SHOT Show 2011

Well we're hoping to go to SHOT show again this year.  Scheduling may be a problem, but I think I have it worked out.  As Newbees to the show last year it was quite overwhelming.

The convention hall (from all accounts) took a degree in cartography to figure out.  The number of exhibitors was mind blowing and the canky staff at the convention yelled at us every time the cheap badge holders got turned around.  We even had one employee of the hotel ask us if we were old enough to be there.  I should have told she missed my age by well over a decade, but I thought better of it.  I don't need to be giving the wrong idea about gun owners.

This year should go much more smoothly.  Having the hind sight we do, there will be a better plan and a more organized treading of the halls.  Also planned is a better report on cool products, old and new, via the blog.  It should be a good year.

-Steven Kipp

Annual Fathers Day Shoot...On the 4th of July

As it turns out our 4 Annual Fathers Day Shoot was held on the 4th of July weekend this go around.  We met up here in Wyoming and we had a blast...literally.  Both Brad and I focused highly on some long range shooting of soda bottles and cans.  We used both the 1L and 2L bottles as well as some orange soda cans. (Orange is easy to see, easy to see explode and cheap)  We used my Savage .308 Win and we were pleasantly surprised at how well we did.  The rifle, as always, never let us down.  I love that rifle, and Brad seems to be after one of the same model.

All targets were between 400 and 450 yards and we were hitting consistently, and were able to hit several with only one shot.  We not only worked on shooting the targets but communicating between the spotter and the shooter.

Both of us found that that as the day wore on, it became more difficult for us to hit the targets.  I think this may be due to fatigue: eye strain and possibly some lapsing into bad form.

Overall the mission was accomplished, we had fun, worked on our skills and converted a good amount of gunpowder into noise.

-Steven Kipp

Prairie Dog Practice

I went out yesterday to practice my skills on some prairie dogs.  It didn't turn out to well for them, with little help from me.  I took out my 308 and wasn't able to hit anything.  We were shooting at anywhere between 100 and 400 yards.  Odd thing was that with a .204 my brother-in-law brought I smoked a couple of them with relative ease.  I have decidied that three things need to be changed:

1) I need to do a better job of holding the rifle still, this was a major problem with the wind and lack of usable natural rests.

2) I need more practice.

3) I need to get a higher quality scope.  The one I have is good but I have reached it's limit when conditions get to be less than optimal.  It is a inexpensive scope so I expected to have this happen.

Of course the kicker is that I now also want a .204 for this type of thing.  It's a fun, flat little rifle and has very little recoil.  It's uses are limited however.  The projectile is too small to hunt any big game with, and in many cases the cartridge has too much power for small game.  For varmint control it is darn near perfect.

-Steven Kipp

To Bolt or not to Bolt

Generally when people think of long range accuracy they think of a bolt action rifle, and with good reason.  They have been and still are the most accurate rifles out there.  But here's a thought that was discussed quite thoroughly between myself and a friend:  He doesn't need a bolt gun yet for accuracy shooting.

I can see the confusion on your face, and yes, I understand the scope of blaspheme of which I have just committed.  Please, before the burning at the stake, let me explain myself.  He has an AR rifle in standard .223 Remington from Rock River.  He told me it is dead accurate at 500 yards, to which I replied that I knew because I was the one doing the shooting that day.  He is also a beginner to precision shooting, as most of his experience has been of the shoot the target until it falls down type.(Nothing against that, just a different type than what is usually discussed here.)  The rifle he has still shoots better than he does, (and probably me at this point) so here is my conclusion on the matter:

It seems that the practical decision here would be to practice with the semi auto rifle until longer range or more accuracy is needed.  No new gun to buy, relatively cheap ammo compared to .308 or 30-06, and as long as he can not pull the trigger too fast, good practice.

Now don't misunderstand me.  For him it might work a while until he finds something he wants or needs something more suited to the task.  Personally, I'm going to be shooting my long heavy slow bolt of a .308.  For some, there is no substitute.

-Steven Kipp

SHOT Show Products: March Rifle Scopes

I got a chance to look at the March line of rifle scopes at the 2010 SHOT Show.  These seem to be fantastic scopes.  Of course you get what you pay for.  It seems that the least expensive scope they offer is going retailing for $1820.  No, no, no not eighteen dollars and twenty cents, we're talking nearly two grand.

