Rail Guns

[FALex]

Nope, not the really sweet, classified one from Transformers. I'm talking these:

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Is it just me, or does that seem like it would be beyond dull. You could make a sammich, drink a cup of coffee, and smoke a cigarette while shooting one of these courses of fire. Although I do have to wonder how my rifle would perform when contained in one of those rails...interesting indeed.

Any of you guys have experience with these? Is this a derivation of F Class shooting? It just seems like there is not much skill involved, and please understand, I am not trying to talk shit. I just can't understand the fun in this. Half the challenge in practical precision is the variety of positions you get to shoot from. I guess what toots my horn doesn't toot others' horns too.

 

[thrusty]

Some just like to create toys and punch holes with them - it's cool. Neat in their own way, but not my cup of tea either.

 

[Beyschaefer]

It's not so different than any of the benchrest sports, where they try (as much as they can) to take equipment out of the equation and focus on wind-reading ability ONLY. It's a test of the shooters abilities between the ears, not the ability to hold the rifle and pull the trigger.
At least, that's the way it's been described to me by benchrest shooters.
Not my cup of tea either... I like to hold and steer the rifle.

 

[bluto51]

Well, I think I get it. Competing for accuracy to the nth degree by building your own concept/design.
If you think about it, that's what most competitive shooters do. This kind of competition focuses
heavily on the machine. The satisfaction of building a better mousetrap has its own appeal.
Not for me right now as I just started shooting F-T/R, but maybe someday.

 

[Early Cuyler]

I went to a 1k Benchrest competition earlier this year full of those rifles. I took my DTA not to be competitive, but to break my 1000yd cherry, haha. The appeal it seems to me is the preparation. The level of detail the serious guys put into the barreling, lapping, case preparation (holy hell talk about anal retentive here), bullet selection, etc. Wind reads was not a concern as they just waited until it was calm and then rapid fired.

Everything is incredibly precise from an ammo standpoint in particular. There was one guy who's 3rd round didn't chamber as easily as the other 9. It turns out it flew wide right by about 4" from the rest of the group. His group went from 4-5" to 9" because of that thrown round. Either way they have numerous hours of ammo preparation all coming together on the line and it is impressive to say the least!

 

[Swift]

I went to a 1k Benchrest competition earlier this year full of those rifles. I took my DTA not to be competitive, but to break my 1000yd cherry, haha. The appeal it seems to me is the preparation. The level of detail the serious guys put into the barreling, lapping, case preparation (holy hell talk about anal retentive here), bullet selection, etc. Wind reads was not a concern as they just waited until it was calm and then rapid fired.

Everything is incredibly precise from an ammo standpoint in particular. There was one guy who's 3rd round didn't chamber as easily as the other 9. It turns out it flew wide right by about 4" from the rest of the group. His group went from 4-5" to 9" because of that thrown round. Either way they have numerous hours of ammo preparation all coming together on the line and it is impressive to say the least!

 

[FALex]

so when the video shows the older gal looking at the wind flags, she is just waiting for the wind to die down? As part of the competition, do these folks need to build their own rails or are they allowed to buy them?

 

[Early Cuyler]

so when the video shows the older gal looking at the wind flags, she is just waiting for the wind to die down? As part of the competition, do these folks need to build their own rails or are they allowed to buy them?

In my conversations with the guys, they either wait for the wind to die down or maintain a hold and wait for the wind to meet that condition. At the IBS shoot I went to, the wind was zero to 5-6mph if memory serves so they just waited for calm conditions. Very few rifle adjustments are made on the line due to the heft of them, I guess.

The front/rear rests were very elaborate. Mirror finishes on the faying surfaces between the rest/stocks, alignment tools, and micro-adjustments. It was very impressive but again with whole rigs weighing in excess of 80lbs, not my cup of tea.

 

[downhill]

I've watched a couple of these at 200yd practices. 10 rds into one tiny hole. Shooting in the .0's and .1's at 200yds! It seems to be more about absolute accuracy in the reloading with the railgun removing the human error aspect.

 

[6brshooter]

The way i look at it, these top level shooters experiment with different machining/rifle building to improve mechanical accuracy. Experiment on different reloading techniques also. The things that reap the most accuracy in this sport trickledown to us. Remember br guys invented fiberglass stocks, free floated barrels, studied barrel harmonics and effects on load development glass bedding. Also the demand by br shooters resulted in accurate internal mechanics of scopes and repeatable adjustment. Think of it like this, look at all the things we have today from NASA r&d, velcro for one example. Same with formula1, technology from 5 yrs ago in that sport are in some production cars today. The unlimited rail gun shooters are on the cutting edge of shooting research. As a sidenote i prefer to shoot prone or positional with a bipod, but i also understand what these folks learn from their experimentation on their on dime.

 

[FALex]

I guess I could see the challenge in it, but knowing how much work F class shooters put into their reloads, it seems like that is where their fun might be. I had never seen these shoots until youtube suggested it. I thought it was going to be on the super sweet "classified" railgun...