Just published another new article - How to Break in a Rifle Barrel.

The subject of breaking in a rifle barrel is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the shooting sports. Often treated as a mysterious procedure, it seems that one almost needs to become a member of a ritual bound esoteric cult in order to achieve the desired results. In reality however, breaking in a barrel is quite a simple operation.

Click here to read the new article.

Have just published another new article - Factory Rifles - An Overview of 2008.

In this article, I give an overview of the rifles we encountered last year with our Rifle Accurising Services, Long Range Tutorial Hunts and Guided Hunting and share the general goings on at Terminal Ballistics Research.

In my Dummies Guide to Rifle Accuracy article, I wrote that on average, I was seeing an 80% failure rate regarding the ability of factory produced rifles to group within an inch at 100 yards. Yesterday, my wife Stephanie informed me that for 2008, we only had one hunting client with an accurate rifle. The worst rifle we encountered during 2008 produced groups of between 14 and 18 inches at 100 yards!

Of the problem rifles we worked on during 2008, the faults could be divided into two categories. The first category was rifles of sound design but with typical bedding problems (i.e. no bedding) and was easily rectified. The second category of rifles was those that suffered flaws within their design. These were either extremely difficult to rectify or in some cases, impossible without major modifications. A few rifles had a mix of both category 1 and category 2 problems.

Click here to read Factory Rifles - An Overview of 2008.

MatchGrade Bedding Products are a new range of  products that have been specifically designed, developed and tested by Terminal Ballistics Research in conjunction with a leading New Zealand polymer resin manufacturer.

For optimum accuracy, a rifle should always be bedded at the action and beginning of the barrel. Along with bedding, the barrel should always be free floated (not touching the stock forend). Nevertheless, regardless of efforts to free float the barrel, plastic rifle stocks often suffer forend flexing. In some instances, flexing will cause direct pressure against the rifle barrel, in other cases, the stress is indirect. In either case, these stresses upset barrel harmonics with a drastically negative effect on rifle accuracy.

See the following links for more information:

• Matchgrade Bedding Products
• Matchgrade Synthetic Stock Stabiliser Instructions
• How to Bed a Riflle with MatchGrade Bedding Compound
• Article - What is Rifle Bedding?

To go with the release of our new MatchGrade Bedding Products, I have published a new article - What is Rifle Bedding?

Rifle bedding is fundamental to rifle accuracy. The term bedding refers to the fit and stability of a barreled action within the rifle stock. If the fit and stability of the metal work in relationship to the stock is poor, the rifle will be in-accurate. Bedding a rifle with a polymer resin is the optimum method of obtaining a correct fit, long term stock stability and optimum rifle accuracy.

To find out more about rifle bedding, you can read the full article here.

The word meplat is a term used in ballistics terminology that has survived from a bygone era. The word itself is a french noun which means 'the flat of' and in ballistics it refers to the tip of a projectile. Meplat is not an adjective, it does not describe the shape of the tip or diameter in any way. Our current term could easily have been 'tip' or 'point' or even 'Fred' but instead, ballistic engineers of the world use the word meplat. The French were very much at the cutting edge of ballistics during the 19th century and the word meplat has survived out of an unconcious respect for these eary pioneers. The term mostly likely stems from the days when all conical projectiles had flat points. The front was therefore called the flat and the rear dubbed the heel. Nevertheless, do not be confused, the word meplat simply means 'tip' in today's terms.

As most will guess, the shape of the meplat (tip) has a great effect on external ballistics (how the projectile flys through the air). The shape can also have an effect on terminal ballistics and performance with regard to projectile energy transfer on game, projectile expansion and stress to the projectile during this rapid change in medium.  To find out all about what sort of effect the meplat has on a projectile, you can read the full article here.

Early in 2008, I found myself with a few dollars spare to put towards an ongoing project, building two custom rifles, one for myself, the other for my wife Stephanie. At the time, my rifle featured a stainless steel Winchester Model 70 controlled feed action and a spectacular walnut stock created by Kevin Gaskill, the custom stock maker from Raglan. Stephanie's rifle was similar, a left handed long action Montana M1999 stainless steel action (almost identical to the M70 but with a superior bottom metal design) and a sleek classic stock, again built by Kevin Gaskill.
 

Above - a matched pair.
 
Both rifles had initially been fitted with foreign barrels but the results were disappointing as a result of inconcentricities during the final chamber reaming. I had made a decision to rebarrel but could not justify the financial waste of an immediate swap. Time went by; a month turned in to a year or was it more? All I can say is the rifles sat and collected dust and it constantly annoyed me to be advertising my rifle accurising services with two in-accurate rifles in the lock up.

Over the following months I worked with True-Flite to rebarrel both rifles.  True-Flite were amazing to work with from go to woe and the end results were amazing.

You can read all about my project and the process I went through here.

Have just published another new article - 'The Dummies Guide to Rifle Accuracy'

As a hunting guide, the biggest problem I am faced with (besides locating game) is in-accurate rifles. Before each hunt I advise clients that long shots of around 300 yards are very common on our hunting blocks. I then ask each client to check their rifles carefully to ensure that the rifle is both accurate and zeroed appropriately for the ranges we will encounter.

Unfortunately we are finding that eighty percent of the rifles brought here for hunting aren’t capable of even basic accuracy. Think about that, for every ten rifles you are seeing on the gun store walls, two, at most, will be accurate and these, in my experience have been more of a fluke than good management.

Of the in-accurate rifles that come here, some have been brand new high end several thousand dollar jobs, others have been basic production sporting rifles. Some clients have had to give up after their rifle shot all over the target at the range and use one of our back up rifles for their hunt.

The latest article talks about what is an accurate rifle and how you can know whether your rifle is accurate or not.  You can read the full article here.

Have just published my first website article - 'Bedding the Ruger 10/22'

The .22lr is used for practice, plinking, pest control and varminting throughout the world.  In New Zealand, the .22lr is also heavily relied upon as a working tool for the hunting of possums for profit.

The Brushtail possum is a small omnivorus nocturnal marsupial, about the size of a house cat, that was introduced into NZ from Australia by early settlers. In NZ's temperate climate Possum numbers soon climbed to plague proportions. The possum is currently classed in NZ as a pest however it is also viewed as a valuable export earner. Possum skins are used to make high fashion fur garments while another market uses the plucked fur blended with merino sheep wool to produce extremely fine, smooth textured textiles with incredible thermal properties.

One of the greatest possum hunting rifles introduced to NZ has been the Ruger 10/22. This relatively budget built semi auto has the firepower and ruggedness required for NZ's sometimes wet muddy conditions but its design towards the goal of accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. Various customising kits are available for the 10/22 and do aid in the development of a more accurate firearm. Where money allows, these drop in solutions are very useful however some modifications can be made without, or as part of the customising process with very good results. For the commercial hunter it must be noted that a custom after market heavy barrel is not desirable as he or she will also be carrying the weight of a mounted spotlight and back packed 12 volt battery. That said, the commercial hunter needs a rifle that is accurate with a wide variety of ammunition in order to be able to utilise cheap ammunition deals as well as subsonic and hyper velocity ammunition depending on individual hunting situations. The commercial possum hunter will likely use up to a brick of ammunition per week.

So how do you go about accurising the standard Ruger 10/22 rifle?  You can read all about it here.