Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i Gun Digest

Sturm, Ruger & Co. is known for creating some of the most popular firearms in American history; some can even be called icons. These would include the Ruger Standard Model .22 pistol, dozens of single- and double-action revolvers, and many rimfire and centerfire rifles, including the ubiquitous 10/22, now in its 55th year of production. All of this was accomplished by a company that’s still a relative newcomer to an old industry. From a modest beginning in a Connecticut barn 70 years ago, Ruger became the only gun company to manufacture all categories of firearms in the USA: pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns. In 1977, Bill Ruger accomplished his feat of rounding out all the gun categories when the Red Label over/under shotgun was announced. It remained in production until…

What’s a gun without ammunition? Or ammunition without a gun? Not a lot, other than some shiny metal and a bit of nice walnut … or maybe fiberglass-reinforced polymer. Each is essential to the other, like an engine and gas or martini and gin. Someday, the same might be said about a rangefinder and binoculars. This is a bit of an overstatement, to be sure, yet these two indispensable pieces of shooting gear have a natural and effective symbiosis. After all, if you’re going to identify a target, you should have the capability to range it as well. It only makes sense, especially nowadays. As average shooting distances leap toward the horizon, the marksman is tasked with toting more gear into the field to ensure a hit. Given these circumstances,…

When it comes to selecting an optic, we usually consider the overall quality, then the magnification range and lastly, features such as locking turrets, zero stop and any other bells and whistles. However, an experienced shooter will take note of one critical, yet often overlooked, component: the reticle. In many ways, selecting the correct reticle will mean more than magnification range. Let’s take a certain gun writer in his younger days, for example. Hell-bent on taking his .308 Winchester out past 600 yards, he purchased a mid- to high-end optic designed for benchrest shooting. While the optic gave him an 8-32x magnification, it left him just shy of adjustment by 3 mils for 1,000-yard shooting, even after shimming to the point of costing him a 100-yard zero. Naturally, most of…

Yes, yes, yes; we all know that building an AR-15 is easy enough so that with a little bit of persistence and a big enough bag of treats, you could teach your Labrador retriever to build one. OK; maybe your Australian cattle dog or a poodle. But there are things that shooters, builders and AR-15 owners get themselves tied up in knots over; things that do or don’t matter. Let’s start at the top—almost literally. MYTH NO. 1: BARREL NUT TORQUE The barrel nut torque limits and the precision of alignment are areas I’ve seen shooters obsess over—to the point of spending an entire afternoon doing nothing but this. The “book” torque limits are 35 in-lbs—not to exceed 80 in-lbs. (Technically, it’s “pounds-inch,” but we won’t go down that particular…

In the early 1900s, Hiram Percy Maxim put the “shhhhh” back into shooting when he invented and sold the first commercially available suppressors. Since his patent was approved on March 30, 1909, quite a few other people have learned to make and sell them. The reasons are simple: Suppressors help firearms users operate more safely by protecting against hearing loss and more accurately by helping to mitigate gun recoil, muzzle blast and muzzle rise. While suppressor ownership and use laws vary from state to state, the benefits of using suppressors for gun owners are universal as their use and manufacturing continue to climb. Two established manufacturers have joined the suppressor marketplace. Both hail from the heartland of America: Creative Firearms in De Moines, Iowa, and CZ-USA, headquartered in Kansas City,…

HISTORICAL NOTES The 6mm Creedmoor was the putative brainchild of gun writer John Snow, who began developing the wildcat publicly in 2009 as a magazine article project. But Snow, himself, explained that the idea began as far back as 2007, when the 6.5 Creedmoor had been introduced, and it’s likely that a lot of shooters simultaneously had the notion to neck down the 6.5 Creedmoor case to accept .243-diameter bullets. Other mild case changes in the 6mm Creedmoor include pushing back the 30-degree shoulder 0.022 inch, which, likewise, shrinks the shoulder diameter 0.002 inch. Both have a maximum case length of 1.920 inches. In early 2017, Hornady introduced 6mm Creedmoor factory ammo; this makes sense, because the company had been instrumental in producing the original wildcat version. Snow’s 6mm Creedmoor…

