The Art of Rimfire Accuracy

By Bill Calfee

Bill Calfee has been working with guns since the 1970’s and decided to focus on the 22 rimfire beginning in the 1980’s. Since the 1980’s Bill has had many ideas on how to improve the accuracy of the 22 rimfire, some ideas have increased the accuracy potential tremendously and some ideas proved out to be learning experiences for future ideas.
Since about 2001 Bill has tried to capture his ideas, experiments, testing, and conclusions by writing about them. He has written about the successes that increased accuracy as well as the ideas that didn’t improve accuracy. Although Bill is not a writer, he felt compelled to pass along the knowledge that he has obtained in the spirit of improving the accuracy of the 22 rimfire benchrest guns for everyone that has like goals. He has shared his writings previously with the benchrest community through different avenues.
In this book, all of Bill’s writings are assembled in a chronological order to show the evolution of the accuracy of the 22rf as he has experienced it. He goes into detail about each aspect of rimfire accuracy discussing all of the components and their contribution to the improved accuracy. This book is a must have for everyone that is serious about increasing the accuracy in their 22 rimfire guns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456797751

Bill Calfee

William “Bill” Stewart Calfee was born September 1944 about half way between Hindman & Hazard, KY. His family relocated to New Albany, IN during 1953. The Calfee family didn’t have much but, they had plenty of love to smooth out the rough times. Bill spent his youth in New Albany doing research along the Ohio River as most young boys love to do. He loved to spend his free time enjoying Mother Nature to her fullest. As a young lad Bill would scan various mail-order catalogs using a flashlight under his bed covers while dreaming about owning guns. Of course, he was supposed to be sleeping. Sleeping or dreaming about guns….that was a no brainer for Bill…he could sleep another time. Bill enjoyed the mechanics of things and how they worked so much that he always had to dis-assemble items to see why they worked the way they did. This “Have to know why” spirit carried over into his love of guns. Bill was fortunate to be growing up during a time that allowed competing high school rimfire rifle teams. Bill was a member of his New Albany high school’s rimfire team. This time sparked his interest into accurate rifles and what causes them to be accurate. Unknowing to him at the time, his future path was coming into focus. Back in the early 70’s Bill had a terrible accident while driving his employers’ utility truck. He had multiple fractures of his left leg and hip, a broken right hand and some internal injuries. This accident played a large part in him devoting more time to his gunsmithing interest due to the prolonged time needed for his recovery. His interest in guns helped him through this trying and difficult time. Bill had this desire to understand and make accurate rifles. The biggest obstacle to reaching his goal was that he didn’t know how to operate a metal lathe or mill. He met this challenge by reading all he could about them and putting his hands to the controls. He is self taught on his metal working equipment and now operates all of it proficiently as an extension of his own hands. Beginning in the late 1980’s Bills drive focused on the rimfire rifles and improving their accuracy as much as possible. Since then, this desire has consumed him in his every waking moment and controlled any idle time he may have enjoyed. He continues his quest to build the most accurate 22 rimfire rifles possible today.

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© 2011 Bill Calfee. All Rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 09/30/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9776-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9777-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9775-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011915077

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

From the Author

Preface

An Evolutionary Development in the BR-50 Gun

The Calfee Rimfire Barrel Device

Cleaning Rods

Rimfire Ignition

What Rimfire Benchrest Shooting Has Meant To Me

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Remington 40-X

and the Calfee XP-100

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Model ‘54 Anschutz

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Winchester 52

An Evaluation, by me, of my Benchrest Rimfire Action Evaluations – So far…

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Suhl 150

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The 2007/2013 Anschutz

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Time, ULA and 37 Remington

Benchrest Rimfire Actions Turbo, Hall and Kelbly

Man, what a start!!!

Mirage

A Cinderella Story (or 2)

Rimfire Benchrest Evaluations

Harry’s Winning Suhl 150

2002, What a Year!

Play it Again, Sam

Chamber Seasoning

The Calfee Rem-Bo

A Rem-Bo update

New Development in Rimfire Actions

With this Crown, I Make Thee King

Ring around the collar? Don’t Wisk it away!

The Second Amendment of Rimfire Accuracy

How To Do Rimfire Benchrest Part 1 The Barrel

How To Do Rimfire Benchrest Part 2 The Action

How To Do Rimfire Benchrest - Part 3 Putting it together

Partners in Crime

The 52 Winchester an Analysis

The River

Hallelujah!

I’m Feeling Those Good Vibrations, AGAIN!

To shim, or not to shim, that is the question

Red Tail

An Experiment

Tunerations

The Nodey Place

Take This Job and ‘Slug’ It Ch. 1

Mrs. Mallard (and a slugging story)

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

OK, Lets Back Up And Start From Scratch, Please

Take This Job And Slug It, Chapter 2

Take This Job And Slug It, Chapter 3

Mutt

Just Relax

Just Relax, Part II

They Say You Can’t Ever Go Back

Houston Control, We Have Ignition

My Silver Anniversary (Sort Of)

Additional Thoughts on Relaxing

An Experiment in Barrel Indexing - Part 1

An Experiment in Barrel Indexing - Part 2

Potpourri No. 1

Potpourri No. 2

Potpourri No. 3

Potpourri No. 4

Me, Doc and Butch

A Rifle’s Tale

From the Author

I suppose one individual can write enough material to fill a book, but, it takes the efforts of a bunch of individuals to make a book a reality.

I want to thank all of the hard working folks who have made this book possible.

If you’ve purchased this book expecting a venture into the world of literary excellence, you will be disappointed.

What this book represents, is the passion of one person, for whatever reason, to see exactly what level of accuracy could be obtained, by the most popular cartridge in the history of mankind, the 22 Long Rifle.

Making lead bullet accuracy is a challenge. When I first started this adventure, I learned real quick, that the things I thought I knew about jacketed bullet accuracy, just didn’t apply here.

