Target Sports

.22 BENCHREST BEGINNINGS: SLEEK AND STYLISH

Created on 14th May 2009

CARL BOSWELL takes a look at the Cooper TRP3 and other new equipment, as well as giving the lowdown on World Postal plans

THIS MONTH'S proposed article has been put off for another time. I intended to finish my articles on rimfire ammunition by visiting Eley to discuss manufacture and testing procedures. I went there before the summer to batch test and gather basic information, working with Bert Brookes, the chief range and testing officer. I was to conclude my research at the time of writing this article. Sadly my second meeting with Bert was not meant to be. We heard a few days before my planned visit that he passed away suddenly. This is a great loss to shooting sports and obviously his colleagues and family have been hit very hard by this news. With this in mind, the article that I'll write when I go to Eley in the near future will be dedicated to Bert. In this month's article I'll look at some new gear I have seen recently and will also mention the World Postal.

The Cooper TRP3

I have written about a number of rifles over the last few years, most of which are readily available within Europe. You have to ask yourself: what do you want from your rifle?

Most of us taking up this sport do so with rifles we have in the cupboard. Very rarely will people go out and purchase a top-of-the-range rifle to start with, or even a purpose-built one for that matter. It also depends on the class you are entering, which I've discussed in previous articles. Next year I hope to review a rifle I saw at the Trafalgar meeting. This is the Cooper TRP3, which can offer a little better than we are currently using as entry-level.

The manufacturer's website labels it an ‘introductory benchrest competition rifle'. It is imported from the USA by Fox Firearms.

The TRP3 features a 24" .875 straight-taper stainless steel barrel with a 1:16 twist, which is the standard for .22 rifles. The action is obviously single shot with a three rear locking lug. Stocks are synthetic by Bell and Carlson; synthetics seem to be the ‘in thing' these days but that is down to personal choice. Cooper did make a wood stock, but only 10 of these came into production so we are unlikely to see one in the UK.

The rifle weighs in at 8lb, so with the right choice of scope, rings and tuner it would probably make the 10.5lb class and so could be used in the unlimited class as well. The TRP3 costs around £1,100, a fair price and about the same as it would cost in the US. To have an off-the-shelf target rifle from a good manufacturer, with modifications needed for benchrest, would cost a lot more than this.

One thing about the Cooper is the trigger cannot adjust below 1lb, which is a bit heavy for rimfire benchrest. If you need a lighter trigger pull there is a solution: Jard in the USA makes a replacement trigger that is sold as an aftermarket product to reduce trigger pull as low as 2oz. You can choose the one that suits your needs, going down from 10oz. This would be ideal as the trigger costs an extra $181 (around £110), plus postage. Another option that could be fitted to the rifle is a barrel tuner, but this is also a matter of personal taste. This could be US-made or one from Cicognani in Italy. Both of these would have to be made to the barrel diameter, which is thinner than the standard bull barrel at .875".

The scope used with the TRP3 would have to weigh in at below 2lb as this would allow a tuner. A Leupold 45x45 competition BR series weighs in at 20.3oz. The Nikko Night Eater 10-50x60 weighs 29.5oz. A Cicognani tuner with bloop tube weighs in at 15oz approximately - one without a bloop tube would weigh much less. You would also have to take into account mounts, and get some really lightweight ones to make 10.5lb.

Overall, the rifle seems to be good value and the 50m test shots I saw looked very impressive and on par with many modified target rifles I have seen. It would be nice to get my hands on one to do a competition and ammunition test, but that is for the future.

New rests

I mentioned a while ago that there were a few ingenious air rifle benchrest shooters who, after going to Milan and seeing the range of kit available, came back and began developing their own coaxial rest. A coaxial rest is where the front bag can be controlled for all movement by a joystick, allowing greater control and a quicker set up between shots. The bag itself moves on a mechanism in a circular motion and locks automatically when the stick is released. This is a better system than the standard mariner's wheel and locking devices on most rests. Rimfire shooters have just started to adopt this piece of kit, but it has been used by centrefire shooters for years. A number of German and Czech shooters in Milan had developed their own designs and the SEB rests the Australians used were second to none.

Our guys have gone past the initial design stages and, now prototyped, the rest is in working order. At this time they have ordered all the fixings, such as handles, locking knobs and feet pins. It will soon be ready to put all this together to complete the whole project. You can see from the pictures how far they have gone. The working mechanisms, stand and body are now complete, so it will not be long before initial testing (hopefully by me) can start and I can do a full review. It's exciting to have products for benchrest designed and made in the UK. It really is impressive, so this needs our support. They are looking at a small production run of five to start with so the market for this new rest can be judged.

If you are interested in it you can contact me via the UKBR22 website (www.benchrest22.org) and I will put you in touch with Andy who is running the project. I cannot wait to see the final product.

World Postal 2009

The World Postal is happening again between March and November next year. The long period of time is to allow for summer seasons in countries taking part around the world. At the moment I do not know the number of countries taking part this year as the competition will be launched in January. Last time we had nine countries involved, so we hope for more this time round as the sport is spreading a great deal. The postal will be shot as part of a big match in each country to ensure it is run fairly by a match director. We did this as part of the European Championship in 2007. The UK's part in this will take place at the UK nationals at the end of August 2009.

The one addition to the rimfire competition is that we are trying to organise a separate Air Rifle Unlimited championship as well. We are working on this with colleagues in South Africa at the moment. This is a new development and an attempt to expand the air rifle benchrest sport a great deal further. We will see whether enough countries want to take part, as there are still a number of issues to sort out. I will keep you informed via Target Sports.

.22 BENCHREST BEGINNINGS: SLEEK AND STYLISH

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.22 BENCHREST BEGINNINGS: SLEEK AND STYLISH

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