Extreme Rimfire a test of shooting skill

Imagine a game that tests all the elements of shooting. A game that tests your ability to consistently hit targets at the limits of your equipments ability.
The game is a spin off of metallic silhouette.
Developed in Mexico as a gentleman's game.
 At the onset our southern neighbors used live animals to shoot at . The first person to hit there target kept the animal as there prize . Large wagers were made at each shot. Over time the game changed to metal cutouts to represent the animals.
The shots range from 77 yards to 201 yards
The chickens are at 77 yards. Pigs are at 115 yards . Turkeys at 156 yards. Rams are at 201 yards.
 
 The game can be played as a solo act or with a spotter .
 The spotter can call the wind for you .
A big deal at 200 yards as a change in direction can take you off your target

Equipment used is varied . Mostly bolt action rifles dominate the line . Semi autos are becoming a force to be reckoned with as there accuracy and reliability have come along way in both departments.

My bolt action unlimited class gun.
Anything goes in this class! (36x Night force scope)

My unlimited class semi auto.
Again anything goes .
(14 power  Night Force scope )
The semi autos are scored differently than the bolt guns as they present a different set of challenges!

My bench rest entry a semi auto
This class is limited . No compensators or tuners allowed. No thumb hole stocks allowed.( 55 power Night Force scope)

 There are even classes structured for entry level competitors. Squirrel guns are off the  shelf guns with 3 to 9 scopes. A real challenge. Have an Iron sight rifle there is a place for you too!

So its your turn to compete . The match director calls "shooters to the line."
You will start on an animal thru random draw !
You will then be given the "ready" command .
At this time you have a few minutes to make sight adjustments and prepare your gear.
 The "fire" command starts ten minutes to take sighter shots and ten shots for record!

Working quickly to get zeroed in on the swinger target making adjustments till your conditions stabilize.
A target must be knocked off the rail to score. A miss must be left standing!
A haunting reminder of misread conditions.

The conditions today were ever changing starting off with rain on the ram line .
I left 3 rams  standing a tough way to start the day.
It has been a while since I played this game.
The challenges haven't changed .
The chickens and pigs were better for me .
I finished up on the turkeys arguably the toughest line on the field!
Ending up with a 35 x40 .
I went on to shoot 2 other classes with a 37x40 and a 38x40 .I had a great day at the range with old friends and new alike
 A great way to burn up a brick of ammo!

Have fun and take a friend shooting
Set up your own Extreme Rimfire match at your range!
John Nagel
Art Of The Shot

Adding distance to your long range 10 22 making a. 40moa base

The age old question of where do I get enough elevation adjustment to shoot further.......
I looked and looked and couldn't find what i was looking for . With my gun zeroed at 50 yards with a generous 55 moa of adjustment I topped out at 200 yards
That is fine until I want to shoot further
And we all want to shoot further.
I calculated that with the 20 mos base from
EGW I had 24 moa below my 50 yard zero.
I needed a 40 moa base . To get the most from the scope the Night Force competition.

A trip to the mill  some math and I had the base set up with 20 more minutes . After profile milling with a  ball end mill I had the base re machined.

The mill does a good job but I'm looking for a perfect mate.

Some paper wrapped over the receiver blends the high spots down ready for the mating to the receiver.

On this receiver I'd  had a screw strip .
So while it was apart I  opened up to 8-40 base screws with torque heads a much stronger set up
Ive always bedded my bases with locetite thread locker. I clean the receiver and sand where the base locates.

The finished project notice the angle the base has 40 moa is alot of elevation
I should be able to get from 25 to 300 with a twist of the dial
John Nagel
Pro shooter
AGUILA AMMUNITION
MAGNUM RESEARCH
NIGHT FORCE OPTICS
OWNER SJCGUNS.

Victor company rear lug retro fitted to a Ruger reciever

As the name and picture indicate Victors rear lug  was originally designed for a Kidd innovations receiver.
A great receiver in there own right . Some pony up and get one . Some have a stock action laying around that they want to accurize.
   The challenge from Michael Victor was can it be done with a stock Ruger.
I received the package and immediately started thinking about how to go about retrofitting.