After almost giving up, I started to discover, that dealing with these little waxed, lead bullet guns, took almost a sixth sense, a feel. If some operation was right, I knew it. If some operation was wrong, I knew it. In either case, there might not be anything that I could measure with instruments, to show the difference. I just knew, I just felt.

It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean by sixth sense, a feel.

Therefore, I’ve decided to title this work, THE ART OF RIMFIRE ACCURACY.

Good Shooting, Bill Calfee

Preface

Bill Calfee is Mr. Rimfire

My journey into benchrest rimfire began in 2001. The first match I attended was April 2001 in Borden Indiana. My shooting partner, Mark Meadows, had sent Bill Calfee a fax asking for directions and information about the ARA match scheduled for that April. Bill answered Mark’s faxed request with all of the needed information and had dressed the fax up with dancing hotdogs and other little drawings. This was just our first peek through the Bill Calfee window. It showed us how much he loves the benchrest game and how he never just gives what is asked of him, he always gives more.

Bill and all of the other competitors at the match made us feel welcome and were willing to help us any way they could including answering all of our numerous questions. At the time I was contemplating purchasing one of two available used rifles from two different shooters. I had heard that Bill was a gunsmith and was very knowledgeable about the rimfires. I knew that he was somewhat familiar with one of the guns that was offered for sale. I asked Bill what he thought of the two guns and their capabilities. His answer then was the same as it is now You need to shoot them and then decide which if either you want to purchase. The only way to know if they are any good is to shoot them.

I knew that he built the 22XP conversions. I asked him if he ever built long rifles. He said Yes, I kind of build them for a living. I thought well here is my opportunity. I asked him if he would build me a rifle. His answer was Yes, he would. My next question was how much and how long? He told me that he would fax me a list of the items that I needed to order in and he would build my rifle when his schedule allowed. I was tickled to death. Of course this excited Mark and he also asked Bill if he would build him a rifle. Bill’s response was that we just needed to order double the quantities of the items on the faxed material list. Bill followed through on his commitment and built us two killer rifles.

Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to watch Bill work and have conversations with him about different aspects of the rimfire game and its equipment. He is very meticulous in his work and will leave no stone unturned or as he says I don’t want to leave anything on the table. If you engage him in a conversation about these little rimfires all you have to do is ask him a question to get him started, then turn your ears on because he is going to give you some valuable nuggets of information.

When Bill has a new idea it is fun to listen to him share his thoughts of what his idea is and how to go about making it happen and then proving it out through multiple testing sessions. Bill will attack each idea from multiple directions to understand it completely so he develops the idea in the best possible way. Some of the past changes he has helped develop or championed for our rimfire game are things like the muzzle device, slugging or evaluating barrels, MI barrels (minimally invasive), better quality ammo, straight wall rimfire chambers, harder cleaning rods, single ring scope mounting, six o’clock firing pin, 90 degree sear engagement, sporter profiled barrels, and maybe his biggest accomplishment is his extremely accurate XP-22 Pistols.

Bill’s passion lies in his XP-22 conversions. These conversions require considerable machining and fitting to complete. Bill is very focused and meticulous when he is converting one of these XP’s. These are his babies and I believe therein lies his passion and pride. The XP-22’s are just as accurate as a full custom benchrest rifle. They are shot using a front bi-pod and rear 4 x 4 sandbag as the rest components. Their accuracy is unexplainable but evident. They will shoot right with a custom benchrest 22 on a one piece machined rest. It is a pure pleasure to watch Bill when he is using one of his XP-22’s. He is a phenomenal shot with them and has his own style when addressing the targets while dispensing of them in a very timely fashion. He is a Runner when shooting targets with his XP-22’s, which means he shoots in an accelerated rhythm. His accuracy with the XP-22’s is the benchmark all XP-22 shooters strive to obtain.

Whenever Bill completes a new custom rifle or XP-22 his next goal is the same as it always has been….. He strives to make a better more accurate benchrest gun that will be better than the last one he just completed. Bill could build cookie cutter guns by using all of his learned knowledge and they would all be great and very accurate but, he chooses to experiment and attempt to make each gun more accurate using new ideas and newly learned knowledge from his experiments. Bill is driven by the thing called Ultimate Rimfire Accuracy. He only has one goal and that is to build the most accurate benchrest gun possible with every build.

Bill is happiest when he is working to develop and test a new idea. I think he builds and sells benchrest guns just to allow him the ability to afford the research, development, and testing of his many ideas of how to improve the accuracy of the rimfires. He spends all of his waking moments working to improve the accuracy of the rimfires and I think he thinks/dreams about improving accuracy even during his sleep. I have never seen such dedication to a single goal as Bill exhibits when working for rimfire accuracy. He is consumed by the drive of improving it every day in some way.

Along with Bill’s ability to build the most accurate benchrest guns possible is his ability to create art to go with his creations. He includes some of his artwork on the actions themselves which makes his work stand out as a truly custom piece. Bill also does sketches and watercolors depicting events having to do with our benchrest games. These events include congratulating a huge tournament winner that is a Calfee shooter, a humorous drawing of some sort, or a sketch pertaining to a current discussion among rimfire shooters. His sketches and watercolors are very highly valued by the rimfire community. You feel so honored when he does a sketch or water color that pertains to your contributions or your accomplishments. Bill is an artist in more ways than one.

I hope I have been able to give you a little insight to the man Bill Calfee and his drive. He is passionate about his work, considerate of his fellow man, and is as excited as A kid in a candy store about rimfire accuracy. He is a man that I am very fortunate to have met, had the privilege to spend hours watching him at his craft, engaged in many conversations with him, be exposed to his passion, and above all be able to call him friend……..

