Article RE Houston warehouse w perfect bench rest conditions, how they did it

[Tonykarter]

Please forgive me if this has been posted on here previously.  I found this Precision Shooting Magazine article on my tablet as a download.  I don't know where I got it, maybe here.  A spellbinding article written by Dave Scott, a story masterfully told.  I intended to just skim it and read it later.  Wrong.  Ten+ seconds of skimming sucked me right in and I went back and read the whole article even though I did not have the time. 

Interesting read about a 325 yard long warehouse in Houston's inner city with perfect bench rest conditions, the men that did it, how they did it, their awesomely accurate guns, how they built them, their incredibly small groups, their shooting techniques and SOME of their reloading secrets.  These guys were not on the next page, they were in the next chapter.  Barrel thread back lapping?  Most concise presentation of how-to info laying out exactly how these guys developed a comprehensive start to finish system that allowed them to day after day put them all in the same hole.  Again, please forgive me if I got this here. 

"And so began perhaps the most insightful, revealing experimentation into practical rifle accuracy ever conducted. Over a period of six years, the levels of accuracy achieved in the Houston Warehouse went beyond what many precision shooters thought possible for lightweight rifles shot from sandbags and aimed shot-to-shot by human eye."

"But no bit of information was, Virgil believes, more valuable than a little advice Jim Gilmore passed along.  Jim said a barrel MUST be
21 3/4” long for optimum accuracy. That precise length, he stated, sets up a vibration pattern that duplicates well from shot to shot."

“Downrange at 100 yards,” he continued, “if a rifle was really cooking, through the spotting scope you’d see the hole in the
target open up black when the bullet passed through, then the paper would spring back and close a little bit. And if the group
was .035" or so, you couldn’t see the difference between it and one bullet hole through a 36X spotting scope.”

"Through the years, the Houston Warehouse shooters were able to rate the relative accuracy of the various benchrest calibers — .22, 6mm, and .30. In the perfect conditions of the warehouse, the .22’s outshot them all, followed closely by the 6mm’s.""

[darkcharisma]

Most excellent read at midnight. Wow .025 at 100yds.

[YEMX]

wow- a 325 yard long warehouse with a clear line of sight from end to end...  I wish indoor ranges could be built like that... 

That's interesting about the "...exactly 21.75" barrel...".  I wonder...  Nah.  Barrel harmonics are probably much different between PB and AG.  It would be interesting to try it.  Also, having an LDC dangling from the muzzle would change harmonics as well...  Hmmmmm.

[Tonykarter]

Yeah, agreed.  21.75" for what wavelength of harmonics?  LDCs, attachment points, floating or supported?  PB vs AG.  Too many variables for my mind to try to grasp.  Still, how many barrels have been cut at 21.75" due to this article!  It's at least worth a try.

[TF89]

Lot of varibles to be sure, yet they did it across multiple calibers.

[YEMX]

I want to test it, but I don't want to lose any more efficiency than I already am going from a 28" barrel to a 24" barrel...    

[Tonykarter]

Pretty sure those were fully floating barrels too, so that is one variable out of the way. 

[YEMX]

Pretty sure those were fully floating barrels too, so that is one variable out of the way.

Not necessarily- my .357 Brod's barrel is full floating, but it's also sleeved in CF, making it stiffer...

[strever]

Thanks Tony
that was a great read
and many things to think about

[Tonykarter]

My pleasure!

[jhm757]

That is one of my "when I win the lottery plans" to build a 100yd indoor shooting range!

Jim - jhm757

[darkcharisma]

if When i win the lottery, i'd have me 300 acres of hunting land that that will be my shooting range...