http://www.huntingnut.com/ HuntingNut en-us Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:10:14 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly HuntingNut News http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html http://www.huntingnut.com/images/logo.gif http://www.huntingnut.com/ http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=78 My scout master presented me with a .43 Egyptian Remington Rolling Block back in ’67. I had a 28-inch Numrich 45-70 barrel installed in 1979. It has no Remington markings on it and looks like it was made in Belgium under contract. www.militaryrifles.com...ificio.htm In its worn condition, the rollers had a slight amount of play when open but minimal play when the hammer was forward in the fired position. However, the gun did not function. I figure the gun had been shot until it wore so much that it wouldn’t shoot any more. I had to replace the firing pin because it had worn too short, then the hammer spring because it couldn’t hit the primer with enough force to set it off - it would barely leave a dent in the primer. With a new firing pin and main spring installed, I proceeded to the firing line a few months ago in my drawn out quest to bring this antique back to life. I used 40 grains of Varget, a smokeless powder I had on hand, with 405gr Laser Cast bullets to test it out. The Hodgdon loading data listed this recipe as less pressure than black powder which I didn’t have. At the range, I wore my safety glasses and wrapped the action in Kevlar cloth for the first two shots. On the fourth shot I split a case. Inspection of the primers showed the first shot had backed the primer out 0.004”, the 2nd shot 0.010”, and the 3rd shot was out 0.015”. The 4th shot had a flush primer but that was because the split case base was pushed against the breech block. I had used a light lubricant on the barrel and figured by the 4th shot the case had fully gripped the chamber exposing the wear in the action. I used a bullet to extract the forward part of the case that was stuck in the chamber. I tapped the bullet in just far enough to engage the rifling, then used a wooden rod to tap it back out from the breech. The broken case came with the bullet. On closer inspection of the action, I could get an 0.018” feeler gauges between the breech block and barrel with a strong tugs backwards on the breech block. If I didn’t pull hard on the breech block, I could fool myself into thinking there was only about a 0.004” gap. The hard pulls took up all the slack in the action. This slack amounts to excess headspace. I decided to take the rifle apart and mic every part and see if I could figure out where the slop was. Most of the slack was between the receiver to the pins and the pins to the rollers. The pins were 0.453, the holes in the receiver were 0.458 and the hammer and breech blocks were 0.460. These are the stack-up. 0.008 to 0.010 pins to breech/trigger blocks 0.010 on the breech pin to receiver 0.005 on the trigger pin to receiver After some Internet searching I found a gunsmith in Idaho that machined part for antique guns. Ryan Roberts, Muzzleloader Builder Supply, had oversized pins on the shelf so I purchased 0.4600 and 0.4615 pins for a very reasonable price. I used an adjustable reamer to match the hammer, breech, receiver holes to the new pins. The blocks were significantly harder to ream. The sides of the receiver cut very easily. Even though the pins were snug and had to be tapped in the receiver, I could feel the pins rotate slightly every so often. I lightly staked the pins on the right side of the receiver with a punch and they stayed put after that. Ensuring the pins stay fixed in the receiver is key to longevity of the action. The breech pin only took one stack but I wanted to make sure the hammer pin stayed put so staked it several times. With the new pins installed almost all the slop in the pin interfaces was gone. I still had 0.005 of slack between the back of the breech block and the hammer when it moved forward. I test fired a couple of rounds. The group was bout 3 MOA and the primers were still moving aft out of the case pocket a consistent 0.007 upon firing. This was something I wanted to fix. A weld bead had been added to the back of the breech block in a prior repair to compensate for wear so I thought I could add some more metal and file/fit it to take of this slack. I found a local argon welder at a custom motorcycle shop to do it. After having the weld added, I started to fit the breech block back into the action. Two issues became evident with this “repair” technique. Taking up the slack by adding metal to the back of the breech block tilts the block forward causing it to no longer be square with the receiver. It had a slight tilt to begin with and this course of action was only making the tilt more exaggerated. The breech block was touching the top of the case but the center primer area was visibly off the block. Also, with the breech block tilted farther forward, there was an interface issue with the striking portion of the hammer. It would no longer fit into the firing pin pocket so it could freely strike the firing pin. I came to the conclusion this technique was a dead-end. Next, I measured what it would take for the breech block to be square with the barrel. The barrel would have to move aft 0.028” or the breech block forward the same amount. I determined this by measuring the action with the new pin installed and the breech block held perpendicular to the barrel, and with the breech block pressed up against the barrel and measuring the offset in the receiver to breech block pin holes. Most shooters I talked with recommended I have a gunsmith move the barrel aft and recut the camber. In my particular gun, this would cause the barrel to project aft of the receiver. It also would not solve the interference problem I had when the breech rolls under the hammer to extract the case or load the weapon. Based on the wear observations of my rifle, I came up with a theory that the breech block and its pin progressively wears aft in the receiver over time and use, thus the ultimate solution would be to leave the barrel alone and move the block forward to be square with the barrel. A shooting buddy suggested an way to accomplish this. A new larger hole could be machined in the breech block with a 0.028” offset, press a bushing/sleeve in, and refitting the roller pin. I had access to a machine shop so I started seriously considering this option. I wanted to remove as little metal from the breech block as possible. The thinnest area of metal in the breech block is located on the front side of the now oversize hole to accommodate the new 0.460” pin. By doubling the required offset of 0.028”, a new hole of 0.516” could be machine with its forward edge just touching the forward edge of the existing 0.460+ hole and minimizing the metal removed in the forward section of the breech block. This would allow a symmetrical 0.028” bushing to be inserted to get back to the hole for the roller pin. I made sure the new hole was offset horizontally as opposed to up or down the angle of the receiver because I didn’t want to have the firing pin rise in its relationship with the primer. I also checked to ensure there was enough clearance in the aft lower section of the barrel to still allow the breech block to roll open. Time to cut metal. With the help and guidance of a buddy, we used the new roller pin to position the breech block on the machine’s turn table with the 0.028” offset and machined the new 0.516” hole. We made the bushing 0.0015” over-sized (0.5175”) so there was an interference fit with the breech block. The internal dimension of the bushing was also undersized so we could fit it precisely to the new 0.460” roller pin. We should have also made a matching centering pin for the undersize hole to reposition the breech block back on the turn table to fit the pin because we were off about 0.002” from center when we bored out the hole. This turned out not to be critical because the interface with the barrel is well above the center of the pin reducing the affect of the error. BTW, the bushing was 4041 steel, the same harness as the oversize pins. I will this will be adequate for the reduced loads I am planning to shoot. Now the fitting began. With the tilt forward eliminated, the aft part of the breech block was now lowered in its relationship to the hammer block. Thus, I had a significant amount of fitting to do. It turned out that all the new metal from the added weld had to be taken off. I slowly and patiently removed metal until the hammer just started to roll underneath. I would then use a carpenter’s hammer to tap the rifle’s hammer spur forward a little than aft to become free again. This would leave a mark on the bottom of the breech block and showed precisely where more metal had to be taken off. I used a file and sometime a battery powered grinder with a small abrasion drum to remove the interference mark. I repeated this process until I could lightly tap the hammer block all the way into the firing pin well of the breech block. I took me about an hour to work the action to the point. I then dry fired the action until the hammer could freely come forward and strike the firing pin while leaving the action tight. With the breech block now square and closer to the brass case, I checked the firing pin to ensure it was not too long. To reduce the risk of piercing a primer I shortened the firing pin to provide 0.040” protrusion. This is the original large diameter firing pin, much fatter than today’s firing pins, so make sure its tip is nice and round with no sharp edges or corners. I did a few firings with primers only just to make sure the firing pin work correctly. BTW, the firing pin was initially protruding 0.055” but, with the large diameter firing pin, it never crushed the primer more than about 0.030”. Still, I shortened the pin to be safe. There was one additional modification that was required before the rifle was fully functional again. The extractor was binding with the breech block during opening. As the breech block rotates aft to open the chamber and with the new roller pin hole offset aft, the breech block now rises slightly at the point of extractor engagement. I had to remove metal from the lower side of the extractor just behind its interface tab to accommodate the breech block. Looking at the picture more closely, it looks like I should have taken just a bit off the lower tab that engages the groove in the breech block. The action was now very tight with excellent lock-up. It was so tight that Winchester Brass with a 0.063 rim base would fit. Starline brass with its 0.065 rim base would not. I wanted to use the Starline brass because it has thicker walls. So, I laid a file flat on the work bench and removed 0.002” off the bottom of 10 cases. This task only took about 15 minutes to accomplish. The stamp marks still show on the bottom of the case and I will save the other cases for when the action has worn in a few thousandths. With the action a new, I loaded the cases and took the rifle to the range. Below is my target at 50 yard - 1 MOA, a dramatic improvement! The load was 41gr H4895 with 405 Oregon Trails Laser Cast Bullet resulting in 1435 fps muzzle velocity. I switched to H4895 powder because Varget left unburnt powder grains in the barrel. H4895 burns slightly faster and at a slightly lower pressure, e.g., approximately 15,000 psi chamber pressure compared to 17,000 with black powder. BTW, Reloading is a breeze. Press out the old primer, insert a new, fill with powder, and insert bullet. Don’t even need to neck-size. You can see that I had *****d a scout scope. I needed to do this so I was sure of my point of aim. My eyes are too old to shoot open buckhorn sights well enough to evaluate a load's accuracy potential. There was also one other mod. I installed an aftermarket trigger spring kit from G. S. WOMACK. The wire spring reduced my trigger pull from well over 10 pounds down to approximately 4 pounds. This is well worth the $15 spent. I also got some rolling block specific screws from WOMACK to replace ones that were too worn. One final step I took with the action. I used Action-Magic (dry moly lube) from Brownell’s on every part of the action that touches another part, e.g., the pins, inside the breech and hammer blocks, firing pin, trigger pin, spring to roller interfaces, and the breech block to hammer lock-up surfaces. Now that I know my rolling block is a worth shooter, I have motivation to fit and finish the Schnabble-style fore stock that I got from Dave Crossno Gun Stocks. I’m ready to work on maturing my loads and using this rolling block for another hundred years. hodgdon.com/ Ryan Roberts Muzzleloader Builder Supply PO Box 848 Aberdeen ID 83210 muzzleloaderbuilderssupply.com (208) 397-3008 or (877) 397-3008 G. S. WOMACK 5100 Garden Valley Rd Garden Valley, CA 95633 530-333-2233 kgwebay@wildblue.net www.rollingblockparts.com/no1.html Dave Crossno Gun Stocks 23380 N. Anderson Road