Precision Shooting 1-Part 1: The Basics of Your Rifle

[ADMIN]

As you are probably aware, rifles are built from several components. These components in general, usually consist of a rifle stock, barrel and receiver and as with other mechanical devices in our lives, such as cars, trucks, airplanes and bicycles, your rifle must be maintained.

You would probably not ride a bicycle with loose wheel nuts. This would obviously cause the wheels to wobble, come loose, lead to other problems and perhaps even fall off. On the other hand, a person would not assemble the wheels too tight either. This is because the bearings in the wheels could quite possibly bind. The point here is that the components of your rifle need to be assembled and kept at the manufacturer's specifications.
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This is a thread for discussion of the article, Precision Shooting 1-Part 1: The Basics of Your Rifle, By Ward Brien. Here you can ask questions or make comments about the article.

 

[BenY 2013]

Very informative article thank you

 

[rupert]

Informative article. I was particularly interested in the electrochemical rifling process. I've not heard of it before. I wonder which manufacturer is using this process and I'd like to know how the end result compares to button/cut/hammer forged.

 

[bowhunthard88]

Another copper solvent that I have had extremely good luck with is Gunslick Foaming Bore Cleaner, I have used Hoppe's No. 9 Benchrest copper solvent for a few years, and the Gunslick will still remove copper out of a barrel that has just been cleaned with Hoppe's Benchrest or Butch's Bore Shine.

It is also a lot less work and not ammonia based, so... no worries about etching the barrel.

 

[CRaTxn]

The LOP paragraph remark about shotguns is folklore. Length of neck, shoulder width, musculature (obesity), face shape, cheek bone shape and eye set and even stock pitch are just some of the variables...and since the eye is the rear sight on a shotgun this is most important with shotgun sports that require a fast smooth consistent gun mount like hunting, sporting clays and international skeet. Wish it were that simple to just lay the shotgun across your strong side forearm and extend it till the last digit pad fit on the trigger BUT it doesn't. It is so critical on a shotgun that they should come with two thicknesses of recoil pads; one for warm weather and a shorter one for cold bundled-up weather.

 

[LR-Shooter]

Ward, what exactly do you mean by a "20 moa rail"? Please explain it in detail for me.
Regards,
Manny

 

[985]

Here is a link to the definition of what a Picatinny Rail is:

Picatinny rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is a link defining what minute of angle is.

Minute of Angle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some rails are flat, some have 10 minute of angle of slope in them and some 20, some 40. With 20 Minute of Angle of Slope built into the rail, it allows you to dial more minute of angle of adjustment of elevation into your scope allowing you to shoot longer distances.

 

[LR-Shooter]

WWB,
Which way does the rail slope (from the stock to the muzzle or the reverse)?

 

[paphil]

WWB,
Which way does the rail slope (from the stock to the muzzle or the reverse)?

The rail raises the back of the scope . This is done to use more of the elevation that is available in your scope. In theory, when you mount the scope on the rifle, you will be close to the middle of the adjustment range . If the scope has 80 MOA of available adjustment and you are starting in the middle , you have 40 MOA up and 40 MOA down. The 40 Moa down are wasted because you don't adjust down below 0 yards. By elevating the rear of the scope by 20 minutes with a rail, you now have 60 Moa up and are wasting only 20 Moa on the down side. Also this puts you right in the middle of the range when dialed up to 1000 yards . In reality, each gun is different and wil vary quite a bit . Yoy won't know how much your gun and scope will adjust untill you sight in at 100 yards and count how many clicks up adjustment you have .

 

[LR-Shooter]

Paphil thanks for the info. Now it's clear to me.

 

[Shootin4fun]

I cannot find a help section to this forum, or any button that allow one to start a new thread. Is it possible for a user who is logged in to start a thread or do you have to have some kind of Admin privledges?


Posting this subject here because I haven't found another thread that is more appropriate. Here's the question:

If a gun is shooting say 1 MOA at 100 yards, ASIDE FROM ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS, can we expect it to hold 1 MOA down range at 200, 300, 400, etc?

I was talking to a gunsmith at the range today, and mentioned a guy who said the AR he built easily shoots 1 MOA, or 1" @ 100 yards. The gunsmith said, "Yea, maybe at 100 yards, but it probably won't hold that MOA at 400 yards."


WAIT! I thought any disproportionate spread downrange was because of environmental factors such as wind, heatwaves off the ground, etc. But he said the bullet, though stablized at 100, might not be stable at 300 because of resonant vibrations in the barrel, bedding issues, etc.


OK that means to me what he is really saying is that 100 yards is not distant enough to sample bullet stability. Is that correct? Is what he is saying correct?? Can you have a gun that shoots .3" groups at 100 yards, but shoots at best 6" groups at 300 yards??? I thought our calcuations can be linear, so .2" @ 100 will yield possible .6" at 300 and so on. He is saying that is not correct.


If there is a disproportionate variation in degree of accuracy after a determined degree at 100, I CAN imagine that being due to bullet design, BC, or other things related to the bullet itself, but not because of the gun.

Any thoughts on this, LR Shooters??

And how does a lowly user start a new thread here??

 

[paphil]

I guess a lot of shooting is not required to be a gunsmith ! Unless the bullet does not stabalize , (too slow of a twist for the bullet) the groups should be stable at that sub MOA all the way out. I've seen some bullets that shoot a little better out past 100 yards than they do at 100 and that has been explained to me that the initial wobble stabalizes and the bullet flys smoother after that. Outside of poor quality bullets, the environment is about the only cause to open the groups. Also the shooters ability to see the bullseye and pull the trigger consistently can affect group size. I've got two guns that shot about 1 1/2 minute untill I went to shooting school and then they shot .75 at 100 ! The gun didn't change , I did. Some people don't understand MOA and think it is 1 inch all the way out. Remember that it is an angle and gets larger with distance. 1 inch at 100, 2 inches at 200, 5 at 500 and 10 at 1000. If your gun shoots 1 inch at 100 , you should reasonably expect 3 inches at 300. Can't answer your question on how to start a new thread, I'm sure someone else will !

 

[TracySes23]

Back when I was doing a lot of load development for my 22-250 in Remington 788 and just shooting from the bench for fun. I never competed, but I noticed patterns at time and made mental notes. This article jogged my memory concerning "hypothetical minute of angle" remaining the same from 100 yards thru 1000 yards.
Every time I worked up a good load at 100 yards using different powder & bullet combinations, I would check to see how well it shot at 200 yards. I was always amazed at how often the "minute of angle" group would be smaller at 200 yards than at 100 yards. Our range had a max of 250 yards, but I never shot any groups at that range.
I suspected with some bullets, perhaps the bullet hadn't settled down at 100 yards yet, but had no way of confirming that thought. I concluded I had a benefit of extra accuracy when field shooting at 200 yards.
Perhaps my conclusion was wrong, but it pleased me for a long time and probably gave me some extra confidence.

Now I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience.