A story that should interest you, though long......................by MY best friend Bob Turner (now deceased) that I accompanied to the Missoula matches.
A Look over my Shoulder into the Past Century
Or
How the 6BR came to Missoula, Montana 1K Matches
First, and most importantly, this is not a story about what I accomplished or what an expert I feel I am. Rather, it is a history of some events that need to be recorded somewhere and this seems to be the place. My only accomplishments were to seek out special people, follow their counsel and see what would happen.
If my efforts contributed to the acceptance of the 6BR as a capable 1000 yard gun, I am pleased.
In the mid 1990’s I was campaigning a 40X-BR in 222 Magnum in matches in Tacoma and Portland. I did not want to shoot a PPC. Don’t ask why, I always liked Corvairs as well.
But the deuce was no match for the PPCs and I was no match for people such as Steve Kostinach and Del Bishop. 4th or 5th place seemed to be where I usually ended up.
Then in 1996 things took a turn. I attended the SHOT Show in Las Vegas and met some most interesting experts. The first was Roger Johnson of NECO. If there ever was a man with a vision and a mission, it was Roger. He was working closely with Norma on the 6BR with moly coating as the answer to 300 yard competition.
I ordered the NECO moly kit on the spot. He really impressed me. I asked if he thought the BR could really compete with the PPCs in 100/200 competition. After some thought he felt that if you used a heavier bullet, coated it with moly, tipped the powder can to match the PPC velocity and were blessed with a little wind, you could be very competitive.
He grabed Walt Berger as he walked by and brought him into the conversation. Walt agreed somewhat and suggested the 80 grain Berger FB (Moly of course) in a 12 twist.
I decided on the spot to follow their suggestions to the letter (almost).
Going back to the floor, I met someone else who had an impact on both my son (Robert Justin Turner) and myself. Bill Shehane was showing a curly barreled 6/284 and I stopped to thank him for a gift he never knew he gave. Bill’s articles in Precision Shooting had motivated Robert Justin to order up a build of a 6/284 for long distance work.
It was on a Hall M action and had the heaviest barrel I had ever seen on a benchrest gun. Some of the fellows at the Portland club had nicknamed RJ Bob the Nailer since when he was relatively small he took the recoil from my 700P in 308 without ever blinking. Consequently, a secret call to the stock painter got the rifle properly named.
Then on September 11, 1995 everything changed. Justin had a heart defect that we were unaware of and he was gone. Later the rifle arrived and was placed in the gun safe.
I told Bill this story and how Justin had devoured all the information Bill outlined and was so eager to receive the rifle. Bill thought for a moment and said “Put a scope on that gun and go shoot it. It is what the boy would have wanted. GO RACING.”
It is impolite for someone to cause a grown man to cry in the middle of a gun show but that is exactly what Bill did.
On the plane ride home I knew I had two missions. A call to Glen Harrison at Nesika got a Model J action on order. This was when Glen was farming out most of the fabrication to specialty shops in the Seattle area and the quality and fit of the actions was exceptional. Jim Borden later added the final touches but this one was a dandy. Dave Kiff provided the reamer to Norma specifications and Shilen sent light and heavy varmint barrels.
The scope was more of an issue. I tried a Mark 4 16X which just did not suit me as the power was less than I needed. I learned that Jeff Huber had opened a small facility for some outfit called Nightforce in Kent WA so I followed his advice and came home with a 12X42 BR which was probably one of the first in the US.
It had the ranging reticule which I found to be too busy. After a couple of weeks, I went back and asked Jeff what could be done. He went into the back room and came back with the double dot model. We exchanged at no charge. Amazing! I never since that day ever purchased any other brand of scope other than Nightforce.
Load development followed and it appeared that the big red gun would shoot pretty consistently in the high 2’s or low 3’s. It liked 107 SMKs 15 thousands off and a rather healthy charge of H4831. The only problem was that it was too heavy for normal benchrest and not quite good enough to run with the rail gun boys.
What to do? Bill said “Go Racing” but what and where?
I discovered the Missoula 1000 yard club was holding 1K matches and decided to go try things out. I had never shot the rifle past 400 yards but dialed in the adjustments from the Sierra ballistics program and thought I might be able to get on paper. The first match was scheduled for Challis, Idaho as forest fires were a real issue at the Deep Creek range in Missoula.
Arriving in the afternoon at the range I found no one there and no targets. Well, at least I would not have an audience. I did have a large PostIt note that I stuck on the backer and settled in to see what would happen. Amazingly, 4 holes in the yellow paper and one just off a bit. Robert Justin’s rifle worked.