Arcadia, Oklahoma 73007 Tel: (405) 396-8786 DIBBLEGUNS@juno.com www.angelfire.com/ok5/...snostocks/ www.brownells.com/ Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:10:14 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=77 by Mike Hines I seem to see the same kind of question over and over again in the online forums that are about reloading your own ammunition. “I just started reloading for my .373 Wiffenpoofer rifle and need to know what load to use …” Every time I see it I cringe a little. I have one simple answer to all these questions; READ!! There is nothing wrong with asking for information on favorite loads or for suggestions for better loads but every handloader should have a reloading manual with the basic information readily available on his bench. Every bullet and powder maker has this information available. Most experienced handloaders have a favorite manual or two but all of them contain valuable information. My first suggestion to anyone wishing to start loading their own ammunition is to just pick a reloading manual and spend some time studying it. There are plenty of them out there and all have recommended powders and suggested starting loads for any number of cartridges. You just have to take the time to read the information. When Billy Bob Reloader on the internet says a load is safe that doesn't mean that it really is. Double check the load against what the bullet and powder manufacturers recommend. Trying to gain a few feet per second at the possible expense of safety just isn't worth it. Over the years I’ve seen and heard several people say that they didn’t need a book because someone had showed them all about loading their own cartridges. When I first started loading I had a “mentor” who was teaching me the ropes. I also bought a couple of books and read them on my own. I soon learned that my “mentor” was downright dangerous in his practices! He proved this by blowing up a cartridge and damaging the weapon. Luckily none of the three of us standing there was hurt by the pieces that went flying around. I’ve kept that case on my loading bench for over 30 years as a reminder to be careful. If you looked on my loading bench you'd see that I keep a number of different reference books handy. Some are full blown manuals, others are little more than brochures. There are more, older manuals stashed on my bookshelves. My personal preference is to use the data from the manufacturer of the bullet I’m using for that particular load. I will also reference the manual from manufacturer of the powder I’m using. If there seems to be a difference I stick with the bullet manufacturer’s recommended load. The manuals that I seem to pull out most often are, in no particular order; "Modern Reloading, Second Edition" by Richard Lee Speer Reloading Manual #14 Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading, Seventh Edition Hodgdon's "Annual Manual" I would also recommend "Handloader" magazine to everyone interested in making your own ammunition. And don't forget that there are many component manufacturers’ websites which also contain reloading data. One of my favorite quotes is “Experience is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from the experiences of others!” An unfortunate fact of reloading is that gaining the initial experience on your own, without good reference material, could lead to damaged equipment or even severe injuries. Why risk that when there are so many good, proven sources of information already available? Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:48:57 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=76 Two that got way, one due to their diligence one due to nerves. We were hunting caribou in Alaska southwest of Bethel. The river road was very bust that morning with shoppers and hunters all traveling before the sun was above the horizon. Because of our geographic position on the planet the sun comes up more in the north than the east. Traveling down river heading south the sun came up over my right shoulder. About 40 miles outside of town we saw one caribou about 1000 yards out. Caribou usually travel in groups. Not wanting to drop the dime as it were we waited until the other hunters kept moving. ( knowing there had to be other caribou there ) We waited and waited but only one caribou was to be seen. Planning our stalk the wind was in our favor. We traveled about a mile ahead and layed in wait for the "unsuspecting" prey to walk in to my sights. Plan A did not work. Plan B was to approach using the frozen sloughs, and staying out of sight. It was during this phase we notices all the wolf tracks. A lone caribou on the tundra with all there wolf tracks he had to be one very cautious critter. Either by sent or motion the jig was up. Time for plan C. Get back to the snow-go travel to the east a long way and loop around behind him. 10 miles and we started to head back north. Just off a big lake we stop to glass for caribou and see something small coming across the ice behind us. I'm thinking what is following us. Way to small to be a bear? Forgetting all about the caribou we watch and wait. The lopping gait is not familiar it doesn't move left or right just straight ahead coming toward us. The wind is out of the east, and beasty is coming from the south. At what must be 100 yards we recognize what it is a real live wolverine. Following us ! I didn't want to shoot it. I suppose I could have I just didn't want to. So it comes closer. Finally we let it know where we were by moving. Nothing, no reaction what so ever! The wolverine changed direction somewhat but gave no indication it cared or was concerned we were there. After passing us we watched with amazement as it went into a willow thicket. Being curious we followed up until the snow got to knee level. Wolverine tracks were everywhere. Mr. or Mrs. wolverine had themselves a den in that mess. So there it was in one day, two critters no shooting. One so scared it was darn near paranoid, the other so darn confident it lead us to it's home. The yupiks said the wolverine was following us looking for a gut pile. Knowing we were "gusicks" it had no fear of us. It got me to thinking who was hunting who? Longwalker Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:29:30 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=75 If this buck was 420 yards away, could you take this shot with confidence? This article describes how a hunter can use a duplex reticle and a variable power scope to compensate for bullet trajectory at longer ranges, or commonly referred to as bullet drop compensation (BDC). I was motivated to start this project when I began looking for a scope that provided BDC capability to mount on my newly acquired .270 Winchester. I looked at scopes from Burris, Cabella’s, Leupold, Nikon, and multiple scopes with Mil-Dot Reticles (see Article: Scopes with BDC Reticles for Centerfire Rifles). In the process of finding a new scope, I came to the realization that the variable power scopes with duplex reticles on my existing rifles were, in fact, precision measuring instruments that could be used for BDC to extend the range at which I can accurately shoot and even provide a range estimation. By using the space from the tip of thicker reticle post to the center crosshairs at different power settings, a hunter can provide BDC at longer ranges. Example, if the duplex reticle on your 3-9x scope measures 4 inches from the tip of the lower post to the crosshairs on 9x power at 100 yards, then it provides 16 inches of drop compensation at 400 yards. On 8x, it would compensate for 18 inches and on 7x, 20.6 inches, at that same distance. The illustration below should help you visualize the use of a duplex reticle in this manner. Depending on the caliber and bullet you are hunting with, you should be able to adjust your scope’s magnification to compensate precisely for your bullet drop at a known range. In my case, I have a Simmons 4-12x MAG 44 on a .243 and a Leupold VX-II 3-9x on a .308, both zero’d in at 200 yards, resulting in a bullet drop at 400 yards of 26.1” and 21.7”, respectively. The advantage of using your existing variable scope with duplex reticle is you can extend the effective range and achieve longer range accuracy with your current set-up without having to purchase a scope with BDC capability. The main disadvantage of using a duplex reticle for BDC is that, the longer the range to your intended target, the lower the magnification setting you will have to use to achieve the correct BDC. As an example, the bullet drop of my .308 at 500 yards is 44.5”. This would require a power setting of 4x to achieve the correct BDC, negating the benefit of having higher magnification at longer distance, albeit, you are still as good as a low-power, fixed magnification scope and better off than iron sights. Still, I thought this method of BDC was worth investigating so I headed to the range with my .243 and .308 to see how my variable power scopes stacked up to a Bushnell 6500 2.5-16x with a Mil-Dot Reticle that now sits atop my .270 Win. Why did I choose a Mil-Dot vs Burris’s B-PlexTM, Cabella’s Rangefinder, Nikon’s BDC Reticle, or Leupold’s Boone & CrockettTM? As much as I researched what I thought the best BDC reticle was for my application, it turned out that the scope’s overall characteristics were more important to me. I wanted a low power of 3x or less to not restrict my field-of-view at closer ranges because I sometimes hunt in brush. With my aging eyes, I needed a magnification of 12x or greater to effectively see if a deer has spike antlers, count points, and estimate antler size, even at 100-150 yards as my state has antler size restrictions in some counties, as well as special antlerless deer and spike buck seasons. Eye relief was also important to me. Thus, I decided what scope I wanted first then accepted the BDC reticle that was available for it. I thought I could learn to shoot with any of the BDC reticles offered by the various manufactures. All BDC reticles require some amount of shooter compensation because when you hunt, the game doesn’t stop at hundred yard increments. Also, a BDC reticle may not perfectly match the trajectory of your rifle thus “tuning” is required either by adjusting the magnification, hold-over, or using non-standard ranges for each BDC tic. Example, with flat-based bullets, the shooter may have to adjust their scope to 7¼ power to get the BDC reticle to be on at 300 yards. With boat-tail bullets in the same caliber, the scope may have to be set on 8½ magnification. In both cases, the BDC reticle will be on at 100 and 300 yards but could be off as much as 4 or more inches at the other marks. Or the shooter can use the scope’s high power and determine that tics represent 285 yards, 375 yards, etc. for their rifle. There is no substitute for practice! It doesn’t matter what scope or rifle you have, if you take away anything from this article, let it be there is no substitute for practice if you plan on shooting outside of 100 to 200 yards, BCD reticle or not. Every aspect of your shooting becomes more critical as the range to your target increases. You should also consider using boat-tail bullets when shooting at longer ranges. They are less affected by the wind and have the advantage of flatter trajectory, higher velocity, and more kinetic energy on impact. Even though most of the discussion in this article will focus on using a duplex reticle for bullet drop compensation, you may find some of this information useful if your scope has a BDC reticle because shooter adjustments or compensations are still required to “tune” your BDC scope for your rifle’s performance. If you want to skip the details for now and jump to how effectively a Duplex Reticle can be used at longer ranges, skip ahead to the picture of the deer target with three rifles. This is where the conclusion section starts and includes a hunting strategy on how to keep things simple. Then, if your interest remains, come back and read the rest of this article to understand the details and how to prepare your rifle and scope combination for longer range hunting. Details are important when shooting long range. Otherwise, read on. Below are the steps I took to prepare for hunting and shooting large game at longer ranges with my rifles. ? Used a 100-yard range and a target with 1-inch squares to measure the distance from the crosshairs down to the tip of the thick post at the highest power. I then verified these measurements at longer known ranges to ensure accuracy. An alternate way that may work better for you is to secure your gun or scope (by its ring mount) in a vice, set the scope at its highest power, and view a reference/aim point and then count the clicks it takes to move the tip of the lower post up to the reference/aim point the crosshairs were set on. If the number of clicks is not consistent each time you check it, adjust the scope to half of the full power setting, e.g., 4.5x on a 9x sope, and count the clicks again. The count should be double what it was at max