Praise for 6.5mm “Thick Jacket” Bergers

As we reported some days ago in the Daily Bulletin, Berger Bullets is rolling out a line-up of tangent-ogive, non-VLD “thick jacket” bullets. These are designed to work more reliably on extended shot strings with hot barrels. In addition, the bullet shape should be less sensitive to seating depth than secant-ogive VLD designs. Berger’s Eric Stecker reports: “So far we have made ONLY the 6.5mm and 7mm in the THICK jacket configuration. Remember that the THICK jacket is meant to eliminate or significantly reduce bullet failures. The standard bullets still perform very well. We will soon be making THICK jacket bullet is 22 cal, 6mm and 30 cal. When these bullets are available we will be posting the news on this forum.”

Larry Bartholome, past captain of the U.S. F-Class Team, has tested the 6.5mm thick-jacket 140s. Larry is impressed: “I have been shooting two different lots of 6.5mm 140gr thick-jacket Bergers and they are, if anything, more accurate than the thin-jacketed ones were/are. I have shot Lot 235 and Lot 1231. I used Lot 1231 in the Lodi Midwest Palma Championships shooting F-Class. It would be hard to ask for a better bullet. I don’t think I had a bullet out for elevation (10” Ten-ring) out of 340 record shots I fired all week.” [Note: These are VLD-style bullets Bartholome is using, not the tangent-ogive 140s.]

Using Daylight Flash for Gun Pix

We know you guys like taking photos of your rifles at the range. And, if you’re selling a rifle, scope, front rest, or rear bag, you need good photos to post on Forum classifieds. Here’s a basic photography tip that can help you produce dramatically better photos. Use your camera’s ability to add “fill flash” even in daylight.

There’s plenty of light on a bright day. But bright light also means strong shadows, particularly in the afternoon. The shadows can leave parts of your subject literally in the dark. Daylight flash will help fill in those dark spots. In addition, if you are on a covered firing area, and want to include the range in your photo, you can benefit from using flash. This will prevent the foreground subject from being too dark while the downrange background is much too bright.

Photo without Flash

In the photo above, the image was taken without flash. As you can see, the rifle is too dark so details are lost. At the same time, the background (downrange) is over-exposed and washed out. The second photo below is taken with daylight flash. The difference is dramatic. Now you can see details of the rifle, while the background is exposed properly. Note how much easier it is to see the the targets downrange and the colors of the front rest. (And yes, these two photos were taken at the same time — just seconds apart.)

Photo with Daylight “Fill-Flash”

Be sure to click on the larger versions of each photo.

How to Activate Daylight Flash
Most digital cameras have some kind of controls for using daylight flash. Some cameras have a separate setting for “auto fill flash”. On other cameras, you’ll have to set the camera to aperture priority and stop down the aperture to force the flash to fire. Consult your camera’s manual. On many Canons, there’s a menu that lets you set the “flash output”. For “fill flash” we like to set the flash at 30% to 50% output. This fills in the shadows sufficiently without “killing contrast” or creating too much reflection on shiny metal. Below is a photo taken with 30% flash output. Note the rich colors and how the exposure is balanced between foreground and background. Without flash the sky and target area would be “washed out”.

Here’s another tip for Canon owners. If you like deep, rich colors, use the “Vivid” setting in the effects menu. This punches up saturation and contrast.

Improved View for Balance-Beam Scales

Even in today’s digital age, many reloaders prefer the simplicity and reliabilty of a balance scale for weighing powder charges. In this Bulletin, we reported that our own PACT digital scale suffers from fluctuating read-outs. The weight reading drifted up to 0.3 grains in less than an hour. (PACT Story). LTRDavid has come up with a clever upgrade to an O’Haus-type scale that makes the weighing process easier for those of us with old eyeballs. He simply mounts a magnifying glass in front of the balance marker, using two clamps.

Pretty ingenious wouldn’t you say? We wonder why the scale-makers didn’t offer a small magnifier as a factory option long ago. For more smart reloading tips, check out David’s website, LTRDavid.net.

When working with balance beam scales, be sure you have the device leveled. Even a small amount of tilt will throw off the measurement. We’ve seen folks who keep their scale on a shelf or storage area, and then take it out for use. That’s fine, but remember than your loading bench may not be uniformly level on all sections. Unless you put the scale in exactly the same place on the bench every time (at the same angle), you may have to re-set the level. Likewise, if you take the scale to a range, be sure to re-level it to your new working surface. And remember that is it just as important to level the scale front to back as left to right. Most scales have a leveling adjustment, but that will only level the scale left to right. If your bench has a bad front to back slant, you may have to build a corrective base for your scale.