Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Shooting Times

S&W Model 19 Memories I ENJOYED READING JOEL HUTCHCROFT’S ARTICLE ABOUT THE NEW S&W Model 19 in the February issue. It brought back some old memories from when I was a police officer. January 1978: I was a Dayton Police officer. My partner and I responded to an armed robbery in progress at a drugstore on Dayton’s eastside. This had always been a good robbery alarm in the past, and we previously had an officer shot there. We had about six inches of snow on the ground, but we arrived in two minutes or less. As we exited our cruiser, armed suspects came out the front door and took off running, and we followed in pursuit on foot. We exchanged gunfire. One suspect was apprehended about a block away. The…

I MUST CONFESS THIS VINTAGE RIMFIRE DATES me, but it is dear nonetheless. You see, this particular rifle was my first firearm. My father presented my twin brother and me each with one for our eighth birthday. Manufactured by Savage from 1972 to 1989 and sold under the Stevens name as the “Crackshot,” these fine little single shots were reminiscent of the Remington Rolling Block of yore—and, in fact, some have suggested that they are a modified, upgraded version. That’s not quite accurate. In simplest terms, the Model 72 is a lever-activated falling block with an exposed hammer. More on the mechanical function later. Both charming and slightly ungainly in appearance, Model 72s sport 22-inch octagon barrels, straight-grip buttstocks, and iron sights. They are lightweight (4 pounds, 7 ounces) and…

WHEN THE FIRST PRACTICAL SMOKELESS RIFLE POWDERS appeared in the 1880s, the higher velocities proved to be too fast for traditional lead bullets, so lead cores were encased in harder metals. The most practical jackets turned out to be copper alloys, with cupronickel a popular early choice. Cupronickel is 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel, the same mix found in American five-cent coins, which oddly enough looks “silver.” Unfortunately, cupronickel fouling built up quickly, affecting accuracy, and proved difficult to remove. Many early military cartridges used cupronickel jackets, including those known to civilians as the 8x57 Mauser, .30-40 Krag, and .30-06 Springfield. Col. Townsend Whelen described how the buildup was finally solved by plugging barrels and filling their bores with a strong ammonia solution, dissolving the copper. A mild…

Kimber EVO SP KIMBER’S NEW COMPACT, STRIKER-FIRED EVO SP IS A COMPLETELY NEW 9mm pistol. With an all-metal construction, Stiplex front and rear cocking serrations, Stiplex frontstrap checkering, G10 Stiplex-inspired grips and backstrap, and FNC-finished stainless-steel slide and barrel, the EVO SP is offered in four variations: EVO SP Custom Shop, CDP (shown here), TLE, and Two-Tone. All models have tritium night sights and 3.16-inch-long barrels. The pistols weigh 19 ounces and measure 6.1 inches long, 4.03 inches high, and 1.06 inches thick. The magazines hold seven rounds. MSRP: $1,047 (Custom Shop), $949 (CDP), $925 (TLE), $856 (TWO-TONE) kimberamerica.com U.S. Dept. of Defense Picks .300 PRC Hornady has been awarded a contract to provide .300 PRC ammunition to the United States Department of Defense. The .300 PRC was tested and…

IN THE LAST TWO DECADES WE’VE SEE A RESURgence of 6.5mm (.26 caliber) rifle cartridges, and many are used for demanding match shooting where accuracy is everything. It is fitting that an old foreign military cartridge that introduced many U.S. sportsmen to this bore diameter is also highly respected for its accuracy. The 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser cartridge debuted around 1893 for the Swedish variations of the M1893 Mauser rifle. That makes it slightly older than the .30-30 Winchester! The 6.5x55mm became the darling of Scandinavian sport shooters, prized for both its performance on game and its accuracy in matches. Given its age, the “Swede” has remarkably modern proportions. Its 25-degree shoulder angle is steeper than most of its contemporaries, contributing to the ageless appearance. I was struck by the physical…