power. I usually reference an object that is about 100 yards away to eliminate parallax errors but you don’t have to know the exact range. Just move your eye around and if the crosshairs stay on your reference point you have minimized the possibility of a measurement error due to parallax. If the crosshairs move off the point of reference when your eye moves, select a different reference point farther away until the crosshairs don’t move relative to your reference point. This is the beauty of this method – you are really measuring minute of angle (MOA) so knowing the range to the reference point is not important. You then need to determine the value of your scope’s click, usually 0.25 inches or 0.5 inches at 100 yards. If you have a Burris scope, this information is listed on their website. Burris Scope Specs ? Determined the accuracy, or group size, for each of my rifles at 100 yards. When a rifle can shoot 2-inch groups at 100 yards, that’s adequate for most hunting situations. However, 2-inches at 100 yards can turn into 6 inches of bullet spread at 300 yards and 8 inches at 400 before you even account for other error contributors. My rifles typically shoots 3-shot groups an inch or less when I make sure their barrels are not copper fouled. Only my new Tikka .270 Win can shoot this accurately with factory ammunition. The .243 and .308 benefit from hand-loaded ammo customized for each rifle. Having enough accuracy to ensure a clean kill at longer ranges is critical. Thus, being able to shot groups an inch or under at 100 yards, which is the equivalent of 1 minute of angle (MOA) or better, is my go/no-go criteria for shooting at ranges beyond 300 yards. One MOA equals 1” at 100 yards, 2” at 200 yards, 3” at 300, 4” at 400, etc. ? Next, I set-up ballistic tables for each of my rifles. You can purchase ballistic software or use one of the many ballistic programs available on the web. HuntingNut’s Point Blank allows you to load an application and keep it on your computer. A simple and easy web-based ballistic program is available at http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalc.aspx. To use these ballistic applications you need to know your bullet’s muzzle velocity and ballistic coefficient (BC). You can find the BCs for your bullet at the manufacture’s website (see below). I didn’t have access to a chronograph to determine velocity so I sighted my rifles in at 100 yards then shot groups at 250 yards or greater without holdover and measured the bullet drop. I then varied the velocity in the ballistic program until I achieve the amount of bullet drop measured at the yardage I shot. The bullet drop for the .243 at 250 yards averaged 8.6 inches equating to a muzzle velocity of 2650 feet per second (fps). The .308 drop averaged 7.0 inches equating to 2960 fps, and the .270 dropped 4.1 inches equating to 3450 fps. If you have factory ammo and are unsure of the BC of your bullets, you can derive BC with the following technique. Input the manufacturer’s advertised velocity at the muzzle into the ballistic calculator, then vary the BC until the velocity at a longer range matches, i.e., 500 yards. You can then use this derived BC to determine your rifle’s performance with your specific muzzle velocity. Every rifle will shoot a bullet at a velocity different than the advertised factory velocity. At longer ranges, this difference is important if you want to be accurate. Bullet Manufacturers: Barnes, Berger, Lapua, Nosler, Speer, Sierra Factory Data (must derive BC): Federal, Remington (no data available), Winchester ? Using the duplex reticle measurements and ballistic tables created specific for each rifle, I generated reference cards detailing range, hold-over, scope magnification for BDC, and windage. You can download a zip’d Excel spreadsheet at the post below that will allow you to create a ballistic reference card for your specific rifle including ranging estimates based on using your scope’s duplex reticle and power setting by filling the post-to-crosshairs with the big game’s chest. I have a few examples on different tabs including one for .30-30. A method to extend your hunting range with a duplex reticle Reference data used during this project for Bullet Drop Compensation (BDC) and windage. ? You also have to know the distance to your target or the big game you are about to shoot at. On the rifle range, range to target is easy and pre-determined. In a hunting situation, this might not be so easy. During scouting, you can use a GPS unit to determine range to know objects from where you plan to shoot. A hunter can also use a laser range finder which is likely to be the most accurate and quickest method. If none of these are available to you, range estimating can be accomplished with Cabela’s and Leupold BDC reticles, a Mil-Dot reticle, or your duplex reticle. Most range estimation for deer size targets assumes a chest depth of 18 inches (bottom of the chest to the top of the back). Deer in warmer Southern states usually don’t grow this big and can have a chest height as small as 12 inches. We already have discussed that a 3-9x scope with 4 inches between the crosshairs and the tip of the duplex post at 100 yards will measure 18 inches at 400 yards on 8x. For a large size deer that makes the range estimate 400 yards. BTW, the Simmons 4-12x measured 3.5 inches from the post to crosshairs at 100 yards and can provide a range estimate on a deer with an 18-inch chest depth out to 520 yards. You can see there is the potential for range estimating errors if the assumed chest depth is incorrect. Thus, the advantages of a reliable laser range finder. A shooter can appreciate the importance of accurate ranging if one looks at the shot window at different ranges, i.e., how far your range estimate can be in error and still hit your intended target close to your point of aim. Allowing for up to 4 inches of bullet impact error assuming an 8-inch kill zone, the shot window for my .308 is ±30 yards at 350 yards (target must be between 320 to 380 yards to hit close to where you aim), ±25 yards at 400, ±15 yards at 500, and ±10 yards at 600 yards. ? Finally, I sighted in my rifles for 100 yards and practiced BDC at 300 yards using the tip of the lower post of the duplex reticle. It worked well with 3-shot group sizes varying from 2 to 2¾ inches (less than 1 MOA). I couldn’t have done any better with the crosshairs. With this preparation accomplished, I was ready to start shooting at longer range. Finding a range facility to shoot beyond 300 yards took a full Internet search and many phone calls. I did find a few within a 2-hr drive, all of which required memberships. So I joined a range, planned a day off from work, and fired 3-shot groups at 420 and 550 yards from a bench using sand bags at a full-size target of a deer (Southern size). Here is what I learned and my results. 1. You really can dial a scope in to 6½ power or even 6¾. If you adjust your magnification this precisely, you will get more precise hits. 2. The deer target didn’t give a precise aim point like a typical paper target and I found that I was unsure if I was picking the same aim point on the 2nd and 3rd shots particularly because I was trying to offset for the wind. This along with gusting wind conditions made groups a bit wider than I expected. 3. There wasn’t enough magnification for me to feel comfortable shooting at 550 yards, at least not without addition practice. With my .308, I had to use 3¼x at 550 yards. Based on this experience, I feel 450 yards using at least 5x magnification is my long-range comfort level using BDC with a duplex reticle. 4. My .243 load was reduced to lower recoil for my young son to shoot. It didn’t have a trajectory flat enough for the 4-12x Simmons to compensate for bullet drop beyond 500 yards. Nor does it have the kinetic energy to effectively harvest a deer much beyond 300 yards depending on the size of the animal. Just because you can place shots on paper accurately at longer distances doesn’t mean your rifle has the kinetic energy for a clean kill at those ranges. Longer range shots are not as precise as those closer in making kinetic energy that much more important. Recommendations vary, but once your bullet drops below 900 to 1000 ft/lbs of energy, the deer you plan to harvest should be on the small size. 5. The longer the range, the more wind becomes a factor. Gravity is a constant and you can consistently compensate for bullet drop. Wind, however, is variable and can quickly become the single most critical factor in making an effective shot at long range. Wind compensation is a developed skill that only comes with practice. A 5 mph crosswind component, affects the .308 bullet a ½ inch at 100 yards and around 1½ inches at 200. This starts to grow significantly at 300 yards where wind drift for a 5 mph crosswind component is over 4 inches. At 420 yards its 8½ inches, and at 550 yards its 16 inches. A 5 mph breeze isn’t much and some people wouldn’t notice. These numbers double if it’s a 10 mph crosswind. The wind on range day was 20 mph from behind with gusts. You can tell from the first shots I did with the .308 that I didn’t correctly estimate the 6 mph crosswind component in that tail wind. Once I knew that, the .243 and .270 shots were on target at that range. A tip for making sight corrections, I only make scope azimuth (L-R) adjustments at 100 yards or less because of how much affect even a light wind has on bullet placement at longer ranges. Elevation adjustments can be made in windy conditions as wind has little affect on bullet drop. Rifles used in this BDC project were a .243 w/ Simmons 4-12x, .308 w/ Leupold 3-9x, and .270 w/ Bushnell 2.5-16x Mil-Dot, left to right. Target was at 420 yards. The .308 grouping was shot first with insufficient wind compensation. Wind becomes a predominate factor at longer ranges. Conclusions: Using the tip of the duplex reticle’s thicker lower post and changing scope power for BDC provided accurate shot placement at longer ranges. At 550 yards, the magnification had to be reduced below what I felt comfortable for aim point placement. The 4-12x did not have an advantage over the 3-9x with respect to using a duplex reticle for BDC. Using the .308 as an example, both scopes will start providing precise BDC around 350 yards and run out of compensation after 550 yards, providing a 200-yard window for BDC compensation. For shots between 200 and 350 yards or the distance from your zero-range to where your scope’s full power setting intersects your bullet’s trajectory, the shooter must hold over. However, because we now know the measurement of the gap between the crosshairs and lower post, our holdover can be more precise. In a hunting situation when I had the time to adjust magnification, I would use this method for BDC with a duplex reticle. If time was of the essence, however, I would keep things simple and use a constant magnification setting that provided 18 inches of compensation at a range near what I considered my maximum. This would allow me to make a quick range estimate to ensure the big game was within my maximum range criteria, then hold over for a shot as appropriate for the range. For my .243, I would choose 300 yards as my maximum effective range and set my scope on 7x. With my .308, I would use 400 yards as max effective range with the scope set on 8x, then use a ¼ down from the crosshairs for holdover at 250 yards, 2/3 for 300, ¾ for 325, the post for 350 to 375, and hold 4” high at 400. Essentially, I have established two zero ranges for my .308, e.g., the crosshairs are set for 200 yards and the tip of the post for 375 yards at 8x magnification, an 18-inch trajectory drop. If you consider this strategy a bit closer, this set-up compliments BCD hold-over and is quite elegant. With my .308 set on 8x, if the chest of the deer reaches from the tip of the lower post to the tip of the top post, the target is 200 yards away, the zero-range I’m using for my .308. Thus the tip of the top post to the crosshairs is a range estimation scale from 200 to 400 yards. If you divide this top section into thirds, you have your range estimate without touching your magnification ring, e.g., 1/3 down from the top tip is 250 yards, 2/3 down is 300 yards, and half-way from there to the crosshairs is 350 yards (see the pictures below). If the deer’s chest doesn’t reach the crosshairs then the deer is beyond my maximum effective range. These are numbers I can remember without looking at a reference card and will accurately extend the precision shooting range of my current rifles. Back to the opening question, do I have the confidence to take a shot at 420 yards? It depends. As good as these shots may look, my first shot, the one that counts, would not have been accurate enough at 420 yards for a clean kill because I did not compensate correctly for the wind. At 550 yards, none of my shots hit the chest area because of addition wind compensation errors caused by changing winds and the fact that wind error doubles from 420 to 550 yards. Next time you read an article about a hunter that made a clean kill out to 400-plus yards, you better believe that hunter had practiced enough to become one with their rifle and one with the environment if there was any wind. My next purchase will most likely be a laser range finder and a wind meter or some tal***** powder to help gauge the wind. Then I need plenty of practice before I become a precision long range shooter and have confidence in my abilities to hunt big game at extended ranges. There is no substitute for practice! Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:42:59 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=74 If this buck was 420 yards away, could you take this shot with confidence? This article describes how a hunter can use a duplex reticle and a variable power scope to compensate for bullet trajectory at longer ranges, or commonly referred to as bullet drop compensation (BDC). I was motivated to start this project when I began looking for a scope that provided BDC capability to mount on my newly acquired .270 Winchester. I looked at scopes from Burris, Cabella’s, Leupold, Nikon, and multiple scopes with Mil-Dot Reticles (see Article: Scopes with BDC Reticles for Centerfire Rifles). In the process of finding a new scope, I came to the realization that the variable power scopes with duplex reticles on my existing rifles were, in fact, precision measuring instruments that could be used for BDC to extend the range at which I can accurately shoot and even provide a range estimation. By using the space from the tip of thicker reticle post to the center crosshairs at different power settings, a hunter can provide BDC at longer ranges. Example, if the duplex reticle on your 3-9x scope measures 4 inches from the tip of the lower post to the crosshairs on 9x power at 100 yards, then it provides 16 inches of drop compensation at 400 yards. On 8x, it would compensate for 18 inches and on 7x, 20.6 inches, at that same distance. The illustration below should help you visualize the use of a duplex reticle in this manner. Depending on the caliber and bullet you are hunting with, you should be able to adjust your scope’s magnification to compensate precisely for your bullet drop at a known range. In my case, I have a Simmons 4-12x MAG 44 on a .243 and a Leupold VX-II 3-9x on a .308, both zero’d in at 200 yards, resulting in a bullet drop at 400 yards of 26.1” and 21.7”, respectively. The advantage of using your existing variable scope with duplex reticle is you can extend the effective range and achieve longer range accuracy with your current set-up without having to purchase a scope with BDC capability. The main disadvantage of using a duplex reticle for BDC is that, the longer the range to your intended target, the lower the magnification setting you will have to use to achieve the correct BDC. As an example, the bullet drop of my .308 at 500 yards is 44.5”. This would require a power setting of 4x to achieve the correct BDC, negating the benefit of having higher magnification at longer distance, albeit, you are still as good as a low-power, fixed magnification scope and better off than iron sights. Still, I thought this method of BDC was worth investigating so I headed to the range with my .243 and .308 to see how my variable power scopes stacked up to a Bushnell 6500 2.5-16x with a Mil-Dot Reticle that now sits atop my .270 Win. Why did I choose a Mil-Dot vs Burris’s B-PlexTM, Cabella’s Rangefinder, Nikon’s BDC Reticle, or Leupold’s Boone & CrockettTM? As much as I researched what I thought the best BDC reticle was for my application, it turned out that the scope’s overall characteristics were more important to me. I wanted a low power of 3x or less to not restrict my field-of-view at closer ranges because I sometimes hunt in brush. With my aging eyes, I needed a magnification of 12x or greater to effectively see if a deer has spike antlers, count points, and estimate antler size, even at 100-150 yards as my state has antler size restrictions in some counties, as well as special antlerless deer and spike buck seasons. Eye relief was also important to me. Thus, I decided what scope I wanted first then accepted the BDC reticle that was available for it. I thought I could learn to shoot with any of the BDC reticles offered by the various manufactures. All BDC reticles require some amount of shooter compensation because when you hunt, the game doesn’t stop at hundred yard increments. Also, a BDC reticle may not perfectly match the trajectory of your rifle thus “tuning” is required either by adjusting the magnification, hold-over, or using non-standard ranges for each BDC tic. Example, with flat-based bullets, the shooter may have to adjust their scope to 7¼ power to get the BDC reticle to be on at 300 yards. With boat-tail bullets in the same caliber, the scope may have to be set on 8½ magnification. In both cases, the BDC reticle will be on at 100 and 300 yards but could be off as much as 4 or more inches at the other marks. Or the shooter can use the scope’s high power and determine that tics represent 285 yards, 375 yards, etc. for their rifle. There is no substitute for practice! It doesn’t matter what scope or rifle you have, if you take away anything from this article, let it be there is no substitute for practice if you plan on shooting outside of 100 to 200 yards, BCD reticle or not. Every aspect of your shooting becomes more critical as the range to your target increases. You should also consider using boat-tail bullets when shooting at longer ranges. They are less affected by the wind and have the advantage of flatter trajectory, higher velocity, and more kinetic energy on impact. Even though most of the discussion in this article will focus on using a duplex reticle for bullet drop compensation, you may find some of this information useful if your scope has a BDC reticle because shooter adjustments or compensations are still required to “tune” your BDC scope for your rifle’s performance. If you want to skip the details for now and jump to how effectively a Duplex Reticle can be used at longer ranges, skip ahead to the picture of the deer target with three rifles. This is where the conclusion section starts and includes a hunting strategy on how to keep things simple. Then, if your interest remains, come back and read the rest of this article to understand the details and how to prepare your rifle and scope combination for longer range hunting. Details are important when shooting long range. Otherwise, read on. Below are the steps I took to prepare for hunting and shooting large game at longer ranges with my rifles. ? Used a 100-yard range and a target with 1-inch squares to measure the distance from the crosshairs down to the tip of the thick post at the highest power. I then verified these measurements at longer known ranges to ensure accuracy. An alternate way that may work better for you is to secure your gun or scope (by its ring mount) in a vice, set the scope at its highest power, and view a reference/aim point and then count the clicks it takes to move the tip of the lower post up to the reference/aim point the crosshairs were set on. If the number of clicks is not consistent each time you check it, adjust the scope to half of the full power setting, e.g., 4.5x on a 9x sope, and count the clicks again. The count should be double what it was at max power. I usually reference an object that is about 100 yards away to eliminate parallax errors but you don’t have to know the exact range. Just move your eye around and if the crosshairs stay on your reference point you have minimized the possibility of a measurement error due to parallax. If the crosshairs move off the point of reference when your eye moves, select a different reference point farther away until the crosshairs don’t move relative to your reference point. This is the beauty of this method – you are really measuring minute of angle (MOA) so knowing the range to the reference point is not important. You then need to determine the value of your scope’s click, usually 0.25 inches or 0.5 inches at 100 yards. If you have a Burris scope, this information is listed on their website. Burris Scope Specs ? Determined the accuracy, or group size, for each of my rifles at 100 yards. When a rifle can shoot 2-inch groups at 100 yards, that’s adequate for most hunting situations. However, 2-inches at 100 yards can turn into 6 inches of bullet spread at 300 yards and 8 inches at 400 before you even account for other error contributors. My rifles typically shoots 3-shot groups an inch or less when I make sure their barrels are not copper fouled. Only my new Tikka .270 Win can shoot this accurately with factory ammunition. The .243 and .308 benefit from hand-loaded ammo customized for each rifle. Having enough accuracy to ensure a clean kill at longer ranges is critical. Thus, being able to shot groups an inch or under at 100 yards, which is the equivalent of 1 minute of angle (MOA) or better, is my go/no-go criteria for shooting at ranges beyond 300 yards. One MOA equals 1” at 100 yards, 2” at 200 yards, 3” at 300, 4” at 400, etc. ? Next, I set-up ballistic tables for each of my rifles. You can purchase ballistic software or use one of the many ballistic programs available on the web. HuntingNut’s Point Blank allows you to load an application and keep it on your computer. A simple and easy web-based ballistic program is available at http://www.biggameinfo.com/BalCalc.aspx. To use these ballistic applications you need to know your bullet’s muzzle velocity and ballistic coefficient (BC). You can find the BCs for your bullet at the manufacture’s website (see below). I didn’t have access to a chronograph to determine velocity so I sighted my rifles in at 100 yards then shot groups at 250 yards or greater without holdover and measured the bullet drop. I then varied the velocity in the ballistic program until I achieve the amount of bullet drop measured at the yardage I shot. The bullet drop for the .243 at 250 yards averaged 8.6 inches equating to a muzzle velocity of 2650 feet per second (fps). The .308 drop averaged 7.0 inches equating to 2960 fps, and the .270 dropped 4.1 inches equating to 3450 fps. If you have factory ammo and are unsure of the BC of your bullets, you can derive BC with the following technique. Input the manufacturer’s advertised velocity at the muzzle into the ballistic calculator, then vary the BC until the velocity at a longer range matches, i.e., 500 yards. You can then use this derived BC to determine your rifle’s performance with your specific muzzle velocity. Every rifle will shoot a bullet at a velocity different than the advertised factory velocity. At longer ranges, this difference is important if you want to be accurate. Bullet Manufacturers: Barnes, Berger, Lapua, Nosler, Speer, Sierra Factory Data (must derive BC): Federal, Remington (no data available), Winchester ? Using the duplex reticle measurements and ballistic tables created specific for each rifle, I generated reference cards detailing range, hold-over, scope magnification for BDC, and windage. You can download a zip’d Excel spreadsheet at the post below that will allow you to create a ballistic reference card for your specific rifle including ranging estimates based on using your scope’s duplex reticle and power setting by filling the post-to-crosshairs with the big game’s chest. I have a few examples on different tabs including one for .30-30. A method to extend your hunting range with a duplex reticle Reference data used during this project for Bullet Drop Compensation (BDC) and windage. ? You also have to know the distance to your target or the big game you are about to shoot at. On the rifle range, range to target is easy and pre-determined. In a hunting situation, this might not be so easy. During scouting, you can use a GPS unit to determine range to know objects from where you plan to shoot. A hunter can also use a laser range finder which is likely to be the most accurate and quickest method. If none of these are available to you, range estimating can be accomplished with Cabela’s and Leupold BDC reticles, a Mil-Dot reticle, or your duplex reticle. Most range estimation for deer size targets assumes a chest depth of 18 inches (bottom of the chest to the top of the back). Deer in warmer Southern states usually don’t grow this big and can have a chest height as small as 12 inches. We already have discussed that a 3-9x scope with 4 inches between the crosshairs and the tip of the duplex post at 100 yards will measure 18 inches at 400 yards on 8x. For a large size deer that makes the range estimate 400 yards. BTW, the Simmons 4-12x measured 3.5 inches from the post to crosshairs at 100 yards and can provide a range estimate on a deer with an 18-inch chest depth out to 520 yards. You can see there is the potential for range estimating errors if the assumed chest depth is incorrect. Thus, the advantages of a reliable laser range finder. A shooter can appreciate the importance of accurate ranging if one looks at the shot window at different ranges, i.e., how far your range estimate can be in error and still hit your intended target close to your point of aim. Allowing for up to 4 inches of bullet impact error assuming an 8-inch kill zone, the shot window for my .308 is ±30 yards at 350 yards (target must be between 320 to 380 yards to hit close to where you aim), ±25 yards at 400, ±15 yards at 500, and ±10 yards at 600 yards. ? Finally, I sighted in my rifles for 100 yards and practiced BDC at 300 yards using the tip of the lower post of the duplex reticle. It worked well with 3-shot group sizes varying from 2 to 2¾ inches (less than 1 MOA). I couldn’t have done any better with the crosshairs. With this preparation accomplished, I was ready to start shooting at longer range. Finding a range facility to shoot beyond 300 yards took a full Internet search and many phone calls. I did find a few within a 2-hr drive, all of which required memberships. So I joined a range, planned a day off from work, and fired 3-shot groups at 420 and 550 yards from a bench using sand bags at a full-size target of a deer (Southern size). Here is what I learned and my results. 