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Written by Nathan Foster on April 10th, 2025.
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Written by Nathan Foster on April 3rd, 2025.
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Written by Nathan Foster on March 13th, 2025.
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Hi guys, I hope this email finds you well. A few items this week.
Firstly, I will be hosting my own chat this weekend. NZ Sunday the 16th of March at 7am which roughly equates to Saturday noon for our U.S readers. You can use the time converter (link below) to work out the exact time for your location.
Link to chat:
https://talk.brave.com/2M_vi7eCxisww2KyMPZfaaWAZz0IFQsS-xOW4GeOGB8
Link to world time converter / meeting planner:
As usual, I won’t be coming into this with any topic or agenda etc. The point is to simply make myself available to help each of you along if you have any technical questions. If there are no questions, it will likely end fairly promptly.
The second item is that my podcast with Joseph Von Benedickt was finally published. Joseph is an editor for Shooting Times, Guns and Ammo, Peterson’s Hunting, Rifle Shooter while also hosting the backcountry podcast. Here is a link to the chat:
The podcast can also be found on Spotify and Apple.
Third and last on the list is a bit of gun porn. I recently put together a 7mm Practical, rebarreling the Bergara 2.0 .300 PRC (featured on the cover of The Practical Guide To Long Range Rifles - second edition). The 2.0 / PRC has an extra long magazine, ideal for long magnums and for chasing the lands. The stock is a Precision Platform made by Clive Judd here in NZ https://precision-platforms.com/ . This stock has all of the excellent features described in Rifles – second ed, a generous forend length for shooting over a pack, wide but in a subtle way, an elongated grip, straight recoiling and with side mounted flush cups to keep it all settled when shooting with a sling (i.e. shooting a rifle properly like a man). These stocks really tame recoil. Epoxy with rock salt was used to create a grip texture, the salt washed off after curing the epoxy. I bedded the receiver and first two inches of the barrel, then spray painted the stock with two pack Caprathane epoxy paint before applying the final camo colors by hand using a scrunch cloth method (no thinners). The barrel is a True-Flite 1:9, 4 groove which I docked at 28” just so that I can have two bites of the cherry once this chamber is worn out. The scope is a Sightron SIII 6-24x50 LRMOA with illuminated center dot.
I should mention, thanks to the BS bureaucracy of the past four years, Clive is currently unable to deliver stocks to the U.S unless the importer has an FFL / Dealer license. On that note, if there are any prospective importers / FFL license holders out there looking for something with an edge, these are worth looking into. Besides low recoil / excellent ergonomics, these stocks are far more robust than many Carbon fiber items currently on the market which, in order to minimize weight, are quite often built over a weak foam inner and are prone to cracking over time (as per the early B&C’s). I hope also that in sharing this, Clive reads this email and gives me an excellent deal on my next stocks (standard BDL please, one short, one long – you know, just if you happen to have something spare sitting about).
The 7mm Practical has seen a resurgence of late. For a time, it looked as though its popularity was dwindling after Hornady released the 7mm PRC. But now that the honeymoon is over, many shooters including ELR competitors are shifting back to the Practical and I have been receiving email requests for info on a weekly basis. On that note – I have contacted both Manson reamers and Redding to make sure dies and reamers are still readily available. Redding are currently making very accurately (of course) machined neck bushing bump dies – the body / shoulder section only .002” undersize in order to minimize case distortion. These are very nice dies to work with and can be purchased directly from Manson Reamers.
Below is a photo of one of my peers, Chris Murphy during this year’s King of the range ELR comp which he went on to win, shooting a 7mm Practical, CZ 550 action, True-Flite 31.5" barrel 1:8.5 twist, 190 grain A-Tip at 3170fps.
All the best, Nathan.
Written by Nathan Foster on February 14th, 2025.
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Hi guys, just a quick note to say that I will be running a chat this weekend. All you need to do is cut and past the chat link into your browser and provided your microphone and camera are switched on, you will be good to go.
I will run the Chat this NZ Sunday 16, 7am which translates to USA Sunday the 15th.
Link to chat:
https://talk.brave.com/OkEKQytg9C6SEmFh107IyQXv1zUm2U1WqMNr7w7PmLg
Link to world time converter / meeting planner:
If you have anything that you would like a hand with, please drop in for a chat, I will do my best to help. Don’t be shy or worry about asking dumb questions, we are all learning. If you want to try checking in from a gun range and have me check over your technique, then please do so.
