Lightweight RifleScopes with Parallax Adjustment

Lightest Rifle Scopes Ive found

Intro

My pursuit to find a super light yet capable scope has often resulted in the usual leupold ultralight being brought out & not much else. So I decided to spend some time & research manually, each of the better scopes with AO & list their weights, if they were comparable to the other ultralight scopes.

The goal is not just to find any old light scope, but rather one that has adjustable objective or side focus, & reasonably good picture quality.
The ultralight only has 1 model with AO, the efr 3-9x33mm, which frankly is just a tad short of the magnification I wish it would otherwise have, because Leupold scopes are inherently extra wide & overstate the magnification when compared to other brands. A 9x leupold really only is an 8.3x & a 6-18x40mm vx-2  is really only a 16.7x scope!

Those of you that have read my previous articles on shooting ergonomics will be aware of my personal belief the rifle weight balancing plays the most important role in your ability to shoot accurately, outside of the firearms technical capability.
I also look into factors such as reticle shape, thickness, & field of view.

In this article, I hope to share with you my findings around which scopes have worked best to aid that goal, & hopefully clarify some reasons as to why I tried them.

Parallax Adjustment is critical for shooting under 50 yards / 50 metres & upto 100 metres when using higher magnification say 16x. A lot of my accurate shooting is done with a 22 at shorter ranges, thus the Adjustabe Objective (AO) or Side Focus (SF) feature is the main thing I look for aside from the zoom magnification range.

I also assess the magnification to weight ratio, ie, if you can get a little extra zoom for hardly say 25 grams of extra weight, then that scope is worth considering.

Leupold

In most cases Leupold is quite pricy & there are equally nice scopes out there for cheaper.
Bushnell is one such brand that in my opinon has really given Leupold a run for its money.
At the lower end, Mueller seems to have hit the nail too with optics, though I must admit their build quality sometimes isnt enough.

But when you start looking at weight, Leupold scopes seem to be some of the lightest available, & not much else is easily found. I am told this is not necessarily a good thing, because they use lots of thinner aluminium, not one piece steel. Ill document many of the other contenders too.
In my pursuit to find a nice light parallax adjustable scope, I cant help but notice an array of light Leupolds on offer:

Leupold vx2 6-18x40 15.8 oz 447 grams

In my oinion, probably the best compromise of weight to magnification, this one sits on my Tikka & despite much searching, I doubt I will ever find a lighter one. Nice scope, but it wasnt cheap!

Leupold vx-2 ultralight 3-9x33mm EFR - 11.5 oz 326 grams

Note that you need the EFR version which has AO & is heavier than the other ultralight vx-2 3-9x power. The other one does NOT have AO & will appear as 8.8oz, we dont want that.
Lightest scope Ive ever found with AO, but sometimes, at 9 power, more is desirable.

Leupold vx2 4-12x40mm AO - 13.2 oz 373 grams

Lastly, the old favourite on many a 22s, who would have thought this one is probably the best choice when it comes to a compromise between enough magnification & light weight.
Stay clear of the non AO vx-1 model, which is cheaper & lighter.

Bushnell

Though not as light as Leupolds on paper, the Bushnells have made some pretty light scopes. The elite range given their full steel tube & 1000 round 375h&h tested construction are probably great for heavy calibres or bush use.
Heres a list of their best candidates:

Banner 3.5-10x36mm AO - 15 oz 425 grams - cheapest in the lightweight range

I plan to buy this scope soon so should be able to tell you more about it in a month or so when its here from the USA.

I have owned cheap bushnell scopes before as well as the elite & for the price I felt they were really nice, well made products.
Cheap ones had some distortion at the edges of the view, which can be a problem but remember this only happened in their cheapest scope.

The Elite 3200 4-12x40mm Rainguard is a really great scope, but I wont mention it as a lightweight one as there are better contenders in that regard.

Nikon

Top end optics but are usually heavy weight & long eye relief.
The long eye relief has often made Nikon scopes hard to mount of 22s with shorter length of pull due to the usually shorter stocks.
Lots of nice side focus scopes though, so the lighter ones need a mention.

Buckmaster 4.5-14x40 SF

Simmons

Ive thought of Simmons as being one of the first brands to provide excellent value scopes, the good old 8-point with AO were scopes we learnt to shoot using, & to date are serious contenders for beginners.
They possess excellent field of view, much like the Muellers, which really make life harder for the likes of the cheap basic leupolds vx1 or some redfields that cost twice as much.

Master Series ProSport 4-12x40mm AO - 13.8 oz

I would hope this pro sport series has reasonable image quality, but have never used it. Quite an acceptable weight for the price, anyone out there got this scope?

Vortex

I have never had dealings with this brand, but have heard the name recently with some good reviews. None the less, for what I want to achieve, I thin it will be more than adequate.

Diamondback 4-12x40mm AO - 15oz

Huntsman

This is not the BSA huntsman series, but rather a cheap brand that becoming popular in New Zealand.
The huntsmen scope is a ridiculously awesome cheap scope that offers better image qualtiy than you would believe. I have in the past dealt with garbage from NCStar etc only to confirm the obvious, but hey this Huntsman is different. This was the first time a cheap scope could actually be considered as usuable as an expensive one.
Not sure how well the reticle holds up to recoil, but works mint on my 22s, the CZ 452 & the Ruger 10/22.
The 4-12x40mm AO scope fails to disappoint upto the 12x range though.
With most cheapish scopes, it will be crappy at max power for very high magnification options, so maybe a 16x huntsmen is really only a 12x scope, dont know never tried the others.
Give it a try.

Shotshell caddy for 3 gun shoot

Shotgun Shell Holding Caddy

Check out these cool shotshell holders on trademe

Made by the same KiwiStocks people that make those ruger accessories from my previous article.

Excellent for the price, but they only work with 2 3/4 inch cartridges.
Something to incorporate in the next version Id say.

The clip holds quite well, & being made out of ABS plastic, its much lighter than one would expect.
The inherent flexibility of ABS is a good thing as it stops shell jamming when youre trying to pull them out.

Not a 3 gun shooter myself so only use these for convenience, but would be interesting to know what those who do rapid & timed shoots think about this caddy...

The thing is being in New Zealand there arent a hell of a lot of places you can get these from, & when you do, they cost a hell of a lot more!

Got this one? Any thoughts?

Sako vs Tikka - Is the sako worth the extra?

Sako vs Tikka - Is the Sako truly better

Both Sako & Tikka have a great reputation, & quite often those that could afford either will just buy a sako & be done with it. Those who cant easily afford it, will need to justify the extra.
Currently, Tikka is less than half the price of a Sako in New Zealand. Im told Tikkas are cheaper here than most of Europe, where the difference is only a few hundred dollars apart, not thousands.

Ive owned both, & would like to share what I believe is the naked truth.

Is the Sako worth twice the Tikka price?

In my opinon, NO, its not. Please see my list of reasons below.
Probably emphasised by the fact that Tikkas are so under-priced here in NZ thanks to Beretta NZ being competitive I guess, but that just means more buying opportunity for us kiwis, we benefit for once! :)

Should you buy a sako even if you could afford it?

This might shock some of you, but, again, in my opinion, NO, get a Tikka & use the rest to buy a good scope, good ammo, get the barrel professionally fluted if you want to, customise your rifle in other ways, etc etc.
Or get 2 tikka rifles! :)

Im not specifically comparing each of the models, but my comments should hopefully help anyone trying to make that all important decision of whether to spend the extra dosh on a Sako or NOT.

