September/October 2011: Volume 19, Number 5 - USA Shooting

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RIFLE AIM FOR THE BEST AMMO By Sgt. 1st Class Eric Uptagra, National Rie Team An accurate shooting .22 caliber rie is all about vibrations. How the natural vibration of the barrel of your rie interacts with a particular lot of ammunition directly inuences how well it will group. When we lot test ammunition, we are trying to nd the lot that works best with a particular barrel on a particular rie. Just because I have a lot of ELEY Tenex that shoots great in my rie doesn’t guarantee it would shoot great out of yours. I’m fortunate to be able to shoot a lot of Tenex. But, even so, there can be a huge dierence between lots of the same grade of ammo. I’ve had test groups vary from as small as 10mm to greater than 25mm with the same rie but with dierent lots. It all depends on what your rie likes to shoot. e trick is to try dierent lots, brands or grades to see what works best. My old Anschutz shot great with one lot of 1993 vintage ELEY Tenex, while it grouped like a shotgun with the original lots of Tenex EPS when it debuted. e rst lots of EPS shot great in everyone’s rie except mine. e newer EPS (2006 and later) seems to shoot ne in my rie now though. Some shooters can’t get one brand of ammo to shoot in their rie, but another lot or year works like a charm. It is my rm belief that it is statistically improbable to get a rie capable of shooting a 600 prone in International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) style competition with a random factory new rie and a random lot of ammo. e dierence between the normal Sunday shooter and a worldclass prone or three-position nalist is that the nalists work hard and spend the money necessary for the optimum 12 USA Shooting News rie-ammo combination. ey also practice a lot! ese are going to be the guys and gals bringing home the medals. Everyone has access to the best ammo batches. You just have to be willing to do what it takes (in regard to price and time) to get those batches. In some cases you might have to y over to ELEY, Eric Uptagra waves to the crowd aer his silver medal victory at the 2011 ISSF World Cup Sydney. Lapua, or RWS and test on their ranges. Yet in Men’s 50m Rie Prone, you cannot win at the world level without the best ammo for your gun. Some of you may ask: “Why should I bother testing? I’m not independently wealthy or a supported shooter. I can’t aord to y to Europe to test there.” Well, the simple answer is, if you have two lots or brands of ammo, one of them will be better than the other. If you leave it to chance, then that is a chance you take. Also, just because my rie and ammo shoots 12mm (on occasion), doesn’t mean you should quit if yours doesn’t. It depends on what you are trying to accomplish-I’m trying to be the best prone shooter on the planet. Many ries/ammo are “good enough” for certain kinds of shooting or levels of shooter. For example, most good quality match ries can shoot very well at 50 foot and on American prone targets. It is when shooters move from 50 foot indoor match to 50m outdoor match that they may start seeing problems. Some of these problems might be the rie, or it could be the ammo or the wind. Lot testing is very important and there are many ways of doing it. Anschutz tests their ries by clamping the barrel of the barreled action in a lead-jaw vise. ELEY tests by putting your barreled action in a chopped o Gemini rie stock and putting that in a vise. Bench-rest guys test by shooting o of sandbags, albeit “fancy” sandbags. Some shooters test by shooting 100 yard prone with a scope. I begin my testing by clamping my complete rie in a xture and shooting many dierent lots. Aer narrowing my selection down to maybe ve or six “best” lots, I shoot those o of a bench with a scope on my rie. Aer that narrows my selection further, I test the remaining two or three lots from the shoulder in prone . . . just the way I shoot in a match. I will continue to test ammo out of the shoulder for a few weeks until I get a good feel of what shoots the most consistently without unexplained yers. at is where I choose my match lots and decide which ones are practice lots.
e best rimre bench-rest shooters have rie-ammo combinations that can shoot better than my rie, and I’d hazard a guess that few if any of them have ever tested at a factory test range. ey just know how to tweak the most accuracy out of their equipment. eir approach to this is a little dierent than most of us position shooters. ey attempt to directly control the vibrations in the rie barrel, instead of relying solely on lot testing. ey do this by what they call tuning their rie. is is accomplished by adjusting their bedding screw torque and by adjusting “tuners” or “muzzle devices” that attach to their barrels for maximum accuracy. Because of this, these benchrest shooters get great results with some of the lower grades of ammo, like ELEY EPS Black and Team. Don’t get me wrong, they do lot test. But they don’t have to go through nearly as much GOING FOR GOLD 2012? Try&Bom, Inc. 1826 E Platte Ave, Suite 109 Colorado Springs, CO 80909 719-302-2305 www.monard.biz ammo as we do to get the same or better results. I feel that this is something that international position shooters could learn from. If you test your rie and get good results, be careful about changing anything that touches the barrel. Taking o the front sight and putting it back on slightly dierent could change the vibrations in your barrel, and thus the accuracy potential. Adding a front riser block (or two or three) for standing/kneeling can change things. When you spend a fortune in time and money testing ammo in the prone conguration, be aware that your rie may shoot dierent when congured for another position. is dierence may not be enough to be concerned about, but there may be a dierence. Some questions to ask yourself: can you get your front sight back in the EXACT same place aer removing it? Do you loosen and re-torque your bedding screws frequently? My advice is to get everything set where it works best and leave it alone unless there is a good reason to change. What I’m hoping most of all is to get you to think and make your own decisions and plan of attack with regards to choosing the best ammunition for your rie. Don’t give up! It is worth it when you nally reach your goals! RIFLE WE SUPPLY EQUIPMENT FOR TOP RIFLE SHOOTERS
Page 2 and 3: www.eleyammunition.com British made
Page 4 and 5: FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR USA Sho
Page 6: Above: Parker takes a moment betwee
Page 9 and 10: conditions. erein lies the secret t
Page 11: Common Mistakes of Junior Shooters
Page 16 and 17: Meet the New National Champions 201
Page 18 and 19: L: e USAMU’s Sergeant Vincent Han
Page 20 and 21: L: Athlete Nick Mowrer won his rst
Page 22 and 23: USA Shooting is pleased to announce
Page 24 and 25: USA Shooting is pleased to announce
Page 26 and 27: CanterburyAutoTrench Canterbury Tra
Page 28: ISSF World Cup Munich: Milev’s Ma
Page 31 and 32: Photo, the ISSF © 2011 July: Emil
Page 33 and 34: Above: Connor Davis proudly display
Page 35 and 36: FROM YOUTH PROGRAMS & ATHLETE DEVEL
Page 37 and 38: It was mid-June in the Atlanta Inte
Page 39 and 40: The Choice of Champions. From trap

September/October 2011: Volume 19, Number 5 - USA Shooting

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