walkinhorseman
New member
Please forgive me for rambling. This thread invokes one of my lifelong pet peeves. I apologize for venting, but this is the appropriate post for me to vent. It’s astounding to listen to claims made by really ignorant shooters. Walt Berger goes on in his reloading manual about the “all day long” guys. I read many posts about claimed precision and accuracy that are never supported by any statistics. If any of these shooters would witness the Wailing Wall at a registered Short Range BR match, they would be humbled. Then again, maybe not. BS guys are BS guys and will always rely on the fact that they believe that they are smarter than everyone else who can’t see through their smoke screen. Two stellar examples stand out from my life experiences that warrant some discussion.
The first is Cowboy Kenny. He was an associate from a group of people that I met through trail riding horses. We spent a lot of time together on the trail and siting around the campfire. We became friends and I invited Kenny on a bear hunt at my camp. One of my requirements to hunt out of my camp was to sight your rifle in upon arrival at camp before hunting. Kenny made sure that he had excuses why he couldn’t make it to camp early enough on Sunday to shoot before the hunt (on paper, in front of witnesses) on Monday. Opening day comes and we’re planning our strategy, and Kenny’s only request was that he is someplace where he can shoot “Long Range”. I thought OK, I’ll just put him on the pipeline with his Japenese 300 Weatherby Mark V. Kenny’s Weatherby had one of those 3x9 Redfield’s with the range finding gimmick that popped up in the bottom as you adjusted the power ring. He often boasted around the campfire about the 500 yards whitetail kills that he made. The rifle had been rebarreled by George Bole, a respected Pittsburgh gunsmith, because it didn’t shoot so well. Some 15 years later, Kenny still had 10 rounds left out of the two boxes of handloads that George gave him after putting the Douglas barrel on. Fortunately, bear season came and went and Kenny never unleashed the wrath of the Weatherby on anything, be it paper or bear.
So, some time later, Kenny asks me if I can load some ammo for him. I said OK but you buy the dies. I get the rifle, two boxes of brass, with George’s load recipe, and the dies. The first thing that I do, is go over the screws. I got about a turn and one-half out of the front and a turn on the back action screws. I then cleaned the damn thing and it was really ugly inside. Hmmppff! Less than 30 rounds fired through this barrel and he IS a long range shooter. BS!!!! I wanted to shoot the rifle before I gave it back to him but he wouldn’t hear of it.
OK, so Cowboy Kenny is just an egocentric arrogant SOB who thinks that nobody knows more than he does. That is not atypical for big ego’s. The most heinous example is a Sako dealer that I had a brief association with. This guy was running a business out of a small office in his home and projecting the image of a World Class rifle supplier. He was smooth, articulate and convincing, being the consummate salesman that he is. He stated to his customers that he had a “Ballistics Laboratory”, when in fact, all he had was ratty old workbench in his basement of reloading tools strewn loosely about the work surface. He stated to his customers that he had a “Custom Shop”, when in fact, he was subcontracting work to a guy who had a couple machines in his garage. This “gunsmith” was a high school shop teacher who had an FFL. There’s nothing wrong with garage shop guys, if they do good work. There were examples of this guys work floating around the used gun racks of the area that were, shall we say, not up to par. I helped the dealer at a couple of gun shows but could not subscribe to his ethics. The guy had PhD in Spin and sold a lot of expensive guns to unknowing customers. Most of those people were blissfully happy, because he gave them a warm fuzzy feeling and they couldn’t shoot well enough to know the difference. This dealer was really nothing more than a well polished parasite. He has a gift of gab and a silver tongue delivery. Don’t look behind the curtain.
That’s what’s so great about registered competition. There is nothing subjective about it. You put the holes in the target and they are scored or measured. Not like some clown trying to convince you that he shot a running mule deer offhand at 500 yards with a 6.5x284 Sako custom rifle that he’s trying to extract $3000 for out of your pocket, whiles he’s smiling at you.
The first is Cowboy Kenny. He was an associate from a group of people that I met through trail riding horses. We spent a lot of time together on the trail and siting around the campfire. We became friends and I invited Kenny on a bear hunt at my camp. One of my requirements to hunt out of my camp was to sight your rifle in upon arrival at camp before hunting. Kenny made sure that he had excuses why he couldn’t make it to camp early enough on Sunday to shoot before the hunt (on paper, in front of witnesses) on Monday. Opening day comes and we’re planning our strategy, and Kenny’s only request was that he is someplace where he can shoot “Long Range”. I thought OK, I’ll just put him on the pipeline with his Japenese 300 Weatherby Mark V. Kenny’s Weatherby had one of those 3x9 Redfield’s with the range finding gimmick that popped up in the bottom as you adjusted the power ring. He often boasted around the campfire about the 500 yards whitetail kills that he made. The rifle had been rebarreled by George Bole, a respected Pittsburgh gunsmith, because it didn’t shoot so well. Some 15 years later, Kenny still had 10 rounds left out of the two boxes of handloads that George gave him after putting the Douglas barrel on. Fortunately, bear season came and went and Kenny never unleashed the wrath of the Weatherby on anything, be it paper or bear.
So, some time later, Kenny asks me if I can load some ammo for him. I said OK but you buy the dies. I get the rifle, two boxes of brass, with George’s load recipe, and the dies. The first thing that I do, is go over the screws. I got about a turn and one-half out of the front and a turn on the back action screws. I then cleaned the damn thing and it was really ugly inside. Hmmppff! Less than 30 rounds fired through this barrel and he IS a long range shooter. BS!!!! I wanted to shoot the rifle before I gave it back to him but he wouldn’t hear of it.
OK, so Cowboy Kenny is just an egocentric arrogant SOB who thinks that nobody knows more than he does. That is not atypical for big ego’s. The most heinous example is a Sako dealer that I had a brief association with. This guy was running a business out of a small office in his home and projecting the image of a World Class rifle supplier. He was smooth, articulate and convincing, being the consummate salesman that he is. He stated to his customers that he had a “Ballistics Laboratory”, when in fact, all he had was ratty old workbench in his basement of reloading tools strewn loosely about the work surface. He stated to his customers that he had a “Custom Shop”, when in fact, he was subcontracting work to a guy who had a couple machines in his garage. This “gunsmith” was a high school shop teacher who had an FFL. There’s nothing wrong with garage shop guys, if they do good work. There were examples of this guys work floating around the used gun racks of the area that were, shall we say, not up to par. I helped the dealer at a couple of gun shows but could not subscribe to his ethics. The guy had PhD in Spin and sold a lot of expensive guns to unknowing customers. Most of those people were blissfully happy, because he gave them a warm fuzzy feeling and they couldn’t shoot well enough to know the difference. This dealer was really nothing more than a well polished parasite. He has a gift of gab and a silver tongue delivery. Don’t look behind the curtain.
That’s what’s so great about registered competition. There is nothing subjective about it. You put the holes in the target and they are scored or measured. Not like some clown trying to convince you that he shot a running mule deer offhand at 500 yards with a 6.5x284 Sako custom rifle that he’s trying to extract $3000 for out of your pocket, whiles he’s smiling at you.
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