I can hit a dime at 100 yards. On the first shot anyway, after that it becomes a process of will to soak up the punishment, it needs to be much heavier.

That was my first rifle chambered for "an A$$ whuppin' in a box."

Long Distance,,,,,,almost as good as being there

If you have to reach out and touch something, it always helps to have the tool for the job. I am going to guess that the attraction for the marksman is the sheer difficulty in controlling your actions and, as much as possible the environment, and still be able to hit your selected target. Not just hit it, but hit exactly where you select.

Old military rifles had ladder sights that carried increments out to thousands of yards. If you have ever read ballistics tables and perhaps even taken a few Trig courses, then the complexity becomes more obvious. What is the angle, when the opposite side is 750 ft. and the adjacent side is one inch? Anyone with a scientific calculator can punch up the answer in short order. The answer is in seconds of angle, something like 24 seconds of angle. I did the math in my head, so if I'm off a little, please forgive me. The point? When you can see the beat of your heart and your breathing in the movement of your scope, controlling your movements to achieve an arc that small is iffy at best. The addition of the arc of the bullet, time of flight, wind (more trig), bullet coefficient, humidity, altitude, temperature and configuration of the target, it becomes very interesting.

Sniper training manuals show rules of thumb for reading the wind and normal leads for walking and running targets at various distances. They also recommend huge amounts of ammo for the training. That's a good idea because someday you will have to take a shot with out the time for the calculations.

Where does the tool come in? It must be extremely consistent and stable. It should be relatively heavy, to dampen movement. The components should be robust, any system pushed to it's limits becomes less predictable, and thereby inaccurate.

My choice for long range has a heavy, fluted barrel, synthetic stock, a twelve power BSA scope, folding bipod, and is chambered for .223.

The Savage 12FVSS now comes with a two stage trigger, I may modify mine in the future. The single stage trigger isn't that great, but I have read testimonials of prairie dog kills at 450 yards. That would be way better than me. The .223 in this weapon is almost recoil free.

I'm lovin' it.

This one is just for fun

If anyone had ever told me I would have five or six hundred dollars in a .22 rifle, I would have laughed in their face, and been wrong.

A few years ago I fell in love with the Ruger 10-22, along with almost everyone that has ever pulled the trigger on one. I was pilfering around a pawn shop in Fayetteville, and found a version with a .9 inch barrel and a scope already mounted. It was blued, and being the lazy dog that I am, I wanted stainless. I continued to search in all the usual places and eventually found one, $450 later it was mine. I added a 3 to 9 scope and later a Blazer thumb hole stock. Of course every 10-22 owner MUST have a collection of 25 to 50 round clips, and I do.

This is the Love of My Life's favorite rifle. We go to the range and shoot clay birds at 100 yards, then we shoot the pieces. Great fun, and inexpensive.

Gun Porn,,,,,well, maybe only to me

Shooters generally pick an area of interest and concentrate on that skill or type of fire arm. There are people like Tamara from the view from the porch who have a collectors eye, there are people like me who like to shoot about anything with a trigger.

Even though I am a pistol coach, I like long range work and play. I am not equipped to do bench rest shooting, nor do I have the time. I love to hunt, but paper is good too.

My favorite deer rifle is over a hundred years old, but has been "up dated" somewhat. The rifle is a Krag Jorgenson 6.5x55 1896 Mauser, manufactured in Sweden, under licence from Mauser Werk in Germany.

I bought it on sale at a local variety store for $55, and it went up from there. I located a local gunsmith who would remove the iron sights, drill and tap for scope mounts, mount the scope bore sight, spot blue, install a sporter safety and turn down the bolt handle, for $70. I provided him with a synthetic stock, and came home with a fair looking rifle, with a creepy trigger and a slightly patchy finish. I talked over the trigger and finish with the gunsmith and arranged a custom trigger and a black parkerized finish, for $105.

I had reached the point that I was done spending on a project gun, because the next change would put me into the bracket of a carry out custom weapon.

The ammo is readily available from Remington and Winchester, as well as some military and import suppliers. The original round fired a 140gr bullet at about 2700 fps, most factory loads stick fairly close to that figure for pressure reasons.

The scope is a Simmons 3 to 9, yes, I know that's an inexpensive scope, but it works. Most hunting shots come well under two hundred fifty yards, and I have other possibilities if the conditions require it. The 140gr bullet wouldn't have the retained energy I want at a longer range.

This combination is a great hunting weapon for several reasons. It is relatively inexpensive to shoot, the recoil is low, and the long projectile makes it stable and accurate. As I have stated else where, the only way to shoot good, is to shoot a lot. If your gun hurts when you pull the trigger, you won't subject your self to it as much.

I have killed one deer with this weapon, one shot at 125 yds, knocked a chunk of lung out on the ground about the size of my fist. Dinner didn't live fifteen seconds. As a point of interest, a lot of Scandinavians hunt Moose with a 6.5X55. I agree with Robert Rourke, however and believe in using enough gun. That's defined as slightly more than necessary in any case.