My ISP has had e-mail trouble the last couple weeks so hopefully this goes out fine and I get all your responses fine. If you don't see your post in this issue, please resend it to me. Thank you. Please e-mail address changes, unsubscribe requests, or submissions to me. In this issue: Rifle cases Shooting analysis systems Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association website Re: Bloop tube effectiveness Need help with FWB 601 Spotting scope recommendations Need simple rifles for junior camp Re: Bloop tube effectiveness ******************************************************************** Your humble editor here. I'm in need of a double rifle case suitable for airline travel (up to a couple times a year) soon so I would like some opinions. I have found cases from ICC/KK Air, Pelican/Browning, Vanguard, Kalispel, Starlight and SKB that would probably work but none seem "perfect" for me. Wheels would be a nice thing to have, which the Pelican, Vanguard, and SKB have built in, or I would have to add them to the others. However, quite a few ranges I shoot at have flights of stairs to traverse so they would be worthless then. In fact, I think I would have to carry the case quite a lot so light weight is a major plus, which seems to point toward ICC, Starlight and SKB (though I would get there 4-gun version, not 2-gun). All of them except the Vanguard and SKB would require taping down of latches and/or padlocks for airlines. I am leaning toward the 4-gun SKB case (I have used their single gun case for my air rifle for the last 5 years). I should even be able to get my spotting scope in it. I just question if it is as sturdy as an ICC aluminum case and am concerned that it weighs a lot (it's shipping weight is the same as a Pelican). While the locks on it are probably quite easy to pick, I think someone who wanted to steal a gun would go through a padlock just as well. Perhaps I should stick with the 2-gun SKB. I've seen several people with those. I just don't like the idea of my guns being side by side. So let me know what you use and what you think of it. Keep in mind it will be used in my car mostly (where a Doskocil would be fine) as I fly to only 1 or 2 matches a year. I'm not too concerned about price though. Thanks. ******************************************************************** Your humble editor once more. I'm looking for a shooting analysis system that can live fire .177 at 10m AND .22 (using reduced targets at 10m?). Possible candidates that I am aware of are SCATT, RIKA and Noptel. Being a college team, I'm not willing to pay $3000 for the Noptel so that's out. So is anyone using the SCATT or RIKA for .22? Are there others I am not aware of? ******************************************************************** Your humble editor again. For those interested, the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association website is back online at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/Users/groups/RifleTeam/CRCA/index.htm There aren't a lot of results yet, but I did publish the NCAA Rifle December poll. ******************************************************************** Michael, Comment on Chets last bit re sighting of the bull. In a nutshell what he is saying is that if one looks exactly and seriously at the middle of the bull and ignore the rest of the picture, then the eye / brain will centre the picture "automatically". I'll vouch for that. It is a technique that has worked for me in the past. In fact it was interesting thinking about it before writing and I realised that I have not used it for ages! It seems that I have reverted(?) to circumferential sighting. I MUST try it again! Beware staring too long though. 3 to 4 seconds absolute max! Otherwise the vision system imprints the image and drifts. Blink regularly! I know that it is a technique used by archers. Staring and sighting on the absolute centre of the bull does concentrate the mind to centre the whole picture. Ross Mason [Editor - I know what you mean. It is sometimes difficult to decifer Chet's writing, and I'm sure that is where some of the controversies start. However, I also can vouch for what you are saying. I will have to focus on that next practice because I realize I have done it on a few various shots throughout a match and those are quite often my best. There is another post at the end with a similar result.] ******************************************************************** Hello Michael, I am experiencing some problems with my Feinwerkbau. Perhaps a posting on the mailing list will get me some ideas... The patient is a FWB 601, from 1992. I have always used tested RWS R10 pellets. Recently I went to my gunsmith to get a new package of pellets. To my surprise, I could not find a proper lot. A first rough test yielded 5 or 6 lots that gave exellent 3-shot groups (all fired rom a machine rest). Looking further for the best from that set, I found the results were totally inconsistent: one 5-shot group looked exellent and the next one (with pellets from the very same tin) looked horrible. Any ideas what could cause this...? The rifle has been to a (i.m.o.) good gunsmith about 6 months ago for maintanence. To rule out a few possibilities: yes, the rifle was properly fixed in the rest (I re- fixed it a couple of times, with identical results). And no, there was not much fluctuation of V0 (10 shots were within a 1 