c-g-designs

Foreword.

            This is a descripttion of the 25 rifles used by the modest goodwill New Zealand team to the 1999 Palma and Worllds Championships in Bloemfontein RSA.

            The NZ Team finished 3rd place close to the GB second, beating strong teams such as Australia, Canada, Germany,Kenya, USA.

            The ‘uniformised ‘rifles were the result of decisions made by Team management stating easing to the maximum the coaches work with shooters using equally performing equipment. Each barreled action ftted perfectly each individual stock and shooters were trained to eventually use on heir stock any of the others team members action. All rifles performed excellently and this capacity was not used.

            This ‘uniformisation’ example was partially reconducted by the 2011 SA Palma Team to Brisbane,Australia, using all a C.G INCH rifle action and same sighting. Despite still some individual disparities in the equipment, this uniformisation led them to a close 2d place in the Palma.

            25/04/2014

            R.G.C

THE RIFLE USED BY THE NEW ZEALAND RIFLE TEAM

IN THE 1999 PALMA MATCH and WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - APRIL 1999,BLOEMFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA

            THE C.G MILLENIUM

            The Team Rifles

            All team members will be using the same rifle - the CG Millenium - supplied by H&H Enterprises, Hastings, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The rifle has been chosen for various reasons. The main strategy is to have rifles that have top performance and similar characteristics from one to another. To this end a barrel and action can be transferred to another stock if there is any suspicion of a problem occurring with an individual rifle. All rifles will have barrels with similar ballistic characteristics, the same sight radius and the same sights, and will respond to the coach's corrections in a similar manner, making their job so much easier.

            History of the CG Millennium Rifle

            Robert Chombart a French Engineer went to England in 1973 to work on a project for 3 months. This project turned into a 10 year period spent in England. Robert a very keen rifleman was introduced to Bisley and in 1975 purchased a Swing Rifle that had been designed by the late George Swenson in the early 70's.

            This early model Swing had many design and material problems that were rectified by Robert over a period of time and his much modified original action is still in use. These modifications made by Robert on his original Swing, were incorporated in the Paramount rifle. It however still had design features of the Swing so that existing stocks of triggers and trigger guards could be used.

            On the demise of Paramount other companies emerged from the ashes, and one of these was R&P, this company later became RPA. The RPA firm is still in existence and the others have faded away. Robert's association with RPA ends in 1999 and at present H&H and RPA are the only licensed users of his patents and registered designs. Tony Halberg had heard of his use of Belleville washers instead of coil springs to power the firing pin in 1990 from the late Freddy Payne an English rifleman who had a rifle built by a French friend. The name of the French friend was not mentioned. In 1994 Robert came to Trentham and a chance remark by some one about a Frenchman with a different rifle was made and Tony managed to locate him. Considerable correspondence followed and when Robert returned to Trentham in 1995 as armourer with the German team, he came very much as a friend.

            H&H imported several RPA CG 2000 actions in 1995 that had been modified to suit the H&H Flexibed bedding system. These rifles were quite successful but due to problems with RPA over delivery and other matters H&H decided to enter the market on their own account.

            The first "dummy" or prototype action was produced in H&H's workshops followed by a production run of 25 actions late in 1997. These first series of actions were fitted with American Jewel triggers that have subsequently been replaced with H&H's own CG trigger. The second run of actions was increased to around 130 and work on these is ongoing.

            The 25 Palma team rifles are made up of five 97 series actions with the remainder from the 98 series.

            Special Note:

            The "C.G" that is engraved on the actions is short for Chombart Ginestet. Philippe Ginestet is a close friend of Robert Chombart and co-owner of the patents that H&H Enterprises are licensed to use.

            The Flexibed Bedding System

In 1991 it was decided to set up a Grunig & Elmiger rifle (John Hastie's) with a bedding system that would last, as the early G&E rifles do not have a good name for bedding longevity. This new bedding proved successful and a Barnard rifle was converted to the same system. Three actions have been used in the same stock for a number of years without problem. Subsequently a further three G&E's were converted with excellent results. The final push to use this somewhat radical bedding arrangement that used elastomers or memory plastics was due to the movement that H&H observed when test firing a barrel and action in their "Iron Monster" machine rest. It was surprising to observe the magnitude of movement at the barrel muzzle and of course this movement does not cease at the action. It also explained the fretting that H&H had observed when an action was bedded into an aluminium vee block. On firing a rifle for the first time on the new bedding it was immediately noted that a rifle that had previously a most distinct "ring" to it on discharge, no longer had this "ring". It was very evident in that not only did H&H have a bedding system that would last, H&H had also achieved suppression of the vibrations and harmonics produced on discharge. The absorption/suppression of these vibrations was a real gain as this energy is normally transferred to the stock and shooter. Variations in stock material and shooter hold, meant that it was nigh on impossible to produce rifles that would perform equally for all people.

            Specifications of the CG Millennium Rifle

Bolt

            Four lug design with asymmetric lugs (two of larger diameter to guide the bolt). The body of bolt is hard chrome plated to ensure smooth operation and corrosion protection. The bolt design incorporates a separate floating firing pin. The hammer assembly, which is driven by Belleville washers, has a free travel of 2.6mm with a firing pin protrusion of 1.4mm nominal, giving a total travel of 4.0mm. The Belleville washers exert a force of 134 Newton's at approximately 34% of full compression. In the fired position there is virtually no load on the washers. Estimated lock time is very fast at 1.4ms.

