My new benchrest rifle...

Wilbur said:
I'm not asking you to do this to see if the unturned cases shoot better but rather if they shoot as good. We've turned cases for a long time and I'm curious if it's necessary.
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Wilbur,

I think if they shoot as well, there would be something I am doing wrong. The only reason we have tight necks and turn cases is to insure that the bullet is pointing straight down the barrel, ie: the axis of the bullet is exactly concentric with the axis of the bore. If it's not, the bullet is going to be starting down the bore a tad cockeyed and will almost certainly be slightly wobbly when it leaves the barrel... that can't be good.

I've scored a gazillian BR targets and I can tell how well a rifle is set-up by the size of the bullet hole. You should be able to stick a scoring plug in a (one bullet) hole and it should be tight enough to lift the paper. A gun with cartridges that have runout between case and bullets will have bigger holes in the target... in some cases even a bit egg shaped. You gotta throw perfect spirals. That's why I like to shoot the bullets loaded to a hard jam. My theory is that cramming the bullet into the lands will have a tendency to hold them pointing straighter down the bore if they weren't loaded super straight to start with. This pre-supposes brass, fired at least three times, that really fits your chamber.

Dick
 
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I will explain why I had Kip chamber the gun with a minimum factory chamber... If I were going to keep it forever, I would have had Dwight chamber it with a tight-neck BR chamber. (See above.) However, at my age, if something happens to me some relative would get the gun, none of whom have a clue re: tight-necks, etc. Since I don't want the son blowing himself up with factory ammo crammed into a tight chamber, I went factory but with the smallest neck that is within SAAMI specs.

As close as I can tell, after miking fired rounds, the brass neck will expand about .004" when fired rather than the .001" I like in a bench gun. This will mean shorter case life as the brass work hardens and, eventually, cracks from shooting. That's one reason for the Match Lapua which, to me, is the best brass I can get.
 
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Well...if you're thinking is like that, there's no way the unturned cases will shoot as well as those turned.
 
Yeah... that's my thinking. Ya gotta ask yourself... we don't use tight chambers and turn the brass jist cause we like to neck turn.

However, I've been wrong so many times...
 


Look what I've got. My friend, Jimmy Carpenter, sent me some of his 52 gr. .22 bullets to try in the Ruger. Here they are, freshly moly coated and ready to be loaded.
 
Al Nyhus said:
Very nice craftsmanship. Something about a well done #1 makes me smile....:cool: -Al
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Me too, Al. There was a time when people actually shot their varmint rifles in BR matches... lots of falling block single shots with Unertls. I've always had a warm spot in
my heart for them.

Many, many years ago, when I was just out of school, I wandered into a gun shop in Saginaw. The clerks knew me cause I hung around a lot. Anyway, I walked in and one of the guys said, "Come here, kid... I got a gun for you. I'll sell it to you for our cost." They had a brand new No. 1 that they had special ordered for a customer. It was a .222 and the customer had died whilst waiting for his gun. They were willing to sell it to me for their cost ($200.00). At that time I was in my early twentys and perpetually broke. I don't know where I got the money but I took it home with me that day. That gun was very accurate even with my handloads of the day. It had a four-digit serial number and would have been worth a lot today had I kept it.
 
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Dick, that is a very nice Rifle, exhibiting a degree of Craftsmanship that is often lost on many of us, myself included. I think we often get caught up in concentrating on pure function and loose sight of the artistic value of projects such as this.

It's almost like a painting by a great artist. The single purpose it serves is to add beauty to the world, and to be admired.

By the way. I have the '67 Chevelle Malibu, not a 3 Window Coupe. Lee Martin has that super cool Coupe with the Nail Head.
 
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Oops! Thanks! Love that coupe. Back in the 50's I spent a lot of time cruising State St. in Saginaw with my own Ford... nothing like Lee's.

I don't expect to win a lot with the Ruger but it won't be for lack of trying. Old age and health issues make serious competition difficult nowdays. However, we have quite a few matches locally, within an hour or two, to keep me busy this summer. We shoot Factory Class and I might be kind of competitive... The gun shot amazingly well when I test shot it last summer. We'll see...

Right now it's still in Colorado. I need it back and I need a FL size die from Neil Jones. Hopefully will get both quite soon. Our first match is the 22nd April. I have everything else and, thank God, a 100 yd. range just outside my office door. If we get some decent shooting weather (This is Michigan.) I just might make the first match and be halfway prepared.

If I don't win anything it will still be fun to look at the gun.
 
Still haven't got the gun back... The checkering is done and now Charlie has to rust blue it and put it back together. He said probably this week. That would give me a week to do load work-up before our match on the 22nd. Charlie fired a few cases in the gun and sent them to Neil Jones so he could do the FL die. Neil wasn't super happy to do it so quickly (He's busy) but we're old friends of forty years and he said he will get it to me.

Really hoping for nice weather for the match and so I can do the shooting I have to do first.
 
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It shot very well last summer when I test fired it in the pattern stocks. I'm crossing my fingers now, hoping it does as well now that it has the new stocks.

The riflesmith that's checkering and bluing it for me (Charles Grace) is one of the founding members of the American Custom Gunmakers Guild and also a past president of same. He's an old friend of forty some years and is doing me a big favor in finishing it up for me. It's kind of funny... Charlie likes this gun and he is repairing my mistakes. He said he's not shipping it till he's satisfied that it's perfect. He doesn't want anyone else screwing it up. (Meaning me.)

I think I'm not bad as a stockmaker but nowhere near as good as Charlie. I'm really looking forward to seeing what I get back. I think it's probably going to be a work of art. There will be lots of pics.

Dick
 


FWIW... I have this to shoot in matches whilst I wait to get the .222 done. Borrowed from a friend, this was smithed by L.E. Wilson for himself and stocked by Tom Shelhamer. It's a .220 Wilson Arrow. To me this represents an important piece of our benchrest history... By Wilson, outa Shelhamer... it doesn't get much better than this.

I shot this a bit years ago and it was amazingly accurate, easily averaging 1/4" 100 yd. groups on my range. This is better than these guns shot in the day but, I'm quite sure they did not have bullets of the quality that we have today. (Hear that, Bart?)

It shoots a 52 gr. BR bullet at 3900 fps. and that really isn't a hot load. Should we get a really windy day for a match this summer, I'm gonna get this out and see what it does against the PPC's.

(Alas, I know what a .222 does against PPC's in a hard wind.)

Dick
 
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The work is completed. Chuck Grace sent me this and said the gun will be assembled and sent out Monday, the 5th.
 
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