http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/RSS.ashxGUNS Magazine April 2009 PagesMon, 09 Feb 2009 21:18:53 +0100http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=1http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=1You Can EAA WITNESS MATCH ! WIn ACP $4.95 $4.95 OUTSIDE OUTSIDE U.S. U.S. $7.95 $7.95 APRIL APRIL 2009 2009 STAG-15 2T 1/4-BORE HEAVEN KIMBER KIMBER 84M 84M ROBERTS .257 .257 ROBERTS A R P R E C I S I O N PRAIRIE DOG REPORT GUNS GUNS & & GEAR GEAR • • HI-POINT HI-POINT .45 ACP .45 ACP • • EAA EAA M88 M88 GREEN SCENE BONUS! BUDGET VALUE 9MM 9MM • • DAY DAY OF OF THE THE CONDOR CONDOR • GREEN SHOTSHELLS • GREEN SHOTSHELLS AIRSOFT AIRSOFT UZI UZI & & AK-74 AK-74 SURPLUS LOCKER CZ CZ SKORPIAN SKORPIAN 7.65mm 7.65mm2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=2http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=22009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=3http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=3New! Cleaning Kits for Hunters in RealTree® and Mossy Oak® ® Extra Brushes & Optics Care for Hunters! OTIS TECHNOLOGY, INC. The Otis Technology Breech-to-Muzzle Cleaning System is widely regarded by experts as the most advanced gun cleaning system in the world! The New HARDCORE HUNTERTM kit includes all the gear from the best selling Tactical kits with extra gear for Hunters! Now available in Mossy Oak® and Real Tree® camo belt cases. Otis makes a Gun Cleaning Kit for every small arm in existence today. as it has for more than 2 decades! No matter what you hunt with, OTIS makes a kit to clean it. For more info, see these kits at your local dealer or at www.otisgun.com Otis Technology, Inc. 6987 Laura St. Lyons Falls, NY 13368 (800) OTIS-GUN (315) 348-4332 FAX WWW.OTISGUN.COM ©Pyramont GMC 20082009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=4http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=4Vol. 55, Number 4, 642nd Issue 6 7 PORTABLE PRECISION Stag Arms leads the way in modern day AR rifles. STORY: Dave Anderson PHOTOS: Lynn Pedigo APRIL 2009 CROSSFIRE Letters to the Editor RIFLEMAN DAVE ANDERSON CLINT SmITH 7 ON THE COVER 10 RANGING SHOTS™ 12 UP ON ARs GLEN ZEDIKER 14 HANDGUNS mASSAD AYOOB 16 SHOTGUNNER HOLT BODINSON Anticosti Island, Hunter’s Paradise 18 HANDLOADING COLUMNS JOHN BARSNESS 20 MONTANA MUSINGS mIKE “DuKE” VENTuRINO GUNS Magazine (ISSN 1044-6257) is published monthly by Publishers’ Development Corporation, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, CA 92128. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Diego, CA and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year (12) issues $24.95. Single monthly copies, $4.95. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Eight weeks notice required on all changes. Send old address as well as new. SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS: For immediate action write GUNS Magazine, Attention: Circulation Dept., 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, CA 92128 or call (858) 605-0250. CONTRIBUTORS submitting manuscripts, photographs or drawings do so at their own risk. 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Copyright © 2009 by Publishers’ Development Corporation. 68 VIEWS, NEWS & REVIEWS RIGHTS WATCH: DAVID CODREA 78 A GUNS MEDLEY Day of the Condor HOLT BODINSON JOHN CONNOR JOHN TAffIN 86 ODD ANGRY SHOT 90 CAMPFIRE TALES 22 SURPLUS LOCKER™ HOLT BODINSON 14 Advantage Sights 22 DEPARTMENTS 30 38 OUT OF THE BOX™ •HI-POINT.45ACPpg.30 •EAAM889mmpg.34 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS JEff JOHN 72 QUARTERMASTER FEATurINgguNSAllSTArS! THISMONTH: • JEff JOHN • CLINT SmITH Czechoslovakia’s Skorpion 18 74 GUNS 2009 CATALOG SHOWCASE 80 GUNS CLASSIFIEDS 82 NEW PRODUCTS JEff mOREY 84 GUN OF THE MONTH EAAWitnessMatch.45ACP 88 ADVERTISER INDEX The 4-to-1 Rule 4 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=5http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=5PHOTO: JOSEPH R. NOVELOZO 84 GUNS MaGaziNe GUN OF THe MONTH EAA WITNESS mATCH .45 ACP! 40 44 52 57 62 MY WIFE’S GUNS I thought some were mine, but I was wrong. MIKE “DUKE” VENTURINO PORTABLE PRECISION DAVE ANDERSON Stag Arms leads the way in modern day AR rifles. FULL AUTO FUN WITH SOFTIES J.I. GALAN 44 52 The Mini-Uzi and AKS-74U. RETURN OF THE .257 ROBERTS RICHARD MANN Two “Bobs” from Kimber. PRAIRIE DOG REPORT JOHN BARSNESS It’s time to thin dogtown. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 62 52009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=6http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=6CROSSFIRE GUNS MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2009 THE FINEST IN THE FIREARMS FIELD SINCE 1955 LETTERS TO GUNS gunS Magazine® welcomes letters to the editor. We reserve the right to edit all published letters for clarity and length. Due to the volume of mail, we are unable to individually answer your letters or e-mail. In sending a letter to GUNS Magazine, you agree to provide Publisher’s Development Corp. such copyright as is required for publishing and redistributing the contents of your letter in any format. Send your letters to Crossfire, GUNS Magazine, 12345 World Trade Dr., San Diego, CA 92128; www.gunsmagazine.com; e-mail: ed@gunsmagazine.com BOARD OF DIRECTORS thomas von rosen, ceo; thomas hollander, randy molde, marjorie young PUBLISHER roy huntington editor jeFF john Managing editorial aSSiStant stephanie jarrell editorial aSSiStant Kerin van hoosear art director joseph r. novelozo production Manager linda peterson advertiSing SaleS director anita carson advertiSing account Manager jeFF morey advertiSing account executiveS steve evatt, delano amaguin, scott mcgregor proMotionS director randy moldé proMotionS coordinatorS lorinda massey, elizabeth o’neill contributing editorS john taFFin, holt bodinson, dave anderson, clint smith, massad ayoob, miKe “duKe” venturino field editorS sam Fadala, david codrea, john morrison, glen zediKer, john sheehan, jacob gottFredson, miKe cumpston, john barsness, dave douglas Staff pHotograpHer joseph r. novelozo Happy Anniversary! The staff here at GUNS Magazine and FMG Publications would like to publicly send hale and hearty best wishes on John and Dot Taffin’s 50th Wedding Anniversary occurring on 2/20/2009! Congratulations to you both! — Jeff John, editor Theatre in WWII. It looks identical to the sling on Mr. Taffin’s Mossberg. I have a scope mounted on my gun and I enjoy shooting it. It still is a great rifle even after 48 years of use. James Michael (Mike) Dorsey McGregor, Texas Wickliffe I found the article on the Wickliffe rifle of the 1970s in the January issue to be very interesting especially since the interest in single shot rifles is coming back. The author, Mr. Johnson, did a good job describing the history of the rifle. His style is comfortable, as if he is sitting there telling you a story. Please keep up the good work and I hope to see more articles about single shot rifles and more of Mr. Johnson’s work. Robbie Williams via e-mail fMg publicationS advertiSing SaleS director anita carson editor: roy MAGAZINE huntington advertiSing: delano amaguin americancopmagazine.com editor: roy huntington advertiSing: steve evatt americanhandgunner.com publiSHer and editor: russ thurman advertiSing: anita carson shootingindustry.com SPECIAl EdITIONS editor: sammy reese advertiSing: scott mcgregor Fmgpublications.com Picture Grips I was reading David Codrea’s “Rights Watch” column in the January issue and I was reminded of my own father. My father also purchased a 1911 in 1942 prior to being deployed to the Pacific. Sometime after his arrival in Philippines he got his hands on some Plexiglas from a downed Japanese cargo plane and made a set of grips for the .45 with my mothers picture attached. He retrieved some of the cargo straps from the plane, which happened to be leather, and made a double holster rig for the .45 complete with cat’s eyes and foreign coins. I also have a picture of him and some buddies doing a little impromptu target practice with their .45s. I have the receipt from his purchase of the 1911, the holster rig and the grips with my mother’s picture. The 1911 is a 1911 and not a 1911A1. The hammer will bite you if you are not careful, but the gun shoots better than my Kimber. Don Hennessey McMurray, Pennsylvania CUSTOMER SERVICE SubScription ServiceS 858•605•0252 expreSS ServiceS www.gunsmagazine.com claSSified advertiSing 858•605•0235 editorial 858•605•0243 ed@gunsmagazine.com production 858•605•0202 production@gunsmagazine.com national advertiSing 12345 World Trade Dr., San D2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=7http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=7RIFLEMAN • DAVE ANDERSON • Hunter’S paradiSe Anticosti Island. HostBillBoothsightsovertypical AnticostiIslandterrain,heavily woodedwithnewgrowthforest providingforageforthehugedeer population.Inopenareassuchasthis thereiscertainlythepotentialfor longshots,perhapsonereasonwhy cartridgessuchas.270Win,7mmrem Magand.30-06arepopular. nticosti Island is part of the province of Quebec, Canada, A located just where the St. Lawrence River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. (Anticosti translates roughly as “before the coast.”) Anticosti is a big island, about 3,000 square miles, and more than a century ago a wealthy Frenchman named Henri Menier bought the island to make a hunters’ paradise. He imported various game species such as whitetail deer and moose. Not every species adapted to the environment, but the deer flourished. Today the island has one of the highest concentrations of whitetails anywhere. Estimates vary, but one guide I talked with says the deer population is about 120,000. With no natural predators on the island hunting is the only means of population control (other than having the deer eat all the vegetation and starve). About 11,000 deer are killed annually by hunters, WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM certainly an easily sustainable number considering the population. Hunting is an important business on the island. Logging for pulp/paper production is another major industry. Logged areas are replanted and this new growth provides ideal deer habitat. Despite the high numbers the deer population seems healthy. All the deer I saw seemed sleek and well fed. I’ve read several articles on Anticosti Island hunting over the years, so I was glad to have the opportunity to hunt there. The hunt was arranged by Bill Booth of Blue Heron Communications as an opportunity to use Smith & Wesson i-Bolt rifles in the field. We stayed at a comfortable hunting lodge on the ocean shore, in fact about 30' from the shore (so close salt spray splashed on the deck during a storm). The meals were fabulous, more like a 5-star restaurant than deer camp. We hunted at different times with two outstanding guides, Mario-Jules Fournier and Rock Malouin. Both are skilled, enthusiastic hunters, and fluent in both French and English. Popular Calibers Considering all the cartridges announced in recent years I was curious what calibers are most popular. In French they say “plus ca change, plus 72009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=8http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=8RIFLEMAN ca meme” (the more things change the more they stay the same). According to Rock Malouin, the most popular cartridges used by Anticosti hunters are .30-06 (1906) and .270 Win. (1925) and the 7mm Rem Mag (1962) also has a following. I do most of my whitetail deer hunting in North Dakota and Saskatchewan, so the Anticosti deer don’t seem very large. I’d have been comfortable hunting with a .223 or .22-250 if they were legal (they aren’t — minimum caliber allowed is .243). A .243, 6mm Rem or .250 Savage would seem just right. The .30-06 seems a little severe for animals which field dress around 120 pounds. However, many Anticosti hunters also hunt moose and caribou in other parts of the province and want a rifle capable of handling bigger game as Smith&Wessoni-Bolt(below,left)withcamosyntheticstockandWeather Shieldfinishin.30-06,Trijicon3-9Xscope,Hornady150-grainSST ammunitionaddeduptoaverypracticalsetup.Alltheequipmentperformed flawlesslyonthehunt. AtypicalAnticostibuck(below,right),thisone weighedabout120poundsfielddressed.Ourgrouptookseveralbucksin muchthesamesizerange.Thepicturewastakenabout8am,theflash makingthewoodslookdarkerthantheywere.Photo:JoeCermele Even at today’s ammo prices, you can shoot till it hurts. Now you can cut ammo costs at the range with the New SIG SAUER® .22LR Rimfire Conversion Kit. It includes a hard coat anodized aluminum slide, barrel, recoil spring/guide, adjustable target sights and magazine – everything you need to quickly convert your SIG SAUER P220®, P226® or P229® to fire low-cost .22LR rounds. See your local dealer today for a SIG SAUER Conversion Kit, and you might just wear out your trigger finger. ® w w w.sigsauer.com2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=9http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=9well as deer. Much of the tree growth is so thick it would be almost impossible to force your way through it. With overcast skies much of the time and short days — we hunted from about 7 am until 4 pm — it was easy to see where the term “dark woods” came from. The shooting equipment was ideally suited to the conditions. The .30-06 S&W i-Bolt rifles had a rust-resistant “Weather Shield” finish on metal surfaces, a nice feature in this salt-air environment. This matte finish is tough, low key and nonreflective. In combination with the camo synthetic stock it meant easy and worryfree gun maintenance. The rifles wore Trijicon 3-9X scopes, the reticle a post with an illuminated tip for fast use in dim light. The reticle is completely battery free, illuminated by a fiber optics cable in the eyepiece or by a tritium insert if there is insufficient ambient light. For fast shooting in what were often rather low-light conditions the reticle was perfect. No one is a bigger fan of strongly constructed, controlled expansion bullets for big, tough game than I. However, deer are neither big nor tough. For deer, especially smaller-bodied deer such as those on the island, I much prefer a fairly high velocity, fast-expanding bullet. Bill Booth evidently agrees as the Hornady ammunition provided was loaded with the 150-grain SST bullet. I fired three pairs of shots on the range to sight the rifle. This wasn’t the time or place for a lot of shooting, so it can hardly be called accuracy testing, but I will note that in each case the two shots were an inch or less apart. Hunters are allowed two deer (either sex) and success rate is very high. I shot two bucks, both 1-shot kills as indeed they should have been at a combined range of about 60 yards. The bright reticle really helped on the first, which was in heavy trees not long after daylight. Of course the effectiveness of the .30-06 hardly needs comment, it has only been doing the job for over a century. In my review of a .270 Win i-Bolt rifle in a recent issue (Dec. 2008) I noted it’s remarkably light recoil. The .30-06 version was likewise very comfortable to shoot. Most likely the reason is the very effective recoil pad. The rifle handled very well in the field and was completely reliable. Hunting can be done from ground or elevated blinds or by still hunting, along narrow paths cut in the thick forest. Either way you’ll have privacy. On Anticosti each hunter has an assigned area. You might hear an occasional far-off shot but you won’t see another hunter. This, I think, accounts for the charm of hunting on Anticosti. Privacy and silence are not always easy to achieve for city folk, especially along the heavily populated eastern seaboard. Just the opportunity to be alone, with no sounds but the wind, the birds, and maybe the grunt of a rutting buck brings hunters back to the island year after year. And while many of the bucks may not seem big by Western standards, I saw some really impressive sets of antlers being loaded on the charter plane out. Sepaq anticoSti 801, cHeMin St. louiS bureau 125, quebec, canada g1S 1c1 (800) 463-0863, www.Sepaq.coM SMitH & weSSon 2100 rooSevelt avenue Springfield, Ma 01104 (800) 331-0852, www.SMitH-weSSon.coM trijicon, inc. p.o. box 930059, wixoM, Mi 48939 (248) 960-7700, www.trijicon-inc.coM Hornady Mfg. co. 3625 old potaSH Hwy. grand iSland, ne 68802 (800) 338-3220, www.Hornady.coM WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 92009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=10http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=10RANGING SHOTS • CLINT SMITH • ™ otHer gunS Some more top choices in defensive handguns. often write about 1911 pistols and revolvers as they are two of I my personal favorite handgun platforms and, contrary to what might be popular belief, I do actually shoot some other kinds of I change or fix is the magazine and — trust me — it cures lots of ills. Wilson’s magazines are as close to bomb proof as I have seen made by anyone, anywhere. Wilson declares the Sentinel will shoot a nominal 1-1/2" group at 25 yards. I have no reason to doubt their claim, as the pistol shot very well for me (like inside 6" for me offhand with my eyes and skills at that distance). Then again, I hope if the day comes I ever need to shoot to defend myself again, I hope I can hit stuff inside a big 6" at 25 yards and my pistol — if I have to use one — works as well as the Wilson Sentinel I tested. handguns. I mostly shoot other guns to broaden my knowledge while trying to be a student of weapons craft. It isn’t so much I would buy these guns for myself as I would like to know more about them. This is one of the better points about the gun writer gig. I confirm to you all again I am not a writer. I simply get to shoot or test guns and/or watch them over periods of time in the hands of others and then simply document what I see. I find it isn’t so much what I do or can do with the guns skill-wise as much as what others can do with a particular platform. Or maybe more importantly, what novice shooters can do since, as always, there are more novices around. I recently looked at two new guns (at least new to me) from two shooting industry icons and the guns are both sort of out of the realm of what I normally shoot. barrel creating a very compact package with an overall length of 7". From top to bottom the pistol measures a mere 5", making it a very concealable pistol. I can discuss fit and finish but as usual for the Wilson shop this pistol is put together very well and looks even better. A point of interest is the Sentinel worked every time I fired it and the magazines are very, very good. If it sounds like I went gear-queer over the magazines, maybe so, then again I really look at magazines if a gun isn’t working correctly. The first thing Robar CCF Glock I shot my first Glock in the spring of 1986 and have had them around ever since. It is one of the two most popular handguns brought by students to school since I started teaching with my own business in 1983. Glocks are everywhere Wilson’sSentinel19119mmpistolislight, easyrecoiling,reliableandaccurate. Wilson Sentinel I have known Bill Wilson since 1978 and hold him in very high regard for what he has done and created businesswise in the shooting industry. I was in his shop when it was in the back of his dad’s jewelry store in downtown Berryville, Arkansas, where he hunkered over the bench building one pistol at a time. It is enough to say Bill has come a long ways since those days. From the Wilson shop I was sent a Sentinel Model 1911 pistol chambered for 9mm, although the Sentinel is available in .45 and .38 Super as caliber options. Much good and bad has been said about the 9mm, but I’ll leave it there as lots of new types of ammo and projectiles improve its performance standards and, no matter what caliber you shoot, it won’t matter unless you hit the target. The Sentinel sports a nominal 3-1/2" “If it sounds like I went gear-queer over the magazines, maybe so, then again I really look at magazines if a gun isn’t working correctly.” 10 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=11http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=11and everyone knows them or they should know them and how to shoot them well. Even if you do not own a Glock you should master the pistol. The Glock is one of four guns I tell all my students to know how to operate efficiently while they are here at school. All that said, no one has worked harder than Robbie Barrkman to make the Glock more shootable for those who have handling issues with the pistol. The Robar grip reduction helped many a Glock owner shoot the pistol much better than they ever could before. Before the SF Glock arrived, Robbie’s conversions solved a lot of problems for a lot of people (even people with big hands) in shooting the big-framed Glock 21. Probably annoying Mr. Glock and his perfect pistol advertising by doing reductions, Robbie has raised the bar by building Robar Glocks on the new CCF metal frames replacing the polymer lowers. Although the concept could be confusing to some in the makethe-gun-lightweight-for-concealment crowd, there is a reason why you would make a metal lower to put weight back on the pistol. Purely in my own thoughts, the metal lower adds weight, which some people like and I would think it would add endurance or “life” as it were to the pistol. I like the Robar CCF because I can put a small backstrap on robar’sglock9mmpistolusesaCCF aluminumraceframetoaddalittleweight andstiffenthepistol.Better,itoffersa glockwithinterchangeablebackstraps. the pistol, sort of an owner-operator grip reduction. If you want a Glock tougher than the one you have, you should definitely look at the Robar version. Although these two guns are guns I don’t own or often shoot, I was more robar 21438 nortH 7tH ave. Suite b pHoenix, aZ 85027 (623) 581-2648 www.robargunS.coM than satisfied. They are both strong contenders for the category of selfdefense handguns. Made by two of the firearm industries leaders and icons, they are well worth looking into should you need a defensive handgun. wilSon coMbat 2234 cr 719 berryville, ar 72616 (800) 955-4856 www.wilSoncoMbat.coM Split more seconds. Shave even more time off your scores by reloading with new AutoComp™ BALL POWDER® propellant from Winchester.® Formulated with the ideal burn rate for auto pistol calibers, AutoComp allows greater gas flow to your gun’s compensator for faster shooting. 6231 Robinson • Shawnee Mission, KS 66202 • Phone 913-362-9455 • www.wwpowder.com Winchester is a registered trademark of Olin Corporation and is used with permission.2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=12http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=12UPONARS • GLEN ZEDIKER • priMerS Where the BOOM starts. rimer problems are well P known and known well, and the primary manifestation Blueprintscallforafiringpinholesizeof .058".Inmyexperience,iftheholeis.062"it will—notmay—pierceprimersataccepted “maximum”loads.Excessivefiringpinprotrusion canbepartcause,butnotascommonas oversizedholes.Specscallfor.028"asminimum and.036"formax,butanythingover.030"height abovetheboltfaceisexcessiveineffect. is what I guess we could call containment. Specifically, primer structural failures such as pierces and cracks plague AR-15 shooters looking to get maximums. More in a minute. Primer seating always needs to be done thoroughly, especially in an AR-15. No primer should ever be as tall or as flush with the case base. It should be under that by a good .005". Check them. A high primer not only may influence bolt closing and create sluggish ignition, but it could get touched off that much easier when the floating firing pin taps off it. That’s the dreaded “slam-fire,” which can damage rifles and their owners. remington7-1/2primershavebecomea standardforHighPowerloads.Theyare “stronger”thanotherpopularbrands,and workwelltoboot.remingtondemonstrates lessflatteningandhaven’tblownatthesame propellantlevelsI’vetriedwithotherbrands. BacktobacktestsI’verunsaythisisafact. Idon’tknowifprimerpocketuniformingdoes squatforgroupsizesbutsinceIusemineto cleanprimerpockets(chuckedinadrill)the operationispainless.Primerpocketsnormally areslightlybowl-shapedwhentheyshould haveflatbottoms.Thetoolsquaresthepocket bottomtothecasehead.Auniformedpocket helpsensuretheprimersareallseatedtoa consistentdepth(meaningtheyhaveequal amountsof“crush”ortensionontheiranvils) andalsotheyareseateddeeplyenough.Thisis aSinclairtool.goodasusual. Setting Your Cap I use a Forster bench-mounted priming tool in place of the handsqueezer varieties. The reason is speedier priming and reduced tedium. The less leverage there is in a priming tool the better you can feel the seating, and the Forster is just right. Most folks leave primers a little high for a time until they get used to using specialty tools. Most press-priming setups have an overabundance of leverage for confident seating. If anyone is operating a progressive press I strongly suggest uniforming primer pockets as insurance against an improperly-seated primer, which here means one that’s not fully seated. Thecaseinthemiddleisagoodexampleofan over-pressureload.Theprimerlooksjustfine andevenkeptitsradius.Thebrightmarkson thecaseheadcamefromsuchforciblecontact andtheresultantfrictiononboltunlockingthat thecaseheadactuallytriedtoshear.Thisload wastwofullgrainsoverwhatIusefor600yards andwasrunasanexperimentinatricked-up Servicerifletoseehowwellitcouldcontain pressures.MiddleprimerwaswithaCWS carrierweightinstalled.Thesameloadletgo (right)whenIremovedtheCWS.Thesecases, bytheway,whichwerenewtostart,wouldn’t gripaprimerenoughforonemoreuse. Burning Daylight Sometimesit’seasy.Thegood,TheBad,and Theugly(lefttoright).Numbertwoiswhat Iliketosee.Noticetheprimeredgeradius waningthroughouttheprogression,andalsothe crateraroundthepinimpressiononthethird case.Numberfour,well,oopsie!Theseshowa fullgrainworkup,doneahalf-grainatatime. don’trunsuchexperiments.letmedoitand thenlookatthesephotos.Ifyouseenumber three,donotgolookingfornumberfour! 12 Primer pierces are primarily, some say solely, caused by too large bolt firing pin holes. When the firing pin holes are not too large, then they are caused by way too much daggone pressure. It’s a matter of sleuthing. If a load pierces primers and the load is average in velocity (by standards other th2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=13http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=13though, “some” number matters not a whit. There are ballparks and yardsticks for sources giving a suggestion of the velocity anyone might expect from a bullet in a barrel. Loading manuals, me, your shooting partners, your rifle builder, magazine articles and so on, don’t all agree on what’s possible and therefore plausible from any bullet/ barrel combination. And there are many bullet/barrel combinations. I honestly can’t tell you where to turn for ultimate clues, but can say they probably, and certainly ideally, come from your own notes. Make sure you keep them. I pay attention to the edge of a spent primer. Square is borderline, but it really should maintain a radius. My best indicator is ease of primer seating on the next load, after starting with a new case. If it seats very easily, the load is too hot. This indicates excessive pocket expansion. Whoa! Remember: pressure signs show a load is over-pressure but not by how much. If you encounter any visible pressure signs back off a half-grain of propellant in your load. If you see any of Superior SHooting SySteMS inc. 800 n. Second St. canadian tx 79014 (806) 323-9488, www. SuperiorSHootingSySteMS.coM ruSS Haydon’S SHooter’S Supply 15018 goodricH dr. nw gig Harbor wa 98329 (877) 663-6249, www.SHooterS-Supply.coM forSter productS 310 eaSt lanark avenue lanark, illinoiS 61046 (815) 493-6360 www.forSterproductS.coM them again, come off another half-grain. Primer area indicators can tell, when they show. Not all primers, or all rifles for some reason, display “conventional” primer condition pressure indicators. Some gradually flatten as the load is increased. Some look all nice like until they blow slap out. Trust them when you see them, but don’t trust them if you don’t see them. Savvy? Read the speed for your best initial clue. This is a condensed excerpt from The Competitive AR-15: The Ultimate Technical Guide, Glen Zediker’s latest book. www.zediker.com brownellS inc. 200 SoutH front St. MonteZuMa ia 50171 (800) 741-0015, www.brownellS.coM Sinclair international 2330 wayne Haven St. fort wayne in 46803 (800) 717-8211, www.Sinclairintl.coM MidwayuSa 5875 weSt van Horn tavern rd. coluMbia Mo 65203-9274 (800) 243-3220, www.MidwayuSa.coM reMington arMS coMpany, inc. 870 reMington drive MadiSon nc 27025-0700 (800) 243-9700 www.reMington.coM wincHeSter-weStern 427 nortH SHaMrock eaSt alton il 62024 (618) 258-2000 www.wincHeSter.coM WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM GUNS.Oryx.boar.178x127mm.1-2page.indd 1 13 2008-08-20 15:27:422009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=14http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=14HANDGUNS • MASSAD AYOOB • advantage SigHtS A new handgun sighting concept offers promise. ll sorts of gunsight concepts A come and go. They promise super speed, surgical accuracy or even both. Some deliver, some don’t. Now comes Advantage Tactical, a sighting concept patented by Richard Nasef. He and his partner in Wren Tech Industries LLC, Mike Ballard, are both seasoned competitive handgun shooters. The rear sight is pyramidal in shape. It’s a wide-based isosceles triangle whose base is black, blending into the black gun and ceasing to be readily visible in action. What comes to the eye are the congruent angles on the sides, which are brightly colored and stop just short of meeting at their peak. The tiny gap between their upper ends is filled with the front sight, also brightly colored, and the two together form the apex of a triangle as seen by the shooter’s aiming eye. When properly installed and adjusted, point of aim/point of impact (POA/POI) coordinates put the shot right above the top point of the triangle. It’s a whole lot easier to look at than to describe, so I’m glad we have the pictures here. Nasef notes these sights are at their best in fading light, between the pitch black in which Tritium night sights rule, and high noon on the pistol range where the sight picture of conventional post-innotch sights are at their best. I dunno, I found the Advantage sights pretty good at high noon, too. Each kit comes with a front and a rear Eachunitcomeswithfivedifferentcolorinsertseachforfrontandbackgivingyou25color combinationstochoosefrom,andshimstoadjustforelevation.Thepistolisaglockg17. sight, and five rear and five front inserts of different colors. You can pick your own preferred color combo among 25 combinations. Colors are green, orange, red, yellow and white. Nasef suggests the sights be installed by a gunsmith. I pulled one of the Glock 17s out of my gun safe, and Glock armorer Steve Denney installed them, nailing the alignment on the first try. I chose yellow inserts for the rear sight and red for up front. It was time to head to the range. No Squares Allowed We are all so accustomed to square Patridge front sights and 3-dot sight pictures today, we can forget how precise a knife-blade front sight can be. The Advantage unit reminded me a bit of the trapezoidal sight picture designer Willi Bubits put on the Steyr M9. The first five shots from 25 yards, with generic MaswonanIdPAmatchusingthenewAdvantagepyramidalsightsonaglockg179mm.Hefeltit “ampedup”hisspeed. Remington-UMC 147-grain 9mm full metal jacket, all landed in a satisfying cluster inside the head box of an IPSC target. I was pleasantly surprised. I started working for speed next, at 15 yards and in. I was hesitant at first with the unfamiliar sight picture, taking too long to verify. It took about a 100 rounds on buff-colored cardboard targets and the 6" steel disks of an Action Target Dueling Tree to gain confidence in the new sight image. It did seem to be somewhat faster. The November IDPA match in Jacksonville, Florida, was coming up, and I decided to shoot it with the G17 and the Advantage sights. The pistol had already proven itself to be snag-free with these sights out of Ted Blocker leather and an FIN Kydex scabbard. I wore the latter for the match. In concealed carry, the only possible downside I noticed was the forward-slanting brightcolored “V” of the rear sight would draw an observer’s eye to the gun if the concealing garment inadvertently came open. Good concealment keeps that from happening, though, and the EoTac vest I was wearing revealed the Advantage-equipped Glock only when I intentionally drew the pistol. The sights came instantly to the target, glaringly bright enough they showed up well even in secondary focus during “target focused” shooting on the closer targets. At the closest ranges, all I 14 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=15http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=15Thesights(above)showupwellinordinary outdoorlight.TheAdvantageTacticalsight picture(below)showingtheredfronttopping thetrianglestartedbytheyellowbars. had to do was put the bright front sight (which, when not indexed with the rear, is a pentagonal shape) where I wanted to hit, and that was where the 147-grain Remington bullets landed. There were also some long shots, 20 yards or a little more. That was no problem. I focused on the red tip of the “pyramid” in the sight alignment seen in the Advantage Tactical ads, and got the hits. Once the scores had been tallied up, I had won the match overall against some pretty tough competition. One of the guys on the list of “men to beat” at Jacksonville is gun writer and long-time competitor Chris Christian. He came in second overall with a Smith & Wesson M&P and LPA conventional sights and, shooting on the same squad, watched my Advantage-sighted Glock with interest. Sure enough, he has since ordered a pair of Advantage sights for one of his own pistols. For me, the question was answered. Advantage sights definitely are an advantage, unless you’re in the dark. Nasef has patents pending for a nightsight version of the Advantage concept. At only $99.95 per set for Glock, SIG, and Springfield Armory XD, and another 10 bucks for adjustable sight K-, L-, or N-frame Smith & Wesson revolvers, these are very much worth trying, especially if aging eyes have caused any deterioration in your handgun skills. One satisfied user, J. Kallaher of Florida, wrote to the Advantage Tactical website, “I have 20/600 vision in both eyes and can still see them without glasses.” advantage tactical SigHtS wren tecH induStrieS, llc 7 avenida viSta grande, b-7 Santa fe, nM 87508 (310) 316-6413 www.advantagetactical.coM WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 152009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=16http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=16SHOTGUNNER • HOLT BODINSON • tHe green Scene Bis is Back! Hello, GreenLite and ITX, but .410 steel? e may gnash our teeth at non-toxic shotgun ammunition W requirements, but there’s a plus side to the struggle. Since 1991, when the US Fish and Wildlife Service ended the use of lead shot for migratory waterfowl hunting, shotgun and shotgun ammunition technology has evolved further and faster than anytime in history. You are truly the lucky recipient of the finest scattergun ammo ever loaded as well as screw-in chokes, lengthened forcing cones and back-bored barrels. Next to steel (actually soft iron) shot, the earliest entry out of the gate was Bismuth. Conceived by John Brown, a Canadian carpenter, Brown was definitely familiar with chemistry and the Periodic Table of Elements, where bismuth (Bi) and lead (Pb) sit side-by-side as elements number 82 and 83 respectfully. Bismuth was soft, dense and non-toxic, if you believed Pepto Bismol ads. All Brown’s idea needed was financing and finessing it through the development, testing and certification phase with the Feds. Publishing guru, Robert Petersen, of Petersen Publications, who stepped in and arranged everything. Thus was born the Bismuth Cartridge Company. Great company, great product, but it fell off the radar screen in 2007. The pluses with Bismuth shot were many. It was soft enough to shoot through “pre-steel” shotgun barrels and chokes, making it ideal for vintage shotguns and the smaller 28 gauge and .410s. It responded and patterned like lead through normal chokes. Because it didn’t need the thick protective shot wads essential for steel shot, the pellet count and pattern densities were superior to steel loads. And, yes, it was pricey ammo. Bismuth Lives Well, Bismuth lovers, Bismuth ammunition is back on the market under the auspices of a new company, Pinnacle Ammunition. The shell is still being loaded by Eley, but is now being imported under the “Bis-Maxx” brand. It’s still pricey, but Pinnacle’s Director of Operations, Alan Corzine, former R&D Engineering head at Winchester and Federal, promises to bring costs down and develop a string of new products. At least once in a lifetime, every shotgunner should head for Stuttgart, Winchester’s.410steelshotshellwillbea regularcatalogiteminthe2009. FeaturingaKraftpapershotcupandnoover-powderwad,Polywad’s greenliteshellsleavenothingbehindbutbiodegradableresidues. Arkansas, during late November. Surrounded by the Arkansas, White and Mississippi rivers, this small town of 10,000 at the bottom of the Mississippi Flyway has been known for decades as the Duck and Rice Capital of the World, and indeed it is. The local watering hole is Mack’s Prairie Wings, one of the premier sporting goods stores in the world. When it comes to moving shotshells out the front door, no other store in the world compares. We’re talking in terms of 2 million or more shells a year sold for local waterfowling. The Prairie Wings marquee doesn’t advertise the box price for shotshells, only the case price. That’s what caught my eye. How about 3", .410 shotshells loaded with 3/8 ounce of No. 6 steel shot at 1,400 fps, packaged under the Winchester Xpert Hi-Velocity Steel Shot label, at $139.90 a case! Never heard of a steel shot .410 loading? Neither had I. It was a special run made by Winchester for Prairie Wings in 2008, and Mack’s sold every case delivered to them in a matter of days. Is the waterfowling clan really potting ducks with a .410? Interestingly, the label on the Winchester box reads “Game/Target” load. There’s no mention 16 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=17http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=17of waterfowl. Yet, unique to this part of the flyway and duck hunting in general, is the Stuttgart tradition of hunting ducks in flooded hardwoods. Leaning against tree trunk in a foot or more of water, you wait in the early morning hours for the ducks to float down through the treetops. It’s a form of waterfowling you have to experience, and because the ducks are literally air braking down on top of you, I do believe the boys in Stuttgart carried their favorite .410s into the woods in 2008 with lethal results. Stay tuned. Winchester indicates their Xpert steel loading for the .410 will be a standard catalogued item for 2009. BallisticProduct’snew,non-toxicITXshot isasoftcombinationofiron,tungstenanda polymerbinder. GreenLite Another new entry in the small-bore steel-shot race is Polywad’s “GreenLite.” The small-bore GreenLite shell is truly “green”, and designed for “small upland bird shooting at ranges out to 35 yards and clay targets out to 40 yards+.” The 20- and 28-gauge shells feature a soft steel payload of roughly No. 7-1/2s enveloped in a heavy kraft paper shot cup. Between the paper shot cup and the powder is a column of polymer powder (Polywad’s Obturating Medium). There is no over-powder wad. Polywad calls this their “wadless” technology, and it’s the result of years of experimentation. When a GreenLite shell is torched off, the only residues left in the field are steel shot, a bit of Kraft paper and a puff of polymer powder — all of which are bio- and photo-degradable components. GreenLite payloads are listed in terms of pellet count. The velocity of the 20and 28-gauge shells is given as “1,000 miles per hour,” which, if my math is right, corresponds to 1,467 fps. I’ve shot 20-gauge GreenLite on hand-thrown clays, and they performed as well as any lead load I’ve used at 30 to 35 yards. I’m waiting for the re-opening of the dove season to give GreenLite the acid test. If you must use non-toxic loads for upland hunting or targets, or if you are simply a dedicated environmentalist, give Polywad’s GreenLites a go. Finally, if you handload, Ballistic Products, the shotshell handloader’s emporium, has introduced a new, soft, non-toxic shot composed of iron, tungsten and a polymer binder. Going under the “ITX” label, the pellets are perfectly spherical with a broad cutting band around the circumference. Ballistic Products stresses ITX is much softer than other tungsten blends and is similar in density to bismuth. A 7-pound jar of ITX retails for $129.50. Send for the latest loading data. If you handload shotshells, you can’t be without Ballistic Product’s encyclopedic catalog of components. There’s nothing quite like it. balliStic productS, inc. p.o. box 293, corcoran, Mn 55340 (888) 273-5623 www.balliSticproductS.coM Mack’S prairie wingS 2335 HigHway 63 nortH Stuttgart, ar 72160 (877) 622-5779, www.MackSpw.coM pinnacle aMMunition 6234 kingS ferry pl Saint louiS, Mo 63129 (888) 702-2660, www.pinnacleaMMo.coM polywad, inc. p.o. box 396, roberta, ga 31078 (800) 998-0669, www.polywad.coM WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 172009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=18http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=18HANDLOADING • JOHN BARSNESS • tHe 4-to-1 rule Do the math. Most manuals list a maximum of about 3,100 fps — a gain of just under 17 percent over the .308, and 66 percent divided by four is 16.5 percent. The rule was tried on a bunch of cartridges, and 99 percent of the time worked very well. For instance, let’s apply the 1/4 rule to the .222 Remington (25-grain powder capacity) and the .220 Swift (46-grain powder capacity). According to most manuals, a 50-grain bullet can be started at 3,250 or so from the .222, meaning we should get 3,900+ from a 50-grain bullet in the .220 Swift. And we do. The 1/4 rule has many implications for handloaders, especially those who obsess over minor differences in case capacity. First, “improving” any round doesn’t boost velocities much, unless the original case has a very sloping body. Let’s use as examples the .35 Whelen and the .300 Holland & Holland. The .35 Whelen has a relatively straight case with a tiny shoulder. I once owned a .35 Whelen Improved, a rechambered Remington 700, and measured the capacities of the standard and improved cases. A fired case of each type was weighed empty, then filled with water and a bullet “seated” by hand, allowing the excess water to overflow the mouth. The water on the outside of the case was wiped off, and the waterfilled case weighed. A .35 Whelen case held 63.1 grains of water, with a 250-grain Hornady Spire Point seated to the cannelure. A .35 Improved case held 67.2 grains, an increase of 6.5 percent in powder room. This sounds like a lot until we divide 6.5 percent by four, and find the potential increase in muzzle velocity is 1.6 percent, about 40 fps given a muzzle velocity of 2,500 fps with a 250-grain bullet. This is far from the 200 extra fps estimated by the late gun writer for the .35 Whelen Improved. However, I don’t doubt his rifle and handloads gained 200 fps, though extra case capacity was the smallest factor involved. First, he was claiming 200 extra fps over factory loads, and .35 Whelen Thispronghornwastakenatover300yardswithNoslerCustomAmmunitionin.280remington AckleyImproved.Mostofthegaininvelocity,however,isnotduetoextrapowderroom,butthe higherpressuredevelopedbythe.280AIammooverstandard.280remingtonammunition. ome years ago another magazine ran an article about elk rifles. S The author bragged up the .35 Whelen Improved, claiming it was a vastly superior elk cartridge. How he knew this is a puzzle, because he maybe took three elk in his lifetime (God rest his soul). He said the .35 Whelen Improved gained 200 feet per second, because it had about five grains more powder capacity over the 60 grains of the “unimproved” .35 Whelen. That upped the powder space 8 percent, providing 8 percent more velocity. This sounded logical, but I am naturally skeptical. If extra velocity is gained at the same rate as powder capacity, why does the .300 Winchester Magnum only develop about 17 percent more velocity than the .308 Winchester, when the .300’s powder capacity is 66 percent greater? This question resulted in computercrunching numbers from ammunition catalogs and reloading manuals. After a few days everything became clearer. In 18 cartridges of the same bore size, the gain (or loss) in muzzle velocity is 1/4 that of powder capacity, everything else being equal. This is why the .300 Winchester Magnum doesn’t develop 66 percent more velocity than the .308. Catalogs and manuals list the .308 at about 2,650 fps with 180-grain bullets. Multiply that by 1.66 and the result is 4,399 fps, obviously not the muzzle velocity of 180-grain loads in the .300 Winchester. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=19http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=19factory loads are kind of wimpy, due to old rifles chambered for the round when it was a wildcat. As with most handloaders, his handloads were not wimpy. Second, his rifle had a 26" barrel, 2" to 4" longer than most .35 Whelen barrels. Generally each inch of barrel results in a gain of at least 25 fps, so his longer barrel accounted for 50 to 100 extra fps. Almost all of the extra 200 fps was due to higher pressure and a longer barrel. That’s an extreme example, but very few improved rounds actually gain much if we start with a typical modern case with little taper and a relatively sharp shoulder. One improved case that makes sense is the .300 Weatherby Magnum, a blown-out version of the .300 H&H, a very tapered round. Here powder capacity is increased about 16 percent, for a potential velocity gain of four percent, about 120 fps with loads in the 3,000 fps range. With factory ammunition the gains from the .300 Weatherby appear to be much greater. This is because Weatherby ammo is stuffed to the gills, while .300 H&H ammo is somewhat underloaded. When handloaded to the same pressure the difference isn’t much. In the latest Nosler manual, the difference in top velocity with 180-grain bullets is 175 fps. Their .300 Weatherby barrel is 26" The.35Whelen(farleft)alreadyhasafairly straightcasewithaminimalshoulder,so doesn’tgainsignificantlywhen“improved” (middleleft).The.300H&H(middleright)hasa verytaperedcasewithalong,slopingshoulder, sodoesgainsignificantlywhenblownoutinto the.300Weatherby(farright). long, their .300 H&H barrel 24" long. Subtract 50 fps from 175 and we get 125 fps, just about what the 1/4 rule predicts. Some handloaders even obsess over the weight of their brass, hoping to find lighter cases with “extra powder capacity.” For instance, some 7x57 fans buy Winchester cases (when they can get them) because Winchester 7x57 brass is lighter in weight than other brands. I was one of these nuts, before formulating the 1/4 rule, but the amount of powder capacity by lighter brass is minuscule—around two percent at the very most, meaning a .5 percent gain in muzzle velocity, 10 to 15 fps depending on bullet weight. Find that on your chronograph. Today I use whatever 7x57 brass is available. The rare times when the 1/4 rule doesn’t work are when comparing extremely different powder capacities. The .220 Swift has about 3.5 times as much powder room as the 13 grains of the .22 Hornet. If the .22 Hornet can get 3,000 fps with a 40-grain bullet (and it can, with Hodgdon Li’L Gun) the Swift should get about 4,900 fps. Instead most loading manuals list top Swift 40-grain muzzle velocities of around 4,200 to 4,300 fps. Aside from that exception, the rule works quite well, sometimes eerily so. Nope, if we want really meaningful increases in muzzle velocity, we have to use a much bigger case. It’s that simple, at least if want to keep all our fingers. Now, improved cartridges do have one advantage: they stretch much less during firing and resizing, and often not at all. This saves case-trimming when we’re loading several hundred K-Hornets or .223 Ackley Improveds, but doesn’t matter much when loading 50 rounds of elk ammo — especially if we’ve already chosen an improved round, like any of the Weatherby magnums. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 192009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=20http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=20MONTANA MUSINGS • MIKE “DUKE” VENTURINO • PHOTOS: YVONNE VENTURINO joHn MoSeS browning, geniuS The master’s works survive and thrive. as there ever been another firearms inventor/designer as prolific as John Moses Browning? Especially in regards to such diversity in the firearms he created? His career spanned about a half-century, beginning with a black powder cartridge single shot and ending while he was developing a state of the art (for that time) 9mm high capacity autoloader (the Browning Hi Power). He started out in a little family owned gunsmith shop in Ogden, Utah. In the late 1870s, looking around at the wellknown single shot rifles of the day he decided he could do one better. The three best known such rifles of the time were the Sharps Model 1874, the Remington Rolling Block and the various models of Ballard. Browning incorporated the inherently strong falling block type action of the Sharps Model 1874, but gave it a centrally hung hammer. That also eliminated the rather fragile dogleg shaped firing pin of the Sharps. Browning and his brothers began making that single shot in their shop in 1878 and received a patent for it in 1879. Together they manufactured between 500 and 600 of the new rifle but by 1883 they had attracted the attention of no less an entity than the huge Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Winchester bought the rights to Browning’s rifle and by 1885 introduced it as the Winchester Single Shot; otherwise more commonly called the Winchester “High Wall.” Even more, the Winchester powers-that-be brought young John Moses Browning back east and hired him as a firearms designer. He must have dove right into his work at Winchester because there soon appeared the Model 1886 lever action rifle and the Model 1887 lever action shotgun. Then in the 1890s he was instrumental in designing Winchester’s H JohnBrowning’sfirstdesignwasasingleshot offallingblockdesignandthisisoneofthe earliest,chamberedin.40-70SharpsStraight. TherightswerepurchasedbyWinchesterand itbecametheModel1885.guncourtesyray Howsercollection.Photo:JeffJohn ThelastthreeWinchesterlevergunsofthe19thCenturyconsideredJohnM.Browning’sdesigns includetheModel1892(top),Model1894(middle)andModel1895. 20 last three lever guns: the Models 1892, 1894, and 1895 and their last exposed hammer pump shotgun, the Model 1897. The word “instrumental” is used because several firearms history authorities like to point out that other engineers working at Winchester had their fingers in those pies too. Regardless, J.M. Browning is regarded as supplying the major brainpower in developing all the above models. With all but the Model 1895, Browning showed a genius for retaining Winchester’s trademark appearance for their lever guns. Yet they were stronger and more powerful. For instance, Winchester lever guns had loaded through a port on the receiver’s right side with the cartridges being stored in a tubular magazine slung beneath the barrel. Also they had exposed hammers. He retained those features in the Models 1886, 1892, and 1894. Yet those first two models had twin lugs rising at the rear of the bolt to lock it solidly, while the third had a single lug with a hole in the center so the hammer could strike the firing pin. Those were vastly stronger locking methods than the toggle links of the earlier Winchester Models 1866, 1873, and 1876. The rifles mentioned in the above paragraph were graceful. The Model 1895 was not, and for that matter the earlier Model 1887 shotgun wasn’t either. They were functional, but certainly not WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=21http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=21handsome firearms. Neither was his hump-backed autoloading shotgun sold under both the Browning and Remington names. When a Browning, called the Auto 5 and when a Remington it was the Model 11. And that’s an interesting point of change in Browning’s designing career and in fact the reason he split from Winchester. Sometime in the late 1890s he changed his focus from manually operated firearms to autoloaders and Winchester didn’t want to follow. In the early 1900s Browning developed several pistol designs and interested both Colt and Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Belgium in manufacturing them. As things developed the two companies split the world, with Colt selling these autoloading pistols in the Western Hemisphere and FN taking the Eastern Hemisphere. Between FN and Colt, Browning’s early 1900s pistol designs came in a bewildering array from tiny .25 Autos to the big Model 1905, which was actually the introductory vehicle for the .45 Auto. Perhaps, the most noteworthy of these early Browning designed pistols is the Colt Model 1903 .32 Auto of which over 3/4 million were made between 1903 and 1945. Its slimness made it a fine pocket pistol, a feature from which perhaps some handgun manufacturers today might benefit if they took note. Bythebeginningofthe20thCenturyJohnM. Browninghadturnedhisfirearmsdesigning geniustomachineguns(above).Theair-cooled Model1919A4wasoneofAmerica’smostused machinegunsinWorldWarII. OneofJohn M.Browning’sgreatestandenduringfirearm designswastheModel1911.45pistol(below). The 1911 Born Of course, Browning’s early 1900s pistol designs culminated in the Colt Model 1911 .45 ACP, adopted by the US military from 1911 until 1985, and still in use by some special units. If a pistol design has been copied more and in greater numbers than the basic Model 1911, then this writer isn’t aware of it. With the United States becoming an international power due to World War I, John M. Browning put his talents to work helping devise firearms for the nation’s military. His Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) developed too late to be a factor WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM in World War I, became the standard squad automatic weapon in World War II for both the US Army and US Marine Corps. In fact the Marines liked the BAR so much that by late in the war they were issuing three BARs per squad. Also Browning developed the Model 1917 water-cooled and Model 1919 air-cooled .30-06 machine guns, also standard issue in World War II. Perhaps his crowning achievement for the American military forces was the many versions of machine guns made for the .50 BMG. In fact, if there was a machine gun issued to American forces in World War II that couldn’t be traced to John M. Browning it would have to have been the few .30 caliber Lewis Guns the Marine Corp still had in use early in the conflict. Look at news clippings of American armored forces in Iraq today and you’ll likely see .50 Browning Machine Guns mounted on their vehicles. By his death in 1926 John M. Browning had designed 80 firearms ranging from a single shot rifle to several military full autos. American firms producing his guns were Winchester, Stevens, Remington and Colt plus he had that long-standing association with FN of Belgium. It was an amazing career. 