1. You really can dial a scope in to 6½ power or even 6¾. If you adjust your magnification this precisely, you will get more precise hits. 2. The deer target didn’t give a precise aim point like a typical paper target and I found that I was unsure if I was picking the same aim point on the 2nd and 3rd shots particularly because I was trying to offset for the wind. This along with gusting wind conditions made groups a bit wider than I expected. 3. There wasn’t enough magnification for me to feel comfortable shooting at 550 yards, at least not without addition practice. With my .308, I had to use 3¼x at 550 yards. Based on this experience, I feel 450 yards using at least 5x magnification is my long-range comfort level using BDC with a duplex reticle. 4. My .243 load was reduced to lower recoil for my young son to shoot. It didn’t have a trajectory flat enough for the 4-12x Simmons to compensate for bullet drop beyond 500 yards. Nor does it have the kinetic energy to effectively harvest a deer much beyond 300 yards depending on the size of the animal. Just because you can place shots on paper accurately at longer distances doesn’t mean your rifle has the kinetic energy for a clean kill at those ranges. Longer range shots are not as precise as those closer in making kinetic energy that much more important. Recommendations vary, but once your bullet drops below 900 to 1000 ft/lbs of energy, the deer you plan to harvest should be on the small size. 5. The longer the range, the more wind becomes a factor. Gravity is a constant and you can consistently compensate for bullet drop. Wind, however, is variable and can quickly become the single most critical factor in making an effective shot at long range. Wind compensation is a developed skill that only comes with practice. A 5 mph crosswind component, affects the .308 bullet a ½ inch at 100 yards and around 1½ inches at 200. This starts to grow significantly at 300 yards where wind drift for a 5 mph crosswind component is over 4 inches. At 420 yards its 8½ inches, and at 550 yards its 16 inches. A 5 mph breeze isn’t much and some people wouldn’t notice. These numbers double if it’s a 10 mph crosswind. The wind on range day was 20 mph from behind with gusts. You can tell from the first shots I did with the .308 that I didn’t correctly estimate the 6 mph crosswind component in that tail wind. Once I knew that, the .243 and .270 shots were on target at that range. A tip for making sight corrections, I only make scope azimuth (L-R) adjustments at 100 yards or less because of how much affect even a light wind has on bullet placement at longer ranges. Elevation adjustments can be made in windy conditions as wind has little affect on bullet drop. Rifles used in this BDC project were a .243 w/ Simmons 4-12x, .308 w/ Leupold 3-9x, and .270 w/ Bushnell 2.5-16x Mil-Dot, left to right. Target was at 420 yards. The .308 grouping was shot first with insufficient wind compensation. Wind becomes a predominate factor at longer ranges. Conclusions: Using the tip of the duplex reticle’s thicker lower post and changing scope power for BDC provided accurate shot placement at longer ranges. At 550 yards, the magnification had to be reduced below what I felt comfortable for aim point placement. The 4-12x did not have an advantage over the 3-9x with respect to using a duplex reticle for BDC. Using the .308 as an example, both scopes will start providing precise BDC around 350 yards and run out of compensation after 550 yards, providing a 200-yard window for BDC compensation. For shots between 200 and 350 yards or the distance from your zero-range to where your scope’s full power setting intersects your bullet’s trajectory, the shooter must hold over. However, because we now know the measurement of the gap between the crosshairs and lower post, our holdover can be more precise. In a hunting situation when I had the time to adjust magnification, I would use this method for BDC with a duplex reticle. If time was of the essence, however, I would keep things simple and use a constant magnification setting that provided 18 inches of compensation at a range near what I considered my maximum. This would allow me to make a quick range estimate to ensure the big game was within my maximum range criteria, then hold over for a shot as appropriate for the range. For my .243, I would choose 300 yards as my maximum effective range and set my scope on 7x. With my .308, I would use 400 yards as max effective range with the scope set on 8x, then use a ¼ down from the crosshairs for holdover at 250 yards, 2/3 for 300, ¾ for 325, the post for 350 to 375, and hold 4” high at 400. Essentially, I have established two zero ranges for my .308, e.g., the crosshairs are set for 200 yards and the tip of the post for 375 yards at 8x magnification, an 18-inch trajectory drop. If you consider this strategy a bit closer, this set-up compliments BCD hold-over and is quite elegant. With my .308 set on 8x, if the chest of the deer reaches from the tip of the lower post to the tip of the top post, the target is 200 yards away, the zero-range I’m using for my .308. Thus the tip of the top post to the crosshairs is a range estimation scale from 200 to 400 yards. If you divide this top section into thirds, you have your range estimate without touching your magnification ring, e.g., 1/3 down from the top tip is 250 yards, 2/3 down is 300 yards, and half-way from there to the crosshairs is 350 yards (see the pictures below). If the deer’s chest doesn’t reach the crosshairs then the deer is beyond my maximum effective range. These are numbers I can remember without looking at a reference card and will accurately extend the precision shooting range of my current rifles. Back to the opening question, do I have the confidence to take a shot at 420 yards? It depends. As good as these shots may look, my first shot, the one that counts, would not have been accurate enough at 420 yards for a clean kill because I did not compensate correctly for the wind. At 550 yards, none of my shots hit the chest area because of addition wind compensation errors caused by changing winds and the fact that wind error doubles from 420 to 550 yards. Next time you read an article about a hunter that made a clean kill out to 400-plus yards, you better believe that hunter had practiced enough to become one with their rifle and one with the environment if there was any wind. My next purchase will most likely be a laser range finder and a wind meter or some tal***** powder to help gauge the wind. Then I need plenty of practice before I become a precision long range shooter and have confidence in my abilities to hunt big game at extended ranges. There is no substitute for practice! Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:41:05 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=73 In the process of researching a new scope selection, I investigated the bullet drop compensation (BDC) reticles I found in scopes that I could afford to purchase. I saw no clear choice for my application. Each manufacturer’s BDC set-ups had advantages and disadvantages. Here is an overview of the different reticles I looked at. __________________________ Burris has a Ballistic Plex and a Ballistic Mil-Dot Reticle. They both have similar BDC tics on the lower portion of the reticle but the latter gives you the advantages of Mil-Dots on the upper and horizontal cross-hairs. The Ballistic Mil-Dot is only offered on higher power scopes, 4-16X and above and 14x is used for the BDC reference. There is no wind compensation integrated with the Burris reticles. The Ballistic Plex crosshairs are designed for a 100-yard zero for standard calibers and 200 yards for flatter shooting calibers. The Ballistic Mil-Dot crosshairs are designed for a 100-yard zero and intended for flat shooting calibers. Burris has a wealth of information on their website but it is hard to find. Try the web address below to download Burris’ BDC files. With a Ballistic PlexTM and 100-yard zero, my .308 would be 2 to 3 inches high beyond 300 yards. Using a 200-yard zero, the ballistic match had even more disparity between this BDC reticle and my .308 rifle’s trajectory. Burris BDC Reticles __________________________ DOA Bushnell has introduced a BDC reticle called DOA, Dead On Accurate. It is designed to be sighted in at 100 yards with aiming references out to 600 yards and is referenced to the scope’s maximum power setting except for their 4.5-30x scopes which are referenced to 20x. Heat mirage affects could be an issue on hot days with the 2.5-16x and 4.5-30x models. Scope power can only be decreased to tune to your ballistics if your rifle doesn’t shoot as flat as Bushnell’s BDC settings except for the 4.5-30x models. The DOA reticle is unique in that it provides range estimating by references 18” or 24” wide marks to the ears tips of a whitetail or mule deer, respectfully. Deer in Southern States typically have an ear tip to ear tip spread of around 13 inches. To get the DOA’s range estimating technique to work, you have to be looking at a large deer and get the deer to look in your direction. This isn’t the case for other BDC reticles that provide range estimates based on the height of a deer’s chest cavity. The best application of these spread marks is to reference antler size when the deer is at a known range. The DOA crosshair reference points use a 1 MOA filled-in circle, 4 times the size of a typical crosshair. There is no wind compensation designed into this scope other than what you can derive from the 9” and 12” reference marks each side of the vertical crosshair. Using a 100-yard zero with my .308 rifle’s trajectory and magnification set at 13.5x for the 2.5-16x scope, the ballistic impacts were on at 200 and 300 yards, an inch high at 400, then much higher at longer ranges by 4 to 10 inches. I found this to be the case with other calibers using boat-tail bullets. The only close ballistic matches I found to this reticle at longer ranges were with flat-based bullets, e.g., Remington’s .243 100gr Core-Lokt and Federal’s.270 130gr Soft Point, .270 150gr Soft Point Round Nose, or .30-06 150gr Soft Points. These are not bullets I would use for long range hunting. Bushnell DOA Reticle __________________________ Cabela’s Alaskan Guide Rangefinder BDC scopes have the quickest range estimation to shot down-range that you can find. You don’t have to twist any knobs, take your eyes off your target, or take your rifle off your shoulder to read a dial. The reticle grows and shrinks with magnification, like a European-style scope, so range estimation and BDC work at any magnification setting. This means there is no capability to change magnification to tune the BDC reticle for your rifles performance. The advantage of this set-up is simplicity, e.g., you don’t have to remember to set a magnification to get the correct BDC or worry that it might get bumped off your setting. There are no thick posts to help with low-light situations. The scope is intended for a 200 yard zero with 8 inches of trajectory drop at 300 yards, 23 inches at 400, and 44 inches at 500, typical of .30-06-like performance with boat-tail bullets. The only tuning you can do to match your rifle’s performance is to sight your rifle in slightly high or low at 200 yards to better fit the trajectory drop marks at longer ranges. You can also do simple windage estimation because the centerline circles allow you to project a 9-inch cone either side of the center crosshair at any range. If this BDC reticle closely matches your rifle’s performance, like it did my .308 and the .30-06 factory ammo I checked, it is a good option to consider. __________________________ Cabela’s new EXT Reticle was recently introduced on their Pine Ridge and Alpha Series scopes. Unlike Cabela’s Alaskan Guide Rangefinder (above), it is intended to be sighted in at 100 yards. You can also tune the EXT