The salesman I talked to (Forgive me, but I did not get his card) said that they are hand made in Japan.  When I looked through one it was very, very clear.  I was also told that it could handle just about any caliber and they are tested mounted forward and backwards for 500 shoots each.  I have not used any of their products (I was actually a little afraid of handling it at that price) so I can't give you any first hand experience knowledge.

Looking through their catalog, they make a variety of very high power scopes.  One I found that was new for this year was an 8-80x56mm with a 34mm tube diameter.  There is also a 5-50x56mm scope.  These may go for well over $3500 each.  Most of their products run about 2k and are for tactical, hunting and long distance rifle shooting.

Most of the other stuff is pretty standard for scopes: 1/4 or 1/8 MOA adjustments, they all come with side focus turrets, and you can get accessories like a large turret wheel or sun shade for an additional price.

Not actually have had the opportunity to try these I won't give a rating, but I thought it'd be worth mentioning on the blog.

-Steven Kipp

Return From SHOT Show

After my first SHOT show all I have to say is...wow.

We'll be posting here with all the cool new stuff I saw(some of it may only be new to me...but it's still cool).  Please forgive my delayed reaction, but some of us don't get to do this for a living and have real jobs that take up quite a bit of precious blogging time.

For now I just have to say we had a great time and meet some very cool people.

Also to follow is an official disclousre of anything that was given to us to accomidate stupid new laws...I'm sure you know the ones.

Also, the reloading series will continue shortly.

More Practice at 750 yards

On Sunday we went out to a buddy's house to have a friend shoot my Savage 308.  A group of four of us went and another friend brought his new tricked out 308.  It is a custom gun and he spent more on the scope alone than both of my rifles put together.  Needless to say it was a blast (figurtively and literally) to shoot.

                                      

We ended up putting some 2 liter bottles of discount soda out at 750 yards to shoot at with both .308s.  Even though all four of us were shooting at them Brad and I were the only ones able to get one.  Shooting that far and waiting for the bullet to get there long after you've pulled the trigger is quite a cool experience.  For us newbies it was the first time we had waited that long to see if we'd hit the target. The wait took some getting used to.

We ended up shooting the pop bottles with my stock Savage in the end.  Here is Jared on it, shooting at one of the pop bottles.

Here is Brad with the end result:

 

Going to SHOT show!

Badges and vacation time has been approved-5 Days PTO
Hotel reserved-$250
Drive to Vegas-12hrs, $200
Attending SHOT show for the first time - Priceless

Just wanted to let everyone out in blogland know that we'll bring all the cool stuff pertaining to Long Range and accuracy from SHOT show in Jan.

-Steven Kipp

Reloading Part 4: Inspecting

After cleaning is a great time to inspect all(and I do mean every single one) cases to make sure they'll be safe to fire.

Inspecting brass is one of the most important steps that you will do while reloading.

Inspecting brass is one of the most important steps that you will do while reloading.

That was so important it needed to be said twice. Remember that you are first setting off an explosion and then burning a highly flammable substance in an enclosed space between both of your hands and in very close proximity to your face with the intent to send a a very hard metal object flying away from you at up to speeds of up to 4000 fps which is about Mach 3.5 EVERY time you pull the trigger.

If you question whether a case is good or not throw it out. Do you want to bet your life on case that is worth a few cents? Remember how close to your face you'll be setting this off in the near future?

Things to look for:
-Cracking of the case -- look at the top and bottom (Shoulder and Rim)
-Excessive bulging of the case -- If the case is bulged it probably means a weak case and has reached its limit.
-Bright rings near bottom -- Also a sign of a weak case, discard it.
-separation of the rim from the rest of the case
-Dings, nicks, cracks or major deformation

These are just a few things to watch out for, remember if there is a question it is always good to try to find an answer, but don't shoot anything unless you are confident of it.

This is one of the most important steps for safety(there are a couple more). You can always buy more brass, more ammo and more tools. I haven't found a store to get another hand or eye yet.

When in doubt, chuck it.

-Steven Kipp

Airports and Firearms

While this post is also about pistols it can be applied to long guns as well.

Much to my wife's dismay I insisted on taking a handgun with me on our recent trip to carry concealed. She thought (and I thought so too) that taking it with us and flying would be a great big hassle.

It turns out that it was relatively painless.

Obviously it had to be checked. I placed the suitcase it was in on the check in counter and said "I need to declare a firearm." After that the person behind the counter instructed me on what to do, and all was well. Then taking it over the X-ray machine with the TSA personel, I told them "I have a firearm in the bag." The asked if it was unloaded, locked and declared. I said yes, as I had just done this at the counter. The TSA had me wait while the bag passed through so I could open the case if need be, but had no further problem.

