Thought I'd do another post about Ugly Beddy (Betty) and how it came into being. What started out as an experiment turned into an eye opener to us and many others. I've always liked older 22 Rimfire target guns and got the chance to trade an older metal lathe for a Winchester 52C from a friend. He and his Father used to travel around and compete in matches back in the 50s and 60s together. This friend (Bob) is 92 and this gun was his Fathers, I feel blessed that he felt he could pass it on to us to care for and enjoy like his Father had. His Dad was really short being quite a bit under 5 feet tall and like most competitors they made the gun fit them without worrying about a future collector item.
Approximately 2 to 3 inches was removed from the buttstock to fit him better, They must of cut it a couple times because the piece we got with the gun when glued back on still didn't add up to what the original length should have been. We started shooting it at our newly started long range matches and it nearly always won or was in the top three positions. My Son mostly shot it and one day I picked it up to shoot it and noticed something loose, when checking closer holding the barrel and the stock it would wiggle back and forth nearly 1/2". Checking closer we found it only had 1 action screw holding it together. I found another screw on the Internet and when installed it really tightened up everything. When testing it just didn't shoot as well as before, we played with action screw torque and other things but when I took that screw back out and slightly loosened the other screw it went back to shooting like before. This is not how it should work.
A short time later while shooting it I kidded Chris that I bet this thing would should be bolted to a 2X4. A short time later scrounging for some scrap pieces of wood, handful of wood screws/bolts/nuts, duct tape, saw and Impact driver I got busy. I turned a couple pieces of white hard plastic to fit around the barrel to clamp it to the front forend. I didn't know how to get around the trigger area so I turned a piece of 2X4 sideways and went beside the action then added another piece of 2X4 for a shoulder stock. A couple more pieces added here and there for a bag rider to gain some height helped. Then we needed something to work as a cheek rest so quickly glancing around I found an old Power Aide bottle cut up and stapled to the stock. Even though it looks really crude it's actually really comfortable to sit behind and shoot. I added duct tape around the nylon blocks to add to the overall effect but in actuality it's a tuning device based on how many wraps are around each barrel block.
We've shown the gun to Bob (Fathers Gun) and he got quite a kick out of it, I was worried a bit about what he might think but knowing we shoot and compete with it he had no problem with it. We did buy a really nice Walnut Stock from Richs Microfit to put the gun in but at this point it's much more fun to shoot this way. When possible we always let others shoot it and get pictures of them behind it.
One reason we put this thing together was to show that you do not need an expensive gun/scope to be competitive. We've been playing with stretching the limits with a 22 rimfire since I was in 5th grade or so lobbing rounds every morning before leaving for school shooting at the same muskrat swimming across the pond where I lived approximately 250-275 yards away. My Dad kept telling me you can't shoot a 22 that far away but as time went on I figured out how far to hold over and even though I never hit it I made it dive under quite a few times. That was with an old Rem 510 with open sights I learned to shoot with. Over the years I've always enjoyed shooting at rocks or whatever way out there and got quite good at it. Later on I started stretching out how far we could shoot long range with pistols and ended up with an Anschutz Exemplar in a custom chassis that will shoot with any rimfire rifle at Long Range or Extreme Long Range Matches with a 15 7/8" barrel.
OK, back to the Ugly Beddy Saga. Chris had moved on a few years ago to another Long Range Rimfire gun and put Ugly Beddy away. He entered an Extreme Long Range match called Iron Element shooting out to 500 yards. He took his Savage and Izhmash for the two different classes which he won both besting Vudoos, Rim-Xs and some customs. There was a side match he wanted to use Ugly Beddy for and it just would not shoot like it used to. It came home and was put away till a couple days ago. No shooters came Saturday so I dug it out and gathered up a few tools (hacksaw, Impact driver, screws and screwdriver) and started redoing it. The rear tang was touching the butt stock so I cut/chipped out a section to gain clearance. While sawing I noticed the stock sections moved so I tightened down the screws which really made it solid again. The 4 bolts holding the barrel blocks were slightly loose so two 7/16" wrenches helped that. I swapped out the old SWFA fixed 20X scope for a SWFA 5-20HD for a bit better glass. With the mount and scope we can dial to just a tad past 500 yards.