There’s a phrase the British use: “Horses for courses.” This means you select the tool for the job and not figure out a way to make the (perhaps not entirely suitable) tool you already have do the work that needs be done. When it comes to priming cases, every reloading press made comes with an adapter to seat primers. This is an interesting situation: You have a 2-foot steel handle onto which you can throw your entire body weight as a lever to seat a pressure-sensitive item that weighs the smallest fraction of an ounce. Those who use this method have to learn a particular sensitivity to the feedback the operation provides them—and put up with a few mangled and even detonated primers as they learn the limits. Or, you…

In previous articles discussing optics, I’ve gone to lengths to give the reader a buyer’s guide that goes beyond brand loyalty toward something more substantial: features. When we move beyond the brand name, we can start talking about the defining elements of the optic—tube size, objective diameter, weight, turret design and what I believe to be one of the most critical aspects: reticles. Notice that I left out a key feature: milliradians (mils) versus minute of angle (MOA). Before diving into this bottomless “pit of despair” regarding which one is better, let’s change the subject from “which optic is better” to “which communicates most clearly.” Every day, the Internet forums see a mils-versus-MOA debate that turns into a 10-page free-for-all. It’s the first question a lot of new shooters ask,…

In my not-so-humble opinion, there are two major facets of a rifleman’s gear that have made huge improvements in the past three decades: projectile design and construction, and optics. The former is a topic I’ve spent a great amount of time studying, but the latter is a topic I feel equally passionate about. I’ve heard many reiterate the phrase, “Your riflescope should cost twice what your rifle does.” While in certain circumstances that might be true, the overall quality of rifle-scopes has seen remarkable improvements. I remember the story of my father (in his early 20s) actually removing the riflescope from his .308 because it simply wouldn’t hold zero. He replaced it with one of the best scopes he could find: a Redfield Widefield 3x9 variable. It sits atop that…

Does anyone shoot a .30-30 anymore? I mean, it doesn’t say “Creedmoor,” it doesn’t launch bullets with a BC of .900, and it sure won’t take an elk at 700 yards. However, the resounding answer is, Hell, yeah! It still makes an excellent close-quarters rifle for deer, black bear, feral hogs and more. It’s very easy to shoot, it usually comes in a slim, svelte rifle that’s easy to carry, and it handles well in the thick woods. Is it sexy? Certainly not by modern standards, but there’s absolutely no arguing the effectiveness of the cartridge in the hands of a hunter who knows how to get within 100 or so yards of their quarry. Like my father, I took my first whitetail with a .30-30. I had a Winchester…

01 Vortex Razor UHD Binoculars Vortex appears to have the answer for glass-intensive outings, with its top-shelf Razor UHD (ultra-high-definition) line of binos. Essentially, the 8x42, 10x42, 12x50 and 18x56 optics have the same feel and look as Vortex’s existing Razor HD line, but with one major difference: Abbe Koening Prisms. Longer than previous versions, they gather and distribute more light, thereby delivering much clearer images—although this addition does raise the binocular’s weight slightly. Still, whether for spotting game or hits and misses, the Razor UHD binos look to excel. MSRP: $2,100 02 Meopta Carbon Fiber Tripod Admittedly, optics tripods … well, it’s not the sexiest topic. They’re practical, however, especially if you’ve dropped serious coin on a precision spotting scope. This is what Meopta USA Sport Optics…

I always put a heavy focus on the fundamentals of marksmanship in my articles. One of these fundamentals is natural point of aim, which we describe as rifle pointed to the target, body pointed to the rifle. If we go back in time and look at sling shooting, we notice that the shooters were positioned to one side behind the rifle with their dominant leg kicked up. The purpose of this position was to align the support arm directly under the rifle. You need proper bone support; and, in an unsupported, or sling-supported prone, that means your forearms are aligned straight under the stock. Fast-forward a few dozen years, and we’ve moved from shooting with a sling to shooting with a bipod and rear bag. The shooter’s body position needs…

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