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Smallbore Rifle Clinic, Volume I
First Edition
(c) 1982 The National Rifle Association
Second Printing - 1995

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This manual may not be
reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For
information, address the Competitive Shooting Division, National Rifle Association, 11250
Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, Virginia 22030.

Edited by: Ellen Ross, MemberNRA Smallbore Committee

Clinic Instructors: Presley V/. Kendall

Carl Jooss
Bill Krilling
Neal Johnson
David Ross III
David Weaver

Recommendations for equipment or

other items made in this publication are
the recommendations of the presentor/author
and ae not recommendations by the NRA.
The NRA ordinarily does not recommend the
use of specific products.

CAUTION: All technical data in this publication, especially for handloading, reflect the limited
experience of individuals using specifrc tools, products, equipment and components under
specific conditions and circ umstances not necessarily reported in the article, and over which
the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), has no control.
The data have not otherwise been tested or certified by the NRA.
The NRA, its agents, officers, and employees accept no
responsibility for the results obtained by persons using such data
and disclaim all liability for any consequential injuries or damages.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1982 NRA National ChampionshiPs
Smallbore Rifle Clinic

Dr. Robert G. Smith, lntroduction

Biographies of Clinic lnstructors

Presley W. Kendall
Selecting Eguipment and Testing Ammunition . page 1

Carl Jooss
The Effects of Wind and Weather " " page

Bill Krilllng
Training for Competitlon Page 15

Neal Johnson
Building a Target Rifle Page ??

Presley W. Kendall
David P. Weaver
David Ross I ll
Questlons & Answers. " " Page 31
NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN
of AND

"//lpz THE AMERICAN HUNTER

1600 Rhode lsland Avenue, N.W. . Washington, D. C. 20036 . (202) 828-6000

INTRODUCTION

By
Dr. Robert G. Smith, Chairman
Smallbore Rifle Committe

As chairman of the NRA smallbore Rifle committee, and on

behalf of the NRA, lam pleased to introduce this printed record of
the NRA smallbore Prone clinic that was conducted on July z7th,,
1982 at rhe National Rifle and Pistol championships at camp penry,
Ohio.

This clinic was made available to camp perry smaltbore prone

shooters not only as part of N RAts efforts to make up-to-date
information available to shooters, but also of our efforts to increase
the popularity of the smallbore prone competitive shooting game.
The clinic provided presentatons on general phases of
smallbore prone rifle shooting to include equipment selection and
ammo testing, effects of wind and weather, training for competition,
building a target rifle and a secton with questions and answers"
This document is the edited transcript of the clinic" lt is
being sent free of charge to all persons who attended the 'l'ggz
clinic and is being made available for sale to all interested
shooters. we are confident your shootng too will benefit by having
this wealth of nformaton made available to you.

Dr. Robert G. Smith

 BIOGRAPHIES OF CLINIC INSTRUCTORS

NEAL JoHNSoN, Harnpton, Virginia. Neal Johnson owns and operates

Gunsmthng, lnc. He has been a professional gunsmith for over zo
years, specializing in smallbore competitlon rifles for the last ten.
Over 10O national records have been set with his rifles.
CARL JOOSS, New Albany, Ohio- Carl Jooss is a perennial favorite at
Camp Perry in both the prone and position championships, having been
the National Civilian Champion in each. Carl owns Champion Shooter
Supply and can usually be seen there on Commercial Row between
relays during the National Matches.
PRESLEY w. KENDALL, carlisle, Kentucky. pres Kendall's success in
shooting spans a quarter century having won the National Smallbore
Prone championship foun times, in 1962, 197?, 1974 and 1ggz. pres was
also the National 3-Position Champion in 1964 and has been a member of
numerous U.S. nternatonal shooting teams.
WILLIAM KRILLING, Ft. Benning, Georgia- Bll Krilling fired the first
3200 in smallbore prone competition. He was the National
Smallbore Prone Champion in 1965. Despite his tremendous shooting
accomplishments, Bill is probably best known for his abilities as a
coach. He is currently serving s Head Rfle coach for the NRA
Training and Development Teams.
DAVID Ross, lll, Houston Texas. avid Ross is a well known
nternatonal competitor in small bore prone shooting having been on
numerous u"s. international teams including the 1976 olympic team. He
has won both the British and u.s. Natonal prone championships.
DAVID WEAVER Oil City, Pennsylvania. David Weawer was Nationai
'
smallbore champion in 1976 and 1979" His list of prone shooting
accomplishments also includes several Civilian Natlonal titles and
selection to the Dewar and Pershing teams"
 SELECTING EQUtPMENT AND TESTTNG AMMUNTTTON
by
Presley W- Kendall
Our topic will be selecting egui.pment
and testing ammunition. You will have to
consider your budget, but I hope that
the information you get here will be of
help in your decisions.
lf you have a queston, please raise
your hand; and f you disagree with
something I say, letrs talk aout it here
so ewerybody else can get in on the
discussion.
The ltems that youtll need for prone
shooting are a mat, a coat, two
sweatshirts, a sling, a glove, ear plugs,
telescope, spotting scope and stand,
CP, possibly glasses, a rif le,
ammunition, a pair of normal slacks,
shoes, a loading block, bore cleaner,
cleaning rod with a brass brush, patches,
f ront and rear sights, a rear adjustable
iris for the near sight, a metal gun case
for your rifle, and a metal case for your
shootlng equipment. All together it would
probably cost around 91 ,5O0"
lf you are a beginner, before you
buy anything, lwould recommend that
you wtch successful champion shooters to
see what they use. Dontt buy any tern
until you see other people use t and then
look further and get some ideas. Just
because one shooter was successful does
not necessarily mean that others are also.
So I would suggest that you watch
several people who are successful and get
a consensus of their shooting styles and
equipment, and then see how that fits
your own physique, technique, and
aspiratons. So I'll go through the
eguipment now and recommend the thngs
that you would need.
New Rifles. I personally recommend
purchasing an Anschutz prone rifle with a
single-stage trigger.
1
Used Rifles. There are plenty of
secondhand Rernington 37ts and 4OX's,
Winchester 52rs, Walthers, and Anschutz
awallable. Before you buy a secondhand
rifle of any kind, f you ane not that
good a shooter, get somebody who is and
ask him to shoot t. Most used rfles are
not perfect. Get your friend's opinion
after he has shot the rifle. Then if you
have access to a gunsmth, let him look at
the rifl ing to see f there is a ring
around the chamber or other damage.
Then look at the bedding and trgger
before you buy it.
The Trlgger. There are about four
optons in your choice of a trlgger: the
Kenyon trigger, the Anschutz old style
trigger, the new Anschutz trigger, and
the electronc tr-igger. I believe that you
need to keep your equpment as simple
and direct as possible, not only fc
maintenance, but also to minimi!
equipment breakdown while you are usng
t. lf anything can go wrong in a match,
It certainly will"
Most people use single-stage trlggers
for prone, but there has been a trend
iately for some shooters to use a
double-stage trigger. This is usually the
international shooter because they have
been using a two-stage trgger in their
smallbore poston rifle so they try to
keep the same trigger technique for all
rifles and all positons. For prone I
,) would recommend a single stage trgger
because you only have 20 mnutes to
shoot and you have a lot of shots to
shoot. You have a lot of wind vratons
to consider and often you have to shoot
quite fast. There is a good deal of
wasted time and motion in using a
two-stage trigger.
 Rifle Barrels. The barrels that come
on the original Anschutz rffle are good;
but after they wear, you have to get a
new barrel. There ere several
possbllties. You can have a replacement
Anschutz barrel put on or ,you. lan get a
Hart, McMlllan, Obermeyer gr Hutchlnson.
l've had most of my- r.r""us wlth Hart
barrels.
Shooting Coats. There are four
brands of leather coats on the market
today that I feel are good. One is the
Hawkeye whlch sells for about t355.
Anschutz also has a new coat out at about
the same price. Both the Bob Allen and
the Pearson coats sell for about $160. All
of them are goodi but ln selecting a coat,
I would recommend that you conslder a \l
light colored back, preferably yhlt3,
because thls reflects the heat. lt witt
keep you a llttle cooler while you're
shooting In the hot sun. When you are
tting your coat, make sure you can get
..bber replacement pads since the pads
wear, and you will have to replace them
once in a whlle to keep your arm from
slipping off the mat.
Front Sights. ln today's state of
the art, I thnk that you would want an
adJustable front aperture that opens and
closes in such the Bame way as a camera
lens, screwed lnto an Anschutz front
slght. That is ldeal lf yousre shooting on
a dark cJay because you can open your
aperture up. lf you are shooting on \i
brlght sunny c,ay, you can close tne
aperture. Always try to close t as
tlgh-tly as fs'iUle to prevent a sighting
error.
I also would recommend a Redfield
+ two-step front sight base so that you can
set your slght at 50 yards on the higher
portlon of the front base and then move
It to the rear porton of the front base
for 1OO yards. You may feel that its not
necessary because you have an adjustable
comb, but the hlgher you raise the front
slght on the barrel, the more chance you
have for damage or inaccuracy caused by
the slightest canting error.
Rear Slght. For a rear sight, I
wiruld, agaln, recommend the Anschutz.
Whle we are talking about rear sghts, I
would like to comment on the use of the
colored rear lrls. I feel that there
should be very little dlfference between
what you normally look at durlng the tme
when yourre not shooting and what you
look at when you shoot. As you know,
rear iris inserts come in colors from pink
to green. I have never had any luck
with them because they are not the
natural colors that you are used to
looking at instinctively all the time.
Shooting is an instinctlve thing, arld you
have to be able to think very quickly to
shoot. I would recommend a clear rear
lens and then gettng a single'oirizing
filter which can be screwed into the front
of the rear slJht.
Shootlng Glasses. Those of you who
wear glasses and shoot prone can use a
corrected lens in your rear sight. I
would recommend this for prone shooting
because it saves having to wear glasses
that may get ran spotted. lf you need a
pair of shooting glasses, the top of the
llne Is the Junker frame. You carl
{
purchase these frames and have your own
. lenses inserted. The lenses are
interchangeable so you can have several
made for your prescription. For the
right-handed shooter, I would recornmend
that the left lens be a SOt dark green or
smoked color and then two lenses for the
right eye--one clear and the other a 251
smoke or light green.
2
 Slings. There hawe been some
lmprovements ln slings, I think, over the
last few years, especially the plastic
sling. So I would suggest that you
consider a sllng made out of plastic
because leather is forewer stretching -
You have to oil a leather sling and that is
going to allow t to stretch even more-
Gloves. For American shooting, rules
allow you to use a thick padded glove.
For internatonal you have to use a thin
one " through your sight and then looking ln
Fore-end Stop. I do not recommend
using a large lreawy handstop because
your hand often goes against the stop in
an unnatural position and this causes
fatigue. I would recommend a narrow
fore-end stop, preferably one that s
quickly attachable and detachable such as
the one Anshutz makes or the one that
Carl Jooss handles.
Mats" Try to get as -:rn a mat as
you can possibly be comfrtable with
because the thicker the mat, the less
hard contact you have with the ground,
and therefore, the less stability or
steadiness. There are three on the
market right now: pearson, Bob Allen,
and Hawkeye.
Sweatshirts. Try to get at teast one
thick sweatshirt, f not two, such as the
Camp Perry sweatshirts. Get them long
enough so that when yourre stretched out
full length prone, they ft smoothly and
donrt leave your stomach exposed.
Cas. Get a cap that has at least a
broad bli but preferably something that
hangs down on both sides and fonward
over your sight while yourre aiming.
This helps to block the distraction of
people around you who may be talkng
and mowing around and cuts out light,
wind, raln, and sand. I consider a hat
very mportnt.
Ear lugs. You have sever-al optons
right now. There are custom handmade
plugs which are very good and which I
recommend. You can also get the sprlng
type, or you can get muffs. I flnd that
for outdoor smallbore shooting standard
earplugs alone are sufflcient. you really
donrt need the pressure or the weight of I
a heavy set of muffs while you are looking I
I
the spotting scope and back to the rifle.
Spotting Scope. There are severat
brands of spotting scopes on the market.
I personally use a e19-hne!.|.....1F_..... .-f-s
power variable because I like to have
about ?O power for 50 yards. t turn t
up a little higher for 1OO yards. This is
for two reasons: to spot shots when I
think I have a close one and for win.,
(mirage) doping. Always turn yoi
spotting scope short of the range. Fr
instance, lf youre shooting at 1O0 yards,
set t sllghtly out of focus, at about 90
yards r so that you can pick up more
mirage. The heat waves are very critical
to reading wind"
Telescoes. The hottest thing Is the
receiwer mounted scopes made by
Redfield. There are several other good
brands and they might perhaps be better
than having a scope mounted on the
barnel, such as the old Uneril . Agaln,
this depends on what you can afford. A
few years ago, some shooters tnled
sleewed actons that extended guite a bit
forward, just as benchrest shooters do,
to keep the scope well forward yet off the
barrel . We donrt see much of that these
days though.
Personally, I still use a 20-power
scope mounted on the barrel. I think
 somewhere between 20 and 24 power is all
you need. Anything more than that, and
you are seeing your pulse which will
scare you a little bit; and in a heavy
mirage, it causes the bull to look too
. wavy. You can also have difflculty
finding the lines and seeing the bull-
Bedding. I prefer an aluminum
block imbedded under the receiver and
two nches out under the barrel. Always
have the barrel bedded an inch-and-a-
half to two inches under the barrel . You
bed an aluminum block under the action if
you have a wood stock because shooting
conditions and climatic condition vary- ln
Phoenix itrs a hundred and twelve
degrees and t doesn't ran much; while
at Camp Perry itts eighty-five and rans.
By putting an aluminum block in there no
matter how much the stock warps, it will
.\i, not be affected. ln 2O years, I feel that
-ost people will be shooting plastic
cks. The plastic stocks will have
-umnum blocks or at least aluminum lugs
embedded under the action screws.
Torque. Some people use 20
pounds. Some use up to 40, but
anywhere between ?5 and 30 pounds is
pretty good. You must remember that
the Anschutz receiver is somewhat soft,
and f you try anything over 35 or 40
pounds, you run into the danger of
strpping out the action and then you
have to rethread t. lf I were building a
rifle today, I would recommend a plastic
stock with an aluminum block and
adjustable comb with allenhead screws, an
Anschutz single-stage trigger, and a Hart
barrel.
Cleaning. You should use a cleaning
rod guide, good cleaning rod with a brass
tip and Hoppes or some other popular
solvent. Use a brass brush passed
through the barrel five times. I do this
4
once a day in a four match day. Then
use a patch through the barrel untll t
comes out reasonably clean.
Gun Case. Whenever youtre not
using your rifle, carry it n a metal case.
I donrt recommend a plastic case because
they really donrt offer enough protecton
when travelling on the airlines. Keep lt
in a metal case where t can't be
damaged. When you put your gun away,
donrt put t away cocked. Keep the
firing pln forward to keep the pressure
off the fi ring pin spring so you donrt
wear it.
Ammunitlon. We have Eley, the
German RSO brand, and Lapua. The top
of the line is E_!_g-y Red. Of course,
thatts very expensive. There is some
ammunltlon that ls just coming out but
may never be on the market since itrs
being made in Russia. This is radically '
different from what werre using. Theyrre
using t only for their national team in
Russia and will probably never make t
available on the world markets. After we
have the Eley Red, the next I consider of
egual quality is 85,-O,. made by RWS in I ,.:
Germany and !-apua Selected Match from r,1.".,
Finland. Then t 'comes down to Lapua
Match followed by Eley Black --!hg,n E.!"y r',
C...l.yb. and then the RWS Match. Again, in
picking ammunition, you have to get what
you can afford and what you can use. lf
I were shooting in national championships
today, I would probably recommend that
the top 20 shoot Red.
a. The RsO supposedly has a higher
velocity than the Eley red. ls there any
validity to that statement?
A. Thatrs true. R50 is probably very
very good ammuntion. There are two
problems that R50 does, on occason '
have though. lt is more supersonic so it
drifts more in the wind, and occasionally
you will get a flyer which is the same
problem the old Remington match used to
have years ag,o-
a. Do you know of any ammunition that
doesnrt have flyers?
A" No, sr, I donrt. ln testlng
ammunltion at todayrs prlces, I would say
to pck what your budget can afford.
Tny to shoot lt a year in advance. Take
several lots and shoot them at 1OO yards
wlth a telescope, preferably in hlgh wind,
and then try to pick the lot which seems
to drift the least in the wind and hold
the elevation the best. lt wontt be hard
to tell. Yourll be able to see t. Take
the lot or lots you feel are best and set
them aside until you can shoot them at
1OO yards in a calm. pick the lot whlch
seems to be the most accurate. Then
move back to 50 meters or SO yards and
do the same thing again. Check it. Get
all of that lot that you can and store it
away in a cool place thatts dry such as a
metal can.
a. Have you ever had any lubrication
on your bullets evaporate or degrade with
time so that you have to relube?
A. There was a man, who is now dead,
who used to recommend that you take the
bullet and rub the nose of t around in
your thumb. I never had any experience
with lubrication -
Thats one of the
reasons I would recommend storing it in a
cool place.
a. Would you recommend looking at
every bullet before you put t in your
loading bin?
A" Yes, sir"

