Innholdsfortegnelse for May2019 i Gun Digest

If you take a few minutes to scroll through the component bullet section of any major retailer’s website, you can find a near-dizzying array of available projectiles. Which best suits your needs? With modern bullet designs (ballistic coefficient [BC] values keep getting higher), adding more choices to the mix for the hunter and shooter, there’s a huge selection from which to choose these days. Target Bullets For target rifle shooters, there’s much to be excited about. The Sierra Match-King is still the benchmark, but the Tipped MatchKing gives the option of a polymer tip. Berger’s Extreme Outer Limits Elite Hunter series, although actually designed as a hunting bullet, makes a great long-range target bullet; they’re heavy for caliber and offer unprecedented BCs. They do require a faster-than-normal rate of twist,…

Of all the AR’s parts, the operation of the charging handle and bolt catch (also known as the bolt release) seems to confuse shooters most. The charging handle assembly is used to manually cycle the bolt group during loading and unloading, and while clearing malfunctions and stoppages. To perform this and other tasks efficiently — and to prevent wear and tear on your AR — it’s important to implement the proper techniques when using the handle catch/release in tandem, as well as when using them independently. For starters, the charging handle is used when performing a chamber check. The handle and bolt catch are used together to manually lock the bolt open. However, you don’t use the handle to perform an empty reload; for that, you use the bolt catch…

Springfield Armory has been on a roll lately. In fact, it’s been on a roll for most of the past decade. Springfield’s latest? The Victor. Ok, ok, it’s an AR-15 carbine chambered in 5.56 NATO, and that isn’t exactly new. O Or news. But it does illustrate something I think is wrong with a lot of modern society: In the view of many, unless you’re completely upsetting the system, you are a hack. If you aren’t coming up with a revolutionary replacement to the old, you are a slacker. If you aren’t causing people’s heads to spin, you’re a poseur. The problem with that viewpoint? Not everyone can be an Einstein, a Copernicus, a Salk. And because it isn’t easy, the end result for a lot of people who try…

I just returned from a week-long project with Panteao Productions, with which we were filming a new handgun training DVD, “ Defensive Pistol Fundamentals.” It’ll be available soon for streaming, digital download and direct purchase. That video is the reason for this column, but it’s not the topic. You see, I used Walther handguns during all 30-plus chapters. Those pistols are worth talking about. Walther was founded in Germany by Carl Walther in 1886, and this company is probably best known for its P38 and PP/PPK pistols. The P38 was created to replace the Luger as the service pistol for the Unified Armed Forces of Nazi Germany. It was a fantastic pistol and has become highly sought by collectors. “Bond, James Bond” made the PP/PPK one of the most iconic…

Shooters tend to overcomplicate nearly everything, but rifle marksmanship is about simply controlling variables: yourself, your rifle and your environment. That’s a bit oversimplified, but when looked at in this way, “stretching your rifle’s legs” is a far less daunting prospect. But that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park, either. Among the most bedeviling hurdles to clear, even for accomplished riflemen, is the wind. Unpredictable and unrelenting, it can blow away an otherwise golden shot and make you feel as if you’re spitting into … well, the wind. There was a time when the average marksman was privy to a limited set of tools to measure and control for the wind. The basics were heat mirages in the warm months and foliage movement the rest of the time.…

America has certainly changed in many ways over the course of the past century. During the first half of the 20th century, many of us lived in rural areas. We grew up either in a small town or, if we were lucky, on a farm or ranch with acres of land where we could enjoy the outdoors. A natural part of growing up in that world was being taught how to shoot and safely handle a gun by our dad, uncle, another relative or a family friend and dreaming of the day when we could have our own rifle or shotgun. Often, that first dream gun was a .22 LR rifle. All types of rimfire rifles were around in the mid-1900s, including single-shots, bolt-action repeaters, several semi-autos, a few lever-actions…

You want to buy an AR-15 but can’t decide for which cartridge it should be chambered. Well, maybe this rundown will help. The key to getting the right cartridge for an AR-15 is to perfectly match the cartridge to the jobs you’re going to ask the rifle to perform. Choose wisely, or you might have to choose again. However, in the end, choosing more than one might actually be the best and the right answer. The .204 Ruger Introduced by Hornady in 2004, the .204 Ruger’s parent case is the .222 Remington Magnum. It’s loaded with a 0.204-caliber bullet typically weighing between 32 and 45 grains. Intended as a fast-stepping varmint cartridge, it’s capable of pushing the lightest bullet weights to well beyond 4,000 fps. Early on, it seemed that…

