Hunting Rifles Reviews > Rifle Brands

Rifle accuracy: At three different Safari Club International conventions in Reno, I have listened to Kenny Jarrett discuss rifle cleaning techniques. As you may know, Kenny builds super accurate “beanfield” rifles and he builds them around his own actions and barrels.

He understands what it takes to build accurate rifles because even though he hasn’t been actively shooting benchrest for some years, he still holds several records, including one he shot at 300 yards.

During the barrel cleaning seminars, Kenny also lets us in on some other secrets. Here is one of them.

Take a piece of six-pound monofilament fishing line and run it up both sides of the bolt handle. No part of the bolt should touch wood or metal and the monofilament should slide freely all the way to the bolt itself. If it doesn’t, go to work with a wood rasp or a file until the monofilament slides to the bolt unimpeded.

Lighted reticles: I have never felt the need for lighted reticles in a scope sight, but they’re the rage among hunters right now. I have legally shot several whitetails near the end of legal shooting hours and I had no trouble seeing the reticle even though it was dark outside.

What I also saw was a bright orange flash of burning powder as it left the barrel.

At an outdoor writer’s conference in Montana a few years ago, Bill McRae spoke to us about hunting optics — scopes and binoculars, primarily. He’s an expert on hunting optics. You have probably seen his articles in magazines. During the question-answer part of his program, I asked for his opinion of lighted reticles.

He, too, thinks they’re largely unnecessary, but he said the best one was made by Bushnell. It is a totally passive system that charges itself by pointing the objective lens toward sunlight or by shining a flashlight into it. The result is a scope without protuberances from the side to hold batteries.

According to Bill, battery-powered reticles often blind the shooter in dull light. And batteries are often dead when needed most.

At least, that’s my experience.

Eagle predation: In Thasis, British Columbia, I once watched a pair of bald eagles team up on a seagull. One would dive on the gull that went underwater to escape, but as soon as he surfaced, the other eagle dived.

Eventually, the gull could not stay underwater any longer and one of the eagles plucked him from the surface, flew to a tree, stripped feathers and the two of them ate the hapless gull … and those were bald eagles.

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The golden eagle is larger than his bald cousin and they kill fully-grown antelope and deer using the same tactics. I know three people who have seen it happen and one of them videotaped it.

The eagles take turns diving on their prey until the animal collapses from exhaustion and they sink their talons into the base of the skull, thus killing their prey. In all cases, the victims were does, probably because the eagles want to avoid antlers.

Loading manuals: I used to collect loading manuals. I have books by more than a dozen different bullet and powder manufacturers, but like a cigarette smoker trying to quit, I’m tapering off.

I no longer buy every manual that comes out. I tapered off right after the first Nosler manual came out and I discovered it was a work of non-fiction. By that time, I had begun to doubt that loads in several of the manuals had even been chronographed.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Hornady manuals, also, but the gospel, as far as I’m concerned, lies between the covers of a Nosler manual. I will buy every new version they come out with.

That’s because my chronograph shows essentially the same result as theirs.

Some of their loads are on the safe but maximum side, too. For example, their No. 3 manual has a .243 load that is a scorcher.

Using 47.5 grains of 7828 in a Winchester case and the 100 grain Nosler bullet, the data shows 3,250-foot seconds out of a 24-inch barrel.

My chronograph confirmed their results, but I used the 105 grain Speer bullet. Bang! Bang! Two dead antelope with as many shots. It’s an excellent deer-antelope load.

Since that time, Nosler has cut back that load in their later manuals, but I think that’s primarily because the above recipe is a compressed load. I can tell you it’s a perfectly safe load and case life is good.

Thanks for letting me flit from one subject to another. Sometime in the future, maybe I’ll flit about fishing.

Speaking of which, I hear smallmouth are biting in the Columbia.

Source: OthelloOutlook.com

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