Saturday 28 May 2011

National Shooting Week

It's National Shooting Week from the 28th May - 5th June. Find an event near you.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

New Sharpshooter Blog out today

The new Sharpshooter Blog is out today.

Brunton ADC Anemometers

I've had a Bunton ADC Summit now for about 4 years and I have to say it's a great bit of kit. I bought it of eBay from a seller in the states for about £30 inc P&P and import duties and it has served me well. Until last month when the batery cover broke. Because of the design of the unit it is nearly impossible to fix or bodge so I contacted Brunton to ask about a replacement. A month later (due to customs over here I must add) and not only have they sent me TWO replacement parts but they sent them FOC too! Can't beat customer service like that.

These little Anemometers are great. They are much cheaper than the Kestrel equivalets and offer all of the features below:



  • Displays current barometric pressure (in hPa,mb or Hg)



  • Storm alarm



  • Displays the past 24 hour pressure tendency



  • Predicts the coming 12 hour's weather



  • Altitude



  • Altimeter alarm



  • Water flow meter - (Not so sure about this one I certainly won't be trying it!)



  • Ski run counter  



  • Current, max and average wind speed




  • Water resistant




  • If your going to get one make sure you get the Summit or if you're feeling flush the Pro. The other models don't offer pressure and Altitude readings which are useful for shooters.

    An anemometer is a very useful item and all long range shooters should have one. I used mine whilst shooting the Steel Challenge at WMS a while ago and it was invaluable. There were some very tricky winds but at least this gave me somewhere to start as well as providing me the alt, temp and pressure information to plug into my iPhone ballistic software.

    The only thing I don't like about them is they turn on every time you push a button so if you've got it stashed in a pocket or rucksack etc it'll be turning on every two minutes and the battery won't last as long. Although it is claimed to last 4 years, if I leave the battery in it lasts about 6 months which is still useable but also very annoying when you want to use it and the battery is dead. It would be much better if it had a cover of a dedicated on/off switch.

    All of that said, if money was not object I'd have a Kestrel 4500 NV with Horus ATrag Ballistics. It has built in ballistic software as well as all the usual features but at £450-£500 I think I'll stick to my Brunton and iPhone for now.

    Tuesday 24 May 2011

    Two Great Resources for Shooters from ShootForum

    ShootForum is a great forum anyway but it offers two of the best freely available resources for shooters on the web.

    The first is the Shooting Map which has the details and locations of Clubs, Gunsmiths, and Shooting Organisations from all over the UK. It is updated regularly and any member of the forum can add to it so it will only get better.

    The second is the Bullet Database which has details (including BC, weight and SD) for thousands of bullets.

    Long Range Hunting May Articles

    The May Articles from LRH are up now.

    Includes Part 3 of there Precision Shooting Series.

    Thursday 19 May 2011

    More Articles Added

    New Long Range Shooting articles added to Articles Page.

    Review of Various Anemometers

    Just found an article that has a short review of various anemometers.

    The review includes the following models:


    La Crosse
    Hand-Held Anemometer
    Extech
    Mini-Anemometer
    Speedtech
    Skymaster SM-28
    Brunton
    ADC Wind
    Brunton
    ADC Pro
    Kestrel
    1000
    Kestrel
    2500
    Kestrel
    3000
    Kestrel
    4000


    The website has lots of other articles too.

    Wednesday 18 May 2011

    Tuesday 17 May 2011

    Retro-Fit Redding Micrometer Stems

    Whilst they haven't announced when they are going to make them available for sale Redding have announced retro-fit micrometer stems for standard seaters. More on 6mm-BR.

    Monday 16 May 2011

    Field Density Altitude Compensator data card/slide rule

    Here's a short review of the FDAC on 6mm-BR.

    I've seen these before and have been wondering if it's worth getting one. The user guides (FDAC and Mil-Spec) give a good explanation of how to work out Density Altitude and one of the more usable estimation tables that I've seen.

    Currently I think it is only available for .223, .308, 300 win mag and .338 so I'm not sure I'll be getting one just yet but if they bring out more calibres I may be interested.

    You can try it on their website if you are interested in one.

    Wednesday 11 May 2011

    Various Rifle Scope Reviews

    Just found this website that has quite a few reviews of various optics and rifle scopes and some interesting articles as well.

    Tactical Rifles Scope Reviews Part I

    Tactical Rifles Scope Reviews Part II

    Rifle Scope Fundamentals

    The reviews include the following scopes:

    March Tactical 3-24x42 FFP
    Hensoldt 4-16x56 FFP
    Premier Heritage 3-15x50 DT
    IOR 3.5-18x50 FFP
    Nightforce NXS F1 3.5-15x50
    S&B PMII 4-16x50
    Leupold ER/T 4.5-14x50
    US Optics SN-3 T-Pal 3.2-17x44
    SWFA S.S. HD 10x42

    Monday 9 May 2011

    Sightron's Latest Scopes

    Sightron have added a range of new scopes to their line up. One I've found particularly interesting is their SIII SS 6-24X50 LRMOA. The main feature of which is a MOA-dot (so to speak). Whilst not actually a dot it uses a graticule with 2 MOA spacing:


    Another nice feature is the lower cross-hair extends nearly all the way to the bottom rather than turning into a thick post allowing you to use all of your sight picture for either range finding or accurately holding off.

    Other notable features include tactical turret knobs and 100 MOA of windage and elevation adjustment which should mean you can get out to 1000yds without a tapered base (for most calibres).

    Sightron's are know for their good glass quality but I've always thought their build quality wasn't the best. Hopefully if these new scopes are supposed to be more 'tactical' that is something that may have been addressed. Either way I'm impressed enough that I think I'm going to get one. The reticle design and MOA spacing are features that I've been wanting on a scope for a while. Hopefully other scope manufacturers may follow suit.

    At only £843 they're very well priced compared to similar products.

    More details are available in Sightron's catalogue.

    Friday 6 May 2011

    Another Online Shooting Magazine

    Just found another that looks to be fairly new and appears to be free:

    Tactical Gun Fan

    New Online Sniper Magazine

    Well, not so much new as I have only just found it. Not free but under $7 per issue if you subscribe yearly.

    The free sample issue looks good.

    Sniper Worx

    Thursday 5 May 2011

    New Shooting Articles Released

    The May issue of SSUSA is out now Here.

    LongRangeHunting have put their April articles up but not in the usual Articles Index page. Available Here.

    In particular the second part of their Precision Shooting series has been posted. This looks like quite a compregensive article at 6 pages long. It covers data gathering, ranges cards and wind reading

    Tuesday 3 May 2011

    Borka Torque Wrench

    The Borka torque wrench accepts 1/4" hex bits, is small enough to fit in your range bag, easy to use and is less than half the price of other similar products.

    12 Setting Driver

    6 Setting Driver

    6mm-BR Review

    Tech Specs

    Available from Brownells.

    Also available is the Sniper Rifle Accessory Kit which includes some other bits and drivers and comes in its own TAB Gear pouch. Available from Triad Tactical.

    Target Shooter - May Issue

    The May issue of Target Shooter is out now - Here.

    Primer Dimensions

    Primers and Pressures

    Taken from the Primers and Pressure article on 6mm-BR.