How did I get there (my story)

[PedroS]

An important point in tuning my rifles, happened with Lapua ammo. I dished the tubes, because couldn’t no longer get a consistency up to my standards. I tried everything I knew and it didn’t shoot right. When this happens, I always went to basics. And basics in rimfire means a “clean rifle”. I do mean putting on the rifle only the basics, nothing else. I’m not going through a potential explanation, because I don’t have the needed backgrounds, but the cleaned rifle tuned immediately. Hummm…. It was the very same rifle I used on 2018, so what? Different ammo, for sure, RWS vs Lapua, and perhaps the fundamental point faster vs slower. In fact, since using Lapua all my selected ammo speed was (is) around 224~226m/s against 329-332m/s in RWS. Those velocities are manufactures box printed. I never took the time (wasted) to measure any of my rimfires. To those that still pounders to weight theirs .22lr ammo, please don’t waste your precious time, because you are putting on the same bag 5 variables. On top of that you can’t control any of them.

Until today, when someone ask me if should use a tube, a middle barrel weight, a rubber vibration absorber, I give the same answer. The more you put in the barrel the more complex it becomes to control. Keep it simple… you have enough to deal with just a tuner in front.

Find a Team, join a group of shooters with the same goal. Talk, discuss, analyze ideas, let the others shot your rifle, do the same with theirs, realize that all of you will grow faster together than alone. But always have a plan, and don’t go foul about mechanics, don’t try to explain everything, but do try to understand and how you could apply it. And, of course, have fun! A warning here, careful about burning out conditions. There’s more life than shooting.

Ah… don’t experiment on competition, there’s a practice time for it. Don’t change things before the great day, because your competitors will appreciate your move, you are going to fail.

When the gold moment arrives, the moment you pull the trigger (even if it should be done subconsciously… well, almost), you can’t have anything else floating in your brain than aiming. All else has to be automatic, already mastered. Any other thinking will change your POI. Controversial it might be, but I dare you to trust this: “if you don’t believe you’ll score, you’ll miss” … and learned since my very beginning: “aim small, miss small” …

Maybe you are wondering why I not yet talking about that Evil, eluded before in my writing? Well because now we reached two Evils…

SARS-CoV-2, the 2nd Evil
Yes, COVID-19 stroked my Country in March 2020. That was a total waste, shooting related, all closed, no matches (national or international), no more meetings, everything stopped… being a Physician I will not discuss the health pros and cons, but for sport activities, those who didn’t have a plan B (who did?) get lost, some, forever…

Nope, I didn’t either had a plan B. But established it quickly. Benchrest workshops turned online, our Team meetings also. All became virtual. Some, very few had some sort of range in their properties, but for the majority we just spared a lot of ammo.

Then I discover it could be a blessing for my technique and gear preparation. I had all the time to do what I needed. Time to define what I want from a rifle, from the bench gear and from my technique.

Quick bullet points, towards my rifle:
• Stock and all related hardware
• Action, bolt, bases, barrel and tuner
• Scope and rings

Stock and all related hardware
In our Team, Ricardo is a stock maker, and several other goodies for benchrest, like tuners, flags. We designed our own stock profile based on our experience and, among our rifles, just I have some other stocks than Ricardo’s.
I use two stock types, fiber and wood. The main characteristics I seek are the same:
• Low profile
o The lowest profile enhances the balance, because GC goes down, and reduces rolling tendency
o Remember that all you put above the action will raise GC, so be careful about scope weight
• Parallel riding planes
o A must for a perfect recoil and return to battery
• Rigidity
o These is achieved by a good wood combination and lamination
o Look for both longitudinal and transversal
• Vibration conduction/absorption
o Quite complex to have a consensus here…
o Having some luthier background, I always mix a good resonant wood with a muted one
 I’m a believer that the best possible stock will not eliminate vibrations, but rather dissipate them from the barreled action.
• Hardware
o Plates, screws, all have to have a perfect fit
 Use them to custom your stock
o Bedding is to be immaculate
 Being so, it doesn’t matter much how much you torque as long as you don’t go lower than 5Nm

From my experience, and it strike me at first, with a perfectly tuned rifle, it doesn’t matter changing stocks. The groups will be the same, period. That observation, obliged me to tune perfectly my barreled actions, and showed me that testing at Lapua, if I knew what to look for, is reliable. In fact, since 2017, I only shot ammo coming from test centers.

A bit of flavor here… I did 1496 out of 1500 in 2018, with RWS R50 from their test center. So, I did 146 tens and 4 nines. Tell me it’s bad. However, the 1st time I went to Lapua testing with the same rifle, I picked that ammo to compare. Man… it did 17,5mm groups, I couldn’t believe. That ammo, at RWS test center did 12,1mm groups… How was that possible? Didn’t took much time to find the answer, but looked at the positive aspects it brought to me: “much better to know where to aim, than be lost in the wind with a killer ammo”.

I used 2020 to practice, at home, all the routine at the bench until the very moment of shooting. Crazy it might look, but fundamental. With such a practice everything becomes automatic, fluent, equal all the time. Developed photographic memory. Giving you an example. Once all gear is on the bench, but the rifle, I have my level perpendicular to the rifle’s line. Only once the rifle is leveled, I put the level parallel to the rifle’s line. So, if I miss leveling the rifle, a quick look to the table will show what’s missing. And for other items too. Don’t take any changes.

Still wonder what’s the 1st Evil?
And want to know about these two points: Action, bolt, bases, barrel and tuner; Scope and rings?

They will came next.


To be continued.

 

[Rimfireshooter]

An important point in tuning my rifles, happened with Lapua ammo. I dished the tubes, because couldn’t no longer get a consistency up to my standards. I tried everything I knew and it didn’t shoot right. When this happens, I always went to basics. And basics in rimfire means a “clean rifle”. I do mean putting on the rifle only the basics, nothing else. I’m not going through a potential explanation, because I don’t have the needed backgrounds, but the cleaned rifle tuned immediately. Hummm…. It was the very same rifle I used on 2018, so what? Different ammo, for sure, RWS vs Lapua, and perhaps the fundamental point faster vs slower. In fact, since using Lapua all my selected ammo speed was (is) around 224~226m/s against 329-332m/s in RWS. Those velocities are manufactures box printed. I never took the time (wasted) to measure any of my rimfires. To those that still pounders to weight theirs .22lr ammo, please don’t waste your precious time, because you are putting on the same bag 5 variables. On top of that you can’t control any of them.