The first challenge was the receiver is cast and has a draft along the back edge
The solution was to index off the bottom edges and square up the rear of the action in the milling machine

My next step after measuring and squaring up the receiver in the mill was to cut a female slot into the receiver to except the male slot on the lug . I used a bottom cutting end mill and left .003" clearance

After checking fit i moved onto locating the securing screw hole.

Drilling the pass hole was not a problem
Countersinking the head inside the cavity in the receiver presented the biggest challenge.  I used every thing i had in the shop . Drill bits grinders and a countersinking tool by hand.
I got it done and it looks good but a real challenge that requires a better tool

Countersinking is the most critical part of the install. The head of the screw has to be out of the way  to install the trigger group.
The completed install looks great

 With the install complete its time to put everything back together .
Look for the next chapter in this series
As we mate the block to the Victor company stock.
John
Pro shooter
AGUILA AMMUNITION
MAGNUM REASERCH
NIGHT FORCE OPTICS
OWNER SJCGUNS.

Cherokee Charlie 

The name brings to mind visions of an era gone by . A mythical character of lore out of the old west.  A man who can shoot it straight with a six gun and his word.
 The man the legend and those very skills are very much alive and well. A Character
To some that have had the pleasure to have know him.
 Charlie as I know him was very instrumental in starting my path down the Rimfire road.
It was some years ago that Charlie introduced me to Rimfire Challenge.
He saw something in me that i didn't see and took me under his wing.
 You see there was a rivalry with Alabama
And Georgia  in the shooting game.
 Charlie had the answer train me to shoot
Cowboy guns and make a rig for me to compete

Charlie not only is a master shot but also a master leather maker .
Hand tooling leather into works of art!
His style is your imagination.

I won that match with the cowboy guns and rig . Winning open also .Winning the very first of 30 plus State Titles and 8 metals in World and National events.
Launching my career in the Rimfire World.
  I had the opportunity to catch up with Charlie and go out for a shooting session.
Charlie is now in his late 70's and doesn't get around very well any more.
His love of shooting and his inability to move with the young kids of the fast paced
Games drove Charlie to invent ever challenging games
 Extreme rimfire is one of his crowning jewels
Long range silhouette from the bench at various ranges to 200 yards.
Charlie excels at the game . Shooting month after month amazing scores

Today while on the range Cherokee Charlie was up to his old ways and showed me a new game

Shoot a paint ball off a golf tee at ranges to 200 yards

I made the shots out to 156 yards hitting after numerous tries . The toughest shots I've ever made in my career.

We had a great day on the range and wrapped it up as I dropped Charlie off at home admiring his trophy room 

Cherokee Charlie is still on the range and gets around in his chair .

I have learned so much from him as I'm sure you have someone in your life you have learned from .

I asked Charlie how many people he's taken shooting or had an influence on and he said hundreds maybe thousands over the years.

It makes me realize how much our elders have to teach us if we would take some tine with them and listen .

Take someone to the range and help them enjoy the sport and art of the shot!

John Nagel 

Pro shooter 

Team AGUILA 

Prostaff for MAGNUM REASERCH 

NIGHTFORCE OPTICS

Precision auto loading rimfire gun build

I had a chance to test out some new gear over the last few days as I prepare a rifle for prs rimfire competitions

PRS Rimfire rifle at the bench fot testing

ACTION:
 a Magnum Research
       Magnumlite  billet aluminum reciever
Perfectly machined a beauty in its own right.

Magnumlite action 

BOLT:
   After looking at many aftermarket bolts I came to realize that the engineer at magnum reaserch had done their home work
The headspace was cut perfectly on the breach face to .003" clearance .the exact number I try to hit when blue printing a bolt.

The firing pin is pinned up front for consistancy in ignition and reliability
The nice feature is the firing pin stop preventing barrel and chamber damage in dry fire.
All in all this is the most well thought out bolt I've used!

