Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Shooting Times

REGARDING JOSEPH VON BENEDIKT’S “THE SHOOTIST” COLUMN IN THE MARCH 2025 issue of Shooting Times, the one on a Winchester Model 70 with a vintage scope and leather lens caps, my father bought the Winchester Model 70 (s/n 52xxx) shown in my photo back in 1946. Note the connecting leather strap on the lens caps of the Weaver K4 scope and the leather box, including the Lyman 48 receiver sight. The photo doesn’t show the Griffin & Howe scope mount. Tony Costa Greer, SC Hitting Low and Left I enjoyed Joel J. Hutchcroft’s reviews of the Ed Brown Kobra Carry and the Kimber 2K11 in the February issue of Shooting Times. Unlike some others, I love reading about high-quality guns that I likely am never going to be able to…

WHEN WORLD WAR II ENDED AND HUNDREDS of thousands of American soldiers came home, they were thoroughly versed in bolt-action firearms. Our nation fought through World War I with bolt actions and through World War II against bolt actions. Loyalty to lever actions and single actions was waning, and hunters wanted the newer, stronger, more accurate, more robust bolt actions. In response, Mossberg designed a bolt-action scattergun. Introduced in 1947, just two years after the war ended, the Model 185 was a 20-gauge shotgun with a detachable, two-round box magazine. Rifle-esque in appearance and feel, the Model 185 had a walnut stock with a Monte Carlo comb, a pistol grip, and a deep belly that housed the magazine. A few parts were stamped from sheet metal—namely the magazine, magazine floorplate,…

FOR 2025 BENELLI HAS ADDED THREE ADDITIONAL SUPER Black Eagle 3 28-gauge shotguns to its already extensive line of 28-gauge guns. One is a 24-inch-barreled shotgun with a Mossy Oak Bottomland Original camo stock and Patriot Brown Cerakote finish on the barrel and the receiver. The other two new guns feature 28-inch barrels and either GORE OPTIFADE Marsh camo with Patriot Brown Cerakote (shown here) or GORE OPTIFADE Timber camo with Tungsten Cerakote. These guns come with Comfort Tech 3 stocks; C, IC, M, IM, and F chokes; and red-bar front sights. They weigh 5.4 and 5.6 pounds depending on the barrel length, and their chambers accept 2¾-inch and 3-inch shells. MSRP: $2,149 benelliusa.com Real Avid Smart-Torq Adjustable Limiter Real Avid’s all-new Smart-Torq Adjustable Limiter is a precisely tuned in-lb…

THERE ARE RIFLE CARTRIDGES THAT HAD A military origin but were made in smaller quantities, commonly in commercial ammo plants rather than military arsenals. They were developed for specific needs, often for special operations teams. The Speer Handloading Manual Number 15 calls them “semi-military.” I can’t improve on that description. Among those is the 6.8 Remington SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge), first offered as a commercial cartridge in 2004. Its military intent was as a better urban close-quarters battle (CQB) manstopper than the 5.56 NATO in the U.S. M4 carbine. Bullet diameter is 0.277 inch, the same as the .270 Winchester. Its bullet diameter and parent case have deep roots in both the military and sporting cartridge sectors. One of the earliest cartridges using 0.277-inch bullets was a short-lived Chinese military…

SHOOTING TIMES HAS BEEN REPORTING ON THE TAURUS GX series of pistols since they were first brought to market a few years ago. I’ve had the pleasure of working with two of the GX4 versions, and my compadre Jake Edmondson has covered a couple others. All of them have been excellent guns, with lots of great features. Now comes the no-frills GX2, at the incredibly low MSRP of $309.99. It offers the basic features a defensive pistol needs and all the reliability and accuracy serious handgunners demand. It’s what we like to refer to as a Shooting Times Best Buy. The GX2 has a 3.38-inch stainless-steel barrel, and it’s chambered for 9mm Luger. The pistol is 6.19 inches in length and 4.89 inches in height. It weighs 20.8 ounces unloaded,…

