A custom magazene for the Extreme Benchrest Speed Shoot

Up till now it has been said that to do well at the speed shoot you had to single load. Not any more! Several magazine loaders were in the finals including this innovative gravity fed design. 

Blueflax covert operatives proved that their 2014 photo of the .30 Daystate Wolverine bench  rest rifle was not a solitary intelligence triumph. In 2015 video was added to their black bag of tricks. Needles to say, this video was obtained at great personal risk. The area behind this shooter was crowded with rubberneckers. 

The shooter in this sequence started the match standing to the left of his rifle. At the start command he held louse pellets in his left hand and loaded the angled magazine with his right. Then taking his seat he operated his rifle with a special lever that allowed the sue of the left hand. He fired right handed and levered the next pellet into the breach with his right.

I had planed to shoot the speed shoot with an Armada, but switched to my Air Ranger because the loading port for the .22 magazines proved to be too narrow for my blunt fingers. Could this be a solution?

Ron

John Reimers wins 2015 Extreme Benchrest

John on the firing line during the 25 meter match

John Reimers shot a 190-1X at 100 yards to win the 2015 Extreme Benchrest in Mesa, Arizona on October 4th.

To reach the finals John shot two third place scores (226-5X and 227-4X) at 75 yards on the 2nd and 3rd to qualify. On both days, he came in third, but on the final day when the targets were moved to 100 yards he shot three points ahead of Noah Sever’s 187-1X second place score. Irwin Segerman shot a 183-0X for third place.

The same 5 ⅛ inch targets with ½ inch ten rings were used at 75 and 100 yards. The X count reflects hits on a 3/16 inch circle within the ten ring. Hits on the X ring are used to break ties.  

Ron

Extreme Benchrest, Were Home!

Extreme Benchrest, Were Home!

Pocatello, Idaho 10-5-15 9:14 PM

We made it back to Pocatello just before sunset, Tired but glad the trip is behind us. I am going to go over my notes and start to put together some longer format pieces about Extreme Benchrest like the different matches, the Cast bullet guns and what it meant to double the attendance, there were 200 entries this year. Aldo we will highlight some of the  folks we met this year. So watch this blog.

A big thanks to Arimo Dave for driving and to his Ford car that got 40 MPG. We drove 1800 miles and I am swaying for side to side as I am typing this.

We will close out with a photo of Dave and I at the range in Arizona. Dave is the one with the iron sighted rifle.

Ron

Extreme Benchrest some final scores

Flagstaff, Arizona

10-4-15 11:05 PM

We are in Flagstaff after driving up  from Phoenix after the banquet. Lightning from over the Navajo Nation light up the night cloudscape. We will stay here for the night.

A view from the Rio Salado range

As you know, the final for the Extreme benchrest was shot off at 100 yards. the top three Pro scores were 190, 187 and 183. Sportsman scores were 174, 168-2X and 168-0X. They were shot of the same targets as 75 yards in some pretty stiff winds from 6:00. The  top gun in Pro class was a FX Boss .30 caliber.

In the 200 yard cast bullet match the top scores were 169-3X, 168-1X and 165. The Helium powered .30s from Virginia took first and second and the .25 custom Condor shot third.

More tomorrow.

Ron

Extreme Benchrest 10-4-15 morning

Today at Extreme Benchrest

Oct 4, Mesa Arizona

Last night the shooters for the 75 yard and speed shoot finals were announced. There will be 40 in each group 20 Sportsman and 20 Professionals. I will be a spectator, but that’s OK. after a disappointing day on Friday, no time on the speed shoot and a 191 at 75, I shot a personal best of 214 at 75.

Shooting two relays on the 75 yard event has improved the match for me. It does give you a chance to come back from a bad day, but more importantly, you get to shoot more. Shooting more is always more fun.

Last night we had the speakers evening at the Las Sendas Golf Club. Beer was $5.00 a glass so I knew I was in an upscale venue. Speakers were Michael Vent, Airgun Nation, Tony Belas, historical airguns, and Rossi Morreale, what is a real airgunner?, it was a good time.