So its not about comparing a Varmint to a Hunter to Finnlight to a T3 to a Tactical etc, its more of a general guide on the brand's perceived vs real value in price. Ive never owned the A7 etc so wont comment on them, which though cheaper in price seem to be even more of a waste given I dont quite see what they cost extra for, they look like Tikkas in a Sako stock.

Reasons why I believe Tikka wins over Sako:

1) Identical barrel & chamber quality

The grunt of your accuracy is in the barrel, both Tikka & Sako barrels have the same quality of hammer-forging done in the same factory with the same materials right there in Finland.

2) Bolt face is matched to breech with the same accuracy

The bolt sits to the same 0.01" accuracy for each Tikka or Sako rifle & is factory matched for that particular rifle. So a tikka locks in the cartridge just as well as a Sako.
Yes, a Tikka bolt has more plastic in it, & Sako all metal, but for this so called 'better quality', the Sako is twice the price. If they both shoot the same & pretty much last longer than an average barrel, then would you worry about the plastic in the bolt?
I dont, & it works fine.

3) Identical Trigger assembly

Plastic or metal, the basic trigger assembly is the same. Contrary to opinoin, the trigger breaks just as nicely & I swear if you tried both groups you couldnt tell them apart.

4) Weaver Picatinny style mounts

Generic rings can be used on Tikka rifles, & tikka rings are cheaper. The sako rings cost more & generic rings cant be used on a sako, you have to buy very expensive rings if you need something that your rifle didnt come with. Are the tikkas rings 'bad'? No, they hold fine. The sako rings might be theoretically better, but the point is, they dont actually make any difference, so why pay more?

5) Lighter in weight for the same price

The finnlight is the lightest rifle, & hey well done to Sako, but when you look at your average hunter & varmint models, the Tikkas are actually very light in comparison. So if you wanted something light, you have to buy a Finnlight for Sako, OR a Tikka for half the price!

6) Out of the box grouping guaranteed

The sako's guaranteed grouping is smaller than a Tikka, agreed. But hey, how many brands of ammo have you had to experiment with your rifle to select the ammo that gets you your 'guaranteed grouping'?

Now here is the point:
Until you have found the correct ammunition for your rifle, you cant assess the guaranteed grouping performance of your rifle. So it doesnt matter how badly your rifle shot with the bad shooting ammo, because when you find the rightt ammo, both the rifles shoot equally well.

Arguably, not so favourable ammo would shoot better in the sako than the equally 'not so favourable' ammo would in your Tikka, if that makes sense... which is really impossible for you to ever compare or evaluate.

In my case, I tried 4 ammo brands for my Sako. The Remington shot like crap, at around 2 inches 100 metres. The winchester was aceptable at 1-1.5" with the occassional flyer which was probably me. The Lapua did well with 0.5-1" & Federal did well with the expected consistent 0.5"

For my Tikka, I only had to try 2 brands due to sheer luck, turns out I started with the right brand so I got the rifle to group its best quicker. The Winchester shot 0.5-1" out of a brand new rifle, first 3 shots after bore sighting & I couldnt believe how lucky I was, smack bang easy peezy.

So both my Tikka & my Sako gouped 0.5 inches with their respective ammunition.
Both are capable of grouping better than their so called 'guaranteed grouping'

The Tikka groups just as well as the sako with the right ammo, so how can one justify the Sako as being the better grouping rifle?!?

One might argue the Sako will group better with a wider range of ammunition, I cant be sure of that, it could be true, but how many of us have tried every single brand out there to compare?

Better long distance performance from Sakos, I hear you say. Hmm, well, maybe you have a point there. I havnt tried 600 metres with either but I doubt it will matter because MOA varaince stays constant, it shouldnt matter any more than your own handshake at such long ranges. The wind, the projectile, & your own shooting skills matter more in those cases I think.

7) Better Build quality & longer life ?

Actually, my Sako started rusting & kept rusting in very specific places, before my CZ did. Weird isnt it?! Now its minor rust mind you nothing to worry about, but hey, it happened. Well I tried everything, the whole lubrication, storage space, moisture, cleaning, checking for scratches, no nothing. Internal bore was fine, just the outside had small particles developing rust. Its just the way it was. The tikka didnt rust outside but I could see slight loss of bluing marks, & was told there might be some slight pitting in the barrel. Given both rifles were different calibres & different amounts of use, I agree its not a fair 1 to 1 comparison, but thats not the point.

The point is, the Sakos rust too, & a cheap CZ didnt. If the sako is so damn indestructible, why did it start to rust, you know what I mean... I had not taken it out hunting at that stage, the CZ infact had already been! Dud piece you think, well, ok, lets say its a faulty piece, but then hey what about all that 'consistecy' we get promised, either way its a bit of a shame dont you think ??

8) Good resale value despite cheap price, ie. less overall depreciation

Despite being a cheap rifle, the Tikka holds value incredibly well. I can prove to you with numbers that you are actually financially better off owning a Tikka, should you want to sell it.

Average price for a new Sako is currently NZ$3400. A new Tikka averages $1300.
Used 10 year old Sako in good condition is currently averages $1800.
Used Tikka in good condition around $800.

Depreciation on Sako is close to 50% value & you lost 1600 bucks! With the Tikka, you are only loosing $500.
And here is the kicker, even if Tikka looses its value down to 50% & is worth $650, you still loose $650, & not $1600 - Big Difference aint it! :)

Yes, there are 'differences' between the 2, but is it worth it?

'Differences' dont automatically make something better. It can be better for you for a different reason though. For example, I find the Stainless Synthetic Finnlight to be the most comfortable rifle for my body. The stock is super light, beautiful nice rubberised grip, fits naturally. Barrel balances brilliantly, the length is just right & its just a dream to hold up, like a part of your body.

But how much more comfortable than the Tikka is it for me? Well, not twice as comfortable, so I wont pay twice the price, & then loose half the money if I do choose to sell it!

Yes, if you felt the finnlight was out of this world & everything else was just not close, then by all means go get a finnlight & fork out the cash. But dont be so certain that youre paying for 'a much better rifle', thats my point.

The Tikka is a very capable rifle, & you would be hard pressed to find a better rifle in its price class, in fact, I doubt you will succeed in finding a better rifle than a Tikka for what it offers at its price point.

Please dont think I hate sakos; Im sorry if the post sounded that way, that was not the intention. Im merely trying to make some points in the Tikka's favour. Both rifles are very good, but I feel Tikka offers way more.

Please share your thoughts...

If you have had both, please tell us what do you think worked? Do you agree with my opinion re the Tikka being a better buy, or do you think the Sako at twice the price truly is a better quality rifle for reasons I havnt yet found? Please post your comments here.

Happy Shooting :)

Make Ruger 10/22 & SR22 look like AR15

Sprucing up the Ruger .22 Rifle into a M4 look alike

Anyone who has a Sr 22 probably loves the original M16 look that the rifle was designed to replicate.

Though it comes close, its not quite there yet. Yes you can get to Nordic components & buy some accessories, but they are very expensive, heavy, & hard to source. And unfortunately Nordic isnt the most interested in selling to overseas buyers either, cant blame them.

In this article, Ill point you to a few cheap cosmetic things that will give your SR22 that real assault M16/M4 look.

First, youll need to ensure your magazine doesnt give away the fact that its a .22

An original Ruger 25 round banana mag is also available, but its too skinny & gives away that its a .22LR calibre rifle. Also, in a place like New Zealand, you need an E cat license, else youre in trouble using a 25 round mag.