Mike Sherrill

An Evolutionary Development in the BR-50 Gun

by Bruce A. Buckner, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

This is a story about what I (and some others) think is an evolutionary development in the sport of shooting .22 rimfire guns in bench rest competition. It started with a quest for a better way to do the job and resulted in bringing together a new gun and a competitor new to BR-50 and the shooter placing second in a match against some of the best in the country. It happened in BR-50 because limited restrictions allowed new approaches and thinking. Bill Calfee built the gun and I was the shooter. This is the way it happened.

THE HISTORY

My friendship with Bill Calfee began with a search for someone to convert a Remington 40X rimfire target rifle to a magazine fed sporter. This project has never been realized, but a lot of other interesting things have happened along the way. Bill introduced me to two forms of shooting sport in which I had never really intended to engage and has taught me a great deal about rimfire rifles and ammunition. The latest project started out to be just another rimfire target rifle but wound up being a state of the art firearm for the specialized sport of BR-50.

I had wanted a 40X sporter for a long time, but the few I saw for sale were way out of my price range. Being interested in shooting .22 rimfires from the bench and in smallbore rifle silhouette, I had bought several 40X target rifles when the price was right. I thought about having one of these converted to repeater and fitted with a match grade sporter weight barrel. Talking to people at gun shows got me Bill Calfee’s address and phone number. Bill and I found that we had a mutual interest in accurate .22’s and this progressed into several rebarreling jobs. Bill’s work is absolutely first class and (unlike some other gunsmiths with which I have dealt) thoroughly tests everything he builds.

Several years ago, I arranged to meet Bill at a gun show in Louisville, Kentucky to pick up the latest completed project. While looking for him, I spotted an unusual firearm displayed on a dealer’s table. It was a Remington XP-100 converted from centerfire to .22 rimfire, fitted with a 14 inch barrel and silhouette sights. I talked with the gun’s owner, John Morton, and it developed that the gun was built by none other than Bill Calfee and was known in silhouette circles as an XP-22. It was the most interesting thing I had seen in a long time and I just had to have one. Several months later, I was shooting my own and found that it was as accurate as any .22 rifle I had ever fired. Bill numbers each gun he makes and mine was #28.

Since these guns were conceived by Bill to be used in International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) unlimited class competition, he kept urging me to shoot mine in a match. Finally, I did. Did I like it? Well, for the last three years I have shot a silhouette match almost every weekend from April to October. I shot silhouette matches while on vacation in Idaho and went to the IHMSA Internationals near Knoxville, Tennessee in 1991.

Unlimited .22 was the only class I entered at first, now I shoot all the .22 classes, plus field pistol and big bore revolver. Six silhouette guns of various types reside here now and they all get used. (Except the latest addition; I haven’t shot that one in a match yet, I only got it in December).

So along comes BR-50. At my home club (Fairfield Sportsmen’s Association near Cincinnati, Ohio), we have been shooting informal 100 yard rimfire bench rest for years. These are score matches fired with sporters or match rifles (separate classes for iron sights and scopes) on targets suitable for each type of rifle. The way our range is built, it would be difficult to conduct a 50 yard match so BR-50 didn’t get a lot of interest around here. Then I heard from Dean Grua, a silhouette shooter and a mutual friend, that Bill was shooting his own XP-22 in BR-50. I talked to Bill about it and he urged me to get involved. I thought oh, no, here we go again! I managed to resist for a time, then the 1992 BR-50 Internationals was held near me at the Bluegrass Sportsmen’s League (BGSL) in Wilmore, Kentucky. I couldn’t go because of other commitments, but I heard a lot about it and recognized a lot of names from previous centerfire bench rest matches at my home club.

THE GUN

Finally, a friend and I went to BGSL for a match in December. I took my XP-22 (#28) set up with a scope but we didn’t get to shoot because we got lost and didn’t find the range in time. However, we did get to see part of the match and the scoring and got to talk to a lot of the shooters. Subsequently, I delivered to Bill the components to build another XP-22, this time to use in bench rest matches and probably BR-50 (even though I wouldn’t admit that at the time). Bill and I had some long conversations about just how it should be set up and the final form wasn’t worked out until he was actually working on the gun.

Subscribers to PRECISION SHOOTING who read the rimfire stuff will remember that BR-50 has a weight handicap factor and essentially no other restrictions. The handicap is simple, points are added to or subtracted from your score if your gun is less than or more than 12 pounds (one percent for each pound). I like this, because I think it invites innovation and free thinking. The creative gunsmith can use his imagination and skill to come up with something really new. And that is just what has happened. Instead of merely experimenting with existing bench rest rifle techniques, Bill Calfee has come up with something really new.

Bill’s BR-50 gun (it’s not really a conventional rifle or a pistol) is built on a Remington XP-100 action converted to rimfire (the XP-22 mentioned previously). A Remington 40X rimfire bolt is used, after being shortened and the bolt handle replaced with one from the XP-100 (see photo #1).

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Rear locking lugs are cut in the action (photo #2) and a bolt/cartridge guide is installed as is a special bolt stop. The result is similar to the 40X action scaled down to XP-100 size (remember the weight handicapping in BR-50). The foreend of the factory XP stock is reinforced with glass bedding compound and a rail with detachable bipod added. A match barrel is fitted and the existing center grip trigger is modified to Bill’s own two ounce design.

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Of course, all this is much easier to tell about than to do, and if you have never seen any of Bill’s work you just can’t appreciate the care and precision he puts into everything he does. The barrel is a story in itself. Bill is currently using a chambering reamer of his own design with a 1 degree 45 minute transition. The profile of the barrel is straight from just in front of the receiver to the muzzle, usually 0.85 inch in diameter (see photo #3). Bill feels that this configuration allows less expansion of the bore when turning it down from it’s previous taper (in the case of a used barrel) or from a blank. This same concept was mentioned by Geoffrey Kolbe (of Border Barrels, Ltd., in Scotland) in the March issue of PRECISION SHOOTING.

