In this issue: Pistol articles Re: New FWB stock Vision and dominant eye Walther problems Cooking ammo Some newbie questions / Baikal air pistol any good??? Summer rifle instructor job ******************************************************************** I just visited Don Nygord's site, and he has 8 small articles on precision pistol shooting. They may be of interest to your subscribers. http:\\www.nygord-precision.com ******************************************************************** I saw the P70 equipped with a cantable aluminium stock similar to that of the 2602 last week at the Junior International at Suhl, Germany. I spoke to the FWB technicians who said that they were still tooling up for production and so didn't have a fixed idea of price. They were however to give me a guide as to around 900 DM extra for the stock (I got 2.8505 DM for £1 GBP). This would bring the cost of a P70 equipeed with this stock to around 2300-2400DM, £800-900GBP. Furthermore they were able to resolve worries that some parties had had over the plastic elements of the 2602 style stock. They showed us that these parts, despite looking like plastic, are in fact aluminium and as such should be just as strong and durable as any other part of the system. FWB also have the email address info@feinwerkbau.de for any enquiries. Hope this helps. Mark A. C. Mullen Great Britain Junior Shooting Squad MMullen@altavista.net ****************************************************************** Some thoughts on vision. 1) Seeing the target clearly is secondary to seeing the front sight. One of the best shooters I have met had 20-150 uncorrected vision and shot without his glasses. I asked him why. He said that his infinite focus without correction was the front sight, so he could not focus on anything else. For him the sight was crisp and there was a gray blob down range, when it turned black he broke the shot. Now this is a little extreme, but makes the point. 2) If you are going to use a blinder it should be translucent. Black cuts down on the amount of light reaching the non-dominate eye. This will cause the pupils to dilate differently, causing eye strain. From experience this is more noticeable as you get older. A 20-30 year old probably wouldn't notice the difference, but.. 3) The dominate eye may not be the stronger eye if you wear glasses which normalize them. A quick way of finding the dominate eye is as follows. With palms open bring your two hands together. Cross your index fingers left over right, and thumbs right over left. Bring your arms up, fully extend straight in front of you. Pick an object and look at it through the hole between your hands. Check which eye you can see the object with, that is your dominate eye. When I check my young shooters I have them look at me, then I see their dominate eye. Try this several times. If you are cross dominate you will probably find that sometimes you use one eye, other times you use the other. If you find that you are 60-40 or even has high as 70-30 and have been shooting for awhile, I would not switch hands. ****************************************************************** Mike, I have two questions that deal with a Walther. Last year my buddy and I purchased new smallbore rifles at Camp Perry. I purchased a 1913 and he purchased a Walter KK-200 Sport. There have been a couple problems with the Walther, the gun has about 5000 rounds through it. After the gun has set for 10 minutes, (just enough time to go down range and change a 50 meter target), the first round out of the gun will go 2" low at 50 meters. The next round is just out of the group, and the third round will be in the group. We have checked the action screws and they are tight. (Walther says don't adjust these anyway.) Anyone know what can cause this? I don't think two rounds can heat a barrel enough to cause a 2" impact change, and I would think the metal stock would not change due to temperature. Once you start to shoot the gun holds groups very well, but let it rest for 10 minutes and watch out. It does this when shooting in position and from the rifle rest. Also there is one other problem, the front rail is part of the stock in a Walther KK-200, and one day while getting into position a crack was heard and the hand stop broke out a chunk of the rail area! The only way to repair this is to replace the entire stock! ($1000+). I have heard rumors that other have had this problem, and it may be a defect cause by air bubbles in the material. Any one else having any problems? Finally, does any one have a procedure they have used when they are testing the torque settings on there rifles? I have a rifle rest and want to experiment with the torque of my 1913's bedding screws and wonder what seems to give the best results. Curt [Editor - I would say your friend's problem is temperature induced though I would agree I'm surprised that the gun would cool that quickly. My 1913 will put it's first round way low also but I haven't noticed it being off after a short break. If he shoots unusually fast the barrel would heat more and then cool quickly from not being shot for 10 minutes. Yes, I have heard of this defect in the cast aluminum stocks. If it's machined like S&N stocks, you should not have this problem. See the archives. Torque adjustments were discussed within the past year though there really weren't any sey groundrules to follow. It's basically a long process of elimination.] ****************************************************************** Wish to cover ammo. Ammo has an precise powder burn temperature which the factory tests. This is powder temp I am referring