Greetings all you Roksliders, Backsliders, and Ne'er do Wells. This is your Unknown Munitions General Manager. The UM GM. I have been meaning to make some posts here for a while, but, well, you know the thing...........................
I'll start with the most important topic. I am sometimes hard to get a hold of on the phone. Probably because I seem to always be on the phone or with a customer in the shop. That said, I really to try to get back to everyone as soon as I can. I am also slower than I want to be on e-mails........probably because I seem to always be on the phone or with a customer in the shop............
All my excuses aside, I really do want to get to everyone quickly. Why? I am very proud of our rifle build and load development process. When we build them and do load development, we routinely get sub 1/2 minute 3-shot groups at 650 yds. That holds true on a $2795 Tikka build or a $6000 Vesper build.
Jake has let me run the rifle builds and load developments the way I want. My obsession is to produce highly accurate rifles that look good, backed up by world class customer service. At UM, we chamber rifles the same way I chamber my own long range bench rest rifles. We get the throat straight. That means being very fussy about how we "dial in" a barrel, using a direct reading indicator with a long reach tip.
The secret to an accurate rifle--and this isn't even a secret--is to have a straight throat in a good quality barrel, a stress free bedding job (we check with a dial indicator), and a "true" action. With some competition riles we fuss with ignition and eliminate any cock-on-closing, but none of that is required to get sub 1/2 minute 3-shot groups at 650 yds.
Why load development at 650 yds? Because 100 yd groups are meaningless in a medium to long range rifle. 100 yd groups lie to us all the time. Just as Nick, our load developer. I don't remember his handle here, but he is smallest of the 5 long bearded gnomes I work with. Two big ones, a medium one, a rounder medium one (@Ryan Avery) , and the small one............................
I guess that makes me the "Beardless Wonder", but hey, beards didn't play well with an O2 mask in a USAF jet back in they day, and my beard nowadays would be all white anyway...............................
We achieve that sub 1/2 minute at 650 yds using new unsorted brass, unsorted bullets, and no special primer prep. We do load powder +/- a kernel, seat +/- .001", and set neck tension with a mandrel.
Now some shooters want that 1/4 moa "all day long" we see so much on the internet. We can approach 1/4 moa all day long at 600-1000 yds with the right brass prep, bullet sorting, primer sorting and seating; coupled with an insane level of tuning at the distance we want those 1/4 minute groups.................in a long range BENCHREST rifle. Maybe also with an F-Open rifle. With whatever rifle,the conditions must be VERY GOOD. If you can consistenty shoot 2.5" 5-shot groups at 1000 yds, you will win a lot of Light Gun Aggs in LRBR. Now you will ocassionaly get beat, and you wont set any records, but you will be at the top most of the time.
I said all that just to help focus on what we need in a long range hunting rifle. We don't need, nor should we expect, 1/4 moa all day long at long range. We ought to be close to 1/2 minute at long range when we are developing loads in very good conditions. If you can only work up loads at 100 yds, then @Formidilosus 30-shot groups make a lot of sense. After we have the load, we need to learn to read the wind and shoot from field conditions.
That's about all the time I have now. In future posts I do want to cover the new reamers we have coming in, tight chambers, rifling configuration, fast vs slow barrels, pet peeves, etc. I won't ever make stuff up and I tell you when I don't know.............and the older I get the less I seem to know for certain............................
I'll start with the most important topic. I am sometimes hard to get a hold of on the phone. Probably because I seem to always be on the phone or with a customer in the shop. That said, I really to try to get back to everyone as soon as I can. I am also slower than I want to be on e-mails........probably because I seem to always be on the phone or with a customer in the shop............
All my excuses aside, I really do want to get to everyone quickly. Why? I am very proud of our rifle build and load development process. When we build them and do load development, we routinely get sub 1/2 minute 3-shot groups at 650 yds. That holds true on a $2795 Tikka build or a $6000 Vesper build.
Jake has let me run the rifle builds and load developments the way I want. My obsession is to produce highly accurate rifles that look good, backed up by world class customer service. At UM, we chamber rifles the same way I chamber my own long range bench rest rifles. We get the throat straight. That means being very fussy about how we "dial in" a barrel, using a direct reading indicator with a long reach tip.
The secret to an accurate rifle--and this isn't even a secret--is to have a straight throat in a good quality barrel, a stress free bedding job (we check with a dial indicator), and a "true" action. With some competition riles we fuss with ignition and eliminate any cock-on-closing, but none of that is required to get sub 1/2 minute 3-shot groups at 650 yds.
Why load development at 650 yds? Because 100 yd groups are meaningless in a medium to long range rifle. 100 yd groups lie to us all the time. Just as Nick, our load developer. I don't remember his handle here, but he is smallest of the 5 long bearded gnomes I work with. Two big ones, a medium one, a rounder medium one (@Ryan Avery) , and the small one............................
I guess that makes me the "Beardless Wonder", but hey, beards didn't play well with an O2 mask in a USAF jet back in they day, and my beard nowadays would be all white anyway...............................We achieve that sub 1/2 minute at 650 yds using new unsorted brass, unsorted bullets, and no special primer prep. We do load powder +/- a kernel, seat +/- .001", and set neck tension with a mandrel.
Now some shooters want that 1/4 moa "all day long" we see so much on the internet. We can approach 1/4 moa all day long at 600-1000 yds with the right brass prep, bullet sorting, primer sorting and seating; coupled with an insane level of tuning at the distance we want those 1/4 minute groups.................in a long range BENCHREST rifle. Maybe also with an F-Open rifle. With whatever rifle,the conditions must be VERY GOOD. If you can consistenty shoot 2.5" 5-shot groups at 1000 yds, you will win a lot of Light Gun Aggs in LRBR. Now you will ocassionaly get beat, and you wont set any records, but you will be at the top most of the time.
I said all that just to help focus on what we need in a long range hunting rifle. We don't need, nor should we expect, 1/4 moa all day long at long range. We ought to be close to 1/2 minute at long range when we are developing loads in very good conditions. If you can only work up loads at 100 yds, then @Formidilosus 30-shot groups make a lot of sense. After we have the load, we need to learn to read the wind and shoot from field conditions.
That's about all the time I have now. In future posts I do want to cover the new reamers we have coming in, tight chambers, rifling configuration, fast vs slow barrels, pet peeves, etc. I won't ever make stuff up and I tell you when I don't know.............and the older I get the less I seem to know for certain............................