Well, here is a solution, a new trader on trademe called kiwistocks

And theyre also on facebook now

KiwiStocks on trademe makes these little dummy magazine extensions to fit any original Ruger 10 round rotary mag.
They just clip into the bottom & give your Ruger mag the .223 M16 magazine look!

No modifications of any kind needed, & they are easily removable & re-attachable.

Ok, its just plastic, but hey, the point of this exercise is to make the SR22 look sexy, & this little mag does it well.

Ive seen stuff like this on US sites as part of complete kits they sell to turn a Ruger 10/22 into a tommygun, but this is new, & its homegrown, love that!

The same kiwistocks fellow also sells a M16 style replica muzzle compensator :)

It slides onto your barrell & just looks cool. Its made of plastic & is quite light weight but strong enough to do the job. It has no effect what so ever on hiding the flash or what not, except that it looks brilliant!

There is also a shell deflector thing

And for those of us who want to get trigger happy on the range sometimes without the spraying our fellow shooter next to us on the range, the same kiwistocks also sells a plastic Shell deflector that just mounts off the scope rail, ingenius!

And my favourite, the angled slip on sunshade for any scope, this is just awesome!

This turns gives any normal scope a more military style look. Thats pretty handy.
Otherwise you'd only get such looks only out of a double the price tactical scope.

And then you want some picatinny weaver style rails to screw onto the front grip.

There are a few people on trademe that sell those. This kiwistocks guy seems to be the cheapest, but I have never done any quality checks against the other sellers.

Im not sure if I'd personally trust ABS plastic if you actually wanted to mount something on the rail, but saying that, well made ABS stuff is pretty strong.

Then there are accessories like a replacement scope rail made of plastic.

Helps reduce the weight of the rifle, which is great coz the SR22 though not heavy, is definitely not light enough to easily carry around.

Check out the plastic replacement front hand grip area.

It looks much more like the M4 & is lighter coz its plastic. In many ways that gives it a more authentic looks because its ABS which is very close to the material used on synthetic stocks.

... And all this stuff is Made in New Zealand which is such a breath of fresh air :)

....And its CHEAP AS..!!

The Best Guns & Optics - My Current Recommendations

My Recommended Guns & Optics to consider

This is a simple list of shooting equipment I currently recommend.
My aim is to improve this list as I find better stuff.
Please feel free to share your opinions on these too.

1) .22 Bolt Action Sporter

Medium price:

CZ 452 American wood stock + E Brooks trigger kit

High end:

Anchutz 1712

2) .22 LR Semi auto

Out of the box, low cost:

Marlin 795 stainless

Custom setup, very accurate yet versatile:

Ruger 10/22 + volquartsen muzzleweight barrel + volquartsen target trigger modifications added to ruger group

3) Centrefire bolt action Sporter - light calibres circa .223

Sako 85 Synthetic stainless .223 finnlight

4) Centrefire bolt action Sporter - medium size eg 308, 270 etc

Tikka T3 lite stainless wood

5) Extremely versatile good value Rifle Scopes

Best value performance:

Bushnell Elite 3200 Rainguard 4-12x40 AO

Low price versatile scope:

Simmons 8 point 4-12x40 AO

High end value:

Leupold VX II 6-18x40 AO

6) Close range magnification optics

Medium cost

Mueller APV 4.5-14x40 AO

Higher cost

Bushnell Elite 3200 Rainguard 4-12x40 AO

7) Long range magnification optics

Medium cost:

Burris 6-24x42 AO Signature Select

High Cost:

Weaver Grandslam 6-20x40 AO

Thats it! What do you think?

Have you had a play with any of these?
Is there anything here you wouldnt recommend, & why?
Please share the good, the bad & the ugly with us.

Various Shooting Disciplines & What Each Taught Me

A List of key lessons each shooting discipline taught me:

The skills learnt in each type of shooting all complement each other.
Exposure to these styles will make you a better shooter.
It is sad that some members of our already diminishing sport stereotype against other shooters without fully understanding the challenges each class of shooting comprises.

Let us explore how each of these shooting sports has so much to offer.
Do you have a story you want to share? Please post your comments below.

.22 smallbore match rifle & Air rifle .177 match (Olympic target shooting style)

Critical Importance on uniform breathing & patience to calm down.
Emphasis on Trigger release in the best stage of your breathing.
Trigger Finger position & break technique absolutely paramount.
Learning to use aperture sights trains the hand eye co-ordination more accurately from a true to distance perspective as there is no optical magnification available in most standard configurations.

You will learn to focus so hard that you must train to completely forget that the world around you exists. As at that point in time, all that matters is you & your equipment, ignore everything else.

10m Air rifle in Standing is even harder as you are doing all of the above whilst having to be in a vertical position with that 7kg rifle. You will learn how to position your hips & your lower back in an offset to enable them to cross balance your upper body & keep it steady.

.22 LR sporting rifle & Air rifle sporting springer class .177 cal:

Improves your fore stock hold, grip & placement technique.
Reiterates Importance of adequate, but not excessive cheek pressure.
No slings & fancy padded gloves with heavy barrels that add inertia to stop it all shaking.
The objective is shooting accurately with a versatile weapon & not to worry about 1mm.
Dont underestimate the accuracy of these lightweight guns, they are very capable.
An Anschutz 1712 is comparable to an Anschutz 1813, they both have the same Match 54 class action & I promise you that you will find they shoot identical at 50 metres with appropriate ammo.
The same is true for other good sporting rifles, they will routinely shoot better than you.

22 cal rifle rapid semi auto

Learning to use comparatively heavier triggers without cultivating bad habits of over-compensating them with your main gripping hand (usually left) causing left side pulling of shots.
Handling muzzle jump, anticipating/co-ordinating vibration, & letting off the Follow up shot.
Learning to push the hand down while pull the stock in just before firing the next round develops a multitasking ability

Shotgun Clay shooting (Trap, Skeet, American Sporting clay birds etc)

Quick acquisition of the same shooting brace position, posture & eye level from shot to shot.
No time to re-position things once the target flies out, you need to have practised all the directions & be prepared to shoot.
Learn to visualise your projectile as being an extension to your line of sight.
Quick Target Acquisition alongside range, travel path & wind estimation.
This discipline is harder than it looks, especially with high speed trap throwers.

Centrefire 100m

Hold it tight into your shoulder, but not so tight that your left hand starts shaking.
Dont worry about the distance, focus on acquiring your target. Stay in the moment & focus on your core technique.

Centrefire Sporting Rifle Rapid

You must accept that you wont be able to completely eliminate recoil & that follow up shots will be significantly less accurate given you dont have time to completely stablilise.
Its similar to .22 rapid fire, except that you will need to use a lot more cheek pressure after each shot is fired to assist in bringing the sights back on target.

Air pistol .177 target match 10 metres

Target Air Pistol, probably the hardest discipline Ive shot.
Shooting standing with only 1 arm extended, you will train your entire body to balance itself such that the right hand can float steady.
You will realise how timing is everything.
Dont anticipate the trigger finger movement. If you do, you will focus too hard on a precise trigger pull & that will come at the cost of sacrificing your target line up.

Repetition is paramount, so is endurance.
You will feel fatigue fast & it will hit hard exponentially, shot after shot.
A must shoot discipline to train you to the max.

I would think these principles are equally applicable to the 25m .22 match pistol discipline.
Are you a match pistol shooter? Please tell me what you think about my observations.

Details on the following disciplines coming soon as I get time to write more, watch this space:

Heavy Calibre rifle

22LR Pistol

Centrefire pistol

Heavy Calibre Pistol

Centrefire Rifle match / 3P

Are you a shooter who has experience with various things?
Please share what you felt was challenging in your disciplines of interest.
Please recommend any disciplines that are not in the list & tell us why you like them.

