I moved to the Sedona area recently from CA my shop is in Cottonwood, this place is shooters paradise, lots of national forest land to shoot on, the climate is perfect and the scenery is fantastic, if you like the outdoors this is the place.
I pretty much hold over/under/off for everything unless I'm shooting movers, even on stages where there's no time constraints, it eliminates any mechanical errors that the scope might have as well as mistakes made in dialing or loosing track of my zero
The NRA 200 yard SR target has a 3" x ring and a 7" ten ring, high x- count cleans are fairly common from the sitting"rapid" position and while not as common it's not unusual for the top shooters to shoot clean offhand, the 300 yard target is shot from the prone position with the sling "rapid...
The top end Anschutz rifles with the right ammo are very, very good but for the same money you can build a custom on a Hall action, and have an incredibly accurate rifle that's truly unique, plus it's made in the USA
There's a group that holds a weekly long range practice match at Ben Avery range, Rick Curtis is the organizer, pretty much all F class and sling shooters, you'll learn a lot from them.
I reached that point in life a few years ago, searched around the country for a better place for my family and my business than southern CA, we settled on northern AZ
Excellent analogy Mark, I't's funny how some guy's are so averse to glue in but dont feel the same way about the AI rifle (which is permanently bonded to the chassis)
" If I were a tube gun manufacturer, I would for example take the comment about a lot of metal being problematic in cold temperatures seriously (tactical shooters and hunters are not wearing 'oven mitts' like HP shooters) and would at least consider a handguard made from carbon fiber composites...
To the OP,
you titled this thread "why aren't tubeguns more popular" then open it with "why you decided against it" .
To your first question:
it depends on what circles you travel in, If you attended last years Berger Longrange Southwest Nationals, an event that had well over 250...
Andy T, learn how to use it regardless of weather or not you need it in a given comp, it's a skill every rifleman should master, in the matches I shoot you'd be naked without it
It's probably glued with loctite, heat the outside of the nut quickly to about 400 f (I prefer to use a propane torch over a heat gun) touch a bar of beeswax (not parafin) to the joint, the beeswax will penetrate the joint and instantly kill the loctite.
Steve Blair, CA F class state champ shot a 991-50x with his 300WSM/berger230 combo at Coalinga last weekend, the things a lazer and bucks the wind better than my RSAUM, he's getting 2800+ out of it