Magnum Research Bolt

TRIGGER:
Kidd 2 stage set at 6 oz overall I can't say enough about this trigger clean crisp consistent breaks like glass .

Kidd trigger

BARREL:
  Here is the challenge keep the front of the gun
Light enough for off hand use while Keeping the barrel stiff enough for hard use. All the while Keeping barrel vibrations down for repeatable accuracy.
A big challenge for sure.
After talking with several barrel makers  of the usual suspects i came to the conclusion that I needed a carbon wrapped barrel.
I had the right barrel on tap and after assurances from the factory engineer at Magnum Research  I special ordered  a graphite carbon wrapped barrel at 20 inches with 1/2×28 threads.
Jim explained  that there factory barrels were built using match quality  blanks and specially chambered to match standards .
Ive had a long standing relationship with Magnum Reaserch for speed shooting so I trust Jim's wisdom in all things 10 22 patern rifles . I didnt realize just how good they are at distance !

Magnum Reaserch Barrel 

MUZZLE BRAKE:
    I chose the SJC 3 port stainless rimfire .
I am a partner in SJC so its obvious i feel they are the best on the market.
The brake helps in recoil and muzzle rise using multiple directional thrust vectoring technology. There is zero movement!

Sjcguns.com Rimfire brake
3 port stainless 

STOCK:
 For this build i chose the new McMillan A5 rimfire stock!
A real beauty! The inletting  fit and finish are well worth the wait  of 6 months! Im hoping that McMillan will introduce this stock to there retail store as a ready item for purchase!
The perfect stock for prs rimfire competition
BYPOD:
  Harris of course . The standard in bipods

McMillan stock and Harris bipod

  For this rifle i looked thru the nightforce catalog and ordered up there new 4 to 14 x50mm shv F1 OPTICS:

Thats a mouth full to say ! For good reason as this scope is packed with featues!
Illumination
Front focal plane allows precise hold overs at any magnification using the reticle.
Return to zero feature that lets you come up on your dial without fear of loosing your place.
Covered windage cap a great feature in competition or hunting being on the side and out of site . Protects your windage adjustment from getting bumped.
I added some items to finish off the build
The level in the top ring helps me keep the crosshairs level .

The angle gauge allows me to know my exact target angle necessary for calulations at long range .
The throw lever makes magnification adjustments fast and precise.
NightForce has realy done there home work with this scope! The perfect scope to play out to the limits of the 22lr cartridge.dont get me wrong i have one waiting on my new hunting rifle . Perfect for any aplication where speed and accuracy are needed.
I hope they will add a 5 to 25 x56mm F1 to the line up of SHV scopes for my bigger guns!
To shoot a mile.

 CHEEK RISER:
     On this build to get into perfect eye alignment to make use of the accuracy of this rig I chose the tacpro adjustable riser .
 Simple sturdy reliable! Does the job and looks good on the gun.

AMMO:
AGUILA Super Extra Standard Velocity 40 gn.

Consistent accurate   inexpensive. All features you want when practicing for any competition

In conclusion as the pictures demonstrate this rifle lives up to its potential with amazing accuracy . Soft recoil and surprisingly light wait.
The groups were shot at 50 yards outside .
The average group was 1/2 inch on centers with the best measuring .278 inch on centers.

All groups were tenshots. Puting that into perspective this gun put 30 rounds inside a quarter . Im very impressed to say the least!
This was the high end of a rimfire build with no regaurd for budget  it took just under a year to get it to this point!  Stay tuned for my next build
Long-range on a budget
I had alot of help from the industry  partners I have
Thanks a bunch!
John Nagel
Owner sjcguns.com
SCSA 3 Time  Grandmaster
Aguila  Ammunition, Magnum Reaserch
NightForce
Pro staff shooter
30 plus state and regional titles in various disciplines
8 time metal winner  in World and National events
2016 East Coast Steel Challenge Rifle Master