Happy Shooting people, go nail that bullseye.

Customise your Ruger 10/22 - Assemble your own 22 Semi Auto

Building the perfect Semi Automatic .22

For as long as I can remember, Ive had this vision that one day, I will own (likely have to build myself) the perfect semi-automatic rifle, a rifle that can give my bolt action a run for its money, whilst being the most comfortable gun to shoot.

The benchmark bolt action is my beloved CZ 452 American, a rifle I may never sell. It shoots better than me & I cant find anything wrong with it except its trigger which was easily fixed with a $15 CZ trigger kit. Please see my other post for details.

This might be the longest gun article I write, & will quite possibly continue to add to for some time.

So far Ive had 4 Ruger rifles & 3 Marlins. This post attempts to share my experiences from each attempt.

As usual, these are just my experiences & no one is paying me to write any of this.

Current Recommendations:

1) If you want superb accuracy, reliability & overall comfort & dont mind some extra weight

Get a 10/22 based design that you can customise the heck out of. You can either buy the receiver & trigger group, or start by buying a Ruger 10/22. Id recommend buying the whole rifle, then slowly adding components & selling off things when you dont need them. Its cheaper to do that than buy Ruger parts otherwise. Next steps:
  i) Buy Volquartsen target sear, hammer & spring. Preferably get them polished & installed by a gunsmith but if not, just put them into the existing trigger group yourself.
 ii) Buy a hogue stock, if you didnt buy the model that comes with it.
iii) Buy a $5 recoil bolt buffer, this little thing really does make a difference to your rifles vibration & reduce the wear on the bolt stopping pin's holes in the receiver.
iv) Invest in the $500 Volquartsen muzzle heavy target barrel. Have a read of my blog post on that barrel to know why thats my recommendation.

Thats it. Your combo will look somewhat like this once scoped:

2) Want something versatile, but more geared toward safe field use with a light safe trigger that YOU WILL MOSTLY USE WITH OPEN SIGHTS OR VERY LIGHT RED DOTs or ultra light SCOPES?

If you need to scope the rifle, go with the next option please. If you scope this config, the weight balance is not up to my recommendation & it will impact your trigger let off & your steadiness in the prone & kneeling positions.
If using minimal light optics, get a 10/22 with these options:
   i) Buy a Kidd 2 stage trigger group & tune it to your liking. In my experience, its well designed in that it doesnt let off even on light trigger pull settings if you accidentally drop the rifle. Be mindful in deciding what kind of Kidd trigger blade you buy, read my blog post for details on why that minute little thing matters.
  ii) Buy a $5 recoil bolt buffer, this little thing really does make a difference to your rifles vibration & reduce the wear on the bolt stopping pin's holes in the receiver.
 iii) Buy a .920 bull barrel Hogue stock, since the standard sporter stock is a narrow channel so play this smartly. It might be cheaper to buy a synthetic Ruger than by the Hogue stocked version. Dont buy the target version, Rugers bull barrel is ridiculously heavy much like most other 20 inch target heavy bull barrels. YOU NEED A WIDE .920 CHANNEL STOCK, but not the barrel.
 iv) Invest in a $500 Volquartsen Carbon Fibre target barrel.

In my case, I scoped this rifle & straight away realised that my tough but comparatively heavy Burris wasnt ideal so took the scope off, & because I was not going to do much field shooting, had to reluctantly sell it off.

If you have a carbon fibre setup, for the balancing to be adequate, especially if you are going to use a trigger with a metal housing (thats extra weight) then ensure you get a very light scope. Else, your rifle becomes poorly balanced with a majority of the weight on the trigger end rathrer than the barrel end which is very unnatural to shoot steadily.

For more explanation on this, please read my previous post on Rifle Weight Balancing & its importance by clicking here.

I added a butt pad to increase length of pull, please do that if you need to.

I bought the blade trigger version of the kidd trigger group, which was not the best option, the curved sporterised trigger would be better especially if using a sporterised style hogue stock.
For thumbhole stock or a pistol grip, you might find the straight blade trigger face better, see if you can have a try of both.

I also attached a very light weight muzzle compensator, mainly because the barrel was so short I had to constantly make an effort to put the gun forward of the safe shooting line in the range, & also the barrel supports in my gun safe were higher haha. Otherwise it would wobble around in the safe.
It looked cool too but had no real bearing on the muzzle jump, all seemed the same to me.

Here is what your setup should resemble:

3) If youre on a budget & want a semi which you dont think youll ever spend dosh on to customise

Get a marlin 795 or a similar Marlin with that same action in that price class.

An out of the box marlin 795 will out perform an out of the box ruger 10/22 any day, for a cheaper price in a lighter better balanced more versatile & field usable package.

The trigger is pretty good too.
It is lighter than the Ruger 10/22 trigger but has a tad more creep, try it out. Best bang for buck.

Its a shame no one makes enough accessories for them which is why time & again I go back to the 10/22 as the primary design to build my perfect semi out of, else the Marlin would be my experimentation platform instead of the 10/22 toward the hunt for the perfect semi.

 

Here is the complete list of my 22 cal semi autos built to date

1) Standard Ruger 10/22 sporter, blued with wood stock.

The weight balancing on this rifle was funny when you put a scope on it, it gets too heavy on top of the trigger & that has a huge impact on how well you let off the shot. If your right hand is having to hold up more weight that your left hand, you are usually going to expect some trouble.

Have any of you noticed this? Post a comment & let me know.

This rifle was bought used, but not very old or too much use. I didnt expect it to be so bad. It shot 1.5 inch groups at 25 yards, so inaccurately that I sold it off to someone who only wanted to shoot bunnies in his backyard under 20 yards range.
It shot crappy with ever type of amo I tried, I think the barrel was to blame despite looking nice & shiny.

Thats when I started to wonder whether a ruger 10 22 will shoot well 20 years & 2000 rounds later.
My question has not yet been answered...
Have any of you owned a 10-22 & after 20 years & 2000 rounds felt it shot adequately enough? Please share you comments here.

For now, my advice, if buying a used 10/22, ensure you shoot it before you commit, else stay the hell away from it.


2) Marlin 795 semi Auto, blued with synthetic sporter stock
This Marlin was also bought used, but in as new condition after seeing some test shot cards.
It shot so well that Ive been a big admirer of these Marin semis since. An out of the box marlin will out perform an out of the box ruger any day.
Its a shame no one makes enough accessories for them which is why time & again I go back to the 10/22 as the primary design to build my perfect semi out of, else the Marlin would be my experimentation platform instead of the 10/22 toward the hunt for the perfect semi.

Despite what I had read about the durability & workmanship of the marlin as being inferior to Ruger, & all the long temr issues with micro groove barrels, let me tell you that the accuracy was so good, out of the box at 50 yards I had a 1.5 inch group out of a .22 semi. This was using all sorts of ammo, no fuss.
Now thats impressive for a $400 gun!

It has a very simple trigger assembly, & everything is light. Its the best rifle for field use, yet is very accurate. It is heavier in the front then the back, yet light overall, beautiful balancing.

The muzzle jump was also much lesser when rapid shooting. The marlin being lighter than the ruger, you would expect the opposite, but it was just brilliant.

The only downside was that the original factory synthetic stock had too much of an angle making it very uncomfortable to shoot lying prone. Your stock butt plate would be on your chest instead on your shoulder area which was not fun to use.
So I then bought an ATI dragunov style stock which was much straighter & that helped, though not entirely. It had a non free standing pistol grip, which didnt really make any difference either in prone, though very good for kneeling.

