Merry Christmas everyone. It is now Christmas afternoon in NZ, being a day ahead of the U.S, Canada and the UK etc.

Just wanted to wish you all the best before I collapse into trifle coma (Stephs old man and his sherry).

Riley asked nana to "knit her a Ninger (Ninja) suit" for Christmas. An obliging nana made sure Riley had something under the tree so we have been watching our groins and shins all morning. Santa did his bit too after a letter of plea, a glass of milk and two cookies were placed on the kitchen table last night. Steph got me an Lenser head torch, best gift ever. I managed to find some books she had an eye on and girly things.

OK, better hit the couch before I pass out in front of the laptop (too much food). Riley wants to watch Star Wars (she loves the series and action figures). I think she has been reading footrot flats too much though, I caught her saying "get in behind ya mongrel" to her R2D2.

All the best everyone. I will be having a break from the laptop over the next few days but will cast an eye over the site from time to time.

Its aliiiive! 

Everything you wanted to know, some things you probably didn't want to know and there things I still don't know. Go on then, get your fix, click here....

All the best,  Nathan.
 

Just a quick apology, I have been attempting to edit my 8x57 research for uploading but the volume of emails and calls from around the world over the last two days has been difficult to deal with.  Currently taking 9 hours to get through email per day. Hoping for a quiet patch ahead so we can get this article live.  Thanks to everyone for their patience. We just hit 110,000 new readers for 30 days so if I am off my game a bit with email responses, you'll know why.

Note to South African oaks. I have reset the shopping page so that the currency will appear in U.S dollars, not Rand.  Seems that paypal cannot make the Rand conversion.

7.62x39 (M43) research uploaded to the Knowledge Base last night.

Will set to work on formatting my 8x57 research for uploading over the next few days.

Thanks to all of you who have purchased the new book and thank you so much for all of the wonderful feedback.

Nathan.

 

Hi everyone, hope you are all well.

Steph and I have been very busy, I have been writing my next book while Steph has been working on website upkeep. Riley often helps too by playing secretary; she has been wielding a clip board lately, our seven year old supervisor.

The website currently has over 300,000 readers at the moment with 45,500 new readers coming on board each month. Unfortunately however, we are in a situation where we are finding that the donations to run the website are few and far between, normally around 5 people per month. The trouble is, we are struggling to keep the website going. Normally we can carry the burden. But the truth is; we need help over the next couple of weeks if possible. The financial burden is currently very stressful. I wouldn't send this email out otherwise. The last thing I want to do is harass the very people I care so much about.

There are a few ways to go about helping out. A donation can be made by going here:

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/About+Us/Donate.html

Another way to help us is to purchase books or kits through the website.
http://www.ballisticstudies.com/index.html

Those small number of you who have already donated, thank you so very much, you have really helped us and we are immensely grateful. Please do not donate again at this time, it is unfair.

OK, enough said. Keep out of mischief and don't forget to keep your camera's handy when you are out hunting. I will also be looking for long range brag photos for the next book, so if you want to have your mug shot made famous, send us your photos and details of the shot (and don't forget to smile!).

Take care, Nathan.
 

Hi guys, just a note to say that I have uploaded another bedding video with tips and tricks. The video can be found in the rifle bedding tutorial (Knowledge base) or on my youtube channel (Nathan Foster).

All the best.

Hi Guys, I have updated the wound data base and re-cataloged some of the data. Will continue to update with fresh data over the next week. If anyone has autopsy photo's they want to share, please send them along.

Nathan has also updated the bedding tutorial recently with extra tricks and tips.

Just getting into testing now guys...

Hi Guys, a few readers have emailed me to say that when they are visiting the site, they are seeing a popup for google chrome.  We have looked into this and discovered the following.  The hack/popup is not on our website.  Instead, google has hacked Internet Explorer in an aggressive marketing move (like any of us would want to follow a damned popup). 

So, if you are seeing popups, it is occurring in your browser, not on the TBR site. One way around this is to download firefox as your browser. If you wish to stay with Internet Explorer, hopefully this stupidity will pass in time. Google Chrome is an excellent platform but as I have said, its not like anyone will want to use this as a browser after seeing it as a popup.

Our IT team have informed me that the popup does not lead to a malicious site or software- if any of you happen to accidentally click the popup link.

My thanks to the IT team at Zeald for their research skills.

OK, better hit the rifle range.

Hi guys, the 7.62x54R article/research is now uploaded.

Hi Guys, just a quick one to report latest articles added:

1. 7.7 Japanese  article uploaded to knowledge base.