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To keep a good barrel shooting, the profiling must be done very slowly with a lot of light passes, Bill says. For instance, my new gun (XP-22 #42) uses a 20 inch section from an old Remington 40X rimfire barrel. To profile this barrel to 0.75 inch diameter (at my request, but I won’t tell you why), Bill used eleven 23 minute passes on the lathe. That’s almost 4.5 hours of lathe time. By the way, it is very interesting to note that some of the hottest shooting barrels in BR-50 today are used rimfire target barrels from old Remington 40X’s and Model 37’s. Figure that out.

Okay, we’ve got the gun all set up with two ounce trigger, match barrel, stock and bipod. Add a scope (24x bench rest quality) and a set of light rings and a light base (remember the weight handicap). My gun, #42, weighs in at exactly 6.5 pounds with a Bausch & Lomb 24x scope, Bushnell rings and a modified Weaver base. (Subsequently, the B&L scope was replaced with a Leupold 24x and that is the way the gun is pictured in the cover photograph.) The only other thing needed, aside from good ammunition, is a small sandbag. A small, loosely packed sandbag.

THE MATCH

I went to BGSL in March with a leather brick bag packed tight as a drum with fine sand. The first thing Bill did was to empty about half of my precious clean white sand onto the ground. But he was right, the loose bag was much easier to work with than the tight one would have been. The idea is to put the legs of the bipod on a non-sticky surface that will not hinder the movement of the gun. (Bill uses a small piece of short nap carpet; I used a shop rag - no extra pieces of carpet being on hand.) Put the small loose sandbag under the grip of the stock (see photo #4).

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Photo #4

Bill coached me through a warm up match saying, shoot the targets from left to right, then the reverse, NOT up and down, and use the grip of your non-shooting hand to bring the gun onto the target with the sandbag, keep your trigger hand loose on the grip. As usual he was right. Any time I forgot and gripped the stock with more than minimal pressure, the shot went out. And it doesn’t take much to put a shot out. Those BR-50 bullseyes are SMALL.

I practiced during the warmup and got familiar with the loose sandbag, looking forward to the match itself with some foreboding. After all, we were going to shoot 50 shots in 30 minutes. That isn’t a very generous time limit. Most bench rest matches are a good deal more slowly paced and only five or ten record shots are fired in a relay. What actually occurred was one of the most intense 30 minutes I have ever experienced.

The fast pace seemed to help me maintain my concentration and I paid no attention to the shooters on either side of me. The wind flags, grip on the gun, trigger pull and shot placement filled my mind and I fired one shot at a time, just like the guys who write the books tell you to do. It was a windy day (aren’t they all?), but the condition seemed to hold for me. I guess it was one of those days when you can’t seem to do anything wrong. Finishing up with a few minutes to spare, I sat back to check over my target through the scope. It was the first time I had really looked at the whole thing and my impression was that I had not done too badly.

When the targets were collected, Bill helped me score mine (after all this was my first match). The total was a lot higher that I thought it would be and there was one 500 grid. Bill said that if it held up through the official scoring process it would be a good score indeed and the 500 grid might be a record because of the weight of the gun. Well, it held up. In my first BR-50 match with a new gun which I had never shot before, I took second place. I couldn’t miss. This gun shoots better than anything I have ever seen before, and I have owned and shot a lot of .22 rimfire rifles. The 500 grid turned out to be a state and world record because mine was the lightest gun ever to shoot a perfect grid (so far).

THE AFTERMATH

Bill’s BR-50 gun incorporates something that I have been thinking about for some time and that is the lack of a buttstock. I am a large person with a very full face. One of my biggest problems with bench rest shooting is with cheek pressure on the stock and with shoulder pressure. I never could decide which worked best for me, free recoil or a tight hold. I don’t have to worry about that anymore. The fact that the lack of a buttstock results in significantly less weight doesn’t hurt, either.

Some shooters are skeptical about this approach, but not as much as they used to be. On February 7, Bill Calfee won the BR-50 match at BGSL using his XP-22 with an aggregate score of 3997. On March 7, I took second with a 4062 agg. Brenda Greiner took first on the same day with a truly impressive 4078 agg using an Anschutz rifle. (Brenda organizes the matches at Lexington and does a very fine job.) Warren McFarland (a previous BR-50 National Champion using an XP-22 set up as a conventional rifle) is now shooting one of Bill’s creations at that match. John Morton, owner of the XP-22 that excited my interest several years back, is having his modified for BR-50 (it will be lighter than mine). The latest development is that Jack Jones borrowed Bill’s personal XP-22 and finished second and first in a two match stack at Pensacola, Florida on March 28th.

The result of the lack of restrictive rules in BR-50 has allowed a truly creative guy with a lot of mechanical savvy and a driving urge to come up with something new, to do just that. Something really new and that really works. My hat is off to the man who made it happen, Bill Calfee. Now I have a problem. If I participate in a silhouette match every weekend, where will I get the time to shoot BR-50? I guess I’ll just have to make a sacrifice somewhere. I would like to thank Jeff Kauck (a dedicated and accomplished smallbore rifleman and professional photographer) for taking the pictures on the cover and accompanying this writing. (Kauk Photography, Inc., 1050 East McMillan Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206.

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December 1994

The Calfee Rimfire Barrel Device

By

Bill Calfee as related to Bruce Buckner

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BILL WAS RIDING ALONG peacefully one day in his pickup truck (probably on his way to a BR-50 match) when he noticed that his truck’s radio antenna was vibrating. Now, you may say, well so what, I see that all the time. But Bill being the analytical thinker that he is, noticed there was only ONE node in the oscillation, located near the free end (see Figure 1). Comparing a pickup truck to a rimfire rifle may seem a little farfetched, but in this case they do have something in common. The base of the antenna and the breech of the rifle barrel are fastened to something else (truck body or rifle receiver) and the other end is free to move. Ah hah, thought Bill, instead of the multiple nodes that traditional thinking would have us envision in a vibrating barrel, maybe there is only one! (See Figure 2) If this were true, what effect might it have on rifle accuracy? Traditional thinking also tells us that as long as the rifle barrel vibrates the same way every time, then the bullet would exit the same and would strike the same spot on the target. This is well and good; however, getting this to happen is not easy. Look how difficult it is to get a really good action bedding job and look at the effects of moving the rifle between shots (well known to BR-50 shooters). Even the pressure of the hand on the rifle may cause it to vibrate differently from shot to shot.

