Equipment: The Tubegun in F-Class - Part 1

The Tubegun in F-Class - Part 1

by Germán A. Salazar

The tubegun has truly changed the face of Highpower shooting over the past five years or so. Specifically, the CSS (Gary Eliseo) tubeguns, which are made for a broad variety of actions and configurable to single-shot or repeater, have truly helped the sport to grow. That's not just idle talk, the two principal factors that made the tubegun so important to our growth are the ease of transition for AR15 shooters moving into a bolt-action rifle and the absolutely ridiculous length of time it currently takes to get a stock from the conventional stock makers. My last conventional stock took well over two years from order to delivery (plain fiberglass); one of my friends has now been waiting four years for a simple wood stock for a Smallbore rifle. By contrast, tubeguns, which are largely CNC machined, are delivered in a reasonably short time - weeks or a couple of months at most.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the tubegun would never have attained its present success if it weren't for one simple fact - they are brutally accurate. I have three CSS tubeguns, two with the Borden Tubegun Special action; one chambered in .308 and two in .30-06 and they are my favorite prone rifles due to their accuracy and great ergonomics. Great accuracy, great ergonomics and honest availability - those factors are just as appealing to an F-Class competitor as to a prone shooter, and indeed, the tubegun is making solid inroads into F-Class.

When I began shooting F-TR a few months ago, however, I didn't begin with the tubegun because I didn't want to chew up what I knew was a fantastic barrel while I learned the ropes of F-Class shooting. Instead, I used an older, conventionally stocked rifle and it worked well; but I'm now ready to give the tubegun a try in F-TR.



Bag Rider on CSS Tubegun stock

 In preparation for this, Gary shipped me a rear bag rider that simply bolts on to the buttplate. Simple and light, it works very well. The bag rider can be installed with either the sloped surface or the flat surface (parallel to the bore) in contact with the bag in accordance with the shooter's preference. Because I prefer to use the rear bag for small elevation adjustments, I elected to install it with the sloped side to the bag.

Unfortunately, the scope setup didn't go quite as smoothly. I mounted my Leupold BR36 at the range right before the match and discovered that my rings were too low for comfortable viewing. After struggling with it during the first string, I temporarily solved the problem by removing the adjustment wheel. This allowed the cheekpiece to drop a little lower and I was able to get through the match with a greater degree of comfort. Obviously, the correct solution will be to use a set of high rings in place of the current medium height rings.



Bipod slid to the end of the fore end

 As the match got underway, it looked like everything would be fine with the first ten shots at 500 yards scoring 100-9X; the second ten weren't quite as spectacular and I ended with a 199-13X, dropping the point on the 19th shot. The second string was downright disappointing with a 195-9X that suffered from a lot of high and low shots. It wasn't until that string was over that I found the bipod attachment was loose and had moved forward about six inches to the end of the handguard. I felt somewhat relieved to find the source of the problem; in fact, I suspect it began to move after the first ten shots of the first string.

Before beginning the third string, I tightened the bipod support bracket; however, it loosened once again during the string with the inevitable increase in vertical dispersion resulting. Subsequent examination revealed the source of the problem: the two small plates that grasp the interior of the rail just don't have enough surface area in contact with the tubegun's curved inner rail section to provide the necessary friction to resist movement. Although this hasn't been a problem with the flat rail in my conventional stock, it is definitely a problem here. Over the next week or so, I hope to make a long, reasonably wide plate that will go inside the tube to replace the two small clamping plates; that should increase the clamping area by a factor of four or five.

The scorecard tells the whole story - a strong beginning before the plate began moving, not discovered until the end of the second string, more loosening in the third string along with increased wind dispersion. Hopefully, next time we'll at least eliminate the mechanical problems and be able to once more focus properly on the wind.

By the way, if you want to download the scorecard form, plot sheets or other club resources, they are available on our club website http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/

F-Open competitor Chuck Gooding with his Clark Fay built 6BR Panda. Chuck is tough competition and keeps me trying hard just to get close to his scores. Clark also does the metal work on my rifles.

Click here for Part 2