ENCOURAGED BY IMPROVEMENTS IN optics, rangefinders, and rifles that were developed for the military and from practical knowledge gleaned from military training, combined with reports of successful long shots, today’s riflemen are buying equipment and trying their hands at long-range shooting. Paper target punching for shot grouping or clanging a gong way out there is a lot of fun. And if you are a hunter, naturally you’ll want to apply your skills in the field. With the right equipment, good loads, and a lot of practice, long-range shooting can teach us plenty. It teaches what it takes to make a hit and that it’s not easy without good ambient conditions, a great rangefinder that indicates scope adjustment, a solid rest, a fine hold, and ample time. With a whole lot…

Q: IN 40-PLUS YEARS OF RELOADING FOR .270 WINCHESTER, .300 Winchester Magnum, .35 Remington, and other older cartridges, I have developed excellent loads with IMR’s 4350, 7828, and 4895; Alli-ant’s Reloder 22; and Hodgdon’s H1000. In the past two to three years, as Shooting Times has documented, many new fouling-reducing powders that handle outdoor temperature changes have become available. However, I feel that experimenting with these new powders would be almost like starting over. Would it be worth my time, plus the cost of all the necessary components, to experiment with these new powders, or should I settle with the powders that have served me well for so many years? John Fuquay Cary, NC A : It’s obvious that you’re an experienced and successful reloader and love experimenting with older, classic cartridges,…

SPEER’S NEW GOLD DOT RIFLE BULLETS ARE NOT conventional cup-and-core jacketed bullets. Instead, they are made using Speer’s proven production process of electrodepositing a thick copper sheath on a swaged lead-alloy core before final forming and sizing. It’s the same method Speer developed to manufacture the Gold Dot personal-protection and law enforcement handgun bullets. Likewise, these new component bullets are targeted for cartridges typically chambered in AR-style rifles and carbines. I tested 10 of the new bullets. I did not perform any load development but simply used the recommended propellant/charge weights/primers listed in Speer’s data, which technicians spent several thousand hours developing. I also didn’t push for maximum velocity charges, but I did choose recipes near the top of the charts. Overall lengths in almost every case were defined by…

REPEATING RIFLES IN .22 RIMFIRE OF American design have been with us for a very long time, but it took a while for the bolt action to arrive. The first repeater on the scene was the Winchester Model 1873 lever action introduced during that year. At that time the .22 Long Rifle had yet to be introduced by J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., so during the first 14 years of production, the ’73 was available only in .22 Short and .22 Long. Winchester’s second repeater, the slide-action Model 1890, was available in .22 Short, .22 Long, .22 Long Rifle, and .22 WRF. It was followed by the Model 1903, a semiautomatic rifle chambered only for the “22 Winchester Automatic Rim Fire Smokeless” cartridge. During the first two decades of…

BUILDING TOP-NOTCH MODEL 1911S IS MORE THAN A JOB TO THE CRAFTSmen at Nighthawk Custom. It’s a passion. And it shows in the fine work they turn out. One good example is the 9mm Falcon Double Stack pistol I’ve been shooting. The 9mm Falcon Double Stack has a 7075 aluminum frame, a steel slide with a 5.0-inch match-grade barrel, and a steel bushing. The barrel has an inverted crown, an extended feedramp, and a fully supported chamber. The pistol has Nighthawk’s trademark Falcon-style “Hi-Power” slide with recessed areas on both sides where front serrations would be located. The slide has three full-length ball-radius cuts on top that are designed to direct the shooter’s eyes to the front sight. The rear grasping grooves consist of eight ball-radius cuts per side. The…

IN RESPONSE TO MY RECENT COLUMN ON GUNsmith and wildcatter P.O. Ackley, reader David Buck asked for information about another wildcatter named Harvey Donaldson. Shooting Times readers likely will associate that name with the .219 Donaldson Wasp cartridge. I’ll get to the cartridge in a few minutes, but here’s what I have learned about the man. Harvey A. Donaldson was born on April 6, 1883, in Fultonville, New York. He attended public school in Fultonville, the Peekskill Military Academy, and the Albany Business College. He worked as a machinist and toolmaker, but shooting was his life. Donaldson took up the exacting sport of Schuetzen target shooting in 1895 and pursued it diligently through 1915, focusing on 200-yard offhand shooting. He began handloading ammunition in about 1900 and handmade his own…