A lot of people in the past have tried to find solutions to this problem. One of the earliest was to put a steel band around the stock and barrel to lock them together (i.e., Springfield M1922 and early Winchester 52 rifles). A later development was the dual bedding screws in the foreends of Winchester Model 52B/C and Remington 40X/XB target rifles. Freeland’s Scope Stands sold these as a unit for installation in other rifles, and also had a battery operated device that would indicate the precise adjustment where the screws touched the barrel. Art Cook (Mr. Eley of Tomart, Inc.) who won the smallbore rifle gold medal for the United States in the 1948 Olympics, swears by the electric bedding device. He ran out of his good lot of ammunition during a big match, dialed in a different lot with the electric bedding device, and won the match! The most recent innovation is the Ballistic Optimizing Shooting System or BOSS by Browning. Browning says the idea developed from tests when they saw improved accuracy after shortening some centerfire rifle barrels that wouldn’t group well. This may well be true but Bill did not find it to be the case with .22 rimfire rifles.

Bill clamped a length of 3/32 inch welding rod by one end in a vise, struck it near the clamped end and it vibrated with same pattern as the truck antenna. Bill noticed that if the rod was touched anywhere except at the node, the vibration was damped. The rod could be lightly held by the node and the vibration would continue. Likewise a rifle barrel will vibrate when struck but the trick is to find the node. Bill hung up a barrel by a string, took a brass hammer and tapped the barrel up and down it’s length. Every tap along the barrel, except the node, rang like a chime. The node has a dull ring, very distinctive and different from the rest of the barrel. This finding was of limited importance because the node will change position when screwed into a receiver and again when the receiver is bolted into a stock. Finding the node by this method with a stocked rifle is more difficult.

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Bill tried cutting the barrel off at the node and re-crowning the muzzle. All that accomplished was to move the node back toward the action. Next he tried counterboring the barrel back to the node and crowning, but the node again moved farther back in the barrel. He could not displace enough material to get the crown exactly at the node (the dead spot) and even if he had it could not have addressed the problem of different vibrations with different lots of ammunition (as per Mr. Cook’s experience related above).

In order to be most useful to precision shooters, any method developed to deal with the vibration problem would have to be adjustable for different brands and lots of ammo.

Vertical dispersion is the worst problem with accuracy in rimfires. Thinking about all of the above, Bill wondered about the effect of gravity on barrel vibration (if any). He set up a test barrel on a Winchester 52D action in his machine rest. Using ammunition that produced groups with a pronounced vertical dispersion, Bill fired groups with the barreled action indexed at zero, 90, 180 and 270 degrees. The groups were still vertical with the barreled action in all positions. (An interesting side note is that the groups shot with the barreled action upside down, 180 degrees, were slightly smaller than the others. This may be due to the firing pin being at 6 o’clock instead of 12 o’clock. The ill-fated Poff FDC Olympian action had this feature but was doomed to failure for other reasons). Reasoning that if shortening the barrel moved the node closer to the receiver, maybe adding length would move it closer to the muzzle. Bill made a collar-like device that clamped to the barrel and tested it extensively. We theorize that addition of the device dampens the vibration of the barrel significantly (see Figure 3) because the result is improved accuracy. Several sizes and weights were tried before setting on the dimensions to be detailed here. Figures 4 and 5 are schematics of the device and give some dimensions. Photos 1 and 2 show close-ups of a device of Bill’s making unattached to a firearm, Photo 3 shows the same device on one of his BR-50 guns and Photo 4 shows devices of different size/weight attached to barrels. For this device to work properly, the barrel must be a parallel contour. That is, no taper at all. (This is as it should be because the parallel contour results in the best control of interior barrel dimensions.) The spot that corrects the vibrations is critical. Very small adjustments are all that are needed to effect a significant difference. The device must not be clamped tightly, just enough to hold it (10 to 15 inch pounds of torque on the screws is all that is needed).

Bill does NOT plan on making these devices as any good machinist can turn out one. He is offering this information for accuracy minded rimfire shooters to make one for themselves if they so desire. These dimensions will work on any size target barrel, the larger the barrel in diameter the larger the device should be proportionally. We believe these devices will be a must for any target quality rimfire rifle. Again, the placement of the device on the barrel is critical, it can be moved back and forward on the barrel and one would think nothing is happening but when the exact spot is found, am immediate improvement will be seen. Some years ago, Bill pioneered adjustable headspace for rimfires to help with the problem of matching ammunition to the barrel for best accuracy. This device is the next evolutionary step and with it many more brands and lots of ammo will be accurate in a given barrel.

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I spoke with several BR-50 shooters about the concept described here. Larry DeLong, Steve Hurst and Steve Turner are among the most accomplished shooters in this difficult discipline. They are all using something similar to the Calfee Rimfire Barrel Device and all say that it works. Steve Turner commented that the device makes it much easier (quicker and a lot less expensive) to find a really good batch of ammunition. Larry felt that it enabled him to shoot groups two to three hundredths smaller than without the device. While group shooting doesn’t apply directly to BR-50, it does indicate that the device is working. All agreed that it is worth the weight penalty (the device as described here weighs about 8 ounces). Bill himself says his scores have risen 300-400 points since he began using one, even with the added weight handicap. As a testimonial to the Calfee Barrel Device for Rimfires (CBDR, not as catchy as some other acronyms, but that’s life), Bill has been placing regularly in the top five in recent matches with his BR-50 XP-22 gun fitted with a CBDR. Bill firmly believes (and I think he is absolutely correct) that every serious rimfire competitive shooter will have a device similar to the one described in this writing sooner or later. Even if you believe your rimfire shoots good now, it can be better!