Until today, when someone ask me if should use a tube, a middle barrel weight, a rubber vibration absorber, I give the same answer. The more you put in the barrel the more complex it becomes to control. Keep it simple… you have enough to deal with just a tuner in front.

Find a Team, join a group of shooters with the same goal. Talk, discuss, analyze ideas, let the others shot your rifle, do the same with theirs, realize that all of you will grow faster together than alone. But always have a plan, and don’t go foul about mechanics, don’t try to explain everything, but do try to understand and how you could apply it. And, of course, have fun! A warning here, careful about burning out conditions. There’s more life than shooting.

Ah… don’t experiment on competition, there’s a practice time for it. Don’t change things before the great day, because your competitors will appreciate your move, you are going to fail.

When the gold moment arrives, the moment you pull the trigger (even if it should be done subconsciously… well, almost), you can’t have anything else floating in your brain than aiming. All else has to be automatic, already mastered. Any other thinking will change your POI. Controversial it might be, but I dare you to trust this: “if you don’t believe you’ll score, you’ll miss” … and learned since my very beginning: “aim small, miss small” …

Maybe you are wondering why I not yet talking about that Evil, eluded before in my writing? Well because now we reached two Evils…

SARS-CoV-2, the 2nd Evil
Yes, COVID-19 stroked my Country in March 2020. That was a total waste, shooting related, all closed, no matches (national or international), no more meetings, everything stopped… being a Physician I will not discuss the health pros and cons, but for sport activities, those who didn’t have a plan B (who did?) get lost, some, forever…

Nope, I didn’t either had a plan B. But established it quickly. Benchrest workshops turned online, our Team meetings also. All became virtual. Some, very few had some sort of range in their properties, but for the majority we just spared a lot of ammo.

Then I discover it could be a blessing for my technique and gear preparation. I had all the time to do what I needed. Time to define what I want from a rifle, from the bench gear and from my technique.

Quick bullet points, towards my rifle:
• Stock and all related hardware
• Action, bolt, bases, barrel and tuner
• Scope and rings

Stock and all related hardware
In our Team, Ricardo is a stock maker, and several other goodies for benchrest, like tuners, flags. We designed our own stock profile based on our experience and, among our rifles, just I have some other stocks than Ricardo’s.
I use two stock types, fiber and wood. The main characteristics I seek are the same:
• Low profile
o The lowest profile enhances the balance, because GC goes down, and reduces rolling tendency
o Remember that all you put above the action will raise GC, so be careful about scope weight
• Parallel riding planes
o A must for a perfect recoil and return to battery
• Rigidity
o These is achieved by a good wood combination and lamination
o Look for both longitudinal and transversal
• Vibration conduction/absorption
o Quite complex to have a consensus here…
o Having some luthier background, I always mix a good resonant wood with a muted one
 I’m a believer that the best possible stock will not eliminate vibrations, but rather dissipate them from the barreled action.
• Hardware
o Plates, screws, all have to have a perfect fit
 Use them to custom your stock
o Bedding is to be immaculate
 Being so, it doesn’t matter much how much you torque as long as you don’t go lower than 5Nm

From my experience, and it strike me at first, with a perfectly tuned rifle, it doesn’t matter changing stocks. The groups will be the same, period. That observation, obliged me to tune perfectly my barreled actions, and showed me that testing at Lapua, if I knew what to look for, is reliable. In fact, since 2017, I only shot ammo coming from test centers.

A bit of flavor here… I did 1496 out of 1500 in 2018, with RWS R50 from their test center. So, I did 146 tens and 4 nines. Tell me it’s bad. However, the 1st time I went to Lapua testing with the same rifle, I picked that ammo to compare. Man… it did 17,5mm groups, I couldn’t believe. That ammo, at RWS test center did 12,1mm groups… How was that possible? Didn’t took much time to find the answer, but looked at the positive aspects it brought to me: “much better to know where to aim, than be lost in the wind with a killer ammo”.

I used 2020 to practice, at home, all the routine at the bench until the very moment of shooting. Crazy it might look, but fundamental. With such a practice everything becomes automatic, fluent, equal all the time. Developed photographic memory. Giving you an example. Once all gear is on the bench, but the rifle, I have my level perpendicular to the rifle’s line. Only once the rifle is leveled, I put the level parallel to the rifle’s line. So, if I miss leveling the rifle, a quick look to the table will show what’s missing. And for other items too. Don’t take any changes.

Still wonder what’s the 1st Evil?
And want to know about these two points: Action, bolt, bases, barrel and tuner; Scope and rings?

They will came next.


To be continued.

Pedro, a question on scope mounting. I use a set of offset rings, which provides me with a way to keep from touching the stock, as I setup the point of aim, and fire the round. You mentioned balance, earlier in your article. Can you comment on the use of offset rings, and what would you recommend, and why?

Thanks very much!

Larry

 

[PedroS]

Pedro, a question on scope mounting. I use a set of offset rings, which provides me with a way to keep from touching the stock, as I setup the point of aim, and fire the round. You mentioned balance, earlier in your article. Can you comment on the use of offset rings, and what would you recommend, and why?

Thanks very much!

Larry

I'll talk later on the specific topic about scopes and rings, but more than happy to answer you.

A bit of salt here... that's my way of seeing things, not THE way. I often ask others their opinion and how to. Then I analyse, experiment and made my mind.

That's a very interesting point Larry... (in this answer I will provide my approach to issues, and how to solve them)

1st - you have an issue - touching the stock. And, for a free recoil it's a must, not touching the stock.
2nd - you found a solution - offset rings
3rd - you are happy - well, not so, because some doubts still surf on your mind (you have a good attitude point, questioning yourself)

So, if you haven't an issue, you didn't choose an offset ring. That's a fact.

Because offset rings introduce two more issues on top of the straight ones, they should only be used when a shooter issue/problem/condition cannot be overcome.

With a straight ring we only need to compensate for height, as they are (should be) laterally aligned with the barrel, meaning a up or down click, or a left or right click mean just that, a click in the chosen direction. However, the offset ones, like their name, offsets the scope from the barrels line, introducing a complex optic needed corrections. You no longer have an up or down, or left or right click meaning just that. An offset ring composes things. Your life won't be easier. And for small distances changes, a lateral parallax appears. Subtle these optic errors, induced by the offset angle, might be, but they are always present, getting worse as the offset increases.

On top of that, using an offset ring unbalances the rifle. You are bringing weight to one side, instead on the barrel plane. This can be overcome with an offset front stock, having more support to that side.

