10 Point Buck (hunting video)

My first day out this season was very successful as  I harvested a nice ten point buck in Clermont County.  I used an 1892 Winchester with a 45 Colt with bullets that I cast (LBT LFN 340 grain bullets with 22 grains H110).

Sorry the video is only audio, google glass does not do well with dense overcast sunrise!  But it shows you the deer from my perspective in the deer stand.

TM1000 Updated

The TM1000 was updated with a v-fill system, an upgraded regulator (to go up to 250 bar and allow the gun to shoot JSB 25 cal pellets at 875 fps vs the 800 fps max previously achievable), and the barrel and action were Cerakoted by Gary Eliseo (www.gotxring.com).  The differences are subtle but the coating has more metal flake appearance and will look sharp on the bench.  It goes perfectly with the stock colors.

All work by Martin Rutterford of Rapid Air Weapons.  The gun will soon sport a second stock, a true bench rest stock.

TM1000 prior to changes on the left/ TM1000 with Cerrakote, V-fill, and updated regulator on the right.

HM1000X: First days out in the woods

HM1000X has been very successful from the bench this year.  The weather finally got cold enough to kill off the bugs and a couple of crisp days in November presented themselves to give it a try.  My first day did not produce a squirrel but I still found it useful to practice with the equipment and validate shooting with a camera at 49 yards.  The next outing produced a nice gray squirrel with a  head shot at 30 yards.  The shot is not on camera.  Next time!

Equipment included

Rapid Air Weapons HM1000X (rapidairweapons.com)
-25 caliber-JSB 25 cal pellets -Pellets 'Lead Head sorted after cleaning and Pledge coating-3 groove Benchmark Barrel-Rapid V-Fill-900 fps at the muzzle-Custom Cerrakote by Gary Eliseo-European rail with McMillan bipod attachment point-Hawke Sidewinder scope (32X)-Casio ELIXIM camera (shown at 30-240 mode)-camera mount-Google Glass used for hands free video-Leupold range finder-23 inch Harris Bipod

6BR Hunter

Tests of some loads in a 6BR Hunter Tube Rifle

Nosler Ballistic Tip 70 grain bullets over H322 (lapua brass and CCI BR4 primers), 20 thous jump of the bullet over a 16 in barrelled Tube Rifle (Eliseo/Borden).

First tests were done with a simple bipod and rear bag

100 yard targets with the 6BR Hunter

A quick test of the pressure and velocity check with a magneto speed chronograph shows that things are about what they were expected to be and no pressure signs were evident at 30.5 grains (but it was only 65 F outside).  30.2 grains of H322 just a tad over 3000 fps with the 70 grain bullets and a three shot group at 100 yards came in at 0.36 moa.  Not bad for no tuning and on a windy day shooting off a bipod.  I think the coyotes will be impressed.

A five shot group with 105 grain berger hybrids with 30.0 grains of Varget with a 14 thousands jam produced a reasonable group at 0.65 moa (again, these are with not modifications).

70 grain Nosler Varmint Ballistic Tips
As measured with a Magnetospeed Chronograph

Additional testing of 105 grain Berger VLD at 50 thousands jump with 30 grains of Varget (COAL of 2.3145") yielded some nice targets at a velocity of 2615 fps using a magneto speed chronograph.

Additional testing was done on a Gary Hayes bench rest with Eliseo F-Class adapter

105 grain Berger VLD bullets with 30 grains of Varget, CCI 41 primers, Lapua Brass.  50 thousands jump (COAL 2.3145")

Sunday Airgun Shooting

Well the squirrels were not out but the day was beautiful.  My daughter and I got to do some shooting with the airguns with my brother and his family.  It was a lot of fun!  We shot at 75 yards and learned a bit about wind.

First live training day of the season for the English Labs

Cody and Lily have now been out twice on quail to get them working on field manners and locating, flushing, and retrieving birds.  Here is a short video of Lily working in the field.  She did not get this bird but worked very hard for it.  She had better success in week two.

Jack also had a dog with us, Kara where I provided the shooting.  She did very well.  And I made a decent shot.

tuners and airguns

I am just starting to test Ezell's tuner on my TM1000 airgun.  We have looked at barrel harmonics and now will move to testing the entire system.