So here's what you need if you want to take a firearm with on a trip that you'll be flying:
A) The Gun(s) must be in a hard sided case that cannot be easily pried open.
B) You need a lock on the case. It cannot be a small TSA approved lock, get a pad lock. You, and only you, keep the key to the lock.
C)THE GUN MUST BE UNLOADED -- make no mistake, check it, check it again, and look a third time. THE GUN MUST BE UNLOADED.
D)Ammo can be in the case, but again, not in the gun. It can, however be in the magazines provided it meets other restrictions. Ammo also must be either the manufactures original container or be completely encased--check the website for rules.
E)You can also have more than one gun in a case.

Check the TSA website and the Airline web site(s) to see the specific rules. Do not take these as the rules you need to pack by. Get, Read and Understand the actual rules. These were for informational purposes only, and are not complete.

One more disclaimer: Make sure where you are going allows what you are bringing. Each state is different and the rules change with the state (and sometimes city, county or regional) lines. If you are leaving the country, do your homework. I don't know much more than that about international travel.

Here's hoping you have a safe holiday season of travel.

-Steven Kipp

Reloading Part 3: Cleaning Brass

Cleaning the brass is a rather simple procedure. It requires a brass cleaner(either a vibrating or rotary cleaner), media and, of course the spent brass.

I throw my spent brass in the cleaner with the spent primers still in the casing. I've also tried this with the spent primer removed and the only difference I noticed was that the media needed to be cleaned out of the priming pocket if the primer is not left in there.

I'm using a Hornady vibratory brass cleaner with Lyman Turbo Tumbler media. I put about 3.5 lbs of media in with 100 casings of .270 WIN brass and turn it on for 4-6 hours. One note of safety is that I tend not to leave it running while I'm out of the house...better safe than sorry.

I've heard that that you can leave the brass in the cleaner longer if you want to have more of a shine on it. Personally I don't see a benefit to it. There are also several different kinds of media you can put in with your brass, depending on how pretty you want to make it. I've only tried this Lyman stuff, but it does work so I've kept with it.

Hopefully when you're done the brass should come out clean and ready to go.


-Steven Kipp

Reloading, Part 2: How to do it

When I started reloading, my first question was: "How do I take these four parts (case, bullet, powder and primer) and turn them into a usable round?" This is very important question because I didn't want to wing this. Remember, in using a firearm you are creating an explosion in very close proximity to your hands, face and other stuff you don't want to hurt. More importantly the explosion in wrapped in metal from the barrel and action. The only thing worse than being next to an explosion is having shrapnel fly at from point-blank range. The point is anyone reloading needs to know what they are doing. Let me repeat that: anyone reloading NEEDS to know what they are doing.

The best way to learn is to have someone show you how to do it. There is no substitute for hands-on experience. There are some good videos and books out there, but I would refer someone to these as additional material once they have learned what to do and how to do it safely. I will not try to teach anyone how to reload here on my blog, for safety reasons. Personally, I had my father-in-law teach me how. It was an enjoyable afternoon of manly bonding and I even scored some brownie points with my wife for it. There are a lot of up sides to reloading, besides cheaper ammo.

So find mom, dad, a friend, a relative, a friend of a relative, or the little old lady next door that packs the .44 mag to the grocery store and learn what, and what not to do. You might even make some new friends doing it.

-Steven Kipp

Reloading, Part 1: Do I have to?

I'm going to do a string of posts about reloading, and this first one is about the necessity of it and is it worth it.

First, the big question is: "Do I need to load my own ammo to shoot accuratly at long range?" I would say it is a definite no. Factory ammo is very good if you are willing to buy the good stuff, and in most things gun related you get what you pay for. It's probably not going to be the $20 a box stuff that works just fine for hunting. Of course, some calibers are more expensive than others. You can't shoot a 50 BMG for the same price as a 270 WIN if you go shot for shot.

Before you jump off this page to go look for reloading stuff, let me warn you reloading is not cheap to set up. I'm sure we've all heard that reloading is cheaper than buying factory ammo. If you count only the round you make, yes. Remember you're going to spend $500-$1000 just to get started without making a single usable round. Then you still have to buy all the components. you need for making what ever individual round you want, including more equipment(dies).