Larry, if you don't have a specific physical condition, using offset rings only compose your issues.
Think with me:
. you started with a posture issue (touching the stock)
. you ended up with three issues (posture, balance and clicking)

What I do recommend to you is having someone watching you, if not available, tape yourself. You need to get rid of that posture error that lead you to touch the stock. Maybe a too high seated position is the culprit, maybe a too high up rear stock part, maybe you are leaning backwards, instead up to the front. Try to move backwards your scope. In benchrest the scope position is a comfort one, not a traditional one.

This is a nice example of how we should address issues that arrive in our shooting.

 

[Rimfireshooter]

I'll talk later on the specific topic about scopes and rings, but more than happy to answer you.

A bit of salt here... that's my way of seeing things, not THE way. I often ask others their opinion and how to. Then I analyse, experiment and made my mind.

That's a very interesting point Larry... (in this answer I will provide my approach to issues, and how to solve them)

1st - you have an issue - touching the stock. And, for a free recoil it's a must, not touching the stock.
2nd - you found a solution - offset rings
3rd - you are happy - well, not so, because some doubts still surf on your mind (you have a good attitude point, questioning yourself)

So, if you haven't an issue, you didn't choose an offset ring. That's a fact.

Because offset rings introduce two more issues on top of the straight ones, they should only be used when a shooter issue/problem/condition cannot be overcome.

With a straight ring we only need to compensate for height, as they are (should be) laterally aligned with the barrel, meaning a up or down click, or a left or right click mean just that, a click in the chosen direction. However, the offset ones, like their name, offsets the scope from the barrels line, introducing a complex optic needed corrections. You no longer have an up or down, or left or right click meaning just that. An offset ring composes things. Your life won't be easier. And for small distances changes, a lateral parallax appears. Subtle these optic errors, induced by the offset angle, might be, but they are always present, getting worse as the offset increases.

On top of that, using an offset ring unbalances the rifle. You are bringing weight to one side, instead on the barrel plane. This can be overcome with an offset front stock, having more support to that side.

Larry, if you don't have a specific physical condition, using offset rings only compose your issues.
Think with me:
. you started with a posture issue (touching the stock)
. you ended up with three issues (posture, balance and clicking)

What I do recommend to you is having someone watching you, if not available, tape yourself. You need to get rid of that posture error that lead you to touch the stock. Maybe a too high seated position is the culprit, maybe a too high up rear stock part, maybe you are leaning backwards, instead up to the front. Try to move backwards your scope. In benchrest the scope position is a comfort one, not a traditional one.

This is a nice example of how we should address issues that arrive in our shooting.

Pedro, thanks very much for your thoughts and now I will see if I can migrate back to the standard rings, while avoiding contact with the stock. It's been a couple of years since I started using the offset rings, so I should be able to make that change successfully, and avoid the lateral parallax. I will check options for my seat height, which is normally all the way down, but I still have to adjust my position (hunched over at times) to align with the rifle. I'll look into that as well.

Thanks again, and thank you for sharing all this information. It's very helpful to read the details you have provided.

Best regards,

Larry

 

[blades]

if you are all hunched up behind your rig you are inducing physcial strain. this will bite you in back side after a short duration. besides affecting your physical dexterity it will also compromise your sight. similar to looking through your scope to long which cause your eye to dry out , also leads to eye strain. quick overview. it is more complicated.

 

[PedroS]

Let’s considerer towards shooting, 2020 as a dark side, because all was closed down.

I already told you that I took my time to perfect a lot of things that didn’t need going to the range. But, we, as a Team, worked a lot to push forward benchrest in Portugal. If we look back it seems we came out from the caves to a standard international competition level. Well, let’s be fair, a lot of work has been done before us, to implement and seed the benchrest bases around here, so hat’s off to those people behind. However, we were stagnant in terms of evolution and very far from what could be considered a basic level that would catapult us to the international level. Make no mistake, if you want to be competitive at the next level you have to shoot, practice and established a routine accordingly.

Very soon on this changing desire process, we discovered the 1st Evil…

Let’s took a helicopter view, and put in perspective benchrest comparing to 99% of all other disciplines, related to shooting or not. What can you see? I can’t answer that, but I do know what I saw, and continue to see…
Let me do some questions:
• Where are the benchrest schools?
• Where are the benchrest teachers?
• Where are the benchrest coaches?
• Where are the benchrest mentors?
• Where’s our desire to keep the passion alive?

If a kid wants to start a sport’s discipline, he goes to a school, then is followed by a teacher, ten by a coach and soon, on his(her) sport career, the top is reachable. We have none of these on benchrest. It’s a miracle that we still shoot together, so alone and isolated from each other as one can be. We do groups, we form Teams, but outside those closed environments not much is shared. We are the problem; we should be the solution.

So, we start pushing the status quo… I did workshops around the Country, virtual seminars, web meetings, about the most important topics in benchrest. It makes one wonders why the majority of the attendees were not benchrest shooters…

We pushed to change our National Championship to be more like the Internationals, we went abroad to shoot at important matches, we organized (still do, of course) International Opens to bring others to our Country. Have to say, that it was hard, very hard, to convince people that was(is) the way. Invariably, the answer was, you are crazy, you are going to destroy benchrest, we are going to lose all shooters…. You know.

Now, after all the struggle, some enemies in between, hard discussions, we have in Portugal one of the more competitive BR50 across Europe. Never before our scores were so high and consistent, never before we are winning international competitions, never before we were invited, during an international Iberian Open, to give a workshop about benchrest.

A lot of work, a rewarding work, I must say, that my Club, especially the benchrest teams have been doing to evolve our passion. Needless to say, we started with one Team, we are now 3 Teams… and more shooters are willing to join.

We, benchrest shooters, have to be the change protagonists. So, I invite each of you to mentor one or two shooters, develop them so them can took your place. That’s the only way to perpetuate our legacy. Think about that.

During 2021, we picked all available tittles but HV. The major big competitions have been postponed, being WBSF Worlds to 2022 in Volmerange, and the WRABF Worlds to 2023 in Pilzen.

Changing subject…

Let me continue to give you my approach to gear, this time:
• Actions
• Triggers
• Barrels
• Tuners
• Rings
• Scopes

Maybe not all today but some for sure.

