AmmoLand.com

About A Gal Who Shoots .30 Cal
By Tom McHale

My Gun Culture

Anette Wachter - .30 Cal Gal

USA --(Ammoland.com)-Today we’re taking a look at a different facet of the shooting sports – high-power, long-range rifle competition. While our crack investigative team was surfing the internetz, we ran across .30 Cal Gal, known in civilian circles as Anette Wachter. Anette seems to think that it’s humanly possible to shoot at targets up to 1,000 yards away using iron sights. Right. As if you can even see anything 2/3 of a mile away. On further investigation, we found that she’s actually telling the truth. Not only do she and her husband Charles shoot at targets almost over the visual horizon, they actually hit them. Frequently. Apparently scopes are for sissies.

Here’s the complete interview with .30 Cal Gal…

For the life of me, I can’t remember little leagues in my neighborhood for long range rifle shooting. I mean, we had soccer, t-ball, swimming, and some other stuff, but I don’t think we had any Palma matches at our local YMCA. My daughter was a Brownie, and she definitely did not have the option to earn a High-Power Rifle badge. So how did you end up getting involved in this sport?

I was a city kid growing up. No 4H programs at my school. Maybe some disco and funk parties. (OK, I gave away my age a little bit) I have to give credit to my husband Charles for getting me in to this sport. When we met he was shooting the service rifle (AR15) in Across The Course matches. I did not want to be the “Golfer Widow” so I told him I would try shooting for one year and if I did not like it I would not do it and resign to another hobby while he would shoot. But I loved it. I loved it so much that in 2 years I caught up to his Master Class level when it took him 6 years to get that level. hee-hee. [Editor: We're not surprised. Guys don't listen to instructions very well.]

Two years ago another shooter came to me and suggested I try the long range prone shooting. He thought I would be good at it. He loaned me his rifle and brought me out to a range to zero it in and let me shoot it at a 500 yard match the next day. I only dropped two points. I bought that rifle.

For us, long range shooting is about 100 yards. On a good day. What is “long range” to you?

Hmmm… well you forgot one zero…

What was your most embarrassing competitive moment?

In April, we competed in the American/Canadian Full Bore Championship where I came in 3rd overall. To gather all my gear, I usually need two trips to the car so I left my rifle on a bench and brought first batch of gear to the truck. Charles was there and we started chatting about the last string and he asked if I wanted to walk Kozmo (our dog) back to the club house while he drove down. Sure! Off I went.

Six hours of driving later, we stopped for the night at a hotel. We start grabbing items to take inside and I saw he had a rifle over his shoulder and I asked if he had both of them. “No, I thought you had yours”. “No” I said. A feeling of dread came over me. Did we stop somewhere and maybe someone stole it? Then it hit me – the 1,000 yard line in Sacramento. I dropped to my knees almost in tears. My brand new rifle. My brand new very expensive rifle. How in the world could I have done this? I did not sleep. Charles was being very supportive and positive even though he had every right to be upset with me. Finally in the morning I called the pro-shop which is about 1/2 mile away from the rifle range. I Told the RO that I left “something” behind and needed desperately to reach our match director up at range. Sure he said. In awhile I will drive up there. “Do you mind me asking what you left behind?” he says. “Ummm…. my rifle.” “Oh my god! I am driving up there right now!”

To make a long story short, my rifle was still at the 1,000 yard line. Fortunately, that line is covered as it rained all night! I can’t go anywhere now without someone reminding me of this. Easier to blame it on the dog though.

To go back to embarrassing moments, my very first match was the WA State Championship. We show up and I am one of only 2 women there competing. I had no idea the attire needed. It was a warm day so I wore shorts. I had to borrow a shooting jacket from another guy who was tall and skinny, so it was pretty big on me. I’m standing in the offhand position and shooting when I notice at the corner of my eye a crowd watching. I realized the jacket came just to the edge of my shorts and it looked like I was wearing nothing underneath except my boots on my feet! That was about 7 years ago. People still remind me of that too.