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 THE EFFECTS OF WIND AND WEATHER
by
Carl Jooss
I always try to gve my talks based
on personal experlences; and though l1m in
the shootlng supply business, I try not
to endorse my products. lrll just talk in
general terms. Should you want to know
somethlng specific about a product, I rll
tell you but wlll purposely avold talkng
about name brands. Basically I just want
to talk about shooting and be as honest
and slncere as I can about what we,re
golng to be talklng about.
My topic today ls wlnd and weather.
Shootlng is a procedural sport, and we
have control of just about every aspect.
We plck some ammo and then go out to
the range and test it off the bench or in
the prone positlon. You can pick the
rrlotrr that you thlnk s best. We would
all llke the one-hole group, but thatts
;nposslble so you try to get the best
J CAn.
You can regulate your organized
tralning. Train as much as you want,
when you want, shoot the matches you
want, and go where you want. Physlcal
and mental dlsclplines are wlthin you.
You have control over yourself, your
equlprnent, and your posltion. ln almost
every aspect of shootlng we have some
form of control . However, when you walk
up to that llne on a bright sunny morning
and you look down there and see that the
wind is blowlng, you realize that you
havent gotten any control over that
wlnd. lts there; and you have to accept
t for what it ls, and you have to make it
work for you lf you can.
ln many sports and games the wind
and weather is the variable you have no
control over. ln golf tournaments, you
hear that the wind is coming ln, and the
ball is hanging up on it. ln baseball, a
"a
6
hltter comments that he didnrt hlt it
because the wind was blowlng too hard.
ln football, they wait to see who is going
to get to start at whlch end--who is
golng to have the wind advantage-
Almost any sport ls based around wind
and weather, and fe outcome can change
due to weather if everything else is
equal. The wind and weather will declde
who wlns because the person who can
make his way through it the best is golng
to be a winner.
The wind and weather are changeable
factors. One morning on an iron sight
day you might have a certain condition,
but it may not be the same for the scope
match at the same time the next day.
You might start out in the mornlng with
one condition, and by the afternoon lt s
completely different. There are even
changes from one match to the next. ln
fact, you can even have conditions in one
stage very different from the next. You
might shoot one good bull and find out
the next bull ls not working out because
t changed on you again. lt can change
from shot to shot. Wind is very
changeable, and you have to be flexible
and change wlth it.
How to best handle changing
conditions is one problem that many
people have but donrt realize. A
deliberate shooter wants to shoot in a
partlcular manner; and if conditions
enable hlm to shoot that wy, herll do
well--but chances are the only tlme herll
do well ls when the condition that
prevails meets his type of shooting. You
canrt separate tactics and wlnd conditon. )v
You have to be flexible. You must be
willing to change within the match, wlthin
the stage, or between shots. You hawe
to be willing to make changes and take
chances untl you fnd a combnaton that
works.
What are some of the ways that we
use to judge the wind? You canrt see it;
you can only feel t. One way to judge
wind is through mirage. We see mirage.
we can also hear the wind indrectly
through the motion and nose of the
trees. we can also use a little gadget
that sits on the line with a spinning
propeller what is called a windmill. The
windmill will change the pitch of its nose
and direction as the wind changes. You
can also find out what the wind is dolng
by looking at objects such as grass and
dust. When itrs raining, you can watch
the raindrops. You can see the results
of the wind on other shootersrtargets.
ln other words, t is a cause and effect
relationship. You donrt really see what
the wind is doing, but you can see the
targets and see what t dd to somebody
else. You can also get an interpretation'\,
of the wind through another shootersr
reaction, whether itrs in the form of a
four-letter word or pounding a foot on
the ground"
Which one of these is an effective tool
to help you? Well, there is no real
answer" What you have to do is use them
all at once. Of course, we canrt talk
about them all at once. Our discussion
will separate them, but keep in mind that
you will in reality use every possible
means at the same time. You must put all
the information into your mental computer
and come up with an answer.
Mirage. The most common wind
indicator that we can talk about ls
mirage. Explaining the causes of mirage
Is really not important. What matters is
the fact that you can identify it, and
then you can use t to your advantage.
Itrs a cause and effect nelationship. You
7
have to see the mirage and then see what
happens.
One of the main ways to read mirage
is through your spotting scope. Why a
shooter will go out and purchase an
expensiwe rifle and equipment and the
best ammo and then use a $5O.OO spottlng
scope is beyond me. So much of your
results will depend on what you see
through your spotting scope. ltrs all we
have to read mrage wth.
For years I shot with my spotting
scope thal my dad gave me. I could see
mirage in t. No problem. I never gave
t another thought. About three years
ago, I bought myself a new spottng
scope because I wanted to hawe
changeable eyepieces. I began to observe
over the next two or three years that my
scores were coming up. I was startng to
get a lead on the others with iron sights.
Itts hard to make a comeback once yo/
are down with the irons so every polnt ,-
especially lmportant there. Suddenly, I
was the wnnen of the iron slght
aggregates. ln fact, my iron sight
scores pulled me through a couple of
times when I didnrt do so well with the
scope. I hadnrt changed anything. I
was using the same gu r same lot of
ammunition " At first, I couldnt
understand lt, and then I reallzed what
the difference really was. lt was that
spotting scope. lt enabled me to read
the mirage a little better than I had
before.
At Camp Perry, lf you're going to
win a match, it will be with a 400. As a
matter of fact, lt will amount to the
number of Xrs. lf you have a group that
measures .75 and you have a one inch
X-rng, that leaves about a quarter of an
inch (thatrs about a bullet hole at 1OO
yards) left over before you shoot a nine.
Often you will shoot nne shots in a good
group, and then you wlll have that one
shot that sticks out just a little farther
than the rest. That one shot will make
the group maybe another tenth of an inch
blgger.
The whole match is going to boil
down to two or three shots, and that one
shot that warles out of the group a little
blt makes all the dlfference. That means
that you have to read the wind to within
a guarter of an lnch to shot an X. I
dontt know how many people can read the
wlnd within a quarter of an inch. lt's
not easy. When a shooter shoots a 40O
wlth 36 or more X's, in effect, thatts \
what he ls doing. He's reading the wlnd i
that closely .
As a general rule, when you see
mirage t lct) see heat waves that are
floatlng around. When the wind picks
:t they start drifting one way or the
-ner. Usually, the slower waves drift,
the easier it is to read the mirage. When
the wind picks u, the waves tend to
flatten out, and above some speed t ls
imposslble to distingulsh between the
different wlnd welocities - As you work
with mirage you wlll become more
experienced. you can set your spotting
scope up and you can see the mirage and
sy, rrWell, that mirage s worth three
quarters of an inch or itrs worth an nch
and a half .,' ygq ghould be within a
guarter of an inch -
Some of you less experienced
shooters mey be confused. yourre only
going to learn what mirage and wind are
worth by looking through a scope and by
experience. you have to get out there
and shoot- you have to make a mental
memory- Once you shoot enough shots on
any given day, you can set your scope
up and look down there and say that the
8
wind s worth so much. lt is vely
important to get out n a lot of different
conditions to get the experlence.
Itrs lmportant to plan the use of the
slghter. What you want to try to do is
to bracket the conditlon. First of all
pick the condltion that is the most
rellable, the most stable throughout the
course of fire. .A,t Camp perny you will
get a predomlnant wind that comes over
your left shoulder at about seven orclock.
As the day goes by, it will tend to turn
a llttle more on an angle from nine orclock
or maybe even from the back, but it will
change at an angle. The second
condition you wlll often get is the one
that comes from the front at about one or
two orclock. Of those two conditions, f I
had my choice, I would pick the one that
comes over my shoulder because I can
feel t. lt hits you on the line and then
goes on down range. When the wind
comes at you, you cantt see what itrs
doing until t htts you. Itts more
difficult to read, bu! you can watch the
grass or other indicators to get some idea
of,.,whgtls hapening. /ou must remember
th9!,you muit give the condition time to
cover, the whole range before you shoot
the shot-
Itrs easy to lay there n the line
when the wind is comng from the back
and watch the windmill; and wfen lt
f lips, sai, 'Thats my co-ndition - rr But
you donrt want . to shoot right then
because itts an eight mile an hour wind,
itf going to take as long tor that wind to
get down to a 1oo-yard target as it takes
you to walk from the firing line to the
50-yard target. you canrt just shoot.
Yo have to let the wind get down range
so that itrs as constant across the whole
range as posslble.
Here are some guide rules to shoot
by.
To assure Xrs at 1OO yar ds, the shooter must be able to read the
wlnd to within \ mnute. The drawing shows a good smallbore'
group ln the X ring. Typical minimum group size ( ' 75) is
determined by rifle-ammo capability ( .65" ) and shooter error
(.1O")" That leaves only .25t' to stay in the 1OO yard X ring'