212009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=22http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=22• HOLT BODINSON • ™ cZecHoSlovakia’S Skorpion The rattle’s gone, but the cachet is there. ne of the most exotic machine pistols ever to hit the streets was the Czech Skorpion. It was a legitimate, Czech Army issued small arm, but it quickly acquired an infamous reputation in the hands of state security police, political assassins, terrorists and just plain old crooks. Thanks to a recent import from CZ-USA, we can now own and shoot this historic, little rattle gun. The Czech arms industry was in ferment during the 1950s, and as milsurp collectors, we’ve been the lucky recipients of such nice pieces as the CZ 52 pistol, Model 52 and Model 58 rifles and now the Skorpion, albeit the latter in a newly manufactured, semi-automatic, pistol form. 22 O Onceaselect-firearmforspecialisttroopsintheCzecharmy,CZnowoffersasemi-autoversion (above)formilsurpcollectors.TheSkorpionthrivedonCzechSellier&Bellot73-grainFMJ ammunition(below). WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=23http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=23Remove the magazine. Check the chamber to verify the pistol is unloaded. Cock the action. The disassembly pin is located in front of the magazine well. From the right, push the pin to the left and pull it fully out from left until it locks (1). Grasp the top cover, pull it forward and rotate it down. Placing the pistol on a flat surface, pull the operating buttons fully back to the enlarged portions of the operating slot. With a padded screwdriver, pry both buttons off (2). Remove the bolt from the top cover (3). Remove the recoil springs and guide rods from the bolt. The Skorpion is now fieldstripped (4). REASSEMBLY: Reassemble in reverse order. Hint: Remember to pull the top cover fully back under the rear of the frame before trying to push the disassembly pin back in place. DISASSEMBLY/REASSEMBLY 1 2 3 4 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 232009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=24http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=242009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=25http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=25SURPLUS LOCKER S&BFMJammunitionfedflawlessly,ishighly accurateandshoots(above)tothesights.The Skorpionpistolacceptseithera10-or20-round magazine(below). The selective fire SA vz.61 Skorpion was designed in the late 1950s by Miroslav Rybar. Similar in concept to the earlier Mauser C/96 Schnellfeuer and later Soviet Stechkin, the Skorpion was conceived as a personal small arm for security forces and non-infantry personnel, like tank crews who had no room for full-size battle rifles. In designing the Skorpion, the Czech’s once again displayed a bit of national independence in the face of the Warsaw Pact’s pressure for small arms and ammunition “unification.” The Czech’s selected the 7.65mm Browning cartridge we know as the .32 ACP. No other Warsaw Pact arm was chambered for the “capitalist” 7.65mm. It was an inspired move. Typically loaded with a 71-grain FMG bullet at 850 to 900 fps (Czech data lists 1,050 fps for the Skorpion), the .32 ACP offered minimal recoil in full auto mode and generated a velocity range perfect for the employment of a silencer. An additional plus was the Skorpion could be manufactured as a simple, inexpensive, lightweight, blowback action, machine pistol. The original Skorpion machine pistol with its selector switch offered several advantages. With a 10-shot magazine in place, it was as compact as a large pistol and was indeed issued with a belt holster. It could be fired with one hand as a pistol with an official effective range of 75 meters, and with its 10", integral, folding wire, shoulder stock extended, it was considered accurate and effective in semi-automatic fire out to 200 meters. Long Range? Yes In fact, the new Skorpion semiautomatic pistol model is supplied with an “L” type, flip over, open rear sight regulated for 75 and 150 meters. I checked the sights out at 75 yards with S&B 7.65mm FMJ, and the little gun was right on the button at that range. I 25 ThenewSkorpionsaremadebyd.Technikin theCzechrepublic.Here,thesightsarebeing rivetedinplace. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=26http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=2626 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=27http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=27only wish the semi-automatic Skorpion could legally be outfitted with the original folding wire stock so we could better examine the model’s inherent capabilities at longer ranges. At close range on full auto and churning out a cyclic rate of 750 to 850 rounds per minute, the original Skorpion, which fires from a closed bolt, must be considered a formidable weapon. Being drawn from concealment and fired, for example on its side, so that the momentum of recoil would move the muzzle horizontally rather than vertically, the Skorpion could lay down a pretty wide fan of fire in a crowded room or street scene. Given the diminutive size of the 7.65 cartridge, the standard 10- or 20-round Skorpion magazines are light and compact. A user can carry a lot of spares on his person, plus the magazine well in front of the triggerguard is well positioned and easy to access when changing out magazines. SURPLUS LOCKER Production The original SA vz.61 Skorpion was produced by CZ in batches from 1963 to 1979, Total production of the model was approximately 210,000. The Czech’s also produced a series of variants in .380 ACP, 9mm Makarov, 9mm Luger and a high-velocity Czech variant of the Makarov cartridge. I have seen pictures of Skorpions fully outfitted with night lights and optical sights. Military acceptance testing indicated that the SA vz.61 functioned reliably in a wide range of temperatures, in dirty, muddy, icy field conditions, had an accurate bore life (chromed) TheSkorpioniscompactenoughtofitnicely intoatacticalholsterwiththe10-roundmag inplace. of at least 60,000 rounds and could absorb a lot of physical damage before malfunctioning. Serving Good And Evil In 1980, production rights to the Skorpion were obtained by the Zastava factory in Yugoslavia. Skorpions did indeed crawl out from the rocks in Serbia and Croatia when Yugoslavia recently broke up into its ethnic pieces and armed conflicts. Today, according to CZ, the military version of the Skorpion is on “official duty” in Afghanistan, Angola, Czech Republic, Libya, Slovakia, Uganda, Serbia and Montenegro. Unofficially, it can be found anywhere in the Third World. Members of the PLO just love their Skorpions. A Clone What’s neat about the new Skorpion pistol is it’s made to the same dimensions and military specifications as the original Skorpion. It’s simply a semi-automatic clone without a folding wire stock. It looks the same. It operates the same way. It uses the same magazines. The frame is CNC machined from a precision casting. The top cover is a rigid stamping. Within the top cover, 27 TheSkorpionarrivesasacompletepackage withaholster,extraclips,andadVdina hardcase. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=28http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=28Mission Brief: Rock >> Forged A4 Upper Receiver >> A2 Flash Hider, 1/2-28 Thread >> 16” Chrome-Lined, Chrome Moly R4 Barrel, 1:9 Twist River Arms Entry Tactical >> 6-Position Tactical CAR Stock 1 MOA @ 100 Yards >> R-4 Handguard with Double Heat Shields >> Two Stage Match Trigger >> Star Safety Selector >> Hogue Rubber Grip Sa vZ.61 Skorpion piStol Maker: Maker: d. tecHnik a.S. jablunka 610 756 23 jablunka cZecH republic iMporter: cZ-uSa 3327 nortH 7tH St. kanSaS city, kS 66115 (800) 955-4486 www.cZ-uSa.coM action type: Blow-back, semi-auto caliber: 7.65mm Browning (.32 ACP) barrel lengtH: 4.5" overall lengtH: 10.6" weigHt loaded: 2.76 pounds (10-shot magazine) finiSH: Black polymer and blue SigHtS: Flip over, open rear sight 75m and 150m Stock: Wood price: $575 SURPLUS LOCKER Rock River Arms Elite Comp 1.5 MOA @ 100 Yards Rock River Arms NMA2 borders, the farm, your record at Camp Perry or anything in between, has a rifle to get the job done. You can also customize your rifle, choosing from a wide selection of calibers, receivers, stocks, handguards, barrels, triggers, grips, and accessories. This combined with Rock River Arms’ unsurpassed quality makes Rock River Arms the ultimate choice for durability, dependability, accuracy, and versatility. It’s not just another AR, it’s a Rock River Arms LAR. .75 MOA @ 100 Yards Rock River Arms Coyote Carbine Scope not included .75 MOA @ 100 Yards a heavy blowback bolt reciprocates on two operating springs and guides. Workmanship and finish are excellent. Best yet, the trigger, with only a bit of slack, broke cleanly at 3.5 pounds in the test gun. And the Skorpion pistol shoots. It was designed for FMJ, and it thrives on FMJ. It would not feed Speer 60-grain Gold Dot. It would feed Winchester 60-grain SilverTip, but accuracy was only so-so and the point-of-impact was high with the fixed sights. The Skorpion turned out to be a bit of a nationalist. Feeding it Czech Sellier & Bellot 73-grain FMJ, the Skorpion would consistently cluster 3 shots into 1" or less at 25 yards at an average velocity of 1,028 fps, plus the 73-grain S&B shot perfectly to the fixed sights. Sights Recoil was negligible. Functioning was perfect. The Skorpion’s rocking safety was convenient, and the slide was held back after the last shot. The only improvement I would recommend would be to widen the notch in the rear sight blade. There just isn’t enough daylight on either side of the round front post to insure a precise sight picture. The new Skorpion arrives in a permanent plastic carrying case. Packed inside are two 20-round clips with a double magazine pouch, one, 10-round clip, a nylon, tactical holster with a thigh strap and an excellent DVD covering the development history and functioning of the original SA vz.61 model, the new pistol model and a complete pistol owner’s manual. The Skorpion pistol is an historical and exotic, ersatz milsurp. It’s an interesting addition to any collection and a lot of fun —and cheap — to shoot. 28 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=29http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=292009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=30http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=30• JOHN TAFFIN • ™ Hi-point Model jHp A cheap and reliable .45 ACP. What’s not to like? like .45s! When I started I shooting in the mid-1950s the cheapest guns available were military surplus .45s. The Smith & Wesson and Colt double action 1917s and the Colt Government Model were all readily available for $15 apiece or less and a full box of 50 rounds of military surplus hardball ammunition could be had for $1. To put these prices in perspective I was also working for 90¢ an hour. It was about this time custom gunsmiths turned their many talents towards the 1911 Government Model and began to perform wonders. The original military model was made loose on purpose so it would operate under all conditions including dirt and mud. Gunsmiths began to tighten up these old guns and turn them into 10-ring target shooting wonders. That was only the beginning and today we have a long list of gunsmiths turning out beautifully crafted 1911s with all kinds of extra features and often with price tags of $2,000, $3,000 or more. Several manufacturers have factory 1911s with price tags well over $1,000. The 1911 is a true classic semiautomatic pistol. In my mind it is the only Thesethreegroupsare typicalofthe5-shot, 10-yardgroupsJohn wasabletoachieve withtheHi-Point.45. semi-automatic (along with the Browning Hi-Power) classic enough to deserve to be engraved and fitted with ivory or other exotic stocks. I have a Series 70 Colt engraved and satin nickeled by Ed DeLorge with ivory stocks by Precision Pro. It rides in a fully floral carved El Paso Saddlery Tom Threepersons holster on a matching belt with two matching magazine pouches. The whole rig is worth well over $3,000 and is a joy to behold. Youpayyourmoneyandyoutakeyourchoice, howeverahigherpricedoesnotnecessarily meanbetterfunctionnorhigheraccuracy. But what if I told you it is possible to buy a brand-new, out-of-the-box, .45 ACP for less than $200 that not only shoots as well as my prized possession, but with some ammunition will actually outshoot it? Such a .45 ACP exists and it is the HiPoint Model JHP. In the past I have tested the HiPoint 9mm and found it to be totally dependable with any ammunition I tried, quite accurate and also shooting to point of aim. One of our readers suggested I test the .45 ACP Model JHP and see if the results with the larger gun were similar. With a price tag of $186 I would not have expected much from this .45 ACP except for the fact I had already found the 9mm Hi-Point to be such a bargain semi-automatic pistol. When I tested the 9mm, I made it very clear on a scale from 1-to-10 the Hi-Point received a “0” for form and a “10” for function. The same is true of the Model JHP. There is definitely no beauty to be found here in the eye of any beholder when it comes to form. The Hi-Point .45 is a large pistol rated at 37 ounces, however it weighs 45 ounces on my postage scale and actually feels heavier to me. It has a polymer frame with integral grips, which are quite comfortable, and a black powder- 30 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=31http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=31TheHi-Point.45performedwellwithavarietyof.45ACPammunitionincludingHornady’s200-grain XTP-JHPandWinchester’s230FMJ.Moreimportantly,itwasutterlyreliable. coated steel slide. The magazine has a rather large extension making the whole package look somewhat like a hand drill with a power pack attached. That magazine holds 9 rounds making the Model JHP a 10-shooter if a round is carried in the chamber. The trigger pull measures 6 pounds which is a whole lot less than that found on some semiautomatics costing many hundreds of dollars more. Barrel length on the Model JHP is 4-1/2", operation is straight blowback, the slide stays open when the last round is fired, and would you believe it also comes with adjustable sights of the 3-dot, lowprofile style? It also has a thumb safety and a 1911-style magazine release on the left-hand side. It will not fire unless the magazine is in place. There are also internal safeties including a sear block which is a springloaded plate that will fall under the sear pin arm if the pistol is accidentally dropped on the rear of the slide, and a Hi-point Model jHp Maker: HaSkell Mfg. Hi-point firearMS 585 eaSt blue lick rd., liMa oHio 45801, (419) 225-8297 www.Hi-pointfirearMS.coM action type: Blowback, semi-auto caliber: .45 ACP capacity: 9+1 barrel lengtH: 4-1/2" overall lengtH: 7-3/4" weigHt: 45 Ounces finiSH: Black powder coat SigHtS: Adjustable 3-Dot gripS: Integral Polymer price: $186 counterweight which counteracts sear movement if the pistol is dropped on its grip. And we’re not through yet! In addition to the regular rear sight an extra ghost ring style sight is included and under the front of the polymer frame an accessory groove which will accept Hi- Hi-point .45 acp factory aMMo perforMance load velocity group SiZe (brand, bullet weigHt, type) (fpS) (incHeS) black HillS 185 jHp 957 1-1/4 black HillS 230 fMj 821 1-1/2 black HillS 230 jHp 781 1 black HillS 230 jHp +p 925 1-3/8 corbon 230 perforMance MatcH 680 1-1/4 cci blaZer 200 jHp 890 3/4 federal 185 jHp 833 1-1/8 federal 185 fMc 700 1 Hornady 200 xtp-jHp 889 1-3/8 wincHeSter 185 fMj 830 1-1/4 wincHeSter 230 fMj 770 1-1/4 wincHeSter 230 winclean beb 806 1-3/8 Notes: Accuracy is the product of 5 shots at 10 yards. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 312009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=32http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=32Point rings if you desire to equip the HiPoint with a flashlight or laser. Just where does the Hi-Point .45 fit in? It is certainly not a firearm we are going to bring out and show with pride to all our friends, however, it fills some very important niches. Some people, who are really not shooters, still need the protection of firearm without expending a lot of money. This need may be for a house gun, car gun, cabin gun, pick-up or 4x4 gun, fishing boat gun or … you get the picture. In all of these cases the need is for an entirely reliable and suitably powerful defensive firearm never seen except in an emergency situation. Enter the .45 Hi-Point. This is not a gun which will normally be packed on the hip and yet it will always be close by. How reliable is the .45 Hi-Point? Every type of ammunition tested, except Hornady’s 185-grain XTP-JHP was ThesightingsystemoftheHi-Point.45consists ofafullyadjustablerearsightwithtworeddots matedupwithayellowtaperedfrontpostsight. totally 100-percent functional. I certainly do not understand why Black Hill’s and Federal’s 185-grain jacketed hollowpoint ammunition worked perfectly and Hornady’s version, which by the way was extremely accurate, simply would not function reliably. I guess we can chalk it up to one of those things keeping life interesting. The Hi-Point .45 Model JHP was testfired at a self-defense range of 10 yards using 12 types of ammunition. Hornady’s 185 XTP-JHP would have made 13 so perhaps that was the unlucky problem. Results with all ammunition tried was excellent. The average group size for five shots was 1-1/4" which I find to be astounding for a pistol in this price range. The best group was 3/4" from CCI’s 200-grain JHPs which clocked out at 890 fps making it an excellent choice for everyday use. With the design of the Hi-Point’s grip and the weight of the pistol, felt recoil was very mild. All test-fire results are in the accompanying table. If you are looking for a Texas BBQ gun to wear on special occasions the HiPoint is not it, however if the need is for a totally dependable, accurate shooting, very inexpensive .45 the Hi-Point will do very nicely. Live: 7" OUT OF THE BOX 32 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 Live: 7"2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=33http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=332009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=34http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=34• MIKE CUMPSTON • ™ This Zastava-built 9mm looks like the Tokarev, but has some modern touches. astava Arms, a subsidiary of Z the Yugoslav (now Serbian) industrial giant is noted for eaa Model 88 applying creative morphology to time-proven designs and using traditional 20th century manufacturing to render them in honest steel. A case in point is the Model 88, a modern spin-off of the Tokarev TT33. It is currently imported by European American Armory in 9x19mm and .40 S&W. In contrast to the parent design, the Zastava’s slide-mounted manual safety locks the firing pin and blocks the hammer and offers greatly improved ergonomics by virtue of a semi-saw handle upsweep at the back of the frame. Other modern touches include the full-length guide rod that swivels for removal/replacement and driftable front and rear sights for lateral adjustment. At just under 7" in overall length, the Model 88 is comparable to the old Colt/ Browning 1903 or the much-missed Colt/Browning pattern Star Model B series. Width across the slide is a narrow .85", complements of the Browning type internal barrel/slide lockup. The sights are narrow but usable and, contrary to Firmlyrootedintheearlyyearsofthe20th century,theModel88resemblestheold blowback.32and.380ACPpocketpistols insizeandprofile.Bargainprice,enhanced featuresandtheoptionsof9x19mmor.40 S&Wrecommendittothemodernshooter. TheM88isfractionallyshorterand significantlythinnerthanthisrugerSP101. Magazinecapacityis8+19mmintheM88. Thesamplepistolfunctionedwellwiththe remingtongoldenSaberhollowpointload.The old-techfeedrampisquitepickyaboutthe shapeofthebullet’snose. 34 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=35http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=35Todismountforcleaning,removethemagazineandclearthechamber.Pushbacktheslidestop springclipontherightside,pushthebarrelslightlybackwardsandpopouttheslidestop.remove theslidefromtheframe.Swiveltheguideroddownandpullitout.removethebushing,thenthe barrel.Theactionmodule,apartthatappearstobedrop-ininterchangeable,liftsrightout.To removethegrips,movethearminsidetheleftpaneltothelefttoswingtheinternalbridgeoutof contactwiththeframe.Asimilarbutsimplerbridgeretainstherightgrip. expectations created by the straight appearing grip angle, the pistols comes up to point quite instinctively. The trigger pull is a long and stagy 10 pounds — a daunting prospect but actually proved very usable at practical distances and from the bench at 25 yards. One of my correspondents, Randy Ferris, picked up one of the 88s at his local gun shop/shooting range. He found the slide travel to be quite gritty with failures to feed occurring frequently until he had fired about 300 rounds. Thereafter, his pistol exhibited perfect function with generic ball and a variety of JHP in standard and +P. If typical, this is a protracted break-in period by any measure — a deal killer for many potential buyers. Others, attracted by the low initial cost or singular features of the pistol will merely view it as a challenge and put in the necessary shooting time. It is a long standing factoid now embraced as their own by a number of Internet bombasticators, that gun magazines get selected and pre-tested guns for their reviews. This is feasible and would make good marketing sense. Nevertheless, it usually doesn’t work out that way. My own sample arrived with extremely gritty slide travel, the slide tending to stop short of forward lock-up dry cycled empty or loaded. Wanting to minimize any break-in period, I treated the rails with fine valve grinding paste and worked he slide until it traveled smoothly. I then used a Dremel mop loaded with rouge to polish the feed ramp/chamber throat and the portion of the slide traveling over the disconnector. After removing all traces of abrasive group SiZe (incHeS) 4.5 5.5 2.5 3.7 2.9 35 9MM factory aMMo perforMance load velocity (brand, bullet weigHt, type) (fpS) uMc 115 fMj 1,069 independence 115 fMj 1,124 reMington golden Saber 125 jHp 1,076 corbon tHunder rancH 115 grain dpx +p 1,157 Speer 124 grain gdHp+p 1,165 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=36http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=36OUT OF THE BOX FriendJaredSchmidtusedtheModel88forhis TexasCHlrenewal.Thislevelofperformance drawsfavorablecommentatthedepartmentof PublicSafetyInstructor’sschoolevenwhenthe shooterisequippedwithamatchgradepistol. Model 88 Manufacturer: ZaStava oružje a.p. trg topolivaca 4 34000 kragujevac, Serbia www.ZaStava-arMS.co.yu iMporter: eaa p.o. box 560746 rockledge, fl 32956 (321) 639-4842 www.eaacorp.coM caliber: 9mm (tested), .40 S&W action type: Locked breech semi-auto weigHt: 28 ounces lengtH barrel: 3.8" lengtH overall: 6.9" capacity: 8+1 (9mm) HeigHt: 5" SigHtS: Fixed 3-dot finiSH: Blue price: $235 ($295 .40 S&W) 36 material, I lubricated with Break Free CLP. The sample gun delivered failuresto-feed until about round 100. The typical scenario was the bullet nose stopped against the feed ramp with the stoppage cleared by light “tap.” For the 350-odd remaining rounds, the gun was fully functional with ball ammo. The only perfectly reliable JHP load I had on hand was the Remington 124-grain Golden Saber. Unlike most modern abruptazoid JHPs, the jacket of the Remington GS has a pronounced curve over the hollow cavity and presents a ball-like profile. I suspect the CorBon Power Ball loads, designed for the older chamber throat profiles, would be ideal as well. Accuracy with ball ammunition was adequate at 4.5" to 5.5" for five shots from a casual bench position at 25 yards. Accuracy with assorted JHP rounds ranged from 2.5" to 3.7". Several shooters of varying size and musculature shot the pistol and were able to overcome the rather stiff combined resistance of the hammer and recoil spring and prepare the Model 88 for firing. This can be done with the safety engaged. Likewise, with a modicum of practice, it was easy to deliver briskly paced head shots at 15 yards and 50' and keep all rounds within the scoring rings of the B27 target at 25 yards with most contained within the nine ring. The safety requires a bit of retraining. It works like several European designs, reverse of the 1911 and most domestic handguns, with “up” being the firing position. Jared Schmidt, up for his Concealed Handgun License renewal, agreed to fire the course with the 88. He found the sights very well regulated from the factory placing 48 of the timed shots in the circa 4" 10- and X-rings of the standard B-27 target. The two excursions into the nine ring occurred at the 15-yard stage. Jared’s hands are quite large and, WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=37http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=37Thearmsofthesubframe/actionmoduleon theoriginalTokarevweresaidtofunctionas feedlipsinplaceofthemorefragilemagazine lips.Theyobviouslyhavelittleornothingtodo withthefeedsequenceonthisZastava.The longarmisincontactwiththesideofthecase butonlyduringthefinalstage.Ihadgunshop wallah,A.K.ChurchdigouthisManchurian TOKandthesamesituationpertainedtoit. Eithertherewassomethingverydifferent abouttheoriginal7.62x25Tokarevpistolsor someofourgunexpertsofthelastcentury readthedesignwrong. like the other shooters, he experienced no hammer bite or any other negative feedback from the compact handgun. After firing 450 rounds, the trigger pull still stands at 10 pounds. Though European American Armory chooses to warrant none of its imports for +P ammunition, several owners of the Model 88 report using the up-loaded ammunition. This is to be expected with +P ammo being ubiquitous in the current market. I fired about 130 rounds through the sample. While the usual caveats about accelerated wear are in place, a close examination of the recoil bearing surfaces show no indication of peening or other damage except for a slight burr on the back edge of the slide stop notch. The Model 88 became available from European American Armory in early 2008. Spare magazines are listed at $25 each. I have received assurance from EAA the full accompaniment of spare parts will be available. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 372009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=38http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=38• Jeff John • Q: The article by Mr. Sheehan in the January issue was a well-researched Steyr M1895 8x50R history of the M1895 Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher. I just wish there was something on the cartridge itself, as it is an interesting atypical 8mm (.328"), which would be of interest to shooters and handloaders as there seems to be a proliferation of these rifles in the market. Fred Rubio via e-mail John could’ve done a little more on the ammo, but the wide variety of differing models of M1895 and the space we had precluded much more. Besides, most of the M1895s on the market today use a different round. Holt Bodinson covered the more modern Hungarian M1895 in “Surplus Locker” back in August 2004 (they’re the ones you’re thinking of most commonly still found in the used market). Original Austrian M1895s are in 8x50R, a rimmed bottleneck case with a conventional roundnose 8mm (.323") bullet of 244 grains at a modest 2,000 fps or so. After WWI, with vast quantities of these rifles on hand, Hungary redesigned the cartridge and began rearming with the old M1895 chambered for the new 8x56R Hungarian, topped with a 200-grain .330" pointed “Spitzer” bullet. These conversions have a large “S” stamped on the barrel just ahead of the receiver. The two cartridges are not interchangeable. If you are in possession of one of the recent imports of the M1895 chambered in the 8x56R Hungarian, you are in luck. Hornady and Graf & Sons (4050 S. Clark, Mexico, MO 65265, 573/581-2266, www.grafs.com) have teamed up to produce new 8x56R ammunition topped with a Hornady 205-grain Spitzer softpoint bullet for $25.99 for 20 rounds. Brass and .330" Hornady bullets are also available as well as high-quality Lee reloading dies at a very reasonable price. Shooters of original M1895 rifles in A: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS HungarianconversionsoftheM1895Steyrfrom theoriginal8x50rtothelarger8x56rcanbe identifiedbyalarge“S”stampedonthebarrel betweenthereceiverandtherearsight. the original 8x50R Austrian round have a somewhat tougher row to hoe. While no ammo is currently loaded, Buffalo Arms has formed brass for about $34 a box of 20 and 4D dies for about $78. The good news is the original Austrian rifle uses common and plentiful 8mm (.323") bullets. Buffalo Arms also offers dies, brass and more bullet options for the 8x56R, too. Whilesomesurplus8x56rammocanbefoundatgunsshows,itismostlycorrosiveprimedandnot reloadablelikethisNazimarkedAustrian-madeammo(left).Highqualityinexpensivereloading componentslikeBoxer-primedPrviPartisanbrassisavailablefromBuffaloArmsaswellasHornady 205-grain.330"bulletsanddiesfromlee.leeprovidesreloadingdataontheenclosedfactsheet. Clipsaresometimeshardtofind.JefffoundoriginalammoandclipsattheHarborgunShop. buffalo arMS 660 verMeer court ponderay, id 83852 (208) 263-6953 www.buffaloarMS.coM graf & SonS 4050 S. clark Mexico, Mo 65265 (573) 581-2266 www.grafS.coM Harbor gun SHop 505 Morro bay blvd Morro bay, ca 93442 (805) 772-1000 Questions and Answers Due to the volume of mail received, GUNS cannot offer a personal reply. Please e-mail your question to ed@gunsmagazine.com or snail mail to: GUNS Q&A, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, CA 92128 38 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=39http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=39Several years back, I purchased a Hopkins & Allen revolver in .38 S&W at auction. It has a 1902 patent date and no visible serial number. It seems to be in sound mechanical condition. The cylinder is tight and indexes positively. Later, while looking it over more thoroughly, I noticed the chambers didn’t seem to have any noticeable cylinder throats. It appeared someone reamed them straight through and had done a very good job because I can’t really determine whether or not it originally had any. The gun will chamber .38 Special wadcutter cartridges. From what I have seen in reloading manuals, most wadcutter reloads seem to have pressures lower than the maximum tolerance for the .38 S&W. I have been tempted to shoot factory .38 Special wadcutter ammunition in the gun, but have been searching for a second opinion. I have also been curious to know whether or not the reaming of .38 S&W cylinder throats had become a common operation with the advent of the increasing popularity of the .38 Special. Roger Neugent Haysville, Kansas The problem is the head of the .38 S&W is nominally .386" and the head of the .38 Special is .379". After WWII, Cogswell & Harrison and Parker Hale reamed quite a few Victory Model S&W M&P revolvers originally chambered in .38 S&W to .38 Special and they were sold through the mail here. The trouble was, the .38 Special cases would bulge and often split near the head in the oversized .38 S&W chambers. It is quite possible your little H&A was done after WWII, as .38 S&W was common in the pre-war days. Although Hopkins & Allen revolvers are made of good materials, I wouldn’t shoot one with ammo for which it was never intended. Case splits in the chambers are never good and you don’t want hot gasses spraying around you or the possibility of bulging the chamber. Q: Unsafely Rechambered? A: WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 392009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=40http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=40y wife has her own guns. It’s not a large M assortment, but a varied one and with nary a junker in the bunch by our standards. When we were married way back in 1978, Yvonne was a young Missouri farm girl. Her family had a few guns around but mostly old wall hangers they didn’t shoot. Her shooting experience had consisted of a few .22 Long Rifle rounds fired through a pistol with her granddad on at least one occasion. Therefore, she wasn’t exactly avidly pro gun but most certainly not in the anti camp. And throwing in her lot with me meant she was going to get considerably more exposure to many facets of firearms. The first gun I gave her even before we were married was a pretty little Smith & Wesson Model 34 .22 LR Kit Gun with 4" barrel. I say pretty because it was nickel plated and had a set of target style rosewood grips. My figuring was this little revolver would get her started with almost no recoil and very mild muzzle report. I knew the latter factor might be a problem because in the summer of 1977 I had taken her to a 4th of July rodeo and the fireworks display afterwards made her cringe with every big boom. She fired that little .22 very little. It wasn’t that she didn’t like it but rather because I didn’t own any other .22s, so we didn’t have comparable guns to shoot together in outings. A few years later, by common consent we just sold the Kit Gun. By the second summer of our marriage we had prospered enough to buy a horse; said critters having been a lifelong love for her. Living in a small town in southern Montana she could saddle up and ride right out of town into almost unending forest service and wilderness areas. Over the years she and a few girlfriends spent many hours doing so. I only insisted on one thing: she go armed. That is perfectly legal here in Montana. About that time I had come into possession of a brand new Colt SAA 5-1/2" barrel marked “COLT FRONTIER SIX SHOOTER.” That, of course, meant it was a .44-40 with a .427" barrel groove diameter, the same barrel dimension Colt used in their .44 Special SAAs. Coincidentally, I found an almost new condition 2nd Generation Colt SAA .357 Magnum. Searching about a bit, a .44 Special cylinder was located and I dumped the whole shebang on a gunsmith. Shortly thereafter he presented me back with a 5-1/2"-barreled Colt SAA .44 Special. Therefore, when Yvonne started riding out in the hills on day trips, that was the handgun I gave her to pack along. It was loaded with five fairly stout handloads and the hammer down on the empty sixth chamber. Brothers and sisters, I wish some photos had been taken of her Colt then because it was in almost new condition. Today it has the holster wear of having been packed many, many miles and she did all of it. Except for using it in a few articles, I’ve Yvonne’s personal long guns include this Winchester Model 1892 .44-40 (top), Colt CAR-15 .223 (middle) and this Winchester Model 1897 12-gauge shotgun. 40 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=41http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=41not messed with her Colt much in these past 30 years. Some time back I offered to have it refinished and here’s what she said, “That’s my Colt. You leave it alone!” Until about 1985 our shooting was rather cursory; happening only on those rare times when we both had a few spare moments. It’s often like that for young couples trying to make a living. There was one memorable afternoon however, when I took her out for the first time to shoot a few hand-thrown clay pigeons. The occasion was my buying a Winchester Model 1897 12-gauge pump shotgun primarily meant to be used in cowboy action. First I tossed a few “birds” for her slowly and very high. She actually was fairly good at dusting them and got a kick from it. Then I gave her the plastic thrower and standing about 10' to her left told her to fly with one for me. Yvonne wound up like a major league pitcher and “let fly” as instructed. That clay pigeon actually nicked the end of my nose as it whizzed by! After that I placed her to my left, and would have worn a steel helmet if I’d owned one back then. More Shooting Cowboy action competition made Yvonne much more of a shooter. She is a very talented seamstress, so the costume aspects of the sport helped attract her. In 1986 she traveled with me to her first End Of Trail event. In getting her prepared, firearms wise, I scrounged up a .44-40 cylinder for her Colt. For a rifle and shotgun, since we were flying, I figured we would share. My primary lever gun then was a very nice Winchester Model 1892 rifle. It had the standard 24" round barrel but with a special order shotgun-style buttstock. The above mentioned Winchester Model 1897 was our shotgun. Yvonne took to that ’92 Winchester like a duck to water. She shot it well in practice before the trip and when I demonstrated her Colt now fired the same round as the Winchester she was pleased at the simplicity. However, I was a bit chagrined when she started calling the little lever gun “hers.” There was no debate about it. It was her rifle. After End Of Trail I had to start hunting around for another .44-40 lever gun for myself. (Not too big a deal as buying new guns for myself has never been an onerous chore.) When the competition evolved to shooters needing two handguns, I didn’t have to buy her another sixgun as there are always plenty of .44-40 SAAs around here. I just gave her whatever one was handy for a second handgun always making sure it wasn’t one of my own favorites in case she decided to appropriate it as “hers.” Duke and Yvonne have spent many enjoyable days shooting together. Huntress? Therefore, for about 10 years Yvonne didn’t acquire any new guns. She tried hunting, using my old .308 Model 70 Winchester but when it came down to it she didn’t pull the trigger. She liked to go hunting; walking up and down these Montana mountains far better than I ever could, but decided the actual shooting of a critter wasn’t for her. That was fine, and so we never needed to pick out a hunting rifle for her. Also during the 1990s Yvonne tried her hand at the BPCR Silhouette game since she knew it was a passion with me. However, the recoil of the big cartridges intimidated her, and when the rifle weight was heavy enough to tone down the recoil then it was more weight than she could handle in the offhand portion of the game. Once, I lent her my beautiful, engraved Lone Star Rolling Block .40-65 and darned if she didn’t beat me. She said, “I’ll just use this rifle from now on.” To which I replied, “back up just a bit. Look at the side of that rifle. See the MLV initials inlaid in gold? I’ll build up or buy a rifle for you. Whatever you want, but that one is my rifle.” To that end I shortened the stock on a good quality, .40-65 copy of the Winchester High Wall already on hand, equipping it with a thick recoil pad, and told her she now had her own rifle. It’s still sitting in the rifle rack. She has never fired it. About the time it was ready she confessed to me that she was only shooting t2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=42http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=42These are Yvonne’s personal .44-40 single actions. At rear is Colt that Duke gave her over 30 years ago, and at front is engraved US Firearms built especially for her. I wanted her to. What I said was, “Yvonne I don’t want you to shoot anything you don’t like.” Yvonne’s stable of guns might have ended there if not for Clint Smith. Back in 1997 Clint invited us to attend a Concealed Weapons Class at Thunder Ranch when it was located in Texas. My choice of handguns was a couple of Colt 1911 .45s but I asked him what handgun I should buy for Yvonne. At that point I don’t think she had ever fired an autoloading pistol larger than .22 Long Rifle. Clint said, “don’t buy anything. We have virtually every pistol available here at the ranch. She can try an assortment and then you can buy her what she wants. That’s how Yvonne ended up with a Glock 22 .40 S&W. I actually thought she would be more comfortable with a 9mm but at the end of those five days at Thunder Ranch and after firing several hundred rounds, it was a Glock .40 she wanted. Also she listened well to Clint’s lectures and picked up on one of his favorite points. That is, if you have a gun you really like then buy another one just like it as a backup. She didn’t do exactly that, but when a friend had a Glock 23 .40 S&W for sale at a most reasonable price she picked it up too. Another self-defense handgun Yvonne has more or less agreed to share with me is a Smith & Wesson scandium revolver. Namely it’s the Model 360 .357 Magnum, which is Yvonne may not own this water-cooled Browning Model 1917 .30-06 machinegun, but she had a ball firing it. 42 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=43http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=43Yvonne’s more serious personal handguns include a Glock 23 (left) and a Glock 22. the scandium version of the famous old Chief’s Special. No one in their right mind shoots full-bore .357 Magnum loads from this 12-ounce revolver with 1-7/8" barrel. (I tried one shot. While waiting for the pain in my right hand to subside the other four .357 rounds were unloaded.) What we do load in it are Black Hills’ Cowboy .357 Magnum factory loads, which are nothing more than .38 Special ballistics loaded in .357 Magnum cases. Even they are not comfortable to shoot in that five shooter but at least bearable. It’s handy to toss in a coat pocket or even the hip pocket of my jeans when going out for a quick errand. Something else attributed to Clint Smith and Thunder Ranch is a Colt CAR-15 .223. That’s a sort of gun I never expected Yvonne’s attentions to focus on. Here’s how that came about. One winter we decided to try snowbirding in Texas right near where Thunder Ranch was then located. Naturally I took the opportunity to sign up for several classes, one of which was Urban Rifle. As things went, business called me away and I felt like we were throwing Clint a curve to have reserved a spot in a class and then cancel on it at the last minute. Yvonne said, “don’t cancel. I’d like to take your place.” The only suitable rifle I owned then was one of the Colt H-Bar AR-15s. Trying to shoot that 10-pound rifle throughout the first day of the 5-day class just about wore Yvonne to a frazzle. Clint fetched a CAR-15 for her to use and she did well with it. She informed me thereafter that if I ran across one of those CAR-15s I should pick it up “for her.” I did. Another of “Yvonne’s guns” is the old Winchester Model 1897 shotgun. We shared it for a while for the cowboy action matches but then I graduated towards the black powder cartridge categories wherein only double barreled shotguns were allowed. I bought myself a couple of those and the old pump action Winchester became “hers.” Mostly it resides in our bedroom. Unless you think we are the paranoid sort who keep a loaded arsenal in the bedroom, I need to tell you about one of the reasons the shotgun is kept handy. A few years back in November Yvonne stopped down by the corral of our home to feed the horses. As she stepped from the pickup a skunk came out of the brush making its way straight towards her. She reached back in the pickup for her Glock and killed it with two WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM shots. I called the county animal control people, who collected the skunk and sent it to the lab. It indeed was rabid. More recently right in our yard in broad daylight one of our dogs had a fight with another skunk. We feared the worst and I grabbed my Model 700 .222 Remington Magnum to shoot it only to not be able to because the rifle scope was clouded over with dust. (My bad!) After a bit of a rodeo the skunk ended up dead, was tested at the lab and to our overwhelming relief was negative for rabies. After that we decided that perhaps an iron sighted rifle and/or a shotgun might come in handy if another skunk situation arose. The Special One Yvonne has one more gun in her assortment. This is one I bought especially for her as a gift. Being very impressed with the fine quality of US Firearms’ single actions, I decided to surprise her with a mate to her well worn Colt SAA .44-40. The USFA one was ordered with her favored 5-1/2" barrel carrying the Frontier Six Shooter logo, engraved, and with her initials YMV plus the numeral 1 as the serial number. (Naturally I also ordered a similar USFA .44-40 for myself but with a 4-3/4" barrel.) She likes thin, checkered grips on her single actions so USFA’s standard hard rubber types suffice. (For some years she had been using a set of Eagle Grips black buffalo horn “Gunfighter” grips on her Colt.) So now she has her own brace of “Frontier Six Shooters.” Remember early on I said when Yvonne and I met, loud noises made her cringe? Well, not so much anymore. When I began acqu2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=44http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=4444 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=45http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=45modern day ar rifleS. Dave Anderson Photos: Lynn Pedigo f you had predicted in 1964 that 45 years later the M16 would I still be the US service rifle, adopted by the armed forces of many other countries, outlasting such fabled rifles as the M14, FAL, G3, and AK-47, most people would have thought you’d been overcome by powder fumes. If you had suggested AR sporting versions would be capable of 1/2 minute of angle, even 1/4 MOA accuracy, would dominate match rifle competition, be chambered for cartridges from 20 to 50 caliber, be in such demand new models and makers appear seemingly every month, well, you’d have lost any credibility as a prophet forever. Young shooters must get tired of hearing this. Get over it, already. I’m trying. It just amazes me. It’s a bit like learning the klutzy kid next door, who couldn’t run twice around the field without tripping and getting a nosebleed, has been named the Super Bowl MVP. Stag armS leadS the way in The Original In the early 1960s the US military adopted the M16 rifle. The “sporter” semiauto AR-15 version appeared about 1964, at least that’s when I saw the first Colt advertisements for the rifle. Reviews of the AR-15 were often less than enthusiastic. Its cartridge was too light for big game, the accuracy was inadequate for small game or varmint shooting, it had a menacing “Tommy gun” look which just didn’t belong in the field, it was a flimsy toy, made of aluminum and plastic and would no doubt break in short order. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 452009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=46http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=46PORtAbLE PRECISION StAG ARMS 2t AR-15 46 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=47http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=47WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 472009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=48http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=48he Trijicon Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG), widely used by American armed forces, is intuitive to use, easy to teach and easy to learn. There’s no aligning of front and rear sights, no sight picture to teach. Just place the reticle where you want the bullet to strike. Target and reticle are in the same focal plane, so there is no need to focus on the front sight with the rear sight and target out of focus. You can remain focused on the target while indexing the rifle. The sight works as well in very dim light as it does in bright daylight. Both eyes remain open while indexing the firearm. (Actually both eyes should remain open when using iron sights as well but some shooters find it hard to focus on iron sights with both eyes open — or they just close one eye out of habit). In the early days of this type of optical sight there were concerns about durability, reliability and dependence on battery life. The ACOG Trijicon has addressed all these concerns. The ACOG is built the way the Romans used to build bridges. The body of the ACOG is forged from 7075 T6 aircraftgrade aluminum alloy. Adjustments are internal, built tough and reliable. The sight is well sealed against dust and moisture. As for the battery issues, Trijicon solved that problem handily. There aren’t any batteries. No batteries means no need for on-off switches or battery connections. The reticle gets its light from two sources. If there is any ambient light, a fiber optics cable on the top right of the sight picks it up and sends it to the reticle. The fiber optics cable is encased in a tough, solid tube made of some sort of advanced plastic. The mounting tube isn’t just stuck on with glue — it fits solidly in a dovetail groove in the sight body. The second light source is tritium in the reticle itself. If there is insufficient ambient light (it doesn’t take much) the tritium means the reticle is still visible. The tritium element has a guaranteed illumination life of 15 years. The ACOG used with the Stag Arms rifle is a new compact model, the TA44S-10. A remarkable sight, it weighs just 5 ounces and measures only 4" long. The reticle is an amber circle, very fast to pick up on close range targets. In the center of the circle is a dot for precise aiming on longer-range targets. The reticle is parallax free meaning it doesn’t matter if your eye is in the same place for every shot. If the reticle is on target, that is where you’ll hit. This model is designed to mount on the carrying handle of AR-15/M-16 style rifles. Since the Stag Arms model being tested is a flattop version, I used a carrying handle which can be attached to the rifle’s Picatinny sight rail. The handle has adjustable iron sights, and the ACOG mount is tunneled so the iron sights can be used with the ACOG attached. This outstanding sight is tough, water and dust resistant, extremely fast and yet precise enough to place center hits on IPSC-style targets at 300 yards (and no doubt further, 300 yards is the farthest range I could shoot). Adjustments are precise and repeatable. The sight is so small and compact it adds little weight and doesn’t alter the handling features of the rifle. It’s easy to see why the military is so enamored of the ACOG sight. T compact ta44S-10 the trijicon acog Starboard side controls (above) include the magazine release and bolt forward assist. Left hand models still have the mag release on this side so standard AR magazines can be used. The Model 2T is provided with a flattop Picatinny rail (below) for mounting of a wide variety of accessories. The early history of the M16 has been repeated so often as to not require further discussion, but even some of those who felt it was a pretty good rifle considered it a short-term, stopgap measure, to be replaced before the end of the ’60s and was not the rifle it has become. I remember such things whenever I have the opportunity to shoot a really good AR, and the example from Stag Arms is one of the good ones. It is accurat2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=49http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=49There’s no aligning of front and rear sights, no sight picture to teach. Just place the reticle where you want the bullet to strike.” “The “The Trijicon Trijicon Advanced Advanced Combat Combat Optical Optical Gunsight Gunsight (ACOG), (ACOG), widely widely used used by by American American armed armed forces, forces, is is intuitive intuitive to to use, use, easy easy to to teach teach and and easy easy to to learn. learn. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 492009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=50http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=50ACOG COmpACt mAker: trijiCOn 49385 ShAfer Avenue, WixOm, mi 48393 (800) 338-0563, WWW.trijiCOn-inC.COm mOdel: TA44S-10 pOWer: 1.5 WeiGht: 5 ounces lenGth: 4" mOuntinG: AR-15/M-16 carrying handle retiCle: Amber circle with center dot illuminAtiOn: Fiber optics cable, tritium priCe: $1,090 StAG-15 mOdel 2t mAker: StAG ArmS 515 jOhn dOWney dr., neW BritAin, Ct 06051 (860) 226-9944, WWW.StAGArmS.COm ACtiOn type: Semi-Auto, gas operated CApACity: 10, 20 or 30 CAliBer: 5.56 NATO BArrel lenGth: 16" OverAll lenGth: 35-5/8" (extended) WeiGht: 6.6 pounds (empty) SiGhtS: Rear, ARMS 40L, post front priCe: $1,125 in-house, at the plant in New Britain, Connecticut. Stag Arms provides ARMS 40L flip-up rear iron sights on the 2T (above). Optics can be mounted over them while folded. In shooting position, the ARMS sight offers a choice of a small aperture for precision or large aperture for greater speed. Photos: Dave Anderson Model 2T The rifle shown here is the Stag-15 Model 2T. It uses a Samson quad-rail handguard, permitting a wide range of options in fitting bipods, white lights, laser aiming devices, and other accessories. It has a “flattop” receiver with a rail for mounting a variety of sighting options. The 2T is supplied with a high-quality ARMS rear sight, easily attached to or removed from the sight rail and adjustable for windage. The rear sight can be folded down and locked out of the way, for example for storage or when an optical sight is being used. The front sight is a post type, adjustable for elevation. The barrel of the 2T is 16" long, chrome lined, with a rate of twist of 1:9". The AR’s direct gas impingement operating system means there is no operating rod cycling above the barrel to potentially interfere with natural barrel vibration. NATO Chamber The chamber is cut to 5.56mm NATO specifications, meaning it has a longer leade (the portion of the chamber ahead of the bullet, before the rifling begins) than standard .223 Rem chambers. The effect of a longer leade is to reduce peak chamber pressure, since as the powder pressure is overcoming the inertia of the bullet and beginning its acceleration, the The sling can mounted to the side or underneath the front sight on the 2T. The front sight is mounted to a conventional sight block. Trijicon also makes a tritium night sight for AR-15s. 50 The ACOG has a tunnel underneath so the handle’s iron sights are easily accessible without removing the scope. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=51http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=51bullet can move with little resistance before it is engraved by the rifling lands. Although NATO 5.56 and .223 Rem sporting cartridges have identical case dimensions, NATO ammunition is generally loaded to higher pressures. Manufacturers recommend not using NATO or other military surplus 5.56 cartridges in standard .223 Rem chambers. Since Stag Arms cuts its chambers to 5.56 NATO specifications, both military surplus ammunition as well as .223 Rem sporting cartridges can be used interchangeably. For accuracy testing the Stag-15 2T was fitted with a Sightron Big Sky 4-16X scope (above) using Les Baer rings. The combination proved very accurate. Groups from the 16"-barreled Stag-15 2T (below) typically were under 1" for five shots at 100 yards. Photos: Dave Anderson Forged Upper And Lower Upper and lower receivers of the Stag Arms rifles are forged of 7075 T6 aircraft quality aluminum. Forging and machining of these components seems to be careful and precise as there is no discernible play when the two parts are assembled. Finish is smooth and even. Overall the rifle shows excellent workmanship. Trigger pull on the 2T is typical of a standard AR, consistent though with a bit of discernible trigger creep, and on the heavy side at just under seven pounds. Match/varmint models from Stag Arms are available with two-stage match triggers. However, on a rifle which might be used for personal, home defense or police duty, the 2T trigger is more appropriate. The rifle has a collapsible (or is it telescoping?) 