As I posted yesterday, I’m going to be setting up a fund to buy and then ship a high-quality long-distance rifle and scope to some lucky guy. Here are the details (and if you enter, please follow them faithfully):
- You can only make one $40* donation per household, and only $40. More than $40, and I’ll send the surplus to Greenpeace. Believe me on this. If you send me two checks, one for yourself and one for your “brother”, the checks had better be in two different names and addresses, or the second goes to Greenpeace. Husband & wife get no exception. One entry per household. Don’t test me.
- Checks or money orders only, with your current address listed — I need the paper trail — to the sooper-seekrit mailing address (6009 W. Parker Rd #149-141, Plano TX 75093), made out to Kim du Toit. Make sure the “Note” on the check says ULD Rifle 2020 and your website ID (if you have one) so I know it’s for the rifle and not just a donation. By sending me a check, you agree that I can publish your name / ID (but not address) as the winner.
- The drawing will be notarized, i.e. performed by a third party and witnessed by a notary public or some such official, to keep this kosher and the ATF happy.
- I get to pick the rifle, and the scope — and what I get will depend on how much I get in donations. The winner gets what I picked out, and no whimpering or complaining. (Sheesh… you’ll be getting a fine long-distance setup for $40.)
- It will be chambered in .3x caliber, so that I can get better results past the 400-yard mark (from experience, the smaller 6.5x55mm bullet gets blown around a little too much for consistent accuracy at 400+ distances — and the wind always blows at Boomershoot). It will most likely be in .308 Win or thereabouts, but I’m not ruling out .300 Win Mag and the like, if I can get a decent deal.
- If there’s a surplus from buying the set, I’ll round off the amount to the nearest couple of dollars by setting aside some for the postage, packaging and such. If there’s still more left over, I’ll use it to defray some of my travel costs (it’s a six-day roundtrip drive ugh), if that’s okay with everyone.
- The winner will be notified personally before the result is posted, and I’ll also add a certificate of the “provenance”.
- The gun and scope will be shipped to your FFL — even in the state of Texas. (That paper trail thing, again.)
- My family are prohibited from entering, as are Doc Russia, Combat Controller and Tech Support II.
- Remember, I’ll be shooting it at Boomershoot 2020. It may come to you with a scratch or two. Deal with it.
- Regrettably, I can only make this work in the United States. As much as it would delight me to ship this equipment off to a GFW country, it ain’t gonna happen. Sorry. If you send me a check from England or Japan, the money will get passed on to Greenpeace. Don’t test me.
- Whatever rifle I get, it will be legal in all 50 states. For that reason, I won’t be getting an AR-10 HB or anything that could be classed as an “assault” rifle (not that I would, anyway). If your state bans “sniper rifles” during the interim period, however, you’ll be SOL, and I’ll have to make another drawing. I’m not going to break any gun laws on this, no matter how stupid I think they are.
- I reserve the right to close the fund at any time, when I judge that the fund has reached an acceptable level. Judging from the popularity of the idea the last time I did this, I’m going to set an arbitrary shut-off date of January 31, 2020 but I also reserve the right to extend the date too.
- Conversely, if I don’t get enough money to buy a really decent rig, I’ll just close the fund, refund your donations and go with what I’ve got. I don’t want to do that.
Obviously, this is open to anyone, not just Readers, so if you have a friend, relative or neighbor who fancies his luck, have at it — but via a separate check, or else Greenpeace gets the surplus and he gets nada.
If this idea gets really popular, I might make it an annual event.
*One last thing: the old raffle tickets only cost $20, but at that time I had about ten times the daily readership that I have today, PLUS I don’t have to tell you what’s happened to the price of guns in the past dozen-odd years. [20,000-word rant deleted]
If you wanna blame someone, blame Has-Been President Obama and the other Commies for driving up demand with their stupid threats of confiscation.
Not awake enough yet to remember where I left my checkbook, but my entry will be on the way by the weekend. Do I feel, lucky? Well, do I?
Wish I could participate. $40 dollar chance at a new rifle would be great. Alas, I will have to save my own shekels for such an item here in Canuckistan.
Hmm. It’s been a couple years since I’ve written an actual check. Let’s see if I remember how. “Honey, do we have a checkbook?”
Kim, it seems that the winning ticket in F-Class competition these days is the 6.5×284 combination. Quite the overbore for the 6.5, which is remedied by use of longer barrels of 26″ or 28″.
The superb external ballistics of the 6.5 family of projectiles, being pushed above 3,000 fps, which solves most of the wind-drift issues we share with the beloved 6.5×55.
Keep in mind, our 6.5 Swedes loaf along at about 2,400~2,600 fps at best, with factory loads. Factory loads keep the pressures low-ish, due to all the small-ring Mausers out there chambered thus.
It’s not the 6.5 round that’s having the problem with wind. It’s the low-ish velocity, and thus being in the air for a longer period of time. Which is more time in flight for the wind to affect it’s path. Greater speed = less drift.
That 6.5×284 is a barrel eater though. Expect about an 800 round useful life with one, before the accuracy falls off dramatically.
Would I dissuade you from the mighty .300 Win Mag? Never.
But I might nudge the thought of bypassing that completely, and going up to a .338 Lapua.
Barring that? Buy the .300 Win Mag, but then find one of your loyal readers who is a highly skilled competition hand loader, and get some rounds worked up *with* and *for* your one rifle, and that one rifle ONLY. It’ll make a huge difference vs. factory loads.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Being in Blighty, I’m going to have to pass, so I’ll just wish everyone else the very best of luck.
I am in, let’s see what develops.
Maybe the new .30 caliber that just came out would be the chambering, the Hornady .300 PRC?
Hill Country Rifles of Texas has one in .300PRC for about $6600. Not sure of other makers yet. Mayber Ruger? Maybe Cooper?