BarryinIN

Stay tuned? I will! I will! Very interesting.

Announced today: NRA Annual Meetings returning to Indianapolis in 2019 and 2023. The next few years' sites: 2015- Nashville 2016- Louisville 2017- Atlanta 2018- Dallas 2019- Indianapolis

More: Glock 17 mags. Retail $15.95. AK stock sets. Yawn. Remington 700 stocks. Kind of surprising.

Our youngest daughter got bit by the archery big when she saw "Brave" almost three years ago. Happily, and somewhat surprisingly, it stuck. She shot in the 4-H Shooting Sports program last year (and got coaching she would actually listen to) and did ok. She now wears shirts with sayings like "I Don't Wear Bows, I Shoot Them". I am proud. My wife is tired of tripping over archery stuff. The side effect of this is my being drawn back into archery. Until this, the last bow I bought was for my birthday in 1978. I've gotten lucky at a few garage sales and managed to pick up some bows; mostly recurves I lusted after decades ago. Only one cost more than $25. Today, out of winter boredom, I dragged our bows out for a lineup picture. L to R: Kid bows first- Two Bear kiddie bows she stated on, a Goblin and a Scout. Then her Matthews Genesis, which she used the latter part of 4-H last year. Then her birthday and Christmas bows: a Greattree Firefox takedown recurve, and a Sky Archery Hurricane longbow. Mine- Bear Kodiak Magnum, Bear Tigercat, Ben Pearson Cougar, Ben Pearson Javelina, and off to the right, a Bear Realtree Monster Bucks compound. I like shooting the $10 Javelina best.

Best of luck to them! http://www.ammoland.com/2015/01/atlas-development-group/#axzz3OolOnlMN Atlas Development Group, LLC: New Name, Over a Century of Combined Firearms and Ammunition Product Development Experience. Atlas Development Group Atlas Development Group Elizabethtown, KY --(Ammoland.com)- Atlas Development Group, LLC (ADG) announces the official launch of operations. ADG will initially focus on providing firearms and ammunition industry consulting, technology development, and OEM manufacturing. ADG is comprised of several former Remington engineering professionals, representing over 110 years of combined industry experience. These individuals were largely responsible for the engineering and product development success of Remington Defense products in recent years. The founding members voluntarily separated their employment from the Remington Arms Company Research and Development Technical Center on January 9, 2015 to launch ADG. ADG will be providing engineering consulting, technology development, and OEM manufactured products to the industry starting immediately. ADG consulting services offer a full range of product development expertise including design vetting, mechanical design & engineering, industrial design, materials and coating engineering, product testing, and manufacturing implementation. OEM products are offered to select clients with a high degree of anonymity. The company website (www.atlasdg.com) will be fully operational prior to the SHOT Show and contains additional information on the product offerings, motivation, and the people driving the company forward. About Atlas Development Group, LLC: ADG is a company based in Elizabethtown, KY. Starting operations in 2015, ADG specializes and provides the firearms and ammunition industry professional consulting services, technology development, and OEM manufactured products.

OK, it's only one new item today, but I am starting a blanket "new for 2015" thread because I know for a fact there will be more. First up, the D60 magazine. "D" for drum. "60" for 60 rounds. I don't know how useful it will be, but I applaud Magpul's attitude. When told they would have to stop making 30-rd mags or move, they moved and made 60s. Gotta love 'em. http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/01/13/magpul-pmag-d60/ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i8bt6Mb0rUc&feature=youtu.be $130

Pretty good deal on a slightly used one: http://bullpupforum.com/index.php?topic=7448.0

http://www.ruger.com/products/22Charger/index.html I've never been sure what its for, but there it is. Takedown model now available.

I don't have that model, but every .223/5.56 I own shoots the following bullets well, whether hand loaded or used in factory cartridges: Hornady 50 V-Max Hornady 53 V-Max (this bullet has a high bc for its weight; better than a lot of heavier bullets) Hornady 55 SP and SPSX Nosler 55 Ballistic Tip Hornady 60 HP Sierra 69 Match King A club member shoots an M&P 15 some, but he may not be at the range until spring to ask him.

Plastic tipped MatchKings in the most popular sizes. Looks like it boosts the bc some. https://www.sierrabullets.com/products/new.cfm

It is with great joy (and no small amount of pride) that I announce here the new Chief Operating Officer of Gunsite is my friend and "neighbor" (next county) Ken Campbell. The announcement and his bio from the Gunsite website: http://www.gunsite.com/main/gunsite-new-chief-operating-officer/4586/ http://www.gunsite.com/main/instructors/sheriff-ken-campbell/

Tis the season. Keep the rifle handy.

http://www.fnhblog.com/fn-will-offer-scar-ssr-mk20-variant-to-civilians/ I understand it's more than a SCAR 17 with a heavy barrel, but an estimated $6K? Umm, no.

