tonykharper
Well-known member
The Bill Calfee I knew (part 6)
Bill lived alone for a great portion of his life and that caused him to become super focused on things that interested him.
He had many interests. He loved classical music, drawing, painting, but his primary interest was Rimfire Benchrest rifles and pistols.
He was the undisputed master of building these pistols and rifles and he came up with many of the ideas that have become our current format for our rifles today.
When RFBR started there were all kinds of contraptions used. It was such a treat to see what guys had come up with.
There were many rail guns, many different ways to hold the barreled action other than what we would think of as a rifle stock.
Some looked quite spooky. We had mid mounted barrel blocks, action blocks, about everything you can think of.
Many guys were building their own equipment and many had very creative ideas.
I recall seeing an action where you had to remove the bolt to reload because there was no port opening.
Bill Calfee created the modern IR 50/50 sporter when he came up with his reverse tapered knot ended barrel profile. He back bored the knot end so as to have weight out beyond the end of the crown.
Many argue today that the tuner can be behind the crown and still work.
I will not go into that argument, but I will say every successful IR 50/50 sporter ever shot had the weight beyond the crown. I’ll put up some pics.
The tuning was done by how much you back bored the knot or how much weight was removed from the knot.
Many still argue that you have to adjust the tuner with each ammo/lot number you shoot.
That is not possible with Sporters and there have been many that their owners thought were just as accurate as heavy rifles.
This is not an attempt to brag but it is what I believe to be true.
Tack Driver Junior (TDJ) (my sporter) has accounted for more RFBR Hall of Fame points than any rifle in the history of the sport.
Bill was very proud of TDJ. Nearly as much as I am.
When I went to Bill’s to pick the rifle up, I could tell he was excited. He wanted me to go to the range and shoot it. I followed Bill to the range, and we shot it.
It was unbelievable. If you pointed it right, there was no missing. This rifle is still like that today. It still wears the original barrel and as of last year TDJ is still setting IR 50/50 records.
I shot the first 500-point Sporter 10-Shot agg. with TDJ four years ago. I never thought it would be equaled or beaten but last year I broke that record with a 532.
If you haven’t shot IR 50/50 10-shot, you can’t really appreciate those scores but if you have you understand. IR 50/50 Sporter 10-shot is the most difficult and demanding RFBR discipline I know of.
I have yet another Calfee rifle that has been very successful. Tack Driver got me started and with it I was able to win everything I set as a goal.
There was a time that I thought I was done because there was nothing left to prove.
But that changed because of an experimental rifle Bill built for me.
This rifle was named Tack Driver Experimental (TDX). TDX is built on a 10-X 111 action.
The bolt has the early style plunger ejector and extractors.
Bill thought these were better than the current spring clips that are used on both Turbos and 2500Xs, and nearly all other rimfire benchrest quality actions.
I agree with Bill, they work better and have less trouble. It seems the spring clips came about because they are much simpler to make and have fewer moving parts. I’ll show pics below.
TDX was a test bed for all different types of experiments. It became that by accident.
When I received TDX I already had a few Calfee rifles so I knew what to expect. But this one threw me for a loop.
I shot this rifle, and I shot this rifle and nothing I did or any ammo I put in it worked. It just would not shoot.
This went on for about three months. I really didn’t want to tell Bill it would not shoot. But I finally did.
He told me to send it back. I did and he kept it for a month or more. When he sent it back it was a different rifle. It shot better but not as well as I thought it should. I asked Bill what he did to it all he would say is I worked on it.
He told me he wanted to try some different things with it and asked if I would mind bringing it back to Borden.
I made a few trips to Borden with the rifle and each time it seemed to get better and better. By the time he finished with it I thought it was the best rifle I had ever shot.
I made the mistake of telling Bill I thought TDX shot as well as Tack Driver. He then said “prove it”.
“Go win all the things Tack Driver has won.”
I guess that was the motivation I needed so I hit the road. I won an outdoor ARA National, an indoor ARA National and many PSLs and numerous ARA tournaments with TDX.
TDX was also my 10.5 lb rifle for shooting IR 50/50 three gun. I used it for both the 10.5 lb and 13.5 lb classes.
The last challenge I received from Bill was to catch Harry Deneen in the IR 50/50 Hall of Fame. Harry was so far ahead I thought it would take three years to catch him. And that was if I won all the matches I could attend.
Well, I was wrong. I had forgotten the points you earn for setting new records. I caught and passed Harry in one year.
This was done shooting TDJ and TDX.
None of any of this would have been possible without Bill pushing me along and providing me with the finest shooting equipment available in the world.
PS: This was done without the aid of an ammo sponsor.
