Jon Beanland, Gould, Oklahoma....

[M14AMU]

knows how to build an accurate LR rifle! Over many years I've fired thousands and thousands of Sierra 168 gr. HPBT bullets in NRA HP competition and practice, both from the M14 and the NRA Match Rifle and always had excellent accuracy. Generally this bullet was not designed for long range shooting as it has a 13 degree boat-tail and according to Bob McCoy (deceased) who was the chief ballistican at Aberdeen Proving Ground facility for many years any bullet with this degree of BT has the same drag function as a flat-based bullet. It was good enough for cleaning the 600 yard target but going out further it tended to lose stability at around the 800 yard distance because with FA or LC Match ammo it just couldn't be pushed fast enough through the M14 rifle. When I was shooting in the NRA Match Rifle category it was always easy to see who the shooters were from 1000 yards because many times the bullets would hit the target in a keyhole condition!

What would this bullet do if pushed fast enough with the right rate of twist? An example is shown below because quite often this rifle I have, built up by Jon Beanland delivers more often than not this type of performance using the 168 gr. Sierra, which I have a ton of! The target is an AR-500 plate measuring 28"x30". This is 5 rounds I fired this morning from 800 yards using 56 grs. H4350 and F210M primers. Rifle has a .3365" neck diameter so I turn the necks down on the Winchester brass to a thickness of .012".

Beanland06 by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

'06 Long Range Rifle by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Jon does know how to build a rifle!

 

[critter_bill]

Nice looking rifle built by one of the best in the business.

I have Jon Beanland built rifles that are absolute hammers: a BAT B 223 Rem/1-8" twist Krieger barrel/McMillan A-5 stock/Jewell HVR trigger/BAT 20 MOA base/NF NXS optics and a BAT MB 308 with 1-11.25" Krieger with same accessories as on the BAT B. Jon is a talented smith and a great guy to deal with. First class.

 

[tcob68]

Jon is definitely one of the best! His machine skills and attention to detail are second to none. This is the first five shots of the first one Jon built for me. I fired 3 shots and could only see one hole, I thought "what is going on" until I fired the fourth and realized that the first three was in the same hole! Grinning from ear to ear and feeling as giddy as a teenager on his first date, I fired a fifth and wouldn't you know it, in all the excitement, I pulled the shot!
If Jon builds it, it WILL be accurate, PERIOD! And, he is a very nice and knowledgeable. The only thing I don't like is his shop is about 45 min away and it's getting expensive, haha.