I put 300 rounds through that gun once in around 4 hours. No problem, it didnt even get as hot as the Ruger 10/22. I put maybe a total of 1000 rounds through it before selling it to the next buyer & he was happy too.

I didnt notice a single trace of so called 'inherent low life' of micro-groove barrels. Nice shiny bore, shooting beautifully.

Target Shooting Tips & Golden Rules

Ways to improve your shooting:

The following rules in my opinion apply to any kind of shooting.

The golden rules are the numbered main points, & text is some supporting information.
Please feel free to just read the headings if you want a quick summary rather than a thesis, but I highly recommend you come back & read it all to gain a thorough understanding of things.

This is of course just my experience & my opinions, & I hope they are valuable to you.

Whether it is rimfire target, match, long range, silhouette, 3 position, centrefire, field, hunting, shotgun, clay trap, sporting or skeet, I think these tips & rules if followed will make you the best shooter you can be.

1) Get a gun that inherently fits you comfortably & feels like a part of your body.

You perform any action best when it is intuitive & feels natural. It should be like chewing or swallowing, make it a second nature & you will find it so easy that you will nail it ever time. A good comfortable firearm allows you to feel in control 'by default' without having to analyse every move to make or specific sequences to follow.
It fits the shoulder, has just the right height on the cheek for the eye placement, the perfect length of pull, the correct weight balance & no fatigue doing it all over & over.

Easier said than available, which is why at some point you might be best to customise it. But for a start, get the most comfortable thing possible, within reason, as a compromise based on the different criteria we discuss here.

Please read my articles on the Importance of Customisation for Ergonomics & comfort as part of the series on customising things to suit you & improve your shooting.

2) Try to get the best possible trigger to your liking.

Trigger release & let off, once again, if natural will stop you second guessing & thinking about 'how to pull it'. Nice triggers go off instantly so its all in line with when you really wanted to take that shot. This is paramount & saves you pulling a tad after you were spot on. A Nice trigger makes it all 'just happen' & thats a very crucial aspect of any sport.

3) Try & get guns + ammo that shoots better than you, saves wondering if the equipment is the problem.

Ideally, equipment that is comfortable & capable of shooting accurately would be perfect & not cost the earth. That is not always the case, but try to buy the most accurate gun in its class that fits you nicely. Some brands & models tend to be more ammunition fussy than others but yes after considering the bigger factors of comfort & trigger & inherent accuracy, do look at what ammo you will put through it. Good Firearms are peace of mind. Then, if you dont shoot, you know its the gun & not you. Helps you get on with fixing your problems rather than worrying about what may be wrong with the gun or the scope etc.

4) Get clear comfortable adjustable optics - scopes or sights whatever it is, good optics leads to less fatigue & strain

If using scopes & shooting small targets, there is no harm in using adequate magnification. 9x or 12x magnification isnt what makes your hand shake, its you thats shaking the hand, the optics is merely telling you whats happening.
Usually its very difficult & rather bad for your eyes to shoot under 50 metres without parallax adjustable scopes (Adjustable Objective) AO is fundamental to get clean crisp focus of the target & crosshairs. It lets you not have to strain to acquire & centre the bullseye in every shot.
This reduces fatigue & you dont feel youre looking down a fancy contraption. You want to keep things as natural & as intuitive as possible to be a good shooter.

5) Stay Focused & shoot with concentration. Give it all youve got. Get the correct mental state.

There is no substitute for good old concentration. If you can be bothered, then its probably not going to be great. Forget all the odds that are against you, & be sharp with all your senses for every single shot. Its hard, but train to forget about a previous bad short & still move to the next one with full concentration. Its easier said than done, I struggle with this myself. Even a little routine malfunction, & I tend to drop the next shot. Work on thinking calmly & resuming.

6) Visualise what you do even when off range & let your understanding get clearer with time.

Ponder over what you did. Think of how it felt, what the impact was & what different conditions were present. Compare that to a previous similar recollection. Join the dots, you will figure out something youre not getting right, & a possible solution to try out next time.

7) Do not flinch & fear the recoil. Accept it, make it part of you, try to enjoy it.

Think of recoil as being the standard simple mechanical reaction of pulling the trigger. Dont think of it as pain & pressure. If the recoil is causing pain & discomfort too quickly, something is wrong.
Youre either not shooting correctly, or something isnt fitting you right, or you need a nicer recoil butt plate, or your cheek pressure/overall rifle hold isnt quite right. Its not about your body size either, its about technique & confidence. Thats assuming you dont have a medical issue of course. Please dont dislocate your shoulder or break your ribs trying out something silly. Start small & climb your way up. Im not advocating you shoot a 50bmg the first day.

8) Dress comfortably - amount of clothes, type of fitting, shoes, temperature all matters

Excessive padding doesnt necessarily make you steadier.
Tighter version of normal clothing dont make you steady, infact the discomfort will make you shoot worse. If youve got custom fitting jackets or proper match shooting target jackets thats a different matter, but just wearing a tight t-shirt or thermals will not make you better.
If you get too hot, your breathing will suffer. If youre too cold you might stiffen up.

9) Put your own requirements & priorities ahead of the technical charts & reviews.

It pays to listen to other peoples opinions, but to a certain extent, your own gut feeling of comfort & being able to make that gun your own is crucial.
There is room for customisation once the foundation is correct.

10) Shoot different disciplines whenever you can, each will improve your specific weaknesses.

Understand & appreciate the skills needed to shoot each discipline exceedingly well, & then apply it to every other type of shooting you do. They all complement each other. Please have a read of my other post on what each of the various shooting discipline taught me.


Do you have any tips to improve shooting? Please share them with us

Shooting the famous handguns - 500 S&W vs 44 mag vs 357 mag etc

Shooting the famous Revolvers & Pistols

Ive shot most of the popular calibre handguns, & want to share my opinion.

For this post we'll start at the bottom of the food chain to build some points to talk about:

 

9mm Beretta M92 FS Military Tactical with Rubberised grips

Now isnt this a pretty little thing. Easy peezy, accurate, insignificant recoil, tiny muzzle climb.
Accurate for continuous shots, cheap. Well, there is a reason its so popular. Comfortable versatile cartridge. It doesnt have the kind of power serious use needs, but thats a different matter.
I particularly loved the Beretta M92 FS Tactical rubberised version (maybe its the same as the M1 tactical not sure). This handgun was so easy to shoot & had so little recoil I couldnt believe I was shooting a 'non .22' haha! It really felt like a .22LR being shot, wasnt even very loud!
Thanks P. Beretta, the day I start buying handguns, this beauty will be in my gun safe :)

.38 Special

My favourite calibre, accurate, managable recoil, & no discomfort when shooting the 8" barrelled S&W. As a first time shooter, I grouped it in 2 inches at 10 metres, which is good for a noob.
It is clean, not insanely fast, & jumps slowly. Allows you to do a good follow through, I can totally visualising this as being a target shooting favourite, & for good reason. Brilliant revolver, will be part of my handgun collection some day.