The typical smallbore rif le wind dispersion pttern is from 1O

orclock to 4 o'clock- The elongated oval shows where wind-
deflected bullets wll print on the target if wind corrections are
not made.
q
 1) You focus vour scoe between
vou and the target. you donrt want to
focus t behind.the target or you'll tend
to get a reverse mlrage. When you focus
your spottng scope, try to get lt rlght
on the target or the target frame, then
back t off toward you. l/ou can tell that
you are backing lt off by watchlng the
grass closer to you come into focus. For
example, at 1OO yards t you wlll focus
somewhere around ZS or 80 yards. you
need to be'"'focused well enough so that
you can stlll see the bullet holes.
?> You have to trv to bracket the
conditlon. Sight-in in the condition you
expect to prevail. Then shoot a sighter
when you get a wind change f rom the
other direction in order to find out how
far the conditions are going to move the
shot- You need to know what the other
condltlons are worth because you may
have to shoot in those conditions if you
re tight on time. File that informatlon
your memory bank.
3) Decide on vour tactical aproach
to the match and condltions. Mirage
reading is one mportant element in your
tactical approach to the match. When
{ you r tactc is to shoot ln the same
condition, yau want to try to identify the
wlnd, the direction and the velocity.
Try to have ewerything the same for each
shot. When it changes, you hold up and
you just wait until lt comes back. At
Camp Perry t sometmes takes a mnute
or two for your condition to come back.
Generally, t will corne back, and then
you shoot.
4) Have Confidence. Often
beginners make a mistake when they are
not sure of their abitity to remember the
condition. When the condition comes
back, they go up to the sghter and shoot
a shot. lt's an X. They go down to the
10
next bull and shoot one out- The
condition has changed in ten seconds. lt
has changed from the time they shot the
sighter. You go up and shoot another X,
back down and shoot a nne. lt has
happened to all of us. There carr be
several reasons for that. One, the wind
can change between shots. Two, you can
change your position between shots. But
letts say that you are doing everything
right with your position.
What happens to the mirage? The
mirage isntt as strong on the top bull as
t is on the bottom bull. Since ltrs
coming off the ground, itts heavier on the
bottom bull. lt may be worth more than
on the top. lt may be worth a half an
inch, a guarter of an inch, an inch, but
t can be different. So you have to altow
for t. You may ask, rrHow do I know?rt
You dontt know until you shoot your shot
unless you have the experience. When
you do these things t pay attentlon to
what happens and file it away because
some time n some conditions, yourre not
going to get the chance to go back to the
sighter. You will have to rely on your
experence.
I shot a match in Sidney one time;
and since itts a personal experience, I
know for a fact what happened, and t
just shows what you have to do sometmes.
Itrs the last day , last match , 1OO
yards any sights, and I'm losing by two
ponts. I have to catch up again. The
wind is iust tearng off to one side, and
the mirage is flat out- So I shot in that
condition on the sighter and got a ten.
Then I shot another one, another ten.
Shot another one, and it's only a nine,
and the mrage appears the same. you
cant distinguish changes. Now the
mirage is going the other way. Well, I'lf
see what this is worth and shoot, and trs
in the middle of the eight on the other
side. lrm trying to figure out what lrm
going to do now. One thing I know is
that itrs impossible to catch up. All I
have to do is shoot better than the rest
of the shooters. I haven't any indication
of how lrm going to be able to do that
because I canrt tell any more than
anybody else. lcanrt read that wind
when itrs flat out- I canrt read it within
two lnches. So I just stare through my
spotting scope and thoughts ramble
through my head about what llm going to
do. Five mnutes go by. All of a
sudden the wind is going like crazy.
The wind starts to let up, ancl there is a
heat wave boiling, and its starting to
come back. O.K., lcan read that.
Normally you don't want to shoot in the
boil; but in this case, letrs see what
happens. The wind starts coming up,
and I shoot, and, bam, Itwe got an X. lt
comes up a llttle more, and bam, I have a
good solid ten. This is going to work.
Now, I know I can win the tournament
but now seven minutes hawe gone by.
That tells me one thing, no more cycles;
you canst shoot them. I can't shoot unill
the wind comes back again. lt's going
like crazy . I don't know where it's at.
Itrs over that way, and I canrt shoot until
that wind starts to boil back. So I sit
there and wait two more mnutes. Pretty
soon it comes back. Here it is. Load her
up, go for record. ltrs startng to come
this wy, so I hold out here, and bam, I
get a pretty good X. lt's comng up,
and itrs just about off on the other side"
Itts clear on the other side, and I get
another one two inches away frorrr the
first shot. Now, itrs going the other
way. I have eighteen mone to go.
Sometimes I can get one shot off ,
sometimes I can get three off if I'm lucky
with the wind coming up, going in the
middle, and going out the other side. I
11
shoot the gun as fast ,.a_s. ! can.posgibly
load it and pull the triggen. That's
tactics.
A slow and deliberate shooter wonrt
wn that match. He cant shoot that fast.
I rm not shootng for Xrs. I'm shooting
for tens. I ht that two-inch circle.
Thatrs all I want. I need the points, and
I finish ln 19 mnutes. The conditlon has
changed enough to get all the shots off,
and I got a 2OO. I feel pretty good about
that. I know I can do t" I just hope
the conditions stay exactly the sarne for
the next stage. Sure enough, everyone
else is scratching their heads and talking
to themselves. I lay down . Here I go.
Now, I donrt hawe to take as much time
because I know the plan. I know what
lrm going to do now. Before I had to
waste that five minutes. All I have to do
is shoot a shot or two, keep the barrel
warmed up and go for record. I can bp
more careful. I dontt have to get
chancy. lcan pick the condition anct
maybe shoot more in the middle condton
where I can best judge where the bullet
is going to go. I had time to finish the
match and shot a 40O. The guy that
was in the lead dropped four points.
The next best score was 392, and there
were plenty of scores in the 80's. I
lucked out because I found something that
would work. lts just that simple. I may
never shoot another match that way. I
may neven use that same tactic again, but
vou have to first believe in vourself.
You must know that vou hawe the
capabilitv of doing something, and then
vou have the guts to do it.
Clicking and Shading. As you can
see, you canrt just read the wind- You
have to take that information and put it
together with the gun. With a scope, the
simple way to do t is just hold to one
side or the other. I ron sights, it's not
so slmple. You have to cllck llke crazy
or else you have to shade. Very few
shooters can shade consistently. lf you
can shade, thatrs the best way wlth iron
sights. Move over and shade, but not all
the tlme. lf itrs a predomnant conditlon,
itrs going to stay the same, so click; but
when its really changlng fast, sometimes
you have to shade.
I have seen champions who shade
every shot and do well. lf you cen do
that, g reat. | lm not so lucky . I cantt
do that consistently. For every four or
five I shade, I might shoot one out. You
can shade or click, but you have to have
the guts'to do It. You haventt time to
get to the slghter sometmes. You have
to say thls condition is worth an inch-and-
a-half , stick t out there and fl re.
Sometimes you ht t. Sometimes you
donrt. The more you do lt, the more
successful you are, and the more
rnfidence you will have. you cnrt go
:k to the sighter all the time. You
want a guar-anteed absolute, but that
wonrt happen. ltts golng to change.
Rough condltions change f rom shot to
shot. You may shoot a whole counse of
flre and never hold the gun in the same
place twlce.
Wlnd and eleVation. There ls a
typical wind group whlch we are going to
talk about. When you shoot, most of you
probably know the shot is going to be
between ten otclock and four orclock
because the rifl ing in the barrel imparts a
twlst to the bullet. ln a major change,
you have to allow as much as one cllck of
elevation to three of wlndage- On other
days, lt could be one to four. When the
wlnd really picks up, you have to watch
elevation so that when you get one out on.
the llne, you wlll catch t at nine or
three lnstead of losing t at ten or four.
lf you ht the elevation right, you might
tag the llne lnstead of belng out.
1-2
The Windmill. When the wind comes
over your shoulder its easler to read,
but ltrs not as easy to read as far as the
mirage. When itrs difficult to see the
mirage, what do you do? You look at the
windmill. You make sure the direction is
absolutely the same on each shot, and
you make sure that the wind has tlme to
get down the range. When you are in
the open, sometimes you get a wind that
stays more constant. The amount of wind
doesn:t seem to make any difference
whether itrs ten or twenty miles an hour
as long as itts consistent. When it hits
those trees though, t tends to bubble up
and sometimes dip down, and then hit the
ground and bounce up and get very
tricky. Thatrs why sometimes the sighter
bull works better in the wind that the
bottom bull.
The Grass. When the wind is really
swirling you have to use the grass. lf
you slght in for a condition and you are
watching everything, and the grass
movements donrt change, yourre probably
in pretty good shape. You can combine
watchlng the grass and the windmill.
Llsten to the amount of noise and the
pitch of the noise from the windmill , ancl
then use the grass to check out what you
see and hear from the windmill.
Th-e Sighter. When you start to get
a group, and yourre not sure where the
shot is in the group t g)o back to the
sighter and check t out. Why is that
important if you shot a ten? You need to
know exactly where you are sometimes-
At times you have to go back to the
sighter and shoot several shots just to be
sure because a bullet hole at 50 yards
means a lot sometimes. One X wifl often
be the difference that wins the match -
You have Lo_ pav attenton to detail, everv
minute detail.
 Flexibilitv. You cant shoot with a
perceived plan that you are going to do
this and not deviate from it because you
donrt know whatts going to actualty
happen. You hawe to have your mind
open to take any little bit of information
you possibly can and put it in your
mental computer and make t work for
you.
Much depends on the conditions.
Sometimes you use the dust, the mirage,
the windmill, or the noise of the trees.
Sometimes you just use anything you can,
but you'll use them all. Sometimes the
mirage will be the only thing you have to
watch. You still have to be aware of
everything, but give tht the most
attention. The next time you shoot you
wll have to really rely on the wlndmill.
Other times you stare at that thing like
you think the propeller is going to fall
off" The conditions define what tactics
will work best for you.
An additional piece of information
that might help you sometimes can be
another shooter's target. At 1OO yards a
lot of scopes can see two targets. you
have to know who the other shooter is
ard how good he is though. you have to
know f he shades or not because if he
shades, that will kll you. I have
watched other shooters shoot one out and
lose the title" I saw the condion and he
didnrt.
Another shooter's reaction sometlmes
helps. You may hear a moan or groan
down the line or the stomp of a foot.
That means something probably didn't go
right. lt may be worthwhile looking
through the scope at the mir-age to double
check yourself . you may look back in
the scope and say to yourself that t dd
change a little bt. He Just saved you a
point" A good shooter wonrt telegraph
IO
ITJ
his reactions. lf llose a point, trm
going to let the next guy lose his too.
Agan, I want to stress the fact that
you dontt use any one of these in
partcular. You use a combination of all
of them at once. You use every piece of
evidence and information that you have.
Itrs not easy to integrate all this; but the
more you shoot, the more experienced you
get. You learn what you should and
what you shouldnrt do. Of course, you
are never going to learn t all. lf you
know it all, you would be out wlnning all
the time. You just shoot and make
mlstakes llke everybody else. The
important thing is to leann and gain
experience from your mistakes. ltts fun
when you get a rough condition and you
figure t out; you do it; and you do lt
well. Thatrs what the game is all about.
a. You say that ten to four is a typlcal
wind condition?
A. Yes, thatts a typical wind group
since thatrs where the bullet will norrnally
go when you shoot in the wind lf you
donrt allow for elevation due to the rifl lng
in the barrel that causes the bullet to
twist. You can put the gun in a wice and
watch the shots print in the wind. They
may be two inches apart but they wlll
run from ten o'clock to four otclock- you
must click for elewatlon as well as
wlndage.
a. What power scope do you use on
your rifle? What power do you use for
your spotting scope?
A. A 20 power rifle scope will let you
break a shot on a bullet hole whlle you
can still hold well" I like a 15 power just
for indoors because in position you get
more eye relief. For a spotting scope, 20
power works for prone, 22 for wide angle
so I can see three targets at 1O0 yards.
They make a 25 power eyepiece which ls
handy sometmes. t feel ltrs better to use'l
a changeable eyeplece than a variable j
power scope- The variable scopes don't I
seem to have the same clarty. -t
a. Can you glwe us a little informatlon
on the value of wind at the line wersus
the value of wind at the target?
A. Well, that's qulte controwersial. ltrs
hard to say. lrwe heard of people tesilng
thlngs by putting flags all the way down
nange. One study deduced that possibly
the wind a third of the way down had the
most effect on the bullet. The longer the
bullet is in flight t would stand to reason
that the mor-e effect wind would have on
t. I don't know lf anybody can tell you
exactly. You may be able to do a cause
and effect relatlonship by shooting a shot
-nd then another. Compare those shots
J the wind and then go from there.
a. You said that there are studies that
say that the wlnd in the first third of the
range is the most signiflcant. yet when
you read mirage, you see the last-two
thirds of the range. please comment.
A. You canrt see mirage two feet in
front of you. Thatts a fact. I didn't
say mirage is an absolute. ljust said
itrs one way you can nead wind. you
may hawe mirage down there at the target
and perhaps you have mirage on the line.
Take the information both of them are
giving you and put it together somehow.
When the mirage s slow, of course, the
conditions arentt as tough either. you
can read and correct more finely when
it's not flat out. At 1OO yands the wind
will have longer to affect the bullet.
a. ls there any way to ascertain the
worth of a particular shadow on your
target such as you sometimes get early in
the morning?
A. Sometimes I think about it, but most
of the time l never really do anything
about t. lhave never really seen the
group change just due to a shadow. I
thlnk there can be a problem with rons,
but t doesnrt bother you with scope at
all. The problem often is how you react.
ln other words, if you know there is a
change on the target, you will probably
tend to stare at t. You cantt stare too
long. You have to get the picture and
shoot it.
a. What effect does the rain have, f
any at all?
A. A lot of people love to shoot in the
rain. Often they are not the best
shooters, but they are just at the point
where they are ready to break over.
They car read the wind pretty well, but
not totally. When the rain comes down
they can see that rain, so they can shoot
very well in the ran. They can read t
as an absolute; but when there is no
rain, they get lost sometmes. I dontt
know what effect t may hawe on the
bullet.

