Calfee at 1977 Super Shoot #5, down memory lane...

[Don]

.............here is a couple pages from the PS August 1977 article describing Bill Calfees participation.

Notable factoids of the article describing SS #5:

-186 shooters for LV.

-251 shooters for HV, pretty good participation for just the 5th year. I am surprised there are so many more competitors for the HV than LV.

-Calfee uses a 6x47/35, Rem. xp-100, 31.5gr 748, while 25 percent of top 20 are using 6ppc and a few custom actions. Pretty stiff load, didnt know you could get that much powder in one of those cases. I wonder if that xp-100 action was eventually turned into a rimfire competition gun?

-One teen aggregate of .1994 was shot by a fellow named Harold Morgan, using a .222, Rem 722. Not bad for 1977.

I am sure that Bill must of had the time of his life rubbing elbows with Seely Masker, Ferris Pindell, Walt Berger, Fred Sinclair, and many others who were pioneers of modern centerfire benchrest. I will bet that Bill could write one heck of an article about his trip from Indiana to Marshallville, Ohio and participation in SS #5. Wonder if he camped on Lima bean hill, loaded in the "barn" (if it was there in '77), had a good country breakfast in Canal Fulton?......................Don

 

[JerrySharrett]

Pretty good aggs...for the times. Wasn't this era before wind flags were in common use?

Mr. Calfee placed ahead of some really top drawer shooters didn't he? Just think of where he would be in the HOF count if he had stuck with centerfire.

On page 2, something that is coming back. Know what it is????

 

[Jim Borden]

1977 Was pre-barn

That shoot was definitely pre-barn. there was an old barn on the corner in front of the Stolle house in 1982. I think it was gone in 1983. There was a small grove of trees where the current barn sits. Lots of Loading and cleaning was done in the area of the current machine shop.

Jim

 

[Bill Gammon]

That as my first Super Shoot, (for those who care, EH!)

 

[JerrySharrett]

Jim and Bill, you guys have been at Kelblys so long your billboards should be in tatters!!! EH!!

 

[Pete in Surry]

Couldn't help but chuckle

Pretty good aggs...for the times. Wasn't this era before wind flags were in common use?

Mr. Calfee placed ahead of some really top drawer shooters didn't he? Just think of where he would be in the HOF count if he had stuck with centerfire.

On page 2, something that is coming back. Know what it is????

When I read "era before wind flags were in common use". How far have we come?

 

[Jim Borden]

Jerry

I can even remember a time when my friend Bill Gammon had "harassed" the young Jim Kelbly so much that his hat ended up hanging on a post between targets at 200 yards. Jimmy announced something like--"I think I see a red hat hanging on a post between targets XX and YY. You do realize if you happen to shoot at that hat-you will be off the paper and subject to a penalty--but gosh I see no stationary backer behind that hat."

the old red felt hat was a little more than tattered after that relay and as of 2 years ago I saw Bill still wearing it.

 

[Kathy]

Friend Don:

Friend Don:

Turned on my machine this morning and what a surprise! Thank you my firend......I have never seen that issue of Precision Shooting....

I would like to thank all you folks, Don, Wilbur for his forum, everyone......what an experience to be able to re-live one of the biggest experiences of my shooting life....after 31 years.....

Your friend, Bill Calfee

 

[JerrySharrett]

the old red felt hat was a little more than tattered after that relay and as of 2 years ago I saw Bill still wearing it.

Jim, wonder if we could get the target crew to hang that old red hat with a Cannuk head in it??
Or a red apple on the hat on the head on the Cannuk?
Would that make him William Tell Gammon EH??

 

[Don]

On page 2, something that is coming back. Know what it is????

I will take a stab at it, but I am sure that I will be wrong.........Don

1. Sako ppc brass

2. N-201 powder

3. Bluing stainless steel

4. Guns and Shooting Industry Magazine Trophy

 

[JerrySharrett]

And, and, and...

And look at the locked scopes, Lyman-Sie, Unertl-Sie, Leopold-Sie. ad nauseous.
Apparently scopes having POA shifts have always been a potential problem.

 

[Bill Gammon]

Jim, wonder if we could get the target crew to hang that old red hat with a Cannuk head in it??
Or a red apple on the hat on the head on the Cannuk?
Would that make him William Tell Gammon EH??

I am personally hurt by these remarks coming from people who I thought were my friends.

 

[Don]

And look at the locked scopes, Lyman-Sie, Unertl-Sie, Leopold-Sie. ad nauseous.
Apparently scopes having POA shifts have always been a potential problem.

I always figured those Siebert conversions were for power boost and/or fine crosshair/dot work.................Don

 

[JerrySharrett]

I always figured those Siebert conversions were for power boost and/or fine crosshair/dot work.................Don

Don, they were as you say, mostly power boosts. Lyman 20X to 32X, Leupold & Weaver 36x to 45 or 50, etc. Those shooters must have not been concerned as some now with POA shifts.

I just got off the phone to him and he is well and still doing scope work.

For anyone needing a scope boost, cross hair conversion,etc. you can call Wally Siebert @ 425 392 3567 .

 

[Dave Coots]

Kathy

Friend Don:

Turned on my machine this morning and what a surprise! Thank you my firend......I have never seen that issue of Precision Shooting....