Of course, I know there are preferences out there regarding actions. I had all sorts of them, Anschutz, Bleiker, Grunig, 2500X, 10X, Turbos V1 and V3. I have won, and lost with all of them. I’m a true believer that perfect shots one after the other, until you clear the card, is a very complex bundle of many factors. And each has to be right.

I use turbos for now, because they gave me what I’m looking for, consistency and confidence. But they have to be treated correctly, if not they won’t deliver at its best. Apart from correct ignition (a must), you have to have a smooth action, you should not fight the bolt, neither way. Each time, you exceed a certain force, you disrupt your rifle alignment, and then you blame something else for your miss, but the action… I have two TKH prepared turbos. I’m done here. These actions are smooth! On top of such a preparation, I always put anti seizing grease on rubbing surfaces before my 1st card. At the end of the day, the bolt is cleaned and coated with ceramic oil, resting on a bolt protector till next match.

Triggers, I’ve used different triggers until I settle down on Flavio Fare’s ones. They are the best, period. I have discussed B&A vs FF, around here, and of course, I have both, but on my competition rifles, only use FF. A trigger is a source of troubles, so the most reliable one should be under the action. Also, FF, can be set very low. Mine are at 7g, but be careful here, don’t reach such a value adjusting the sear, only with the trigger spring, all my triggers don’t let go if you kick the stock, crucial for safety reasons. I use the lowest practical trigger weight for obvious reasons, minimal or none rifle alignment disturbance.

The triggers hangar has, normally two positions, one that increase the firing spring compression, and the other that does the opposite. Some sort of ignition fine tuning can be achieved with repositioning the hangar. However, you are dealing with a precision mechanism, so be careful. Also, the fixing screws should be torqued to no more than 3Nm. If you trust your gunsmith, things are already settled correctly.

Barrels brands like Shilen, Muller, Broughton, are regularly fired by me, being my competition rifles fitted with Muller and Shilen. Maybe my Sporter Broughton if giving its soul away… You don’t have any barrel control once you choose one or another. You just rely on an expected excellent gunsmith job fitting your barrel to your action. I’m not through details on chambers, muzzles positioning, crowns, and so on. For practical purposes I classify my barrels in three categories; excellent, good, standard. My approach is not having any standard ones, replacing them. In Portugal, the firearms law is very strict and treats a barrel as a new firearm. So, a new barrel means a lot of paperwork and needed permits. But, if you choose this game, you have to play by the rules. I understand, very quickly barrel’s potential after some rounds. Some barrel imperfections can be overcome with tuning, but better to have a health base to start with. The only special thing I do when I receive a new rifle is unscrew the barrel, put some of my anti seizing grease and torque it lightly. How much torque? 25Nm. I don’t use an action wrench, but instead a spanner over the action port protected with soft aluminum. This spanner is connected to my Wurtz torque wrench. Also, pay close attention to your bedding not touching the barrel. To me, the barrel, is the most important piece of a competition rimfire. Treat it correctly.

On my barrels only rests at the end a tuner, or a muzzle device, I don’t care about the name… I do care, about the sleeve (more on that later), the tuner, and the tuner screws torque.

Yes, I do use sleeves on all my tuners. Why? Quite simple, I can control my sleeves, but once a tuner is bored it’s done. A sleeve can be changed. I do my own sleeves to a very close tolerance. My tuners, once installed, without any screw tightening, don’t fall down, they are very slightly press fit. With this fitting, a slight screw torque is needed. I use a Beta T wrench torquing with my fingers tip. Notice I’m picky here.

Tuners are more complex than they look like.
More on that later.


To be continued.

 

[PedroS]

Tuning, tuners, and the like…

This is a very interesting and important, I must say, part of my story. I have been through all kind of mistakes and traps, just name them… until one day I realize a different approach has to be made.

More often than not, among my fellow shooters, from our Teams, or from other clubs, they ask me to see what’s wrong with a rifle, or, to tune their rifles through their tuners. Have you been there? Of course.

More often than not, a shooter does extremely well in practice, just to fall short on competition, and then, between some conversation says, “my tuner needs to be tuned”. Have you been there? Of course.

More often than not, a shooter complaint that he just used the wrong lot for that day, or, the tuner was not set for that lot of ammo. Have you been there? Of course.

More often than not, we heard, “if I have that rifle!”. Have you been there? Of course.

So, the Evil inside us, is diverting all excuses to a badly tuned rifle. I have already written, benchrest shooters are a special breed of shooters, gear minded, full of excuses, and with a gear panic button on their brains. I do mean, they have a button that is almost on, saying “I need better stuff to excel”.

I think, from observing, many of us are not happy shooters, looks like we lost all fun throwing bullets down the range. But then, when the dust settles down, phrases like “I’m here just to meet friends, for fun, and for a great meal…”, surf, disguising what have been an agony. We don’t need to react like that. We do need to establish our goals (realistic ones), and there’s no shame to be there just for the fun of it!

Shooting a rifle should be fun. Shooting a tuned benchrest rifle is even more fun. But how can I go that path and stay there? As everything, is easier to reach the top, than maintaining it. One of the most important take home messages I learned, the hard way, of course, was: “Once my rifle is tuned leave it alone!”.

Tuners, I promise to talk about them today. So, here it goes…

What’s the magic behind a tuner (or MD, is up to you)? Man, a tuner is just a piece of metal with a certain weight that can be moved forwards and backwards. In fact, it is that simple.

I’ve used and tried the following different ones: Cicognani Fat, Cicognani Precision, Grunig, Ezell, Harrel, Stiller, RS MKI, and lately RS MKII. I have modified some, I dished others, I spent hours tuning until I settle down on RS MKII.

I have to be fair here, majority of tuners are more or less the same, and all resemble a Harrel. Ricardo started making tuners couple of years ago, asked me why I was not using his tuner? At that time, I was using either Harrel’s or Precision’s, they look the same. Their weight is the same, using or buying one from another was a matter of availability. My answer to Ricardo was, let’s do a “perfect” tuner with my measurement’s ideas, and I’ll try them, and if they work, I’ll use them.

It took one full year (2021) to develop the 1st prototype, not because it was rocketing science, but because we, benchrest shooters are stubborn people, me included. Of course!

Points we developed:
• Highest manufacturing precision with lowest tolerances possible
• All parts with the very precise weight
• A reduced rear collar comparative to MKI
• M4 screws instead of M3
• 16mm inside tube bore
• Perfectly concentricity on rotating the front part

Then, the RS MKII was born, and I use it on all my rifles. Don’t take me wrong, it’s still a simple piece of metal with a weight that can be moved frontwards and backwards… the biggest differences, are we obviate some cons of Harrel for example.

