Quarter Bore

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  • Last Post 24 September 2017
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John Carlson posted this 18 September 2017

 I enjoyed my trip to the regional matches at Pioneer Gun Club, especially getting to meet some of you I had only known on this forum.  I found the Friday preparations for the Quarter Bore match quite interesting (yeah, I can feel an itch developing).  I thought I would look into it some more but haven't been able to find much of anything about it including on this forum.  Is there a source of information such as equipment rules, matches, etc, or is this merely a conspiracy to save me from myself?

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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John Alexander posted this 18 September 2017

John,

It was good to have a brief chat with you at the nationals.  Several years ago Schuetzen shooters started having  separate matches for 25 caliber rifles.  They named it "Quarter Bore." Five or six years ago Bob Birmley who was getting into schuetzen type shooting proposed that we have a casual match on the day before our National Tournament each year for 25 caliber falling block rifles firing plain based bullets and use the same name of Quarter Bore.  It was hoped that this would attract more plain based shooters to our nationals and perhaps lead to more interaction between CBA and ASSRA and ISSA the organizations managing Schuetzen style shooting in the US. It is not clear that the matches since have had that hoped for effect but we have had fun shooting them anyway

I believe the only restrictions we have had as rules in the past are the requirements of plain based 25 caliber bullets shot in a falling block rifle.

There have been occasional requests to allow 25 caliber bolt guns shooting gas checked bullets all which have been denied. This was brought up again at the shooter's forum this year by several shooters and I promised to again bring the issue to the Board for their consideration. So it is unknown what the future of our Quarter Bore match will be.

John

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John Carlson posted this 19 September 2017

Thanks John, that leads me to some places I can learn more about it.  Just happened on to a Remington Rolling Block in 25-20 that looks kind of interesting but I didn't think it matched up with anything I saw down there.

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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Bud Hyett posted this 21 September 2017

Let me clearly state these are my personal observations,

This natch was added as a fun match and as an incentive to encourage more participation from plain-base shooters. In the last five years, both the ASSRA and the ISSA have seen a rebirth of interest in calibers smaller than the traditional .321  One of the easier bore diameters to compete in is .25 caliber since the barrels and brass are readily available. Some purists go for the .25-20 Single Shot while most go for the .25-29 WCF. CPA even offers a .25 Hornet which will give a straight case.

The competition can be fierce, this the rules specify that the group sizes be measured for each bull, added and then subtracted from the total score. Thus, the tighter group gets a higher placement. There is a precedent for this in the decades before World War One when groups were measured by string wrapped around the outside shots; the shorter string won the prize.

As to opening the match to gas-checked bullets, I am in favor of that if they shoot in a separate category. A decade ago, I helped Jack Wiberg work on loads for a Ruger #1 in .25-'06 that he never got quite competitive before he passed away. He was shooting both gas-checked for CBA and plain-base bullets to use in ASSRA competition.

I enjoy the match and plan on shooting better next year. Shooting my Stevens and watching the results, I may even campaign the .25-20 in matches this coming Spring for practice. Practice, even shooting under match times, is not the same as a regular match. This year, just getting to the Nationals was a personal goal since the Swedish Hospital neurosurgeons in Seattle removed a tumor from my spine. 

 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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John Carlson posted this 21 September 2017

Thanks for the information.   I thought perhaps it was some kind of omen when, upon returning from Pioneer, I stumbled across a 25-20.  Alas it is a rolling block rather than a falling block.  From what I have read it is unlikely to be competitive in the accuracy department and surely doesn't share the aesthetic qualities of the fine rifles I saw at the match.

I do find the  quarter bore concept interesting, perhaps one day it will join the other classes of rifles in competition.

John Carlson. CBA Director of Military Competition.

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.22-10-45 posted this 24 September 2017

This match sounds like fun!  Are there any restrictions on ctg. case used?  I have an original Sharps Borchardt actioned sporter built in the mid 1960's with a fixed 7X Leupold scope..but it's chambered in .25 Ackley Krag Improved...not your common cast bullet caliber.  Getting moulds together and going to try my best to get this one shooting cast.  I have both gas check & plain base moulds.  I asked about using this over on the ASSRA forum,..I've been a member of the ASSRA since the early 80's, but that didn't go over too well...Thats OK, they have their rules and I respect them.  I wonder if there would be enough interest in a postal quarter bore match?

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John Alexander posted this 24 September 2017

Te 25 Ackley Krag Improved sounds like a fine cast bullet caliber to me. There are no restrictions on cartridge case in any of the CBA's classes included the non-class of quarter bore.  We are not that kind of organization.  CBA was founded to promote experimentation and competition to advance cast bullet shooting not to reenact past matches. 

Like you, we respect others who want to do it differently. Whatever is fun to do should be done unless it interferes with someone else.

John

 

 

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.22-10-45 posted this 24 September 2017

Thanks John, thats good to know!  When I first got the rifle, the bore didn't look to have been shot much..if at all.  So I did a complete bore-break in using moly coated jacketed bullets.  I used a mid-range .257 Roberts load with 100gr. Speer spitzers.  and H4895 powder.  After break-in. I soon found the rifle liked light loads.  After switching to Speer 87gr. TNT spitzers, I went down as much as 8.0gr. under Roberts start load...that was when I started to get little cloverleaf groups all touching.  I was going to try some 75gr. bullets, but by this time I had my fill of all the rigamaroll of jacketd bullet cleaning!   Bersides, what I really was seeking was an accuracy benchmark with jacketed as a goal for cast bullets.  I then went to work getting the copper out..even with break-in & only using moly-coated bullets and fairly low velocity loads, it still took a full 10 days of soaking & tight-patching with JB to completly come clean.  In an old Ideal reloading handbook, I see there are some cast Roberts loads using IMR 4895, I might give these a try.  I wonder how H4227 might work in this case (full length Krag, blown out with hardly any taper & 40* shoulder?   Here's a neat trick I discovered...I picked up a nice used Hoch 100gr. plain-base mould over on the CastBoolit site.  I had intended this for an old Ballard .25-25, but thought it would be good in this Borchardt..if only it was a gas-check.  Picking up a .25 check. placing it on that wide lower mould plate, it slid right in mould.  closing halves & swinging plate aside, check appeared to be flat and square.  I cast a bunch of plain-base bullets up & then placed an annealed check in the hot mould & filled..darn if I didn't have a nice gas-checked bullet drop out of mould!  Now of course there is no little gap in front of check as usual..in fact the outside dia. of check is flush with bullet body..but it should work..I'll soon find out I guess.

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