I would like to thank all you folks, Don, Wilbur for his forum, everyone......what an experience to be able to re-live one of the biggest experiences of my shooting life....after 31 years.....

Your friend, Bill Calfee

Congratulations. Nothing better than seeing your name in print after 31` years i always say. Good shootin. There's not many people here giving you crap that have done better, and some ain't even been there.

Thanks to Don for the interesting post.

Dave

 

[Kathy]

Friend Dave Coots

Friend Dave:

Thank you my friend.....you know Dave, this thread will pass into history shortly and so will my 5 minutes of fame at the Super Shoot.....so I think I'll write a little more about that experience......thank you again Don for starting this thread and allowing me these reminiscences.......

When I started building centerfire benchrest rifles the 6x47 was king of the sporter.......early on I learned a bullet has to start in the barrel corrctly and has to come out the other end correctly if one wanted accuracy..

I designed a 6x47 case with a 35 degree shoulder and a two angle leade....

A friend of mine obtained a set of bullet dies that produced a .244" diameter 6MM bullet.....I believe it had about a 6 1/2 ogive.....don't hold me to that after all these years.....the BC of the bullet was not real good....flat base.

At that time I used Hart barrels and I ordered them as close to .243" groove diameter as they could make them.....I still have a new Hart, 243" diameter in my shop today from that time 30 years ago...

The diameter of my chamber neck was .263".......I turned the necks twice, the second cut ran down the neck just at the base of these bullets....with the bullet just kissing the leade....

I then fire formed them with a .243" diameter bullet. This fireforming caused a ledge to form inside the neck where the base of the bullet rested....

These cases were tough to make.....messed up a bunch...

Anyway, at the Super Shoot, the only loading tools I had were a de-capping pin, a little brass hammer, a Lee hand primer seater and a powder thrower.

I'd de-cap the cases, prime them, dump in a load of powder, then push the bullet, with my fingers, in the mouth of the case, till the base touched the ledge.........

What this caused was a certain amount of float....see, the bullet would purchase on the double angle leade and kinda self center.....

When I started the first warm-up, I was scared to death.....here I was at this biggest of all matches, all the awesome shooters, man.....for a dumb old hillbilly like me, man.....

Anyway, they said to start shooting....I remember I shot a couple of foulers, then started my warm-up....something very funny then happened....the bullets were going through the same hole......I had flags up of course but I forgot to look at them........to nervous....

That warm-up was a pretty good group....

After I got up from the bench, after that warm-up, something changed inside of me...I wasn't nervous anymore....Now, if that warm-up had been a dog of a group, I' don't know how I'd reacted.....

God, or something, whatever it is that, from time to time, takes pity on us dumb old Kentucky Hillbillys, allowed my first group to be very good, which took the fright away......

It was awesome, of course, to meet all the big time shooters.....

I got to know Skip Gordon as he smoked yellow box Merit cigarettes, as did I and John Boardman....

Skip was running around trying to get everything together for the awards and ran out of smokes.....we were loading close to the place where they handed out the awards....I saw Skip kept reaching in his shirt pocket for a smoke...I stepped up and offered him one. He thanked me....then in a few minutes I went up and gave him a new pack.......we became friends....funny how things happen.....

Oh, there's so many memories of that shoot for me.....as there is for others.

Thanks again Don....

Your friend, Bill Calfee

 

[Don]

Oh, there's so many memories of that shoot for me.....as there is for others.

Thanks again Don....

Your friend, Bill Calfee

Hi Bill,

Like you, my one and only SS adventure was probably the highlight of BR experiences.

Nothing like traveling across country from California to Ohio on an Amtrak train with 500 lbs of shooting gear in 2 rollaway carriers (pre-9/11); 2 dis-assembled guns, 10 pounds of gunpowder, bullets, cases, primers, cleaning stuff, all the reloading equipment, windflags, and clothing.

The rollaway carriers weighed 250 pounds a piece, and with 3 train transfers between the west coast and Ohio, the baggage porters came to hate me, so I had to do most of the transfering myself.

The highlight of the travel portion of the trip was pulling into Albacurque, NM, to be met by a handfull of DEA agents, with guns drawn and security dogs, in hot pursuit of a drug/cocaine smuggler, whom the DEA had been tipped off to by a disgruntled girlfriend. By-the-way, the guy got away, barefoot, by jumping from the 15 foot raised train station platform and sprinting/disappearing into downtown Albacurque..........none of DEA agents were willing to make the same jump and apparantly the dogs were only good for drug sniffing.

Needless to say I was sweating bullets when the DEA dogs spent 20 minutes sniffing around the baggage compartment, that all my stuff was in, looking for drugs, while I was praying that none of the dogs were crosstrained in explosives or nitrates. I guess they were not cause I made it Kelbleys without logging any jail time.

One of the more interesting shooting parts of this SS adventure was to meet and compete with Thom Bat of Bat Actions, who was at his first SS with a new prototype breach block gun, that he was going to use in the competition, and felt would be very competitive. Although Thom was a very experienced machinist at that time, he was very new to competitive benchrest, and it was interesting to watch a different kind of gun go against the traditional bolt actions, and then to see Thom go on a few years later to become one the pre-eminate bolt action builders in the BR arena.

Yes, I agree, the SS can be an intoxicating experience for so many different reasons.................................Don