t4
 TRAINING FOR COMPETITION
by
Bll Krilling
Training is a subject that covers a
broad spectrum. lt is very mportant to
define where we are in our tranng, what
level of competton wetre in. Since ltm
at the international level , lrm primarily
concerned about thnee positions.
However, prone is very mportant because
there are many 600's being shot ln
international competition now. ln a
recent championship in Switzerland, there
were two 60ots shot; and not only were
there two 6OO's shot, but one of those
shooters also shot a 4OO in the three
position match. Think about it. He shot
a thousand straight points- One hundned
tens. Think about how much effort was
put into that" Thatrs training.
We are talking about understanding
the conditions and making sure your
position is correct and that your
15
equipment s properly adJusted to each
positlon. Adjusting equipment ls one of "r{
the main difflculties, partlcularly for the
new shooter. The rifle must be properly
adJusted to you and not to the rifle.
When I work wth Juniors I find ths ls
gulte a problem because often I only have
an opportunity to look at them and work
with them for two weeks. When they
leave here, theyrre really shooting well .
A year or so later, lrll see them again,
and they hawe problems. What has
happened? They grew several inches and
their arms are longer, and their neck is
longer and ewerything else has changed.
For a growlng junlor the rifle needs to be
readjusted for each position. The butt
plate needs to be moved up or down or
maybe the stock has to have a spacer put
in it for length. So one of the first steps
to consider is the type of competition you
re going into and then have the
equipment adjusted to fit you properly.
Just how do we do that when wetre
talking about prone? ,,flrst put the rifle
91 . your so.uJdqf . . l/our cheek inuld
come down and rest on the forward part
of the cheekpiece. l/our right hand
should reach the pistol grp comfortably
wfthgut being bent. !f thg hand or the
wrst is bent or the shoulder reaches
forward, you know the stock is too short.
lf your head is back on the cheekpiece,
or yu can barely reach the pistol grip
itrs too long. Finst get to work on the
stock. Once the stock length is
corrected and t f its the shou lder
properly, the second step is to make sure
the fore-end stop is n the proper place.
The fore-end stop should be out far
engugh so the rif le makes good firm
contact with the shoulder but does not
ush your shoulder back. lf your
ffi
tt4# I+.
lT "4:',$.li
'' ,'*#-
16
shoulder ls being pushed back, move the
torg-end stop to the rear until your
inutr s totaily retaied gainst the
butt of the rifle. Also be sure that you
have a good 30 degrees angle between the
back of your left arm and the ground.
It is often helpful when you are
working on your position to hawe someone
observe you from above. The best thing
you can do is to have a coach who will
put you ln a proper position and get you
started correctly. Don't try to do
everything on your own - lf you don't
have the experience, you can get yourself
into an incorrect position or get yourself
into bad hablts. When a coach ls
available, make maximum use of hlm.
Make sure your posltion is correct and
that you are using the proper techniques.
You .will see a lot of prone shooters
that donrt apply the 30 degree of angle
il:
\i
 rule. ln the U.S. style of shooting you
can almost put your wrist on the ground
when shooting prone; but when you do
that, lt is most difficult to achieve a good
head position. You have to force your
head down low enough to see through the
sights so that your eyes are looking
upward at a sharp angle; and after a
whlle, you have difflculty seeing and
your groups may begin to change.
Sometlmes you will even notice a dark
shadow coming in at the bottom of your
sight. You may think that your head is
so low that you are looking through the
bottom part of the sight, when ln fact,
you are looking across the bridge of your
nose, through your eyebrow, or through
the rim of your glasses. Slnce your eyes
are just like a camera lens, this
lnterference appears upslde down in the
slght. To avoid this you have to get
your head back up a llttle bit by raising
your posltion. Shooting is like life; you
) have to learn how to adjust.
The United States is getting beaten
ln both European and world competton
right now. Personally, I feel lt may be
because we have tuned our rlfles to the
point where they are almost too delicate-
Our glass bedding s so hard that t may
change the natural harmonics of the rifle.
Harmonics are the vibrations which run
up and down the barrel as a result of the
explosion of the shell in the chamber. I
.*::7 see people shootlng 60O's with rifles in
the wood. Wetre experimentlng with glass
beddlng trylng to irnprove it because werve
been uslng the same system now for ?O
years, and our scores aren't gettng any
better. The Europeans are using a Iittle
softer type glass. ltrs a different type
of glass than we have. You can almost
put a pin into t. This soft glass has a
tendancy to dampen the vibrations and
not retransmit them down the barrel
Many barrels shoot fine groups when
clamped into a vlce, yet when you put
that same barrel into a stock, it fails to
shoot well because yourre not holding the
barrelled actlon the same way you dd
when you tested t.
It is very important to find a lot of
ammunition that is compatible with your
barrel vibrations. That is not easy to do
nowadays, especially due to the cost of
ammunton. You go to the store and buy
50 rounds each of two or three different
lots and shoot it from the shoulder with a
scope. You can put a sand bag under I
your left hand f you want. Use your !
scope and be sure that your shots are on
call. Then choose the lots you feel shoot
the best.
I know we are supposed to be
talking about trainingi but if your
eguipment is working at ts best, you can
make maximum use of the time you have
on the range. ,
lf you cannot get to the range very
often, yorJ. cen do quite a bt of trainlng
g-! . .hoe in the driveway especially in
position shooting. Much o'F your tralning
should begin at home" You can check to
be sure your rifle is fitted properly t
home too.
When you are on the range you want
to concentrte on the area that gives you
the most problem - Define your problem
area. ls it 1O0 yards or 50 meters?
Then spend the most time there. ln
position you shoot more standing than
anything else. You can pick up more
polnts there"
Some of us shoot very well fot' a
couple of days, and then we get tired out
and start losing our performance. How
"
often do you shoot six days n a row?
That takes a lot out of You. So that
t7
 . means that you also have to prepare
h yourself physlcally for the match. You
trave to be able to stay n that posltion
for all those days without experlenceing a
great deal of pain. So you work on
building yourself up to hold that rlfle
even if you hawe to practice by staying
ln posltion at home ln the livlng room.
You can have exercises just to hold the
rlf le. Start preparing yourself long
efore matches.
Once you become very experienced
you wonlt need to shoot very often. you
don't forget the techniques, but you do
need to keep your body in shape so that
when you lcX 'tne rlfle up lt feels
comfortable.
I stopped shooting in 1971 for over a
year and went off to work in Mexico wlth
the Mexican national sguad. When I came
back to the states and went to work for
'he Army team at Ft. Benning, I dug my
le out of the closet and went to the
uorgla State Champlonship. I had not
had a chance to practice, not one shot,
before I went into competltion. I was
very careful to follow through and make
sure I was seelng everythlng that was
happening down range so that lf I made a
mlstake, I could correct t so t didn't
happen again. .A,s t turned out, I
didn't make a mistake, and I shot a 32OO.
At Camp Perry that same summer, I shot
another 3200.
, So that goes to show that your
, technlgues and poslilons will stay there.
{ You donrt need to train as much in
prone. You do need to pick up the rlfle
once in a whlle just to get the feel of it,
and you must keep yourself in good
physical shape. ln the year that I dldnrt
shoot, I ran all the tme. So prepare
yourself physically wlth a systematc
prosram. _J_-9-9s!"e- l: ..-q.-*....9-1.. t-h.,g ..
.!hf ng9**y_q_q*"_qn..9.o_.._1--o""-"."-y-e.--qr-s'-9Jf ..Ridlnsa
bicycle is also very good. Skipping rope
is something you can do in the house.
Walking up and down a lot of steps helps
too. Swimmlng is another great sport
since you llmber up the whole body. You
hawe to prepare yourself physically
anytme you get ready for competltion. lf)
you keep yourself n physical shape, I
you'll reduce the amount of traininS you I
have to do on the range.
Once you have decided on the course
of fire you wlll speciallze ln and have
established a training schedule, you hawe
to decide what competton you are going
to enter. Now, say you are getting
ready for Camp Perry. You definitely
want to prepare for t. Two matches
prlor to Perry may be enough for one
person whle others may need more. You
need the matches so that you understand
and experience match pressure and learn
to control it through relaxation.
We also have to learn about the
wind. You have to understand what the
bullet ls doing and the effect the wind
has on t. The bullet not only moves left
and rlght, but it moves up and down as
well. When the wind comes from the
right, t will push the bullet to the left
and up. Then lt ls from the left, it will
push the bullet to the right and down.
You must understand and experience
the wind in your training, and a good
way to practlce is with a scope. I hardly
ever shoot ln the center of the sighter
with a scope. I usually shoot at the
numbers on the sighter bull. I also shoot
a few bullet holes around in other areas
of the slghter and leave them free to use
later for aiming points, so once lstart
for record, should I feel a change, I can
take a shot at that bullet hole and find
best out how far it goes. When I shoot with a
18
 scope I will hardly ever hold in exactly
the same place from shot to shot, but |rll
hold on one side of the X-ring or the
other. When the wind picks up from the
right, I hold down at four orclock. The
next time, I hold down at four-thirty, or
I
!
maybe even five orclock, depending on
the angle of the wind. I hardly ever
hold on the ten line or outsde the ten"
Even with iron sights, shading is an
excellent way of shooting when the
conditions are changlng guickly. lt saves
you the time t takes to move the sight.
Try to work the condion so that you can
shoot in the same condition; but f you
are zeroed ln properly, you feel the wind
pick up a bit or let off a bit, all you
have to do is shade lightly in that
direction and break the shot.
ln prone, there is only one way to
release the trgger, and that is to
.
squeeze t" you squeeze the trigger
cleanly straight back, and then you follow
1 through on that shot. you try to watch
that shot go to the target. Only then do
you check your wind and mlrage. lf the
wind has picked up or let off while you
wene squeezing a shot off, you should be
able to compute your esmation of how
far the shot has gone before you look to
see what the shot is.
After you have loaded the rlfle,
bring t onto the target. As you
breathe, the sight will move up and down
the target" lf you think you have your
condition, look at the mirage and make
sure ltrs going the right way and check
youn windmill. lf you are satisfled, take
a breath and let he air partially out un!
the bull is centered. At that point, hold
your breath and put one hundred percent
concentratlon into firing the shot. lf you
feel the wind change on your face or
neck, or hear the sound of the wind pick
19
up, or the windmlll starts raclngr oF
you're overholding, then stop and take
another breath. ln most cases, you stop
and recheck your condition. When yourre
satisfied everythlng is correct, go back
and do t again. put your maximum
concentration on centering the bull in the
front sight. Shoot the shot and follow
through. You should be thinking about
one shot at a tlme and get the most out
of lt. You are concentreting on one shot\ Jl,
and that is the shot you are shooting. )
even f h is shooting Xrs. lf you are
onest with yourself, f- . 2O-shot course,
you will probably not break 1O shots
absolutely perfectly. They may silll be
Xrs but you can see that you are sllghily
on the left or right, or maybe sllghtly up
on down as you break the shot. Nobody r.
breaks every shot perfectly. i
The way to control the rlfle i.
through relaxation, letting the rfle rela.
on the target. Your position must bd
correct. lf you're using muscle to hold lt
there, you will have a great deal of
difficulty. ln a heavy wlnd, you may
have to tghten up the sling a notch to
get a little tighter posltlon, but you do
this with the sling, not with your
muscles.
A lot of your training inwolves
lhfnking positively about everything you
do. Many shooters tell you about the bad
shots. I donrt care about the bad shots.
I want to hear about the good shots, how
they stayed on top of the conditions, how
they shaded successfully" practice your
wind dopig and shading techniques in
your tralning. That will give you the
confidence to go lnto competton relaxed,
knowing you have the skills.
 Many people start a match and sy,
rr
I canrt win here because the world
champlon is here.rl Thats a very
negatiwe way to look at things. On the
other hand/ some shouldnrt think about
wlnnlng yet. They may not be shooting
tht well. They may be beglnners or ln
the early stages of their development. lf
the best score you have every gotten ls a
1590, then your goal in that match should
be somewhere over 1590. lf you shoot
over than, then you have to feel like a
wlnner because you have accomplished
your goal. Your goals wlll get higher
and higher. That's how you shoot those
160Ots. You must move your- goals
upward in a neallstic way- You must be
concerned about how you are shooting.
When you are successful in reachlng your
goal, analyze your performance. Where
dd you do t right? What dld that feel
like? ln your training, work on the
areas where you lost the polnts. You can
'+root rmatchestr in training as long as
,ou treat your training .like a competition.
You must work on your overall
performance.
We have covered a large area today.
Shootng is a great sport because t
doesnrt matter how old you get as long as
you can see the target. You can still
perform as long as you are in good
physical condltion. Anyone can do t f
they want to train for it, and anyone can
continue to learn new things and improve
their performance.
a. lam working with my son, but
donrt have any coaching experience" How
can I analyze his position? ls there an
deal type positon for each person?
A. Start with the length of the stock.
Adjust the nifle to the individual. Make
sure he gets nto his positon with his
cheek properly on the stock and that his
wrist is stralght. lf his wrist is bent,
Itrs too short. The face should be
forward on the cheekpiece so that he is
reaching the pistol grp comfortably and
the wrist is straight and firm. The
fore-end stop is adjusted so that the rifle
maintains good contact with the shoulder
and so that he has 3 .-._g*god. ,3_O. ..p-e-gee
.?ls.'!e gn..h.!.9.-tgf! gr1 to allow him a sood
head position. You can get one of the
manuals from the MTU that shows pictures
of the correct positions.
a. What can you recommend to help the
problem of getting the first and last shot
off in competltion?
A- Many people shoot very well on the
sighter i but when they go for the
record, the r whole atttude changes .
They slow down, and it takes them four
times as long to shoot the shot. They
look at the target too long, and they
burn the mage of that slght picture in
their eye. You have to have confdence.
Realize that you wouldnrt be going for
record f you werenrt sure of the
conditions . Be sure you donrt begin
canting when you go down on 'ecord. At
50 yards the bull is to the left and some
have a tendency to cant the rifle to the
left- lf you take a break, be sure that
you donrt change your cant when you get
back into position. Be very careful of
your cant. Be sure itrs always the same.
Give every shot your maximum
effort- Tht means -y*-our sighter as w_ell
I a.'s your record target. Treat each shot
like itrs a match. Once the shot is over,
you can't repeat t. Forget it.
Concentrate on the next shot. When you
come to the last shot, you just go on and
shoot t. Shoot each shot as f its an
individual match. Concentrate on
relaxation , o relaxing on the target.
20
a. Many prone shooters use spirit
levels on thelr sights- Do you recommend
them?