Good Shooting, Bill Calfee 2_bullets_original.jpg

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February/March 2001

Cleaning Rods

FROM TIME TO TIME, I am going to attempt to type some thoughts on my concepts of rimfire accuracy and related factors. What I say can usually be taken with a grain of salt, cause I ain’t no expert. What I do love is rimfire accuracy, just like all of you. I have spent most of my adult life trying to figure what makes these little lead bullet guns accurate. What I have mostly resolved is what don’t work. But I have kept track of the things that if done the same, time after time, will help accuracy. These are the things I will attempt to write about.

If any of you have thoughts or questions, please write or fax me and I will do my best to answer you. I learned long ago that a man with a closed mind don’t get far. I am learning to and welcome any new ideas as I am sure all competitors will.

One other thing right up front, If you haven’t figured it out from reading this so far, I ain’t no writer. I have a fear that what I am trying to say in type here may not come across as I intend but I am going to attempt this by myself so you have my sympathy up front.

Cleaning Rods

I might as well get started with some controversy. Coated cleaning rods or non-coated? I will start my first writing effort by describing the process of lapping. I lap a lot of rifle barrel bores. I use lead that is cast on a rod in the bore of the barrel. Then grit and oil are added and an attempt is made to make the bore uniform by passing the lap up and down the barrel. It is pretty common knowledge that the way a lap works is by making sure that the material the lap is made of is softer than the piece to be lapped. The grit will embed in the soft lap and will cut the harder work piece.

Now we get to cleaning rods. For the reasons above, I have a fear of coated cleaning rods. I use hardened steel rods that I have polished length ways with 600 wet or dry paper. Sometimes while I am watching a ball game on TV, I will take my cleaning rods and paper and work them back and forth. The wet or dry paper will break down and the more you polish, the slicker the rod becomes. A cleaning rod of hardened steel, polished, can’t hurt the bore.

"I learned long ago that

a man with a closed

mind don’t get far."

Will a coated rod hurt the bore? I had the maker of a popular cleaning rod, coated, give me one to evaluate. I wrote the gentleman a letter explaining my concerns for coated rods. I never heard from him. I have never used the rod either. Is the coating they use non-embedding? I wish I knew. If any of you who use coated rods, especially one that has been used for some time, will hold the rod up to a good light or outside on a bright day and look down the length of it… chances are you will notice a rifling pattern engraved in the coating… this means that the coating is wrapping around the corners of the rifling. This can’t be good and if that coating can pick up carbon from the combustion process, then that can’t be good for the bore. Again, a hard polished rod cannot hurt the bore, period. Shoot, what am I saying, there are some folks who could destroy anything, but with reasonable care you won’t hurt the bore with a hard polished rod.

I have rebarreled a hand full of rimfires of the years that had wear from cleaning rods. I have always made it a point to find out what kind of cleaning rod the shooter used and every time their cleaning rod was coated.

Well, now that I have made everyone mad, I think I will stop typing. I was going to write some thought on rimfire ignition but I think I will do that the next time that is if after this first technical advice, there is a next time.

Good Shooting, Bill Calfee 2_bullets_original.jpg

April/May 2001

Rimfire Ignition

RIMFIRE IGNITION SEEMS LIKE such a non factor in making an accurate rimfire but there is really a lot to think about. A lot of shooters overlook this aspect of making an accurate rifle.

For best accuracy with a rimfire, or centerfire for that matter, requires a good firm blow from the firing pin. The firing pin should be shaped in such a way as to strike just inside of the rim. If the pin strikes the outer edge of the rim, then it meets solid metal where the rim folds over. If you really have a good strong main spring this is not as critical. The pin shape should be as broad as the ability of the mainspring will allow and still have good penetration of the case head. The pin should not have sharp edges because safety is of first importance and you do not want the case head pierced as injury could result to the shooter. The firing pin should be laid back a little toward 12:00 so as to kinda roll the rim against the edge of the chamber. I like the round flat firing pin of the Suhl, IF, it has a good mainspring. If spring pressure is no good this is a bad design. I think the Suhl’s round pin was probably designed more as a practical matter than something unique about its shape. A chisel shape will not work on a Suhl because the pin design does not stabilize the pin from rotating so the pin could turn sideways.

Here is how I rate rimfire actions for good ignition. The Suhl can be great with a good mainspring. 40-X’s can be made really well and most are. 52 Winchester’s sometimes need a new mainspring but with a good spring have good ignition. Turbo’s can be made to have good ignition but some from the factory are weak in this area. Most shooters use Jewell triggers in their Turbo and Jewell’s sear connector is shorter than a factory Remington, so the firing pin on some Turbo’s is not pre loaded enough. It would be nice if Jewell made a Turbo specific trigger. I have heard that Turbo is attempting to address this. The 37 Remington has a good ignition as a rule. Old Anschutz 54’s usually have good ignition but the late speed lock 54’s are suspect. I believe all 1981 or later 54’s with the double spring should have a higher rate springs installed. Kimber’s are good as a rule. I am not familiar with Cooper’s enough to make a judgment. The Sako Finfire is not good, but I don’t know a good solution. I am not familiar with Hall’s new action or Kelbly’s. I did talk to Mr. Hall at length before he designed his action and he understands the need for good ignition so I suspect he has made it so.

Extractors and ignition! Yes, they can have an effect. It would be nice if every rimfire case ever made had exactly the same rim thickness. But they don’t. So we must headspace the barrel with enough gap to handle all thicknesses of rims. Ideally it would be best if the rim set tight against the breech face every shot. But that can’t happen. What usually does happen is when the bolt is closed, as the bullet reaches the chamber engraving (match chambers must be engraved), the extractors snap over the rim and the case winds up sitting against the bolt face, not touching the breech face.