See, I have already written several lines without saying a word about tuning…
But I believe this background is important to the process.

Back on my first benchrest years, tuners were a rarity, and in fact, I was pioneering their usage. Still remember having heard, “that will do more worse than any better”. How come? I have read (internet forums) they they work, they are the rimfire miracle… no, I have to use them. Then, I went through all tuning methods available, shooting a brick to tune my tuner, just to arrive the other day at the range, and start all over again, because I couldn’t group… at certain times I despair, but curiosity kill the cat, and I realized my tuner was too heavy. Then I went for a lighter one and miracle, a fantastic group, just on the next shot, ouch… I was buying ammo just to tune the rifle, not for practicing of whatsoever, I needed to have that thing tuned. I made a lot of question on the forums. Received more answers than expected, some helped, some not. It seemed to me that something was not right. It has to be the tuner and the tuning technique.

I was inside my 1st trap…
I had a rifle that cannot be tuned, at least to what I wanted, I didn’t have selected ammo, my stock was not up to the task and I don’t want to talk about my shooting technique…

Do yourself a favor and 1st learn a solid shooting benchrest technique. Be seated with the scope line a little under your eyes, lean a bit to the front, don’t touch anything, pull the trigger with your firing arm, not the finger or the wrist, and let the rifle do a free recoil. Until this is not second nature don’t tune.

Now, you have the technique, a good rifle, let’s tune. Wait, have we forgotten something? Ammo! We have not talked about ammo, and to tune you’ll need it, didn’t you?

I can only recommend, for benchrest, RWS R50, Eley Tenex or Match and Lapua X-Act, Midas+ or CenterX. Lapua is actually the most consistent, and consistency is key here.

My tuning method is simple, you’ll be disappointed… I recommend you do it during a calm day. I do tune with some wind, but this is another step. The process is the same I just pay attention to another important ammo variable, speed.

Couple of things you have to have in mind:
• You shoot for score and not for groups
• The role of a shooter is having a horizontal line of impacts (it increases the odds of hitting the 10)
• Vertical lines need tuner out
• Horizontal lines need tuner in
• Always do full turns (this way it’s easier to keep tracking, and avoiding the unbalanced front weight bias)

I put a different ammo lot for each target row. Put the tuner around the middle position, or where I feel it’s right (don’t ask me that part), I shot 5-10 rounds to prepare the target, and commence firing…

• 1st lot – 3 shots on 1st target
• 2nd lot – 3 shots on 6th target
• 3rd lot – 3 shots on 11th target
• 4th lot – 3 shots on 16th target
• 5th lot – 3 shots on 21st target

Repeat the process until you’ll have 3 groups of each lot on respective rows (9 shots each lot, 45 total shots). Is important to keep track of how many shots, to clean the barrel, because it’s too easy to go through 200 rounds quite quickly. Be aware!

Then, you’ll have an idea what’s the best lot to start tuning your rifle. I’m not saying you have chosen your lot. You just pick the best around… things will be easier if you just have one. Skip the above!

You picked lot B. Let’s achieve the best possible group tuning your barrel.
Now the process is fairly simple. You, from the previous card, have a visual aspect of your groups. I’ll bet they are vertical.
• Pick another card
• Start from target 1
• Shot 3 rounds
o Vertical? – 1 turn out
o Horizontal? – 1 turn in
• Shot 3 rounds
Don’t expect 8mm groups, you are just aiming for the smallest group possible for that ammo.

When you shot a good group, repeat with the same setting. Good? Repeat. Good? Yes, I succeed! No, wait. Now you have to shoot lines to fine tune. So, with the best setting, shot a full line of targets. Draw a line through their center and see if all bullet holes touch that line. No, there’s some up and downs, ok, 3 or 5 clicks out. Repeat. Yes, now they all touch. Good. Then do the following. Go to another target shot a 5 rounds group, put the 6th ammo on the chamber close the bolt and wait between 1~2min. Fire. If the bullet goes to the group you are done for today.

Now enjoy practicing the time left. Don’t touch the tuner, take a photo, record the setting. Next day practicing start doing a couple of 3 rounds groups. Still ok, good, enjoy shooting. If not repeat the above process. Remember I said everything works the 1st time? It does happen…

The group process is the best to tune the tuner, but the line shots are the best to prepare your rifle for score. I have no secrets here. That’s what I do to tune my rifles. Plain and simple, without spending a fortune on ammo.

A word of caution; a rifle shooting consistently 18mm group is tuned as a rifle shooting consistently 10mm groups. The ability to score higher, however, belongs to the smaller group rifle.

All my tuners have a screw, with a ball tip, that can lock it from turning. Once I achieved a tune, I lock my tuners, but not all way down, the front part can still move a little, but cannot change clicks. This way I don’t put any stress on parts, allow some vibration to happen, but it doesn’t change inadvertently. I have all my tuners with the setting and the rifle name on them, so, I see where a tuner belongs. If you happen to have, like me, rifles with more than one barrel, mark the tuners accordingly.

Tuning myths:
• I need different settings according to weather – you don’t
• I need a different setting according to altitude – you don’t
• I need different settings according to ammo – you don’t
• Any rifle can be tune to a small group size – no, not true

Nothing is set on stone, not even life, but looking back to my rifles, they have been tuned and the tuner is still set as before. A rifle that does 250 18x often, doesn’t need anything. Spare your time and money looking for a potential better ammo. If your rifle starts to be out, meaning less Xs, fewer points, look elsewhere, leave the tuner to the last item to be checked (only if the setting moved for some reason). But humans as we are, if you want to click, before doing it, take note of the settings, try what you want and compare results, being fair to yourself.

A last comment for today, if you got a great rifle, don’t practice much with it, reserve it for the competitions. Use a harder one to practice… but that’s me!


To be continued.

 

[Fredix]

Hello Pedro,

Always very happy to read you and to have the chance to learn from your rich experience.

I'm starting to use light tails

I would like to know the dimensions of the tails you use?

Thank you very much

Fred

 

[PedroS]

Hello Pedro,

Always very happy to read you and to have the chance to learn from your rich experience.

I'm starting to use light tails

I would like to know the dimensions of the tails you use?

Thank you very much

Fred

Hi Fred, thanks.

Something around 60x6 cm.

 

[PedroS]

A lot about gear, and how to settle it to suit our shooting.