Reticle to your rifles trajectory by lowering magnification if your rifle doesn’t shoot as flat as the EXT Reticle’s ballistic compensation or increasing magnification if your rifle does shoot a flatter trajectory (up to 20%). On their Alpha Series 3-12x scope, the EXT Reticle is referenced to 10x for rifles with .30-06 or similar performance. The directions do not provide any MOA values so I set the scope up in a vise, viewed a point target at about 100 yards to eliminate parallax, and used the elevation turret to click off the distance between BDC marks. The ballistic drop for each BDC reference at 10x measured as follows; 200 yard-tic, 3”/1.5 MOA; 300, 11.3”/3.75; 400, 25”/6.25; and 500 yard, 46”/9.25 MOA. Again, increasing magnification above 10x reduces these values proportionally and reducing the power setting increases these values proportionally. Horizontal BDC crosshairs are 3 MOA wide at 10x except for the wider 300 yard reference which is 8 MOA. This equates to 24 inches wide, 12 inches either side of the crosshair at 300 yards at 10x. For my .308 with the 3-12x scope, the ballistic match was right on at all ranges with the magnification set at 9x. I verified this with shots at 100 and 300 yards. Based on factory data, 9x was also a good power setting for.30-06 ammo with 150 gr boat-tails. My .270 Win with 150 gr Berger VLD bullets had a good ballistic match with the power set at 10.8x. This scope provides an affordable and effective BDC solution. __________________________ Nikon’s BDC reticle uses a series of circles for aim points sized to be 2 inches at 100 yards or 2 MOA, i.e., 4 inches at 200 yards, 6 inches at 300 yards, etc. There is no wind compensation integrated with their BDC reticle. The reticle is designed for a 100-yard zero for standard calibers and 200 yards for flatter shooting calibers. The top and bottom of the aiming circles can be used for intermediate ranges. With a 100 yard zero, if you rifle shoots flatter than the reticle’s trajectory compensation, then you can either compensate for point of impact being high or sight in for 200 yards and turn down the magnification to tune the scope to your rifle’s trajectory curve. As an example with my .308, the downrange impacts would be 1 to 2½ inches high with 100 yard zero (this would be considered adequate for most hunting situations). I could sight in for 200 yards and get a good trajectory match with a 3-9x scope set on 7.6x magnification. If I want to shoot at 9x with a 200-yard zero, I would have to define specific ranges for each circle. Example, the first 1st circle would be on target at 285 yards, the 2nd circle would be on at 375 yards, etc. Nikon BDC Reticle __________________________ Leupold has a capable set-up with range estimation and wind compensation available on their VX-III scopes. Range estimation is accomplished by adjusting magnification until the animal’s chest fills the crosshairs up to the tip of the top thick post then reading the range in hundreds of yards on the other side of the power ring. Range estimation assumes an 18-inch chest depth. Wind compensation on their Boone & Crockett Reticle is for a 10 mph crosswind component. Depending on the performance of your rifle, zero ranges are designed to be 200 or 300 yards with some calibers requiring a lower power setting for accurate trajectory matching which is marked by a small triangle at 8x on their 3.5-10x and 11.2x on their 4.5-14x scopes. You can fine tune the BDC reticle to your rifles performance by adjusting the magnification to provide proportionally more or less bullet drop. In the case of my .308 and their 3.5-10x scope with a 200 yard zero, the BDC reticle would be tuned with the scope set on 8.8 magnification. Specific reticle details regarding calipers, bullet velocities, and MOA of reticle markings can be downloaded from the Leupold’s website, file name “Leupold Ballistics Reticle Supplement” (see link below). The Leupold VX-III scopes have less range of magnification than other manufactures, e.g., 3.5-10x vs 3-12x, 4.5-14x vs 4-16x. Leupold’s 4.5-14x is nice at the higher power settings but if you read the specification, their 4.5 is really a 5x magnification (4.9x). Leupold B&C Reticle __________________________ EBX Weaver is entering the market with a BDC reticle (Fall 2009). Their EBX reticle is offered on their Super SlamTM scopes which have a 5:1 magnification capability, e.g., 2-10x, 3-15x, and 4-20x. The EBX provides wind compensation for a 10 mph crosswind component. You should be able to fine tune the EBX reticle to your rifles performance by adjusting the magnification to provide proportionally more bullet drop if your rifle doesn’t shoot as flat as Weaver’s BDC. Preliminary plans are to reference the EBX reticle at full power. If your rifle shoots flatter you will have to use different ranges, e.g., .270 Win 110gr bullets would be 200 yards, 330, 455, and 570 yards (use link below for your specific caliber). In the case of my .308 and their 3-15x scope with a 200 yard zero, the BDC reticle would be tuned with the scope set on 13.5x magnification. If Weaver goes into production with the EBX reticle referenced to full power, then there is the possibility heat mirage affects could be an issue on hot days with the 3-15x and 4-20x models. If Weaver references the EBX reticle on these two models to a power setting less than 15x and 20x, then these models will have the capability to be tuned to for flatter shooting rifles. Weaver EBX Reticle __________________________ The Mil-Dot reticle has a center crosshair with dots spaced one milli-radian apart, the equivalent of 3.6 MOA or 3.6 inches at 100 yards. The dots are typically 0.2 mils in diameter. A Mil-Dot scope can do it all; range estimation, BDC, and windage. However, it takes some calculation and memorization of what range each mil-dot represents. Some shooters affix a ballistic reference card to their rifle stock. Range estimates for a deer or antelope sized target, assuming an 18-inch chest, are 5 mils for a deer at 100 yards, 2.5 mils for 200 yards, 1.7 for 300, 1.25 for 400, and 1.0 mil for 500 yards. Military sniper scopes of the recent past have been 10x which has become a standard reference for many variable power Mil-Dot scopes but not all. Thus, check to make sure what magnification power the Mil-Dot reticle is reference to. Some manufacturers will use the scopes maximum power. You can search the web and find abundant information on how to use a Mil-Dot scope. Mil Dot Reticle Website 1 Mil Dot Reticle Website 2 __________________________ There is an aspect of BDC reticles that I didn’t realize before I bought my Mil-Dot scope. You can usually reduce magnification to provide increase trajectory drop, but if your rifle shoots flatter, there is typically not an option to increase magnification to reduce trajectory drop because most of the BDC settings are already designed for a scope’s highest power settings. Your option is to sight in at a longer range like 200 or 300 yards and or learn to compensate for your bullets impacts being high at each range tic. As it turns out, a Mil-Dot reticle is best for my application because my .270 Winchester load, using Barnes’ 110 gr TTSX copper banded bullets with their higher velocity, shoots flatter than the BDC reticles I considered. The only BDC scope that would have come close to matching my rifles performance was the Burris Ballistic Mil-DotTM but at the longer ranges my impacts were still high. If you rifle is a flat shooter, I would suggest doing some homework to see how well the BDC scope you intend on buying can be matched to your rifle’s performance. This may also be important with standard calibers because each BDC reticle is different. I've posted the the zip'd Excel file in a separate post where you can also add your experience with BDC Reticles. Scopes with BDC Reticles for Centerfire Rifles This file will allow you to compare trajectories to the different BDC reticles and determine what magnification setting best tunes to your rifle’s performance. If you fine tune a BDC to your rifle’s performance by reducing the scopes magnification, you will most likely need to mark that power setting in some manner as a reference. The examples of BDC tuning to my .308 in the paragraphs above were done referencing ballistic trajectory tables and the fore mentioned Excel spreadsheet. In all cases, verification of your rifle’s performance needs to be accomplished with shots downrange. Remember, there is no substitute for practice!!! Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:53:07 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=72 Ruger #1 Accuracy by Ed Harmon First a notification: Ruger takes the position that any modification to their guns voids their warranty. They also consider hand loads a no-no. If you return a gun for work that has been modified they may just return it without work being performed and charge you shipping, so be aware and consider the potential consequences before you modify your Ruger firearm. Forearm The #1 and the #3 Rifles, upon examination, are obviously designed to have the forearm separated from the barrel otherwise the forearm would be screwed to the barrel, like a Martini or Martini Cadet. The two actions are the same without the levers and both will take the same barrels. Why are the barrels not free floated from contact with the wood of the forearm at the factory? Forget the hype, it is purely economic. To get the correct clearance under the barrel and along each side of the barrel, takes time and time is money in manufacturing. Ok, we start by removing the forearm from the rifle. You can, if you wish, try the O ring trick by buying a couple of O rings at the hardware store to fit the shank of the forend screw. Before any modification, put one O ring at a time between the hangar and the wood. This sometimes will work. Otherwise we continue. If you are familiar with glass bedding a rifle to start with, you relieve the wood to provide an even line down both sides of the barrel; a barrel channel rasp helps to make this job quick and easy. If you have not done a glass bed for a barrel channel before, put the forearm back in place, run a pencil down the wood, alongside the barrel and cut the wood back to the pencil line using a barrel channel rasp. Go slow; it is difficult to stick wood back on. Use a fine cut flat wood rasp or a course flat steel file to straighten the lines if needed. Then use a sanding block to finish. You will need one layer of Duct Tape on each side for clearance. Stick a layer of duct tape on the barrel lengthwise and when the forearm fits back on the barrel just a bit snugly, you are about right. Once you get the sides cut you can start on the bottom, where the hanger makes contact. With an oil burner, soot up the hangar and barrel, pressing the forearm into place. With the barrel channel rasp remove all marks in the barrel channel. Then go back to the hanger contact area and with a motor tool and small carbide router bit, remove the marks or the contact points made by the hanger. You only need to rough up three points because the will need to be extended or built up in any case. In the attached photos an arrow points to the three places that require glass. All you need do is rough the surface of the wood so the glass will stick, without peeling or flaking off. Put two layers of duct tape only along the bottom of the barrel then coat the metal and the tape with Johnson’s Paste Wax, two coats, making very sure to get all metal surfaces well coated. The metal is ready for the glass bedding process. Now put a dab of glass, mixed per the instructions, onto the places as indicated. I use Popsicle sticks to place the glass into the recessed areas of a stock. The photo gives you an idea about the amount of glass you need which is not a lot. Place the back of the forearm into the receiver and then bring the front of the forearm up and into the mount position. Screw the forearm screw in until it is just snug, but do not over tighten. Make sure to coat the screw with wax. Leave enough glass to set the wood out but not enough to get the forearm *****ed out of square, just look at the top of the barrel and the top of the forend, you can see when these two appear to be parallel. After the glass is setup you can dress the interior with the motor tool on the sides of the bearing surface, just do not touch the top surface where the hangar makes contact. Remove the duct tape from the barrel. If you have done everything correctly the fore end will mount firmly and allow a dollar bill to be inserted and moved back all the way to the receiver. Put two coats of stock finish on the raw wood surface to seal it and you are done with the forend. Barrel Rib The next item to address (step 2) is the barrel rib. This is where the rear sight mounts and the scope rings mount. Again remove the fore end and scope rings if any. Before you do anything else, with the rib in place, firmly mounted, check the rear of the rib to make sure there is clearance between the rear of the