Shooting Sport USA Archives: Great Resource for FREE

The NRA publication Shooting Sports USA has thousands of articles available online. Many of these articles were written by top competitors including National and Olympic Champions. On the NRA Competitive Shooting page on Facebook, you will find SSUSA stories highlighted every week. We recommend that you bookmark this page as it is a valuable resource. Here are four SSUSA articles which have been featured in Facebook this month. Visit SSUSA.org for more articles that are updated daily. Here is a very long, 1850-word article that provides a lot of information about the phenomenon called mirage. The article explains why and how mirage appears, what it looks like, and how to monitor it. It also explains how mirage can be used to indicate wind direction and velocity. The adage, “Mirage Is Your Friend”, is used by top competitors because mirage is often the most accurate indicator of wind variables – sometimes even more so than wind flags. In his book Canadian Bisley Shooting: An Art and a Science, Desmond T. Burke wrote that the mirage was more sensitive than flags because it had less inertia and velocity. This SSUSA article on mirage is well worth reading. Here is a sample of what you might read: “Mirage can make the difference between a shot landing in the X ring or being victimized a downrange breeze that’s undetected. Mirage’s true power lies in its ability of revealing even the subtlest breezes. Its fluid motion… can not only indicate wind direction, but also speed. Mirage is most easily detected on hot, sunny, and humid days. Mirage is most prominent in the mid-morning and early afternoon. However, it can be seen at any time. Mirage is very good at identifying wind speeds less than 12mph, especially those subtle breezes that don’t even move the flags. Mirage will appear as if it is ‘bubbling up’ from the ground when there is no wind or a gentle tail or head wind. This is often called ‘boiling,’ and it’s probably the easiest to detect. As a rule, the height of the waves created by mirages will decrease as the wind speed increases. The waves will have large peaks and valleys if there is a slight breeze. The crest size decreases with wind speed and the mirage becomes harder to detect. The higher the waves of the mirage, the slower the wind.” Diagram from SouthTexasShooting.org. This article, written by the late Glen Zediker covers barrel break-in procedure. This article is especially useful when dealing with factory barrels. We WARN readers that with custom barrels made by top barrel makers, you may only want to do a very small amount of break-in. Clean sparingly and reduce barrel heat. Use abrasives sparingly. We wet-patched our Krieger and Brux Barrels every 2-3 rounds, for 20 rounds. The barrels shot flawlessly right from the start. For factory barrels, however, a moderate break in process may be beneficial. Zediker explains that “lesser, lower-cost barrels will have more pronounced… imperfections within the bore[.] These imperfections are mostly tool marks from the drilling and refitting processes. If it’s a semiautomatic, such as an AR-15, you might see a burr at the gas port. Break-in is designed to remove these imperfections and smooth the interior surface. As someone who has experienced a case-head blowout on a 9mm pistol and is aware of the dangers and damage that can be caused by a blowout, this Editor is also very aware of the damage to the pistol and magazine. Even with brand new brass, there is always the risk of a case failing. Even if the case is intact, primer failures can create dangerous jets back towards the shooter. Shooters should always wear protective eyewear when they shoot. Wheelguns are great, but they can be damaged by forcing cones, especially with hot loads or if the cylinder-to barrel gap is too large. This article will explain how to inspect revolvers and how to minimize the risk of damaging forcing cones. This article explains how to properly clean your revolvers. It is important to do this in order to prevent the buildup of lead and residues.