All new silhouette shooters, or those
who are just thinking about getting into the sport, are faced with a
common dilemma i.e. how much money do they really want to spend on this
thing? Even the bare basics such as a gun, dies, powder, bullets, blast
shield, elbow pad, etc. etc. can send costs shooting beyond the orbit of
Mars. If the new person doesn’t have any reloading gear, the situation
becomes even worse. Now some of these costs can be reduced by buying
previously owned gear from other shooters, but even so, getting into our
sport is darn expensive. In these days of economic uncertainty, someone
interested in silhouette shooting is likely to be very cautious about how
they spend their hard earned cash.
One of the “must have” pieces of gear
in every silhouette shooter’s equipment bag is a good quality spotting
scope. The question now becomes “How much does the new shooter have to
spend on a spotting scope in order to effectively see their hits and
misses on the silhouette targets.”
It’s no secret that a super premium
spotting scope (Lieca, Swarovski, etc.) can cost as much or more than a
Freedom Arms revolver and a TC combined. Even a high quality spotter such
as a Kowa etc. can easily cost more than the shooter’s gun. There’s no
doubt that those mega dollar scopes produce brilliant, distortion free
images. However, is that rarified level of optical efficiency really
needed by the new shooter? I would say that in the great majority of cases
that it’s not.
The 80mm plus premium scopes shine best
when seeing conditions are poor i.e. heavy overcast, targets located in
deep shade, very dark backgrounds, etc. There’s no doubt that such
conditions exist at a number of ranges, however, in my experience I would
have to say that those ranges are the exception rather than the rule. Most
ranges by design give good, unfettered viewing of the targets, and that
most matches are shot in sunny or bright overcast conditions. That being
the case, I would say then that the typical new silhouette recruit doesn’t
need a near thousand dollar or more scope with a massive objective lens to
play our game. Now if they have the cash and want to spend it, that’s
great. However again, I would say that would not represent the typical new
silhouette shooter who is usually a hard working family person that has to
carefully watch how they spend their money.
A number of years ago I did an article
on modestly priced spotters. Considering the large amount of email it
generated (even from a couple of foreign countries) I’d say that the
article was well received. This indicated to me that there was
considerable interest in the subject. (BTW, the article is available on
line at lasc.us). Well, I recently came across another fairly inexpensive
spotter that I thought that might be of interest. It’s the 60mm, Model 745
from Alpen (alpenoutdoors.com). It sells for around $210 in most places on
the internet. The first thing that hits you about the scope is the unusual
design. It kind of looks like a lazy letter “L”. This is because the scope
body itself is bent into a 45 degree angle rather than the usual practice
of taking a regular straight body and slapping an eyepiece on the end at
forty-five degrees. I like the 745 as the angled part of the scope is
longer than on most and therefore gives the shooter more flexibility on
where to place it, especially when shooting from the Creedmoor position.
This Alpen is a 20-60X type that is
100% waterproof, not just water resistant like some much more expensive
scopes I could name. Consequently it can be fully immersed in water. Some
may say “so what”, but life is funny in that it throws a surprise at us
every now and then. For instance, while on a camping trip long ago I
dropped a non-water proofed spotting scope into the water while unloading
a canoe. That was the end of that spotter. The interior of the scope was
now permanently fogged up. In desperation, I even tried to bake it in the
oven (at very low heat) to drive out the moisture from the inside, but all
I did was to cause the coatings on the lenses to change color to a kind of
pink and purple. (Oh well, desperate men do desperate things.) At any
rate, 100% waterproofing is a good thing. You never know when you might
need it.
To be honest, I think that 60 power on
scopes with a 60mm objective lens is way too much magnification. Even my
premium quality 60mm spotting scope with ED lenses only goes up to 45X. In
my experience, when one cranks up the power to 60X on a 60mm objective,
the image is darkened excessively and the resolution goes to pot. However
I have to admit that I’m definitely in the minority on this subject as
there are a ton of people out there who like lots and lots of
magnification power. So with the 745 it’s there to be used if you want it.
If you don’t want to use it, just dial the magnification down to whatever
suits you best. For me, I like to have all of my scopes normally set on
around 25 - 30X to get optimum resolution and brightness and still have
plenty of magnification.