rib and the front of the receiver. Then remove the screws holding the rib onto the barrel; the rib will not fall off, because it is held in place by two vertical solid steel pins that go through the rib into the top of the barrel. With the buttstock held firmly in your weak hand, strike the barrel just in front of the rib with a mallet (not a hammer); repeat until the rib separates from the barrel slightly. With a plastic or wood wedge, pry the rib up and off of the barrel. A screwdriver can be used, but it must be used with great care and very gently, least you scratch the barrel. If the pins come out of the barrel and stay in the rib, use a vice grip or a vice to remove the pins, grasping the bottom and pull out with a twisting motion. If the pins stay in the barrel, remove them with vice grips. If the pins refuse to budge from the barrel, cut them off near flush with a cut off wheel on a motor tool. Then dress the pins down flush, with a fine file, being very careful not to remove bluing outside the area covered by the rib. If you saw that there was no clearance between the rear of the rib and the front of the receiver you must create the clearance. With rib off the barrel, remove metal from the vertical surface at the rear of the rib (keeping it as square as possible) for clearance at the receiver. When finished getting the clearance desired, about a notepaper thickness or .003, blue the cut with a dab of cold blue, then oil the surface to stop the process or this area will rust. Once the pins are removed or they are cut off, clean the screws and the screw holes in the barrel with acetone or another degreaser. Then put the rib back in place, it should shift or slide freely if you have properly dressed any pins that were cut off. Now remove the rib. Then coat each screw shank with blue locktite and put a drop of locktite in each screw hole, Return the rib and screw each screw down until it is snug, but not to tight. “Not tight” is very important, the rib must allow the barrel to vibrate and also the rib must hold the sights or scope true. A good description of this is finger tight using a screwdriver, but not crush tight. Let the locktite set up. Return the forend to the rifle and after the locktite has set, mount your scope. Try to move the scope. If the scope moves, and you can see that it is the rib moving, the rib is too loose. Take the rib off and remount the rib again, making the screws a little tighter, with fresh locktite. Make very sure you still have clearance between the rib and receiver when you mount the rib. General information about a #1 A. Removing the buttstock is just like removing a shotgun buttstock, it has a pull bolt in the butt, under the recoil pad. B. The extractor in a #1 can be replaced to convert any #1 to any other cartridge offered. You can buy extractors from Ruger. C. Any #1 barrel will fit any #1 rifle. It just has to be properly headspaced and possibly have a reamer run into the chamber once the barrel is properly headspaced and aligned. This does not mean all barrels will headspace in any rifle, only that all barrels will screw into all receivers, the must be *****d and rarely will a barrel from one gun just thread up properly, on another receiver. D. Once you remove the buttstock the rest of the innards of a #1 are pretty simple and very accessible. That is why after market replacement parts, like triggers, hammers and firing pins are sold to the public. E. #1 Barrels, forearms and buttstocks will fit on a #3 action. The lever on the #3 must be replaced or cut to make the transition to what I call a #13. I have a #3, 22 Hornet that I converted to a 7mm Rem Mag #13 in such a fashion. F. Today when I acquire a #1 or #3 I perform the accuracy modifications when I hit the door and the rifle never sees daylight again until it is fixed. If the rifle is used, I also de-lead / de-copper the barrel. G. The acceptable accuracy for a #1, by the factory standards, if 4 inches at 100 yards. I have seen this stated in writing from Ruger to customers. Most #1 or #3 rifles will shoot 2-3 inch groups at 100 yards. H. Many shooters believe the #1 or #3 barrels are inferior and will remove a brand new barrel to rebarrel the action. The result is some pretty inexpensive alternative chambering floating around. Example, I have purchased a new #1 barrel for as little as $36. I have yet to find a #1 that will not shoot under an inch once the barrel is cleaned, free floated and the rib relieved as described. Photos: http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=0 #1 Forend Barrel Clarence http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=3 #1 Forend with hanger glass points marked 1 http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=2 #1 Forend with hanger glass points marked 2 http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=4 #1 Barrel with Pin placements marked http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=1 #1 Rib & Receiver with point for clearance marked Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:45:38 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=70 There are two philosophies regarding recoil springs. The first has to do with physics and reliability. If the recoil spring is too strong the ejected cases will be thrown forward. If the recoil spring is too light the ejected cases will be thrown aft. When the recoil spring is correct the cases will be ejected to the side of the gun. This gives maximum ejection reliability. It also gives maximum feeding reliability. If the recoil spring is too light the slide goes fully aft, but the spring isn’t strong enough to get the slide up to speed before the slide engages the next round. The slow speed also produces a prolonged feed cycle, that gives the cartridge maximum time to tip down before it hits the feed ramp, which lower the probability of a successful feed. After the round contacts the ramp the spring is too weak to reliably push the nose of the cartridge up the feed ramp and into the chamber. If the recoil spring is too strong the slide does not go fully aft, and while the spring is strong, the slide travel before the slide engages the next round in the magazine is too short to develop the slide velocity needed for reliable feeding, so again the feeding cycle is slow to start with, leading to a higher probability of the nose of the cartridge tipping down, leading to a lower probability of a successful feed. With the correct recoil spring the slide goes aft and the spring is strong enough to get the slide up to full speed before engaging the next round, and it is strong enough to push the nose of the cartridge up the feed ramp and into the chamber. This give optimum feeding reliability. The second has to do with shootability. If the recoil spring is weak, the feeding of the next round is weak, and the slide velocity as the gun goes into battery is slow, so the gun muzzle doesn’t tip down as the slide stops in battery. Lots of shooters believe this improves shot to shot time and accuracy, because they perceive gun motion is less between shots. But, that is because the slide cycle is slowed considerably, and the cycling force are lower and spread out, but the gun doesn’t get back into battery until just before pulling the trigger for the next shot. With the correct spring the cycle time is only 50 milliseconds so the gun is back in battery a tenth of a second before the next shot. The shooter’s perception is the gun is jerking around more, but the truth is the gun is back into battery quicker, and the reloading cycle is reliable and consistent, so the shooter eventually learns, with practice, to predictably put the second shot where the first shot went. Using a lighter spring introduces a more variable reloading cycle, because the reliability is lower, so the shooter’s brain is never sure exactly how the gun is going to be behaving prior to the following shot, which leads to problems with predictable second shot placement. Cheers, Vince Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:47:32 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=69 Widow Maker Ed Harmon Whitetail hunting in New Hampshire was a ritual for me. I would get together with my buddies from High School and we would all plan our first day of vacation to coincide with the first day of deer season. Bob had an uncle who owned a three-bedroom house on a lake in the western part of the state. We called the house on the lake “the camp.” The camp had one of those old, large, black, table model radios with a big lit horizontal indicator for its AM, FM and Short Wave dials. There was no TV or other entertainment, except what we ourselves made. In the back right of the house was a kitchen and in the front right, without a door or wall separation was the living room. In the living room stood a big potbelly wood burning stove for heat. On the left side of the building were three bedrooms with doors directly off the living room and kitchen, without a hallway. Every year we would get eight guys together and all go up to “the camp” for a week of daytime deer hunting and nighttime card playing, story telling and libation. Going to the camp was the social event of the year for most of us. This hunting week was something we looked forward to, all year long. There were two guys in our group that did not hunt at all. However, those two fellows still could not wait to go to “the camp.” Going to camp started when we were all in High School together and continued after we returned from military service during the Vietnam War. Three of us, Bob, Charlie and I had gone into the Army under the Buddy Program. To give you an idea about how important the camp was to us, the day Kennedy was shot we left for the camp for a weeklong stay, it was the first week of deer season. So yes I know where I was when Kenned was shot, I was on my way to the camp… In the fall of 1969, the afternoon before deer hunting season opened, we all left for camp, just as we had many times in prior years. The unusual part of this trip was that snow was predicted for that night. Most people think it snows in New Hampshire all of the time, but in truth, snow for the opening day of deer season is pretty rare. We as a group were excited about the prospect of getting up in the morning to find a fresh new blanket of snow. Tracking deer after such a snowfall would be easy and we all pretty much thought we could count on a good opening day’s hunt. Our group hunted deer using two methods, one method was stalking combined with still-hunting. The other method involved using drivers or driving an area with a line of hunters moving through the woods towards blockers at the other end of the area. The blockers usually stood on a dirt road or along a power line. I preferred stalking and still hunting and would usually go off alone in the morning, to hunt one of the nearby mountain areas. When we got up in this opening day morning, well before daylight, Berry was already cooking breakfast. Berry was one of the two that never hunted; he stayed at the camp as our cook. Berry drank an awful lot and usually was too hung over to go anywhere. But, he was a good guy, under the influence or sober, and he could cook with the best chefs around. He also had a big 8-point buck to his credit. The prior year he had gone to the spring to fetch a bucket of water for the kitchen and walked up on a big 8 point that was drinking at the spring. When we big white hunters arrived back at the camp that night, after a fruitless day of wandering all over hill and dale, there hung a big magnificent buck and Berry was passed out from celebrating. This morning though, I went through the kitchen and opened the back door and looked out into the ink black morning. There in the patch of light, cast through the open doorway I saw bare ground, no snow, not one bit of snow had fallen. I thought to myself; “Well this is going to be a normal hunt looks like, no snow, just cold, damp and windy.” After we ate breakfast, we split up and headed off to our agreed hunting areas. I drove my car to a dim logging road on the southeast side of my day’s pick of mountains. Not a high mountain, more like a big hill to folks that are used to the Rockies. No problem at all, drove right to my spot, no other hunters around, etc. By the time I parked the car, I could see small snow flakes in the headlights, just blowing in the wind. It had just started spitting snow. Those first flakes looked like little specks of white ash in the headlights. I thought to myself, great, now it starts snowing. When I got out of the car I noticed the wind had picked up. I had my heavy wool, hunting jacket on and knew that the jacket would shed sleet or snow without a problem. I got my 6.5x06 Mauser out of it’s case, checked the 2x power Bushnell scope to make sure it was clear and free of obstruction and pulled 5 rounds out of my pocket. Once the rifle was loaded and slung over my shoulder I was off on my 3-mile walk. It was just before full daylight, with the first rays of light starting to brighten the eastern