A. lf t is helpful , you should use one.

When yourre using a telescope, all you
have to do ls turn the telescope in the
mounts so that the crosshairs are straight
up and down so you will know when you
have the proper cant on the rifle.

2a
 BU ILDING A TARGET
by
Neal Johnson
I am going to talk today about what
it takes to build the very best shooting
rifles because that's what it takes to wn
these matches.
To build a good rifle, you have to
start with something good . yourre not
building these things from scratch; you're
working with what's available. I will talk
about specif ic brands because I think
there are some differences that you need
to know about. Some brands are better
to start with. Some are easier to work
on. ln any case, we have to look at the
resu lts . them on the market.
There are several sources for
equipment. Unfortunately, theytre not all
made in this country. They are made in
,urope. Whatever you co, dontt put
,,,^", effort, and a lot of money into
building something that doesn't have any
possibility of being the best. There are
a lot of rifles around from World War ll,
and befone, that are inexpensive, but
yourll never build a championship rifle
from them.
Nowadays shooters probably strt
with an Anschutz. you have the least
amount of work to do. you can start
with the rifle and walk right nto a match
with it. There is lots of possibllity for
future addition.
,N, Wnchester up until recently made a
good rif le, but they have qut making
them. They are very popular in the
prone game. The short acton makes t
nice and easy to load.
Remington still sells the 4OX which is
I a good rifle. The _{O's are excellent for
juniors to start with although you canrt
stay with them too long. They are really
22
R IFLE
a lightweight training gu, not a match
rifle. The Remington 4OX is probably not
your best choice to start with because lt
is too heavy for position shooting though I
fine for pnone.
Assuming you hawe a good basls to
start with, what is the next step? I
think you better find out f you have a
good barrel on the rifle. You can test
the barrel in a machine rest. Some of
them are a little better than others .
Winchester makes some very fine shooting'
.22 ealiber barrels and there are a lot of
What do you do if you don't have a
good barrel? You can put another barrel
on and know you have something good.
Two outstandng barrels, as far as I am
concerned, are the -"Hart and the McMillan.
They are making just about all the
barrels for the guns that are winning the
championshlps these days. They ane the
only two barrels that I have personal
experience with. While you may have
heard about others, I don't want to bring
them into the discussion because I don't
have the personal experlence of worklng
wth them. I know what the Hart and
McMillan can do. lm not too sure I can
tell any difference between the two snce
both are really state of the art type
peces of hardware.
lf you get into statistics, lthink
you might f ind more records and more
national championships have been won
with those two than any other barrels.
Since there are not too many lying on
shelves, you usually have to order them.
Sometimes that makes a lttle bt of a
difference in the deliwery dates. ln my
personal opinion, if you have to wait for
one or the other, I would take which ever
was available first.
 Once you trave selected a good
barrel t you have to get t on the acton.
lrm golng to start at the front of the gun
and work my way to the end. lf you
look at whatrs in the barrel, the primary
interest ls the crown.
What is the crown? lf yourre asking
an average shooter or a gunsmith, who
does a lot of work on sporters, they will
tell you that lt's the end of the barrel
where the bullet exlts. I don't thlnk so.
As far as lrm concerned, the crown of the
barrel is the polnt all around the
circumference where the bore meets the
face. That point ls absolutely crltlcal to
the wey the rlfle is going to shoot. lt
means just about everything. lf ltrs not
rlght, that rlfle ls not golng to shoot.
You have to take tlme. You cantt Just
chuck t up ln a three Jaw chuck and
turn lt down.
How do I do lt.? I chuck the barrel
in a four Jaw chuck, put a dial indlcator
on lt, and get t centered just as
perfectly as I thlnk lt can be done--well
under a thousandth of an lnch lnside the
barrel . You donrt care whatrs golng on
on the outslde of the barrel . That ls
why a three jaw chuck wonrt work. lt
wlll grab it on the outslde and let lt run"
It may look great runningo but t wont
be perfect" We are talklng about
perfecton.
When I get that done, I turn around
and go'to the back end of the barrel and
use a devlce on my lathe that lets me
center t up with a dial lndtcator. What
you find out is that when you go back up
to the front, itrs not the same anymore,
so you center lt a second time. Now you
have the' whole barref runnlng true.
When you start to cut the crown, lt3s
golng to come out a perfect clrcle,
perfectly centered wlth the bore. Only
then are you golng to get the most out of
barrel -
Some tme ago George Stidworthy did
experlments on tle crown. George always
seems to have the best equipment and
gets excellent results. When George says
something, I listen. What can we do with
the crown, assumlng we get t straght?
George worked out what he called the 11
degree crown. Although lhavenrt done
any experiments along these llnes, lrm
perfectly willing to take Georgets advlce.
I think t works because werre gettng
good results with t. The 11 degree
crown recesses the muzzle enough that
you wonrt bang t. Care of the muzzle is
primary. lf you ht the muzzle, yoLr
crown Is out of line. lf you get ewen a
small nick in your muzzle, itrs not
perfect. Get it recrowned.
At the other end we hawe access to
the action. Fortunately the Winchester
-7r and Remington have threads ln the action
nto which the barrel screws. 'lf you
take it out, it screws back into the same
place and stays put. Next is the
Anschutz. Although Anschutz gets
superb results, the action is pinned, not
screwed, into place with two very fine
pins. I have also had good results wlth
pinning the barrel into place.
I recently spent an afternoon talking
to Pat McMillan. I respest Pat veny
much, and he thinks there s something
to be gained by screwing the barrel ln.
His background ls benchrest shooting and
he feels ltts worth the extra effort to
screw them in. There really isntt much
extra work, and I thnk t is worth the
difference" As lve said, we l-lave some
fine Anschutz rifles out there, so pnnng
the barrel isnrt something you should be
afraid of.
Once your barrel is attached to the
receiver, you have two more things to
do. First, you must have a proper
23
The crown of the barrel is absolutelY crtical to the way the rifle
is going to shoot. To get the most out of the barrel the crown
mLst be perfectly centered with the bore-