Editor’s Note: This article is Part Three in a three-part series designed to debunk common misconceptions associated with all facets of shooting and ballistics. Part One was featured in the March 2019 issue of GDTM, and Part Two was published in the April 2019 issue. If you’ve been following this series of myth-busting that has brought to light numerous facets of ballistic BS, your ballistic education has been drastically improved. You’re building upon the knowledge you need to make better-informed decisions when selecting guns and ammunition to do the things you need to get done. You’re also developing a storehouse of information to let you participate and even win ballistic arguments at the gun counter and around the campfire. For this last installment of Ballistic BS, we’re going to look…

Listings are FREE! Simply go online to create or manage your Gun Show Listing. Login or Register to create an account – GunShows.GunDigestMedia.com MAY May 4-5 FL, Lakeland. Gun Show. Sun ‘N Fun Fly-in, 4175 Medulla Rd. SH: Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 9am-3pm. A: $8. T: 600. Lakeland Rifle and Pistol Club . 2000 Lasso Ln, Lakeland, fl 33815. PH: 863-665-0092. lakelandgunshow.com. May 4-5 GA, Atlanta. RK Prepper Shows. Atlanta Expo Center, 3650 Jonesboro Rd SE. SH: Sat. 9am-5pm, Sun. 9am-4pm. A: Adults: $15, VIP: $17.50 – no line, no wait Kids: $4, VIP: $6.50 – no line, no wait VIP Tickets can be purchased online. F: . RK Shows. PO Box 334, Manchester, IA 52057. PH: 563-927-8176. www.rkshows.com. May 4-5 IL, Belleville. Gun, Knife, Hunting & Trade Show. Belle-Clair Fairgrounds,…

If you’re of a certain age, the following quote will resonate: “My old man is a TV repairman. He’s got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.” If you want to fix things, you need tools. And not just any tools, but the appropriate tools for the thing to be fixed. Enter Real Avid (RealAvid.com). This company has been making the right tools to work on and fix firearms for a few years now. The latest step has been to take the tools you need to work on an AR-15, put them all into one handy carrying case and make your life easier. It is called the AR15 Armorer’s Master Kit. The case is a molded plastic container, hinged to open flat, with the tools clipped inside. It’s…

The precision rifle shooter’s goal is to dope the wind to within 1 mph across the entire path of the bullet to the target. It’s harder than it sounds. From a practical standpoint, it’s not possible, because the wind rarely cooperates. Nevertheless, this is the ideal we want to achieve. Take the “wind rose.” It goes back years but has built-in mistakes that many don’t understand — especially doping the wind at a half-value. When someone hears, “Half-value the wind,” they think, I need to halve the value. So, a 10 mph wind coming from a direction described as “half value” would be 5 mph, or 50 percent. This is wrong; it’s not half the value — it’s half the distance. A half-value wind is 75 percent of the full…

It’s been said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Yet, Leupold & Stevens Inc. did just that when it retrained my “antique” riflescope. What were you doing in 1993? Twenty-six years ago, off the coast of the United States, I was cutting my military teeth — and knuckles, for that matter — as a wide-eyed machinist’s mate aboard the ballistic missile submarine USS Daniel Boone (SSBN 629). It was the beginning of a military-inspired adventure I doubt I’ll rival between now and when I meet my maker. At the same time, a sleek, black rifle-scope with the serial number 189681A was rolling off the Leupold & Stevens assembly line. The scope was planned, built and born in Beaverton, Oregon … unlike yours truly, who was made and…

The LWRCI Six8 is the culmination of many incremental changes. It’s fashionable to be “revolutionary” or “boundary-pushing” these days. Well, real progress is made with incremental changes that add up to something that’s far beyond the original. The Six8 is what the AR would have been if the powers-that-be hadn’t been so invested in NIH (Not Invented Here). There has always been a cohort of shooters who have not been happy with the AR-15. Some didn’t like the gas system. Others found the aluminum and plastic construction just not “manly” —that is, not enough steel and no walnut. And others objected to the 5.56 NATO cartridge. As a CQB and jungle cartridge, it actually worked then, and it works now, at least in the full-sized rifle. Push the 55-grain FMJs…

The name, Wilson Combat, is well-known throughout shooting circles. It elicits images of fast and accurate shooting. Now, combine that legendary name with that of 1st SFOD-Delta (1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta) combat veteran Larry Vickers, and the result should be something worth noting. Well, in the case of the Wilson Combat Vickers Elite 9mm 1911, that’s the theory, but will it become reality in testing? That’s what I set my sights on — no pun intended (well, yes, I did mean that). When I called Wilson Combat, I found out that the company is trying to keep its most popular firearms in stock and available for immediate delivery. And I applaud Wilson Combat for that. As a result, my only decisions were caliber and color ... meaning, I had…