All the best, Nathan.
Written by Nathan Foster on January 12th, 2025.
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Hi guys, I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and an enjoyable new year. Am just writing to say that I will be hosting another chat for those interested.
I will run the Chat NZ Monday the 13th, 8am which translates to USA Sunday the 12th.
Link to chat:
https://talk.brave.com/ZgnJ7qYyJQPgWNVxA8juprU4jSDJ9ibeXOBldQyib4s
Link to world time converter / meeting planner:
If you have anything that you would like a hand with, please drop in for a chat, I will do my best to help. Don’t be shy or worry about asking dumb questions, we are all learning.
The podcast with Joseph Von Benedikt (Shooting Times / Petersons Hunting) went very well. Joseph was very kind and easy to work with. The 1.5 hour podcast will hopefully be published within the next few weeks (will update when I have details).
All the best.
Written by Nathan Foster on December 12th, 2024.
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Hi Guys, just a note to share the link for the next live chat this Sunday the 15th 8am Auckland NZ time (Saturday 14th USA / Canada / UK).
Link to this weekend’s live chat:
https://talk.brave.com/CpyV41P_zqmCVf03MacJ5n7o1mDRAZJFZp7IZXv4VEw
Link to time zone converter / meeting planner:
Thanks to those who attended last weekend’s chat. For those who missed it, here is the transcript:
All the best.
Written by Nathan Foster on December 3rd, 2024.
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Hi Guys, will keep it short. I will be hosting another live chat this weekend, Sunday 8am Auckland NZ time (will be Saturday USA / Canada / UK).
Link to live chat:
https://talk.brave.com/dJ8P_cQbddfFUTYKmSkyDb5mRjlrdIAExElgfBM1-Ew
Link to time zone converter / meeting planner:
Thanks to those who attended last weekend’s chat, we covered some great topics. For those who missed it, here is the transcript:
https://youtu.be/dydeoY5u9Ww?si=OMToGWyZe7nfIaEs
The focus of the chats is to provide ongoing support and clarification for those using the book sets and to help you guys along with whatever projects you have on the go. Besides general gun / cartridge talk, if you have a good web cam, I may also be able to check over your reloading or help with a bedding job etc. Will run the live chats for a while and see how we get on.
All the best.
Written by Nathan Foster on November 29th, 2024.
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Written by Nathan Foster on February 5th, 2023.
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Hi all, just a heads up for our Australian customers - the Falcon turbo and Commy V8 might be gone but MatchGrade is back in the great southern land.
Both our bedding and stabilizer kits are now available to the peoples of that fine nation who discovered how to split the beer atom and produced numerous national heros including the outback adventurer Russel Coight.
Australia - where the bloody hell are you buried.
To purchase MatchGrade products, please visit our Australian distributor: https://trekpac.com.au/
Written by Nathan Foster on December 18th, 2021.
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Hi everyone, I hope this email finds you well during these challenging times. It has been a long time since my last post however I am happy to report that we are still at the coal face. This year has nevertheless presented us with some difficulties with regards to how we deliver our business. Following issues with the Paypal system, we had to retire this service which in turn has affected how we deliver some of our services. It is also worth noting that we are seeing some problems with some email services due to the subject matter (i.e. ballistics / rifles etc.). Emails sent from myself or the website, including order confirmations and download links, may go to the recipient’s spam folder as a result of increased internet security measures. Emails and download links can nevertheless easily be retrieved from the customers spam folder. It is simply a matter of being aware of mail handling. If you have ordered a product and do not for example immediately receive a download link, you will find the email within your spam folder.
Time: 8am Sunday 19th December, Auckland NZ time. (Eastern Standard Time: 2pm Saturday 18th December)
Web link: https://meet.jit.si/moderated/bb04162650a9ddac44d658dee40d249241abdc4bf0b33fe4ebff2bef623034bf
One thing I have been trying to work through is a way that we can all communicate in a more meaningful manner. As much as I have enjoyed the youtube podcasts, they were always one sided with the viewer only able to communicate within a text box which made it very hard for the viewer to provide context to questions. We looked into zoom conferencing but this is quite expensive and I was hoping to be able to offer seminars either free of charge or at a low cost to our viewers.