For the money, you really get quite a
bit in the way of technical features with the Alpen. As mentioned, there’s
full water proofing, it’s also fully multicoated, and it uses BaK4 prisms,
which is the best type. Additionally, there’s also a tripod mount rotation
collar around the scope’s body. When fastened to a tripod, the collar
allows the scope to be rotated right and left around its axis to any
position you like by simply loosening a thumb screw. Most people find this
to be very useful and it’s something that all 45 degree type scopes should
have. At 100 yards, the 745 gives you a little over an eleven foot field
of view at 20X, and a five and a half foot FOV at 60X. It will also focus
down to 15 feet. There’s a nice sliding sun shade and a rubber fold down
eye cup as well. Soft rubber lens caps are also included, although they’re
not tethered. Lastly, although the specifications don’t mention it, the
scope is fully rubber armored. When combined with the rugged body, the
armor makes the 745 a scope that’s very resistant to bumps and hard
knocks.
The only disappointment in the optics
department was the amount of eye relief available. In order to get the
widest field of view that the scope provided, I had to remove my glasses
and move my eye forward to where my eyebrow was nearly touching the
eyepiece. If I wore my glasses, I started to get the “tunnel effect”.
However, one can’t expect a low priced spotter to be perfect.
The 745’s optical performance out at
the shooting range was very good. Interestingly, changing the focus was a
little different with this scope. Instead of turning a ring on the
eyepiece, the viewer turns a knob located about half way down the scope
body. Actually, I liked this arrangement better because it seemed to cause
less scope shake when making adjustments. In full sunshine, the image was
both bright and had good contrast. Additionally, I wasn’t able to detect
any distortions even out at the edges of the image. After I returned home
I pointed the scope at an electrical tower some 300 yards away and had no
problem seeing a half dozen sparrows sitting on the very top cross member.
I could also easily see bolt heads and rust streaks around the structure
as well. Just for fun, I then compared the 745 with another manufacturer’s
60mm scope that I had on hand and which cost $65 more, and found that
under the same bright, sunny conditions, I couldn’t detect any difference
between the Alpen and the more expensive scope.
In summary, the Alpen 745 is a capable,
inexpensive spotter that will nicely fill the bill for most typical
spotting conditions. It even comes with a little bench tripod and a nylon
carry bag with strap. The new silhouette shooter or anyone else on a
budget would do well to take a serious look the Alpen 745.
Nosler Brass Part II
Last month I reviewed Nosler’s new
custom brass and found it to very high quality stuff that was
exceptionally strong and thick. I also mentioned that Nosler advises that
because it is thicker than most brass, they recommend that because of the
subsequent reduction in powder capacity, that you should use starting
loads at first. Only then, should the powder be slowly increased while
staying at a safe level. Since then I’ve had a little more time to work
with their 204 brass and have found that starting and other mild loads
will produce smoke covered cases. This is a clear indication that these
very strong cases aren't expanding sufficiently to seal in the gun’s
chamber. It’s obvious that more powder is needed to get these cases
properly sealed. Proceed with caution however and don‘t exceed safe loads.
The Dog That Bites
A while back, I reported on the fact
that Remington had been purchased by Cerberus Capital Management, a huge
investment company that owns Chrysler Corp., several car rental
corporations, a bunch of very large European banks, and a slew of other
businesses too numerous to list here. I also noted that Cerberus is the
name of the three headed dog from Greek mythology that guards the gates of
hell. (He keeps people from leaving.) The standard operating plan at
Cerberus is to buy struggling but basically sound companies, and to then
“find efficiencies”. This is another name for layoffs, reducing benefits,
and other means of increasing the bottom line at the expense of their
workers.
True to form, H&R 1871, owned by
Remington/Cerberus, and maker of Topper rifles and shotguns, just
announced that it will undergo a “manufacturing consolidation”. What this
means is that the H&R plant in Gardner, MA will be completely shut down
and 200 workers will be thrown out of their jobs. It turns out that
Remington didn’t even bother to give the city of Gardner, population
approximately 21,000, where H&R is a major employer, or the state of
Massachusetts any type of notification to allow them to prepare for the
economic impact.
