I have been asked by a few people where I got them.  I lucked out. 

I stopped by my FAVORITE gun shop Jo-Brooks in Brandon and got talking with Travis and found out he had just placed his Berger order.  He said he would call his rep and see if he could get any and advise me.  Later that day he e-mailed me and said yep they are on the order and will make it on the current shipment.

Needless to say it was a quick thing and I lucked out.

I have enough to give them a good test and shoot a match with them.

Now, if anyone wants any to try some this is what I will do.  Send an e-mail to me at cyanchyc@mymts.net with your name saying how many you want.  I will gather the names and numbers and pass the quantity on to Travis.  I will leave this open until Sunday  April 8, 2012.  He will then be able to decide how soon the order can go in.  If you say you want them then I TRUST you will be like most BR shooters I know.  Standup and true to your word that you will take them.

I will say again that Travis was going to stock them but I advised against that.  He allready has lots of 68gr Bergers that are not moving so I do not want to see him take a chance with these.

In regards to pricing I paid 30.00/100 +taxes (12%).  I cannot guarantee the price will be exactly the same.  That all depends what the bank rate is the day his CC is charged.  So you need to ba aware of that.

Now I can tell you a little about what I have seen with my own eyes.  I compared them to the Opel 64.5 Gr bullet as you will read why below.  As time permits I can compare them to the small amount of Mitchell 68's, Barts Ultras, and Opel 66's that I have.

The Berger Column appears to be on a .790 jacket in comparing it to the Opel 64.5gr bullet which is built on a .790 jacket.
In regards to weight the Opel is more consistent than the Column bullet.  I just weighed 1% of the Column bullets I recieved and a equivalent amount of Opel.  80% of the Opels were the exact same weight while only 50% of Column were the exact same weight.  Now according to Lou Murdica and Bryan Litz it is not the weight that appears to matter but where the lead line falls inside of the jacket. 

I then measured Base to Ogive with my Stoney Point .243 comparator.  The Berger Column bullet was bang on at .356" while the Opel was 80% at .376".  So in other word's if I understand this correctly the bearing surface is longer on the Opel by .020". 

I then seated a Column bullet and an Opel into cases to give 5 thou jam.  The initial measurement when I find jam is done with my barrel stub.  Then I measure and use my Stoney point comparator as I find it a bit more user friendly.  A loaded round with the Column bullet measures .012" longer than with an Opel bullet.  As you will see in the pictures the Column bullet does stick out further does stick out further than the Opel.

The pressure ring according to my cheap micrometer is slightly larger on the Column bullet versus Opel 64.5.  I was meauring the Column at .2435 and the Opel at .2432.

All measurements were done numerous times to see if I could get repeatability.

So this is what I can tell you for now.



L to R:  68gr Mitchell, 68gr Bart's Ultra, 68 Berger, Berger Column, 64.5gr Opel, 66gr Opel



L to R:  64.5gr Opel, Berger Column



 

I do not know how soon he would be able to get another shipment but maybe if there is enough people wanting to try them they could get here in short order.

Why? 

Well as some of you know I am usually not scared to ask questions or possibly make a comment that may make waves.  You may have seen my thread about the dreaded 2 and 1 on another forum.  Something that has plagued me for years.  I ahve never fealt good with the way I have shot over the years.  Even winning a 2 gun I ahve never felt it.

What does that have to do with this?  It made me realize why I love this game and like to compete.  We can all have excuses as to why we don't but most of them do not wash with me.  Hope that is the right expression??  Competing for me is a way for me to get over the dreaded hurdles of this accuracy game.  Regardless of how much you shoot at home and practice there is nothing like the rush of getting out on the line of a registered shoot and knowing that in 5 shots you can beat any one of the TOP shooters in the world on a target.  There is also all that knowledge that can be gained from all the other competitors.

I know I will continue to compete.  When the day happens that I begin to shoot them little dots the way I hope to one day, I know the drive to compete will never go away.  Seeing them little dots fform is a rush.  Basically knowing that you beat the wind and you did not beat yourself or let the wind beat you.

Just had to share this Scotties moment.

Calvin   

The dates for the Selkirk matches are as follows.

May 12&13, 2012 Mother's Day Weekend
Course of fire Sat May 12:  LV 100 AM
                                       HV 100 PM
Course of fire Sun May 13:  HV 200 AM
                                        LV 200 PM

Practise as always on Friday if you so desire.


Selkirk Bench Rest Shooters Provincials
Aug. 18&19, 2012

Course of fire is the same as listed above and practise as well.

The plan will be to send an e-mail out in advance to get a feel for how many would be interested in having lunch provided for them.  We will try and do this in advance so we are not scrambling at the last minute.  Saturday evening hopefully we can all get together for supper.

Look forward to seeing my fellow shooters this up and coming year.

Calvin

Just thought I would share this with everyone.

Who knows but this could be the start of seeing our American friends back.........

Just follow the link.  If you are on BR Central go to Clubs on the tool bar.  It is a new feature that will give clubs the opportunity to show the world who they are.....

http://benchrest.com/dto_clubs.php

Calvin

This is most definately something that needs to be shared.  Next to this forum some great publicity on the sport.

http://www.ahradio.ca/shows/sept24/

Did well Vera.........