After Breaking a National Record for 300 Yard Prone

This seems like a very specialized sport. What’s your travel radius? Do you have to travel all over for matches? You must have a Gulfstream G-5 to get you around right?

Yeah. Bill Gates just lives around the corner but we can never time our trips together to hitch a ride on his plane. Oh well.

I do travel a lot. There is only one 1,000 yard range in WA and tha is a 4 hour drive from Seattle. There are only 2 matches a year there. So I need to travel to get experience. This year especially. January was Phoenix, March and April were Sacramento and Phoenix again. May was Eastern WA and Portland. June will be Lodi, WI for a 7 day match! July has many local matches and then Chilliwack, BC, back to Portland and then finally on a plane again to Camp Perry for Nationals in August. Then I am taking a break. Sort of. Mostly local matches in Sept and Oct.

I used to work for Bill. Just let me know next time you need to use the jet and I’ll give him a call! So tell our readers about a Palma match. It all sounds very sophisticated and European. So it must be a pretty big deal.

Actually this did start in Europe. Back in the late 1800′s in fact. I recently did a blog post about Creedmoor the original long range firing range and the start of a little club called the NRA on Long Island. England, Ireland and Scotland would compete in prone shooting at the long distances. They challenged the US in a match which was held in the US the first time. The first Palma Trophy Match. The US won. Of course. The US went over to compete in Wimbleton the next year and beat them again. In front of 30,000 spectators! I can barely get my mom to come watch me. This World Cup is held every four years in a different participating country. The next one is this October in Australia. In 4 years from now it will be back in the US most likely at Camp Perry, Ohio.

Countries that have participated through the years but not necessarily in every match are: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Channel Islands, Continental Europe, East and Central Africa, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Kenya, Natal, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, West Germany, West Indies and the United States.

Did I mention all of this shooting I do at 800, 900 and 1,000 yards is with iron sights? Yea, you think about that!

How many shots do you fire in a typical match? What kind of rifle do you use?

For the long range shooting the Palma category which is a rifle that must be a 30cal/.308 and the bullet must be no more than 155 grains has 15 rounds per string. We usually will shoot one string at each distance of 800, 900 and 1,000 yards. Or that format in a full bore match of 300, 500 and 600 yards or meters depending which country you are in.

Long range non Palma category consists of any rifle/iron sights, but I still use my Palma rifle, and we shoot 20 rounds at each yardage point. Each string allows 2 sighter shots also. Many days we add one more string at end for a Team event of another 20 rounds. So a basic weekend match is anywere from 120-160 rounds plus sighters. Now I know other disciplines like USPSA go through about 200 rounds in one afternoon. So it must seem like what I do is nothing at all. But when each shot must hit the X ring that is only one MOA wide from 1,000 yards away there is a bit more mental work involved. Not that pistol shooting isn’t mental! Oh boy, did I just tick off a bunch of people?

I use a Jim Cloward Special with RPA Quadlock Receiver. The barrel is a 30″ Krieger 5R. One of the design benefits to my rifle is that the barrel is less prone to copper fouling over time.

Do you have any last comments for our readers?

Shoot Like A Girl! If You Can…

While we were finishing up this interview, Anette was competing at the Washington State High Power Championship. You can read her coverage of the match here and here. This match was a piece of cake for the .30 Cal Gal as it was shot with the AR15 at only 200, 300, and 600 yard ranges. Only.

About:
Tom McHale describes himself as a conservative gun-totin’ bible-clingin’ literary assault dude who enjoys finding humor in just about anything. His web blog My Gun Culture is an irreverent, twisted look at gun news bordering on the ridiculous. It covers shootin’ stuff, loud noises, defending your own, the occasional mall ninja, and about 200 years of the American way. “These are the (partially) true stories of… My Gun Culture” says Tom. Visit: www.mygunculture.com

Filed under: Competitive Shooting News by MyGunCulture 3 Comments »

Cleaning the AR-15 Rifle
A gunsmith’s recommendations to keep your black rifle clean and operational.
By Steve Felgenhauer

AR-15 Rifle Cleaning

AmmoLand Gun News

Manasquan, NJ --(Ammoland.com)- As a gunsmith I clean a lot of rifles.