I believe we have found a temporary solution via jitsi.org. This is free open-source software and users do not need to create an account to use this platform. We are going to trial Jitsi this weekend (see time above). Once at the url (given above), all you need to do is enter your first name or a nickname and press the join meeting button. You will of course have to make sure that your camera and microphone are turned on. The downside of this platform is that it has a limit of 100 people per session, therefore we will have to do this on a first come, first serve basis.
There will be no specific topic for this weekend’s webinar. If you can think of any questions you would like to ask me between now and the weekend, write them down. I am hoping that via video conferencing I can provide greater clarification to specific questions rather than get lost in generalizations. Although this is a free webinar, if you find the information useful and are in a position to help, a small donation thereafter would be appreciated.
Just keep in mind that there may be a few mistakes as I trial this. I am not the most tech savvy.
One positive aspect of the challenges mentioned at the beginning of this email is that we have been forced to look at better delivery systems for our products. Customers will be happy to know that our learning series videos are now hosted on our website as direct downloads. As these are downloadable products, we ask that you please do not share them. The funds from these video help to support our family along with ongoing research. Link to video series:
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/shop/Video+Learning.html
The video files are formatted to MP4 H264 and are generally very large (e.g. 3 to 5 GB), you may therefore wish to use a download manager. This software tool helps to ensure that your video will continue to download if you have a poor (or dropped) connection. A free open-source download manager can be found here:
https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm
Following a purchase, you will immediately receive two automated emails. The first is your order confirmation. The second email contains a link to your download. If you cannot see the download email, then it is most likely in your spam folder. If you do not receiver either email, then you have most likely entered an incorrect email address when placing your order.
Note that you only have two days to download the file from the email link. The link will expire thereafter (for our security). If you fail to download your file as a result of either an incorrect email address or expiry, we will do our best to help (or provide a refund) however you must take some responsibility for your purchase by entering the correct details and downloading the file immediately.
Note also that some of the latest Apple computer video players are set by default to H265 video format. You will therefore need to make sure that the video player on your Apple device is set up to play H.264 codec videos.
To check that your player will play these videos, click here to download a test video.
Apple / Mac users may also want to try the free VLC media player:
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html
Steph goes hunting with a .257 Weatherby Magnum:
Steph goes hunting with the 350 Legend:
Excerpt from a talk I gave at a Manawatu Deerstalkers club night:
Well, that’s about it from us. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to each of you for supporting our business and family along with your very kind and supportive emails which brighten our days. I cannot thank you enough for such kind gestures. I do hope that you have been able to get away hunting this year, or at the very least taken time to relax in the wilderness or perhaps engage in practice shooting.
From our family to yours, we wish you all the best for this coming Christmas and the following new year.
Written by Nathan Foster on July 5th, 2021.
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Written by on February 18th, 2021.
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Written by Nathan Foster on November 21st, 2020.
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Hi everyone, here we are are near the end of another year.
First, a reminder that Christmas is not far away so those wishing to order paperback books may want to do so within the next week or so before the printers and post services get swamped (New Zealand buyers please note that we have stock here in NZ for domestic shipping). If you purchase ebooks there is no waiting, just follow the link you receive with your order confirmation, download your books and enjoy.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/shop/Book+Bundles.html
I have finally had the time to sort through my .44 cal research. Yep, took me long enough but it is finally done. Articles include .44-40, 44 magnum and .444 Marlin. It’s great to have these finished and up for your enjoyment, I hope each of you find these articles useful.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.44-40+Winchester+Center+Fire+WCF.html
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.44+Remington+Magnum.html
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.444+Marlin.html
As most of you know by now, I have been working with Norma this year, writing educational material. The first project was an updated and highly in-depth version of my Effective Game Killing article. Norma has taken an incredibly brave approach with this article, allowing me to explain not only the strengths of their ammunition, but also limitations. This level of transparency is rare these days and shows the commitment that Norma have made to their customers. I am deeply honored to have this opportunity to be a part of this meaningful project. A second article will appear in the near future (shot placement). From next year, I believe I will be working as a consultant to Norma in one capacity or another.