The Winchester XPR. Or, the Winchester American Rifle. Or, yet another 3 lug Savage. Or, another company showing Remington a budget bolt gun need not be butt ugly. This happened a couple of days ago, but here it is. http://www.winchesterguns.com/products/interactive/firearms/xpr/

From what I gather from reading about him, he was always very private and reserved.

And the final Ruger new gun (for now) is: An AR-15. A plain old, proper gas impingement operating system, 5.56, M4-style AR-15, called the AR-556. Retail $749. http://www.ruger.com/news/2014-09-29.html

Since they've dropped the hint it's a rifle, and since one of the recent announcements was the American Rifle in 300BLK, I'm going to guess it's either a Mini-14 or SR556 in 300BLK. With the dollar value they gave ($800 or less), I'm guessing it's the Mini.

Aaaaagain. Following the .223 "Scout" rifle, the new versions of the American Rifle, and the 9mm LCR, there is at least one more. Another "flash sweepstakes" to win another as yet unannounced something or other: https://www.ruger.com/dataProcess/newProductSweeps/?r=y&s=e

And the latest one is: The LCR revolver in 9mm http://www.ruger.com/news/2014-09-22.html I like the idea of 9mm snubbies. More zip than a .38, less recoil and flash than a .357, maybe simpler to load if using moon clips. The S&W 940 had trouble with the tapered 9mm case squirting rearward upon firing and locking it up. I wonder how Ruger deals with that.

And another! I just got an email. They're doing another one. Same deal- new product, with a contest to win one when it's announced. https://www.ruger.com/dataProcess/newProductSweeps/?r=y&s=e

And the two new ones are: Ruger American Rifle in Left Hand, and a Ranch model. What is a Ranch model? It has a 16-1/8" threaded barrel, scope rail on the receiver, and a Flat Dark Earth stock. The .223 and .300 BLK are the caliber choices. Ranch http://www.ruger.com/products/americanRifleRanch/models.html

I shot my first 1,000 yard match today. I've been trying to get there all season and finally caught the last one. This is held at an army base, so it's not as easy as just showing up. You have to submit your drivers license number, rifle description, etc by Tuesday before the match. In this club's NRA Long Range matches, they run standard prone (sling shooters) and F-Class together. F-Class, for those unaware, was created by an aging Canadian shooter to keep competing. It's basically regular prone Long Range, but you can use a bipod or forward benchrest, a rear bag, and a scope. To make up for the extra help, the scoring rings are half size. The X-ring is ring is 5", the 10-ring is 10", the 9-ring is 20", the 8-ring is 39", and the 7-ring is 44". That makes up the aiming black. Shooting tight enough isn't the problem. It's the wind. A small wind change between shots today would move shots from one side of the 44" 7-ring to the other. And this place is know for strange fish tailing and swirling wind patterns. I don't know what it is, but it's been that way every time I've shot there. The regulars said today was the worst they had ever seen it, not due to high wind speeds (the gusts hit 20 mph) but the inconsistent speed and direction. This range has four big wind flags- one on each end of the 600-yard firing line, and one on each end of the target line. I never saw more than two flags close to the same. Several times I watched the right side target flag switch from ESE to SW- over a 100 degree shift- then swing right back to ESE. Seriously, the wind could change during the bullet's flight. It sucked. And I loved it. We shoot longish range at my friend's place, but it's a different deal in a match because of the time. You get unlimited sighters, and 30 minutes to shoot sighters and 20 record shots. I've never cut it close on time before in Highpower, but ran close today. Things just take longer at long range. There is more to watch, more wind indicators, more wind changes. With unlimited sighters, I used them. Use up about seven sighters, reading the target, make adjustments...and the next thing I knew I had used nearly half my time and had just under 18 minutes to make 10 scoring shots. You shoot two 20-shot "matches", and I did the same thing in both. I had never shot any form of Highpower with a scope before. Obviously it helped, but it was also an added complication. I didn't expect that. Keeping track of the focus when checking mirage, fine tuning parallax, deciding whether to adjust for wind, hold off for wind (and then to hold off by moving the crosshair intersection on the target or by using the mil-dots and holding them center) and THEN remembering what you did in the last shot as a baseline is a lot to keep up with. Add in that you have to remember the wind condition when you did that, and it's probably different from what you have now 40 seconds later. I got lost during the second "match" and had a string of six misses after shooting 8s and higher with my first six. Everything went blank. I couldn't remember which wind direction I had to account for. Now I'm poking at the air in the middle of the match just trying to get one on paper to give me reference. All the while, the clock is ticking. I shot somewhere in the 140s (146? 148?) out of 200 on the first match, and after getting lost in the second match I plummeted to a dismal 86. Freakin' wind. I set a goal for myself at any new competition I try: Don't finish last. I made it; I didn't. Before the match, my rifle buddy kept telling me I needed to go no matter what, just to get some 1,000 yard and wind data. Thanks to the shifting winds, I think I got more data than I wanted! They all said I picked a helluva day to start this nonsense. I'll go back. It's about the only rifle game I can do while lying down. Gear geek info: Steyr SSG .308 with 25.6" barrel, US Optics 10X scope (probably the lightest rifle and definitely the smallest scope there, but I don't think either hurt me at all), Harris bipod, wedge-shaped rear bag, shooting 185 grain Berger Juggernaut LR Target bullets at 2610 fps. The books all say I should need 38-40 moa of elevation. It took 49.5 moa. This is why you need to verify. I had already seen at shorter ranges it took more, so started higher than the charts at 45 moa. Good thing I did that or I'd have started off paper and lost. Whee!

