and rifles normally rested until No- vember. So when my uncle asked me if I wanted to go in halves on a reloading kit in June, I was not really interested but did it anyway. My uncle, Dale, began informing me of his new-found gains in the accuracy department. After looking at some of his targets, I could easily see the advantages of “rolling your own.” The improvements in his rifles’ accuracy was impressive and that got me going on reloading for my own rifles. With Dale’s help I was able to shrink groups down to 1" with both of my rifles, and that started me reading up on accuracy and ballistics. I got a call from Dale one day tell-
ing me of a new purchase he had made that I just had to see. No other details were given, so I was on my way out to his place to see what all the hubbub was about. When I arrived I was shown an ugly black rifle with a fat barrel and black plastic stock. I asked, ”What is it?” and he told me it was a Savage varmint rifle chambered in 223. I had read about the 223 and knew it was an accurate cartridge, but I knew little else. I inquired to its intended use and was told he was going to hunt ground- hogs with it. He also provided targets showing tiny groups he had shot using his own custom handloads. To say I was impressed is an understatement. I thought groups like that were made only by very expensive custom rigs in exotic wildcat chamberings! When he told me what he paid for it at the local Wal-Mart, I knew right then I also needed a gun to do this kind of shooting! After a bit of research, I went
to a local shop and ordered a new Model 70 Winchester in 22-250. My research told me this cartridge was very accurate and superior to the 223. Although it was a thing of beauty, my new gun was a disappointment at the range. Was it my lack of expertise at the reloading bench or the fact I didn’t get the gun in a heavy-barreled varmint model? Whatever the reason, it would not shoot very well despite all our experimenting and I had it sent back to Winchester to be checked out. It came back with a new barrel on it but it failed to do much better at the range and I still didn’t have the tack driver I so desperately wanted. The little sporter-barreled Winchester just
* Long Range/Extreme Range Varmint Shooting * 1000 Yard and 600 Yard Match Shooting * Mirage / Wind / Condition Reading * In-depth Ammo Prep * Chronograph Use * Load Development for Long Range Accuracy
* Rifle Building and Design for Long Range Accuracy
* Techniques/Strategies for Match Shooting * Live Fire Shooting at 1000 Yards
* Learn how to chamber barrels that will compete with the best in the world
* Dialing bores straight/true with range rod and .0001” indicators
* Benchrest and Wildcat Chambering * Throating *Necking *Crowning * Bore Slugging and Barrel Evaluation * Custom Chamber and Reamer design
* Importance of Extreme Attention to Many “Little Details”
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Pella, IA 641-780-5085
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Preparing a stock for pillar bedding during an "Accurizing Factory Rifles" class at Gordy's Precision Gunsmithing shop.
didn’t seem capable of producing tiny groups. I needed another gun. At another shop I overheard a
fellow talking about selling his var- mint rifle. After introducing myself, he showed me an ugly, fat-barreled rifle and told me it was a Savage 112 in 22-250 and could produce one-hole groups. We agreed on a price and in a few days I was the proud owner of my first really accurate rifle, I hoped. The man supplied his load data and targets and we soon had the rifle shooting pretty good groups. I couldn’t wait to try it out on something other than paper targets! The local ’hog population was
in real trouble now as we both were armed with real varmint rifles and had developed very accurate handloads for them. We had a lot of fun that summer shooting ’hogs and were even getting them out to 300 yards. Now I really had “The Bug” and
thought I would soon have my Savage worn out so I knew another gun must be had. This time I was a lot smarter and ordered a new Remington 700 VLS in 6mm. This gun was another beauty
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Precision Gunsmithing Instructional DVD's available * Call or see our website for details.
and it also shot well. Using 55-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips and H4895 pow- der, the little bullets screamed over our chronograph at nearly 4,000 fps into half-inch groups. The bug was cured for now because I had two great shooting rifles for ridding the area of groundhogs. I was still using Kentucky wind-
age for shots beyond 250 yards when I came across a used Springfield Armory scope in the 5.56 model. My uncle used this type of scope on his 223 with great success so now I needed a 223 to put under it. I purchased a Savage varmint rig and used Dale’s load data to match the scope’s ranging reticle. The 60-grain V-Max bullets and Varget produced super accurate groups that matched the yardage hash marks on the Springfield almost perfectly. I no longer had to guess holdover on long shots, but the little 223 was limited to around 350 to 400 yards to make sure kills on the sometimes hard to kill Pennsylvania woodchucks. Again the bug bit and it told me
I needed something bigger. I ordered another Savage, not only because of
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