2021 was a fantastic year for us but also shown that still a lot to grow to the upcoming 2022 Worlds.

In the meantime, we have developed our Teams, increasing the interaction outside competitions and establishing a “willing to take part” feeling. I’m a very competitive person, and sometimes “Houston” has to call to land again… that said, sometimes I’m hard to deal with, because I only see the positives, the opportunities windows, and I need them to refrain me a little. Recently, I did myself a favor and returned to my RC enthusiasm, flying the new F5J machines. No pressure, no special competitions goals, just flying for fun. Sometimes, it’s very important to stop shooting and relax, because you could enter a burnout spiral, that’s no good, I can assure you. One of the wisest words the week before a competition is “don’t shoot much”, just prepare yourself for the journey. Another aspect that I let go some time ago, is anticipating the potential wind on day D. Like Kenny Rogers song: “You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table, there'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.” Yes, be an early bird, settle yourself and then study the wind and its patterns.

I use to say: “you win the tittles in your practice, go collect them at the competitions.”

Still some stuff to be talked about, before sharing what we did to prepare 2022.

Rings and scopes are the easiest items to choose from and to tackled right. I use straight short rings of one screw and always from CNC machined 7075 aluminum. There are a couple of reasons to do so. I have already, answering a forum member, my approach of straight vs. offset rings. I prefer straight lower ones, mainly because I don’t want to have a big scope weight leverage above my barrels. And the closer the scope is to the bore; the less parallax error is induced. Depending of your body size you could go better on higher straight options. CNC machined, because there’s no use to have everything in perfection and a second quality rings. For rimfire I don’t bed the rings. Buy the best, no excuses. They don’t need to be beefy, rimfire don’t have a great recoil, and if not beefy, you will take extra care about them, which is always good to your rifle. 3Nm on the bases, and 2Nm on the rings is enough to hold any scope. You have already saw that some put each ring on each action port side, and others, like me, both rings on the same port side. My reason is not having the slightest change of POI changes due to temperature variables. However, it comes at a cost, that type of scope mounting is more fragile, so be careful. Once my scope is leveled on the rifle I disassembled it by the ring’s bases, so they came together with the scope. Next time mounting is easier, scope will be leveled and need less, if any, adjustments clicks.

So, you got all prepared and want to go out hunting for a scope. We have two different scopes needs in our BR50, the one for Sporter and the ones for LV and HV. The main qualities you should look for are the same, thought:
• Best optics possible
o I measure my scope optical quality if, at the end of a competition day, or practice, my eyes are not tired. Sporter is harder because of the smaller magnification.
o A word here, we aren’t younger anymore, so treat well your eyes, amber sunglasses could help
• Smallest objective diameter - 40mm
o Critical for brightness purposes
o The bigger the better, but, as no are free lunches, weight and cost increases
• Prefer fixed optics
o Less weight
o Mirage drawback, here a zoom has its inherent advantages
• Magnification
o 6.5x max for Sporter
o 36x min for the others
• 1/8 MOA, or smaller clicks
• Adjustable parallax
• Target reticle
o Crosshair
o Crosshair with dot
• Lightest possible

Scopes, as everything else have brand preferences. I don’t. I use what I like. Currently I have for Sporter Leupolds and for the other disciplines, Nightforce competitions, and for one rifle to make LV weight, Sightron competition. As a nice to have feature, is zero possibility on the turrets. Of course, I tried other brands, but for one reason or another, they’re sold.

Next is leveling the scope. Do that at the range. Adjust, front and back your scope, to the most comfortable and consistent aiming position. Roughly focus the scope. Hang a leveled target, level the front bottom of your rifle’s stock and then match the reticle horizontal line with a horizontal target line. Tighten carefully and by small increments the ring screws, knowing that the scope will turn to the screw tightening direction. Take your time and tighten to 2Nm torque. Now, focus your ocular, until you’ll see a perfectly in focus reticle. Do that in small time periods not letting your eyes to accommodate. Adjust the parallax, until the target is in focus and moving up and down your head doesn’t show any reticle movement. Enjoy shooting, you’re done.

Ammo and test centers. This is another hot topic, and many shooters say don’t pick any ammo from those centers because they won’t shoot. I don’t want to convince anybody, but I just shoot, since 2017, ammo picked from test centers. Looking at my scoring result listings maybe I’m doing something right!

There are some test centers, and maybe their differences show on how the ammo shoots. From my experience, shooting through tunnels or small spaces don’t help. A test center is aimed to find consistency ammo. It’s up to you to know what to look for and, the very tricky aspect, how much you can shrink the achieved groups. What I mean is, don’t go there without doing your homework, and without knowing quite well your shooting ability. We have already discussed what I look for:
• 13mm max 30 shots group
• Group height is more important than group width
• Slow speeds

Consistency is key, it doesn’t matter if you have an ammo able to do great groups, but from time to time one is off. We cannot control rimfire ammo, so look for consistent ammo. More often than not, I heard shooters saying, “test centers serve nothing”, “I put 8 bullets on the same hole”, yesterday on practice I did 250 21x, and so on. They are already defeated. No good shooter brags before the competition.

If you choose to ammo test shooting as usual, be aware to control all the potential traps. Whatever is your choice, do select ammo, period.

2022 was a full of great results, even if, internationally, didn’t start well… we were beaten on Iberian Open… we discussed a lot that negative flavor, not hiding on excuses, understanding what we did right, but most important what we could do better, and we took measures for the upcoming Worlds to be held in September, France.

Nationally was perfect, we won all individual and Team available tittles. Personally, I just miss one tittle, shot 40x 250 on competitions, so I new my good condition. We continue to practice together, imposing very stressful situations, scoring to beat ourselves. We practice at windy days only, forcing us to shot the condition. On the following card we force ourselves to wait, wait… to have good control over time. We did everything like in a competition. To complement the shooting training, I did a couple of mental workshops, not just for others but also to recondition me.

And the 2022 Worlds was around the corner…



To be continued.

 

[PedroS]

A BR50 competition is a major event in terms of shooters logistics. A World event with 9 shooters is a logistics nightmare… part of Portuguese Team went by car, and the rest by plane to Luxemburg, where we rent a 9-seat van droving down to Volmerange. Big cases went by car, rifles and ammo with the respective owners, plus all needed stuff for a full week’s competition and social events. We have started preparing the trip almost one year before, booking flights, hotels, renting cars… double checking all permits, rifle and shooter documentation to not be caught with any surprises.

