At The Bench - Reporting From Class
by: Eric Kiesler
Over the past few years, all the members of our Tech Department here at Brownells have been attending Short Term NRA Seminars. This helps keeps us in touch with the state-of-the-art, and in good practice; while also affording us the opportunity to meet many of our customers face-to-face and make lots of new friends. I recently attended one of the NRA Short Term Gunsmithing Seminars which take place each summer at Gunsmithing Schools across the country. The Seminar I attended was held at Montgomery Community College in Troy, North Carolina.
The fact that these seminars are sanctioned by the NRA speaks highly to their quality. In addition to the excellent quality of the information given by the instructor, fellow students are also a great source for much very useful stuff, too. In my experience, the student body is made up of folks with extremely varied backgrounds; some hobbyists as well as full-time Gunsmiths and full-time or just-graduated students from some of the other professional schools. Meeting gunsmiths and shooters from different regions and with such diverse backgrounds is really a treat for me. These guys will come up with some of the most original ideas and techniques you can imagine. I have made some great friends and connections within our industry, as well.
Montgomery Community College offers a two-year Gunsmithing Degree Program as well as the Summer NRA Seminars. If you are interested in any of these, contact the Head of the Gunsmithing Program, Wayne Bernauer (Ph# 910-576-6222) about enrollment. Wayne is a fellow graduate of my alma mater (The Pennsylvania Gunsmith School) and a superb gunsmith who would love to hear from you. MCC has an excellent Gunsmithing Faculty and some of the finest gunsmiths on the planet take time to instruct for the Short Term NRA Seminars. The facilities available to students are top notch as well.
I enrolled in the Advanced Ultra Match Accurizing AR-15 class taught by Mark Hunt. Though the class is titled Ultra Match AR-15s, AR-10s are discussed and modified as well. If you have not taken the basic class, a strong background in machine tool operation is required for the advanced class. Mark Hunt is co-owner with his father, Dick Hunt, of Dick’s Gun Shop in Winston-Salem, NC. Mark has an aircraft tool and die-makers background, and has been building competitive AR's for better than 16 years. He has been an NRA Gunsmithing instructor for 11 years, the NRA Rifleman of the Year for 2001 and 2002, a member of the .22 Bench rest Hall of Fame, the North Carolina High Power State Champion in 2000, and recently built the rifle Norm Crawford used to win the Wimbledon Cup. Mark is a second generation gunsmith and shooter; his Father, Dick Hunt, has won the Navy Cup numerous times, the Wimbledon Cup in 1950 among many others. Dick was there most days to help students out and throw in occasional words of wisdom. It was quite an experience!
To give you a feel for things, the Ultra Match Class is relatively long for a short term course, running 10 days. Class usually started at 8:00 AM and finished between 5-6:00 PM. The basic class has a bit more lecture time, but you spend plenty of time on the bench and in the machine shop in both basic and advanced classes. According to Mark, the AR rifles are capable of accuracy equivalent to a bolt rifle, and he outlined the techniques necessary to build such a rifle.
Mark also noted, “If your barrel life is 10,000 rounds, the bullet has spent approximately only four seconds in the bore.” Another great thing about the class (and rifle) was the versatility - from mild to wild, IPSC to PALMA, .223 through .458 SOCOM. You can build whatever you need or your heart desires. Everything from a trigger job on the factory parts to re-barreling from a blank is covered. In fact, Brownells recently added some tools to our catalog developed by Mark for accurizing the AR-15. The Upper Receiver Lapping Tool is an essential tool for wringing every bit of accuracy out of the AR-15, and the Upper Receiver Milling Fixture is great for sight work and side-cocking conversions. We're working with Mark to have more of his tooling designed for working on the AR in our product line in the near future.
Scope Mounting
Recently we have picked up some products to assist in scope mounting that, while I might not call them revolutionary, they are certainly an excellent idea whose time has come. For years the traditional way to correct a misaligned ring and base combination was with Shimming and/or Lapping. In many instances, these may still be the best way to correct misalignment. But there are better ways. To determine if the base/ring combination you have has a misalignment problem, we have the Scope Ring Alignment Rods, and have added the Precision Ring Alignment Rod from JR’s Custom Shop. If you install a lot of dual dovetail or the standard Leupold/ Redfield-type rings, this is a great tool to have in the shop.
A tool I am most excited about is the Basebed Alignment Bar designed for use with Weaver or Picatinny-type bases. Many of the new tactical bases recommend bedding. I am a big fan of Weaver and Weaver-style bases; however, the bases often fit more than one rifle and the screw holes in the base are somewhat large to allow for incorrectly drilled receivers, or tolerance stacking. You'll spot this easily because when the bases are loosely screwed on the receiver, they are capable of sliding around quite a bit. I recently installed Weaver rings and a Millett Red Dot Sight on a friend's muzzle loader, and had to make a substantial windage adjustment to bore-sight the sight. Perfect time to use the Basebed Alignment system, for properly done, a set of two- piece bases will be aligned with the trueness of a one piece base. In use, the tool clamps the two bases in “perfect” horizontal and vertical alignment. The assembly is bedded to the action with epoxy, after release agent has been applied to the receiver. (Be sure to coat the tool with release agent before using just in case.) Once the epoxy is set, the tool is removed and the base screws installed, Loc-tited and torqued. It worked perfectly to cure the misalignment problem.
While The Basebed Alignment system may not get your optics perfectly aligned with the bore, it should allow you to only have to make minimal adjustments to do so. Plus, you can have a larger usable adjustment range and keep the reticule closer to the center of the scope lens when sighted in. It will also eliminate any chance of misaligned rings warping or denting the scope tube. If you (or your customer) have a quick release scope you bounce from one rifle to another, this tool is a must. The tool comes with detailed instruction and a small pack of epoxy, release agent, and applicator tools.