Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Shooting Times

I want to congratulate Brad Miller and Shooting Times on the well-written and informative article on the Beretta Cheetah pistol. It had substance and a lot of very useful information. I found his knowledge and comparison to other firearms to be very informative. Termain Via email Meaningless Jargon I thoroughly enjoy reading Shooting Times and several other OSG publications, but I wish gun writers and editors would rid themselves of meaningless gun jargon. For years I’ve read the phrase “inherently accurate” to describe rifles and cartridges that are curiously more accurate than others. According to Webster’s, Oxford, and Cambridge dictionaries, “inherent” has two slightly different uses. “Inherent” is most commonly used to convey a natural or basic characteristic of something; a quality that is inborn, inseparable, or intrinsic, as in,…

YEARS AGO, WITH A BORROWED 20-GAUGE WIN- chester Model 12 in my hands, an Oklahoma pheasant flushed wildly 40 yards away through the briars. I’d never fired the lively little shotgun, but it leapt to my shoulder and turned that distant rooster into a burst of drifting feathers. I resolved then and there that I’d someday own one. Introduced in 1912, Winchester’s internal-hammer, pump-action shotgun quickly rose to stardom. Balance was superb, ergonomics were the best yet built into a pump-action field gun, action smoothness was excellent, and reliability was unquestioned. Partially based on the genius inherent to John Browning’s Model 1897 exposed-hammer pump-action shotgun, the Model 12 has a more modern and practical internal hammer and several other improvements by designer T.C. Johnson. Loaded through the action’s bottom and…

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, A METALLIC RIFLE cartridge has been engineered specifically to meet the needs of whitetail deer hunters in states restricted to using slug-firing shotshells or straight-wall rifle cartridges. If you’re not familiar with the current straight-wall cartridge movement, here is the bare-bones version. Several states that previously restricted general-season deer hunters to using only slug and/or buckshot-firing shotguns have recently legalized the use of certain straight-wall metallic rifle cartridges for use on deer. These states include Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Other states are seeing the light and slowly getting on board. The advantages of straight-wall cartridges over slug-firing shotshells are many. Foremost is predictable accuracy. Temperature swings cause major changes in the flexibility and nature of plastic—and most slugs are housed in plastic…

I’VE HAD THE PLEASURE OF SHOOTING SEVERAL MODERN REPRODUCTION cap-and-ball conversion revolvers, and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. The latest is Cimarron’s Colt Model 1862 Pocket Navy Conversion that’s made by A. Uberti of Italy and chambered for .380 ACP. Historically, the .36-caliber cap-and-ball Colt Model 1862 Pocket Navy was not typically converted from percussion to centerfire (the shorter-barreled Model 1862 Police often was), but most modern replica conversions use the Richards-Mason design. Usually, with this style of conversion, the rear of the percussion cylinder is bored through a breechplate with loading gate is added to the frame, the percussion loading lever is replaced with an ejector rod, and a firing pin and a rear sight notch are added to the hammer. Cimarron s Model 1862 Pocket Navy Conversion…

BUSHNELL HAS BEEN LEADING THE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF RANGE- finders for more than 20 years. I still have one of the company’s Yardage Pro 400 laser rangefinders that I bought sometime around 1998. A lot has changed in the laser rangefinder world since then. The newest units from Bushnell include the Engage 1300 and Engage 1700 rangefinders. These new 6X 24mm rangefinders are two times brighter than competitive models in the class. They feature all-glass, two-lens optical systems; enhanced LCD displays; 50 percent larger objective lenses; and fully multi-coated optics with ultra-wide band coating and Bushnell’s exclusive EXO Barrier lens coating. In addition, they utilize a proprietary algorithm that provides quick, consistent readings and a powerful laser diode for longer, more accurate ranging. They are ergonomic and have slimmed-down…

RECENTLY, READER ROBB PIPER FROM PENN- sylvania sent a letter complimenting my fellow gun scribe Joseph von Benedikt on his article “Getting the Most from Your .30-06” that appeared in the February issue of Shooting Times. Mr. Piper enjoyed Joseph’s focus on extending the “top end” of .30-06 performance but said he’d also like to see more about using America’s favorite rifle cartridge at the other end of the scale: lighter loads for varmints, game hunting, and lower-recoil practice. I am a strong proponent of getting as much time in the field with your big-game rifle as possible. Whether you are target shooting, plinking, or thinning out the varmint population, any extra time with your rifle can improve your ability to put big game in the freezer. I’ve said before…

