THE GRUNIG RACER HAS ARRIVED!!

"The Racer has not seen much action lately because I could not get to track properly in the Fulghum one piece rest and I have been trying to find a suitable custom benchrest stock.

The MWerks fore plate I was using has two lugs that fit into the accessory rail. With two lugs and a little wiggle room, I was not able to align the plate parallel with the barrel. So when the Racer was moved in the rest the point of aim changed in the cross hairs.

I contacted Jeff at MWerks and discussed the problem. Jeff suggested making a full length single lug fitted tightly in the accessory rail. I received the single lug rail and mounted it on the Racer. This eliminated the wiggle room and the alignment problems. Now the point of aim in the cross hairs remains rock steady. To date no other changes have been made to the Racer except the addition of the fore plate and a scope. It is still as received from the factory.

I zeroed the March 5 – 32x52 scope and headed to Kettlefoot Rod & Gun Club to give the Racer a try in the ARA Unlimited 3 target match on Saturday, September 10. This is the first complete match the Racer has competed in since the testing began.

It was foggy and in the upper 50s at the range with very light variable left to right winds. The humidity was over 80%. The first match of the morning, at 10am, was an ARA Sporter 3 target match. About noon the Racer and the other ARA Unlimited guns were brought to the line. By then the fog had burned off, the temperature was in the middle 70s, and the humidity had fallen to below 60%. The wind had picked up to 2 – 10 mph with an average around 4 mph and had become very switchy predominantly right to left winds.

During the match, 30% of the shots were taken with a point of aim between the dot and the 50 ring, 60% of the shots were taken between the 50 and the 25 ring, and 10% of the shots were taken outside the 10 ring in the white area of the target.

I had chosen an exceptional lot of Eley Team ammunition to shoot because it has performed well in Trebuchet, a RB/LP Turbo with a Shilen Octagon Barrel, Jewell Trigger, Pippin Stock, Baity 6 o'clock conversion, smithed by Bill Calfee. The Eley Team did well in Racer too.

There were 10 great competitors for the match. The Racer won the match and also won 2 of the 3 targets with scores of 2025, 2035, and 2175. The agg was 2078.33. This was a great first match with strong competitors in difficult conditions. 

It looks like the addition of the MWerks single lug fore plate has helped the Racer become a serious rimfire benchrest competitor right out of the box."