.45 ACP

There is a reason the M1911 is still a legendary & highly regarded pistol, & thats because despite being an old design, it is beautiful to shoot. Accurate, managable recoil, very capable for its medium size package. This is perhaps the winning pistol cartridge, versatile, not too heavy, & adequate for target practise without giving you a soar had whilst helping you get used to more recoil than a 9mm. This had slightly better grips than the older models, which would have helped, & It didnt look like the newest version either. Well, the newest version of this will also be in my gun safe one day! :D

.357 Magnum

After reading all the numbers around its efficieny & trajectory, I was expecting this cartridge to impress me in the small package. Well, it didnt.
The recoil jump direction was very random, it wasnt heavy intensity, it was just the thing shaking all over the place. Its the same 8" S&W revolver I used for the .38 Sp I enjoyed shooting.
It was less accurate than the 500 s&w mag & I didnt enjoy it. Also, it has this annoying whiny noise that lacks the thump, All that talk & no walk haha reminds you of poorly editing sound effects in cheap cow boy movies.

.44 magnum Desert Eagle

Being highly impressed with the M-4s gas blowback auto loading system, I expected this to be the best big bore handgun to shoot. It was the worst. The Gas reloading was so slow that the intertia of the slide moving slowly & stopping after the recoil jump had ended was very distracting.
You almost had the instinctive need to pause, check & ensure it was ok to take the next shot, because it felt like the slide was loose & going to come flying into your face.
The recoil was much lesser than shooting the .44 S&W m 29 as expected, but the overall fun was dead. Id rather shoot a .45 ACP for target practise, or the 500 S&W if I wanted some heavy action.

.44 magnum S&W legendary Model 29

Expected this gun to be much lesser felt recoil than the 500 s&w magnum, but turns out the built in muzzle break compensator inside the S&W 500 is really really good. The .44 noticibly climbed more ater each shot, & being lighter than expected, it did shake all over the place. The recoil & jump was very very fast. It really digs into your palm, be prepared for sore hands. The digging in is no less than the 500 mag. Overall accuracy was quite good but you do need to hold it really firm.
The standard grip wasnt too impressive, a bit too thin in my opinion, let alone the material being such that lots of metal from the chassis was directly exposed out in line with the grip.

500 Smith & Wesson Magnum .50 cal

A true masterpiece of precision. Has had its set of comprimises, but its amazing I could shoot it with so much ease cmpared to what I anticipated. The recoil is tamed really well thanks to the built in muzzle break, causing the jump to not climb over approx 40 degrees. The .44 magnum S&W M29 climbed a lot. The weight balancing is such that its extremely heavy in the front, which has its downside, but the recoil benefits far out weigh the slight shake caused by this excessive muzzle weight. The Grip was quite nicely fitting, again better than the antique .44 mag. Grouping was good. Overall, a very nice experience.

Do tell us about handguns you have shot or owned. Do you have any tips for taming them better?

Please do share your experiences.
Happy Shooting

The Norinco SKS 7.62x39 - Not just a Crappy Chinese gun.

For once, I have found a firearm made in China that I am quite impressed with from a value standpoint, for what it can deliver based on what it was designed for.
Ok, its technically not a Chinese gun, its Russian, so that helps, but lets give this one to the Chinese for a change.

The crappy $300 cheapo SKS is not the best gun, well its the $300 price tag that makes it very impressive.


The good:

- Shooting open sight it was brilliant. With open sights, shooting in sitting position off a table, using rubbish steel barnaul ammo, from 100 metres away, I grouped in under 3 inches!

- The recoil is very manageable, the jump is not bad, the cheek didnt go soar, & the shoulder was fine

- The gun didnt get too hot after a few continuous shots, or make excessive noise.

- The trigger is better than a Ruger 10/22! It has obvious stage 1 travel, & slight creep, but the break is not bad. The spring tension is uniform all the way through, so there is not much anticipation or excessive finger yanking that happens on other shitty triggers.

- IT IS FUN!! Come on, a nice not too powerful easy to shoot semi automatic centre fire rifle with a built in 7 round clip magazine, cant complain, its a whole lot of fun because the recoil is so manageable.


The Bad:

- The length of pull is not ideal for most average sized people, the stock is too short.
Its like they decided to copy the yanky doodle Ruger 10/22 hoping to get it all right. Well a $30 screw on 1" butt pad upgrade is really easy & very worth it as it provides a bit more non slip grip compared to the plastic, & adds even more softness to the recoil, so its worth it.

- Shit loads of Accessories are available to tempt you into buying them, but most of them are a waste of time, effort & $$!!

- If you ever put a standard full length scope on it, the ejected brass shells will hit the tube on the way out really really hard & dent it really really badly! It dented my $120 Sightron 3-9x40!! >:( Argh, dam u cheap chinese product, dam u hahahaha !!

- Putting a scope or any optical sight on it is a freakin nightmare.

- You cant just drop rings on & go with it. First you'll need to decide what kind of after market scope rail mount youd like to buy & then install it.

- Installing any of the after market mount options is a swearing frenzy. youll be dropping colourful f-words trying to scope the little bast*rd.

My post on SKS mounts is coming soon.

- Youll need to either get a short scope or buy a shell deflector. The shell deflector is of 2 main variants. The SKK & UTG style mount compatible version screws on the side of the mount rail you originally bought. The other more common option is to buy a cover that clamps into the rear sight.

- The rear sight clamp mount is absolutely finnicky, youll need to grind it precisely for a tight fit so that it doesnt keep shaking & start hitting on the scope tube, otherwise its pointless. And the UTG style version requires you buying a UTG style tactical mount that weighs a ton & is too high.

- All this optics & all those extra useless bits of metal increase the weight & screw up what was a nicely balanced rifle.

Decision:

Got a spare $300 for a bit of fun that wont completely disappoint you in the accuracy & usability mark? Get this little toy.

Want something better, go buy a REAL gun, if its accuracy & nice triggers & the best balancing, get a nice light little Sako, or a Tikka if youre on a budget.

If you want identical performance as a Sako with a few small corners cut, get a Tikka bolt action.
Its hard to beat for the price. Tikka guns have impressed me in almost every way.
More on that later.

If a good semi auto centre fire is what you want, perhaps look into a mini 14 or a Browning BAR, never used either but they seem like the standard.

Happy propelling lead & copper down your barrel at high speeds. Well, its a toy, cant call that real shooting now can I ;)

Have you got an SKS? How do you find it? Has it been customised? Was it easy? Please share your experience.

Shooting Customisations - Part 1 - Weight Balancing

In this series of posts, I will talk about why it is my opinion that technical data, bullet trajectories, grouping sizes & long range performance are perhaps less important than good operating capability (ergonomics) of the gun to get the best possible score.

These posts are not meant to undermine the importance of an accurate rifle, it is merely being written to highlight some of the more important human factors that are a critical part pf being a good shooter.

This topic will likely be a few part series, & I hope you find them useful to improve your shooting.

These are just my experiences, no one is paying me to write these. I welcome your experiences too, please share your thoughts. What do you think worked or didnt work?

Simple argument:
A gun that groups 0.25 inches at 25 metres off a rest in a factory test but has a stock that doesnt fit you & has a crappy trigger will shake so much & pull so badly that you will never steadily be able to achieve the 0.5" group. You may infact shoot a 2" group & be very disappointed.

A gun that when benched only gives you 0.5 inch group at 25 metres but has the most brilliant trigger & a stock that just feels like part of your body, will let you get a 1" group easily.

Whats better? Id say its the second option. Yet, when you have to go buy a gun, the first thing we emphaise on is reviews & technical data.

Lets look at some other factors that often cant be given a number or a score, they are going to be different for each individual & what fits one may be horribly bad for the other.



Part 1 - Weight balancing

A recent experience that confirmed my opinion:

I bought a NZ$100 used Stirling bolt action rifle, probably over 20+ years old.
It had a shortened stock & a shortened barrel of only 15". It was modified by the original owner to train young juniors, or ladies, or anyone slightly shorter who needed something lighter & properly fitting their body.
Simple standard sporting rifle with wood stock & blued parts, nothing fancy. The barrel looked slighty thicker than that of a CZ, maybe what we might call close to being a varmint barrel, but it was cut short to 15" from its original full length.