6-position stock. Length of pull fully extended is 13-1/2" measured from the center of the trigger. Closed, length is reduced by 3-3/8" to 9-7/8". The collapsing feature is handy for storing the rifle on a bush plane, boat or camper. Likewise it is handy to change length of pull for shooters of varying stature or when wearing a load-bearing vest or heavy winter clothes. Accuracy proved very good. I fitted a 4-16X Sightron Big Sky scope using super strong Les Baer rings (made for 30mm scopes, but supplied with inserts to adapt to the Sightron’s 1" tube). Sightron is rapidly earning recognition for quality scopes. This Big Sky model has sharp optics, dependable reticle adjustments, objective lens parallax adjustment, and certainly helped bring out the best in the Stag Arms rifle. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM Shooting was with Black Hills ammunition using a variety of bullets including 50-grain Hornady V-Max, 52-grain Match hollowpoint and 69-grain Sierra MatchKing. Five-shot groups at 100 yards ranged from 3/4" to 1" with all loads tested. The rifle proved completely reliable in the course of firing 500+ rounds. The 2T has a very efficient, 4-port “birdcage” muzzlebrake. Recoil of the .223 Rem cartridge is mild enough already, especially in a gas-operated semi-auto action, and with this muzzlebrake there is virtually no muzzle rise. I really like this little carbine. It’s neat, handy, accurate and reliable. I like the versatility of the quad rail for mounting optics, white lights, laser aiming devices and bipods. However if you prefer a round handguard, or fixed stock, a heavy barrel varmint version, or the 6.8 Rem cartridge, Stag Arms offers a variety of well thought out packages including those options. 512009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=52http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=52J. I. Galan s the popularity of airsoft guns grows so does A the variety and versatility of the softie models available on the US market. Here we take a peek at a couple of highly sophisticated airsoft guns employing two very different power plants. First we’ll look at the KWC Mini-Uzi CO2 powered subgun distributed by Palco Sports. Then we’ll switch gears and talk about the AK Type U from Specialized Distribution (Team SD), a superb battery-powered AEG (airsoft electric gun) copy of the slick AKSU—a chopped-down version of the Russian AK-74 assault rifle. KWC Mini-Uzi Just like its real centerfire counterpart, the airsoft AKS-74U (above) is quite compact, making it ideal for special missions against backyard plinking targets. The fake plastic “suppressor” adds a truly sinister look to the airsoft Mini-Uzi (below). OK, maybe the orange band is a giveaway. This softie fires from a closed bolt, but the latter cycles in a most realistic manner. The squeeze-type grip safety also works as in the original. As so-called “green gas” for gas-powered airsoft guns becomes scarcer in the US, a growing number of airsoft gun manufacturers have begun producing “softies” powered by good old American 12-gram disposable CO2 cartridges. This is, undoubtedly, a brilliant move, as those throwaway CO2 cartridges are affordable and readily available throughout the US. Even among stunningly realistic-looking airsoft guns, the KWC Mini-Uzi is off the charts. Sporting largely metal construction — outer barrel, top receiver cover, folding stock, magazine, cocking knob, bolt — this airsoft Mini-Uzi tips the scales at a rather hefty five pounds, bringing it close to the 5.9 pounds of the real McCoy. The lower receiver and grip, made of molded ABS, does a great job imitating steel. All metal surfaces sport a genuine-looking Parkerized finish. Further adding to the realism of this piece are the genuinelooking markings on the left rear of the receiver, displaying the model “Mini-Uzi 9mm,” below that “IMI” (Israeli Military Industries), plus the letters “MU-CB” and a serial number. Of course, the distributor indicates these are fully licensed trademarks. Powered by one standard 12-gram disposable CO2 cartridge housed in the magazine, the latter also takes up to approximately 40 6mm plastic BBs. The BBs form a staggered column, imitating the way 9mm cartridges go in the real MiniUzi magazine. All physical dimensions are also very close to those of the original 9mm subgun. Ditto for the single-strut side-folding stock. Naturally, the most awesome feature of this airsoft gun is it WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 522009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=53http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=53The AKS-74U from Team SD is a spitting image of the 5.45x39mm AKSU (or Krinkov) chopped-down Soviet-era assault rifle. The side-folding stock is also made of steel. One benefit of owning softies is you can get military firearm configurations, illegal otherwise, like short barrels and short overall lengths. also fires semi- as well as full-automatic. Even the fire control mechanism looks and operates like the one in the real deal. The one difference here is that, while the 9mm Mini-Uzi fires from an open bolt, this airsoft clone fires from a closed bolt but still cycles back and forth with every shot. This CO2-powered subgun is an amazing performer, capable of a cyclic rate of fire of close to 400 rounds per minute on fullauto. While not even close to the 1,200 rpm of its centerfire The bulbous “flash hider” can be interchanged with the supplied “birdcagestyle” compensator. Both are color-marked in compliance with federal law. cousin, this cyclic rate is still quite respectable for any CO2powered subgun. Incidentally, the muzzle velocity on semiauto hovered around 390 fps from the gun on test, using .20 gram (3.08-grain) BBs. That kind of velocity is ample for lots of spirited short-range plinking. Empty pop cans are easily drilled at distances of nearly 50', particularly when heavier BBs are used (.20 and .25 gram BBs seem to work best). There is an adjustable Hop-Up mechanism to impart greater or lesser backspin to the BBs in order to obtain flatter trajectory and greater range. This adjustment is effected by turning the large knurled collar securing the barrel to the receiver. Although far from being a target gun, the airsoft MiniUzi can shoot groups averaging 3" across out to 40' fired on semi-auto. The adjustable sights are also basically identical to those found on the real subgun and can be utilized to greater advantage due to the closed-bolt operation of this softie. Anyone firing the real Mini-Uzi must contend with the heavy mass of the bolt slamming from the open position and thus interfering with a steady sight picture. As in the real deal, however, the bolt remains open as the last BB in the magazine is fired. Like all airsoft guns sold commercially in the US, the CO2 Mini-Uzi comes with the red muzzle marking mandated by the Department of Commerce. Retailing for just under $200, the KWC CO2 airsoft Mini53 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=54http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=54The distaff side also had a go with the airsoft Mini-Uzi and found it a ton of easy-to-control fun. Although felt recoil is minimal, the shooter still gets the thrilling sensation of firing a subgun. Uzi is a real blast to shoot. This model comes in a hard plastic, padded carry case with a BB loader, sight adjustment tool, CO2 compartment tool, and room for several spare CO2 cartridges and BBs. There is also a comprehensive English manual. Team SD AKS-74U Let’s switch over to the airsoft copy of the AKSU, distributed by Specialized Distribution (Team SD). Employing the immensely popular motorized spring-piston power plant powered by a rechargeable NiCad battery, the TSD Tactical Generation II AK-74 Type U also takes top marks as far as utter realism. For openers, the Team SD model AKS-74U is basically an exact look-alike of the famous AKSU-74 (also known as Krinkov), a chopped-down version of the 5.45x39mm caliber AK-74 assault rifle. The AKSU was first issued to Soviet special forces and armored vehicle crews deployed to Afghanistan during the early 1980s. In fact, the AKSU is so compact and handy it is sometimes called a submachine gun, despite its assault rifle cartridge. Undoubtedly, the AKSU is most infamous by appearing prominently in the background of videos of mass-murderer Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt the real AKSU is an effective weapon, particularly in close-combat situations where its 700 rpm rate of fire on full-auto can lay down a deadly wall of lead. Like its real counterpart, the Team SD model AKS-74U features select-fire capability. Its battery-powered, ultra-torque, spring-piston motor employs a reinforced metal gearbox with steel gears and bushings, plus a ported piston head for optimum air compression capability. Like the real AKSU, this softie version sports a fore-end made of real wood, while the pistol grip appears to be molded ABS. The receiver and folding buttstock are made of steel. The fairly bulbous muzzle compensator and outer barrel are made of what appears to be cast metal. Ditto for the sights. The latter feature twin flip-up open rear elements and an elevationadjustable front post, just like the real McCoy. The left side of the receiver has a metal rail to allow mounting a laser sight or flashlight. All physical dimensions of this airsoft AKSU are quite close to those of the real deal, with an overall length of 28-3/4" with the stock extended and 20-1/4" with the stock folded. There is an 11-1/4"-long smoothbore brass barrel insert. Made predominantly of metal, the Team SD AKS-74U tips the scales WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 The metal magazine can take up to 40 6mm plastic BBs and also houses the 12-gram CO2 cartridge powering the softie. The BBs form a staggered column in the magazine. The KWC airsoft Mini-Uzi comes in a sturdy carry/storage case with accessories and English manual. 542009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=55http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=55This softie can be fieldstripped pretty much like the real 9mm Mini-Uzi. teAm Sd tACtiCAl GenerAtiOn ii AkS-74u mAnufACturer: SrC (StAr rAinBOW CO.) tAiWAn, repuBliC Of ChinA impOrter: SpeCiAlized diStriButiOn (teAm Sd) 901 S. fremOnt Ave., #218, AlhAmBrA, CA 91803 (626) 281-0979, infO@teAmSd.COm OperAtiOn: Motorized spring-piston pOWer plAnt: 8.4 volt NICAD or NIMH battery CAliBer: 6mm plastic BB CApACity: 380 (plastic mag), 600 (steel mag) OverAll lenGth: 28-3/4" extended, 20-1/4" folded BArrel: 11-1/4" smoothbore brass WeiGht: 6-1/4 pounds SiGhtS: Open rear, post front priCe: $395 AirSOft mini-uzi mAnufACturer: kWC (kien Well CO.) tAiWAn, repuBliC Of ChinA impOrter: pAlCO SpOrtS 8575 mOntiCellO lAne nOrth, mAple GrOve, mn 55369 (800) 882-4656, WWW.pAlCOSpOrtS.COm OperAtiOn: Blowback, closed bolt pOWer plAnt: 12-gram CO2 cartridge CAliBer: 6mm plastic BB CApACity: 40 OverAll lenGth: 23-1/2", extended, 14" folded BArrel: 8-1/16", smoothbore brass WeiGht: 5 pounds SiGhtS: Peep rear, post front retAil: $199.99 at a hefty 6-1/4 pounds. Incidentally, this gun also comes with a more conventional, interchangeable “birdcage-style” flash hider. Manufactured in Taiwan, the Team SD AKS-74U comes with an orange-colored synthetic magazine with capacity for about 380 6mm BBs, plus a blue-steel 600 BB mag. The orange mag is a dead ringer for the standard synthetic magazines used in the real AK-74s and AKSUs. Team SD recommends that only .20 gram and heavier plastic BBs be used in this softie, by the way. With a fully charged 8.4 volt Nickel Cadmium or NIMH (nickel metal hydride) rechargeable battery in place, the AKS74U developed a muzzle velocity averaging 342 fps with .20 gram (3.08-grain) BBs. The rate of fire on rock-n-roll was an eye-popping 800 rpm or so, which surpasses the real AKSU by about 100 rpm. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM The adjustable Hop-Up unit, incidentally, is also made of metal and is accessible by retracting the spring-loaded bolt handle. BB trajectory can be easily adjusted with this device, adding to this softie’s creditable accuracy and performance. In fact, at a range of 40' to 50' this airsoft AKSU can shoot groups averaging 4" across all day firing on semi-auto. My favorite airsoft plinking targets, empty pop cans, are no match for this fun chatterbox, getting promptly shredded with a few short bursts. Each full charge to the battery will yield several hundred shots before a recharge is needed. Although powered by different means, both the KWC CO2 Mini-Uzi and the Team SD electric AKS-74 are among the latest and most sophisticated airsoft guns currently available. Although not cheap by any means, either model can provide a good bit of fully automatic firepower free of governmental red tape. 552009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=56http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=56Kimber has finally put the .257 Roberts cartridge in two rifles deserving of its appeal and reputation. Both should make fine hunting rifles. 56 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=57http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=57Kimber’s 84M Classic Select Grade rifle in .257 Roberts is a lightweight sporting rifle suitable for big game hunting and varminting. Its balance is as appealing as its good looks. Richard Mann ne of the most popular cartridges chambered O in custom hunting rifles is the .257 Roberts or “Bob” as it is often called. Rifle builder Charlie Sisk told me he builds just as many rifles in .257 Roberts as he does .270 Winchester. This is as confusing as it is understandable. There has never been a wide selection of factory ammunition available for the .257 Roberts and most is held to lower pressure limits because of the frequency this cartridge was once chambered in custom rifles built on actions of questionable integrity. This is an interesting conundrum — inhibited performance due to popularity. The popularity makes sense because a cartridge capable of firing bullets from 75 to 120 grains on either side of 3,000 fps is suitable for a wide range of hunting applications. Rifle aficionados understand this and don’t mind handloading to get versatility. And, handloading “Bob” is very rewarding because unlike most modern cartridges, with handloads you can obtain ballistics measurably better than what factory ammunition can deliver. Rifles in .257 Roberts have the reputation of what I call “both ways rifles” meaning, a rifle equally appropriate for varmints and big game. I’ve shot a bunch of varmints and took my first two pronghorn with a .257 Roberts. Friend and benchrest shooting legend Walt Berger took a trophy red stag with the same rifle. The Roberts is truly a versatile cartridge but was originally designed for long-range varmint and target shooting. In his book The Muzzleloading Cap-Lock Rifle, Ned Roberts wrote; “… with the assistance of my friend Mr. Fred J. Sage, we developed the 25 caliber Roberts, and the .257 Roberts cartridges adapted to various high velocity arms for vermin shooting and target work at ranges including 600 yards.” Remington made the Roberts available commercially in 1934 but in ’55 Winchester brought out the .243 Winchester and in ’69 Remington introduced the .25-06 Remington. Fans of short-action rifles found the .243 a better varmint option and nearly Bob’s equal on larger game. The .25-06 was essentially a long-action .257 Roberts on steroids. Because of these two cartridges the sale of factory rifles chambered for the Roberts dwindled. Still, enough interest has remained for Ruger “Some smart somebody at Kimber realized the appeal this cartridge has with hunters who appreciate fine rifles because last year Kimber made the Classic Select Grade and Montana versions of their Model 84M available in .257 Roberts.” WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 572009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=58http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=58Stock wood like this should make your heart skip a beat. Kimber uses Grade-A French Walnut for the stocks of all their Classic Select rifles. The triggers on all Kimber rifles are adjustable and offer a crisp pull. The floorplate release is positioned on the inside of the triggerguard, just forward of the trigger. The Classic Select Grade Kimber Model 84 is perfectly glass and pillar bedded at the front action screw and recoil lug as well as at the rear action screw. This is obviously one reason this thin-barreled rifle shoots so well. to keep the cartridge available in the Model 77 while other manufacturers have offered a particular model chambered in “Bob” for a few years. Some smart somebody at Kimber realized the appeal this cartridge has with hunters who appreciate fine rifles because last year Kimber made the Classic Select Grade and Montana versions of their Model 84M available in .257 Roberts. The Kimber 84M is not a new rifle, it has been around for several years, originally introduced for short action cartridges like the .308 Winchester and “Bob’s” arch enemy — the .243 Winchester. During that time the 84M has established a reputation as a high quality, dependable hunting rifle. The 84M action utilizes a controlled-round feed design with a full-length claw extractor, similar to the 98 Mauser. Like the Pre-’64 Winchester Model 70, the 84M has a fixed ejector Kimber Montana .257 Roberts T he Kimber Montana is an all stainless steel version of the model 84M bedded to a synthetic, Kevlar/carbon stock. With an advertised weight of only 5 pounds, 2 ounces the Montana is one of the lightest sporting rifles available factory direct. Aside from the stainless steel, synthetic stock, and the fact the Montana has a blind magazine box and a 4-round capacity instead of five, it is identical to the Classic Select Grade version of the Kimber 84M. I mounted a compact Burris 2-7x35mm Fullfield II scope with the Ballistic Plex reticle. I’ve tested this reticle out to 500 yards and it works as advertised and is a great choice for a deer rifle you might use for varmints. I mounted the Burris using Talley’s new stainless, quick-release, split-steel rings. This made a very attractive outfit and brought total weight to 6.3 pounds. The rifle /scope combination was very comfortable to shoot, balanced nicely and was easy to get on target fast. The trigger broke crisp and clean every time at a surprising 1.75 pounds. The Montana did not necessarily like the same loads as the Classic Select, but did shoot most loads very well. The aesthetic appeal of the Kimber Classis Select and its richly figured wood stock is undeniable. However, the ruggedness of the Montana’s stock and weather resistant properties of the stainless steel should appeal to any hunter, especially those who can’t tell when it’s raining. Which one should you get? That’s a tough call but if you like the .257 Roberts as much as I do, might as well get both while you can. Rifles chambered for this cartridge have a way of coming and going. The Montana (left) is a stainless steel and Kevlarcarbon stocked version of the Kimber 84M. This is a rugged, weather resistant rifle. The Talley quick detach, stainless steel, vertically split rings (right) provide a bulletproof scope mounting system and look very attractive on the Kimber Montana. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 582009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=59http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=59The sharply cut 20 lpi checkering and black ebony fore-end tip add elegance to the Kimber Classic rifle. The Kimber 84M action utilizes a full-length claw extractor and controlled round feeding; features many riflemen consider a musthave on custom rifles. and a 3-position safety mounted on the cocking piece of the bolt. It also has a separate bolt stop/release. The Classic Select Grade has machined, steel bottom metal and floorplate with the release inside the triggerguard. Triggers are adjustable, the action is pillar and glass bedded to the stock and the barrel is free floated. These rifles come without open sights and are drilled and tapped for scope bases. Early on, Kimber used 6-48 screws for scope bases but newer 84Ms use larger 8-40 screws. Opening scope base screw holes to this larger diameter is a common treatment given custom rifles because it increases the strength of the mounting system. Kimber offers steel dovetail front and windage adjustable rear scope bases and Talley makes their one-piece lightweight rings and bases for their vertical split rings for the 84M. .257 rOBertS hAndlOAded AmmO perfOrmAnCe kimBer mOntAnA Bullet pOWder ChArGe velOCity GrOup Size (BrAnd, Bullet WeiGht, type) (BrAnd) (GrAinS WeiGht) (fpS) (inCheS) nOSler 85 BAlliStiC tip H4350 47.5 3,264 .70 BArneS 100 triple ShOCk Big Game 41.5 3,033 1.91 Notes: Accuracy is the result of three, 3-shot groups fired at 100 yards off a Shooter’s Ridge Gorilla Bag rest. Velocity is the average of nine shots fired over a Shooting Chrony placed 15' from the muzzle. The Classic Select Grade and the Montana both have front and rear sling swivel studs and a 1" Pachmayr Decelerator pad. A hand-rubbed oil finish, very tasteful 20 line-per-inch checkering patterns on the grip and forearm and an ebony fore-end tip dresses up the wonderfully figured grade A French walnut stock used on the Classic Select Grade. Out of the box the Kimber Classic Select weighed 5.93 pounds and the trigger consistently broke at 2.78 pounds on my Timney trigger pull gauge. Kimber supplied their steel bases with the rifle but I wanted to keep weight as low as possible so mounted a 10-ounce Leupold FX II 6x36 riflescope in Talley’s Lightweight 1-Piece rings. This brought total rifle weight to 6.8 pounds. I had all five current factory loads in .257 Roberts available for testing. Hornady, Remington and Winchester .257 rOBertS fACtOry AmmO perfOrmAnCe kimBer mOntAnA lOAd velOCity GrOup Size (BrAnd, Bullet WeiGht, type) (fpS) (inCheS) hOrnAdy liGht mAGnum 117 SSt 2,889 2.26 nOSler CuStOm 115 BAlliStiC tip (+p) 2,827 1.86 reminGtOn 117 COrelOkt rnSp 2,665 .80 WinCheSter 117 pOWer pOint (+p) 2,730 .89 Notes: Accuracy is the result of three, 3-shot groups fired at 100 yards off a Shooter’s Ridge Gorilla Bag rest. Velocity is the average of nine shots fired over a Shooting Chrony placed 15' from the muzzle. fullfield ii 2-7x35mm mAker: BurriS COmpAny 331 eASt 8th Street, Greeley, CO 80631 (970) 356-1670, WWW.BurriSOptiCS.COm mAGnifiCAtiOn: 2X-7X OBjeCtive: 35mm eye relief: 4.1" (2X), 3.1" (7X) internAl Adj. rAnGe: 60" elevation & windage at 100 yards CliCk vAlue: 1/2" tuBe diAmeter: 1" WeiGht: 12 ounces OverAll lenGth: 11.4" retiCle: Ballistic Plex priCe: $180 This 3-shot group was fired with a handload comprised of 44 grains of H4350 and 110-grain Nosler AccuBond. This is sufficient accuracy for any big game hunting out to the farthest ranges the .257 Roberts is suitable. 59 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=60http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=60e al this cartridg e p p a e th d e z li er rea use last year ebody at Kimb a c m e o b s s t e r a ifl r m s e n e te fi “Som s who apprecia r te n u h h it w s ha de a r G t c le e S ic s e Clas h t e d a m r e b heir t f Kim o s n io s r e v a and Montan le in .257 Roberts.” ilab Model 84M ava offer 117-grain bullets at around 2,700 fps, Hornady’s Light Magnum load pushes a 117-grain SST bullet to almost 2,900 fps and Federal loads a 120-grain Nosler Partition to about 2,800 fps. These loads will take care of about any big game hunting application Bob is suited for. Handloading is where the .257 Roberts really shines and I tried a variety of loads, mostly using bullet and powder combinations proven to be good performers in other 257s. During the testing I fired 217 rounds through the Classic Select. Feeding and ejection were positive and there were no malfunctions of any kind. How a hunting rifle shoots from the bench is one thing, but how it handles when shooting offhand and from field positions is another. Some shooters claim light rifles are hard to shoot. This is usually not a weight but a .257 rOBertS hAndlOAded AmmO perfOrmAnCe kimBer ClASSiC balance issue. It’s common for lightweight, custom rifles to be Bullet pOWder ChArGe velOCity GrOup Size (BrAnd, Bullet WeiGht, type) (BrAnd) (GrAinS WeiGht) (fpS) (inCheS) built with very thin or short barrels and standard weight actions. This SierrA 75 hp Big Game 47.5 3,450 .85 often makes a rifle butt heavy and BArneS 100 triple ShOCk Big Game 41.5 3,085 2.60 any rifle with more weight in the nOSler 110 ACCuBOnd H4350 44 2,988 .68 butt will be more difficult to shoot Notes: Accuracy is the result of three, 3-shot groups fired at 100 yards off a offhand. Shooter’s Ridge Gorilla Bag rest. Velocity is the average of nine shots fired over A muzzle heavy rifle will be a Shooting Chrony placed 15' from the muzzle. easier to shoot offhand, but will .257 rOBertS fACtOry AmmO perfOrmAnCe kimBer ClASSiC not handle as smoothly. The lOAd velOCity GrOup Size best compromise is when a rifle (BrAnd, Bullet WeiGht, type) (fpS) (inCheS) balances between your hands. This hOrnAdy liGht mAGnum 117 SSt 2,890 1.98 generally means within 1/2" of the reminGtOn 117 COrelOkt rnSp 2,630 1.26 front action screw. Obviously this WinCheSter 117 pOWer pOint 2,775 1.73 balance can be altered with scope selection, mounts and positioning, Notes: Accuracy is the result of three, 3-shot groups fired at 100 yards off but the Kimber, with the 6X a Shooter’s Ridge Gorilla Bag rest. Velocity is the average of nine shots fired over Leupold, balanced a 1/2" behind the a Shooting Chrony placed 15' from the muzzle. front action screw. Even though the WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 602009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=61http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=61kimBer 84m ClASSiC & mOntAnA mAker: kimBer 2590 hWy. 35 kAliSpell, mt 59901 (914) 964-0771 WWW.kimBerAmeriCA.COm ACtiOn type: Bolt action, controlled feed CAliBer: .257 Roberts (tested, most others) CApACity: 5 (Classic), 4 (Montana) BArrel lenGth: 22" OverAll lenGth: 41.25" WeiGht: 5 pounds 15 ounces (Classic), 5 pounds 2 ounces (Montana) finiSh: Matte blue (Classic), stainless steel (Montana) SiGhtS: None (Drilled and tapped for scope bases.) StOCk: Grade A French Walnut (Classic) Synthetic Kevlar (Montana) priCe: $1,273 (Classic) $1,276 (Montana) fx ii 6x36mm mAker: leupOld & StevenS inC. 14400 nW GreenBrier pArkWAy BeAvertOn, Or 97006 (800) 538-7653, WWW.leupOld.COm mAGnifiCAtiOn: 6X OBjeCtive: 36mm eye relief: 4.3" internAl Adj. rAnGe: 64 MOA elevation & windage CliCk vAlue: 1/4" tuBe diAmeter: 1" WeiGht: 10 ounces OverAll lenGth: 11.4" retiCleS: Duplex, Wide Duplex, LR Duplex priCe: $280 SCOpe rinGS: tAlley rinGS p.O. BOx 369 SAntee, SC 29142 (803) 854-5700, WWW.tAlleyrinGS.COm There are a good variety of bullet weights and designs in .25 caliber. With a 1:10" twist, the Kimber will handle the lightest and heaviest bullets well. Using primarily these three powders, accurate loads were put together for the Kimber Classic Select and Montana in bullet weights ranging from 75 to 120 grains (above). It would be very difficult to find a custom rifle builder who can provide the same level of good looks, quality and accuracy you can have with a factory Kimber Classic Select Grade rifle. Kimber has a thin barrel, weight is distributed evenly because the action is just as trim. I’m sure this helped me keep my shots inside an area the size of deer vitals when snap shooting offhand and from field positions between 50 and 200 yards. Shooters have debated for years whether a .257 Roberts should be built on a long or short action rifle. Those who favor the long action claim bullets can be seated out further, increasing powder capacity. This is fine if the rifle is throated to accept the longer overall cartridge length. I have messed with both factory and custom rifles in .257 Roberts built on long actions and a few, like the last Remington 700 I had, were throated so the maximum overall cartridge length had to be kept to a length that would work in a short action anyway. The magazine box of the Kimber 84M will accept a cartridge with a maximum overall length of 2.81". If throated properly, a long action rifle might permit an overall length of as much as 3.3" and this might be helpful with excessively long bullets like a 115-grain Barnes Triple Shock. Problem is, you could expect quite a bit of jump from the case to the rifling with lighter, shorter bullets. With a 3" or so .257 Roberts, what you gain in powder capacity will only minimally increase velocity, and I have never had problems getting maximum published velocities in a Roberts built on a short action. At any rate, most of the handloads I tried grouped between a 1/2" and 2" but several, like the factory Hornady 117-grain load, shot poorly. I’ve found rifles with thinly tapered barrels can be ammunition sensitive and the barrel on the Kimber only measures .56" at the muzzle. This is not a big detractor, the WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM good shooting loads far out numbered those not grouping well. I think Kimber has hit the nail on the head and has finally and decisively done the Bob justice. Instead of just chambering another entry level rifle for the .257 Roberts, the firm is appealing directly to the customer considering a customgrade rifle chambered for this cartridge. The Kimber Classic Select Grade is an exquisite little rifle and evokes the notion of custom origins but sells for a third or fourth of what a similar custom rifle would cost. And, for a lightweight sporting rifle, it shoots pretty darn well. What we need now is an ammunition manufacturer to step up like Kimber has done and offer some +P varmint loads like a 75-grain Sierra hollowpoint or Nosler 85-grain Ballistic Tip 2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=62http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=62If you like to shoot, prairie dog shooting can be an all day affair. Having a spotter is very useful for long range spotting. Rests for the rifle can be casual. Here, Caldwell bags are used in conjunction with some homemade ones on a portable bench. 