While the press release didn’t
specifically say so, I would assume that since this is supposed to be a
consolidation, that H&R’s products will still be available in the future
but that they’ll be made in one of Remington’s other facilities. In a
surprisingly callous admission, Remington’s CEO stated that he hadn’t even
decided where the H&R operations would be transferred. In my experience,
when operations from one location are to be shut down and are to be
transferred to somewhere else, a thorough analysis is accomplished to
assess which other candidate facilities can accept the additional work
with the least disruption. This normally happens way before any shut down
announcement is made. Obviously, this was not the case with H&R. It
certainly makes one wonder why not, and it certainly is an additional poke
in the eye to H&R’s displaced workers knowing that their jobs have been
taken away without an apparent thought as to where their work was even
going. The shutdown at H&R is scheduled to be completed by the end of the
year.
Reloading Factoid
With all of the gizmos, gadgets, books,
bullets, and powders etc. that are sold in the reloading marketplace, you
would logically assume that a huge percentage of the shooting public, or
at least the majority, were reloaders. The cost advantage and the ability
to customize your ammo to a particular application would seem to make
reloading a no brainer.
I once discussed this issue with my
friends who work at the various bullet making companies. They admitted
that as far as they knew at the time, no one had ever done a survey to
really determine just how many shooters reloaded. They guesstimated that
only around 10% of the shooting public are actually reloaders.
Recently an organization called Hunter
Survey released some very interesting statistics on this subject. The
bottom line is that they confirmed that the vast majority of shooters are
not reloaders, and those that are, only reload small amounts of ammo. For
instance, of the pistol and rifle shooters surveyed, 74% said that they
did not reload. Of the 26% that did reload, half (13%), said they reloaded
only 20-100 rounds per month, 3.2% said they reloaded 60-200 rounds per
month, and 2.4% said they loaded more than 200 rounds per month. An active
silhouette shooter who shoots three guns in a monthly match, and who goes
to the range once per week to practice, can easily load around 350 rounds
per month. (This assumes 25 rounds per week in practice per gun three
times a month and 40 rounds per gun in a match once per month = 345
rounds.) Whatever the number, it’s clear that this puts active silhouette
shooters in a very rarified class of consumers that use all of those
reloading components, presses, and gizmos at an impressive rate. It’s kind
of nice to be above average.
Anti Gun Wal-Mart?
In a surprising announcement, Wal-Mart
announced that it had joined something called The Responsible Firearms
Retailer Partnership. This organization was founded by “Mayors Against
Illegal Guns”, which was created by anti gun zealot, Michael Bloomberg,
the mayor of New York city. By joining the Partnership, Wal-Mart agreed to
a 10 point plan that would in effect, violate the privacy rights of its
firearms purchasing customers.
Among the things that Wal-Mart agreed
to, was to video tape its customer’s gun purchases and to keep the tapes
on file. (What’s next, mug shots complete with numbers?) It also agreed to
create a data base of its customer’s firearms purchases, and to require
customers to fill out a declaration form stating that they are legally fit
to purchase a firearm. It’s one thing when the government makes you do
these kinds of things but it is something completely different when a
corporation requires you to do it. (The next thing you know, Wal-Mart will
require you to fill out a form when you buy fattening food.) The
announcement caught Wal-Mart’s firearms suppliers totally off guard who
then expressed shock and dismay. BTW, Wal-Mart is Remington’s biggest
customer of firearms and ammunition.
Through this action, Wal-Mart seems to
have started abandoning firearms as a retail product, or perhaps the elite
corporate millionaire types running the company now are so out of touch,
that they just don’t get how much of a slap in the face these measures are
to their law abiding customers. Undoubtedly a substantial number of
customers will take their business elsewhere when these draconian measures
are implemented. The small gun shop owners and the internet firearms
retailers are probably laughing and eagerly rubbing their hands together
right now. It’s unfathomable, that Wal-Mart in its desperate battle with
Target for retail supremacy would abandon a profitable product line. I
guess the three piece suit types know more than us dumb customers who pay
their salaries. Poor old Sam Walton must be spinning at a thousand RPM
right now.
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