So is it worth it? I figure with my 270 it'll cost about(using round numbers for ease) $2 per round for factory ammo that is close to what I'd make myself. I figure I can make it for 50-75 cents. Let's use 75 cents to be on the safe side. So for every round I make I save $1.25 and get exactly the load I want down to .01 grain of powder and .05 mm tolorance on the shell, bullet and overall length(the ability to have exactly what you want is something you will not find with factory ammo)

The second big question is how much am I going to shoot? If I'm just hunting once a year, I'll use maybe a box every year to sight in and take into the field. In that case it's going to be a savings of $1.25 x 20 rounds x 1 year which equals $25 a year. It's going to take at a minimum 20 years to pay off the investment I made into the equipment. If I want to shoot three boxes a month the math looks like this: $1.25 x 60 rounds x 12 months. The savings is $900 a year. In that case I've paid it all off in a year of shooting reloads vs factory ammo. So it really does depend on how much you want to shoot. The more you shoot the more savings you have. The dirty secret is most of us just shoot more because it is cheaper to do so, and end up not saving any of that money. Personally, I'm happy to do that.

One last thought is what else do you want to reload for? Remember the $500-$1000 is a one time deal until you want to upgrade your equipment. Each caliber after that is probably $50-$100 for new dies and any other little parts you need. So if want to reload because you want to do a lot of shooting with a 270 WIN, and you like hunting with a 303 British, you can get set up for it without needing to shoot it more than once a year, and still not sink more money in it than would be practical.

One the other hand if you have more money than you know what to do with, by all means get some reloading gear, even if you just go hunting once a year. You get exactly what you want out of your loads and it's generally an enjoyable activity.

-Steven Kipp

Staying sighted in.

Out at the range last night I ran into a problem. I had previously sighted in both my rifles, but had to once again. Did I do it incorrectly? Did both the scopes get knocked off zero? Are both the scopes low enough quality that they are moving the zero internally? I'm really not sure.

I know that between shots the zero stays where I put it so I would think that the zero should be staying put with respect to the scope. It may be getting bumped around too much for the rings and bases. I put some, not a ton but some, money into getting good quality rings and bases. So my initial thought is that I didn't sight it in correctly last time. I'll take the rifles out again next week to see if the zero has stayed.

-Steven Kipp

IDPA and Long Range Shooting

What does IDPA have to do with Long Range Shooting? Well... not much.

So why am I posting about this? Good question! A: I went to an IDPA match and had a ball. More importantly, here are the two similarities that I observed:

1) Recoil is a huge factor. No matter if you're trying to see the target before it explodes at 600 yards or trying to get in a fast follow-up shot at 10 yards, recoil is a pain in the butt plate. Okay enough bad puns. Point being, managing recoil is a big part of both sports. While it is done in vastly different ways it has to be managed.

2) Anticipation runs very high. If you're waiting for the beep of the timer to draw or the first cold-bore shot of the day, there is a lot of expectation and anticipation. I think in both sports this is the same and has similar negative effects. Relaxation before the first shots seems to me to be the guiding principal. The tricky part is how to achieve it.

So my open question to anyone who is reading this: comments on these two problems? Advice or suggestions are also welcome. And for this post feel free to share about IDPA or action shooting games.

-Steven Kipp

Savage 10-FCP Review

As promised here is the savage 10-FCP review.


I bought this rifle for three reasons. 1) Savage has made a name for itself from the out-of-the-box accuracy that their rifles have. 2)The AccuTrigger and now the AccuStock. I had seen the AccuTrigger before and liked what I had seen. I was eager to try the new AccuStock as it seemed like a good bedding system for the action. 3) It had gotten good reviews out of the box and I found one for about $750. This was a good deal for a good long range rifle, I thought.



Description: This rifle has a good deal of "big gun look" to it. It is under Savage's law enforcement section, so it's built with purpose in mind. It has a 26" fluted barrel on it with a muzzle brake. It's chambered in .308 Win, and has a synthetic stock on it. The old Savage stocks seemed to be flimsy, where this one is very stout due to the aluminum inlay of the Accustock. The butt end of the rifle still seems like it could use a thicker plastic to stiffen it up, however.



Being a LE model, everything on it is black, even the bolt. The bolt even has the Savage name and logo on it in bronze color. I thought this was a very neat feature. The other nice feature is the double swivel studs on the beaver tail fore end.


This rifle weighs in at just under 9 lbs (I think the spec is 8.9lbs) without anything on it. Add a good sized scope and a bipod and it may well reach 11 or 12 lbs. Personally I like my target rifles heavy, and I may look into adding weight and recoil reduction in the butt end of the stock.