62 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=63http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=63ach spring a significant number of shooters temporarily assemble at scattered locations on the High Plains. In recent years some of these meetings have been called The Raptor Support Society or The Rodent Aeronautics Board. These are euphemisms for prairie dog shooting, an activity that often brings out contradictory urges in its participants. The most basic conflict is between volume and distance. In theory, prairie dog shooting keeps overall numbers of the rotund rodents in check. Otherwise they take over the landscape, reducing forage for domestic livestock and increasing the chance of an infestation of bubonic plague. Yes, the cute little “cowboy squirrels” can carry that Old World disease. So the do-gooders of the shooting community (and there are many) volunteer their time and ammunition to these causes. E John barsness This would be fine, if we just did what we claim to be doing, and dedicated ourselves purely to putting a dent in the PD population. This is most efficiently done by shooting only at moderate ranges, say out to 300 yards. Do prairie dog shooters do this? Well, yeah, some of the time. But then part of the human condition kicks in, and we turn competitive. Somebody plunks a prairie dog at 309 yards, and the race heads onward toward the horizon. At the end of the day the dog-per-round count is way down, but the bragging distances are way up. Of course, to a true rifle loony both extremes are worthwhile, and those of us who professionally “field test” firearms have to participate in both the volume and distance categories. Hence I go forth each spring and summer, shooting at lots of dogs up close and far away, to further the boundaries of both journalism and science. Well, and to help out our rancher friends. The 2008 season provided a vast amount of, uh, raw data, described here in alphabetical order: Barnes Varmint Grenade Bullets are billed as “explosive, ultra-high velocity bullets.” They are also part of the non-toxic Prairie dogs cause gatherings of shooters all over the High Plains each spring and summer. Unchecked, they reduce forage for livestock (and the holes they dig are leg breakers on cattle) and can carry bubonic plague. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 632009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=64http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=64trend, with a copper-tin core inside a jacket of gilding metal (copper and a little zinc, the most common alloy used for bullet jackets.) Otherwise they’re of conventional hollowpoint design, with a rather small opening to increase ballistic coefficient. Despite what many shooters think, a lot of bullet companies have been experimenting with non-toxic designs for quite a while. As of now “non-toxic” means lead-free, though many of us wouldn’t be surprised to see other metals (especially copper) being vilified by the ultra-greenies soon. Whether or not we really need non-toxic bullets (an oxymoron?) is kind of beside the point. The trend is here — and didn’t start in Southern California’s condor zone, but in Europe, where human-caused pollution has been building up a lot longer than in North America. Lead-free bullets aren’t going to go away just because shooters whine and moan, or even if we produce proof they’re not needed. The two big problems with any non-toxic bullet are cost and performance. Lead has been the go-to bullet metal for centuries because it’s both relatively abundant, dense enough to retain velocity, and malleable enough to conform to a rifled bore and expand when it hits something. Making other metals do lead’s job is tough. As an example, another bullet company fooled around with a bismuth-cored varmint bullet for a few years. I tried them and they basically sucked. Accuracy was mediocre and, on the occasions when they did hit a prairie dog, expansion was unreliable. Plus they were expensive. Varmint Grenade Works This is not the case with the Varmint Grenade. Here I must admit some skepticism before trying them. Hollowpoint varmint bullets with small holes are known for occasionally passing through varmints without expanding, but in several hundred rounds this never happened, even at long range. The bullets tested were the 26-grain .20 (in the .204 Ruger) and the 50-grain .22 (in the .223 and .22-250 Remingtons). In addition to expanding every time they hit a prairie dog, accuracy was very good. In fact, the Varmint Grenade shot as well as any bullet yet tried in my present .204, a Remington 700 VTR (Varmint-Target Rifle). Due to a couple of inches of muzzle porting, this rifle in effect has a 20" barrel, yet a pressure-tested load of Ramshot TAC produced a muzzle velocity of over 4,200 fps. This load proved effective out to 600 yards. Some minor problems exist with the Varmint Grenade. First, the price is on the high side, though not stratospheric. They cost quite a bit more than lead-core softpoints, but are in the running with fancier varmint bullets from several makers, especially the plastic-tips. A second minor problem is despite their name, they do not expand as violently as plastic-tipped bullets. They do pretty darned well, though, and combining their price with their accuracy makes them a darned good varmint bullet. Finally, Varmint Grenades are longer than lead-cored bullets, so require a faster twist. The 50-grain .224, for instance, is suggested for use in 1:10" twists or faster. Luckily these are becoming standard even in the .223. Berger Match Grade Varmint Bullets are made by the well-known target bullet firm, started by legendary benchrest competitor Walt Berger, who is still actively involved. The John’s Remington 700 .204 is mounted on a Monte Harper portable rest from NECO. Note the last few inches of the oddly shaped VTR’s barrel are ported (above). The 26-grain Barnes Varmint Grenade bullets shot extremely well, reaching 4,200 fps and expanded well out to 600 yards. 64 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=65http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=65“The two big problems with any non-toxic bullet are cost and performance. Lead has been the go-to bullet metal for centuries because it’s both relatively abundant, dense enough to retain velocity, and malleable enough to conform to a rifled bore and expand when it hits something.” Berger company has been branching out into hunting bullets in recent years. Their VLD (Very Low Drag) long-range match bullet, for instance, has also become a favorite of some big game hunters, and works very well indeed. Or at least it did on the 30-odd big game animals I have seen it used on. Their varmint bullet also works very well. I mostly tested the 40-grain hollowpoint in my Ruger No. 1 .22 Hornet, a cartridge not renowned for accuracy or zip. Yet the Berger bullet expanded well out to 300 yards or more, and 5-shot groups averaged under .7" at 100 yards. (Yes, the Hornet is capable of 300-yard varminting, especially when loaded with a spitzer bullet at over 3,000 fps.) This bullet is especially useful in .22 Hornet bolt-action rifles, as it can be seated far enough out to accommodate 13 grains of Hodgdon Li’L Gun Powder, the magic load in most Hornets. since TAC is one of the cleanest-burning ball powders around. This makes both handloading and shooting large quantities of ammunition relatively pain-free. The optics were typically Burris-clear and, when combined with their Ballistic Plex reticle, hitting prairie dogs out to 400 yards was relatively easy. The scope never shifted point of impact even after hundreds of rounds. The laser feature worked too — as long as there was some bump in the landscape to bounce the beam back. Sometimes this isn’t common on the high plains, but when the scope was aimed at a cutbank or other nearby vertical surface, it ranged accurately out beyond 700 yards, obtaining the same readings (within a yard or two) as a high-quality European rangefinder. It also got readings out to between 500 and 600 yards on some Angus calves, which isn’t bad either, so should prove useful to big game hunters in open country. The .17 Remington Fireball appeared in 2007, but at the time the only thing I got to shoot with it was paper at the SHOT Show. In the interim some reports appeared, both in magazines and on the Internet, but I have learned to distrust both. (Not that people aren’t trustworthy, but many carry prejudices around, Burris 4-12X Laserscope I mounted one of these on my own Bushmaster .223 AR-15 carbine for testing. Despite this rifle’s skinny 16" barrel, it’s prairie-dog accurate with handloads featuring 40- and 50-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips and Ramshot TAC. This is a good thing, The little varmints pop up and down. Good shooting technique, an accurate rifle and clear scope are necessary for long-range shots. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 652009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=66http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=66a handy little sporter-weight rifle instead of a heavy-barreled pig. In the early mornings, before the typical midday July wind came up, the .17 took a lot of prairie dogs out to nearly 500 yards, and the little bullet also provided plenty of “lift” (a technical — and desirable — PD term). One undesirable thing accompanies .17s ever since the original .17 Remington appeared decades ago is old devil bore fouling. The truth is .17s are no more prone to fouling than any other small-bore cartridges. But the original .17 Remington rifles often had fairly rough bores, a bad combination with 4,000 fps. The .17 Fireball rifles we tried not only shot very well when sighting in, but continued to for two days, despite heavy use and no cleaning. (One of my continuous experiments is how long the bores on smokeless rifles will go without cleaning and retain accuracy. This is usually a lot longer than most shooters realize.) In short, I like the .17 Fireball a lot. R-15 AR Remington’s R-15 VTR Modular Repeating Rifle is an essentially a camouflaged AR-15, with several features specifically designed for hunting use. It’s built by Bushmaster, one of the several firms Remington acquired in the past couple of years. I first got to shoot one a little in Texas in the fall of 2007 and was immediately impressed by the accuracy and the trigger, noticeably better than the original trigger my own Bushmaster (eventually replaced by a Timney). But shooting at paper isn’t the same as shooting in the field, especially extensively. The R-15 comes with a 5-round magazine. This works very well on prairie dog shoots for two reasons. The rifle can be fired from sandbags easily, and there is more tendency to aim instead of spray; a real tendency when encountering one of those peculiar prairie dogs surrounded by a force-field impervious to bullets. The R-15 I shot extensively over two days proved not only reliable (again, without cleaning) over several hundred rounds, but point-of-impact and accuracy did not change. In fact, during the “shoot far” part of the test I set a new personal .223 Remington distance record of 712 yards with this rifle, and came within inches, several times, of hitting one taunting dog at around 900. This was with Remington’s excellent Premier AccuTip factory ammo. One big advantage of PD shooting with a semi-auto lies in instantly being able to adjust for the wind after a miss. With a bolt-action there’s an inevitable delay of at least a couple of seconds before another round can be sent downrange. The prairie wind is a churning thing, normally changing from moment to moment, and during the working of a bolt handle the wind often shifts so much the second shot merely indicates this wind shift. But with an accurate semi-auto, a second round can be tapped off so quickly the wind often doesn’t have a chance to change. Bop! This rifle made me wish I didn’t already have a Bushmaster .223. Then again, why not both? Two other tested items were so good they’ll get their own write-ups in the future: the Remington VTR bolt-action rifle, and the Swarovski 2-12X Z6 riflescope. midWAy uSA 5875 WeSt vAn hOrn tAvern rOAd, COlumBiA, mO 65203 (573) 445-6363, WWW.midWAyuSA.COm neCO 158 ArdmOre WAy, BeneCiA, CA 94510 (707) 747-0897, WWW.neCOnOS.COm reminGtOn ArmS COmpAny p.O. BOx 700, mAdiSOn, nC 27025 (800) 243-9700, WWW.reminGtOn.COm The Remington R-15’s short 5-round magazine is easier to manage when shooting off the bench (above). The Burris 4-12X Laserscope proved accurate and dependable over hundreds of rounds. It is mounted here (below) on John’s Bushmaster varmint rifle. another part of the human condition.) So when Remington invited me on a prairie dog shoot I welcomed the chance to send several hundred .17 Fireball bullets across the Wyoming prairie, in both calm and wind. A Welcome .17 The bottom line is that, yes indeed, the .17 Fireball is windsensitive. How could it not be? But it also shoots amazingly flat for such a little round, and has on2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=67http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=67WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 672009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=68http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=68VIEWS NEWS AND REVIEWS RIGHTS WATCH • DAVID CODREA • The Message of MuMbai very time I submit a column based on a breaking news E story, I offer the same caveat: Magazines, where months pass between the writing and the reading, are less than ideal places to discuss unfolding events. That said, while new details will certainly be released between submission and distribution, core truths will remain timeless and unchanged. We’ve all read accounts and witnessed footage of the carnage that engulfed the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. At this writing, 173 people and 20 police and/or soldiers have been reported killed by 10 terrorist attackers. According to a CBS News timeline, the attacks began at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, one of the country’s busiest rail stations, on the evening of November 27. Moving swiftly from the station, the attackers targeted the orthodox Jewish Nariman House, the popular Leopold’s restaurant, the five-star Oberoi hotel, and the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel. Shooting was also reported in the southern part of the city, near the Bombay Municipal Corporation, and two hospitals, as well as at the Vidhan Sabha, the lower house of the state legislature. It wasn’t until November 29 that nine attackers had been confirmed killed and a tenth taken into custody, and the last of the hostages were rescued. “[P]erhaps the most troubling question to emerge for the Indian authorities,” The International Herald Tribune reported, “ was how … just 10 gunmen could have caused so much carnage and repelled Indian security forces for more than three days in three different buildings.” How indeed. Per another Tribune report, “The Oberoi Group employs many plainclothes security officers in its hotels, 68 but these are unarmed … Obtaining a license for even a single officer to carry a gun is extremely difficult in India, which has tight gun control laws.” And if professional security officers are unarmed, what chances do citizens — or foreign tourists — have to defend themselves? “Pros deride terrible tactics and poor equipment in face of Mumbai crisis,” a Daily News headline proclaimed. “One US counterterror official said the Indians looked clownish … Hesitating may have cost lives … Supposedly elite commandos appeared to be lacking standard tools … They also ineptly rappelled from choppers to rooftops and raised machine guns over their heads to indiscriminately fire into windows,” were some of the criticisms about the government response. Perhaps the clearest indictment of the mismanaged response came from photographer Sebastian D’Souza of the Mumbai Mirror, as reported in the Belfast Telegraph. “I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point of having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera.” The message from Mumbai, the lesson we can salvage, is unmistakably simple and clear: Disarming people renders them defenseless. Predators don’t obey disarmament edicts. Authorities can’t protect you. Will we learn it, or will we wait for another “gun free zone” massacre to happen here, with the attendant cries from the ignorant and the ambitious for yet more “gun control”? Visit David Codrea’s online journal The War on Guns at waronguns.blogspot.com. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=69http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=692009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=70http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=70Tough Road or the second time in less than a month, the forces of ISAF, the Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) led a joint operation in the southern half of the Uzbin Valley, Afghanistan, under the command of General Stollsteiner, commander of the Regional Command - Capital (RC-C), in coordination with the command of ISAF. The ANA was responsible for the main action, which was to establish dialogue with the villages southwest of the valley and help support local life. In the morning last 09 November 2008, the French battalion (BATFRA) started securing a vast area of about 250 square kilometers, taking control of the main points and the major communications axis of the valley. This deployment was essential in that, last October 18, during the operation in Oqab Valley Uzbin, several insurgent groups had tried in vain to penetrate the area to carry out attacks. At the same time, 150 Afghan soldiers and their American mentors went to Waka, the main town in the area, accompanied by members of the National F Members of the Afghan National Army and National Police discuss security concerns with local tribal leaders at a shura in Waka, Afghanistan. Photo: FMoD An Afghan Army soldier is surrounded by children at the shura in Waka, Afghanistan. Note his well worn AK-47. Photo: FMoD Police and supported by elements of the squadron of research and investigation (ERI) of the BATFRA. Bringing together nearly 200 people, including leaders of a dozen localities, a shura (council of elders) was held from mid-morning. The general commanding the 3rd Brigade of the 201st body of the Afghan army and the police chief2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=71http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=71responsible for Surobi district had extensive dialogue with the villagers. They both expressed their fears, but also their hope that one day peace would settle in the valley. The Afghan authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to security as a prerequisite for development. For his part, Colonel Perrin, the French battalion commander, emphasized the scope of such an operation. He made clear his men are fully involved in securing the Surobi district, by force if necessary, but the aim is to enable Afghans to be in charge their own destiny. He also confirmed the readiness of ISAF to contribute to opening up and developing this difficult to access area, subject to the establishment of a lasting dialogue and mutual trust. At the conclusion of this important shura, the ANA distributed school supplies and clothing for the valley’s poor to enable them to face the winter now at hand. Successfully combining the main missions of ISAF, namely security and assistance, this illustrates the growing capacity of the Afghan National Army to carry out large-scale and ultimately facilitate the transfer of this area of responsibility to the local security forces. It is also in the process of voter French, American and Afghan Army and Police vehicles wind their way through the Uzbin Valley, Afghanistan, on their way to the local shura. With a lack of anything resembling a road, the ability of coalition forces to provide security in these outlying provinces is a major problem to be solved. Photo: FMoD registration in the area, which began on November 5 and ended on December 5, 2008, the first step in the preparation of presidential elections scheduled for 2009. Around 3,400 French soldiers are in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan as well as naval units in the Indian Ocean, as part of ISAF operations and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Among them, 2,800 French soldiers are committed in the territory of Afghanistan itself. — Courtesy Ministère de la Défense, France2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=72http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=72KNOW MORE. Cunard’s glass powder vials are the ideal solution for transporting pre-weighed black powder charges to the range. CunaRd’s glass PowdeR Vials Holt Bodinson Shooting for 50 years? Gun Talk TV will make you better. Never picked up a gun? Gun Talk TV will get you started. The top shooters and instructors are on Gun Talk TV to train you! Watch hundreds of free ONLINE instructional videos at: here once was a time when gentlemen wore coats and ties to the range and brought with them a small chest of pre-weighed charges of black powder neatly stored and labeled in thin glass vials topped off with a cork. Thanks to a gentleman of the old school by the name of Joe Hepsworth, who runs J. Cunard & Company, we can once again enjoy the benefits of premeasured charges of black powder or its substitutes in those classic glass vials. As much as I enjoy the utter convenience of “pelletized” charges of the modern black powder substitutes, there is no substitute for weighed charges of black powder or those substitutes when the objective is pure accuracy. Every muzzlestuffer should make the test himself. Fire 10 pelletized charges and 10 charges of the same powder weighed to a 1/10 of a grain. The measured charges will, more often than not, deliver smaller overall groups than their pelletized cousins. For years I have been looking for a source of those small glass powder vials so much a part of the late muzzleloading era and the long-range black powder matches of the day. Those perfect vials you could fill at home with weighed charges and bring along for a day at the range. It took a long-range muzzleloading rifle enthusiast to bring them back on the market, and that’s what Joe Hepsworth has done. He sells 25 cork sealed, glass powder vials packaged neatly in a Case-Gard 20 gauge box for $17.50, or 100 glass vials in four boxes for $70. Buy them while you can. The J. Cunard Web site also contains 100’s of invaluable products for the black powder shooter and long-range competitor. Great company with which to do business. J. CunaRd & CoMPany Po box 755, newaRk, ohio 43058 (740) 345-6646, www.JCunaRd.CoM T www.guntalk.tv 72 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=73http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=73CoRbon non ToxiC .223 Clint smitH CrossBreed Holsters LLC. ARE YOU TIRED OF UNCOMFORTABLE HOLSTERS? ARE YOU CARRYING A SMALLER GUN THAN YOU WANT TO JUST SO YOU CAN CONCEAL IT? I got my SuperTuck holster from you for my XD 4” back in February. I use it everyday 10 to 12 hours, sometimes tucked, sometimes not. This is the most comfortable holster I have ever had. Holds my XD close to my body and just makes it disappear. It holds the gun firmly, yet easy and fast to draw. Who says you can’t conceal carry a full size gun? They never tried a SuperTuck. I love it! Thanks, A lways the innovators, the CorBon, Glaser, Pow’er Ball from the Peter Pi family with the always-able assistance of Mike Shovel have brought another new product to the ammunition marketplace with their new frangible lead-free 55-grain JHP .223 Remington. A couple of subtle tactical nuance points are in order here. For the last 40 years I have heard and been privy to the verbal and statistical war over and about the arguable efficacy of .223 cartridges. I have shot a lot of .223 and seen even more of it shot and not always on a paper target range. I can say without reservation I have seen the .223 fail to shoot through masonry walls and I have seen people hit by a .223 projectile who were not happy and yet lived. I have also seen people hit by the .223 turn as dead as a bucket of hammers. J Why not try a CrossBreed TODAY? Lifetime Warranty! Try-It-FREE-Guarantee! 