I have not optimized it or done any work to it yet.  We shot some targets at 75 yards using 25.4 grain JSB Kings that had been cleaned with citranox, sprayed with pledge, sorted using the LeadHead Pellet sizer.

More results to come.  Lots of induced vibration analysis of the barrel and the gun.  I will also bed the action and compare it before and after.  This is a photo of the gun with the tuner taken last week.  This was not the shooting setup for the 75 yards (my friend Greg pictured).  Right now the gun is only sporting a 12x scope, something to be remedied soon.

Mike Ezell's site describes his tuners and can be located at:

http://www.ezellcustomrifles.com/home-3/pdt-tuners/

Pretty much 1 moa kind of groups to start out.  We were outdoors in heavy air (100% humidity).  It was shooting very much in keeping with the 30 cal Boss.  Will run through testing of the shooting indoors to find out the tuner settings for this gun.  I expect groups to shrink as we explore the tuner options.

Mom and my daughter Kelly shot with me.  Getting ready for the 75 yard match Sept 20 at the MRPC.

MRPC Airgun Varmint Match (July 2014)

A new convert!  Mom is intense and got a kick out of shooting at the recent MRPC air gun competion.  25 cal airguns shoot at explosive targets (it's just sidewalk chalk, cut and put on a tooth pick) at 45 yards.  For those who break them all, the shoot off consists of shooting aspirin!  Since the targets are above the target frame, misses may be difficult to adjust for.

The club provides some level of handicap for bigger guns, 22 caliber shoots at 40 yards, 25 cal at 45 yards, and 30 cal shoot at 55 yards.

Lots of fun!

Photos for this were taken by Brian Stafford are more are available at:  https://plus.google.com/photos/107264863684840085696/albums/6040802602021694801

HM1000X at 105 yards

I took the HM1000X out for some testing of my setup at 105 yards using JSB pellets (25.4 grain) that had been head size sorted using the Lead Head.  Not a bad group considering I did not have wind flags out.  A 17 moa come up was required from my 45 yard zero.

For more information on the gun please see the page on the HM1000X at samsresearchbench.com.

More information on the HM1000X may of course be found at RapidAirWeapons.com.

Load testing the 45 Colt for a hunting load

I want to use the 45 Colt in a combination of a Freedom Arms model 83 pistol and 45 Colt Winchester 1892 for some hunting this upcoming season.  So I made up some 340 grain bullets and tested them over the range provided by Hodgdon for H110.  Since the bullets are 348 grains as cast, and about 358 grains with gas check and lubed, I used the 360 grain load data.

Loading data for the 340 grain boolits

• Projectile are cast lead 'boolits'
• 340 Grain Long Flat Nose (LFN) Bullets
• As cast weight 348 grains
• With gas check (Lyman) and lube they run ~358 grains
• Alloy was a mix of 9 lbs lead, 1 lb linotype, 1/4 cup birdshot (for arsenic).  Bullets were water quenched after being cast in LBT molds (thanks Veral Smith of LBT).
• Sized with Magma sizer to 0.454, LBT blue lube
• COAL 1.66" (originally tested at 1.67" but slight hesitation in the Lever gun suggested a slightly shorter COAL, the powder is still not compressed)
• 21.0 grains of powder H110 (18.4 to 21.0 grains tested)
• Bullets must be crimped for both the Winchester and the Freedom Arms
• CCI 300 Large Pistol primers

Everything shot great (but I will shorten them just a bit to 1.66" to make sure they feed better in the Winchester) and the next step will be to chronograph them and get the guns zeroed with them at 50 yards.

