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.
Dreaming of the 39A I thoroughly enjoyed the cover and article on the Rugermade Marlin 1894 (November/December 2023). Since Ruger acquired Marlin I have been hoping they would again produce Marlin’s most famous and longest continuously manufactured rifle, the .22 caliber Golden 39A. My thought as an 89-year-old reader of RifleShooter is you might encourage Marlin/Ruger to take this on as their next project. With Ruger’s sophisticated state of the art manufacturing I’m sure they would offer a most elegant Golden 39A! I have always wanted one of those ultimate 22s since I was a boy, but never could afford one, and I’m hoping Marlin/Ruger would offer it at a reasonable price. But hurry; I would like to see it before I walk into the sunset! Robert B. Dance That’s…
LANDS & GROOVES For me, a range trip is all about being as efficient as I can because it’s part of my job to test guns and gear. That’s not the case for most people, especially those who are shooting just for recreation, but I do often see folks who are trying to get a rifle sighted in for a hunt—sometimes in a real time crunch—and they’re tearing their hair out because their range session is going nowhere fast. Believe me, I’ve been there. While my system isn’t perfect and is always evolving, here’s my “bag dump”—the gear I consider essential to a successful range trip. SPOTTING SCOPE This is so crucial. Over the years I’ve seen dozens of guys sitting at the bench waiting for a ceasefire to be…
When Remington introduced the 7mm Rem. Mag. cartridge in 1962, it was an almost instant success, outperforming the .264 Win. Mag. and offering better ballistics than the .30-06. It shot flat but didn’t beat the shooter to a pulp, and it was well-suited for everything from whitetails to moose. Later .284-inch cartridges like the .284 Win., .280 Rem., 7mm WSM and others failed to claim a substantial share of the 7mm market segment, and it seemed the 7mm Rem. Mag. would continue to dominate. However, the relatively new 7mm PRC looks to be a serious threat to that dominance. The 7mm PRC had fans even before anyone had ever seen it, thanks to the relative success of the 6.5 and .300 PRCs. The 6.5 PRC is superb for deer-size game,…
Decades ago, I attempted to shoot a pronghorn buck with my reproduction Henry 1860 lever action chambered in .44-40. It was a very doable shot even with the iron sights—just 45 yards or so. When the hammer fell the rifle emitted a weak “pop,” and the buck ran off. Somehow, at the ripe age of 15, I’d neglected to put powder in that particular cartridge case. That was a glaring mistake, and one that a savvy hand-loader should never make. There are others that are less obvious. Here are a few techniques that help minimize the potential for handload-induced malfunctions. For starters, here’s a mantra that’s popular among survivalists: Your most important tool is right between your ears. Surviving a lifetime of handloading calls for good focus. Minimize distractions. Turn…
The unsung heroes of small arms developments are competition target shooters, and their quest for the gold leads to improvements in both civilian and military arms. In England, service rifle match shooting went on for 20 years after World War II with the No. 4 Enfield in .303. By the late 1950s, though, most NATO countries had adopted the 7.62x51 along with a version of the FN/ FAL self-loading rifle—with England adopting a variant called the L1A1. As surplus stocks of .303 ammunition ran low, civilian target shooters looked for a way to convert their bolt action .303s to the new service cartridge. In the early 1960s, the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield and Sterling Engineering Ltd. both offered 7.62x51 conversion units for the No. 4 aimed towards other Commonwealth…
In 2020, Trijicon launched a series of six new scopes that were designed for a variety of shooting and hunting applications. One of the six, the Huron, was the first Trijicon product designed specifically for those who target North America’s most popular big game animal: the whitetail deer. “The Huron line was developed specifically with deer hunters in mind, though the scope is useful for a variety of applications,” says Trijicon product manager John Fink. An avid hunter himself, Fink and his team set out to create a mid-price scope offering the rugged durability and precision the brand’s military optics are known for. I’ve seen few optics that defy the principle that scope quality directly relates to retail price, but the Trijicon Huron—with a price range of $650 to $699—is…