If anyone is still reading, there is more to come.
TKH
Bill lived alone for a great portion of his life and that caused him to become super focused on things that interested him.
He had many interests. He loved classical music, drawing, painting, but his primary interest was Rimfire Benchrest rifles and pistols.
He was the undisputed master of building these pistols and rifles and he came up with many of the ideas that have become our current format for our rifles today.
When RFBR started there were all kinds of contraptions used. It was such a treat to see what guys had come up with.
There were many rail guns, many different ways to hold the barreled action other than what we would think of as a rifle stock.
Some looked quite spooky. We had mid mounted barrel blocks, action blocks, about everything you can think of.
Many guys were building their own equipment and many had very creative ideas.
I recall seeing an action where you had to remove the bolt to reload because there was no port opening.
Bill Calfee created the modern IR 50/50 sporter when he came up with his reverse tapered knot ended barrel profile. He back bored the knot end so as to have weight out beyond the end of the crown.
Many argue today that the tuner can be behind the crown and still work.
I will not go into that argument, but I will say every successful IR 50/50 sporter ever shot had the weight beyond the crown. I’ll put up some pics.
The tuning was done by how much you back bored the knot or how much weight was removed from the knot.
Many still argue that you have to adjust the tuner with each ammo/lot number you shoot.
That is not possible with Sporters and there have been many that their owners thought were just as accurate as heavy rifles.
This is not an attempt to brag but it is what I believe to be true.
Tack Driver Junior (TDJ) (my sporter) has accounted for more RFBR Hall of Fame points than any rifle in the history of the sport.
Bill was very proud of TDJ. Nearly as much as I am.
When I went to Bill’s to pick the rifle up, I could tell he was excited. He wanted me to go to the range and shoot it. I followed Bill to the range, and we shot it.
It was unbelievable. If you pointed it right, there was no missing. This rifle is still like that today. It still wears the original barrel and as of last year TDJ is still setting IR 50/50 records.
I shot the first 500-point Sporter 10-Shot agg. with TDJ four years ago. I never thought it would be equaled or beaten but last year I broke that record with a 532.
If you haven’t shot IR 50/50 10-shot, you can’t really appreciate those scores but if you have you understand. IR 50/50 Sporter 10-shot is the most difficult and demanding RFBR discipline I know of.
I have yet another Calfee rifle that has been very successful. Tack Driver got me started and with it I was able to win everything I set as a goal.
There was a time that I thought I was done because there was nothing left to prove.
But that changed because of an experimental rifle Bill built for me.
This rifle was named Tack Driver Experimental (TDX). TDX is built on a 10-X 111 action.
The bolt has the early style plunger ejector and extractors.
Bill thought these were better than the current spring clips that are used on both Turbos and 2500Xs, and nearly all other rimfire benchrest quality actions.
I agree with Bill, they work better and have less trouble. It seems the spring clips came about because they are much simpler to make and have fewer moving parts. I’ll show pics below.
TDX was a test bed for all different types of experiments. It became that by accident.
When I received TDX I already had a few Calfee rifles so I knew what to expect. But this one threw me for a loop.
I shot this rifle, and I shot this rifle and nothing I did or any ammo I put in it worked. It just would not shoot.
This went on for about three months. I really didn’t want to tell Bill it would not shoot. But I finally did.
He told me to send it back. I did and he kept it for a month or more. When he sent it back it was a different rifle. It shot better but not as well as I thought it should. I asked Bill what he did to it all he would say is I worked on it.
He told me he wanted to try some different things with it and asked if I would mind bringing it back to Borden.
I made a few trips to Borden with the rifle and each time it seemed to get better and better. By the time he finished with it I thought it was the best rifle I had ever shot.
I made the mistake of telling Bill I thought TDX shot as well as Tack Driver. He then said “prove it”.
“Go win all the things Tack Driver has won.”
I guess that was the motivation I needed so I hit the road. I won an outdoor ARA National, an indoor ARA National and many PSLs and numerous ARA tournaments with TDX.
TDX was also my 10.5 lb rifle for shooting IR 50/50 three gun. I used it for both the 10.5 lb and 13.5 lb classes.
The last challenge I received from Bill was to catch Harry Deneen in the IR 50/50 Hall of Fame. Harry was so far ahead I thought it would take three years to catch him. And that was if I won all the matches I could attend.
Well, I was wrong. I had forgotten the points you earn for setting new records. I caught and passed Harry in one year.
This was done shooting TDJ and TDX.
None of any of this would have been possible without Bill pushing me along and providing me with the finest shooting equipment available in the world.
PS: This was done without the aid of an ammo sponsor.
If anyone is still reading, there is more to come.
TKH
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