Delivery Vehicles, Tools & Consumables

I took everything you see on the table, under the table, on and with the tripod, and raced 1450 miles down south of San Antonio, Texas last week, to participate in Erik Cortina’s 500 yard Blackjack Challenge along with shooting his 500 yard Ethical Hunter Challenge. For those of you who’ve seen those exercises in precision, you get it. For those who got to be this many years old before you heard of such a thing - soon you’ll be able to watch this writer shoot steel under pressure.

Proof of my “getting a blackjack” is on the shelf at my desk. Erik decided that whoever accomplished the feat would now get a steel shot glass commemorating the event. It is a shot glass replica of his rifle tuner. Fitting, that . . .

The rifle is:

• Impact Precision action with a 75 degree bolt lift
• The #9 30" Douglas Barrel is chambered in 6mmBR
• Bixn Andy TacSport Pro trigger
• Corson Piper"s 6.5mm Demigod ⅝"x24 Muzzle Brake
• MDT ACC Elite Chassis
• Vortex Razor Gen III 6-36X56
• Hawkins One Piece 1.54" 34mm mount
• Gray Ops bag stop

Tools:

• AXIL electronic hearing protection
• Gray Ops 6mmBR 12 round magazine
• MDT 5 round magazine modified for the BR family by me
• Lapua box for holding loaded ammo
• Cole-Tac bag for holding fired cases
• Armageddon Schmedium lite fill rear bag
• Red Mist Tripod
• Vortex 15X56 Diamondback HD Binos
• Leofoto Bino ARCA holder
• Cartridge & Components:
• New Lapua 6mmBR Brass
• Berger 6mm 105 Hybrids
• Remington 7 ½ primers
• Varget powder
• MDT CKYE POD Bipod

Impact Precision action w/75 degree bolt lift - I got this in a trade with someone who wanted something I had. It was a couple years ago, and somehow I was completely clueLes about the whole transition to 75 degree bolt lift thing. I’ve run four different barrels on this action and have found it flawless.

The #9 30" Douglas Barrel chambered in 6mmBR. My first Douglas Barrel was a 300 Winchester Magnum in a customized K98 Mauser. It had 5X exhibition grade Walnut, Timney trigger - It was a work of art, and it shot very well. So I had/have zero issues picking a Douglas Barrel for anything, especially after running this 6mmBR through its paces all the way out to 1000+ yards. It does what you expect a custom barrel to do. The 6mmBR was the cartridge of choice for the Blackjack Challenge. Shooting 105s a lot farther than this it can be counted on to perform, and has performed.

Bixn Andy TacSport Pro trigger - Someone traded me this trigger for another TacSport trigger I’d had. It is the same configuration, and probably older than the one used by Austin Buschman in his incredible run as a PRS champion. He told me that he uses the first TacSport Pro he ever got - many years ago. Good enough for the best, good enough for me. (Of course it’s also my job. I am the Bixn Andy repair warranty guy - full disclosure . . . They just work.)

Corson Piper"s 6.5mm Demigod ⅝"x24 Muzzle Brake - I’ve been using this brake all year, this year. It fights/mitigates recoil/muzzle jump with the absolute best of them. What it doesn’t do, though, is leave you with a ringing bell/gourd. For this trip I had actually installed another brake I was going to use for a gag. I used the other brake when I swapped barrels and rezeroed for this challenge. After 15 rounds fired my head felt like someone smacked it repeatedly with a large heavy object. I went home and swapped the gag brake for Carson’s and never regretted it.

MDT ACC Elite Chassis - Having sold my MDT Gen I Premier Chassis last year, this opportunity at Bullet Central came up shortly after, and I tried to buy the Premier back. No dice. He was keeping the deal he got. There was no question about whether I would get another MDT chassis again. This time it was the Elite. With the adjustability, etc., that this chassis has it can be made to fit big and small, fat and thin. (I’m a big fat guy so I know about that.) You can weigh it down with weights or shoot it as it comes. Mine has no extra weights on it and depending which barrel I have on my Impact 737R, the whole package weighs between 22 - 24.5 pounds.

Vortex Razor Gen III 6-36X56 - I have never seen so well in my life! There are higher dollar scopes that make a difference in visibility, but the reticle is simple, the glass lets me see stuff I struggled with before, so no complaints - at all.