This is okay. As a matter of fact, you want this to happen every single time, the same. What you do not want to happen is every once in a while to have the extractors push the rim up against the breech face before snapping over the rim proper… this shot can be a flyer. So I always try to time my extractors to ALWAYS snap over the rim, every time. If you do not think this matters, try this experiment:

When you are at the range testing sometime, shoot 3 or 4 groups with your good ammo, in good conditions. Then load a round, using your finger to push the round completely against the breech face. Close the bolt and shoot. The next round, let the bolt push the round home as normal. Alternate this back and forth and shoot 3 or 4 more groups. 50% of the time your groups will enlarge. Caution!!! Do not use any hard object to push the cases into the chamber. If you can’t do it with your finger, don’t do it at all. And on a dirty chamber it is sometimes hard to do. ALWAYS BE SAFE!

Some bottle cap shooters up east pull their extractors. They only shoot one shot at a match so extraction isn’t a problem. They believe that the extractors exert side pressure on the rim and cause accuracy problems, but I disagree. Most extractors, if the extractor slots are properly cut, stand away from the rim when at battery so no side pressure is exerted. What these shooters guarantee by removing their extractors is that every single round is left in contact with the bolt face which makes ignition more uniform every shot. No chance of the extractors pushing a round up against the breech face every once in a while if you remove them. We can’t do that in benchrest.

I often thought if an action had a breech bolt with a spring loaded plunger in the face that would push every round up against the breech face, it would be great. But if that plunger ever set off a cartridge before it went to battery, it would be unsafe, so will probably never be tried. Well, there you have some more of my screwed up ideas. It takes a bunch of little things, all done correctly to make a match winning rifle.

Good Shooting, Bill Calfee 2_bullets_original.jpg

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June 2001

What Rimfire Benchrest Shooting Has Meant To Me

(and, a few clues about some upcoming writings)

I’D LIKE TO SHARE with you what rimfire benchrest has meant to me, from a gunsmith’s point of view. What it HASN’T meant is money. Not big money, anyway. The money one makes is necessary for one to buy good shells and barrels and things of lesser value, like food, clothes and a place to sleep. So money has some importance. No, what making these little guns has meant to me, are the friendships I have developed and the memories of folks being happy with my work. Oh, the memories! Like friend Warren McFarland. Now before I go further, a lot of these reminiscences will be from the golden age of the BR-50 memories. But whether it’s BR-50, ARA, IR-50/50, or RBA, we are all in this thing together. And I have so many memories, I can’t write them all or you’d be asleep long before you finished reading them.

However, getting back to Warren McFarland, or Mac, as he was known, Mac was the first BR-50 G-Line Champ. I got to live his run for the championship with him. And, back then, there weren’t multiple target matches. Mac would get in his old Ford van, take off from Kokomo, Indiana and drive to Florida or Texas to shoot ONE TARGET. Mac was not a young man and he had health problems, but he did not let that stop him. He would always call me after the matches. He would start by saying. Well buddy, I shot today. I would ask, How did it go? Then he would start with 10th place and tell me who was there and then 9th and so on. Well, when he did this, I knew he had won. But, he would tell every place but never mention how HE had done. So I would finally ask, Well Mac, you do any good? He would then come back with, Oh, I won.

He would shoot one day in St. Louis, then drive to Little Rock for a match the next day. Oh, what memories! This is what making rimfire benchrest guns has meant to me. Maybe I carried on too much about Mac, but he was the first one to see the merits of traveling in an effort to win a championship.

Then I got to live and die and live again with Steve Turner during his G-Line Championship year. Steve wore himself out traveling, but he was the beginning of the modern era of G-Line/Stat Line players. He contacted me after his matches, as Mac had done, but it was now by fax. He would always get a fax to me through the hotels he stayed at. Oh what memories! I said it again, didn’t I? But, this is what rimfire benchrest has meant to me.

When Travis Ruhlow made his G-Line Championship run, I got to ride along with him. Travis also had health problems. I can remember one weekend when he had just returned from down South at some matches. He lives in Indiana. He was totally worn out, physically. He was sick and I know he was so burned out that it would have been real easy for him to have said, What the hell am I doing this for? But, Travis reached down and found some inner strength, got in his vehicle and drove all night to Virginia. Not only did he make the Virginia match but with all the pain he was suffering, he managed to win AND set a state record in the process. Oh, what memories. This is what rimfire benchrest has meant to me.

I remember when Macky Locklin made his Championship run. I had built Macky a rifle earlier, that he used to start the season with, and it wasn’t really that great. Macky did not start out his G-Line run that year on with the intention of winning. He shot along, doing fairly well but not outstanding. The rifle I’d made for him just wasn’t a winner. But, as the year progressed, he found himself near the top of the standings. So, he found himself scheduling himself for more matches. But, with his current rifle, it was doubtful that he was going to win the G/Line Championship. To win the Championship, a competitor needed VOLUME, lots of events to his credit. And, he also needed to WIN a lot of them, because there were shooters out there who WERE winning. Out of desperation, I set up a barrel for his Anschutz 2007, did the best I could with it. For some reason, God, fate or whatever it is that controls things in this world, the fates smiled on that barrel.

Macky started dominating the matches with scores two hundred to four hundred points better than he’d been able to achieve with the previous barrel. But, even with the improved equipment, Macky found himself pressured. Like some of the others, Macky faxed all his results to me, but he got to the point that he, too, was about ready to throw in the towel. I did what I could to help him get through those last couple months with lots of encouragement. But he, like Travis, like Steve, like Mac, sucked it up and will always be known as a champion. Oh, what memories! This is what rimfire benchrest has meant to me.