Check out a short YouTube video of load testing the 45 Colt with H110 at http://youtu.be/8IyUBpQG9bc

Google Glass First Look: 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum

Check out the short video showing a Borden 7mm RSAUM.

http://youtu.be/Ap7snB865zU

This gun is an F-Class rifle built on a McMillan A4 stock, Borden Timberline Action, Hart HMV barrel, with Badger rings and a Nightforce Benchrest scope

The rifle production summary 

• Borden Timberline RH action
• Rem Ultra mag well
• Bead blasted
• Light ejector
• Borden brake and threaded cap
• Hart barrel, 1 in 9 twist, 7 mm caliber, 29" long
• HVM contour 

• 20 moa ramp

• Jewell HVRTS trigger at 8 oz

McMillan A4 Stock

• Pillar bedded
• 3 way adjustable butt
• Molded in olive/black/cream
• Saddle adjustable cheekpiece

Shown with

• Badger rings
• Nightforce 12-42X Benchrest scope
• Rempel tube rifle adapter
• Rempel bipod
• Gary Hayes of Canada built the all stainless steel front rest
• Edgewood Softy Rear Bag (from Sinclair, item # 749-007-908WS)

MRPC Sizzler (Miami Valley Rifle Pistol Club)

Well I started out really well at the 2nd annual Sizzler.  The 6.5x47 Lapua shot very well at 500.  VERY well, best score at 49.

But not getting good drops from 500 to 200 then to 100 really cost me in the very short sight in period.  I had developed a new load using Reloader 17 and 140 berger hybrids, but my experience with it was just not complete enough to get everything together.

Now to get ready for the VHA match in October.

Sako 308 Varmint Rifle

Several matches that require shooting both a custom rifle and a factory rifle for an aggregate score. Namely a local match, the Sizzler which is shot at 500 (5 shots), 200 (10 shots) and 100 yards (5 shots). The Varmint Hunter Association matches are shot at 100 (5 shots), 300 (10 shots) and 400 (5 shots) yards.




I am working on developing loads to handle the short range and long range conditions. A 135 grain flat base bullet by Bob Cauterucio for 100/200 yard shooting, and a 155 grain Lapua Scenar load for 400/500. As time allows I will also work up 168 grain loads.

Rifle Specifications

Manufacturer	Sako
Model	Model 85 Varmint Laminated Stainless
Caliber	308 Winchester, 1 in 11 twist
Barrel length	23 5/8”, free-floating, fluted, stainless steel
Weight	8 5/8 lbs (rifle only)
Magazine capacity	5 rounds
Trigger	Factory set at 3 lbs (reducable to 2 lbs)
Set trigger	Rifle equipped with set trigger

HM1000X initial chronograph measurements: A Google GLASS perspective

Check out the video of initial chronograph work on a Rapid Air Weapons HM1000X.

Air Gun Hold Over with a Weaver Kaspa Scope

So I have several different scopes that I have been using for air gun competitions. I have two Kaspa 3-12X scopes, 30mm bodies that reticles which help deal with hold over.  So lets compare what the difference between the velocity available to a TM1000 (about 800 fps) and and HM1000X (about 940 fps, so lets use 920 fps) for the kill zone as well as the point of impact for this scope.

Shooting a 40 yard zero with the 25 caliber TM1000 at 795 fps with the 25 grain JSB Diabolo Kings, the following ranges match up with the reticules.  The software, Hawke ChairGun Pro (v4.1.3) is really a nice tool for working out shooting angles, kill zones, etc.

Weaver Reticle View at 90 yards

The Weaver scope has (at 12X power) cross hatches at at 2, 4, 7, 12, and 15 MOA (15 MOA not shown).

First lets compare the kill zones (since the flatter shooting pellet can be zeroed out more).  The kill zone I established is +- 1/2 inch on the point of impact (POI).  So you can shoot at most targets dead on in the kill zone range.

800 fps  11.4 to 45.2 yards with a 40 yard zero
920 fps:  13.0 to 50.8 yards with a 45 yard zero

Now lets compare where those reticles cross using the above power levels
                          POI (yards at moa)
MOA            800 fps            920 fps
0                     40                    45
2                     55                    56
4                     64                    66
7                     74                    79
12                   84                    96


So obviously we get a bit flatter shooting, a better kill zone, and of course more kinetic energy.  About 48 fpe at 920 fps, and about 36 fpe at 795 fps.  In the coming weeks I will test the accuracy and find out if that extra power comes at a cost, or if we can shoot the HM1000X at full power.

Graph of the point of impact for a 25 cal JSB Diabolo Pellet (795 fps)

Graph of the point of impact for a 25 cal JSB Diabolo Pellet (920 fps)

Stainless Steel F-Class Rest (by Gary Hayes)

Check out my video regarding the assembly and basic operation of an F-Class front rest.  This all stainless steel rest is built by Gary Hayes in Canada.