Rossi gave an over the top and very funny presentation that called into question a lot of the idiosyncrasies the airgunners share. We can get pretty anal about o-rings, but we do need to work on our communications skills in order to share our  passion for the sport.

Ron

Extreme Benchrest 10-3-15

Extreme Benchrest 10-3-15

Mest, Arizona

On the Edge of Airgunning

Today Dave and I shot 25 and 75 yard benchrest and Dave shot 10 M pistol. Between relays we had a chance to go to the range whee the cast bullet shooters were practicing. We saw some things that take airgunning to another step.

Compressor guru Todd stands next to two extra large American field targets.

First was a target. Folks in Arizona are looking to adapt field target to the more powerful guns that have come along in the last few years. To do this they are building targets that are way more robust. Targets that are capable of standing up to 150 FPE guns. These targets would be placed between 30 and 100 yards. This would open the sport up to .22 long rifles, which we think is a  good idea to attract new shooters. Obviously, there would be some safety considerations. there are now a lot of rifles that shoot harder than the 20 foot pounds limit for FT and this could be their game.

I talked to Doug Noble who shoots a .25 cast bullet rifle. His rifle is a modified Airforce Condor that shoots a 60 gr bullet at just over 900 fps. This bullet has been the go to cast bullet for the 25-20 for over a century. Doug says that with a well regulated air source he can shoot 4 inch groups at 200 yards.

Lastly there were two airgunners from Virginia that brought .30 caliber rifles that ran of helium and shot 200 gr bullets at over 900 fps. The bullets were a special spitzer with two widely spaced driving bands. These rifles cracked like a centerfire. A lot of development work has gone into these rifles, but a silencer would be nice.

Sunday will be the finals in the speed shoot and the 75 yard BR, as well as the cast bullet match.

Ron

Extreme Benchrest October 2, 2015

Extreme Benchrest

October 2, 2015, Mesa, Arizona

Today we shot the Speed Shoot, and the first day of the 75 yard benchrest. They couldn’t bee any more different. Sixteen steel silhouette spaced out from 25 to 55 yards shoot’m down as fast as you can. Twenty Five bullseye targets with a ten ring smaller than a dime. In thirty minutes, hit em all and you will be legend.

Crews set up the 75 yard targets.

I took my sight correction for the speed shoot and couldn't’ hit a thing. Maybe The gun was overfilled, but it just kept shooting higher so that each run, you get three, was different. My score was disappointing.

How far can things go? My gun started to leak. All I had left to do was shoot the 75 yard benchrest.

The gauge on my gun showed that I had lost 100 bar since I filled it after the speed shoot. Low enough that I had to refill the gun half way thru my sighting shots.

My first sighter after the fill was a 10. I went to the record target and shot 2 10s and went on to shoot what I think was a personal best at 75 yards, and did it on one fill. We will have the scores by Sunday morning.

One match went wrong one match went right. That’s why shooting is a sport.

Ron

Extreme Benchrest Oct 1, Thursday Field Target

Extreme Benchrest

Oct 1, Thursday

Field Target

Today was the sight in day, and on the range for 25 and 75 yard benchrest there were no new guns to see, but there were a lot of familiar faces, This part of Extreme Benchrest was like you would hope your local club shoot would be. Old friends catching up on what had happened since the last match. A full day for sighting in sounds like a lot, but these guns have come a long way with plenty of opportunities to have their zeros knocked, vibrated or just plane pummeled out of alignment. I was happy to find that the Armada was needed only one MOA of left windage at 25 yards, and my Air Ranger was off by less than one mil at 75.

There was a Field Target match on the new FT range and it is a credit to the folks that built it. The surrounding is a stand of desert plants that would be the centerpiece of any native cactus garden. I counted seven separate species of cactus as well as Jojoba and Palo verde.

But what about the shooting, Ron? It was hard. Small kill zones and ranges that put the target in the worst part of the trajectory. there were only ten stations, but this range is going to become a touchstone for a shooting challenge with air rifles as well as being scenic.

American Field Target

We are learning about a new twist on the traditional field target match. American Field Target will have bigger targets, longer ranges and more powerful guns. There will be a presentation by the match developers before we go home. So stay in touch with this blog for more information.

Ron