An 11 degree crown recess protects the muzzle from damage if the

end of the barrel strikes something.
24
 chamber in it. When you chamber a
target rifle, you donrt use the same
\
reamer that you put in a sporter rif le-
You may hawe noticed that when you feed
a round nto your actlon, it stops a little
bit short of the breach face. The reason
s the 'bullet iiself is now in contact wth
the rifling. The bolt will shove it in the
rest of the way and be in full contact BOLT
with the rifling. Thats worth a lot of
accuracy. It makes the difference
between a sporter and a trget chamber.
Since a sporter rifle is made to operate HEADSPACE
rapidly using some kind of magazine, the
shell must feed completely nto the
chamber- lt doesnt engage the rifling at
all. This will not be as accurate as when
the bullet engages the rifl ing as t does
in the target chamber. To get a nice
perfect chamber, you also need a good
quality reamer- Lke ewerythng else you
do with a target rifle, you want it to be
nice and straight and squre in virtually
every aspect-
The next thing s headspace " On
ths drawing , you can see the small rim You now have a good barrel and a
on the cartridge. Headspace is where the good action properly set up. When lt
rim goes when the cartridge is all the comes to the stock, there are many
way in the chamber. On .?2. rimfire different choices. A good deal depends
rifles, headspace is the distance b.etw-een on personal preference. You can have a
the face of the rim cut in the chamber f,iberglass stock moulded f nom on that
and the face of the bolt when the bolt is fits you properly or have a new stock
closed compietely. lf you look' at copied n wood from an old one.
production chamber or ask about the
standard for production, yourre gong to No matter what stock you choose,
fi nd that t is .O!4 to. -O47 of an inch. the ccuray is lnfluenced by the
For a target rifle to shoot at ts very bedding. Werve done a lot of
best, .O44 of an inch is the maximurn experlmenting with bedding. Some thngs
headspace as far as I am concerned.. We are working quite well at the moment.
want our .barrel and chamber tighter than
the minimum size of the public standard. We have a receiver, and we hawe a
That gets better results and more barrel . There are usually two or three
consistency out of the barrel. When I set stock bolts ( i . e. , action screws ) that go
rifles up, my standards are .O41 to .O43 into the recever. Letrs talk about two; I

of an nch, Headspace can be adjusted, think that's enough. One is vlrtually

and itrs worth keeping an eye on. Snug always up under the chamber. The other
headspace is very mportant

t4
 one, depending on the brand of the guD,
is somewhere ahead or behind the
trgger. Remington has three of them.
Benchrest shooters think more are better,
but I donrt see any advantage to them
myself . The actlon must be held in place to let
Where do you start bedding the
nifle? For a target rifle, you don't start
on the receiver, but down on the
bushings. They need to be anchored into
somethlng.
what do we use for beddlng? There
are several brands of bedding compound
on the market. lrm currently usng
.,Pj_:o*Lti!g,_ not because tt's a better
materlal but because itrs easler to work
wlth; therefore, I get better results wlth
t.
We want a perfect flt- When
'redding was first talked about or
'scovered several years ago, the orlginal
product was baslcally liquid epoxy loaded
with flbers of glass. Tlt" g-oal 3! lhat
lime was to get a perfect fit between the
acton and usually the barrel and the
stock. Thats what the plastlc or liquid
materal in there would do. lt would glve
a skln-tlght perfect fit.
Wetwe found ocit slnce then that we
need some strength from the bedding. So
now lnstead of just puttlng a skln type
coatlng ln the stock to bed wlth, we mill
,1, out an area starting up under the barrel.
lf lt's a llght barrel, I'll go up an inch to
an lnch-and-a-half and on a heawier
barrel , l'll go up to two lnches for a
llttle more support. We cut down into the
channel a good quarter of an inch, to get
a lot of beddlng material in there. When
( you bed the rifle, you bed for the same
,1 dlstance behind the back screw as you
went ahead of the front screw (assuming
that we are talklng about a gun with both
action screws ahead of the trigger) -
26
Once you have the bedding material
in the stock you press the actlon in.llYou
will need to use gulde pins to make sure
that the acton is positloned properly.
the material set up good and hard. We
donrt do this by just tightening the action
screws. All that does ls twist the action.
lnstead, we let the action lay there of ts
own weight- The arrel is supported by
placlng some materal between the barrel
and the barrel channel. The thickness of
ths material is not too critical to the
accuracy, but the appearance of the
finished job will be better if you use just
enough material to keep the barrel lewel
the fore-end of the stock. Then when
you go in to clean out the overf low,
yourll have a good, true, clean bedding
Job. This bedding then is going to
support the rifle without any torque or
other straln on the actlon - Thatrs
theoretically true but not entirely possible
because you stlll hawe a long barrel thatrs
puttlng forward weight on the action that
pulls t down.
Now, how do you check your
bedding? Take a dial lndlcator with a
magnetic base and mount it right on the
barrel . Place the indicator needle so that
t touches the stock. Start with the
beddlng bolts tght and alternately loosen
one or the other, then tighten it, then
loosen lt. lf yourre dial indicator
lndlcates more than .OO2 of an inch as a
result of tightening either bolt, then you
have bedding problems. Your gun it not
shooting its best. lf you thlnk that t is
shooting pretty well, it can shoot better.
We usually get them down to .001 of al
lnch. lf you get ze?o movement or the
needle from both bolts/ your bedding
isnrt right either because itts locked -
Thls happens when the bedding compound
comes up around the sdes of the action
and locks it in place-
 The rifle ls coming along pretty well
now. We have bedded and checked t.
Whatrs the next step? We better teke t
out and tune it up- By tuning t up, I
mean taking an allen head torque wrench
on your stock bolts and tuning the action
to the stock" Get some good ammunition
and a benchrest or sandbags and shoot
the rifle. You can vary the torque on
your bedding screws and should be able
to see the results in the slze of the
groups on the target.
One of the problems that you hawe
with a good wood stock is that wood is a
natural product and is affected by natural
variables such as temperature and
moisture. Change the climate a little bit
and whatever you had the bedding set at
on your dial t ty not be rght anymore.
Wood stocks can get so dry they can
crack" lf the rifle is changing enough to
crack the stock, t cantt be shooting ts
?t|
27
best. You have to recheck your torque
setting to keep up wth the bedding.
A fiberglass stock solwes wirtually
all of these problems. ltts a lot easier to
work wlth than wood. Flberglass can be
bedded very welt, and it will stay where
you put lt. When you are all done and
finished and start shooting, lt will feel
very much like wood. Some people who
sweat a lot put a plece of ypfd skln on
th e stoc k ' 'rr ''' '"'
9lgnls also need some love and care.
I sure see a lot of dirty sights. Spray
the s'ight" wth one of the new c1ea.r"i",
preferably a nonpetroleum product. The
new synthetics do a much better job of
cleanng and preserving than the
petroleum products because petroleum will
collect dust. After you spray the slght
with the cleaner, take it to a gas station
and just blow tt out with
". j-i._..!o^=,..',
{
't
iifti
'ii#,f,#iif
 Stghts also wear, and the wear has
to be taken up. Some are adjustable;
some are not. The Anschutz sight is
totally adjustable. You can keep one of
them around for years. Remember to
Y..' clean and adjust them before you get into
serlous trouble.
You can check your sights with the
dial indicator. The dial indicator needle
will move against the eyepiece of the
sight as you click. Take your thumb and
push on the eyepiece. lf it moves, that
means the eyepiece is moving on its own
and means that you can move the slght
by simply bumping t with your hand or
your hat. Be sure the eyepiece has no
movement..
While the indicator is still in place
and the needle is resting on the eyepiece,
check to see how uniform each click is-
-hey wonrt be perfect, but they should
i close. You are now interested ln what
happens when you reverse dlrection.
Most sights will not giwe you a full click
return when you reverse directons. You
wlll get about three-quarters of a click
which is okay.
Now move the sight five rght then
rve "iit. Vo., should be where you
strted. You 'want to be sure to get all
the play out of the sight. Remember, if
there is play in the sight, itrs moving
around on you, and you donrt know
whatrs happening.
The care and cleaning of your
equlpment is very mportant. You need
to keep your sights clean. ; You need to
keep youn trigger clean too. Use the
same method that you used ln cleaning
your sights for the trgger. A solvent
and air hose wlll do the trick" A clean
trigger will work properly and last
longer. lf you re shooti ng in very
28
dusty conditions, t s sometmes
necessary to clean the trigger at the end
of the day.
It is also necessary to keep the bolt
clean and in good working order. This
wi ll cut down on the wear of the
headspace and keep your rifle shooting
well for a longer time. You will loose
accuracy f you donrt keep the bolt face
clean because powder residue will build up
and temporarily glve you a smaller
headspace.
There are all sorts of ideas about
cleaning the barrel. As far as lrm
concerned, Captain Moore is the expert
on the subject and he says that you canrt
get them too clean. You have to. get n
there nd work to get it clean. You do
that with a brush. Some people sy, rr l
donrt want to get a rough old brush in
that barrel .tr There s no way in the
world that you can get in there with a
brush and put anywhere near the
pressure and heat in that barrel that you
put through t everytime you shoot a
shot. Use a solvent and brush and get
in there and scrub. Always use
cleaning rod guide and never clean from
the muzzle. Push your brush through
the barrel in one direction. Although the
direction has no effect on the barrel , it
does have an effect on the brush since
you break the bristles off when you
revense the brush. After you are done
cleaning with the brush put a couple more
patches through, and yourre finished.
Patches donrt do the cleaning; brushes do
the clening. Patches just wipe out what
the brush has loosened up.
lf you are going to put the gun
away for a while , you better use some
preservative. Don't forget to take the
preservatve back out before you shoot
because you may damage the barrel- I
prefer to use something like Rig because
itrs silicon and won,t hurt the barrel .
a. How do you check headspace? ts
there any facility here at Cmp perry to
have that done?
A. Hedspace is checked by using
specially made headspace gauges. These
gauges are made from very hard steel and
machined to give an exct headspace
tolerance whlch is usually marked on the
side of the gauge. I don,t know of
nyone here who has gauges. Often
when someone does have thern, they are
not small enough. lf you are a serious
shooter, at some time you should acquire
a set of headspace gauges running from
several thousandths below to several
thousandths bove the headspace which
you find to be best fon the kind of
ammunlton you usually shoot.
a- How do you determine the torque
settng you use? Do you recommend a
specific settl ng?
A. You have to experiment wth
different settings to see what setting
gives you the best groups. I know of
shooters who use anything from 15 inch
pounds to 65 inch pounds. Most seem to
use about 35.
a. How do you decide if an older b.arrel
needs to be replaced?
A. The group that t shoots on the
target is the bottom llne when t comes to
deciding to replace a barrel. Before
replaging a barrel, you, can cut t off
right ahead of the receiver- Then we
mac,hlne them and set them back. The
best rif,le I own has an old Anschutz
barrel from the early sixties which has
been set back. lt shoots very well, but
it didnt shoot well until t was set back.
29
Wlg.1r Vou set it back yeu 99utd .q-qe An
erosion ring all the way around it.
9-trr.9flV .!l.f.l re_commnd' stting a barret
back after that f_ing. .Sts abou.t
thle:fuft-s or the way around.
a. Do you feel that there ls an
adwantage to sleewing the action as many
of the benchrest shooters have?
A. I hawe not had personat experience
wth sleeving any smallbore actions . I
know that some shooters have, and they
shoot very well, but t makes a very
unwieldly rifle- Benchrest shooters dontt
hawe to hold the rifle when they shoot.
All that extr weight is going to get
pretty heavy.
a. Can you recommend a two-stage
trigger?
A" The Walther is an excellent
two-stage trigger- The new Anschutl
trigger ls superb " Snce the Anschutz'
has a more conventional setup, it can be
adapted more easily to other guns.
a. What kind of preservatlwe dd you
say you use for long-term storage?
A. I use Rig. Be sure that you close
the bolt so that drt won't be drawn
through the barrel by normal ar currents
while you are storng the gun.
a" How often do you brush the barrel?
4,. At least once very four matches.
Some of the very good shooters do t a
iot rnore often than that though "
a- There seems to be a great deal of
wariation n the machinlng of cleaning rod
guides. How good are they? Can you
damage the receiwer by usng a guide
which is not accurate?
A - Your rod is smaller than the bore
by enough tolerance that you can be
slightly off center and not do any harm.
Without a guide, you can come in the
wrong way and damage the chamber. The
gulde does two things: guides your rod
and protects your trgger.
a. Who manufactures the magnetic base
that you use to hold your dial indicator?
A- I believe that it's ggers.
a. You mentioned a headspace of .O41
of an inch, but how much clearance do
You want between the bolt and the
chamber end of the barrel?
A. Leave . 0O1 or . OO2 of an inch . lf
you have any trouble closing the bolt,
you can come back and c.ut some of the
bolt face to get some of the clearance you
need.
a. lf after you finish the bedding you
find that some spots didnt take, is it
detrimental to just machine out that little
bt and fll t with bedding and put the
action back in?
A. This shouldn't happen. Make sure
that your release compound is evenly
spread over the barreled actlon. lf t
does happen, ltrs necessary to get the
release compound completely off the glass
otherwise the new glass will not stck.
a. What do you thin k about the
Model 37 Remington? You didn't menton
that earlier.
A. There are a few around. George
Stidworthy likes them a lot, but you don't
see many of them anymore.

ls t true that some shooters have

had problems wlth some of the synthetic

lub ricants dissolving the bedding
compound?