https://www.norma-ammunition.com/en-gb/norma-academy/dedicated-hunting/ammunition/effective-game-killing
If you want to know a little more about me, the Door is the book to read. The inexpensive ebook option also serves as a great way to donate to the site while getting more bang for your buck.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/shop/thedoor.html
A review from the forums:
I just had a chance to pick this up and read it and wanted to add my recommendation to anyone on the fence about picking this book up! I didn't grab the book right when it came out, not because I didn't think Nathan and Steph's backstory wouldn't be interesting but because I personally can't stand nightclubs, clubbing, clubbers or anything to do with that scene so I thought I would put it on the backburner. Reading some of these positive reviews made me pick it up and I am sure glad I did. While I figured reading about your backstory would be interesting (and it was), I enjoyed the book a lot more than I expected. Even though I can't stand nightclubs at all, what I really found compelling was a couple of unexpected things; Nathan's growth from a young 'karate kid' into a true warrior, and also the very interesting insights into human character, especially the nature of violence.
In hindsight it makes sense to me that in our oh so cleaned up modern western societies, with no room for men to be warriors that being a doorman at a nightclub is one of the few places left for a man (or woman) to have that no BS laboratory for developing hand to hand combat skills, and into a warrior. For anyone even vaguely interested in hand to hand combat, martial arts or the warrior mindset I would say this book is a must read, ten bucks is hardly anything to pay for Nathan's insight into those topics.
Anyway, I am certainly glad I took the time to read this book and I encourage anybody on the fence thinking about it to go ahead and read it, I don't think you will be disappointed.
Great job Nathan and Steph, and God bless you and your family!
Over the last couple of years, I have had to back off my email in order to avoid being ground into a state of non-productivity. But as and when time has allowed, I have copied the occasional technical email exchange to a book draft titled Ask the expert. So far the book is up to about 200 pages of useful tips and tricks. I will keep plugging away at this but as suggested, this book is being written only when time allows.
Another method I have been employing to deal with mail is Vimeo record. A supposedly simple platform for answering mail by video. One aspect that I like about this is that it allows me to really give you guys my undivided attention, it allows me to really connect with you in a way that email cannot convey. On the other hand, there are some limitations. Vimeo record was designed to help work flow but the method is only convenient if I use my laptop (low quality picture and sound). In order to record at a higher quality, I would need to set up a studio which kind of defeats the purpose. It’s also not so easy to have a one-way speaking conversation. I end up feeling that I am trying to fill my own gaps in thought with speech when I should be sitting quietly and thinking about possible contradictions that may be helpful to the person who has emailed me. Perhaps over time I will get better at this. In any case, after recording my waffle, the video is saved to Vimeo where it can be shared privately to the person who emailed me via a quick link. Videos suitable for sharing can also be saved to a channel which everyone can view on Vimeo. The channel can be set to free viewing or paid subscription as a means to get something back from the time and energy expenditure. At the moment, I have just a few videos uploaded which are set to free viewing. Will see how this goes over time and whether it actually serves as an effective delivery method.
https://vimeo.com/channels/nathanfoster
Well that’s about it for this year guys. It’s been a tough one for sure. If I can offer one piece of advice moving ahead, it is that the measure of one’s strength and power is perhaps equal to one’s capacity for gratitude and compassion. It is this I believe that separates us from those who prefer to shed personal responsibility and want to change others in order to make themselves happy. To that end, I wish each of you great strength and power.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Nathan, Steph and Miss Riley.
Written by Nathan Foster on November 7th, 2020.
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Written by on September 17th, 2020.
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Hi All, just a quick post to say that we will be running another youtube live stream in NZ this Sunday at 8am (Saturday afternoon or evening for Northern hemisphere viewers).
Please click on the following link to view the correct screening time and countdown clock for your region: https://youtu.be/tsNFAaSof3I
Note also that you will need to retain the link in order to log into the chat. Youtube will generally hide links to streams until they have been up for some 24 hours (Youtube security protocols). So again, please keep the above link if you wish to view the stream or join the chat.
This week’s chat will be organic as usual. I will most likely start the stream with the first email or live chat question that peaks my interest or that which may be of use to others.
Until then, all the best.
Nathan.
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FOUND THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL?If you find the resources on this website to be valuable, we would be sincerely grateful if you would consider making a donation to help us cover the costs of the website and to assist us to continue our research and testing into the future. It doesn't matter whether your donation is big or small - it makes all the difference!
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ABOUT USWe are a small, family run business, based out of Taranaki, New Zealand, who specialize in cartridge research and testing, and rifle accurizing.
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