RifleShooter, the magazine dedicated to advanced rifle enthusiasts. All rifle sports are covered including hunting, target shooting and collecting, while focusing on fine custom rifles, great classics, and new high-tech designs.
Loving Savage Lever Guns I just finished reading the excellent article by Craig Boddington about the Savage 99, which really hit home. I am mainly a bolt-gun guy, but the Savage 99 has a great deal of nostalgia for me since my father, grandfather and uncle all hunted with 99s—.300s and .250s. So I had to have one. Mine is a .250 made in 1941, which I used to tag an antelope buck in Wyoming in 2019. It has a custom-made scope mount that uses the rear sight dovetail on the barrel in the front and the tapped holes in the tang for the rear so it’s not necessary to drill & tap the receiver. Also, I especially liked the July/August issue introducing us to the upgraded Model 70 Super…
Norma enjoys a terrific reputation with hunters around the world. With a history dating back 120 years, this Swedish company has been at the forefront of ammunition and bullet technology for a long time. For example, Roy Weatherby began an association with Norma early on in his hunting rifle career, and Norma has been reloading Weatherby’s branded ammo line from the beginning Norma has had a lot of success with its famous Oryx bullet, a bonded pointed softpoint that provides a big mushroom and 100 percent weight retention. It’s the sort of bullet you’d expect from people who are really serious about their moose hunting—and the Swedes are very serious about their moose hunting. In more recent times, the company has branched out into a variety of tipped bullets as…
I doubt there’s any question in rifledom that’s stirred more debate over the years than whether the .270 Win. or .30-06 Springfield is the better hunting cartridge. The great gun writers of this generation and generations past have hashed it out, and it’s the topic of discussion around campfires every fall. Is there a clear winner? The .30-06 was developed as an improved version of the .30-03 Springfield. It served as a military round through two world wars, and in doing so it endeared itself to millions of soldiers who would later carry rifles chambered for the round afield. When the .30-06 arrived on the sporting scene, American hunters were only a few decades removed from using blackpowder cartridges, so the cartridge’s 150-grain bullet flying at around 2,900 fps offered…
Savage Minimalist Sure to attract attention, the new Minimalist 93s and Mark II sport a cool-looking laminate stock in green or brown. The bolt action is chambered to .22 LR (Mark II), .22 Mag. (93) and .17 HMR (93R17) and features an 18-inch carbon steel barrel with a matte finish and sporter contour. It’s threaded 1/2x28. The AccuTrigger is user adjustable from 2.5 to six pounds, and the rifles feed from a 10-round detachable box mag. Comes with two-piece Weaver bases. >> $359, SAVAGEARMS.COM Zeiss Conquest V4 The Conquest V4 has been treated to upgrades, including turret engraving that’s easier to read and a side parallax dial that now goes down to 10 yards—which is especially handy for rimfire shooters. The scopes also have variable-stop illumination, and some models have…
To the delight of extra-long-range shooters everywhere, Lapua is now making cases for the .300 PRC, which has caught fire despite being relatively new. The cartridge features ultra-modern case design that maximizes efficiency, accuracy and consistency, and it’s engineered to be perfectly compatible with long, low-drag projectiles. As competition shooters and savvy precision hunters know, Lapua creates the most consistent, best-quality cartridge cases available. And especially for those who shoot at really long distances, extreme consistency isn’t just a virtue; it’s a necessity. Let’s take a look at what makes Lapua brass so good, and then run some tests and crunch some numbers to evaluate whether this .300 PRC brass measures up to its reputation. Knowing it’s destined to be reloaded over and over again, Lapua makes its brass resilient.…
One of the all-time great straight-pull rifles is the Swiss K31 in 7.5x55. The K31 was beautifully finished inside and out and is usually found in very nice condition with excellent barrels still full of life. Citizen-soldiers issued the K31 cared for them very well, and they are rarely found out of order or heavily worn. Normally, here I would regale you with thrilling accounts of actions involving these rifles. Except there aren’t any. Switzerland has maintained peace with its neighbors for centuries, and there are few tales associated with the small arms beyond thoughtful design. Yet the threats were real, and the K31 was kept at the ready all during World War II, when Switzerland was surrounded by German-occupied Europe and Fascist Italy. While the Allies were hot on…