But this 2022 Worlds were going to be a huge resilience proof… all Portuguese shooters were going to be stressed more than one could anticipate.

The ones that travelled by plane (majority) went through the normal police checking ritual at Lisbon airport check-in, a couple hours process, to say the least. The trip went fairly well, but all went wrong arriving at Luxemburg airport… for some reason, Luxemburg police needed some documentation that the Organization didn’t knew, neither did we… as it was Sunday, nothing could be done, and we went up with all firearms seized by the police, after many hours at the airport trying to find a solution. In despair, we went to the hotel with empty hands, hopping Monday will be enough to clear all the paper work mess. Needless to say, we missed a full official training day… but, due to the good police department willing we recollect our rifles at the end of the day, at the airport of course. Nerves, and anxiety were rising, that Tuesday only put more fire on… we were in a rush to reach the range, register, control all stuff and start practicing. Among all other fellow shooters, only Finnish ones had the same nightmare, because their rifles were lost and end up at Luxemburg airport instead of Frankfurt’s… they used our previous experience, and cleared all more quickly, but loose even more precious time than us.

For some of us it was the 1st time at Volmerange, so some practicing was needed to experiment wind, and to road test our scopes. A close look at the scheduled range, showed that shooters are divided by half by a full brick wall, and the wind pattern was totally different from one side to the other. It was like a part was shooting indoors and other part outdoors… benchrest is also a draw bench luck, but sometimes the randomization is not what it should. Despair raised on top of anxiety and all were complaining looking at the benches draw. Some Countries were lucky and some Countries were completely unlucky, namely Australia, Finland and ourselves. In fact, the Portuguese Teams were the only ones to always shoot twice on the “outdoors”, and France and Italy, twice on the “indoors”. We even shot twice on the same bench! And can you bet what bench? Yes, close to that brick wall… I studied well the wind and it was terrible on that “outdoor” range part. To give you an idea, on the left range part “indoor” almost no flag tails movement, on the other side, tails were horizontal and flags swirling all the time…

The mood was so bad among our group that I schedule an urgent meeting that Tuesday evening. I let all complaint for a while, even some want to went back home, because clearly something was wrong about bench randomization… I let the troops settle down, and then let them (and me) know that we just have to put in action what we practice for. Didn’t care about anything else but us, the target and the shooter, nothing else matters. And please stop talking during the competition, only after the dust settles down at the end of each day, go socialize, not before. I must admit I was never so stressed, but then reminded myself to worry only about things I can control, of course randomization wasn’t one of them, neither the wind… so I went to bed and slept well.

The 1st Team competition day arrived and we were all very focused, with all 3 Teams well-coordinated, with shooters knowing exactly each task (one for flags, other to help positioning them, and the other with bench gear). Next card, roles changed, and we went like a Swiss watch.

On my Team the shooting order was like that: me, Ricardo and then Luís.

We shot very well, instead of the conditions:
• Pedro – 749 61x
• Ricardo – 747 52x
• Luís – 749 51x

On the 2nd Team Day, we shot fiercely:
• Pedro – 750 56x
• Ricardo – 748 50x
• Luís – 750 56x

When Luís was ready to shoot the last card, he was very anxious, he knew we were in front, but didn’t knew how much in front. I approached him, and quietly said, “relax Luís, we are 10 points ahead… piece of cake”. Looking at his eyes smile I knew we were going to do it. In fact, we were just 5 points ahead, and both contenders did a 250.

We finished 1st and World Champions bringing home also two World records. We shot 4493 326x, just 7-point shy from maximum possible, and 5 points and 24xs ahead of 2nd place, Italy.

We did it, and I own my 2nd World tittle, some tears of emotion filled our(my) eyes…

Next day was the 1st of two Individual competition days, and we faced again our bad bench luck, with even more terrible winds. I have to admit that God guided some of my shots, because at that card, I lost two of the most important flags (they spined out of the axle…), people were dropping 5~7~10 points on that warful “outdoor” range. I just dropped one… but some important Xs.

I did what I could ending up with the same points as the winner 1498 out of 1500, but lost by 8 Xs, 1498 106x to 1498 114x of Bota:
1. Bota – 750 64x and 748 50x
2. Pedro – 749 57x and 749 49x

Portuguese individual shooters shot, again, extremely well, bringing home a vice-Champion title, a 3rd, an 8th and a 9th places, giving to Portugal the best Country results overall. We were(are) proud, and with enough time to celebrate.

And 2022 came to an end.
2023 was about to start, bringing all new challenges…



To be continued.

 

[Fredix]

Hi Fred, thanks.

Something around 60x6 cm.

HI Pedro

Thanks for the tail sizes.

The Volmerange world championship is truly a great epic story where all the work pays off!

The customs problems of the rifles and the draw of the difficult places did not discourage you but motivated you more!

 

[PedroS]

HI Pedro

Thanks for the tail sizes.

The Volmerange world championship is truly a great epic story where all the work pays off!

The customs problems of the rifles and the draw of the difficult places did not discourage you but motivated you more!

Indeed, that's a big ace I have. The more challenging the more motivated I became, and I never throw the towel on the flor, I battle till the end.
My better example was, couple of years ago, in an important match, on my 2nd card shot, a bad ammo went two rows down and hit a four... I ended that card with 244!

Without false modesty, I have a very strong mental stamina.
I use to say, if you are not mentally tired at the end of a card, you didn't focus enough...

 

[PedroS]

We all have our comfort zone. Getting out of it is always challenging. A comfort zone is a brain defense margin that keeps a person within expected actions that we are used to. If applied to shooting, and giving an example, if a shooter regularly shots 247s, that his(her) comfort zone. This is a good thing, because subconsciously your brain will keep your shot around that level without too much effort. On the other hand, the comfort zone is a major obstacle to evolution, because it prevents staying out of it. Who have not been shooting so well, that a clean card will result, but suddenly a bad shot, and no longer you can clear that card? More often than not, it was our comfort zone just bringing you down to that zone again.

Visualization is the better auxiliary to help to sort out of it. I’ll just scratch the surface of visualization, but if you can “came out” of your body and see you shooting, one after the other, perfect shots, you are teaching your brain that this is normal, and, step by step, you’ll enlarge your comfort zone. That’s why, just practicing more, doesn’t bring the expected results. You’ll have to practice the mental game too.

