Heavy Varmint ppc

S

skeetlee

Active member
This coming year will be my first year competing with the ppc at close range bench rest. I have my light varmint rig ready to compete. I just came across a good deal on a used BAT SV and a stock. I am thinking about having a heavy varmint class 6ppc put together. I guess what i would like to know is if most competitors shoot there light gun for the heavy gun class or do most shooters have dedicated heavy rigs (13.8#)? With the BAT sv action and a Bruno Mcmillan LV stock can i successfully build a heavy class rifle? I guess i would purchase a Hv barrel and may have to add a bit of weight to the butt-stock. Is this ok to do, or do i need a dedicated HV stock? I cant see were the stock is going to make that much difference, but i am entirely new to this so i thought i would ask before i do anything. I was hoping to learn a little something from this post, so if you have some ideas, or opinions i would really appreciate that! Thank you very much! Lee
 
Skeet

Sad to say but the day of a dedicated HV is near done. I see no advantage in adding 3 lb to a Sporter to shoot HV. The extra weight usually in the butt throws off the balance of a nice Sporter. Shoot the gun as a Sporter in HV. Very few have a dedicated Sporter that they dump to shoot a HV. Two that come to mind that have a better HV than a Sporter are Tony Boyer and Dennis Thornberry. I have a dedicated HV and do shoot it well. But I could live without it.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
so it is a bad idea to add weight to a LV stock even with a HV barrel? I really do not know. Just looking for solid advise, and opinions. thanks Lee
 
HV Gun

If you are going to build a true HV go with an HV stock. The extra ounces will balance out your gun. If you are wanting a 13 1/2 lb gun what is not in the barrel will have to be added to the stock. A balanced BR gun is key. I would rather have the weight in the stock than in the barrel. A 23" barrel HV taper is plenty.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
Lee'
Get yourself a good Sporter or Light Gun (6ppc) and several barrels. If you learn to shoot with that 1 gun you will be ahead by far! I see a number of shooters doing very well with a light or sporter gun,then they switch to thier heavy gun and do terrible and ruin a good agg., they had going because their light or sporter was shooting extremely well. This is a hard lesson to learn, I usually leave my heavy gun gun home so I don't have to wrestle with the decision to switch guns. Just my opion and may not be popular but if your just starting it may be the best advice.
 
Most shooters end up with two sporters and no HV. You don't get to shoot very many HV matches in a year. Get someone to add a weight system for about 1 1/2 lbs to the stock, and a 23" 1.25 barrel to your sporter and you will have about a 12 1/2 to 13 lb gun, and never will miss that last 1/2 lb. I have a two piece brass weight that clamps to the Stolle one piece base on all of my guns. This weighs about 1 lb, and I use a weight system in the stock (1 to 1 1/2 lbs depending on which gun). This means that I always use the sporter barrel and not fool with a different barrel. See old issue of Precision Shooting for a story on the brass weigh. Must be over 15 years ago that I wrote the article about it.
I have a HV that got built by mistake. It is a Bat 3L Multiflat (heavy), and a Robertsen stock that had a bad gelcoat. I had the stock painted and bedded
on top of the gelcoat (heavy). I also switched to the new Leupold 30mm scope
(heavy), and I ended up with a 1.2" dia. 4 1/2 lb barrel that was 18" long.
Not a happy camper.
Also as long as you keep the weight distributed between stock and barrel there
won't be a balance problem.
 
Lee, I shoot my LV 10.5 rifle for everything. If you go to a match and look at what people are shooting with, you will find out most people shoot LV for everything also. Why complicate things.

When I put the weights in for HV after just shooting LV, it messed up my whole game. So I just dont shoot HV anymore with a weight system. I use LV for everything.

But what works for me, might not work for you.
 
HV-LV-Sporter

Its not diffycult to see that when lot of people go to a competition that has Sporter- LV- HV format and shoot the same rifle in all classes, same load and same barrel, that there might be something seriously wrong with the classification. If this is the case then why bother with all those classes ? Of course most people will see that LV-Sporter is basically the same class and almost always shot with the same rifle. Why not change the Sporter to .25 cal or larger ? It would boost up production of good match bullets in .25cal.
 
Build two LV/Sporter so you will have a backup. If your actions are SV's, S or SB send the bolts off to a gunsmith and have the firing pin mod done.

Hovis
 
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If you want to have two guns, build two sporters (or LV's) so you can have a backup or use one for 200 and the other for 100. If that sounds boring, then build one sporter and use your other action for a rail gun. Then you'll have all the bases covered no matter what match you go to.

But beware the man with one rifle! He likely knows how to use it.
 
Goodgrouper

In the Gulf Coast region there were 3 LV-HV matches, 2 LV-SP matches, and
2 UL-HV matches last year. Most shooters chose to not shoot the UL matches, so does it make sense to have a HV gun for 3 days of shooting a year?
 
rparker said:
Goodgrouper

In the Gulf Coast region there were 3 LV-HV matches, 2 LV-SP matches, and
2 UL-HV matches last year. Most shooters chose to not shoot the UL matches, so does it make sense to have a HV gun for 3 days of shooting a year?
Click to expand...

Well, to me, it doesn't make much sense to build any guns at all just to shoot one region anyway. But that's just me!;)
 
Very interesting fellas! I appreciate the info very much! I take it that the BAT SV will have a larger firing pin? I didnt no that. IS the ppc prone to primer problems? I would assume so, with the kind of pressure the ppc runs at. I will have to have my smith modify it i guess.
I will most likely build another LV. They will have the same style of stocks so i will just use one for club level matches and one for bigger shoots. That sounds good i guess??!! I just couldnt pass on the BAT SV i found. Way to good of a deal!! Yesterday I had a nice gentleman sell me a LV stock for a fair price, so i am getting there. I have always wanted a BAT action, so now i have one, or will have one soon. I hope its all i ever wanted. I am a little shocked by the firing pin situation. You would think it would be just as simple to make them all small, that way there never would be an issue. You dont really need a bigger pin for any other chambering do ya? Im learning, and i know i ask a lot of questions, but this interest me more than anything has in a long while. I really appreciate the help, i really do!!!! This is a great site and i enjoy it very much! Thank you!! Lee
 
Keep in mind

When you build that HV, you won't change when the time comes unless it shoots better....and it might have still shot better as a LV.

LV aggs are as good or better than HV aggs but don't take my word for it - go look.
 
Good Grouper

True, HV is one of the more common classes, but from what I see at Matches, (including the Nationals), the majority of Shooters are shooting a Sporter...........jackie
 
jackie schmidt said:
True, HV is one of the more common classes, but from what I see at Matches, (including the Nationals), the majority of Shooters are shooting a Sporter...........jackie
Click to expand...

That's true, including me. But the comment was that there weren't many HV classes shot. At least, that's how I took it.
 
Shooters Travel Outside Their Region

BR shooters travel allot. From Gulf Coast Region you have at least 4 Regions to fill your weekends. That means allot of LV/HV Shooting and a 3 Gun and 4 Gun in each region. So HV Class is common but not so many HV guns being used in the HV Class.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
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