[Buffalobob]

A dead possum on the trigger

In the world of rifles, there are a very few truly skillful individuals. It is always good to remember the difference between a dead possum shooting a precision rifle and a truly skillful individual.

In the last 40 years there have been many advances in metallurgy. One can reads the thread down in edged weapons and get a reasonable idea of some of the advances in alloys and the uniformity and quality of those alloys. In the world of metal chipping devices such as lathes the improvements in the tolerances to which these machine will cut a piece of metal is simply phenomenal. The world of CNC machining has moved into the local gunshop. About three months ago I went to my gunsmith for a one of a kind gun and the need for special one of a kind base for the scope. I stand there as an engineer with a masters degree talking to a guy wearing overalls and looking like he is fixing to go out to the barn and hitch up a mule and plow the lower forty. After listening to me describe the problem with eye relief and the special cuts that need to be made in the base he remarked that it will cost a little extra because he will have to “spend an hour programming the computer”. He will take a piece of bar stock and make a totally one of a kind base just to fit my barrel which will be a one of a kind also. He once told me that the reason he bought the CNC machine and spent the time going to the programming classes was because he could not hire and keep employees who would meet the tolerances his customers wanted and needed.
I asked him how much deposit he wanted and he said what ever I wanted that he wouldn’t know what the price would be until he got to working on it. I wrote him a deposit check that was enough to prove that I wanted the gun built. I tell this story to illustrate that a really good gunsmith believes in old fashioned quality by using the most modern technology to achieve the ultimate craftsmanship.

Now then, an elk at 1K has a target kill zone of very nearly a 2MOA. An ultimate technology no expense spared gun and equipment costing about $10K is capable of say 0.3 -0.5 MOA. Even a dead possum should be able to kill an elk at that range with such a gun.

True skill is a different subject. I had perhaps 10 snipers in my platoon at one time or another. Of those, there were only two that were notable for their ability and of those two only one who was truly skilled. The one made perhaps 90% of the sniper kills. The rifle they used is best described as a National Match M-14 with a 3X-9X scope. The rifle used Lake City Match 308 and was set up to shoot out to 900 yards. Scopes were mounted in quick release rings and bases so they could be taken off easily. After years of searching I finally managed to find the Chu Lai sniper school records only to find that the records only contain the 1600 yard shoot made by an earlier rotation sniper. There is no record of the shot my sniper made that broke that record because when the marines rotated Home and the 196th Bde moved to DaNang, the sniper school was closed and only a couple of armorers were kept to maintain the weapons of the existing snipers. Nonetheless, one can consider the ballistic trajectory of a 308 round as it clears the one mile mark and the knowledge and skill required to hit a walking NVA soldier with the fourth round and to kill him with the fifth round. When the shooting was over he turned to me with a big smile on his face and said he had just broken the record Division record. All of this is with a semiautomatic rifle, factory ammo, 3X-9X scope in a quick release base.

So, in the world of long range shooting there are dead possums like me shooting state of the art guns and then there are the truly skillful shooting what they have got. It is always good to know the difference.