Q : Joseph von Benedikt mentioned repairing the stock on his well-worn Savage 99 in his “The Shootist” column last month. I’d like to know more about how he made those repairs. Can he please expound on his process? Richie Perry Via email A: As I said, my Savage 99 in .22 Hi Power was made in 1915, and it looked like it had been dragged around behind a sheep camp for years. Massive chunks were missing from the buttstock and fore-end. The buttplate was missing, and a large portion of the toe was gone. The finish on the wood was worn away. Replacement stocks were not an option because of cost and because I wanted to preserve some of the vintage presence of the rifle. I resolved to patch…

AS I GET OLDER, EVEN A LITTLE DISRUPTION IN my routine can be significant. When the clock sprang forward recently from standard to daylight savings time, I laid awake thinking about just how old I am. Somehow, rambling thoughts morphed into realizing the .270 Winchester has been around a quarter-century longer than I have! My musings meandered randomly. My first gun was a Daisy lever-action BB rifle. I later sold greeting cards to earn a mail-order, Marlin bolt-action, single-shot .410. I recall shooting Dad’s Ruger .22 Auto (with his supervision, of course!) and wishing I was old enough to handle his .45 ACP pistol. When the anticipated occasion finally came, it wasn’t much fun because it kicked pretty hard. My dad owned several firearms, but he was not a hunter…

DRAGGING A SITKA BLACKTAIL OFF KODIAK ISLAND has a high pucker factor during daylight hours, but you’re usually flushed with the good cheer of recent success, surrounded by unsurpassable beauty, and confident in the knowledge that, in spite of all the horror tales, bear maulings are rare. Two hours after dark, with a gut pile and a bloody drag trail leading to the alder thicket you’re jammed up in, that pucker factor is positively off the charts. That’s the situation Hornady’s Neal Emery and I found ourselves in during a hunt to field-test Hornady’s new Outfitter line of ammunition. One mature blacktail buck was cut up and stowed in our packs, making us top-heavy and adding weight that pushed our boots deep into the sucking muck of the flooded alder…

WHEN I FIRST GOT MY hands on some 6.5 PRC ammunition from Hornady, my initial thought was how its performance would compare with other factory cartridges of the same caliber. A comparison of case capacities is a good starting point for finding out. When filled to the brim, gross water capacity of the 6.5 PRC averaged 67.6 grains. Moving down to smaller capacities, we have 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5-284 cases made by Hornady at 53.4 grains and 64.3 grains respectively. Moving up to a couple with bigger capacities, we have the 6.5 Remington Magnum at 70.2 grains and the .264 Winchester Magnum at 84.1 grains. Capacities for the 26 Nosler and 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum are 98.2 and 96.7 grains respectively. As you can see, the 6.5 PRC holds just over…

WINCHESTER SMOKELESS PROPELLANTS, A BRAND licensed to Hodgdon Powder Co., introduced the new WinClean 244 double-based handgun powder in 2018, announcing that it was developed for medium handgun loads. It falls into what I think of as the fast end of a medium burn rate pistol powder, ranked at position No. 31 on Hodgdon’s burn rate chart. W244 is a little slower than W231 (ranked 29) and a little faster than Winchester Super Field (ranked 38). It’s right next to Alliant Unique (ranked 32). Like W231, W244 has small flakes, and I found it to meter smoothly and consistently from my RCBS Uni-flow powder dispenser. W244 has the WinClean additive to burn clean and reduce copper fouling. Winchester says the powder has low flash and is ideally suited for handloading…

BOB HAGEL ONCE WROTE A FEW WORDS THAT should be engraved in the mind of every big-game hunter. He stated, “You should not use a cartridge that does the job when everything goes right; you need one that works when everything goes wrong.” Hagel, who wrote books and magazine articles from the 1960s onwards and worked in the West as a guide and outfitter, had pretty much seen it all. And done it all, at least as far as the American West is concerned. By and large, he seemed to prefer cartridges like the .338 Winchester to, say, the .270 Winchester class. If you’re a good and careful shot, with more prudence than rashness, the .270 Win. is certainly more than adequate for elk. But as Hagel knew, things go…

NOT MUCH IS KNOWN OF JONATHAN R. DAVIS’S early life, but he was born on August 5, 1816, in Monticello, South Carolina. By age 30, he was serving in the Palmetto Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers during the Mexican-American War. He was listed as a second lieutenant and also as an honorary captain, and he served with the unit until it was disbanded in 1848. He was wounded during the Battle of Churubusco, but while many of his fellow officers died in that battle, Davis survived. The Battle of Churubusco took place on August 20, 1847, while Santa Anna’s army was in retreat. During the battle, a battalion of Santa Anna’s retreating soldiers, composed largely of U.S. (anglo) deserters, made their last stand against the U.S. forces. The U.S.…