Back in the day we used either old Wolf Match (Lapua) mostly because we though it shot well but compared to better Lapua, RWS or Eley ammo I think it'll do better now. After I got it back together I tried a few rounds to get it zeroed at 50 yards, I tried some Lapua SLR and some Eley Match I've had for a while from some deal I've made on the 197 yard target. Since I'm kinda tight I didn't want to really use Lapua if the Eley would work since the Lapua works well in my Rem 40X and Big Green Exemplar Pistol. Initial shots showed the Eley shot well with a nice 2" 5 shot group at 197 yards. We've never shot Eley before since we've seen it varies so much Lot to Lot with shooters at our match.
Chris entered the match with no settings or never trying the ELey before and surprisingly it did quite well and shoots as good or better than it used to. Missing a tiny 1/4" bowling pin shaped target at 100 yards cost his the win but overall it performed as hoped. I still say if you have a decent shooting gun no matter the brand or cost and using the best ammo you can find that shoots well in it you'll be competitive at any match if you have the skill level to take advantage of the equipment. We also have a Savage MK II with RWS R-50 ammo that will run with any of the high end custom guns. Some may say that at the local level matches, We have many High Level competitors including USA World Team members, an ELR World Record Holder, many PRS/NRL/Mars winners and past Camp Perry competitors to keep us all on our toes so it's not your run of the mill shooters getting together to shoot tin cans. It makes for some great hints/tips sharing sessions and spotting for each of these competitors really lets you see what equipment/ammo are being used by many skill levels to see what works and what doesn't.
So that's Ugly Beddys history, some may scoff, smirk or disbelieve but it has a past history that is hard to deny. The one match that stands out was a bit North of us and was their first long range type match. There were many Vudoos, Rim-xs and others and as Chris set Ugly Beddy in the gun rack it drew a lot of funny looks and grins. Most said they thought it was brought as a joke and wouldn't really be shot in the match. As the match progressed and the hits started adding up someone made a comment about being beat by a "2X4. At the end Ugly Beddy won the match which I think surprised a lot of competitors. We'll have to see if it's streak can continue, with all the newer better skill levels to be competitive it's a high hurdle to get to. Always fun to shoot and gets others reactions. Ugly Beddy is back and that should bring the fun back to shooting again and not always be so serious.
The group below is after the match was over, he wanted to see how well it actually group after being acclimated to Eley and getting the feel for the gun again. This is 197 yards, top shot was from his shot in the match and the other 5 for group are clustered below.
Topstrap
Approximately 2 to 3 inches was removed from the buttstock to fit him better, They must of cut it a couple times because the piece we got with the gun when glued back on still didn't add up to what the original length should have been. We started shooting it at our newly started long range matches and it nearly always won or was in the top three positions. My Son mostly shot it and one day I picked it up to shoot it and noticed something loose, when checking closer holding the barrel and the stock it would wiggle back and forth nearly 1/2". Checking closer we found it only had 1 action screw holding it together. I found another screw on the Internet and when installed it really tightened up everything. When testing it just didn't shoot as well as before, we played with action screw torque and other things but when I took that screw back out and slightly loosened the other screw it went back to shooting like before. This is not how it should work.
A short time later while shooting it I kidded Chris that I bet this thing would should be bolted to a 2X4. A short time later scrounging for some scrap pieces of wood, handful of wood screws/bolts/nuts, duct tape, saw and Impact driver I got busy. I turned a couple pieces of white hard plastic to fit around the barrel to clamp it to the front forend. I didn't know how to get around the trigger area so I turned a piece of 2X4 sideways and went beside the action then added another piece of 2X4 for a shoulder stock. A couple more pieces added here and there for a bag rider to gain some height helped. Then we needed something to work as a cheek rest so quickly glancing around I found an old Power Aide bottle cut up and stapled to the stock. Even though it looks really crude it's actually really comfortable to sit behind and shoot. I added duct tape around the nylon blocks to add to the overall effect but in actuality it's a tuning device based on how many wraps are around each barrel block.
We've shown the gun to Bob (Fathers Gun) and he got quite a kick out of it, I was worried a bit about what he might think but knowing we shoot and compete with it he had no problem with it. We did buy a really nice Walnut Stock from Richs Microfit to put the gun in but at this point it's much more fun to shoot this way. When possible we always let others shoot it and get pictures of them behind it.