According to my experience this mental aspect is another too much neglected shooting aspect by benchrest shooters. Go ask a prone shooter what he(she) thinks about it, and you’ll got immediately a mental practice answer. Here we go again… yes, in fact, but I’m asking again… where are the benchrest coaches? Who’s driving a legacy? You already know that 1st Evil…

Believe it or not, is your brain that drives, and the more automatic, an action becomes, the better. Can you do me a favor? Think about a fork. From a weapon point of view, it’s a hazardous one, isn’t it? Now think, how many times do you hit your lips with it during a meal? Now rewind until you were a baby and started to learn to use a fork… someone guided your hand until it becomes automatic to you. Shooting is no different. Benchrest shooting is no different. There is just one think you have to think about… reading the wind and putting your POA accordingly. Nothing else should disturb your brain. If not, you are going to miss.

Funny enough, 2023, is a much more relaxed year to me. I know it’s not yet the same for my Team mates, but, and I’m not bragging here, when you reach a certain level (I can still remember the words that a great shooter told me when I clinch my 1st World tittle… “now, that you reach the top, you can do whatever you want, you don’t have much to prove”), you don’t have, as he said, not much to prove anymore, just having a great and relaxed time shooting and meeting friends. I still do my best all the times, I’ll answer questions and help if needed, and I enjoy “talking” with the wind.

In April we had the Iberian Open, and we won everything what’s there to won. Wind was terrible, once again, and from the comments I knew people were not confident. I did 750 60x, and was invited to do on site a workshop about wind. My most used take home messages were “don’t make your life harder than it is already”, “simplify your gear, flags and rifles”. This is complex to understand to geared minds, but believe me, it’s the best path to a better shooter.

2023 Worlds are coming, and we again are preparing it the best we can. We know that all eyes will be on us and on our targets, but that’s the price to pay.

I don’t know about the future, but I do know what to expect from it. Win and defeat, both make part of the game as joy and agony, but always be humble and friendly to the others.

I’m approaching things, as I did from the very beginning:
1. With passion
2. With desire to excel
3. And working hard

I hope you enjoyed how I get there (my story), as much as, I enjoyed writing and sharing it.

Have fun and good shooting, because you could be there too!

The End
(for now)


Acknowledgments:

To my family and my dearest wife. Without their support, and love, I would never succeed.
To Tony Harper, my mentor.
To Erkki SeikKula, who believed in me and granted the Lapua support.
To my Team mates, and my club, helping to keep high that desire to excel.

 

[Fredix]

Hello Pedro

I really like your psychological approach and your philosophy, and i wish you many new successes.

I would like to know a little more about your cleaning protocol, it is of course your experience and your barrel but it can also help me.

-How many passes with the bronze brush do you make during your intense cleaning routine?

-How much ammunition do you use between each intense cleaning routine?

-I looked a few times in my barrel with a endoscope and I saw that the first 15 cm after the chamber was streaked like orange peel, do you think he will completely remove that?

Thank you again for your availability

Fred

 

[PedroS]

Hello Pedro

I really like your psychological approach and your philosophy, and i wish you many new successes.

I would like to know a little more about your cleaning protocol, it is of course your experience and your barrel but it can also help me.

-How many passes with the bronze brush do you make during your intense cleaning routine?

-How much ammunition do you use between each intense cleaning routine?

-I looked a few times in my barrel with a endoscope and I saw that the first 15 cm after the chamber was streaked like orange peel, do you think he will completely remove that?

Thank you again for your availability

Fred

Hi Fred,

I have developed my method controlling cleanliness with a borescope.
As I do clean regularly, and majority of times, every other card, one or two bronze strokes will do. Note that I pass the bronze from muzzle to chamber.
It's hard to tell how many rounds through the barrel, but saying around every 300~400 rounds will not be far from true.

Looking the barrel guts with a borescope can do more harm to your confidence than any benefit. Let me explain... you have a great barrel that is scoring high. Then you look at it, and see some pitting, not so clean as you expected, and so on... did your barrel started to shoot worst after you seen it? No, of course not, but because you saw something you didn't expect, you started making questions and wondering what...

Every time you shot a barrel, you are going to do some harm to it. That's a fact.

That pitting you see on your barrel, it it's at 6:00 it's normal to be expected. It reveals usage and wear from shooting. Rimfire ammo have silica. Silica (glass) is much harder than any barrel, so it wears them down. If it affects the barrel ability to shoot? Yes, but that type of degradation is expected and take many shoots to be shown on the target. It's not uncommon, a rimfire barrel, continuing to shot strong with more than 100.000 rounds through it. Hopefully rimfire barrels survive much longer than center fire ones, just because we don't shoot full metal jacket bullets. We just shoot lead, and lead has lubricate inherent characteristics.

No, no bronze brush will "clean" it. You can clean that pitting, lapping a barrel, but lapping is nothing more than producing a controlled wear to its bore. If your barrel is shooting well, leave it alone, and just do your regular cleaning.

 

[Fredix]

Thank you very much Pedro for all these details.

I will follow your protocol and use a borescope from now on without scaring myself with the wear of the barrel.

I use a Stiller action with a 4 groove rachet shillens barrel which had been used a lot when I bought it and have used it as well.

I find it difficult in the wind even more so with fast ammo.

I want to buy a new one that holds the wind well, which barrel would you recommend? a 4 groove, 8 groove, others?

Kinds regards

Fred

 

[PedroS]

Wind, wind, wind...

Shooting in the wind is the ultimate fun.

Of course there are barrels more forgiving than others, but this is related to their rifling configuration and geometry of grooves. Less is better, fewer and shallow without sharp angled grooves. The hardest to shoot in the wind are those with square angled grooves.

I use with success, both Shilen ratchet and Muller 4MI. I also have a very good Broughton.

However, ammo is critical, perhaps even more important.
Look for slower speeds and do select them on wind. I prefer more predictable larger drift, to erratic smaller ones.

Then, is up to you.

 

[Fredix]

Pedro,

Thank you again for all these details about the wind.

I now have clear directions to work and progress.

It is the privilege of a great champion to share his knowledge like you!

 

[Rimfireshooter]

Pedro, I have a general question about ammo velocity. Can you comment on the differences in 322 speed versus 330 speed, for benchrest shooting (Midas+ and LCX). Is there a difference and how can you leverage the differences in a match to your advantage? Do you have different speed ammo and reserve them for certain match conditions?

It seems like every match I shoot the winds start below 10mph, then as the match progresses, the wind velocities increase. In those instances, do you shoot a faster speed in the early targets, and then move to a slower speed in the later targets as the wind velocity increases?

Thanks very much!