to. Any variance will of course change the target strike point. For this reason, I direct my shooters to keep the ammo out of the chamber until step four of the mental check list. If the tempture rises the POI will change and if it lowers which will never happen in normal shooting unless in the northern climbs. The time in chamber is critical as the longer the time in chamber, the higher the temp rise and the greater distortion of the POI. So if you step 4 and leave the round in the chamber for 6 seconds, eject it and use it for your next practice period. It is no longer any good in respect to precision competition. If you go to the Ammo maker you can ask them about this temperature effect of the powder. When you fire very slowly this is not much of a problem but at a fast firing rate it becomes a major problem in big bore 308 and so on. In .22 it is a problem but to a lessor extent but a problem never the less. Also open the bolt upon firing to clear the heat and residue from chamber. Placing a round in the chamber and leaving it there is called cooking the round. With Big bore, pull the bullet and empty the powder and replace with new powder and replace the bullet with great care to insure the crimp is correct. With .22Cal, use for practice periods or throw it away as it is not worth using for precision competition thereafter. Chet Skinner, Coach cskinner@dol.net ****************************************************************** Thanks for the fast reply and adding me to your Newsletter. I was browsing through a recent one discussing shooting clothes. The reference was that T2 was going to import custom and off-the-rack Gehmann clothes at, what appears to me to be, a reasonable price $150 for jacket and $150 for pants. I have seen both priced 3 to 4 times higher. All of the shooters I shoot against wear the shooting clothes, shoot 530 to 580, and have been competitively shooting for a number of years. I was trying to improve my general skills first to see how good I could do without the added attachments (clothes, glasses, etc.). My best match score is 484, did it in two different matches, but am still trying to break 500 - almost seems like a barrier to me. AS for practice, I am compulsive about tracking my progress and have a great degree of variability in my shooting performance (worst 412 shot one week ago, 516 yesterday, and the 520 about two month ago). So, I have lots of work to do just on mastering the "basics." Do you have any suggestions for me to improve my shooting, what to work on first, second etc.? I have the Reinkenmeir and Horneber books along with Reinkenmeir's videotapes. On another topic, I am interested in buying a Baikal IZH-46 10m match pistol and have found Golden Toller Guns (Joe Goulart) offering the best price of $242. Do you know of another source that would be less expensive? Also, do you have any comments about that gun? Best wishes, Rob [Editor - there are a variety of options for inexpensive clothing. It all depends upon your budget and how serious you want to get about the sport but I doubt you will need to buy Thune or Sauer based upon what I know of your situation. Work on the fundamentals first, of course. If you can find a balanced, comfortable position that gives you a decent hold, you're well on your way. Don't change more than a thing or two at a time and try if for several practices to determine it's worth. Being very picky. It's amazing what moving your foot just an inch or rotating it 10 degrees can accomplish (or destroy). Practice on a blank wall to remove the "focus" of the target.] ****************************************************************** Got a phonecall today that represents a potential summer job opportunity for a competitive smallbore shooter and the purpose of this message is to pass it along to folks who might know somebody likely to be interested. The Brush Ranch Camp, located near Santa Fe, NM, is looking for one male and one female rifle instructor for the summer. The campers at this place are typically boys 8 to 14 years old and girls 8 to 15 years old. They teach smallbore rifle and some skeet....I don't know how much the rifle instructor is expected to get involved in shotgun. The range instructor will be a cabin counselor ("....If I hear one more peep outta you guys, there's gonna be BIG trouble!") as well as working on the range. You can learn more about Brush Ranch at "www.brushranchcamp.com". The basic parameters set by the camp is that the instructor must be at least 19 years old, male or female and be familiar with competitive smallbore shooting (high school, college or club). NRA Instructor or Coach certification would be a definite plus, but is not a prerequisite. My own observation would be that an ability and an inclination to teach would probably be more important than the ability to break 1160 in a full course. Folks who want to pursue this matter further, or who simply want more information, are encouraged to contact Scott Rice at the camp in NM, phone 1-800-722-2843. FYI, Yours Truly did exactly this sort of thing 'waaaaay back in my undergrad days (summers of '61 and '62), at a BSA camp in Illinois and at a private camp in Wisconsin. It's a lot of fun, provides memories you'll recall for years and has the added advantage of furnishing room and board. Also a good networking opportunity. John Crossman ****************************************************************** End of UIT Mailing List #27 Michael Ray - Systems Engineer Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm Michael Ray - Systems Engineer Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm