Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i Shooting Times

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED JOSEPH VON BENEDIKT’S COLUMN IN THE November 2019 issue on the Winchester Pre-’64 Model 70 .300 H&H. I was projecting my own experiences into the page as I read his words. Two years ago, when I learned I had an opportunity to hunt in South Africa, I knew I wanted a “traditional” safari caliber and quickly settled on the .300 H&H. The caliber choice left no doubt that the rifle had to be a Pre-’64 Model 70. After over a year of searching, I found one made in 1957 and in good condition. I mounted a Leupold VX-5HD 3-15X 56mm scope, worked up some handloads with the Swift 200-grain A-Frame bullet, and set off for the Kalahari in May 2019. On the seventh day I took a…

WINCHESTER’S MODEL 1886 WAS THE LAST OF THE company’s traditional-type lever-action big bores. Chambered for massive blackpowder cartridges, including the .40-82 WCF, .45-70 and .45-90 WCF, .50-110, and several others, it featured a strong, smooth, fast action. Thanks to the Model 1886’s action strength, it successfully made the transition from blackpowder to smokeless powder. Its only weakness was early on, in the mild steel barrels used for blackpowder loads which didn’t have adequate strength for smokeless-powder pressures. Around 1905, Winchester switched to using nickel-steel barrels, which were plenty strong for smokeless powder. Special-order rifles were common back then and often featured custom barrel lengths, shotgun butt-stocks, pistol grips, half-octagon/half-round barrel profiles, and shortened “button” magazines. Take-down versions were extremely popular with traveling sportsmen. Before being discontinued in 1935, about 160,000…

SOMETIME IN THE MID-1980S, after a ruckus with a buffalo that refused to acknowledge that conventional bullets were an adequate reason to concede death, a hunter named Jack Carter created a bullet that became legend. Dubbed the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (Bear Claw for short), Carter’s design comprises a solid copper rear half and a soft lead core bonded into the front half. Because of the solid rear shank, Bear Claws never lose so much weight on impact that penetration is compromised. And because the nose offers a soft lead front, expansion is impressive and reliable at any reasonable impact velocity. Because that soft nose is bonded in place, it can’t separate from the hard, monolithic rest of the bullet. The result is a big-expanding, deep-penetrating bullet that never fails.…

WHEN WINCHESTER RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE STRAIGHT- wall .350 Legend cartridge, Leupold already had a proven marketing plan for a new optic. Previously, the success of the .450 Bushmaster Ruger American bolt-action rifle had led to Leupold’s introduction of the first cartridge-dedicated VX-Freedom 3-9X 40mm riflescope. Leupold’s optics portfolio includes an extensive series of entry-level, VX-Freedom riflescopes for ARs, muzzleloaders, rimfire rifles, and centerfire rifles. Most feature 1-inch main tubes with MOA adjustments, but two models have 30mm tubes and FireDot illuminated reticles with MIL clicks. All models are 3:1 zoom ratio with fast-focus eyepieces and scratch-resistant lenses. They feature Leupold’s Twilight light-management system, providing hunters with up to 30 minutes longer visibility at dawn and dusk. They also are waterproof, fogproof, and subjected to the same recoil testing as the…

Pachmayr says its new Shock Shield is “the simple solution to reducing recoil in a variety of rifles and shotguns.” The one-size design stretches and contours to a variety of buttstock shapes and dimensions. It goes on easily and is easy to remove. The Shock Shield provides excellent felt recoil reduction by virtue of its interior pocket of soft gel. It’s been extensively tested and will provide years of use. It won’t scratch or mar buttstocks. And it features a no-slip face texture. MSRP: $19.98 lymanproducts.com Bear & Son 563 Small Stag Bone Hunter The new Bear & Son Cutlery 563 Small Stag Bone Hunter is an American-made knife built for hunters and trailblazers. The 2.88-inch, 440 stainless-steel blade resists rust, is easy to sharpen, and holds its edge. The…

IN 1906 REMINGTON WAS ALREADY THE LEADER in semiautomatic and slide-action hunting rifles. The company designed a four-cartridge family of rimless rifle cartridges to compete head to head with those Winchester offered in its Model 1894 lever rifle. The .25, .30, and .32 Remingtons were direct challengers; they were essentially Winchester’s .25-35, .30-30, and .32 Winchester Special with the rims removed. Performance was almost identical to that of the Winchester rounds. The fourth member of this family, the .35 Remington, is the only one to survive to the present, and it is physically different. The .35 Rem. was developed on a case with a larger head diameter. Its three smaller siblings shared head diameters of about 0.420 inch; the .35 Rem. has a 0.457-inch head diameter. I’ve seen suggestions that…

SINCE THE RUGER AMERICAN CENTERFIRE RIFLE DEBUTED EIGHT YEARS ago, the line has expanded to include 17 different chamberings in six configurations (Standard, Hunter, Predator, Compact, Magnum, and Ranch). They’ve proven to be modestly priced rifles that typically perform better than many more expensive ones. The one I’m reviewing here is the Ranch model chambered for the newly introduced .350 Legend straight-wall cartridge. The Ruger American rifle has an injection-molded synthetic stock with V-shaped, integral bedding blocks and sling-swivel studs. It also has a soft rubber buttpad to help reduce recoil, but the .350 Legend recoils so little (recoil ranges from about 9 ft-lbs to 13 ft-lbs) that the pad is really not needed. The rifle features a full-diameter bolt body with three locking lugs. Bolt throw is 70 degrees.…

IN 1991 MICHAEL MCINTOSH DRAGGED ME OVER to a booth at the Safari Club International convention to talk to a jewelry dealer who was letting on that he was going to top the recent .700 H&H (also known as the .700 Nitro Express) with—you guessed it—an .800 Nitro Express. Standing six-foot-six in his cowboy heels, and festooned with silver and turquoise, this gentleman expounded at length about the project. Naturally, nothing ever came of it. Nor should it have. Alas, the same cannot be said of subsequent attempts by riflemakers, wildcatters, and assorted nutcases to create a cartridge more powerful than any that has gone before. Had they perused the literature, or had any real hunting experience, or had talked to someone who had, they would have realized that the…

Q : Is a revolver a pistol? It seems that various gun magazines use the two terms interchangeably, but other magazines do not. What do the experts at Shooting Times have to say on the matter? Mike Jarvis Via email A : I’ve been editing Shooting Times for a little more than 27 years, and during my tenure with the magazine, we have never used the term “pistol” when referring to a revolver. We do not consider a revolver to be a pistol. However, other publications may use the terms interchangeably. Here are definitions for the word “pistol” from three separate sources. From Firearms Encyclopedia by George C. Nonte Jr.: “Pistol: A term originally applied to all handguns, but now more or less limited to single-shot and autoloading designs. A…

READER PATRICK RYAN POINTED OUT A PROBABLE error in my June 2019 column on the .257 Roberts Ackley Improved wildcat that I’d like to address here. I had stated that when Ackley developed the improved version, he “maintained the shoulder headspace datum of the parent factory round.” I recognized Patrick’s name as someone who had worked for Redding, and I’d previously talked with him several times. He stated that the Ackley Improved cartridge “…shared the same dimension (as the parent round) from the boltface to the junction of the shoulder and neck. This is what allows the parent cartridge to be fired in the improved chamber.” I had his email address, so we messaged back and forth about this and other shooting topics, and I could only conclude that my…

FOR DECADES, THE NAME Mauser has been well known in shooting circles around the world for both rifles and cartridges. Wars have been fought with them, and famous hunters have carried them on safari across classic velds. Mauser rifles are high-quality instruments, and their prices usually reflect that. However, the new Mauser M18 departs from that somewhat, but only in price, not quality. The M18 is a thoroughly modern rendition of the bolt-action hunting rifle. It incorporates a host of features that rifleshooters demand, i.e., a fat, three-lug bolt, a sturdy and well-bedded synthetic stock, a hammer-forged barrel, a good trigger pull, and a matte finish. Gone are highly figured walnut stocks, high-polish blued metal, and sky high prices. The M18 was introduced late in 2018, and I got my…

CALLED THE “ROGUE HUNTER OF AFRICA” BY author Sam Fadala, Baron Bror Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke (a.k.a. “Blix”) was born on July 25, 1886, to Baron Fredrik von Blixen-Finecke (1847–1919) and Countess Clara Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs (1855–1925). His paternal grandfather had served as Denmark’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and his paternal grandmother was a descendant of John III, King of Sweden. His maternal grandfather had been Denmark’s Prime Minister and was a descendant of Frederick III, King of Denmark and Norway. Blix grew up hunting and shooting. He attended agricultural college and then managed a farm on the family’s Nasbyholm estate in southern Sweden. But his interests were always in hunting, and an uncle’s tales of life in Africa inspired Blix to seek adventure on the Dark Continent. At the age of 27,…