m/s range). Regards Jeroen Hogema (jhogema@worldonline.nl) Air rifle The Netherlands ******************************************************************** I'm thinking of replacing my spotting scope next year. Current favourite is the Kowa TS-611, but I've seen an even lighter model, the TS-501 advertised. It appears to be being marketed in Germany as being suitable for pistol shooters. Has anybody used one for 50m and/or 300m rifle shooting? Donald McIntosh Scotland [Editor - I have not used one but will likely buy one in February. I think it would be suitable for 50m, but don't know about 300m. While you can zoom to 40x, the brightness will go way down so it may be too dark to see your holes. You cannot interchange the lenses on these either. They are MUCH lighter than the 600 series though. See http://www.kowascope.com/ for specs.] ******************************************************************** Hello- I'm looking for an inexpensive, single-shot .22 rifle to use at 4-H camps. I want the model to be durable and easy to use. I need a short stock or a stock that can be cut to fit kids ages 9 - 14. Any ideas? Pat Bingham [Editor - see if you can obtain some through the CMP program http://www.odcmp.com/Services/Rifles/caliber22.htm ] ******************************************************************** Mr. Ray I have been reading some of the debate on the UIT-mailing list going on about physical vs mental sighting techniques. Some of my experiences in this context are expressed below. Perhaps somebody can get something out of it. Regards Morten Chet, For some time I have been aware of the importance of a perfect alignment of the rear sight in relation to the foresight. I have experienced that also a marginal deviation will cause the shot to be a 10,3 instead of a 10,9, everything else cet par. But my problem has been how to use the precision of the non-dominant mental entity (NDME) in this alignment. Up to this point I have done the alignment by use of dominant forces so to say, and I have often observed that although the alignment was very good at step 4, the sights were out of alignment at 4e. I have not made use of the NDME in this respect. During yesterdays practice an idea fell into my head (I guess what happened was NDME communication to me). I have experienced that the NDME will insure a perfect alignment of the front sight in relation the perfect bull's-eye (PBE) when I put the mental pictorial representation (MPR) of the PBE on the mental screen. What I did was rest my physical eye on the light circle between the iris and the foresight, and called up the MPR of the perfect alignment of the rear- and front sight. I did not stare at the light circle, but just rested my eye on it, so that the NDME was provided with the necessary information. This maneuver made it possible for me to run the check list in the prone position with Quiet Zone and non dominant trigger pull in what I have to describe as the most efficient manner so far since I started shooting the book. I put the last five shots of the string on top of each other, and the ten ring was still intact. I had some kind of mental reaction after doing this, as it was the first time I have been able to implement the mental check list to this extent in prone. So I simply stopped firing to preserve the Kinesthetic responses and procedure. Time will show whether I just was lucky or if the procedure is good enough to consistently fire PBEs with total control of what is going on. I hope perhaps this discovering of how to insure a perfect rear sight alignment will be the factor that enables my NDME to generate the Cone for me. I do not posses professional competence on how the physical eye works. But this example supports your hypothesis. I do some photographing now and then. I often use a tele-lense with autofocus. When focusing on items that are very close to me, say one yard, the image that I see through the lens is close to what I see with my physical eye. But when I focus on object that are located with a greater distance, this might be from 10 to 100 yards, what I see through the lens is much sharper than what I perceive while looking at the object without the help of any devices. I should add that the optician, both this year and the previous year, has found that the abilities of my physical eyes are as good as they can be. The guy on the UIT mailing list has not understood what kind of information he needs to shoot the center of the center. You don't need to see the black bull or the metal front sight sharply. You need to see the white halo, put the MPR of the PBE on to your mental screen and let the NDME decide when the halo is in perfect alignment with the black bull. If you are concerned about how the black bull looks, you are concerned with an element that will not contribute positively to the shooters performance, and your focus is not on the factors that produce the outcome that the shooter wants; the PBE. If the shooter is willing to devote one practice session to mental sighting instead of physical sighting, he will receive evidence of the precision of the mental sighting technique. Morten ******************************************************************** End of UIT Mailing List #8 Michael Ray - Systems Engineer Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. Rifle Coach UIT Shooting Page - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1190/index.htm