There was rusting, & even some pitting, but the bore didnt look too bad for its age.
The trigger was not as light as my CZ bolt action's modified kit trigger. It had just a little bit of creep, but it was a crisp break otherwise.

Mathematically, the twist rate of this barrel was designed for a full length 20", so cutting it down has dramatically reduced the spin induced on the projectile. Big deal? Lets see..

I screwed on some butt plate extension pieces to increase the length of pull, & put on a cheap but decent simmons scope & gave it a shot in the 25 metre range.
That night, I shot my personal best target of the whole year. Better than with my CZ!

But how can that be despite the trigger being inferior to my CZ bolt action. You'll quickly point out how I above stated the trigger is important.
Also, the stock wasnt much better. Well, the stock was fitting me about as nicely as CZ, but there was 1 new discovery.

The shortened barrel meant less inertia on the tip of the far end, so I could control & keep it
steady from shot to shot relatively easily. Being ticker, the weight on top of my left hand was closer to my hand, again toward the more managable point, yet it wasnt too thin a barrel such that it would float too much in my left hand.

You must have heard me rave about weight balancing & fit in many of my posts, & this is no exception. So in this case:
The perfect weight balance + an adequate enough trigger + a stock that was good enough 
Vs
Less than ideal balance + very good trigger + decent stock

I want to make this more obvious by putting numbers on it:
Lets say a score of 1 to 10 for each of the 3 above categories:

For this cheap Stirling bolt action rifle:
Weight balance = 10/10
Trigger release = 6/10
Stock Fit = 6/10
Total = 22 points

For my CZ bolt action rifle:
Weight balance = 6/10
Trigger release = 8/10
Stock Fit = 6/10
Total = 20 points

The stirling wins, & it makes sense.
So, what Im keen to do now is cut off my CZ bolt action rifle's barrel.

Wait!! wont that completely screw up the long range accuracy of the rifle??
I dont mind!

Wait, what? Youre going to cut off the barrel & youre telling me that despite it shooting badly at 50 metres, maybe not so bad at 25, & you 'dont mind' !?
YES!

Bullshit. - I hear you say...

Well, let me explain...
The inherent level of inaccuracy induced by cutting this barrel down is significantly lesser than the inaccuracy induced by the discomfort of shooting this gun at a long range!

Going back to the very start of this article, thats what I was talking about.

As long as my rifle is capable of shooting tighter groups than I am capable of shooting with it, its good enough.
There is a big gap between what I can do & what my gun is capable of doing.
And I can almost bet you this is tue for most acverage shooters.
Reduce this gap, however it has to be, as long as the combined result gets you a better shot!

Simple isnt it?

What do you think? Tell me your opinions. Do you believe we should just learn to use the best equipment, or make the equipment work for you? What are your experiences if any? Please do share them here.

Kidd trigger for the Ruger 10/22 & other Trigger options

Kidd Trigger

So the first thing you will hate about your Ruger 10/22 is the crappy trigger it comes with.

One of the most common options considered by serious shooters is to buy a custom trigger group that entirely replaces the Ruger supplied stuff. In most ways, this is a very good option.

As always, no one is paying me to write these, Im merely telling you my experience. Please feel free to share your experiences with the community by posting comments here.

The upside to buying any of the custom groups is that they usually are made completely of metal includign the housing, whereas Sturm Ruger has a lot of plastic everywhere.
But wait, before you get too happy about it like I originally did, there is a downside to all that metal.

WEIGHT BALANCING!

Please have a read on my post here on why I feel weight balancing is very important for accurate target shooting

Yes, a standard ruger already has way too much metal too close to the stock. On top of that you have your scope & mounts. You add this group & you will find your rifle balancing rather weird.

This will impact your trigger pull simply because your right hand (or left whichever is your master trigger hand) will not only be used for the let off, but also to balance all that extra weight.
For accurate shooting, the ergonimics is very important, the rifle should almost float in your trigger hand while relatively more weight should be in the front.
Not too much more in the front, but just right.

All this metal on these custom trigger groups + scope will really goof up your ruger 10/22's balance.

I would highly dicourage you from buying a steel high weaver rail machined receiver, unless of course youre going for a target style set up ith a heavy bull barel, then the balancing will come right, otherwise, you will find it quite weird to shoot, especially if lying prone.

Tony Kid's trigger group:

Tony Kidd is credited to have made the best trigger for a Ruger 10-22.
Within reason, this claim is true, but Im going to tell you some of my experiences with the Kidd trigger group. Back then he only had the 2 stage, I dont remember seeing a stage 1 group. Im glad he's made one now, & if he always used to, I didnt find it, what a bummer.
My comments are about his 2 stage group, not the other single stage trigger he sells.

Before I continue, let me tell you that this is quite possibly the best realistic attempt anyone has ever made to give a semiauto a top line fully customisable trigger, but it falls shot in certain areas to my taste where some other, cheaper alternatives win.

The Stage 1 travel distance, weight, & creep is not avoidable.
The State 2 thus engages with this intentional travel distance needed & it cant be left out.

Would you have a soft light trigger at 1.2lbs that travels 3-4mm before let off, or a slightly harder trigger at say 2lbs for a considerably shorter almost inexistent creep?

Personally, to me the most important thing in a trigger is it must break cleanly. It should be like an olympic grade match rifle, clean crisp let off. The choice is yours but I recommend a crisp break because if youre feeling it move, youre going to develop the nasty habbit of anticipating the exact pull distance on your shot your shot & potentially develop a weird breathing routine out of the situational awareness anxiety in competitons. But if you like such triggers, go for it.

The kid trigger is perhaps the most customizable Ruger trigger ever engineered so once you accept this inherent design decision, youll enjoy the group.

Also, Tony has very good after sales service, he was prompt in answering my questions & thats very useful. He was quite honest in telling me how I couldnt quite achieve the clean break I wanted with his trigger because he designed it to be a2-stage trigger & thats just how it will be.
He also said that a semi can never really have a clean break, but on that point I disagree with him because heavier triggers do break much better if you dont mind the slight extra weight, as disccused earlier.

His Kid triger group has excellent resale value even if you dont like it. So if you want to try it out for yourself despite being unsure if youll like it, its not the end of the world.

If buying, youll get to pick a sporting style curved trigger face or a target style flat balde.
This might seem not so improtant, but thats the trap I fell into.
This is most important decision you will make when buyin the Kidd trigger!

I bought the target style straight blade because I felt it would be similar to my Anschutz match rifle & would work nicely with a multitude of pull lengths, & it would look cool haha.

When I first put my kit in, it was on a rather customisable target style synthetic stock made by Fajen.
It seemed comfortable. But when I decided that the fajen wasnt as comfy because the shape on the forgrip was diggin into my left hand, I moved to the standard sporting Hogue stock.

Thats when I relised this blade trigger just wasnt as natural.

If you are going to use the Kid trigger on a sporting style stock, get the curved standard trigger, dont buy the blade, I dotn think you will like it. Infact, a curved trigger is more versatile as you can still tolerate it even on a slightly more target style stock as I later found out with my other rifles.

The choice is yours but think carefully, it has a huge impact, more than you might think.

Other trigger options:

The new Kidd single stage trigger might be the best trigger yet. If any of you have had any experiences with it, please post it here & let use all know.

If buying a complete group, the other biggest contender is the Volquartsen parts. Very nice trigger upgrades, not really adjustable, & like everything else Volquartsen, its really really pricy. if you buy every single part, its almost the same price as a Kidd single stage group for what really shouldnt be so expensive, but its very good end result.

I would prefer it to the Kidd for the reason described above, but not for the price, so, I would recommend my next option:

Upgrade your own group with some custom parts, OR even better get a gun smith to polish & install them in.
My $200 Ruger trigger group with volq spring, target sear & hammer was then polished & installed by a gunsmith. Brought the pull down to 2.15lbs with practically 0 creep. Same effect as the volquartsen for half the price. Cant complain.

In hind sight, I think all I needed was the hammer, but well, Im not going to worry about it.
If any of you have experimented with the combinations, please let us know.

2 of my mates did this polishing themselves. Their results werent as great as the professional job, but all they spent was the $90 odd on parts & thats it. Next time around, Ill polish my own parts, watch my blog for that article when it happens...

Im going to get my hands on a Timney trigger soon, watch this space. They are supposed to be the next big thing give volqs the run for its money, & the prices look pretty good.

CZ 452 trigger spring & sear kit - Awesome!

The CZ trigger kit - the best $15 you will ever spend!

If you own a CZ 452 or CZ 455 (also called a Brno Model 2, 4, 5 etc back in the old days) & want to improve your trigger drastically, all you need to spend is $15, yes trust me, this $15 kit is infact a better trigger the the $150 kit sold out there, & it is very very safe when properly setup.

Check out the Eric Brooks CZ452 spring kit, its just brilliant.
Dont worry too much about the Pin & Spring Removal fixtures he also sells, you wont be changing your trigger that often & its not too hard. It needs a bit of patience, but can be done alone, though ideally get a mate to help & you'll be sweet.

The best thing about the E.Brooks kit is that you dont need to make any modification of any kind to your original rifle & its parts. You keep your original CZ spring & parts, just put the Eric Brooks stuff in & when you want to sell the rifle, you can just drop the original parts back on!
There is no grinding, polishing or modification of any kind.

He sends 4 springs, of which the 4th one is infact harder than the stock cz spring so its kind of pointless. Number 1 is way too soft & my gun went off when I tested it by dropping it on the wood floor, so thats not recommended for all you hunters out there.

Ok its not the easiest thing in the world to do with just your 2 hands, & for your first time having a friend assist is probably a good idea. But after youve doen them a couple of times, you can just do it by yourself. Just be careful to ensure you are working in a relatively clean space that doesnt have too much furniture around you, because as a first timer its likely the spring will bounce on your first few attempts & dont we all hate it when the freakin thing decides to roll under a heavy cupboard.

I use spring number 2 + Red sear, & a mate of mine used number 3 & we're both very happy with the results.

As for the sears, I highly recommend you play with the combinations, but as always, if u want a trigger that breaks nicely while being safe, what you'll need to do is put a tighter spring with a thicker sear. For more safety, use the tighter spring with a thinner sear.

For all hunters who use it mainly for field use, I recommend spring 3 + sear 2

If youre only ever going to use it in the range & dont think it will ever drop when loaded, then its ok to go with spring number 1 & sear number 3.

The way to look at it is, springs are your weight & sear are your pull length/creep.
In the perfect world youd use the lightest spring with the thickest sear but I dont recommend that.

Like everything springy, wear & tear will eventually get your spring. Ive had a good 1000 shots out of mine before I noticed the trouble whereby the hammer would not cock when the bolt was closed. The inherently design of the CZ is such that if you didnt have a spring there or a very weak spring, it wont cock which is great, & thats why this kit is pretty safe.

Usually, when your spring looses tension you either buy a new kit, or change to a different spring.
But what I did was put a few extra spacers & washers on the cylinder just before the spring to get the tension the way I like it, & that infact allowed me to precisely calibrate my trigger!

The way to notice if the spring is starting to shit itself is that some day you'll start noticing your trigger is much lighter than you originally thought it was, well, highly likely your spring needs replacement or washers or whatever you want to do.

So, if you want a great trigger thats extremely customisable & will last pretty much forever, save your $150 on buying a so-called CZ trigger kit. The most popular CZ trigger kit is made by Timney & 2 of my mates went down that route.

They said they didnt like the idea of modifying the stock trigger & wanted to keep it aside.
But what people dont realise is that you are NOT MODIFYING ANYTHING!

After trying out my mate's $150 timney kit, I actually found his to not break as crisp! He loved it so thats great for him, but to me, being light is not enough, it has to be clean.
This kit allows you to customise your trigger the way you like it

It would be even better if Mr. Brooks gave people who knew what the wanted the option of buying just the 1 spring & sear they need rather than always selling all 4 in a pack, but heck for $15 Im sure you can live with that.

Looks like this guy here on YoDave is also doing something similar to the Eric Brooks kit above. Never tried his stuff out, but do let me know if any of you have.
Back when I got the eBrooks kit, I dont think he was around.

Happy Shooting people!

Volquartsen Muzzle heavy target barrel for Ruger 10/22

The Volquartsen muzzle weighted target barrel

A few months ago I bought the Volquartsen muzzle weighted target barrel for a Ruger 10/22
Despite being quite pricy at NZ$500, this was very well worth the dollars spent.

No Im not being paid by anyone this is just my personal experience, the good & the bad will both be presented here.

If you want to take an out of the box Ruger 10 22 & turn it into an accurate rifle, you need to do these 2 things:

Firstly & most importantly, IMPROVE THE TRIGGER COMPONENTS!
I bought Volquartsen target sear etc & got a gunsmith to grind them in for a pristine release, & you know, it was awesome. In the past I had just put the parts in without a gun smith polishing them, & it makes a huge difference.
Have a read of my post on Ruger 10-22 triggers here for more details.

Then, add on this Volquartsen muzzle heavy target barrell.
What I love most about this barrel it can fit a standard channel ruger stock because its not thick all the way through, only toward the muzzle end.
You dont need to buy a .920 bull barrel compatible stock to fit it in.
Also, its only 16.5" long & 1.2 kg (around 3 Lbs) in weight compared to full size bull barrels of 20 inches that often are 2kg.

At this weight configuration, its very usable even when standing up as opposed to bipods or prone positions. Though I personally wish something even more lighter was available for more comfortable shooting in the standing position, this is a good start.

Fitting it in wasnt difficult, but its a lot tighter to put into your receiver V-block than a Ruger barrel. Volquartsen recommend applying a lubricant & then tapping it in with a mallet, but even then this needed some solid whacking before it was all the way in (ok I didnt mean to make it sound dodgy to some of you dirty minds out there haha)

But once in, the fit is snug & the accuracy is brilliant. It gave me the same 0.5" grouping that my bolt action CZ 452 does at 25 yards (around 23 metres)

Mine was a factory threaded version with a matching thread protector, but the complaint I had was that continuous firing would make the protector cover loose & had to be tightened often, a little bit annoying.

Also, the breech is tight, very tight. Certain types of ammo will jam. I had great results with Eley & Winchester T22 & was happy with the cheap CCI standard too. It will jam if the projectile is thick or the case rim is too thick.

Overall a nice addition to any Ruger 10-22 type semi auto rifle. Hard to get here in NZ though but keep a look out.

Last words, if you can spare NZD500 get this barrel, you will love it.
But if you cant, dont get a full weight bull barrel which is a tad cheaper, you wont enjoy it much. If you find the barrel too heavy, forget it.

The secret to shooting well is being comfortable. Ergonomics is far more important than people sometimes realise.