888.732.5011 Lead free ammo may be the wave of the future. If it comes to pass, a good option would be the .223 55-grain Frangible load from CorBon. www.CrossBreedHolsters.com ANY TIME. ANY PLACE. in .45 Long Colt & .410 Buckshot. An Attacker’s Worst Nightmare! So the point is the .223 like all ammunition has worked and has failed in some respect. That said, I personally do not want to be hit by a .223. The other point, four years ago I opened my range in Oregon and have used frangible lead free, sometimes referred to as green ammo ever since its inception. In the beginning, I was besmirched as trying to be politically correct, et cetera … that said, in the interim several “dirty” lead ranges have closed because of their lead issues. I think in the end I will have wound up choosing wisely in my selection to use this type of “clean” ammunition. This type of ammunition may be the future of shooting in this country. And the future has been addressed early on by CorBon with the introduction of this ammunition that, by the way, shot under a minute of angle out to 500 yards out of my Remington 700 LTR rifle. CoRbon .223 55-gRain lead fRee fRangible JhP aMMuniTion VeloCiTy: 2,800 fPs , eneRgy: 958 fT-lbs 20 Rounds PeR box CoRbon 1311 indusTRy Road, sTuRgis, sd 57785 (800) 626-7266, www.CoRbon.CoM WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM The All-New RANGER MADE IN TEXAS BY TEXANS. 14 Interchangeable Barrels Available from .22 LR to .45 Long Colt! *Not available in California or Massachusetts. www.bondarms.com • 817-573-4445 • Granbury, Texas guns MagaZine online! www.gunsmagazine.com 732009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=74http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=74A.G. RUSSELL™ KNIVES Since 1964, A.G. Russell™ Knives has supplied the knife needs of customers worldwide. The A.G. Russell name means quality, dependability and knowledge. Catalogs and web site includes most quality production brands and many handmade knives, some available only from A.G. Russell. FREE 479-571-6161 • www.agrussell.com Dept GA0409C A.G. Russell Knives 2900 S. 26th Street, Rogers, AR 72758 CATALOG INQUIRY #10 AMERICAN COP SUBSCRIPTION A Magazine By Cops, For Cops. Cops need information they can trust. That’s why FMG Publications is bringing the “tell-it-like-it-is” reputation of American Handgunner into the police publication world. American COP will offer solutions to real-world problems YOU deal with every day. $24.95 US and $44.95 Foreign includes six bi-monthly issues. Plus FREE Tool Logic Magnetic Light with your paid subscription. Visit us online at: www.americancopmagazine.com CATALOG INQUIRY #11 AMERICAN HANDGUNNER SUBSCRIPTION Imagine a magazine with such detailed information that each issue makes you feel like you’ve fired the guns featured. Every issue provides the latest news on handguns and accessories in a tell-it-like-it-is style you won’t find anywhere else. Nothing prepares you for handgunning like American Handgunner. 1 year subscription $19.75 (outside the U.S. $39.75) www.americanhandgunner.com CATALOG INQUIRY #12 Our catalog display allows GUNS Magazine readers to select literature on a wide variety of shooting products. HOW TO ORDER Please check the box(es) of the literature you’d like to receive on the attached order card. Enclose (in the envelope provided) a check or money order payable to GUNS Magazine for the total literature fees plus $2.50 handling charge. If paying by credit card, please include all information needed. OR: Send a list of the catalogs you want to request, listing the name and catalog inquiry number of each, with your check or VISA/MC# for the total catalog fees plus $2.50 handling charge. Mail to: GUNS Magazine, P.O. Box 509094, San Diego, CA 92150-9094. Catalogs will be mailed directly to you by the companies making the offer. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. GUNS Magazine and Publishers Development Corporation are not responsible for unprocessed orders. Companies participating in this section have accepted full responsibility for filling reader requests. 2007 ANNUAL/SPECIAL EDITIONS DRASTICALLY REDUCED RATE! Order our 2007 Special Editions individually for $8.95 US/$17.95 Foreign or order all four for $29.95 US/$52.95 Foreign. Visit us online for easy ordering. 2008 ANNUAL/SPECIAL EDITIONS Special Savings! Two additional Special Editions available for 2008. Order our 2008 Special Editions individually for $9.95 US/$17.95 Foreign or order all six for $32.95 US/$67.45 Foreign. Visit us online for easy ordering. www.gunsmagazine.com www.americanhandgunner.com www.americancopmagazine.com CATALOG INQUIRY #18-24 www.gunsmagazine.com www.americanhandgunner.com www.americancopmagazine.com CATALOG INQUIRY #13-17 74 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=75http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=752009 ANNUAL/SPECIAL EDITIONS NOW AVAILABLE! Order our 2009 Special Editions individually for $9.95 US/$17.95 Foreign or order all six for $45.00 US/$85.00 Foreign. Visit us online for easy ordering. BLACK HILLS AMMUNITION Black Hills Ammunition specializes in .223 and .308 ammunition. It’s the choice of the US Army, USMC, USAF and the US Navy Rifle Teams. We also have 14 different calibers in our Cowboy Ammunition Line, 10 calibers - 29 different loadings in our Black Hills Gold™ Hunting Line and superb but economical remanufactured ammunition in many calibers. $2.00. BROWNELLS INC FREE full-color AR-15/M16 #3 Catalog features 2,000+ products to build, maintain, and customize the AR-15/ M16 and larger caliber AR-Type variants. Everything from components to complete upper and lower receivers, plus factory parts from Colt and others. Photos of custombuilt rifles provide ideas for your next project gun. Call 1-800-741-0015 or order online at: brownells.com. Mention Department CBN. CATALOG INQUIRY #33 www.gunsmagazine.com www.americanhandgunner.com www.americancopmagazine.com CATALOG INQUIRY #25-31 CATALOG INQUIRY #32 JONATHAN ARTHUR CIENER Preeminent Designer/Manufacturer of .22LR Conversion Units in the World. These allow the use of inexpensive .22LR ammo in your firearm. Products include models for 1911A1, Browning Hi-Power, Beretta 92/96, Taurus PT92/99, Glock 17/22 & 19/23 Pistols, AR15/ M16, Mini-14/AC556. AK47/84 rifles, Thompson SMG. Catalog with info on purchasing direct - $5.00 www.22lrconversion.com CATALOG INQUIRY #34 CIMARRON ARMS Cimarron Firearms offers detailed copies of the firearms used taming the frontier of Texas and the American West. Cimarron is clearly recognized as the leader in authentic high quality Cowboy Action Shooting firearms, supporting SASS since its start in 1987. Send $5.00 or your FFL to: Cimarron F.A. Co. P.O. Box 906 Fredericksburg, TX 78624 CATALOG INQUIRY #35 CORBON/GLASER COR®BON has teamed up with Glaser™ to bring you the most complete line of ammunition available for self-defense, law enforcement and hunting. COR®BON offers high velocity hollow point ammo and DPX, while Glaser offers a pre-fragmented line and Pow’Rball. We are the original designers of the 500 S&W Magnum ammo. FREE (605) 347-4544 www.corbon.com CATALOG INQUIRY #36 CRIMSON TRACE CORP Crimson Trace Lasergrips are the world’s only gripintegrated laser sights. Instinctive activation button turns on laser with normal grip pressure. Fully adjustable for accuracy at any distance. Easily installs for a custom fit on dozens of revolvers, semi-autos, 1911s and AR-15, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Beretta, Kimber, Ruger and Glock. Call 1-800-442-2406 or go to crimsontrace.com for a FREE catalog today! DAVIDSON’S GalleryofGuns.com is the ultimate online catalog that features a state-of-the-art consumer firearm purchasing tool called Gun Genie. Gun Genie allows you to conveniently purchase new firearms from one of the world’s largest inventories, with the convenience of shopping at home! Let GalleryofGuns.com do all the work for you. FREE galleryofguns.com DESANTIS HOLSTER DeSantis offers a complete line of police, military, concealment, hunting and cowboy holsters and accessories. DeSantis is the originator of the Gunny Sack. We also offer cell phone holsters, belts and bags. For more information please visit: $5.00 www.desantisholster.com or call us at: (800) GUNHIDE. CATALOG INQUIRY #39 CATALOG INQUIRY #37 CATALOG INQUIRY #38 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 752009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=76http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=76Catalog $5 Volume #107 Since 1889 Finest Quality Holsters & Belts A century of handcrafting superior gunleather. 2025 E. Yandell El Paso, TX 79903 Ph. (915) 544-2233 Fax (915) 544-2535 DIXIE GUN WORKS The greatest blackpowder/muzzleloading catalog! More than 700 pages of replica guns, antique gun parts, accoutrements and supplies for the shooter, hunter and historical enthusiast. The Dixie Gun Works catalog also features a section of General Information of facts and figures designed to improve one’s knowledge in the fascinating field. In the U.S. - $5.00; outside the country, $20.00. CATALOG INQUIRY #40 ELITE SURVIVAL SYSTEMS Our 2009 catalog is now available. It is packed full of Assault Systems™ cases - the largest selection of cases on the market. Other products include holsters and concealment options, range bags and cases, and a complete line of tactical nylon products. $3.00 Toll-Free: 866-340-2778 www.elitesurvival.com CATALOG INQUIRY #41 EL PASO SADDLERY Since 1889 El Paso Saddlery has been making the finest holsters, belts and accessories in the world. Our products include antique and modern styles. So why buy a reproduction when you can have the REAL THING. $5.00 CATALOG INQUIRY #42 FORT KNOX SECURITY Fort Knox Security Products continues to perfect perfection; especially the Guardian Series. New this year to the Guardian Series is our standard reinforced fire door. This addition nearly doubles the fire protection of the Guardian, moving it to 1680 degrees in 90 minutes. With the reinforced fire door, patented star corner bolts a 5 to 1 reduction rack and pinion multi-gear drive locking system and our four stage, high luster baked acrylic urethane metallic finish, the Guardian Series sets the standard for the rest of the industry. Lifetime warranty includes the Sargent and Greenleaf locks. FREE CATALOG INQUIRY #43 GALCO INTERNATIONAL Building upon four decades of experience, Galco continues to design and produce these innovative products shown full color, in our 40th anniversary year catalog. These many cutting-edge products will help Galco remain your number one gunleather choice for another forty years! $5.00 Galco as always - “For those who demand the best. and know the difference.” Galco International 800-874-2526 galcogunleather.com CATALOG INQUIRY #44 GUNS MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION GUNS Magazine makes the shooting sports more enjoyable. Read about the latest shooting trends and newest guns. Tips and test reports will help you buy better and shoot straighter. Discover why sportsmen all over the world have been shooting with GUNS Magazine for over 40 years. 1 year subscription $24.95 (outside US $44.95) www.gunsmagazine.com CATALOG INQUIRY #45 HOGUE GRIPS Hogue - for the finest OverMolded™ rifle and shotgun stocks in black, OD green & camo. Handgun grips in soft rubber, exotic hardwoods, G-10 and aluminum. Also HandAll® grip sleeves, customgrip screws, slings and swivels recoil pads, Tamer™ pistol grip shotgun stock, PowerSpeed™ holster, firearm accessories and more. FREE CATALOG HOGUE® Inc. 1-800-getgrip www.hoguegrips.com CATALOG INQUIRY #46 KERSHAW KNIVES Known for its innovation and quality, Kershaw Knives manufactures a wide variety of work, and eveyday carrying knives. We use only the highest-quality materials and state-of-the-art techniques to produce knives and other cutting tools that are prized throughout the world. This is THE catalog for knife enthusiasts----FREE www.kershawknives.com 1-800-325-2891 CATALOG INQUIRY #47 MAGNUM RESEARCH Totally redesigned 2009 catalog introduces the new Micro Desert Eagle, provides the latest information on the legendary Desert Eagle Pistol - including the deluxe 25th anniversary edition - and offers expanded coverage of rimfire and centerfire rifles and Magnum’s Biggest Finest Revolver. Full-color, 20-page catalog also highlights custom finishes as well as holsters, grips, sights, scopes, shirts, caps and other accessories. $5.00 or download catalog PDF for FREE at: www.magnumresearch.c2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=77http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=77NUMRICH GUN PARTS New 31st Edition! 1300+ pages feature over 500 schematics for identifying obsolete and current commercial, military and foreign gun parts. Over 650 million parts and accessories available — it’s the industry’s leading reference book for firearms parts for over 50 years. $16.95 NUMRICH GUN PARTS CORP. P.O. Box 299, West Hurley, NY 12491 Order Toll-Free (866) 686-7424 Toll-Free Fax (877) 486-7278 www.e-gunparts.com CATALOG INQUIRY #49 PRO MAG INDUSTRIES If there’s one characteristic about our magazines we vowed never to change, it’s the quality that goes into their manufacture. This dedication to only turning out superior products for dependable performance has held true since our conception. That’s why each and every one of our magazines comes with a lifetime warranty. What’s more, when it comes to selection, we carry magazines to fit most popular models – foreign and domestic. Each and every ProMag is made right here in the U.S.A. where pride and craftsmanship go a long way in ensuring your satisfaction. Visit us online to see our full line. FREE www.promagindustries.com REDDING RELOADING The 2009 Redding Catalog featurs new die sets for the 30 Remington AR, 338 MarlinExpress and 416 Ruger as well as a new Competition Seater for the 357 Sig. It also introduces a completely new die system to remove the bulge from 40 S&W cases fired in some autoloaders. For up-to-the-minute Redding information and helpful tech tips, visit our website. FREE www.redding-reloading.com Redding Reloading Equipment 1089 Starr Road, Cortland, NY 13045 607-753-3331 CATALOG INQUIRY #51 CATALOG INQUIRY #50 SINCLAIR INTERNATIONAL Our full color catalog is full of high quality shooting and reloading products for the precision rifle shooter. Shooting rests, reloading tools, hard-to-find components, specialty cleaning tools and gunsmithing tools are among the thousands of products you will find in our catalog. FREE 800-717-8211 support@sinclairintl.com www.sinclairintl.com CATALOG INQUIRY #52 SPORTSMAN’S GUIDE The LOWEST Prices, the BEST Quality, GUARANTEED! Name-brand ammo, shooting and hunting gear and clothing at low discount prices for 32 years. Big savings on names you trust.Winchester®, Remington®, Browning®, Steiner®, Federal® and more. Fast Shipping and 100% satisfaction guaranteed! Toll-free 1-888-622-4365. FREE SPRINGFIELD INC Springfield Armory offers a full line of XD® pistols the new XD (M)™, 1911-A1 pistols, M1A™ rifles and a full 1911 Custom Shop. Call 1-800-680-6866 today for your FREE catalog or visit: www.sportsmansguide.com CATALOG INQUIRY #53 Springfield Armory 420 West Main Street, Geneseo, IL 61254 www.springfieldarmory.net CATALOG INQUIRY #54 For us at Tactical Rifles, this is not simply work, it is a life long passion. We strive to offer the quality of product that is so uncommon today. In a world of compromise, there are still some of us remaining who believe in quality and not mediocrity. From start to finish, all who handle our tactical rifles throughout assembly do so treating them as their own. The final destination, whether it is Law Enforcement, Military or Civilian customers, derives the benefit from this care, in the form of unparalleled precision & years of reliable service. When a customer positions himself behind one of our rifles, he has the assurance that it will perform – first time – every time! Not one single Tactical Rifle leaves our shop that we are not proud of. That’s our guarantee to you. Each weapon comes with a modest 1/2MOA Guarantee with factory match ammunition – and although our in-house target has always been to cut our accuracy guarantee in half, we refuse to make the ridiculous claims about performance at unrealistic distances that some of our competitors do! Treating our customers as we would wish to be treated ourselves means that we focus on the reality of exceeding their expectations, not disappointing them! Tactical Rifles exists to raise your expectations of custom rifle production. Ultimate2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=78http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=78A GUNS MEDLEY • HOLT BODINSON • day of The CondoR Fraud starts the lead ban in ammunition. on’t look now but there’s a big dirty bird up there casting D its dark shadow over our sport far beyond what its sphere of influence should be. Meet the Pleistocene-era California relief organizations? Those programs accounted for hundreds of tons — not pounds — of natural meat donated to needy families. Well, after all the ballyhoo from the Peregrine Fund, North Dakota dumped 5,000 pounds of donated meat and Minnesota, 12,000 pounds. Wisconsin and Iowa put a halt to meat donations until further testing, which subsequently revealed the threat was zero-to-minimal and resumed their programs. Meanwhile, California banned all lead-containing projectiles — including .22 rimfire ammunition — throughout the “historic range” of the condor, including our hunting grounds in the huge Los Padres National Forest. In my home town of Tucson, Arizona, the US Forest Service closed down our major range facility because a few lead pellets from the trap range had trickled a few feet off the club boundary. condor along with the typical cast of loonies who manipulate the Endangered Species Act in ways its drafters never intended and PB — good, old, mined elemental lead. Stir them all together and this disingenuous toxic mix is getting a lot of unwarranted attention and encouraging our state game and fish departments to march in lock step right over the “ban lead” precipice. Let me explain. With a wingspan of up to 9-1/2' or more and weighing around 23 pounds, the California condor is a big “endangered” vulture being aggressively reintroduced in California, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico, at immense taxpayer expense, of course. There are now approximately 298 California condors of which only approximately 144 actually live in the wild. But what an effect those 144 are having. the Cause Actually, it was the effect of far fewer. The population the Peregrine Fund, a private not-for-profit, helped establish and monitor in the Grand Canyon area of Arizona became the cause cerebra when some of the birds began showing signs of lead poisoning. The conclusion reached by the Peregrine Fund was the condors were eating gut piles left behind by deer hunters and those gut piles contained lethal levels of lead particles from lead core, jacketed hunting bullets. What followed and what was widely distributed by the Peregrine Fund were a couple of X-ray photographs of a deer carcass showing lead particles spread throughout the whole body cavity. What was not stated were the scientific specifics of the X-ray images: What was the caliber? What bullet was used: brand? weight? construction? velocity? What was the range of the shot? What were the condition and weight of the deer at the time of the test? What was the angle of the shot? In short, the X-ray photographs were shear propaganda as presented to the press and the public. The real kicker was the Peregrine Fund took their condor conclusions 78 A slippery slope defined The whole toxic lead issue has been so blown out of proportion as to be laughable if it weren’t such a continuous threat to the shooting community in the hands of our enemies. Yes, we gave up lead shot overnight for waterfowling and are gradually transitioning to steel shot in some areas for upland game and target shooting. But what about hunting with rifle, handgun and muzzleloading projectiles? The argument being advanced by the loonies and their bureaucratic pals is any tissue left behind in the field that came in contact with lead is potentially lethal to any carrion eater. In short, if you hunt prairie dogs with lead-core varmint bullets, scavenging coyotes, crows, vultures, badgers and whatnot are being placed at risk. The important point is, as shooters and handloaders, we need to keep one eye on weird public policy and the other on our supply of lead-core bullets for field use. My recommendation is to begin building up hunting loads right now using s2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=79http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=79handload might try a box of no-tox ammo from Federal, topped with Barnes X-bullets Winchester with Nosler E-Tip or Remington Premier Green. I have been particularly impressed with the high ballistic coefficients, inherent accuracy and terminal performance of the Nosler E-Tip, the Barnes Triple-Shock X-Bullet and their new, tipped, tungsten core, Maximum Range X-Bullet. For varmint bullets, take a close look at Barnes non-leaded, Varmint Grenade line. Frankly, the nice thing about the extensive Barnes line is it includes non-leaded bullets for muzzleloaders and handgun hunters as well. In the meantime, my family and I will continue to enjoy fresh, organically raised venison brought to earth with a big lead ball, but we will keep an eye on the mercury in the tuna, the PCBs in the salmon, the hormones and antibiotics in the beef, poultry and pork, salmonella in the spinach, botulism in the canned peas, staphylococcus in the dairy products and of course, estrogen in the tofu. Sierra’s Most Wanted lead fRee bulleTs baRnes bulleTs P.o. box 215 aMeRiCan foRk, uT 84003 (800) 574-9200 www.baRnesbulleTs.CoM BlitzKing and Varminter bullets are designed for explosive expansion on varmints and small game. BlitzKing bullets have a proprietary acetyl resin tip and MatchKing jackets to achieve optimum accuracy, and are available in .20 caliber to 6mm. Varminter bullets have thin jackets engineered to enhance expansion over a wide range of velocities and are available in .22 caliber to .30 caliber. Stack the deck against varmints with BlitzKing and Varminter bullets. nosleR P.o. box 671 bend, oRegon 97709 (800) 285-3701, www.nosleR.CoM lead fRee aMMuniTion blaCk hills aMMuniTion 3050 eglin sTReeT RaPid CiTy, sd 57703 (605) 348-5150 www.blaCk-hills.CoM fedeRal CaRTRidge Co. 900 ehlen dRiVe anoka, Mn 55303 (800) 322-2342 www.fedeRalCaRTRidge.CoM ReMingTon aRMs P.o. box 700 Madison, nC 27025 (800) 243-9700 www.ReMingTon.CoM winChesTeR aMMuniTion 427 noRTh shaMRoCk sTReeT easT alTon, il 62024 (618) 258-2000 www.winChesTeR.CoM 1400 West Henry Street • Sedalia, MO 65301 Tech support: 1-800-223-8799 Other business: 1-888-223-3006 Contact your dealer for the complete line of Sierra bullets or visit www.sierrabullets.com George Tichbourne KNIFEMAKER SHEFFIELD STYLE BOWIE http://www.tichbourneknives.com (905) 670-0200 7035 Maxwell Rd. #5, Mississauga, Ontario L5S 1R5 CANADA 79 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=80http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=80APRIL 2009 Classified ads $2.00 per-word insertion. ($1.50 per-word insertion for 3 or more) including name, address and phone number (20 word minimum). Minimum charge $40.00. Bold WoRds add $1.00 per word. Copy and rerun orders must be accompanied by PAYmEnt in AdVAnCE. no AGEnCY oR CAsH disCoUnts on listinG oR disPlAY ClAssiFiEd AdVERtisinG. All ads must be received with advance payment BY NO LATER THAN THE 1st OF each month. EXAmPlE: Closing for DEC. 2008 issue (on sale NOV. 5th) is SEPT 1st, 2008. Ads received after closing will appear in the following issue. Please type or print clearly. no PRooFs Will BE FURnisHEd. Include name, address, post office, city, state and zip code as counted words. Abbreviations count as one word each. Mail to GUNS MAGAZINE CLASSIFIEDS, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, California 92128. notE: WE noW HAVE disPlAY ClAssiFiEds in BotH GUns mAGAZinE And AmERiCAn HAndGUnnER. AsK FoR oUR nEW RAtE CARd. (858) 605-0235. ACCEssoRiEs AUCtions/sHoWs BooKs BUsinEss oPPoRtUnitiEs GUn PARts GUns FoR sAlE GUnsmitHinG EASY WORK! EXCELLENT PAY! Assemble products from home. For free information send SASE: Home Assembly-GM Box 450 New Britain, CT 06050-0450 CollECtoRs EmBlEms & insiGniA FiREWoRKs FoR sAlE GUNSMITHING INSTRUCTION AT PCC. Two-year hands-on program; excellent facilities; financial aid available; VA approved. Piedmont Community College, P.O. Box 1197, Roxboro, NC 27573; phone (336) 599-1181; www.piedmontcc.edu instRUCtion KniVEs & sWoRds lEAtHERCRAFt militARiA militARY sURPlUs misCEllAnEoUs oPtiCs PoliCE EQUiPmEnt REAl EstAtE sURViVAl VidEos WAntEd to PURCHAsE Rare 1863 Remington rifle. Although about 12,000 of these rifles were made during the civil war only about 200 exist today in good AmmUnition condition. Most gun books don’t take into account the rarity of this APPAREl gun. This gun is museum qulity in THE BELTMAN makes sturdy, top very good condition. Rifle, bayoquality, DUAL LAYER, Bull Hide belts net and scabbard $30,000 Denver for dress wear, concealed carry, or 303-368-1179 competition. Options include: Horse, Lizard, Shark, Elephant, Velcro, ta- 5 Acre Property in Southern Colorapering, stiffeners etc. Hand made in do No time limit to build. Direct road three widths, and five colors from access. Close to BLM Land and Rio $59.95, any length! Catalogue-$3.00 Grande River. A Hunter’s Paradise (refundable) PO Box 1302, for only $7,500.00 239-273-0911 Apex, NC 27502. 