You have read this many times, "this gun is a tack driver", I have never seen a tack driver. What is a tack driver? Can you drive tacks at 100 yards? Now that would be a tack driver. Where are pics of any tack driver firearms? Why would anyone sell a tack driver? And along with that, the firearms for sale with "I love this gun"........I dunno.... r in w.

Most any properly assembled 100-300 Yd. Benchrest rifles will shoot the target tacks out of the target. In fact, I have chastised several shooters who have done so at our matches at Thurmont, Md.

Some by accident of course....I am a bench rest shooter, I have bench rest rifles... I have 45X Leu. optics.... talking 'bout other than bench rest rifles. We will get into "fly shooting" a bit later. r in w.

Ray,you are correct, of course. I suspect that the term was coined by gun writers, the same ones who shoot a 1" 3 shot group with 2 called flyers!! The NRA has consistently done excellent reviews of rifles which generally involve the average of 5 10 shot groups or something of that order. THAT is how you tell an accurate rifle, not a single 3 shot group that has never been repeated!
I have a couple of BR rifles, a 40X in 222 Rem, and a made up in 6mmBR. Both have Weaver 36X scopes and neither can shoot the kind of groups that win BR matches! They shoot well, but not that well.
Peter.

No one has ever shot as well as "gun writers" do & never will. Targets not required.
A few members in my club hold national records in bench rest shooting...they do have the 'tack drivers. r in w.

Ray, You are wrong. Jim Carmichel has a new World Record. I believe it is a 5 shot-5 target aggregate of .143 at 100yds. That is a tackdriving gunwriter.

quote:

Jim Carmichel

https://bluebookofgunvalues.co...x?blog=4&article=219

“Just goes to show that you’re never too old to shoot and shoot well,” quipped Carmichel upon learning of his new world record holder status, “Even for washed up and forgotten old gun writers like myself.” - Jim Carmichel

Carmichel is using a Butch Lambert modified Farley front rest.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
Carmichel is using a Butch Lambert modified Farley front rest.

Nice work Butch!

Here's the original "tack driver", or Nail driver as the case may be. Herb Parson did the shooting for this sceen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1ZKWMWZPHU

I always thought this idiom had its roots in the muzzleloading era.

quote:

Originally posted by ray in Wenatchee:
Some by accident of course....I am a bench rest shooter, I have bench rest rifles... I have 45X Leu. optics.... talking 'bout other than bench rest rifles. We will get into "fly shooting" a bit later. r in w.

Hit 4 out of 5 flys walking across the target at 100 one day. Bits of legs and wings around the bullet holes.

Ray, that is one reason I prefer "BR for Score" shooting to "BR for Group" shooting.

The "X"s on a BR score target are the size of a pencil dot or the period at the end of a sentence on this page, and it is not out of the ordinary to see BR Score shooters post a perfect target, that is, 5 Xs for 5 shots at 100 yards, even in the heat of competition, under a time limit, and not at a time chosen by them when the winds are perfect (or even mild). Hell, I've done that fairly often with my cast bullet BR rifles.

In cast bullet BR for Score shooting, it is quite ordinary for shooters to post a 100 yard aggregate score of 200 points for 20 shots, with from 12 to 16 Xs. Every one of their 20 shots would have hit a thumbtack.

The nice thing about BR for Score shooting is that it DOES matter exactly where the bullets land on the paper. A good group is still a total loser, if the bullets don't hit dead center on the targets.

Another nice thing about it is that targets used for practice have MANY useful aiming points...when practicing I used to pick the little tiny individual letters in the name of the target printers and shoot those out...saved having to run down range to post new targets time and time again . Cheap, handy, and a kind of test a person can't lie to himself about.

Anway, consistently hitting a thumbtack at 100 yards is so easy it verges on not being useful BR for Score practice, as thumbtacks are HUGE compared to the X ring of a regulation BR score target. Carpet tacks are more difficult, but far from impossible.