sky under the snow clouds. This was going to be a beautiful day in the woods. I headed up the dim logging road, a short ways, to a trail intersection. The trail off to the right went around the mountain to the mountain’s northwest side. That trail led to an area that had a large grove of beechnut trees. Within the beechnut grove were several big trees that had been blown down over the years. The beechnuts provided good feed for the deer and the downed trees gave them shelter and cover. That area of nut trees was my destination this morning. Off, up the right trail I went. The further I walked, the larger and wetter the snowflakes became. About a quarter of the way to my destination, I decided to cut across the top of the mountain to the other side, in order to save time. I knew I had to go through an area that was populated by huge spruce trees but that should be no problem this morning. I had seen the trees in the past but had not gone through that spruce forest before, preferring to skirt the area. Some of those spruce trees were 6 feet in diameter and almost 80 feet tall. But, the underbrush was almost nonexistent under those big trees where the ground was covered by spruce needles, so the walking would be quick and very quiet, once I got to that area. When I reached the top of the mountain I came out of the lea of the mountain itself. I was deep into the spruce forest and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The snowfall had become very heavy. The snowfall was so heavy that I could not see 20 feet in any direction. The snowfall was approaching white out conditions and was now more a blizzard than a snowfall. I noticed the snow was about a foot deep on the sides of the trees. This was not looking good, the snow was so wet and heavy it was sticking to everything. All of a sudden I heard a near by high power rifle shot and froze where I stood, looking around, trying to figure out where the shot had come from. Then I heard thunder, off in the distance. I thought to myself, damn that is strange, a thunderstorm in a snowstorm. Hey, wait just a minute, it does not lightning in a snowstorm. That was when I heard the second rifle shot, “BOOM-CRACK’ then I heard the whistling, it was the same sound that air rushing sound an artillery projectile makes as it goes overhead. I felt my skin get real tight and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had spent three years as an artillery forward observer; I knew what I was hearing, something big going through the air over me. Then the explosion came; it was about 25 yards away by the sound of it. Then the next rifle shot, and I froze dead still. I was instantly stone cold in my tracks, mind racing… The memories flooded back, I recalled, in a flash, a short story I once read about a snowstorm in the north woods, I took a deep breath. Oh, my God, it isn’t rifles or artillery; the tops of the giant spruce trees are breaking out and falling. I was in the middle of a spruce forest, in a blizzard, during the most dreaded natural event of the north woods, the arrival of the deadly and legendary Widow Maker. I am now standing there, stark still, looking, straining to see anything beyond the white wall all around me, I cannot see anything up or around, and the tops of trees are falling and they are starting to fall faster and faster. I started to move out between the trees. Then I heard a real loud rifle shot and froze, I could tell it was not right over me by the sound it made while falling, it hit about 20 feet away, just on the edge of my visible world. The jagged trunk was over a foot in diameter. When this several ton monster hit the ground it threw sticks, rocks, broken limbs and snow in all directions. It covered me with debris. I noticed it hit very close to the base of the tree it had come from. It is hard to describe the feeling that goes through you when disaster is all around and you cannot see or tell the direction of the next stroke. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge and get away from this place. Off in the edge of my vision I could see a lighter area that I figured to be a small clearing. I moved forwards and on, out into the little clearing and got as far away from any tree as I could. Then I turned back towards what I thought was the direction of the southeastern slope. It was at that point that I found that I had left my compass in the car. I tried to go back down the mountain. However, I could not tell whether I was going down, up or around the mountain. My original tracks had disappeared in the blizzard conditions. With such limited visibility the ravines on a mountain’s side can fool you. I knew that south of my destination; around the mountain, was a large alder marsh in a big hollow, near the top of the mountain. So I started out in what I hoped was the direction of the marsh. I knew the marsh had no big trees in it. Now, all around me, the spruce forest sounded like a full-fledged firefight, rifles firing followed by explosions interlaced and continuous sounds of debris falling and ricocheting off trees. This peaceful little piece of Evangeline had turned into a white hell in just minutes. It was about that time that a big spruce top boomed-cracked and fell hitting the ground about 10 feet away, just missing me. I had a chunk of broken limb about 4 inched in diameter and 6 foot long go whistling past my head, whirling madly, and then I was blasted by a combination of flying snow, bark, dirt and rocks. Whew, that was close, real close. I spotted another light spot in the snow wall, another small clearing, and made for it. By this time I had traveled a good ways and thought I was over the top of the mountain heading south, down the back slope towards the marsh. As long as the wind had not changed direction, I was on the right track. Now the snow was knee-deep. Keep going, keep going, quickly, do not panic, I kept telling myself. A little ways more and I came to the edge of the marsh, it was full of water covered by ice and full of small alder trees. I stopped for a second, until the next rifle shot, and then off into the 2-foot deep ice covered; freezing water I went, out into the marsh, away from the big spruce trees. Spruce trees surrounded the alder marsh. I stood out in the middle of the marsh listening to the war in the forest. I stood there until the noise slacked off and the wind died down some. Just how long I standing in the icy water, I really do not know. Once the war slackened to a shot now and then on through the marsh I went and out the other side. By that time, I could no longer feel my knees or feet; my legs below my knees were like two clubs. I was headed down the south side of the mountain towards the direction of the car or at worst the dirt road that went around the base of the mountain. I had been walking for about an hour when I stopped for a moment, it was then I heard a noise, far off and very faint, it sounded like a horn. I heard it again and realized it was a car horn, very far away and down the mountain. It struck me, like a flash, “that is my car horn.” To this day I have no idea why or how I recognized that horn. I started toward the horn. Now I knew exactly where I was and how far my car was from where I stood. I started out for the car through a narrow band of small spruce and out into some hardwood trees on the other side. I could see about 50 yards now and did not see any of the big hardwood trees down. A little farther on and I came to the same trail I had started out on in the morning. When I arrived at the car, there stood Bob with a concerned look that flashed into a big grin when he saw me. Bob was driving back to the camp. He was thinking he would be the last one back, when he just happened to look up a logging road as he drove past. It was the logging road I was parked on. Bob thought he saw the rear of my car in the snow. He stopped, backed up, parked, and walked in to find my car and no me. He was blowing my horn, to let me know where my car was, just in case I was lost in the blizzard. Bob and I returned to the camp to find our group all safe and sound, drinks in hand, sitting around the potbelly stove. That day in 1969, 11 hunters were lost on the first day of deer season in New Hampshire during the blizzard of 69. I am just lucky I was not number 12. [align=center][b] Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:49:12 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=68 Paper cartridges for muzzle loaders When I started doing Civil War reenactments in 1981 the first thing I learned was to make paper cartridges for my reproduction 1853 Enfield. Over time I experimented some and found a method that has worked well for me. “Rolling” a live cartridge is slightly different than making up a blank one so I’ll explain both methods. My tools for rolling paper cartridges consist of a brass tube with a plastic funnel glued into one end and wooden dowel that will slide inside the brass tube. For a .58 or .69 caliber cartridge I use a 0.5” diameter brass tube. I want the cartridge to fit inside the muzzle for easy pouring. For a smaller cartridge I’d use a smaller tube, maybe a 0.375” diameter tube for a .45 caliber. An easy way to cut the paper is suggested, I use an X-Acto cutting board. The original Civil War paper cartridges consisted of five parts: the bullet, the powder, a paper powder tube, a paper wrapper and a piece of thread to tie off the end of the cartridge. The powder tube was made of a heavy paper; card stock seems to work well. The wrapper needs to be sturdy enough to endure moderate handling but weak enough to be easily torn using the teeth. Newsprint paper works well. You might have to do some experimenting to determine what size to cut your paper for the powder tube. You want the tube to hold your powder charge with just a little room to spare. For the 60 grain charge (by volume) used in the .58 caliber I found that a 2” by 2.5” rectangle would work. I marked my brass tube with a permanent marker 1.5” from the end so I’d have a powder tube that tall. The standard wrapper for the .58 caliber cartridge is a trapezoid shape with base measuring 4.33”, the short side measuring 3.0” and the long side measuring 5.25”. The long side runs the length of the cartridge and the pointed end will be the part you tie off. I again marked my brass tube 4” from the end to show the correct position for the wrapper. Now to get to rolling… Place the piece of card stock for the powder tube in position on the brass tube and roll it around the brass. Fold the seam across the opening of the brass and then fold the rest of the paper in to close the end. Use the wooden dowel to push down through the brass to help secure this fold. Position the bullet at the closed end of the powder tube and wrap them both with the outer wrapper. Twist the exposed end to conform to the shape of the nose of the bullet. You can stand this on the funnel end of the brass tube while you tie the pointed end off with a piece of strong thread. Invert the brass tube and pour your pre-measured powder charge into the cartridge through the funnel. Slide the cartridge off of the brass tube, nose down of course! Flatten the wrapper tube from the end to just above the powder tube. Fold this flat across the mouth of the powder tube and then up the side of the cartridge. Some like to fold this tail in half lengthwise, or even into thirds, to provide a better grip for your teeth when opening it. For a blank cartridge I dispense with the powder tube, and obviously the bullet! I cut a 4” square of newsprint and wrap it around the brass tube, leaving about 0.5” hanging off the end. Fold this as you do with the powder tube to close the end. Dump the pre-measured powder into the funnel. For .58 caliber blanks I use 30 grains of powder, all you need is the bang and some smoke. For .69 caliber I have to step up to 50 grains to get reliable ignition. Apparently the smaller charge can lie beneath the path of the spark in the larger bore. Slide the cartridge off of the tube and fold the tail as before, a little above the level of the powder. Note that the cartridge paper is discarded and NEVER placed in the bore for reenactments! To use the cartridge you hold it in the right hand with the bullet down. Grip the cartridge so you control the powder tube and push the tail up for easy access. Grip the tail in your teeth and tear it off, exposing the open end of the powder tube. Spit the tail out, unless you like chewing newsprint. Dump the powder into the muzzle of the gun. Break or tear the wrapper again to remove the powder tube. This can sometimes be done by striking the muzzle with the tube, right behind the base of the bullet. You should now have just the wrapped bullet in your hand. Squeeze the bullet out of the wrapper into the muzzle, discard the rest of the wrapper and ram it home. A really accomplished shooter is said to be able to fire three rounds per minute. Really makes you appreciate metallic cartridges, doesn’t it! Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:26:10 GMT