The Richard Utting Blog - February Edition

At this time of year I’m getting ready for my training days season which starts around April. There’s a lot of brass prep to do. The more I can get done now the less manic the start of the season is. So lots of annealing, trimming, sizing, neck turning has been the order of the day of late.

Brass prep

And of course any new rifles or rebarrels need their load development done. Currently I have quite a lot up the air – the RPRs in Creed, Winmag and Lapmag are all away for new barrels and I won’t have them back for a week or two yet.

Setting up the demo scopes from Optics Warehouse

Today, though, I’m setting up the demo scopes from Optics Warehouse – working out which scopes for which rifles etc. starting with checking over the 6BR (108eld-m N140/CCI450 c 2800fps), which runs a Delta Stryker 4.5-30 FFP in lo-pro Tier-one single rings, the 223 truck gun (40gr vmax Re10 Fed205 c3850fps) which is switching this year to the wonderful Delta Javelin 4.5-30 FFP.

Delta Stryker 4.5-30 FFP in lo-pro Tier-one single rings

I’ve upgraded this Browning X-bolt varmint max in various ways, one of them being the most beautiful quality 10sh magazine I’ve seen, from Riflemags.co.uk

These Chinese scopes are really on the rise. Like Japanese glass many years ago, they have rapidly evolved from nasty-to-middling to decent-to-you gotta be kidding me! Indeed this sub 1000gbp javelin is my top pick in the sub 1200gbp dialling category. In 2021 I ran it on my lapmag all season, too – if it can hack that without issue I think we can trust the durability…So yes the Javelin is going on the 223 this season and I’ve chosen the superlative value ADM QD Recon mount.

World-class build quality and modular too – the base can be swapped for 0/20/30 MOA and the rings can be swapped out for 30/34/35/36/40. There’s no level bubble so I’m using a Tier One tube-mounted one. I prefer tube mounted because to be honest most folks can’t focus their eyes on the back of the mount- preferring the less eye-straining scope-mounted option, forward of the turrets.

Also today, I’m zeroing the new NIMROD 6.5x47 I bought from Sporting Services. I love integral rails and the NIMROD has one so I bought it as a workhorse that won’t shake loose its rail as I see so often. I’ve bedded that in to one of my favourite stocks, the HMR from Bergara.

This will do a lot of sub half mile sub half minute work so a really wonderful scope is going to show its worth and there’s none finer than the ZCOs, in this case the 5-27. This, sat in a Tier-One mono mount is buy once, cry once, then smile every day territory.