Quality father daughter time at the range

Quality father daughter time at the MRPC bench rest range.  Weather was pretty nice, and it felt great to get my rifle zeroed in for the meet next week

.

Freedom Arms Pistols

I finally got out to do some shooting. I loaded up my 7mmBR Freedom Arms pistol with the following

1. I had some Lapua brass that I had neck turned for a 6BR project. 45 pieces to get started.
2. The decapper on the 7BR die is the wrong size for Lapua brass. So I had to steal it from my 30 BR die and decap the once fired cases
3. I lubed inside the neck and sized it up to 7mm using a Sinclair expander tool
4. I resized the cases with Redding 7 BR dies (minus the decap pin). I still used the expansion ring so that it expanded the case neck to have normal tension
5. I cut the cases down to 1.51 inches using a Wilson tool
6. I used a sinclair primer seating tool to seat Federal 205 (small rifle) primers into each case
7. I added 23.0 grains of H322 powder to each case using a
8. I seated 177 1/2 grain Bob Cauterucio bullets to an overall length of

I check the cases in the chamber and closing was a bit tight. I will need to set the shoulders back a bit more on the remaining cases.

Firing the gun was great. Recoil was very manageable.


Reloading supplies





Pistol information
Freedom Arms Model 2008
7mmBR barrel (15 inches, 1 in 9 twist)
Muzzle brake by Jim Borden

LEAD HEAD Pellet Sizer: How wide should the bins be? What is the probability of misclassification if you only measure once?

Not getting to shoot much right now following ankle surgery. So I decided to do some pellet sorting and also some replicate measures on the same pellets. I used a tin of 25 caliber JSB Diabolo Kings, upgraded the Lead Head with a 0.001 mm resolution indicator (Mitutoyo), and made measures in triplicate on 30 pellets followed by single measures on about 160 pellets.

The summary is posted on the Lead Head Pellet Sizer page. As soon as I can get out and shoot to check how it affects the precision and accuracy of the TM-1000, I will update the posting and summary.



Here is the Lead Head with updated indicator



Bins were established using the following criteria:


The probability distribution was shown to be normal of the 90 measures (30 pellets measured in triplicate)


The pellets were sorted into whatever the first measurement happened to be to reflect likely practices with this unit. The distribution of the measurements then of the pellets sorted into the bins (bin -0.03 did not have enough to really make a strong analysis yet) using a box and whisker plot shows that the groups do improve the overall pellet dimensions but that there certainly remains overlap using a 0.01 mm wide bin.

Shooting two airguns at the same time to guage wind effect on different calibers

22, 25 or 30? What is best to shoot on a windy day. I think it is probably the gun you know best.

Robert and I shot a TM1000 25 caliber rifle and a 30 cal Bobcat at 100 yards. We did not start out with wind flags, just shot at the same time so we could see how much the wind pushed out pellets. Eventually we developed a Hillbilly Windflag with electrical tape, a stick, 6 sheets of Charmin, and some electrical tape put on the bottom of the Charmin to give it some weight.


TM1000 25 cal first group in light winds.




Bobcat 30 cal first group


TM1000 2nd and 3rd groups (8 shots), with some mixed winds



Bobcat groups 2

Bobcat group 3




Now we started getting some wind and then it would die. We shot it at the worst times and it showed!

TM1000 spread (about 6 inches)


Bobcat spread (about 7 inches)



Image through the camera and my night force scope.

Indoor shooting with the TM1000

Getting to shoot indoors to reduce environmental factors is a great way to find out how well you gun is shooting the pellets and at the settings you have established. Using a 12-42x Benchrest Nightforce scoped TM1000 (the reticle is NP-2DD), a 25 cal TM1000, Benchmark barrel (3 groove), Rempel Bipod, and JSB 25 caliber pellets (25.4 grain Kings) we tested to see how different head size pellets shoot out of this gun. The 25.4 grain pellets with 6.35 mm head size seemed to be the favorite version with a sub ) 1/2 moa group at 46 yards.

Youtube video of some of the shooting may be found on my YouTube channel.

http://youtu.be/c17q9wfOqOM

More shooting to do to really validate this. I only had a handful (like 10) pellets of the smallest size. After I finish size sorting the remaining 7 tins I will have enough for a more complete evaluation.