The interview starts at the 40:40 mark.

Just click play on the podcast.  Put your cursor to the right edge of the bar, click and drag the cursor left till you hit the 40:40 mark.  You do not have to listen to the rest of the podcast then.

Calvin

We are 2 weeks today for the final match of the year at Selkirk, Aug. 13 and 14.  Practice Friday for those who wish otherwise see you Saturday morning.

Shooters will be competing for the Jim Smola HV Grand Aggregate and the Everett Ammundgard Memorial 2 Gun Award.

This is the little bit I can tell everyone about these 2 gentlemen.  Everett Ammundgard, Thief River Falls, Minnesota shot at our range
for years until his passing. He considered Selkirk his range and never missed a shoot until near the end when health problems caused him to
miss a couple shoots.

Jim Smola was from North Dakota and he as well never missed a shoot except for health problems the last year.

Hope to see you there.

Calvin

P.S. As a little heads up, we have a shooter who has been tough on us this year and has gone 2-0.  Winning the May match and the BRSC Canadian Nationals.  With that in mind we have to be in fine form.

This has been mentioned on Benchrest Central and I think it is a good idea. 

If you have never opened a rule book and you are shooting at matches please do so.  Take the time to have an idea what the rules are.  If you do not have one go to the NBRSA website and you can read it there.  Heck even read the IBS book on there website.

As many know we use the NBRSA book as our guideline at our registered matches here in Canada.

The reason I say this is we are a small core group and I hate hearing people say I cannot be a referee because I do not know the rules.  Everyone should have an idea of what the rules are.  In one hour you could scan through the book and have a good handle on them. 

We hate being a ref but that is part of a match.  Heck I hate having to run matches and shoot.  That is why I enjoy travelling to other matches, I can concentrate on my flags and have nothing else to worry about.

These are just my thoughts.

Calvin

Dwayne asked me to post this for him..... So here it is.

Sunday June 12th the Rifle Division held the 100 meter Score match which was originally scheduled for April but cancelled due to rain. 13 competitors sacrificed a beautiful day on the lake walleye fishing to contest old rivalries and support the Club.

Hunter Class

1 Ken Chambers 219 4X
2 Al Cardinal 205 3X
3 Richard Bootsveld 165 using a 45/70 with 350 grain factory loads!

Varmint Hunter Class

1 Jake Choquette 221 1X
2 Helene Rannou 215
3 Barry Marciniac 193

Jake is still sharp from his Saskatchewan monsoon season gopher safari.

 
VFS/Open Class

1 Phil Nick 249 15X
2 Dwayne Cyr 248 12X
3 Matt Cyr 248 6X

 
Plagued by killer gout and cranial cobwebs Phil used the superior bullet diameter of his .30 BR to compensate for p…  poor accuracy to eke out another win.

A big Thank You to the volunteers who help take up the slack and share the work load of running our matches.




L to R

 

Matt Cyr, Dwayne Cyr, Phil Nick, Gord Wald, Helene Rannou, Richard Bootsveld, Spencer King, Jake Choquette, Barry Marciniac, Al Cardinal, Ken Chambers.

 

Missing: Roy and Cec Dawson.

Okay we are just a little over 3 weeks away. 

The meeting will be Friday evening at 6 PM at the range clubhouse.  My plan is to keep it as short as possible and to the point.  Practice all you want Friday until meeting time.

Shooting will commence ASAP Saturday morning.  The sooner everyone gets there, the sooner we can register, draw for benches and get set up.  Unfortunately we do not have the luxury of being able to have the backer and etc set up the night before.  If you are from out of town and know you are coming please e-mail me or call me to let me know.

1-204-570-1956 or email at cyanchyc@mymts.net.

Supper will be Saturday evening at the Larters Golf Course about 10 min from Selkirk.

Sunday we will get going as soon as we can.  So again the earlier we are there the sooner we start.

In regards to lunch for Sat and Sunday I will talk with Lyle and see if he can arrange the Pizza thing again.  Makes it easier to not have to gather some food for lunch.  As usual there will be coffee, water, and possibly canned pop.

Any questions get ahold of me.

Calvin

Some are aware I am having new BRSC hats made up.  I am funding this out of my pocket.  The cost to you is the exact cost it costs me for the hats and any shipping if I ahve to ship.

The hat is going to be a structured contour hat.  If anyone knows the NIKE hat Tiger wears it will be that style except the front 2 panels are black, the back 4 are red.  On the peak off to one side is the outline of a Maple Leaf.

I will get Rick to post the picture of the hat and logo going on the hat.  The hats with taxes should be just around the 15.00 mark + or -.......

So far I have 16 spoken for.  I have 24 on order for sure.

They will be available at the Nationals in Selkirk and the SS at Rosebud.  If anyone sees this and they are interested please PM me with your quantity so if I need to order more I will.

There is another style hat that is also liked by some.  The difference is it has Canada spelled vertically off to one side of the peak.  I can and will do those at another time.

It is nice to have these small town shops who will do small orders........... ;^)

Calvin