A. I have heard that also. Personally, I

have not had the problem. There are

some cleaners on the market that are
potent chemicals- You want to be very
ca refu I.

a. Dd I understand you to say that

you mill the bottom of the barrel and
action before bedding lt? lf so, wny do
you do ths?
A. No, I don't mill the action or the
barrel. I mlll the stock out whene the
bedding compound will be put. That's
all. Just make sure that you hawe plenty
of room for the glassing compound.

30
 QUESTTONS AND ANSWERS
Presley W- Kendall
David P. Weaver
David Ross lll
a. Pres, I have a question for you. ls
it true that you feel adjustable color
fi lters for the rear sight are not
advantageous?
( Kendall) This s a personal preference
of mne . You may d isag ree with t .
Your eyes are used to looking at normal
daylight. When you get behind the rifle,
you have to be able to think in much the
same way as you do in normal daily life,
so I dont care for green, yellow, pink or
other colors. I have difficulty adjusting
to them. Thatrs why luse a polaroid
fi lter for a normal day with a clear rear
iris or lens.
(Ross) The aperture you are talkng
about is very long. I have no objection
to the colons, but often those rear sghts
are so long and the apertu re is so far
back from the body of the rear sight that
f therers a little movement in the rear
sight, you can actually move the rear iris
five or six clicks by touching it with your
hand or your hat. Unfortunately, many
of the rear sghts you find on the line
have some movement ether f rom initial
faulty manufacture or, more likely, frorn
wear.
Personally, I use yef low glasses on most
days that are dark, and I put a polaroid
filter in, as Pnes does, on any of the
bright days. Light coming off the target
or ary flat surface is polarized, so that
means when the sun comes anound on the
face of the tar.get you can put a polaroid
filter in and cut out a lot of the glare
and yet not distort the pcture.
a. Do you use a single or double
polarizer?
31
( Kendall) prefer the single.
(Ross) lrve never found a day so bright
that lrve needed the double.
( Kendall) That's true even n Phoenix
when you are on the desert.
a. How do you feel about usr'ng diopters?
(Ross) I donrt use a dlopter. lrve
looked through them from tme to time-
They do appear to make the target larger.
For people who donrt see very well, I
understand they will help.
(Weaver) My dad uses a dlopter. You
can adjust them tc see the f ront sight
clearly/ but often the bull is fuzzy or
wice versa- lf you move your hcad onr'
way or the other, t will change your'.
sight picture. Personally, I belleve that
the simpler you keep things the better.
lf you can see the bull clearly, thatrs
really all you need. lf you have to have
somethng to filter out light use a
polarizer. lf you donrt see clearly, then
possibly your eyes arerrt corrected
properly by youn glasses. I would prefer
to see you wear shooting glasses than use
a diopter. I donrt know anyone who uses
a dopter who shoots extremely well with
irons on a consistent basis from one year
to the next.
a" Have any one of yoLi tried contact
lenses?
(Weaver) A couple of years ago/ I had
a friend who used contacts. The idea is
super, but he had a problem because his
contacts would drop to the bottom of hs
eye at tmes, and he would have to use a
mirror and push it back into place-
(Ross) My wife Just switched to soft
contacts and absolutely lowes them.
Theyrre very large, and they tend to sty
on the eye very well. She claims to see
far better than she ever dd before. I
donrt use contacts.
( Editor's Note) There have been many
new developments ln contact lenses ln the
past two years. These include astgmatlc
soft lenses that are particutarly helpful to
a shooter wlth an astigmatism problem.
These lenses allow you. to look through
the center of your correction and awoid
the dlstortlon that ls often pnesent when
looklng through glasses no matter how well
adjusted they are. The new soft lenses
also allow for correcton to or
better - "O/2O
a. Do you try to elimlnate cantng or do
you want to use lt sometmes to shade?
eaver) The ldeal posltlon ls perfectly
r,Jrzontal .lf your posltlon ls not
perfectly stralght, you have to have the
same cant all the time. You donrt need to
worry about bad postlon as long as your
positlon is consistent. lf you do have a
sllght cant, and it's a llttle bit awkward,
stralghten t up. As far as cantng to
the rlght for shading, I wouldn't
recommend that under any conditions
whatsoever.
(Ross) From reading a number of texts,
cantng clearly wlll work as a method for
shadlng shots. The flrst thing that
happens ls the shots tend to go stralght
out the slde. As you cant further, they
form a semlcircle. I don't know that
anybody uses thls method. I think lt's
very dlfflcult to know how far to cant
and not foul up your poslton so that the
gun recoils dlfferently as you try to cant
a little more or Just a llttle less. I think
most of us Just naturally have a poslton
eo
that cants the rifle a little bit. You end
up with a position that ls not absolutely
straight up and down, but normally you
adjust for that by rotatng your scope so
that the crosshairs can square. With iron
sghts, you can add one of several
dlfferent bars to the front slght that can
be rotated so that you have a reference
lne that looks horizontal ewen though you
hawe some cant.
a. lf yourre shooting any slghts , do
you use your rlfle scope or your spottng
scope to dope the wlnd?
(Ross) I donrt usually use my spotting
scope when I shoot scope. I can read
the wind almost as well through the rifle
scope wlthout the necessity of takng my
head off the stock. I feel that keeping
the polnt of contact on the rifle for the
entire match is more of an adwantage than
any addtlonal lnformaton that I might get
from uslng the spotting scope.
(Weaver) I use my rifle scope for
spotting shots and readng conditions -
a. What klnd of scopes do you
recommend? Do you recommend mounting
your scope on the receiver or on the
barrel?
(Weaver) I never really paid any
attentlon to how the scope was mounted
on the rlf le. I use a Lyman wlth external
mourts that ls mounted on the barrel.
The only strong feeiing that I have about ,ii
a scope is to gp-g*a__J_oj*.p-_g_y._ej. I use a
15 power scope" The reason that I use a
15 power scope is because you have a
larger field of vlsion, and the larger the
fleld of vision the more condtions you see
and the less chance you have of making a
mistake-
( Ross) There is one mportant thing
that should be clarifled- On guns where
the scope is on tlre barrel and the scope
has internal movements, lke the 32OO, t
is very easy to actually bend the barrel
if your mounts are not absolutely square.
Thls is easy to check if you put your dlal
lndicator on the barrel and then tighten
down your scope and see if the barrel
shows any wrp- Those blocks must be
absolutely straght and it takes an awfully
good gunsmth to get them Just the way
they are supposed to be- Fine adjustment
n height can be made by usng shims.
The receiver mounted scopes avold ths
pnoblem, and therefore theoretically are
better- lrve been uslng three different
ones for the last two years. I must say
that lrm not yet convinced that they are
any better. I thlnk the big problem is
that the movements inside have to be so
small and so precise that they may not be
as good as they ought to be. I donrt
thlnk we always get the movement that we
should, and I rm not sure if there isntt
some inaccuracy in the movement of those
crosshairs when you cllck-
a. lf you have bad trigger controt, do
you suggest a llght trigger or a heavy
trigger?
(Kendall) tf you have bad trgger
control, you can correct t by forcing
yourself to use a heavier trigger. When
you say a light trigger, I think you are
talking about a few ounces. Nobody ls
uslng the old thnee pounds anymore- You
should get good control with anything
between a pound and a pound and a half.
a. What . br:and of trgger do yo,u
recommend?
(Weawer) You want a consistent trigger.
There are good and bad points to every
JJ
trigger avallable. lhave been using a
f,nyen-.*!i:!gser for 1o or 12 years and
hawe not had any problem wtth lt.
(Ross) I use a Ke-nyon t99, You want
to be careful not to get any oil or solvent
on it- Triggers Bre meant to work
relatiwely dry. lf you clean your gun
and store t in an upright positon t y
extra oll or solvent will drlp down lnto
the trigger mechanism, and it can becorne
lnconsistent. Thls is not a permanent
problem. You can take the trlgger out
and clean it wlthout too much trouble.
You should be very careful when you
clean your gun not to use excess oil.
a. When yourre shootlng a match and
the wlnd condltions are rough and you
take the full 20 minutes, do you stay ln
poston the full tlme or do you ever
break and take the gun off your shoulder
to rest your hand?
(Weawer) i stay down for the whole tlmi'
but not for any technical reason" I don't
think there is any problem with breaking
lf your arm ls killlng you. The reason I
stay down s because lrm not n that mucn /
pain; and secondly, lf the conditon comes
back, I want to be ready for it.
( Ross) I thln k being up in positlon
when your condton comes back can be
important- On the other hand, trs very
easy to lose polnts when your arm hurts.
You stop paying attention to your \
execution and start shooting shots to get jI
it over with.
(Kendall) if you start shooting and you
have a condltion change, take it off your
shoulder and rest, then go back. Make
sure you have youn condton back.
There is no use lylng there wearlng
yourself out.
a. Do you dryfire? lf the conditions
are bad do you shoot slghters or do you
Just walt for the condltions to come back?
(Kendall) t just walt for the conditlon
to come back.
(Ross) ln the American game where you
have a sighter target, you can go back
and try the conditlon to see tf you are
where you thlnk you should be. you
canrt do that ln international. personally,
I wo,'ld take lt down f the wind is
changlng and go to sleep until t comes
back.
a. How many shots do you usually fire
at the sghter ln a match?
(Weaver) That woutd very between the
flrst and second stage. On the first
target ln a match you certalnly wlll shoot
more sighters than the second. At the
rglnnlng of very match, J.:.!!. 9h_o-9.!'.f!-yJ
armelg. lltg the lake. tt hetps retieve
the tenslon of startng a new match. Then
I take my sghng shots and go from
there. lrrn a llttle bit mone tentative on
the flrst target because |tve had an hour
or so since I last shot and just donrt want
that first shot to be a nlne. On my
second target, I know the condition and
get back into the swlng of things much
more quickly-
( Ross) wth a scope all those shots in
the sighte ar no real problem because
when you shoot up the middle, you cn
use the numbers on the sighter. lf you
run out of those, you can actually shoot
a shot through the sighter and shoot at
that. So you can fire a tremendous
number of useful shots nto the sighter.
Wltf ...iro- slghts, yau have a problem.
Yo_u., rnfght try not'to-shoot too many
qlghterS to begin with so that you have
the option of going back later !f you eed
to and stlll be able to see the shot. lf
you flnd yourself in real trouble because
thlgl are so s_hot up that you don't know
wh.ei9 the. shot is landing, ih" best thing
that I know of is to hold either high oi
low; that is, rest the bull on the b-ott;m -1r,,.
or the top of your aperture so that the
shot wlll appear somewhere In the eighi
rlng. Now it is very easy to find. tf tl
lines up directly above or below tne ien (
ring or the X ring, you know you are in i
goa shape for windage. )
a. Could you give us hlnts or
suggestions about shootlng in the rain?
( Kendall) I try to keep the stock real
cJry inside. One thing you can do is to
stretch some electrical tape along the
barrel where tt meets the stock to keep
water from nunning down the barrel and
nto the stock. As I mentioned eanlier, I
prefer to use a lense in my rear aperture
to avoid the problem of raindrops on my
g lasses .
(Ross) lf you are asking f the rain
deflects the bullet, |ve never had a shot
that I thought was deflected by the rain.
lrve shot some of the best scores lrve ewer
had in the rain. The wind is usually very
even during a rain stonm. I donrt try to
avoid shooting in the rain. Cover up the
barrel so you dontt get puddles of water
under the barrel and down nto the action,
1
but short of that, and sl-rort of being
uncomfortable, I don't thnk there is any
problem.
(Weaver) When you see the clouds