These were NOT lubed. So I will be comparing "as is" vs lubes in the future.

Just a reminder here were the statistics on the head size for than tin of pellets:



And then by weight (25.2 and 25.1 are combined in 25.2)



And here is the indoor target which from this limited data set indicates that head size of 6.35 mm seems to be preferred. More shooting is required!

MRPC Air Gun Competition

The weather man was wrong. Who knew. The day warmed up, but the wind continued to blow. Left, right, to us, away from us... Tough conditions to sort out changing a scope at 90 yards as I switched back to the Viper PST for 24X magnification and a first focal plane (FFP) view of the MOA reticle (switching it off the 30 caliber FX Bobcat of George's onto the TM1000 25 cal). Thankfully left to right was good, just a 20 MOA holdover to get to 90 yards. While the club rules allow 25's to shoot at 80 (while the 30's shoot at 90), I chose to shoot at 90 yards. No excuses!

In addition to the wind the shooters at one end (the 30 cal section, including me) had to shoot without the benefit of the cover. The high winds on the 14th tore off the tarp completely.

After (from the other end)

So, scope change. Wind. Missing tarp. Well why not try to use the camera and collect video of the shots. Bad idea. The sun made seeing the screen difficult, and the angle of the targets actually created shadows.

My next mistake (which I corrected when I shot targets 3 and 4) was I should have pulled a patch through the barrel before I got started. The intense wind made it hard to verify the source of larger groups. Was I missing the conditions that bad? Well I went from shooting a groups which were not good to getting 90 out of 100 and 4 bulls eyes after cleaning the barrel. Almost everyone else went down in score because the conditions worsened.

So I tried to do too many things. But had a lot of fun, the chile was great, and I got a lot of good wind reading experience.

Check out the very short You Tube video to see if you prefer side by side or Movie-in-Movie formats from the dual video I captured.

Gun I was shooting:
-TM1000 with 3 groove benchmark barrel
-JSB 25 cal Kings (head size sorted with a Lead Head), HBN coated
-Vortex Viper PST (next time you see me it will have my Nightforce on it)
-Rempel bipod with angled adapter

Sam

Lead Head pellet sorter introduction

Take a look at my introduction to the Lead Head pellet sorter. It is a handy tool to help you sort pellets by head size in a repeatable and accurate fashion. A You Tube video introducing the sizer can be found at:

http://youtu.be/ZExncnGdhN8

Pellet sized relative to a 6.35 mm calibration set point. So, -0.01 means a head size of 6.34 mm.

Ray Pratt says he has 4 more of these 80% of the way to completion (as of March 16, 2014). Ray may be contacted at rayburn11@netins.net

Camera mounted airgun shooting at 90 yards

George's first experience shooting with a camera mounted on an FX Bobcat. 30 caliber.

This You Tube video is a bit over two minutes long, editing out the waiting times. The three targets show a rapid improvement in using the equipment and reading conditions as they apply to shooting this gun! Equipment information is supplied in the video (I have to update it to have all the information, but it is coming along).

You can see the video by going to my You Tube channel, Sam's Research Bench or by using the following video link: http://youtu.be/QSmcPFGKECE

A shortened version of just the last 5 shot group may be found at: http://youtu.be/c6DbcapberQ

Shooting shotgun shells with an airgun

After shooting at 90 yards, we pulled in some targets to see the corrections need at 55 yards. It was a windy day! We ended with an impromptu match! A group of about 10 shooters showed up to check out our first test of camera mounted shooting. So we shot 12 ga shells at 45 and 55 yards (55 for 30 cal) as a group. Each shooter had 30 seconds to shoot, then move to the next person. So you don't get to wait on a specific condition. George shot Dave's Bobcat (so he could continue to use the camera mount, my Bobcat does not quite have enough clearance yet). Dave shot a Bobcat on a Rempel Bipod, and I shot a 3 groove Benchmark barreled 25 cal TM1000. While several of us hit 4 out of 5, Dave and Robert each had 5 and went into a shoot off, which Dave ended up winning.

George's camera work can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/r9UKSv9j9iU