Thanks for the update. It sounds like a good choice.

They are doing another "flash sweepstakes" for another new product. I got an email about it, and it won't forward with the link, so I guess poke around their site. This one is valued about half as much, and drawing will be on or around Sep 11.

I decided it must be time Ruger got a refresher on what a Scout rifle is, and what it is for. By the definition of the Scout Rifle Conferences held under the auspices of Jeff Cooper the scout rifle has been defined as a general purpose rifle suitable for taking targets of up to 400 kg (880 pounds) at ranges to the limit of the shooters visibility (nominally 300 meters) that meets the following criteria: Weight-sighted and slung: 3 kilograms (6.6 lb). This has been set as the ideal weight but the maximum has been stated as being 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds ). Fail. Unless you use it as-is with the iron sights (and you could) the only way the .308 makes weight is by replacing the stock or heavily Swiss-cheesing it. The .223 is heavier yet at 7.1 lbs and heavier than most ARs. In comparison, the Savage Scout is 6.6 pounds as it comes and the Steyr is 7 lbs even with Leupold 2.5x Scout scope and Ching sling attached. Length: 1 meter (39 inches) Ruger makes this one, but they do it by using a barrel at least 3" shorter than either the Savage or Steyr. Losing the flash hider would help, but would still only put it at around 17.5". The Savage is .75" over, but has a 20.5" barrel. The Steyr makes the length target and has a 19" barrel. Nominal barrel length: .48 meter (19 inches) Fail Savage- 20.5", Steyr- 19" Sighting system: Typically a forward and low mounted (ahead of the action opening) long eye relief telescope of between 2x and 3x. Reserve iron sights desirable but not necessary. Iron sights of the ghost ring type, without a scope, also qualify, as does a low powered conventional position scope. Notice the forward mounted scope is not a requirement. The Rugers have nice iron sights, and can mount a Scout scope, but cannot take a conventional scope without removing the rear sight. While technically passing this section, I think the ability to take a conventional scope is useful (and almost mandatory for me). Action: Magazine fed bolt action. Detachable box magazine and/or stripper clip charging is desirable but not necessary. I'm calling this a Fail because Ruger would have been better off without the detachable box mag. The magazine shows they don't really get it. Sling: Fast loop-up type, i.e. Ching or CW style. Fail. No provision to mount a Ching sling (third swivel stud). Caliber: Nominally .308 Winchester (7.62 x 51 mm). Calibers such as 7 mm - 08 Remington (7 x 51 mm) or .243 Winchester (6 x 51 mm) being considered for frail individuals or where "military" calibers are proscribed. The .308 version: Pass. The .223 version: Fail. Plus it underscores that Ruger really doesn't get it. In addition, a new caliber does not make it a "new product" due the hype they gave it. Built-in bipod: Desirable but not mandatory. Not included but not Mandatory. Accuracy: Should be capable of shooting into 2 minutes of angle or less (4") at 200 yards/meters (3 shot groups). Depends on the individual rifle, but probably Pass. Ruger made a rifle that meets the length figure, shoots a general purpose caliber in some versions, has good iron sights and can take a forward mounted scope, and should meet the accuracy mark. It is not as light and handy as it could have been, and the .223 is by no means a general purpose hunting cartridge.