One reason we put this thing together was to show that you do not need an expensive gun/scope to be competitive. We've been playing with stretching the limits with a 22 rimfire since I was in 5th grade or so lobbing rounds every morning before leaving for school shooting at the same muskrat swimming across the pond where I lived approximately 250-275 yards away. My Dad kept telling me you can't shoot a 22 that far away but as time went on I figured out how far to hold over and even though I never hit it I made it dive under quite a few times. That was with an old Rem 510 with open sights I learned to shoot with. Over the years I've always enjoyed shooting at rocks or whatever way out there and got quite good at it. Later on I started stretching out how far we could shoot long range with pistols and ended up with an Anschutz Exemplar in a custom chassis that will shoot with any rimfire rifle at Long Range or Extreme Long Range Matches with a 15 7/8" barrel.
OK, back to the Ugly Beddy Saga. Chris had moved on a few years ago to another Long Range Rimfire gun and put Ugly Beddy away. He entered an Extreme Long Range match called Iron Element shooting out to 500 yards. He took his Savage and Izhmash for the two different classes which he won both besting Vudoos, Rim-Xs and some customs. There was a side match he wanted to use Ugly Beddy for and it just would not shoot like it used to. It came home and was put away till a couple days ago. No shooters came Saturday so I dug it out and gathered up a few tools (hacksaw, Impact driver, screws and screwdriver) and started redoing it. The rear tang was touching the butt stock so I cut/chipped out a section to gain clearance. While sawing I noticed the stock sections moved so I tightened down the screws which really made it solid again. The 4 bolts holding the barrel blocks were slightly loose so two 7/16" wrenches helped that. I swapped out the old SWFA fixed 20X scope for a SWFA 5-20HD for a bit better glass. With the mount and scope we can dial to just a tad past 500 yards.
Back in the day we used either old Wolf Match (Lapua) mostly because we though it shot well but compared to better Lapua, RWS or Eley ammo I think it'll do better now. After I got it back together I tried a few rounds to get it zeroed at 50 yards, I tried some Lapua SLR and some Eley Match I've had for a while from some deal I've made on the 197 yard target. Since I'm kinda tight I didn't want to really use Lapua if the Eley would work since the Lapua works well in my Rem 40X and Big Green Exemplar Pistol. Initial shots showed the Eley shot well with a nice 2" 5 shot group at 197 yards. We've never shot Eley before since we've seen it varies so much Lot to Lot with shooters at our match.
Chris entered the match with no settings or never trying the ELey before and surprisingly it did quite well and shoots as good or better than it used to. Missing a tiny 1/4" bowling pin shaped target at 100 yards cost his the win but overall it performed as hoped. I still say if you have a decent shooting gun no matter the brand or cost and using the best ammo you can find that shoots well in it you'll be competitive at any match if you have the skill level to take advantage of the equipment. We also have a Savage MK II with RWS R-50 ammo that will run with any of the high end custom guns. Some may say that at the local level matches, We have many High Level competitors including USA World Team members, an ELR World Record Holder, many PRS/NRL/Mars winners and past Camp Perry competitors to keep us all on our toes so it's not your run of the mill shooters getting together to shoot tin cans. It makes for some great hints/tips sharing sessions and spotting for each of these competitors really lets you see what equipment/ammo are being used by many skill levels to see what works and what doesn't.
So that's Ugly Beddys history, some may scoff, smirk or disbelieve but it has a past history that is hard to deny. The one match that stands out was a bit North of us and was their first long range type match. There were many Vudoos, Rim-xs and others and as Chris set Ugly Beddy in the gun rack it drew a lot of funny looks and grins. Most said they thought it was brought as a joke and wouldn't really be shot in the match. As the match progressed and the hits started adding up someone made a comment about being beat by a "2X4. At the end Ugly Beddy won the match which I think surprised a lot of competitors. We'll have to see if it's streak can continue, with all the newer better skill levels to be competitive it's a high hurdle to get to. Always fun to shoot and gets others reactions. Ugly Beddy is back and that should bring the fun back to shooting again and not always be so serious.
The group below is after the match was over, he wanted to see how well it actually group after being acclimated to Eley and getting the feel for the gun again. This is 197 yards, top shot was from his shot in the match and the other 5 for group are clustered below.
Topstrap