2. True-Flite barrel Rockwell hardness tests and comparisons.  These can be found at the bottom of the knowledge base menu- very interesting reading.  The folk at True-Flite have worked very hard to produce optimum quality rifle barrels and it is great to see this reflected in independent tests.

Everything you need to know about the long range rifle can be found within this book.

Every day I receive emails from around the world asking how do I go about achieving an optimum long range rifle - well here are the answers. This book answers all of your questions regarding how to set about either buying or building an accurate long range rifle.

For the past three months I have been very busy writing like crazy.  I decided a few months back to write a series of books on long range hunting to answer the hundreds of emails I receive every week about long range hunting.  The first book in the series is ‘The Practical Guide to Long Range Hunting Rifles’.

I took the approach of firstly teaching the reader fundamental rifle design principles and from there, we set about putting it all together. This is the ultimate consumer guide.  By understanding the rifle in detail, the reader can then look at any given potential long range rifle and recognize the strengths and limitations of the rifle, what to expect, how to apply fixes, and how to exploit the full potential of the rifle. Furthermore; the book is formatted in such a way that the reader can study a topic in detail or simply refer to bullet point summaries to get a quick overview.

Every essential aspect is covered, from achieving the perfect fit for low recoil, achieving your ideal carry weight, budget through to high end platforms, light sporting rifles through to tactical platforms.

Most of you already know I put my all into helping hunters around the world.  The TBR website is a testimony to this.  I have applied the same level of effort and concern with this book.  With the book I am also able to take subjects to a deeper level, sharing information that I have been hesitant to share in the past in order to preserve my trade. These are the ace cards of my skill set that I usually only share on a one on one basis with clients and customers.  

In this book and throughout the long range series of books, everything I have to offer is going to be laid on the table, and every detail will be shared. And as usual, I will take the no BS approach that you have all come to expect from me.

The Practical Guide to Long Range Hunting Rifles is available as an ebook (epub, mobi/kindle & pdf) and paperback print copy. We have also put together a fantastic package which features both the ebook and the paperback print copy as a package.  You can click here to find out more details about the book.

So there it is, book one of an ongoing series. As we move through the series, your skill set will increase exponentially in all of the fields of long range hunting and shooting. You all know me, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well.

Just a note to say that I will no longer be running the bedding compound contests. Many of our photo donators were non gunsmithing hobbyists so I have brought the monthly draw to a close. I may start a fresh contest in the future, will keep you all informed about that.

Please keep your photo's coming in, I greatly appreciate the input and a chance to meet you all.

I guess you will be wondering what I have been up to.  For the last few months I have been flat out tricking up rifles for clients.  I have some testing to do for NZ Outdoor Magazine involving the new .375" 350gr Matchking (BC.805) and 7mm 140gr HPBT Gameking bullets.  I am currently running the 350 grainer at around 2690fps out of my .375 RUM, though the projectile is realistically designed for the .375 Snipe Tac. 

I have also been very busy writing for the website and will soon introduce a new ebook as part of an ebook series.  The first ebook of this series deals with understanding the fundamentals of the long range rifle.  It serves as a platform to help those new to long range shooting understand the long range rifle. In essence, it covers the questions I receive by email on a daily basis; Which rifle should I buy, factory versus custom, Why X action is better than Y action, what type of barrel should I buy. Within the pages, I will share my experience with you which is much more useful than opinion. A how to guide, a buyer beware, a basic course in rifle engineering principles for beginners and experienced shooters alike. 

My plan is to alternate between uploading my cartridge research and ebook writing.  So hopefully you will see an ebook, then a fresh cartridge on the Knowledge base, then an ebook and so forth.

All the best.

The .30 calibers are finally finished and uploaded and I am now into the .311/.312" calibers.  Onwards and upwards. I have kicked things off uploading my .303 British research which can be found on the left hand menu of the KB.  The pictorial wound data base is also steadily gaining momentum.  You'll find photo's of a lot of popular cartridge combinations in use here.  Again, the wounding data base can be found on the left hand side menu.  After clicking on the data base link, if you go down the side menu again, options will appear regarding calibers, broken down into pages, each having a range of photos and descriptions.  This is where we can get right into the details, really have a close look at bullet performance, no mucking around with gelatine or wet news paper.

It is raining cats and dogs here, it has been for a while and the weather looks like it is going to stay wet and muddy for at least the next week.  Typical NZ spring weather, OK for bedding rifles, no good for testing client rifles at the moment so if you have a rifle here, please be patient.