Shooting buffs' aim is true - with video news report

DAILY PRESS & ARGUS ^ | May 28, 2007 | Dan Meisler

[Myrddin]

I just purchased a Savage 93R17 BTVS (17HMR) to play with the prairie dogs. It won't be here for a few days. I checked out the cheaper model with the synthetic stock at the local SportsmansWarehouse. Nice action. The BTVS has a nice wood stock with a thumb hole grip. It's a little easier on the shoulder than the T/C Encore 30-06 or the Encore Katahdin S&W 500 Magnum.

I'm trying to avoid undoing the work my chiropractor is trying to accomplish.

[Shooter 2.5]

I’ll bet it is. I remember being in my favorite ammo shop and some guy walked in bragging what the .17 will do. I haven’t heard of anyone complaining of accuracy problems with any make or model. Have fun with that one.

[real saxophonist]

Bought mine about two years ago for around $400. Fed Ex. One of the Greek loaners. Stock looked like crap, but the metal was absolutely pristine. So I refinished the stock, and now use it during functions with the local Marine Corps League. I was wanting to get another one, so we’d have two for our Honor Guard, but right now that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

[Myrddin]

My hottest varmint rifle to date is the Savage 12VLP in 204 Ruger. 4000 fps at the muzzle. 5 shot groups of under 1/4" at 100 yards. I'm hoping for something close with the .17. Today isn't a good range day. Winds are currently steady at 20 MPH with gusts to 31 MPH. If not for the wind, I would head out to the range right now. Sunset is 8:59 PM tonight.

My wife is especially fond of shooting 17M2 from my CZ 452 Varmint. Her "baby" is a Magnum Research MLR-1722 in 17M2 with the "pepper" finish Barracuda stock.

[Shooter 2.5]

Rain for the last week and the range is flooded. I hadn’t been able to find any lead cast bullets for a month without paying through the nose. I finally broke down and bought 3000 for the .45 auto. Wouldn’t you know it by the next week, the ammo store was back in production so I bought another 2 grand. I won’t get caught short like that again.

With rain comes reloading all those empties. I was able to load about 1200 this weekend. A good start.

I’m going to try to do a little better this season at IDPA.

[Myrddin]

I purchased my 1911 when I was in San Diego with unlimited access to an indoor range. Recovering the brass to reload was easy. Now that I'm in Idaho with only an outdoor range, the situation is very different. It's very hard to recover all my brass. I've only purchased one additional semi-auto handgun for that reason. All the rest are center-fire revolvers or rim-fire semi-autos. I've maintained the same basic philsophy with the rifles too. Bolt action or single shot for all center-fire with the exception of steel cased ammo for 7.62x39 in the SKS. Two of my .223 rifles are semi-auto. I make a point of recovering that brass. Fortunately, the ejectors are nicely tuned. The brass almost falls at my feet.

I had hoped that winter would be a fine time for reloading here. The garage is really too cold at that time. Summer is fine...if the garage door is left closed. Once opened, the hot, dry air makes the garage unpleasant again. In San Diego I did most of my reloading on Sunday nights while listening to Drudge on the radio. Evening temperatures were always fairly comfortable. Not so in Idaho. I can't even count on the local radio station to have Drudge. They pre-empted him for a NASCAR race last night. No big loss. He was stuck on finding a replacement for Rosie O'donuts.

[oldenuff2no]

Myrddin
I am a gunsmith, and I build and shoot rifles in the “light rifle” category at longer distances.
A light rifle by their definition is in the 12# range. I've shot shoulder to shoulder with many competitors and I've never see a single one of them step up to the line with a 7# rifle. I can get rid of recoil without adding a lot of weight with brakes or mercury recoil arresters. The heavier rifles are much easier to hold steady in all of the mandatory shooting positions. Bench rest is not the only long range shooting sport. I also build and shoot wildcats so I do a bit of reloading.

[Myrddin]

Sounds like a fun line of work. I just do it for recreation...including minor gunsmithing. I purchased a 20" S&W 500 Magnum "Katahdin" barrel for my Encore rifle last September. I had expected to achieve better accuracy and less punishment than shooting the Performance Center Hunter revolver in the same caliber. The rifle achieved neither. A 400 gr round (with the standard walnut stocks and "limbsaver" recoil pad) still delivers quit a bit of recoil. Accuracy was around 3" at 50 yards. The revolver can do that. I put the 28" 30-06 Pro-Hunter barrel on the same frame. Groups are under 1/2" at 100 yards. Others have reported accuracy issues with the 20" barrels in S&W 460. None of those setups comes even close to 7#.