I also fix a lot of rifles caused by improper cleaning; most of which are not permanently detrimental to the rifles or their accuracy, but each year I get a few rifles that are reduced to wall decorations.

If you ask 10 different shooters how they clean their AR rifle chances are you will get 10 different answers. Of course, the mechanics will be the same, but the details are different and we all know the devil is in the detail.

I interviewed two different groups of shooters to find out how they cleaned their rifles. Group one consisted of shooters who shoot much more than the average Joe including; competition shooters and shooters who are employed by firearm companies to do nothing but shoot firearms all day…Can that really be a job?

These shooters were adamant about their cleaning procedures – almost ritual like. A certain amount of patches wetted with a solvent or other concoction guaranteed to remove all the copper fouling and liberal amounts of elbow grease followed by dry patches and then neutralized so the solvent doesn’t pit the barrel followed by a patch lubed with oil to protect the bore.

Group two consisted mostly of gunsmiths who described horror stories of over-cleaning or improper cleaning procedures and whom spend little time cleaning their rifles, especially the barrel.

Somewhere in between is a happy medium.

The operation of the AR and its dirty little secret.
When the AR is fired; the gases from the ignited powder propels the bullet down the barrel. As the bullet passes over the gas orifice drilled in the barrel a small amount of gas, carbon and other crud travels down the small gas tube to the carrier key which actuates the bolt driving it rearward. Not all this gas, carbon and crud stay in the carrier key of the bolt. A lot of it gets deposited inside the rifle’s action.

I’m not sure who first coined the phrase, “The AR pukes on itself” but I can think of no better way to describe it. With as much crud that builds up inside the rifle it is a surprise it works as well as it does.

Cleaning the AR Style rifle – A method to the madness
The military teaches the newest of recruits to disassemble and reassemble a rifle using a systematic method. It is a good idea to employ this tactic in your cleaning.

Disassembling the rifle, I keep the groups together and as I disassemble these groups further, I place the parts on the bench from left to the right in the order they are removed from the rifle. When reassembling; the reverse order is used. This ensures no part is missed while cleaning or reassembling and is a good time to look for worn or broken parts.

I’m not going to go into the actual cleaning procedure as this is well documented on several video series like the ones from Brownells.

How To Clean the Ar15 Rifle

How much to clean
This question always resonates with me. I feel the amount the rifle is used and how it is used should dictate how much to clean your rifle.

If you are set up on a prairie dog town and shooting hundreds of rounds per day, detail cleaning the rifle, daily, to include a thorough barrel scrubbing should be considered SOP, the same with match shooting where precision bullet placement is crucial.

However, if you are going through a 5 day training class or casual plinking, I would punch the bore with a dry patch after each day afield removing any obvious build up from the inside as well as wiping down the exterior of the rifle.

If hunting with a black rifle, I would not punch the bore or use any petroleum product on the rifle until I was finished hunting for the season unless moisture became an issue.

Long term storage, anything more than a month, demands thorough cleaning of the rifle followed by an application of a protective coating like RIG or Cosmolene. Just remember to remove any thick preservative before the next shooting session.

Tools for cleaning
The simple design of the Modern Sporting Rifle makes cleaning and the tools needed fairly straight forward.

The cleaning rod – The cleaning rod should be a one piece rod coated with nylon or plastic sheath or made of brass. Stick with one manufacturer when choosing your cleaning rod. There is nothing more frustrating than digging through a drawer full of brushes, jags and eyelets that don’t fit the cleaning rod when you are trying to clean your rifle. Avoid the military sectional rods if possible; the sections bend easily and the steel on steel does a rifle bore no good.