Hawkins One Piece TM 1.54" 34mm mount - For as often as my rifle comes apart for barrel swaps, etc., this mount keeps the Vortex zeroed, holds the scope in position as I “suitcase” carry a 25 pound rifle with the scope as the handle. This is the second TM mount I’ve had. The first one was only 1.27" high and I was having issues with my neck being able to crinkle around and down far enough to see through the low to the bore scope mountings we all thought we had to have for so long. Now my neck stays straighter and is more comfortable behind the scope.

Gray Ops bag stop - Originally this was to stop the bag creep into the magazine. Then I realized it wasn’t an issue, because with the 30" barrels I run the balance point is far away from the magwell. I kept it as a hookup point for a carry handle. I’m old and slow and weak, so every option to take the strain the young guys don’t feel, off of me, the better.

AXIL electronic hearing protection - I had been using passive muffs for forever. These allow me to follow conversations away from the firing line, and they’re not obtrusive when shooting.

Gray Ops 6mmBR 12 round magazine - In the past I was a consumer of MDT’s 12 round BR mags. Once I learned to tune the mag lips they provided a reliable delivery system for the 6mmBR. Then Dave Preston came out with his cartridge specific AW magazines. I saw this as a way to more easily avoid bumping the mag into rocks, and other PRS barricade stuff. While this is a partial solution to bumping rocks with an AICS mag, it would have been waaay cheaper to learn to drive my rifle better. That said, the Gray Ops BR mag runs like butter and has never failed. I told Dave everybody should have a pair and a spare - he agreed . . . now I have two . . .

MDT 5 round magazine modified for the BR family by me - This mag started out as a five round 308 mag. I modified it into a four round BR mag that feeds so well that years into our relationship, I’m still amazed at how much it loves me. I used this mag on the Ethical Hunter part of the Cortina experience.

Lapua box for holding loaded ammo - I’m not going to mock how other people store their ammo, and I ain’t gonna take any mocking to heart about my method. I was in Utah this year at a PRS match watching The Top OPEN shooter in the World shoot a stage. As with us mere mortals, he finished and went to his bag to reload his mag. I almost missed it because it’s such a mundane/repetitive thing, but something caught my eye as I was turning away. Closer nosiness revealed that he was supplying his mag from a Tupperware container. Right then I decided that I would never spend the time to put rounds separately into some sort of holder. The whole reloading process takes long enough - dump ’em in a bucket and commence to firing!

Cole-Tac bag for holding fired cases - Given to me at a PRS match, this bag has carried empties safely home for many years. My back pockets would make my butt look real big if I didn’t have this.

Armageddon Schmedium lite fill rear bag - Another longtime friend. A lite rear bag when running a bipod is more accurate than your fist, and easier to carry than a sand filled bag.

Red Mist Tripod - This Montana rancher’s creation has done everything I needed it to do for a more than reasonable price. From tripod rear to holding up my binos to clamping into the ARCA rail on my rifle. It just works.

Vortex 15X56 Diamondback HD Binos - These were a gift. Someone gave me his spot on the prize table, and these were the choice. I had been using some 8X Bushnells I bought at a Maryland Costco in 1991. The upgrade was amazing.

New Lapua 6mmBR Brass - In a recent interview with Ken Wheeler on the PRS Podcast, Cal Zant told of how there are some really good shooters who only shoot brand new brass in a match. Brian Litz won a F-TR F-Class competition doing the same thing a few years ago. The inference was that there is nothing better than new brass, in both cases. I’ve tried this with the BR and with a 6.5 Creedmoor and will never say anything nasty about new Lapua brass’s performance.

Berger 6mm 105 Hybrids - All four shooters at the Blackjack Challenge last week were using Berger bullets. Three of us were using Berger’s 6mm 105 Hybrids. The guy who hit the two inch target the most times was also using a 6mmBR, as was I. Something about those yellow box pills in a BR.

Remington 7 ½ primers - This was a trial I did as a possible cost cutting method. When things got crazy expensive 450s were cost prohibitive for guys like me, so I tried the Remingtons. They worked. They still work.

Varget powder - When I got this barrel I thought I;d put a few hundred rounds through it with a stash of 6.5 Staball I had but never unsealed. It pretty much matches H4350, so figuring out a load was not rocket science. After a few hundred rounds the barrel had proven it was a shooter, but I found the Staball was pretty dirty. Now, with the Texas challenge coming up, I switched to Varget to do Varget things, and was not disappointed. Varget, Lapua and a 105 Berger. That’s a combination that shoots all day and well into the night.

MDT CKYE POD Bipod - This single pull bipod is replacing the three bipods I’ve carried for a long time. One and done.