coming , put everything extra away.
Accept the fact that you are going up on
the line and get drenched. Many people
get excted and start to hurry up and do
things out of their normal order. you
must go slowly, become less excited.
D/1
J=
Everybody is getting wet, so just allow
yourself to get wet and donrt worry about
t.
a. Letrs assume that youtve chambered
a round then notice a slight condton
change and hawe decided to wait lt out.
How long will you hold that round, and
will you use it to go right back to your
record bull, or will you shoot t off to
the side?
(Weaver) lf I wait for any length of
tlme, I will have shot on the sghter.
Personally, I dontt like to lay around and
do nothing for any length of time.
( Ross) Occassionally when shootlng in
the bright sun, the ammo does get very
hot. I have been concerned about that.
lf lrve left a round ln for a long time,
some extra pressure could build up and
cause it to go high. ln such cases, I just
pull t off to the side, shoot it into the
lake and go on wlth the next one. I donrt
know that it would actually go high, but
I donrt want to worry about t.
a. On a four-bull target, what onder
do you shoot the bulls i, and why do
you shoot them in that order?
( Kendall) I shoot them in numerical
order; one, two, three, four.
(Ross) I shoot them in a circle. I'll
start with the first and ether go
clockwise or counterclockwise, depending
on which is more comfortable. lnever
make make a diagonal move. Whn I go
i"m ift irst to the third bult and then
back tc the sighter, nstead of comlng
back down to the bottom, I shoot the
number two bull so that t make a smatter
move from the sghter bull to the record
bull and then go on and finish the
remaining bulls. ln each cese, lmake
the smallest mowement possible.
35
(Weawer) I always go from one to three
to two to four. I never vary that
pattenn.
a. lf you start shooting on the left
bull, do you adjust your poston when
you move to the right bull?
(Weaver) I don't readJust anything. I
do have position problems, though. lf
l:m completely zeroed at bull number one,
Itm out of position when I go to bull
number three whlch ls below, and I will
be low. lf I am out of posltion when I go
from bull number three up to bull number
two/ lwill be at ten orclock. When I
come back to bull number four, I wlll be
centered. This has happened to me on
occaslon for years. I don't understand
what puts you out of positlon from one
butl to the other.
(Ross) The point obviously ls: ,Do you
have a natural point of aim? How crltlca.'
ls it? ln other words, if you really have
a natural pont of am on the first bull,
you can push the gun over to the second
or down to the thlrd; and if you do, can
you notlce the difference in the polnt of
mpact? My positlon is so tight that if
n do push the gun one way, lt will sprlng
I
back. I canrt tell you exactly what I do,
but I do scoot around a llttle blt. Going
down the bulls, partcularly at 1OO ;"iat
I tend to move my body forward. I think
the point of impact does change- This
becomes apparent when you shoot
international where you always have the
bull in the same place"
a" Do you wear a heavy caat or a light
coat?
( Kendall) Light
"
(Ross) Light. .' ' ' "... ,.
(Weaver) Heavy. -r i ,r,.t.
a. Do all of you wear two sweatshirts?
(weaver) I wear three. I wer a
T-shirt, three sweatshrts and a treawy
Jacket. When I first got my leather
Jacket, it was too big so I wore the extra
sweatshlrts and now I don't wnt to
change even though my Jacket is no
longer too blg.
(Ross) I only use one, but its a very
thick one, and lwear a long sleeved
cotton shlrt underneath that. I thlnk
wht you have under the jacket is as
mportant as what jcket you use. For
example, I may be as stiff in a long
sleeved shirt, one sweatshrt and a light
jacket as someone else may be in a heawy
Jacket. You need to experiment. lf you
get the jacket too bulky, it's very hard
to move around, and yourre not
comfortable- lf you get too little between
1rou and the Jacket, then you won't hold
, well -
a. lf ammurton gets wet ln the rain,
ls lt good to use in another match?
(Kendall) lt t gets wet, lrm
superstitlous and afraid to use lt.
( Ross) When yourre shooting, lrwe
never dlscovered a way to really keep
ammo dry- The rain s going to fall on it
as well as everything else- I just let it
get wet and use t. I must say, if itts
gotten too wet, I take lt home and shoot
It In practice. I don't think any harm is
done in the 2O minutes if you take out a
fresh box and shoot't up.
a. When you are shootng the 20 minute
stage, do you cover your ammo up? Do
you cover lt while you walt for the next
match?
(Weaver) You wnt to keep your
ammuntion n the shade as much as
36
possble, but you don't want to get into
the habit of covering It and uncowering it
between shots. Lay over your ammunitlon
while you are shootng so that your body
shades it-
(Ross) You don't ever want to let your
ammo get hot. I dont think you can do
ny damage if you leave t out for 15 or
20 minutes. When l'm shooting I keep my
ammo shaded by putting it right up under
me. That's where I load from.
a. Why dd you select the ISU jacket
over the NRA conventional?
(Kendall) Because I m shootlng both
whenever I get the chance too.
a. When you are f lying to a match,
what do you do to protect your ammo on
the plane or ln transport?
(Kendall) Don't store ammo in your car.
On a hot day t can be a hundred and
fifty degrees in your trunk. When you
are driwing, keep the ammo in the front
prt of the car wlth you. I store ammo
in a small metal Gl can and pad it with a
glove or swetshirt to make sure it won't
bounce around.
(Ross) For years l've used a very small
cooler to keep my ammo in. The ammo
you take on a plane may well sit outside
on the baggage cart for an extended
period before they load the plane. There
s nothing you can do about that- I put
the cooler ln the middle of the bag that
contains my mat, sweatshlrts o and
raingear and use them to help insulate it-
Anything you can do to increase the
length of tme before the heat reaches the
ammo is a help.
When trawelling by can, I keep the cooler
in the front of the car with me; and wl-ren
we stop for any extended period of time,
I carry the cooler along with me.
a. How long does it hawe to get hot
before it loses accuracy?
(Ross) I don't know, and I don't think
anyone knows for sure. ltrs clear that
when t gets very hot (as it will ln the
summer in an automobile) that the
accuracy is destroyed. No one I know
has done any definitiwe tests which s
surprising. My own belief is that high
heat affects the primer, and as result,
t either becomes uneven around the rim
or burns at different rates. A second
problem, having to do not only with heat
but with the age of the ammunitlon, is
the loss of the lubrlcant on the bullets-
Thls was particularly true when we used
cardboard boxes which over time absorbed
the grease. I have found that t have
been able to improve my resLlts when
usng older ammunton by applylng some
of the commenclally available greases.
a. I understand that in some of the
new ammunition the primer contins some
kind of glass " ls that hard on the
barrel?
(Kendall) The old Mark ttt ammuntlon
dd contain glass. This was famous for
causing a barrel ring in the front of the
chamber.
a. Should you put an empty case ln the
rlfle when you dryfire?
(weawer) Some people might hawe to f
the fining pn is a litue long. lf you are
not sure/ check with your gunsmth.
a. Mr. Kendall , Would you elaborate on
the comment you made about changing
your position for ISU style shooting? Do
you use two different prone positions?
a-
( Kendall) I origlnally started out
shooting prone in the American style, and
still prefer that. This necessitates a
change when I shoot in ISU competition.
(Ross) lshoot the high poston for
both types of competitlon. There are a
number of shooters who switch . lt
depends on what is most comfortable for
you. lf the hgh postion is comfortable,
I would recommend shootng t all the
way"
a. When- you shoot a match, how mucl-l
time do you use?
(Ross) That depends on the condltlons.
lf the conditions were perfect, five
mnutes would be ideal. I can comfortably
shoot twenty shots in eight to ten. Pres
has done It n fve.
Seldom do you get that kind of situatlon.
Sometimes conditions are good the f rsl
thing In the morning, but for the other
three matches, you have to work harder
and longer. You have to stop and watch
and be confident. lf the conditions
arenrt there, I would rather use the last
five seconds and take my chances than
finish ln fifteen mnutes. Many tmes the
conditions will come back f you are
patent.
A" What do you eat during the day
while you are shootlng?
(Weawer) ldon't recommend eating any
substantal emount durlng the day - |
often eat pudding and' canned fruit cup
and drink water.
(Ross) lf you eat very much, yout'
stomach s really going to be busy
digesting lt. I would prefer to et a
small amount between every match- Going
out for a big lunch and chowing down is
 terrlble for your performance. My
personal preferance is to eat yogurt-
like lt, and its easy to digest.
(Kendall) I drink coke, and I like
smoked cheese so I 'll munch on that.
Many shooters go over to the Mess Hall
and eat a big lunch. you could be using
that hour and a half to rest. leet my
snack and then go out and lay under a
shade tree for a nap-
a. What kind of pressure do you have
on the stock with your right hand?
(Kendall) Firm but not ilght. you hold
your rifle ln position with your left hand
and your sllng. your right arm and
shoulder re held in poston wthout the
use of the rlght hand. The sole purpose
of the right hand is to fi re the shot.
Grip the stock firmly but be careful not
to put too much pressure on lt.
.Ross) I hold the stock about as firmly
as you would shake hands with someone.
Use a pressure that is good and firm and
comfortable to you.
(weaver) since I have a different type
of position, I don't require any type of
grp. The moFe grp you have n your
right hand and the more strength you use
for your four fingers, the less control
you have to move your trigger flnger
freely.
a. Do you feel as much pain n pnone
as you did when you frst started?
(Weaver) No. I thin k that comes
th rough physical conditioning for one
thing. When I first started to shoot,
had the sling ln the wrong place and t
created a lot of extra pressure on my
+: hand. I prefer a high fore-end stop to
keep the pressure of the sling off the
back of my hand-
( Kendall) I shoot with an old thick
I leather glove and put the sling down
below my wrlst.
a. What kind of fore-end stop do you
use?
(Kendall) I use a small, short,
detachable fore-end stop. lpersonally
donrt like the thick ones-
( Ross ) I don't recommend a hgh one
because I like some pressure on the back
of my hand slnce that relieves some of
the pressure that would normally go to
the wrist- You can relieve some of the
pressure by adjusting the height of the
fore-end stop. The best height will
depend on. the slze of your hand. Try
two or three different heights unill you
find one that is comfortable.
a. Does you arm go to sleep?
(Ross) Yes, sir. After about ten
mlnutes my arm will go to sleep, but I
can shoot very well in spite of it.
a. How long does it take for the feeling
to come back?
(Ross) lt usually takes about three or
four minutes. You can work your fingers
to increase the blood supply. That hurts
a little bit but helps to get the feeling
back. There seems to be no permanent
damage done.
a. Sometimes I donrt know where my
arm is, with my position being affected
because my arm was totally numb?
I (Ross) I have gotten to that point
where I wondered about that. I dontt
worry as long as I the shots are going on
call. When I break because the conditions
have changed, I try to move my fingers
38
round some to increase the blood supply
to my arm. lf you were puttng pressure
one way or the other on the rifle because
your arm ws aseep, the shots would
begin to go off call. As long as they are
styng in, just keep shooting.
(Weaver) My arm goes to sleep too, but
it doesnrt seem to bother me too much in
a matcl'r -
(Kendall) My arm doesnrt got to sleep
when I shoot. I keep the sling low, just
above the elbow, on my !rm- lf you feel
the back of your arm just above the
elbow, you will feel gristle as opposed to
muscle, and you put the sling on that.
You will not lose your position. lt will
pnevent the sling f rom acting li ke a
tourniquet cutting off your blood
circulation -

39
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