Rail Gun Shooters and current rigs?

S

SWASHBUCKLER1

New member
How about listing your current rigs, I think this would be a great addition and informational post about who is currently shooting a rail gun and who's rail your shooting.
I'll start this off stating I just sold both my rails, the first was a RFD and the second was a piece of history as it was one of very few rails built by Skip Otto. The RFD went to Colorado and the Skip Otto rail is currently in West Va. I'm currently seeking a new rail and have a few ideas in mind. Anyone else who would share their thoughts and opinions is appreciated, as there are quite a few shooters that would like to know more about this discipline than you would imagine. At My local range the regulars show up weekly wandering what I will show up with next, and I have made many friends simply because of the strange rifles I bring to the range. LOL I always enjoy the show and tell in hopes of growing the sport. Wilber thank you for being receptive to this addition to your forums and from what I've seen it has been favorable.

Thanks Rich
 
Current Rail Gun Builders 2016?

Anyone currently shooting a Magnum Metal Rail? Also I was having a conversation with a fellow shooter and we were trying to determine who built the Black space looking rail that was shown in Mr. Boyers book? any help with the maker of that rail would be appreciated.

Looks like the current builders of rails today are: Young, Magnum Metal, Kensler, ? am I leaving anyone else out?

Thanks Rich
 
Magnum Metal is Scott Hunter, who is also the NBRSA Gulf Coast Region Director.

It's a good solid design, built similar to a Young, with a few changes, many cosmetic.

I would venture a guess that the most popular Rail out there is the Young. It is well designed, and quite a few top shooters use them.

I don't know if they still do it, but at a Nationals a few years back, most of the shooters on a particular flag rotation all were shooting Young Rail Guns. They never took the bases off the benchs, each shooter would simply place his top on the base that was already set up, as they are all identical.
 
I tried to do a search for Young Rail Guns and came up with pics. but no link to a site. How do you go about researching the available equipment out there for purchase.......Thanks

Regards
Rick
 
Young Rail for sale

Rick there is a nice Young Rail Gun Turn Key, Ready to shoot that is for sale in your part of the country, if you are interested I'd be more than happy to pass along the contact information.
 
At this point i have no idea what kind of $ i would be into to buy one. Could you give me an aprox. of what i may be looking at....Thanks
 
Thanks Jackie

jackie schmidt said:
Magnum Metal is Scott Hunter, who is also the NBRSA Gulf Coast Region Director.

It's a good solid design, built similar to a Young, with a few changes, many cosmetic.

I would venture a guess that the most popular Rail out there is the Young. It is well designed, and quite a few top shooters use them.

I don't know if they still do it, but at a Nationals a few years back, most of the shooters on a particular flag rotation all were shooting Young Rail Guns. They never took the bases off the benchs, each shooter would simply place his top on the base that was already set up, as they are all identical.
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I talked to Scott and he said he's changed the Top to a plate instead of the I Beam, similar to the Dodd. Very clean looking rail, I was wandering if anyone around me was shooting one as I would like to see one in person. I'm going to try to make it to the Brady Knight Memorial shoot and hopefully I can see one there?
 
We are putting together another order for the Kensler railguns just did 14 of them I know 10 of them are doing fantastic .
Email for any info you want Lou@murdica.com
once the order goes in it takes 3 to 4 months
 
Lou,
I sent you an email to add my name to that list, not sure you received it. Please let me know if you received it.
 
Pictures Lou?

Lou do you happen to have any pictures of the new Kensler rails your speaking of, you could post here for the members to see? Thanks
 
SWASHBUCKLER1 said:
Anyone currently shooting a Magnum Metal Rail? Also I was having a conversation with a fellow shooter and we were trying to determine who built the Black space looking rail that was shown in Mr. Boyers book? any help with the maker of that rail would be appreciated.

Looks like the current builders of rails today are: Young, Magnum Metal, Kensler, ? am I leaving anyone else out?

Thanks Rich
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If you are talking about the black rail gun in Tony's book on page 43. It says under the photo it was made by Tom Dickson. Tom worked at Bat Machine. I think he is retired now. I've built 3 rail guns at one time or another for my own use. I'm presently shooting a Jay Young rail gun. The nice thing about shooting a major makers rail like Jays, is that there are a lot of them being shot. I've seen rotations at the Nationals where they had 5 Young bases that stayed on the bench. When you rotated off the bench, you moved your top leaving the base. Saves about half the lifting work rotating benches with a rail. It's very hard to do though to get up a Young rail gun rotation. If one person is shooting anything else that's not compatable, everyone has to rotate everything.
 
Thanks Mike

Yes that's the rail I was asking about, WOW! what a great looking rail. I was told he would not build anymore, ? but I'm sure there would be some interest if he would consider it?

As far as the rotation, I agree it sure is nice if you could just switch your top from base to base, but it sorta cuts into the fabric of the rail gun idea of not building all vanilla rails. With that being said I have been talking to Jay and I'm considering a new Young Rail myself. Jay has been very helpful and has just introduced a few new options that are available and should make the rail gun shooters happy, see his post a few spots down.

