Equipment: The Tubegun in F-Class - Part 4

The Tubegun in F-Class - Part 4

by Germán A. Salazar

This final installment of the series is simply a confirmation that the work John performed on the rifle and our various ideas about what to do all worked well. There aren't any additional developments presented here.

As I mentioned in Part 3, today we went to the weekly 500 yard match at the Phoenix Rod & Gun Club and gave the various modifications a good test. Conditions were breezy with the temperature just under 100, so a very nice day by summer time standards in Phoenix.

The bipod clamping block worked perfectly, never moving even a millimeter. Between sighting in the rifle, firing the match and shooting a few extra rounds at the end, I fired 80 rounds of .308 with 190 gr. bullets. That was as good a test for the clamp's holding power as it needs; I'm satisfied that the moving bipod problems are now behind us.

The scope base modifications were a complete success as well. I lowered the elevation setting on the scope by 20 moa from last week's setting and it only took a few clicks to zero it in. There is now plenty of elevation travel left to go to 1000 yards, as well as enough down travel for 100 or 200 yards - although 300 yards is the shortest range at which we shoot.

Just as important, the windage zeroed very close to the center of the scope's adjustment range, just as we had hoped. This confirms that our slope calculations and John's milling work were on the money and that Gary's instructions on the windage problem as well as John's work on the rings worked out perfectly.

The change from medium height rings to the high rings was also just right. I was able to move the cheekpiece up a little and get the amount of cheek pressure that I normally use while maintaining a comfortable sight picture. The high rings are the ones we modified as described in Part 3.

There isn't much else to say without turning it into a match report, which isn't my intention, but the scores were good for the conditions: 198-8X, 198-9X, 195-4X (591-21). That was enough to win F-Class overall, but second place finisher Christine Harris (587-26) turned in a 199-11X for her last string in F-TR, so the pressure is always on around here!

I'm satisfied that the tubegun and its accessories are now properly sorted out for F-Class shooting from 300 to 1000 yards. All that remains is for the shooter to perform up to the rifle's capabilities...