As for accuracy This gun may always shoot better than I do. Here is a target from when I was sighting it in at 100 yrds. The top and right group is from some low-end 180 grain Federal. The other group is from some Federal Gold Medal Match 168 boat tail hollow points. (168 bthp is probably what I'll reload for this.) Each group is three shots. The group with the 168 grain bullets measured at under .5". I shoot this in prone on a bipod.


I must say I'm very impressed with this rifle, especially for being out-of-the-box. So don't get me wrong when I say there are two things I would fix with this rifle. 1) The previously mentioned butt end of the stock. It seems like it'd do the job, but I'd like a lot more rigidity to it. I do not, however, feel as though it might break on me, but I wouldn't want to try to fend off a bear with the back of this rifle. 2) The bolt is not as smooth as I'd like it to be. This could be just my rifle and it is not as though I'm worrying about the safety of it. When the bolt locks, it is solid. I'd just like it to work smoothly when I pull it back and put a new cartridge in it. In the big picture these two issues are minor and I could probably go my whole life without fixing them. (The problems probably won't last the summer, but I digress)

Overall I would recommend this rifle to anyone who asks about a long range rifle, not just those who want one on a budget or out-of-the-box.

-Steven Kipp

3rd Annual Fathers Day Shoot

Every year, for the past three years, Brad and I have been holding a shoot in memory of our dad. We had this years shoot on the weekend before father's day due to ease of scheduling. This event is a full day of shooting everything from handguns to shotguns to rifles. We pack a lunch and stay all day at the range, usually shooting up more ammo than some people own altogether. Needless to say it's a ton of fun.

So why is it that I'm blogging about this here on a blog dedicated to long range rifle shooting only? Well a big part of this years fun was shooting at a good distance with a couple of my rifles. Having gotten into the long distance shooting at last years shoot, this years amount of that was highly expanded. I had purchased a spotting scope, which helped out enormously. I have also obtained a new rifle (Savage 10FCP, review coming soon) to shoot with.

Some of our greatest improvements were in communication between the spotter and the shooter. This allowed for us to hit pop cans at 450 yards by the second shot. Brad even spotted for me on the one can I hit with the first shot. That was indeed a great boost of confidence for me, as well as for Brad. In everything I've read the spotter is the one who does most of the work, and the shoot is just the trigger man.(unless the shooter is the only one there, of course) So I must give the majority of the credit to Brad for that shot.

Below: One water filled container hit with my 270 at about 475 yards.


-Steven Kipp

Trigger Pull

I always believed that trigger pull is one of the largest components when shooting with a handgun, but I recently noticed that it is just as important when shooting rifles. It's a little easier to stabilize the firearm with a bipod in the prone position, but a stiff slap on the trigger instead of a smooth squeeze will throw a 500 yd shot off enough to miss a pop can. One major reason I found where a rough trigger pull can come from is flinching. Starting out the day, I always had a flinch at the beginning of every shooting day, but managed to get rid of it after getting use to the recoil and noise of every bullet that came out of the barrel. Rough trigger pulls can come from a lack of confidence in the shot as well; pulling the trigger as fast as you can when the cross hairs are exactly where you want them.

You can have all the best equipment in the world, but if your head isn't in the game, the trigger pull aspect of the shot is going to fall short. Some beginning shooters think anybody should know how to make the trigger move back and forth and that this should not be on the mind at all. When, in fact, I believe is one of the largest conscious efforts that should be made on every shot. If the basics fall short, everything else will snowball down with it.

-Brad Kipp

Sand bags, continued.

The sand bags described in the previous post worked very well. They were filled with about 10 lbs of fine sand. This made them so they were not bursting at the seems, but had enough volume to where they were useful. I especially liked the fabric that was chosen. It was expensive, but well worth it for making the sand bags last.

I gave a set of 3 to Brad when he was up here(He'll blog about it when the our tech savvy catches up to Google's system). I also gave a set to my father-in-law for fathers day today. He also seemed to like them.

-Steven Kipp

Sand bags

It occurs to me that the best place to shoot long distances is from prone resting on sand bags. So I figured I'd make some. I also thought that I might share the experience here.

The fabric is 1000 cordura that was bought for another project. I cut out several rectangles that were 20 1/2 inches by 12 1/2 inches. I then sewed up the sides. I then folded the fabric to form a square that was 10 1/4 by 12 1/2 and sewed up the sides.


I then filled with sand them with sand and sewed up the end to close them.

These should work well and I will be trying with Brad coming up soon. I'll try to post a review to let those of you who just have to know, how they work out

-Steven Kipp