I know Rail guns are a lot of work, heavy and cumbersome to take to the matches, but they are also an awesome attention getter for non benchrest shooters that may be thinking about joining the sport and man they are fun to shoot when you get one figured out, also they can help a shooter when it comes to shooting and judging the wind, as well as guys that want to use them for bullet testing.

I'm glad to see rail guns gaining popularity and it's long overdue as far as I'm concerned, also very thankful to Wilbur for adding the rail gun forum here as I think it's helped.

Thanks Rich
 
Swashbuckler,
The new Kensler rails also have the ability to facilitate the Jay Young Top! I was looking at Doc Marsh's at the Sniper King and noticed a second set of delrin balls and asked Doc and he told me it was so either could be shot on one base!
 
Thanks Steelhead1

Any pictures of the new Kensler Rail ?

I would think that is great news for the guys concerned about switching benches during a match so all they have to do is swap tops from base to base. I'm glad to see new ideas and stuff introduced to the Unlimited Rail gun class, a friend told me to just build a cruiser class rifle to shoot with the rails, I just can't bring myself to do so, even if you would be competitive? I've always enjoyed watching & shooting a rail gun and I will be the first to admit, these beasts are truly works of art and when you get one dialed in and shooting well they are a thing of beauty.

Rail guns are not for everyone, I get that, but given the chance and an open mind, a rail gun is truly something to behold. Kinda like one of the youtube video's I saw posted on the subject, where the guy say's they are the Top Fuel Dragsters of benchrest. I guess I would somewhat agree, and since I'm not going to be building, diving a Top Fuel Dragster anytime soon, I will gladly settle for top notch Rail.

Which leads to another question I have, and it's been asked or posted recently? Which action and configuration would you choose if you were building a band new railgun?

I guess the theory is build the fastest, most accurate shooting machine possible? so I welcome you all to voice your thoughts and opinions on which way you would go if you were building a brand new rail for the next up coming season? 2017

Thanks Rich
 
SWASHBUCKLER1 said:
Any pictures of the new Kensler Rail ?

I would think that is great news for the guys concerned about switching benches during a match so all they have to do is swap tops from base to base. I'm glad to see new ideas and stuff introduced to the Unlimited Rail gun class, a friend told me to just build a cruiser class rifle to shoot with the rails, I just can't bring myself to do so, even if you would be competitive? I've always enjoyed watching & shooting a rail gun and I will be the first to admit, these beasts are truly works of art and when you get one dialed in and shooting well they are a thing of beauty.

Rail guns are not for everyone, I get that, but given the chance and an open mind, a rail gun is truly something to behold. Kinda like one of the youtube video's I saw posted on the subject, where the guy say's they are the Top Fuel Dragsters of benchrest. I guess I would somewhat agree, and since I'm not going to be building, diving a Top Fuel Dragster anytime soon, I will gladly settle for top notch Rail.

Which leads to another question I have, and it's been asked or posted recently? Which action and configuration would you choose if you were building a band new railgun?

I guess the theory is build the fastest, most accurate shooting machine possible? so I welcome you all to voice your thoughts and opinions on which way you would go if you were building a brand new rail for the next up coming season? 2017

Thanks Rich
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Rich Many years ago (early 2000's) I made a few rails with 1" wider blocks between the slide ways and I-beam making the whole rig 2" wider and I had 4 slide pins on the Cross bar to accommodate both widths of rails, But you would have to have a special 4 pin crossbar on a bench rotation for each base. I also made a 7" (8" spread w/ss rails) wide plate/I-beam top last year that a guy wanted because he liked the tapered angle of the plate top and the I-Beam design so I combined the two, I am hesitant however to change too many things since the standard I-beam set up is still winning matches and setting records. But I do love to try new things to break it up a little....J
 
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Jay Young said:
Rich Many years ago (early 2000's) I made a few rails with 1" wider blocks between the slide ways and I-beam making the whole rig 2" wider and I had 4 slide pins on the Cross bar to accommodate both widths of rails, But you would have to have a special 4 pin crossbar on a bench rotation for each base. I also made a 7" (8" spread w/ss rails) wide plate/I-beam top last year that a guy wanted because he liked the tapered angle of the plate top and the I-Beam design so I combined the two, I am hesitant however to change too many things since the standard I-beam set up is still winning matches and setting records. But I do love to try new things to break it up a little....J
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Rich. For the life of me I can't find the picture of that wider rail top I built but basically it was a tapered I-Beam 2" wider than the regular one with more travel.Besides the fact that he wanted the tapered look it also helped cut down on weight since it was heavier, It was not anodized since he was going to use it for testing purposes and continue to modify it for his needs, The wider top could be nice for guys who handle their rail violently or the occasional sticky bolt but I had talked with a few guys and they did not want or feel the need for the extra weight in their rail especially for the 6ppc etc. and they did like the compatibility of the "standard" width, But wider can't hurt either other than weight/compatibility. I have been building them wider with longer travel for the testing rails I build but most of them are for larger calibers 338 lapua etc. they do need it, I sent an e-mail to the place I am getting the other parts roughed out and going to get a quote on the wider beam rail, I don't even want to do all of that roughing out again especially on 5-10 beams, Finishing them up is the fun part, .....I Better get to work....J
 
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