Match day: I got some looks from the boys. Who was the city dude with the fancy rifle and why is he here? An old codger named Duane Capeheart stood up just before the first relay and loudly asked “which one of you SOBs is shooting for second place?
I replied: That would be you sir.
That broke the ice. More on Duane later. Stay tuned.
In the first relay I shot a 6 inch 10 shot group that was the smallest group to date for the club. Now I had friends if not admirers.
I used the 6/284 for the remainder of that year and rebarreled to a 6.5/284 the following and had a 6 match aggregate of 8.426 and a score agg of 95.7. That’s nothing these days but then it was pretty fair.
Finally the 6BR was finished and it was time to go back to point blank benchrest. I had deviated from the expert advice and had Shilens cut in a 13 twist. I reasoned that if I was at PPC velocities the twist would be sufficient to stablize with less bullet stress.
It seemed to work. I was now finishing in second or third and grabbing some small group plaques. It was especially deadly at 200 with some wind involved. No firsts – there was still the Kostanich/Bishop factor.
My best friend, Mark VanBeek started to join me on trips to Montana and we talked about rifles for 700 miles every trip. I was lamenting that I did not seem to be able to break the 6 inch barrier with the red gun no matter what I tried. He suggest that since the BR was shooting in the high ones and low twos, I should try it at 1000 yards. That might tell me something about my ability as well as that of the red gun.
Actually, I think he just liked making me spend money. Regardless, off went an order to Shilen for an 8 twist that would make weight in the eleven pound class which the Montana boys favored for their hunting rifles. It came quickly and things were ready to go for the next season.
It is my belief that this was the first 6BR ever used in a sanctioned 11 pound 1K match but I might have missed something. Input welcomed.
I could hardly wait for Capeheart to see this bright orange Tennessee Volunteer BR with Bob the Nailer’s Dad painted on the stock”.
It shot but demanded close attention to wind doping. I never mastered the art of running shots as quickly as possible and was always concerned in missing a change in conditions while concentrating on pure speed. So I became a “picker”. Sometimes I used the entire 10 or 15 minutes of a relay to get off 10 shots. I am sure that annoyed some of the boys but I figured that if they were upset it might adversely affect their concentration and shooting. Old people need every advantage possible.
As I recall, the backers at Missoula were about 5 feet square. The conditions there in the morning were a fairly strong push from the left as cool air drifted down from a high ridge. Later in the day, the push came from the right. I always zeroed center bull with the right push and learned to hold at the extreme upper corner of the backer. That first shot holding off that far was surely hard to trip the trigger on but the push put them in the black.
Mark had his BR up and running and we were quite successful that year despite his refusal to use moly. It was a good year with Mark usually taking score and me lucky enough to grab group.
Little did we know that sharing our information and experience with the boys would lead to our demise. Letting Kyle Brown in on the secret of H4895 caused my group record to be eclipsed at Whitefish, Montana (another forest fire in Missoula caused a relocation). At least Kyle credited Mark and I for our sharing data in his comments on 6BRmm.com which we appreciated. I liked having the record better however!
Then Richard Schatz came up with the Dasher concept and the extra 150 – 200 fps MV showed. Capeheart, Bill Martin, Jim Barta and Leo Anderson (The Ultimate Predator) all had BRs and Dashers and I knew I was done for. Those guys could shoot and knew the range conditions down to the finest degree.
I decided that the 2002 season would be it for me. I had reached my level of skill and blind luck.
I asked my new wife and partner, Claudia Turner, if she would shoot with me in the championship and she agreed to give it a whirl. Claudie grew up in East Berlin and escaped under the concertina wire as a 14 year old. The only thing she knew about rifles was that the East German stanzi used them to shoot potential escapees.
She had never touched a weapon until that morning. I went through the basics of handling the rifle and talked about shooting in the conditions. Watch the flags, the mirage, the boil and pick your condition and then adjust the scope accordingly and you will be fine. Bill Martin added some gentle encouragement and we got her to the relay.
Claudie was the first woman to shoot in a match at Missoula and we got some askance looks as I was coaching her at the line.
Capeheart to the rescue: She’s too cute not to let her shoot”
10 shots later a call from the pits:
Claudia put all 10 in the black.
She stood up, said “I just did what I was told and touched the trigger with my little finger. What’s so special?
A natural shooter with no bad habits or male ego.
I took the 11 pound championship that year with the BR and felt my race was run.
We retired to Tennessee and began breeding and raising horses for dressage and jumping competitions. We do not shoot much any more as the horses keep us rather busy.
But we had our time and maybe in some small way contributed to the acceptance of the 6BR as a capable 1K cartridge. We will leave it at that and let young people like “James Phillips show the old people how it is done. But it was a helluva ride.