Many shooters like a long shafted cleaning rod and a shorter coated rod with a “T” handle for cleaning the chamber and locking lug area.

The Bore guide – A bore guide as the name implies keeps the cleaning rod centered in the action and bore of the barrel. This eliminates the chance of scratching the rifle’s chamber or bore. If you are not using a bore guide, start!

Brushes - To clean the AR two types of brushes are advised. The chamber brush and the bore brush. The brushes should be made of phosphor bronze and the body of the brush of brass as should be the couplers. The chamber brush is used to clean the barrel extension which can pack full of crud and unburned powder which can prevent the bolt to close causing misfires.

The bore brush should match the bore diameter of the barrel. It is certainly a good idea to change bore brushes every six months, more if you tend to clean your rifle habitually. Check the Ar-15 Brush Pak

Standard issue AP (all purpose) brush – There’s nothing better to get into hard to reach places.

Patches – I’ve used some unlikely items for cleaning patches but to keep a rifles barrel in tip top shape I like uniformity in my patches, Too thick and they get stuck in the barrel, too thin and they won’t do a thorough job. As I write this, Brownell patches sit on my bench. They are sized properly both in size and thickness without trimming and only rarely do I stick one.

Solvents – So many solvents so little time.
I prefer a solvent designed for a specific purpose; copper solvents to remove copper build up and a powder solvent for general cleaning. I’ve used many different kinds and can’t say one is better than another. I have seen some copper solvents pit the bore so now I dry the bore and neutralize it with several patches wetted with denatured alcohol followed by several drying patches and finally a patch wetted with a light coat of oil like Hoppes.

Powder solvents are much the same; they all perform equally, but I do like the idea of a more green friendly approach as much for my well being and wear and tear on my hands as for the environment.

The new spray cleaners are very handy especially for a quick clean. Just spray the solvent, let it loosen the crud and then spray it out again.

One word of caution! When using any solvent on painted firearms especially the wildly popular camo finishes, either factory or after market, always test the solvent in an inconspicuous place like under the handguard. Some of these solvents can unknowingly double as a paint remover, I’ve seen firsthand these “Safe for all Finishes” solvents strip paint and coatings.

AR-15 Rail Vise

Other tools that make cleaning less of a pain
The Rail Vise (www.railvise.com) is a modular holding fixture designed to hold black rifles. It features extruded aluminum bases and molded polymer clamping adapters.

I like the Sinclair AR-15 lug recess cleaning tool to clean out the stubborn locking lug area. This tool, made of Delrin puts a cotton patch deep into the recess of the lug and cleans out the crud you cannot reach with a standard AP brush.

Holding fixtures like the Brownells Lower Receiver Holding Fixture Block is placed in a vice while allowing the rifle owner to use both hands to clean the rifle, however, the upper gets a little wobbly while in the holding fixture. To prevent this, the Sinclair AR-15 Rod Guide and Link Kit keeps the two halves locked together all the while allowing access to the barrel and the inside of the rifle.

The Brownells Handguard Tool is also handy if your AR style rifle is equipped with a delta ring. Simply insert the tool around the delta ring, place the lever point in the magazine well and press down on the delta ring. Brownells feature a video of how to use this and many other tools on their website.

Ar15 Handguard Removal Tool Video

Cleaning a rifle will never be as much fun as shooting it, but with a little common sense and the same amount of elbow grease on a regular basis your shooter will remain that way.

About Steve Felgenhauer:
Steve Felgenhauer is an up and coming freelance writer that focuses on writing about all things firearms – from product reviews to hunting and everything in between. Steve is a frequent contributor to AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.  You can read more about gun writer Steve Felgenhauer on the following page.

Filed under: Competitive Shooting News, Featured Articles, Gun Gear, Shooting Industry News by Ammoland No Comments »