ACCORDING TO ENGLISH GUN WRITER GOUGH Thomas, the old firm of Eley Brothers possessed a Boss & Co. game gun they used for random ammunition testing as cartridges came off the line. Averaging the number of shots per day and the number of years in service, he calculated the old workhorse had fired more than 1.5 million rounds—and all with nothing except routine cleaning and maintenance. That, my friends, is a testament to the quality of workmanship and excellence of design of a Boss gun. They were, simply, the best of the best. Many companies aspire to (and even claim) that level of quality, but few genuinely achieve it. One such, however, is right here in the U.S.A., designing and manufacturing everything in-house. That company is Tony Galazan’s Connecticut Shotgun…

Q. THIS QUESTION IS FOR LANE PEARCE. IN RESPONSE TO THE ANSWER given to Scott Corum in the March 2025 edition of Shooting Times, you told him to stick with published loading data. I completely agree. My son has a Kimber 10mm long slide Stainless Target. I want to take him hog hunting here in SoCal, and I need data for lead-free bullets. Where would you recommend that I get load data for that? David L. BerryVia email A. I appreciate that you addressed your question to me, and I’ll get to it in a jiffy, but first let me draw your attention to a recent article in Shooting Times written by longtime contributor Layne Simpson. It was titled “10mm Auto as a Bear-Stopper,” and it appeared in the April…

SHOOTING TIMES SUBSCRIBER RICHARD Mackow recently related a shooting incident he experienced several years ago and then asked a question about what happened. He provided facts and photos depicting the results of firing several hand-loaded rounds in a Browning BPCR .45-70 rifle. Several cases bulged upon firing, and the last round ruptured just above the case rim, with the escaping hot gases vented through the action, damaging the rifle and severely wounding his hand. The local emergency room staff executed multiple stitches to repair the damage. He reported that the handloads were composed of 27.5 grains of Accurate 5744 and 400-grain JSP bullets. He extracted the ruptured case, and the flattened primer suggested a “hot” (i.e., excessive pressure) load. However, the bullet had not exited the barrel and was stuck…

ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN around the shooting sports for any length of time knows that Aimpoint has been a true pioneer in the area of red-dot sights for a long time. But for those who don’t know, Aimpoint started the ball rolling way back in 1974. You read that right, Aimpoint recently celebrated its 50th anniversary! Many ingenious Aimpoint electronic-dot sights and systems have come along since 1974, and the innovation continues. New for 2025, Aimpoint has unveiled the COA red-dot sight and the A-CUT mounting system for it. The Aimpoint COA Aimpoint’s new 1X COA red-dot sight is ultracompact but offers a large aperture and a wide field of view. The COA is 1.1 inches wide, 1.8 inches long, and 1.2 inches tall. It weighs 1.7 ounces. It’s a…

AS I WRITE THIS, SHOOTING TIMES HAS BEEN PUBLISHED FOR exactly 65 years. Over those years, we have published lots of articles on the newest guns, optics, ammunition, and gear. We also have run a lot of how-to articles on subjects ranging from routine gun maintenance to fairly in-depth gunsmithing projects and a bunch of topics in between. In that same vein, MyOutdoorTV currently has a show called Shooting Tips and How-Tos. I’ve seen several of the episodes, and I have to admit I enjoyed them. Two collections of Shooting Tips and How-Tos are available, with a total of 36 episodes. Collection 1 includes these 20 episodes: “Bill Rogers on Shooting Steel,” “Vogel on the Draw,” “Guns & Gear: Hornady American Gunner Ammo,” “Guns & Gear: Ruger AR-556 MSR,” “S&W M&P 380…

TYPICALLY, I WRITE THIS COLUMN ABOUT A lawman, or an outlaw, or an exhibition shooter, or a competition shooter, or a famous hunter. This time, I have the pleasure of highlighting the deeds of a legendary lawman and Marine who also was an outstanding competition shooter. Walter R. Walsh was born on May 4, 1907, in West Hoboken, New Jersey. He attended Emerson High School and later earned a law degree from the New Jersey School of Law (which later became the law department of Rutgers University). He participated in local pistol matches in New Jersey and New York, and he joined the New Jersey National Guard (NJNG) in 1928, soon being selected for the NJNG rifle and pistol teams and even becoming the coach of the rifle team. In…