919-387-1997. www.coloradolandsale.com www.thebeltman.net. 80 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=81http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=812009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=82http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=82NEW PRODUCTS PRODUCTS BY: BY: JEff JEff MOREY MOREY NEW sysTeMa Professional Training WeaPon sysTeM From centilla corp Here is a Professional Training Weapon System (PTW) ideal and safe for Close Quarters, Force-on-Force training. SYSTEMA PTW provides the illusion of a real weapon without the dangers of injury or death. The PTW family of products are the most precisely simulated training weapons available, with 1:1 true weight and dimensions and can’t accept or be modified to shoot live ammunition. Based on advanced airsoft technology, the PTW is fully compatible with all common and accepted weapons upgrades, allowing the operator to equip a PTW with the same accessories used on issued weapons. This PTW offers safety as well as durability and realism, all of which are crucial in the training environment. These products are restricted to military, government and law enforcement. Contact: Centilla Corp., 37 Industrial Drive, Exeter, NH 03833, (603) 658-3881, Fax: (603) 658-3882, Web site: www.centilla. net, E-mail: Robert@centrilla.net. neW .40 s&W sinTerfire aMMo From Fiocchi Fiocchi Ammunition introduces a new .40 S&W handgun round featuring SinterFire frangible, lead-free bullets. This new, nontoxic round is intended for the training market, with specific applications for use at indoor shooting ranges, closed-quarter steel plate shooting, as well as for use by police departments in tactical training scenarios. The experts at Fiocchi chose the copper/tin composite SinterFire bullet for this line as it yields the proven benefits of functional reliability (due to the bullet’s moldedin taper crimp), uniform dimensions, perfect weight, superior accuracy and repeatable performance. These bullets, which contain no jacketing or plating, literally crumble to dust upon impact with hard surfaces. Containing a proprietary lubricant, this cartridge provides the additional benefits of increased velocities at reduced pressures, reduced bore wear and minimized bore fouling. By “increased velocities,” we mean a sizzling 1,265 fps muzzle velocity. Contact: Fiocchi Ammunition, 1662 Nevada Way, Boulder City, Nevada, 89005, (702) 293-6174, Fax: (702) 293-3259, Web site: www.fiocchiusa.com. The Micro DeserT eagle From magnum research The latest addition to the worldfamous family of Magnum Research firearms is the 6-shot, DAO, .380 ACP Micro Desert Eagle Pistol. This splendid sidearm redefines what a compact personal protection pistol should be. It features a 2.22" barrel with an overall length of 4.52" and a height of 3.71". The finish is nickel Teflon. Weighing in at less than 14-ounces, the Micro Desert Eagle pistol fits virtually unnoticed in a pocket or purse. Proudly manufactured in the USA, this pistol also features a gas assisted blowback system for ultimate reliability, and hammer-forged barrels for pinpoint accuracy. Contact: Magnum Research, Inc., 7110 University Avenue N.E., Minneapolis, MN 55432, Toll Free: (800) 772-6168, Fax: (763) 574-0109, Web site: www. magnumresearch.com. hoMe & aWay ProTecTion KiT From security equipment corporation Aggravated assaults take place every 36 seconds, burglaries every 14.5 (National Crime Prevention Council). Americans live in an environment where crime is a serious and unfortunate reality. As assaults and burglaries are increasing, safety becomes an issue both home and away. How then can we keep ourselves and our families safe? Every person, commuting employees, students, home business owners, has to take proactive steps to help safeguard their domain. Security Equipment Corporation (SEC) provides this proactive step with its new Home & Away Protection Kit. Each SABRE Protection Kit is equipped with two (2) self-defense sprays, a home unit and key chain one. The home unit features a glow-in-the-dark safety and a wall mount clip to keep out of the reach of children. SABRE’s most popular product addresses the “Away” need with its black key case, quick release key ring and clip attachment for immediat2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=83http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=83For more New Products visit us online at www.gunsmagazine.com The chucK connors’ coMMeMoraTive rifle From legacy sports international Remember “Lucas McCain”? He could fire off a round from his specially modified Winchester in 3/10 of a second. As each episode of The Rifleman began, “McCain” would let loose 12 shots quicker than a gob of spit could hit the cuspidor. It is hard to believe, but 50 years have passed since The Rifleman first blasted its way onto our TV screens. To mark this anniversary, Legacy Sports Int. presents The Chuck Connors Commemorative Rifle. This finely crafted Model 92 .44-40 reproduction, manufactured in Italy by Chiappa features a large loop lever, just like the one Connors used on the TV show, a set-screw (non-functioning) to simulate the one that allowed Chuck to rapid fire his rifle, a striking Commemorative Medallion bearing Chuck Connors’ likeness, Chuck Connors’ signature laser etched into the right side of the stock, a certificate of authenticity signed by Connors’ son, Jeff Connors, a black and white print of a portrait of Chuck Connors and a CD featuring two episodes from the popular TV series. Limited to 1,000 rifles, this special edition will only be available for a short time. Contact: Legacy Sports International, 4750 Longley Lane, Suite 208, Reno, NV 89502, (775) 828-0555, Fax: (775) 828-0565, Web site: www.legacysports.com. The Micro h-1 sighT From aimpoint OK, this is not a brand new product. However, a significant change has been made to this excellent sight. Through a series of consultations with Aimpoint dealers, shooting industry writers, and consumer focus groups regarding the features of the Micro series, it was determined the bright blue finish on the Micro H-1 sight needed to be changed to a non-reflective enhanced finish. So, from now on, all Micro H-1 sights shipped from Aimpoint will have this new enhanced finish. The Micro H-1 is already experiencing high demand from customers who see the performance benefit a high quality red-dot sight has on improving their shooting success, as well as the economic benefit from purchasing just one electronic sight that can be utilized across multiple hunting seasons and shooting sports. The Micro H-1 can be mounted on everything you carry in the field: rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows, black powder rifles, rimfire handguns/rifles, and formidable big game rifles — just by swapping mounts. Contact: Aimpoint Inc., 14103 Mariah Court, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 263-9795, Fax: (703) 263-9463, Web site: www.aimpoint.com, E-Mail: info@aimpoint.com. oPeraTor graDe TacTical PanTs From eotac The new Operator Grade Tactical Pants from OETAC are the most versatile and durable mission ready pants available. Using the proprietary Tacti-Fit sizing system, the EOTAC pants are designed around the end user. The Action Waist has side elastic panels for freedom of movement. The gusseted crotch allows for greater range of mobility. Ten strategically placed pockets maximize functionality. A double layer of fabric over the knees offers added durability. These trousers are available in canvas or lightweight ripstop. Contact: EOTAC, 1940 Old Dunbar Road, West Columbia, SC 29172, (803) 744-9930, Fax: (803) 744-9933, Web site: www.eotac. com, E-Mail: info@eotac.com. The B873 holsTer From gould & goodrich Offered for a variety of weapons with a Streamlight M3, M6 or TLR-1 or TLR-2 attached, this holster features a dual use belt mounting system that will accommodate belts up to 1-3/4" wide. Dual belt slots allow for strongside, forward cant, or crossdraw for offside carry, ensuring the holster rides high and close to the body for maximum concealability. Molded from top WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM grain vegetable tanned cowhide specially processed to help you maintain a professional look, this holster also offers a recessed snap closure that prevents unnecessary contact with your weapon’s finish. As a final step, the B873 is finished with a moisture resistant topcoat for ad2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=84http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=84eaa PHOTOS: JOSEPH R. NOVELOZO wiTness MaTCh W ith 10+1 capacity and fully adjustable sights, this single action semiauto is sure to be a hit for home defense as well as at the range. Built in the Tanfoglio custom shop, the “Match” incorporates many features of Tanfoglio’s competition guns in a streamlined, no nonsense, practical pistol. Custom features include a 4-3/4" match-grade barrel, single action trigger with overtravel stop, adjustable rear sights, interchangeable front sight posts, extended safety, extended magazine release, heart-shaped hammer, and custom two-tone finish. .45 aCP! wiTness MaTCh MakeR: fRaTelli Tanfoglio s.n.C. gaRdone V.T. iTaly www.Tanfoglio.iT iMPoRTeR: euRoPean aMeRiCan aRMoRy CoRP P.o. box 560746, RoCkledge, fl 32956 (321) 639-4842, www.eaaCoRP.CoM aCTion TyPe: Locked breech semi-auto CalibeR: .45 ACP CaPaCiTy: 10+1 baRRel lengTh: 4-3/4" oVeRall lengTh: 8.1" weighT: 33 ounces finish: 2-tone sighTs: Fully adjustable rear, Patridge front gRiPs: Soft rubber PRiCe: $640 To enTeR ConTesT: use youR own postcard (no envelopes, please) Follow sample card to right. Mail postcard to: GUNS Magazine, goM aPRil 2009 P.O. BOX 502795, San Diego, CA 92150-2795. Entries must be received before May 1, 2009. Limit one entry per household. QuesTion of The MonTh: I visit shooting sports websites: (a) once a week (b) Twice or more times per week (C) daily (d) hardly ever Name Address City, State, Zip Email Address CiRCle answeR(s) To QuesTion of The MonTh: (a) (b) (C) (d) if i win, shiP My PRiZe ThRough: FFL Dealer Address City, State, Zip Phone # ( ) Store Hours: ___________ ___a.m. thru ______________p.m. Attention Deployed Military: USE STATESIDE ADDRESS! 84 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 2009 sAmPlE onlY2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=85http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=85Need more? You’ll also feel protected with Kimber’s new “Guardian Angel” less-lethal OC response tool. The Guardian Angel PepperBlaster will not depressurize, since the patented propulsion system out-performs common pressurized canisters. With two shots available within one second, the 13' range and high speed of the 10-percent OC and 2.4-percent capsaicinoids assures penetration around glasses, into pores and membranes, causing temporary blindness, gagging and pain. KIMBER, 1 Lawton Street, Yonkers, NY 10705 (800) 880-2418, www.life-act.com www.kimberamerica.com WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 852009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=86http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=86ODD ANGRY SHOT • JOHN CONNOR • “why do you CaRRy a gun?” Best of John Connor from July/August 2005 American Handgunner. f I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that question, I’d I have, uh … as many guns as his firearm-festooned Editorial Immenseness, Roy-Boy. It’s been asked of me by all flavors of folks marble. Yeah, I know, the “killer clowns” answer might not have been “helpful,” but it did just as much good as giving S&A answers to the sheeple, and it was a lot more fun for me. I know you already know why we carry these cannons. But sometimes, just sometimes, we all need a little reminder. That includes me, and I’ve got one to share with you. One that got me where I live. The Connor Clan has been nomadic, and we’ve lived in a number of places. In one of ’em, we shared a side yard and friendship with a young woman we’ll call Miss Maine, and her kneehigh daughter, Little Lizzie. Miss Maine quickly bonded with the Memsaab Helena. Clearly, Helena’s Amazonwarrior spirit and skill with arms impressed Miss Maine mightily, and much of their time and talk revolved around that fierce self-confidence — and guns. As for Little Lizzie, the munchkin almost duct-taped herself to the Mem’s leg. She followed Helena everywhere, but always, always, kept glancing back to check on her momma, as though she were the worried parent. There was something guarded, something hurt and defensive about both of them, and that fearfulness extended to me for a while. They got over it, thank God. Then I sorta became a moving bunker for ’em, representing cover and protection. Finally, we learned the story. Miss Maine had been attacked — in all slices of society, with attitudes and expressions ranging from angry-arrogant to curtly-contemptuous, to brainless an’ befuddled. My answers to it have sorta formed three phases in my professional gun-carrying life. During that first and longest phase, I answered all of ’em sincerely and articulately, often following up with stacks of historic and legal documents. After many years, I concluded only a semi-significant sliver of people even heard what I was sayin’. The rest had already made up their muddled minds. Finally, I just got sick of it, and moved on to Phase 2. If those asking seemed to have teensy open spaces in their minds, I gave ’em S & A: “Sincere & Articulate.” The more harshly-bleating sheep, however, often got exchanges like this: “So,” queried Snidely Snotworth III, lookin’ down his un-busted but neededbustin’ nose, “Why do you think you have to carry a gun?” “Well,” bellowed the Brutish Neanderthal (that would be me): “Because you’re not QUALIFIED to carry one. You haven’t got the skills, the judgment, the sense of responsibility, or the courage for it.” This answer often popped out after I’d just returned from some Heart-OfDarkness where every living soul knew that the difference between slaves and free people is having the means and determination to defend their lives, property and liberties. That meant having guns and guts and God-given rights. Most of those people would quite literally die fighting for the freedoms so many Americans casually give away, and proudly bear social responsibilities those sheeple* won’t even recognize. the Voices Then I matriculated to Phase 3, where I started having some fun with the Snidely Snotworth types. When they asked the Big Question, I’d go all hunchy-shouldered an’ secretive, then lean in close and mutter, “Because of the voices, ya know?” “The VOICES?” sniveled the Snidelies, suddenly scaredycattish. “Oh, yeah, the voices … They told me to be, you know, prepared for when the killer clowns come … ” I’d furtively goggle around. “The voices say the killer clowns are comin’ … They’re cannibals, some of ’em, and … ” About that time the Snidelies would be skitterin’ away like mice on polished Miss Maine had been attacked — brutally and viciously. You don’t wanta know the details. As with so many such crimes, it wasn’t really about sex. It was about hate and2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=87http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=87brutally and viciously. You don’t wanta know the details. As with so many such crimes, it wasn’t really about sex. It was about hate and domination, cowardice and cruelty. And an even younger Little Lizzie had witnessed it. I like to think the Memsaab and I helped them to recover emotionally. will you a’ways be here? Wouldja be here … When the bad mens come?” Then one day Lizzie came and snuggled into my shadow, visibly disturbed. That morning her kindergarten had put on “Frighten The Munchkins Day.” Some schools do a pretty good job of alerting children to predators — don’t go with strangers and that kinda thing — but others do more harm than good. All they do is terrify the tots and give ’em no operating options. Lizzie already had twin tears glistening, ready to fall when she grabbed a tiny fistful of my trouser-leg and asked, “Connor-Sir, will you a’ways be here? Wouldja be here … When the bad mens come?” My knees cracked on the sidewalk as she slammed into my shoulder, shaking with sobs as the hot tears came, splashing my neck and searing into my soul. “ ’Cause I’m a-scared!” she choked, and clutched me tighter. Oh, GOD! Who would not — who could not — fight without fear, suffer without sense of sacrifice, and kill or die deliberately, using the most effective means available — to protect life, liberty and a Little Lizzie? For God’s sake, who? Those who would not are no better than the predators. Maybe in Phase 4, when somebody pops The Big Question I’ll just smile and say, “For life, liberty and Little Lizzie.” You guys can fill in the details. *Sheeple: Sheep-like people, many of whom deny the existence of wolves, and vote to pull the teeth of the sheepdogs who protect the flock. Editor’s note: Connor has been stricken with a virus on top of all the back trouble he’s had and missed his deadline. Hopefully he’ll be better in time for the next issue. Don’t send flowers yet. WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM Lizzie already had twin tears glistening, ready to fall when she grabbed a tiny fistful of my trouser-leg and asked, “Connor-Sir, Ultimate Visibility! Uni-Green RAIL MOUNT LASER Developed for Military, Law Enforcement and Professional Security Use • Highest visibility under all lighting conditions • Transitions between rifles, shotguns, night vision devices and pistols • Optional momentary switch MADE IN USA www.lasermax.com 1.800.527.3703 BY AMERICANS 872009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=88http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=88APRIL 2009 AdVERtisER PAGE AdVERtisER PAGE ADVERTISER’S INDEX The companies listed have featured advertisements in this issue. Look to them first when you are ready to make a purchase. AdVERtisER PAGE Al Mar Knives . . . . . . . . . . 37 American COP Subscription . . . . . . . . . . 67 American Handgunner Subscription . . . . . . . . . . 81 ArmaLite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Benchmade Knives. . . . . . . 15 Black Hills Shooters Supply 13 Blue Book Publications Inc. . .9 Bond Arms Inc. . . . . . . . . . 73 Collector’s Armoury Ltd. . . . 36 Conetrol Scope Mounts . . . . 26 Crimson Trace . . . . . . . . . . 32 CrossBreed Holsters LLC. . . 73 DeSantis Holster . . . . . 87, C3 Elite Sports Express . . . . . . 39 FMG Special Editions . . . . . 88 GUNS Magazine Subscription . . . . . . . . . . 24 GunTalk TV . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Hodgdon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Jantz Supply . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Kimber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 Kirkpatrick Leather Company . . . . . . 37 Knife Mart. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Kwik-Site Corp. . . . 21, 37, 89 LaserMax . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Mag-na-port International Inc. . . . . . . 36 MTM Molded Products Company. . . . . . 19 Old West Reproductions Inc. . . . . . 28 One Stop Knife Shop. . . . . . 35 Otis Technology Inc. . . . . . . .3 Pro Mag Industries . . . . . . . 15 Rock River Arms . . . . . . . . 28 S&K Scope Mounts. . . . . . . 39 Sierra Bullets . . . . . . . . . . 79 Sig Sauer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Springfield Inc. . . . C2, 68, 69 Stag Arms . . . . . . . . . . .70-71 Tichbourne Knives . . . . . . . 79 Thunder Ranch Training DVDs . . . . . . .23, 25, 27, 29 Wilson Combat . . . . . . . . . 39 Order Your Copy While Supplies Last ONLY $9.95 PERSONAL DEFENSE (outside U.S. $17.95) 2008 ANNUAL Call Toll-Free Mon-Fri 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. PST 888.732.2299 Order at www.americanhandgunner.com LOOK INSIDE: » » » » » » 88 P.O. Box 502610 • San Diego, CA 92150-2610 3-Gun Home Battery First Aid Ammo Knife Defense Carry Guns Plus Much More WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=89http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=89Andrews was the model for the Indiana Jones stories. Born in 1893 he basically began his career sweeping up at the American Museum of Natural History. continued from page 90 others keeping Mrs. Oeschner buried in book reports. All the outdoor magazines at the time were also in the library and I do believe I did a report on every article appearing in Field & Stream, Sports Afield, and Outdoor Life. Mrs. Oeschner learned all about Corey Ford’s Lower 40 Angling, Shooting, and Inside Straight Club and the wonderful Old Man and the Boy tales by Robert Ruark. Alongside of me she hunted with Jack O’Connor and dozens of other lesser-known writers. She was definitely a mid-century enabler and without her encouragement, I may have been able to overcome the drug of knowledge. One of my many regrets is by the time in my life I really appreciated these three ladies they were not only gone, I was more than 2,000 miles away. I wish there were some way I could really thank them. I did do the next best thing. I graduated from college on a Friday in March 1965. The next Monday morning I was in the classroom and would spend the next 31 years trying my best to encourage other young kids. of cars being dismantled, carried up over mountains, and put back together on the other side. Someday I would be another Roy Chapman Andrews, however someday never came. Andrews was pretty savvy when it came to firearms. His pistol was a Colt double action .38, and he used three rifles, at least three he talked about during his career. Two of these, a Savage Model 99 and a bolt action Savage, were both chambered in .250-3000, and the third was a 6.5 Mannlicher. I spent a lot of time dreaming about those wonderful rifles. Mrs. Fisher literally forced me to read a book called The Boys’ Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Hermann Hagedorn. I wish every kid today could read this same book at the same time in their life as I did. It had a tremendous effect on me, an effect which would only be rivaled by Elmer Keith’s Sixguns a few years later and both of which have only been topped in my life by the Bible. All three of these books came into my life in the decade of the 1950s. Many things about his life attracted me to Theodore Roosevelt. He was quite weak as a boy and overcame this by his own efforts and the fact his father could afford to portion off a section of the family home making it into a gymnasium where TR could exercise. The Strenuous Life could not begin until Theodore could build up his own body. I was inspired by the story of a doctor telling him his heart was too weak to even climb stairs so he went to Switzerland and climbed the Matterhorn. I had to wear glasses and I was enthralled about the fact TR was a successful hunter even though his eyes were even worse than mine and on his hunting trips he carried several extra pairs of glasses. I definitely learned from that and always carry, I should say carried, an extra pair on my hunting trips. Since having lens implants two years ago I no longer need glasses to shoot and my, wouldn’t Theodore have loved to have had such an experience. We will talk more about TR in Part II but for now we can say we desperately need his type in leadership positions today. Do such men still exist? has taken Weaver ® style rings to new heights and new lengths. Special aircraft alloy metals won’t scratch your scope, and they are kwik-detachable for easy remounting. A satin smooth finish available in brite black, silver, and black matte. They set the standard for looks in the industry. If you can’t find our rings at your favorite dealer or distributor, contact KWIK-SITE and we’ll make SURE you get them. We can fit any scope in a 1” tube, long or short, low or high, with our new extension rings. Adjustable extension rings are the same quality as our top mount rings. Up to 64 mm objective lens KS-305 KWIK-SITE 4 HOLE CAP Up to 52 mm objective lens KS-302 AIRCRAFT ALLOY Up to 44 mm objective lens KS-303 GREAT PACKAGING Up to 32 mm object2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=90http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=90The leaRning neVeR sToPs have often spoken of what a wonderful growing-up time the I 1950s were. Those who experienced it understand completely. Those who came later may easily think the time period has been excessively glorified and really was no different than any other. Nothing could be further from the truth. During the 1940s many of our finest and bravest sacrificed all to keep us free. In the 1960s a new generation was called upon and they not only made equal sacrifices they were often looked upon by many shameless members of society as less than human. We can never repay either generation for what they did. In the 1960s a terrible plague settled over the country. While young people were saying “peace,” violent demonstrations were the norm and, according to experts now, at least 70 percent of the young looked to mind bending drugs. By the time the drug scene arrived in full scale I was married, had three kids, worked full time in a tire factory at night while attending college full-time during the day. It was both morally and practically impossible for me to even consider drugs. Besides, I didn’t need any of these new drugs to open or bend my mind as I took the most powerful drug available in the 1950s. This drug, once taken, controls our life with no hope of ever escaping it, at least no one ever has. I didn’t buy the drug on the street corner or find it at a party. It was introduced to me by one in a position of trust — a grade school teacher. The drug was knowledge, or more correctly speaking, an unquenchable thirst for it. I have also spoken before of Mrs. Fisher, aka “Mean Old Mrs. Fisher,” and as I look back from my perspective now, she wasn’t all that old, she certainly wasn’t mean, and she actually changed my life. I was in the 6th grade and books were not all that interesting to me. Mrs. Fisher led two lives. She was both the English teacher and also the school librarian. The little library consisted of one wall of bookshelves and I don’t believe there was any money in the budget for buying books, so teachers raised the money themselves. Mrs. Fisher must’ve done a wonderful job, as she not only filled the shelves with great books, she actually forced me to read them. One thing which helped to make her job easier was the fact that other drug, television, had not yet appeared in large doses. Mean old Mrs. Fisher made me read good books and introduced me to someone who would be a lifetime hero, Theodore Roosevelt. Thanks to her I do believe I read every biography on the bookshelves at Crouse School Library. Three years later I entered high school and thanks to two more wonderful ladies the knowledge drug began to have even more power over me. One of those ladies was my 9th grade English teacher and the other was the school librarian. Our librarian was Kathryn Sexauer and I loved her! No she wasn’t young and beautiful, but she did have a wonderful captivating smile, and wore old lady shoes. Most importantly she knew exactly what books young boys, Where real learning begins! at least this young boy, needed. Oh, we all made jokes about her, calling her Katie behind her back, and there was the standard joke about the phone call coming in and asking if we had a coffee break at school. The answer, of course, was no but we had a Sexauer. Looking back again I’m sorry I ever took part in those disrespectful comments. My 9th grade English teacher also had a tremendous effect on my life. She had to be one of the wisest women I’ve ever met. At that time my aunt had given me an old virtually worn-out typewriter I used to pound out book reports two fingers at a time. Mrs. Oeschner encouraged me to write and between her and that old typewriter I caught the fever. Our school library had such wonderful books. I read all about Roy Chapman Andrews, Martin and Osa Johnson, Frank Buck, and many continued on page 89 90 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • APRIL 20092009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=91http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=91WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 912009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=92http://fmgpublications.ipaperus.com/FMGPublications/GUNS/GUNS0409/?Page=92The SIS Custom™ .45 ACP features a stainless steel frame and slide, match grade barrel and trigger, night sights with cocking shoulder, premium KimPro II ® finish and SIS slide serrations. The choice of LAPD’s finest. The LAPD™ Special Investigation Section - SIS - is an elite plain-clothes unit specially trained in surveillance. SIS Detectives frequently stake out violent criminals and depend on their pistols even more than tactical team members. Based on LAPD SWAT’s satisfaction with their Kimber pistols, SIS asked Kimber to create a family of 1911 .45 ACPs that met both their high standards and unique requirements. SIS pistols are now available to the public in limited numbers. The full-size SIS Custom RL ™ (left) has an integral Kimber Tactical Rail ™ for flashlight mounting. The SIS Ultra ™ (center) has a rounded frame and mainspring housing, and a 3-inch barrel makes it ideal for backup or concealed carry. The SIS Pro™ (right) combines a full-length grip with a 4-inch barrel, perfect for duty or concealed carry in a belt holster. The choice of America’s best. www.kimberamerica.com For information on products and dealer locations please send $2 to: Kimber, Dept.153 One Lawton Street, Yonkers, NY 10705 Information is also available at (800) 880-2418 Use and store all rearms safely and lawfully. Kimber pistols and ri es are shipped with a California approved cable lock. Proper use of the cable lock is encouraged at all times. ©2008 Kimber Mfg., Inc. All rights reserved. Names of other companies, products or services may be the property of their respective owners.2009-02-09T21:18:53+01:00