Finally, Hoke Kerns. Hoke and I fax a lot. I don’t think Hoke started his run for the G-Line Championship that year with winning it in mind, but he did really well right out of the gate. And, I think he came to the conclusion that he was going to go for it sooner than the others. For those that don’t know, Hoke’s nick-name is DaGOB. I’m afraid they would bleep me if I told you what that stands for. Anyway, Hoke got to the point of exhaustion just like the rest. It is a grueling pace that one must maintain in search of a championship. Not everyone has what it takes. Hoke was having knee problems and he struggled to finish. But, like the rest, he found something down deep inside and won. I got to ride along with him that year. Like always, my ride was strictly in a spiritual sense. I was high when he was high and down when he was down. Along the way Hoke set a bunch of records including the all time BR-50 record. By comparison, his record would be comparable to a 2450 on our ARA target. Oh, what memories! This is what rimfire benchrest gun making has meant to me.

The other G-Line/Stat Line Champions of other years have similar stories. But, I was blessed to have gotten to live, vicariously, with these great shooters during their quests for their championships

Thank you for allowing my reminiscences. I want to thank these above mentioned folks and all the great shooters who have allowed me to help them with their equipment.

OH, WHAT MEMORIES!

In the coming months…

In some upcoming writings, I plan to write about rimfire actions, a subject near and dear to us all. I’ll tell of my experiences with the ones with which I’ve used to build some winning guns over the years. I’ll also explain what I believe to be both the good and bad qualities of each. And, I’ll let the chips fall where they may!

There is no perfect rimfire action. Of course, that’s my opinion, which can be taken with a grain of salt. When I complete writing about the various actions, I am going to do a writing with the possible title, If My Life Depended On Me Producing an Accurate Rimfire Benchrest Gun, What Components Would I Use? I may have to work a little on the title, too.

All the actions I will write about have produced winners. But, let’s say we took ten of each action, fit them with good barrels. Now friends, that is another subject upon which I have some definite opinions! We’ll also take ten similar make actions, and build ten guns. The object: to determine which action will produce the greatest percentage of accurate winners.

You’ll find that I have a very definite opinion about which action is best. And, remember, all of them have produced winners. Let me say now; the action I consider best is NOT my XP-100 conversions, so you won’t be in for a big sales pitch for them. They have flaws and I will address them later. But, there is one action produced today that I believe has the absolute best chance of making a winner. You’ll have to wait for the name of it.

Oops, when I wrote last on Rimfire Ignitions, I left out the Time Precision which does have good ignition, just an oversight.

Good Shooting, Bill Calfee 2_bullets_original.jpg

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July 2001

Benchrest Rimfire Actions The Remington 40-X

and the Calfee XP-100

SINCE THEIR QUALITIES ARE the most complicated to describe, I am going to start my Benchrest Actions series with the Remington 40-X and my Calfee XP-100 conversions. What applies to one, applies to the other.

The main drawback of the Remington style actions are, simply put, the locking lugs lock up in a vertical position, which is aggravated by Remington’s trigger design. What this does is make these actions one locking lug actions.

If you look at a ‘98 Mauser, the cocking piece of the firing pin and the trigger sears have engagement surfaces which are at 90 degrees to one another. However, the cocking piece and the trigger sear on Remington actions are at an angle to one another. And, this angle is what causes Remington actions to become one lug actions. Take a look at Figure 1 which shows the Mauser system and Figure 2 shows the Remington system.

Now, why does Remington’s trigger system cause the 40-X and XP-100 to become one locking lug actions? Look closely at Figure 2. Because of the angle on the cocking piece and sear, the cocking piece is trying to crawl up over the sear under pressure from the firing pin spring. Consequently, what happens is that, because the locking lugs lock in a vertical position, the lug at twelve o’clock is standing AWAY from its seat. Does this make sense?

The rear of the breech bolt pushing up on the inside of the rear receiver ring is actually what keeps the rifle cocked. If you removed the top of the rear receiver ring of a Remington action, you couldn’t possibly keep the gun cocked. Figure 3 shows this.

I’ve exaggerated the drawing to try to make my point.

NOTE: In Figure 2, the part I’ve shown as the sear is actually called a sear connector by Remington. The actual trigger sear surface is the tiny 90 degree shoulder in the bottom middle of this part, but this has no bearing on what we are discussing here. I’ve placed a little arrow in the illustration to depict this shoulder.

So, you can see from Figure 3 that the 40-X and XP-100 are actually one lug actions. Now, if any of you owners of 40-X’s, especially those whose locking lugs haven’t been lapped, will pull the breech bolt and examine it closely, you will likely find the lug which turns down at the six o’clock position, will have the most blue gone from the back of the lug.

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If your 40-X breech bolt has been lapped, apply a thin coating of grease to the back of each lug, insert the breech bolt, close it so that it is cocked, then open the bolt, remove it and examine it with a magnifier. You will see, if you look closely, that more grease has been smeared away from the six o’clock lug than the twelve o’clock lug. Also, look just in front of the root of the bolt handle. You will notice the bluing gone, since this is where the breech bolt rests against the upper inside of the rear receiver, to keep the action cocked. Look at Figure 3; I’ve added an arrow so you will know where I am talking about.

OK, Mr. Bill Calfee, if what you say is correct; two obvious questions come to mind: First, maybe we don’t need but one locking lug. And secondly, if we DO need both lugs and the 40-X only has one in contact, why are there some great shooting 40-X’s and XP-100’s out there?

These are two excellent questions, friends. Let me try to answer them. First, we DO need both lugs. Some years ago, I got to thinking that maybe we didn’t need both of the lugs. I also remember a couple of years ago when Ed Ledbetter took his bone-stock Anschutz 64 and cleaned house at the matches in Lexington, Kentucky. Well, the Anschutz 64, as well as other actions, does have only one lug.

As a test, I set up the breech bolt from one of my XP-100 22’s, milled .005" from the twelve o’clock lug and tried it at the range. Now, this action had only one lug, for sure. The gun shot vertical groups that I could not tune out. I set the bolt back up and cut the other lug, re-headspaced the barrel and then, the gun shot great. So see, we do need both lugs.

So, why are there some really good 40-X’s and XP-100’s out there?