            Action Body

Octagonal Form manufactured from high strength nickel-chromium-molybdenium steel with two horizontal broached raceways for bolt guiding. This method increases the important vertical bearing surface by some 40% over having a raceway for each lug of the four lug bolt. The action is electroless nickel plated and drilled for custom scope bases. It is provided with a mounting for Central pattern aperture sights.

            Trigger

Modified C.G 2 stage design, adjustable from approximately 400 grams to +1500 grams. Cylindrical trigger shoe adjustable for reach.

            Bedding Block

High strength 7075 aluminium alloy, with longitudinal Adiprene strips and bushes (two grades of Adiprene) with stainless steel bushes and compression disks. The block is epoxy bonded into the fibreglass stock and the adiprene bushes are not accessible. King screw pressure is not critical but they must be firm. Recommended pressure is 100 inch/pounds.

            Stock

            Robertson H&H pattern fibreglass, similar to Anschutz 1411. Colour Pantone 321. Adjustable butt plate of Anschutz manufacture supplied with two 6mm spacers to adjust stock length. The cheek piece is adjustable for height and can be altered in sideways position and also swivelled. Stock fitted with an Anschutz pattern accessory rail and alloy trigger guard.

            Barrel

            MAB 30" 1 in 13 twist, cut rifling. Profile "Games Special".

            Foresight

H&H manufacture with level bubble and threaded for eagle eyes. Designed for use with plastic or Anschutz steel elements only.

            Rear Sight

            Australian TMAC ¼ minutes in elevation ½ minute in windage.

            Weight

6.2 kg (approximate).

            Useless statistics

            There are a total of 179 components including 33 screws and 47 Belleville washers in a complete rifle and this is counting the adjustable butt plate and front sight as a single components and not counting the rear sight or sling fittings.

            Useful Statistics and Thanks To .....

            All of the production runs of the actions and most components are produced on computer controlled machinery and following is a list of the companies involved with the production of the Palma Team rifle.

            WE-CAN Engineering Hastings

Productions of the action body, bolt and trigger components. Including broaching of the action body and grinding of the bolt. Thanks to Lindsay Hill and your most competent staff.

            MAB Engineering Queensland, Australia

The supplier of the superb MAB barrel and also manufacturer of most of the small components associated with the rifle. Thank you Graham Bugden and the workers at MAB.

            Electrotech Engineering Palmerston North

Wire cut EDM (Electro discharge machining) of action and trigger components. Thank you Kerry Foster.

            Metro Hard Chrome Auckland

Electroless nickel plating and hard chrome plating of components. Excellent work from Jack Short.

            Heat Treatments Ltd Auckland

Heat treatment of components and a special thank you to Ivan Mitchell the metallurgist for technical help.

            Live Sound Ltd. Auckland

Supplier of the purpose built rifle cases. Thanks to John Carter.

            JGS Coos Bay, Oregon, USA

Supplier of the special chambering reamers and throaters used.

            Robertson Rifle Stocks Canada

Supplier of the fibreglass stock blanks, top work Ian Robertson.

            NZ Ammunition Company Wellington. Thanks to Paul Clark

Supplier of Proshot cleaning equipment.

            TMAC Sights Victoria Australia.

Supplier of the rear sight.

            Assembly and Testing

The inletting and finishing of the stocks, assembly of the actions, barrel chambering and fitting and some machining work on action and trigger components is carried out in H&H workshops.

            All rifles have been run in and group tested over a bench rest using a telescopic sight at a distance of 300 yards. All barrels have performed well within the criteria set for the supply of barrels. No barrel has been rejected and performance both in size of group and average velocity has been remarkably even. It can be noted that of the 25 barrels tested the mean velocity for each barrel over a ten shot string has been within 15 f/s and the average group size would be about 34 mm. This means the barrels must be dimensionally very consistent when looking at the mean velocity per barrel, the group size speaks for itself.

            H&H have plotted the fall of all shots on the target against the velocity of the round. The ammunition used was SA PMP as will be issued for the Palma Match in SA. In the 500 rounds or so used in evaluation and testing H&H have had one cartridge record a velocity some 100 f/s below the mean velocity for the batch. This cartridge was obviously undercharged, but even then it was not the lowest shot in the group that was 32mm vertically. This particular group in itself along with all of the others indicated there was little correlation between velocity and position in the group. In other words the rifles are exhibiting positive compensation and results out in the field back this up.

            The C.G Trigger

            This trigger is a 2 stage, 2 lever design, that has its origins with military rifles designed around the turn of the last century. It is a true 2 stage design with the increase in pressure for the second stage achieved by change of leverage.

            To define a true 2 stage trigger it means that the sear engagement is considerable on closing the bolt and the first stage pull reduces the sear engagement to a minimal amount. This means the trigger is inherently very safe as it requires a fair amount of movement of the trigger to fire the rifle, and it is impossible to fire if excessive force is applied when closing the bolt (very unlikely to fail a function test). There are other 2 stage triggers that have a hinged and spring loaded trigger shoe as the first stage. This design has minimal sear engagement on closing the bolt and would be more likely to fail a function test.

            As delivered the trigger is set to approximately 1500 grams total pressure with approximately 750 grams on each stage. The lowest setting possible without altering the first pressure adjustment is about 700 grams with 350 grams on each stage. It is not recommended that any alteration be made to the first pressure setting for use at 1500 grams. Also this pressure setting can only be backed off a given amount as it is absolutely essential that the cocking lever resets to full engagement on releasing the first pull pressure.

            Last Updated on 1 March 1999
            By Graham Derby
            Email: gderb@ihug.co.nz