Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Shooting Times

JUST A FEW OF THE RIFLES THAT PARTICIPATED in World War II could claim the distinction of being an Imperial battle tool and the personal property of the Emperor. Japan’s Type 99 was one of them. Introduced to service in 1939, the Type 99 was chambered for the 7.7x58mm Japanese cartridge. With a 0.312-inch bore, it was nominally a .30-caliber rifle intended to replace the 6.5x50 cartridge in Japan’s Type 38 rifle. War stress curtailed the transition, and both battled through the war. While only in service until 1945, there were some 3.5 million Type 99s manufactured. As with many of the late-war battle rifles, those manufactured in the final year of World War II, termed “Last Ditch” Type 99s, are particularly crude, exposing the massive time-saving and cost-cutting efforts…

LET’S BE CLEAR. THIS IS NOT AN APPLES-TO- apples comparison of the Smith & Wesson Performance Center M&P9 Shield EZ and the Taurus G3c pistols. It can’t be because they are too different. One is an internal hammer-fired pistol tricked-out by Smith & Wesson’s Performance Center, and the other is a box-stock, striker-fired pistol from Taurus. However, both are compact, polymer-frame 9mm semiautos designed for personal protection. And both are good carry guns in their own right. Here’s a quick look at them. Safety The first thing I noticed about the S&W Performance Center M&P9 Shield EZ (I’ll refer to it as the P-C Shield EZ throughout this report) is the grip safety. It’s a lever that extends about two-thirds of the way down the length of the pistol’s backstrap.…

ACHIEVING HALF- minute-of-angle accuracy with an accurate rifle can come fairly easy with nothing more than standard reloading tools and off-the-shelf components, along with a bit of bullet jump and powder-charge juggling. But once that level of accuracy is reached, improvements in accuracy usually come slowly, most often in very small increments. Some things we do when precision-loading ammunition will prove to be more important than others, but each one can contribute to minor decreases in group size. Some rifles respond nicely to some things we do, and others don’t. But we will never know until we try. And while accuracy improvements in a precision-built custom rifle can often be predicted fairly closely, the same does not hold true for many mass-produced rifles. We must also be realistic. While a…

THE HIGH-DENSITY POLYMER Fobus Evolution holster is available to fit a plethora of handgun makes and models (semiauto pistols and revolvers), and the one I’ve been using fits full-size and compact Smith & Wesson M&P pistols in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. According to the Fobus website, my holster will also fit CZ P-06, Diamond back DB FS Nine, and Smith & Wesson SD9 VE and SD40 VE pistols. It’s offered in right hand and left-hand versions, and it can be had with a variety of attachment styles, including paddle, belt, roto-belt 2.25, roto-paddle, and ankle. The Evolution holster is molded carefully to fit the handgun and utilizes passive retention. It has one retention-adjustment screw, and the retention adjustment screw is not preset, allowing the user to adjust the…

NOT ALL OLD WEST OUTLAWS WHO MET THEIR end in a gunfight were bloodthirsty, hardened killers. Some were just mean drunks. One such miscreant was Oscar Thomas. As historical accounts portray, the shootout that snuffed out Thomas’s life plays like a scene from a Western movie. I first learned of Oscar Thomas, Marshal John Phillips, and Assistant Marshal Bedford “Ben” Wood through Shooting Times writer Lane Pearce. Lane’s good friend Tom Odom had written an article about Marshal Ben Wood for the Spring 2005 edition of The Rampant Colt. Subsequently, I did some digging and found a book written by Joseph W. Snell and Nyle H. Miller in 1963 called Why the West Was Wild: A Contemporary Look at the Antics of Some Highly Publicized Kansas Cowtown Personalities. It includes…

Trophy Ear Hearing Protection TROPHY EAR HAS ALL YOUR HEARING PROTECTION AND ENHANCEMENT needs covered with a line of products ranging from solid silicone earplugs to high-tech electronic hearing devices. The top-of-the-line electronic hearing devices are the Flexx Pro (MSRP: $1,199), which feature soft flexible shells, volume control, four tone settings, and waterproof Nano coating. They are programmable for the user’s hearing loss. The Versa-Fit Trophy Ear devices feature the same circuitry as the Flexx Pro units but come in a universal fit design. (MSRP: $699). And the Custom Solid Ear Plugs are made of a soft but rigid material that allows maximum comfort and are offered in a variety of wild colors (MSRP: $110). MSRP: $110 to $1,199 depending on model trophyear.com Brownells 6mm ARC Barrels Brownells has introduced…

WHEN I WAS “CSI BEFORE IT WAS COOL,” WE investigated every officer-involved shooting and were usually able to interview the officers. It helped us better understand armed police engagement, training, and, yes, ammunition. Our terminal ballistics evaluation of police ammo using gelatin testing began with a series for the Dallas PD. It involved 15 kinds of .38 Special ammo that was available in the early 1970s. Our primitive photo-electric chronograph screens required us to set the range lighting to “fairly dark,” just enough for safe gunhandling and data recording. One .38 Special load tested was, shall we say, “enlightening” for all the wrong reasons. I fired the first one and heard an expletive uttered behind me that I won’t repeat. My lab partner who was recording data was blinking from…

LET ME CUT RIGHT TO THE CHASE. WIN- chester has a new member in its XP Rifle family that has a set of unique features all its own. In fact, Winchester proudly states that the new XPR Renegade Long Range SR “…goes 10 steps further with all the accuracy features you need for long-range shooting….” I had the pleasure of reviewing the initial XPR (2015) and the XPC (2017) rifles, so when I heard about the new XPR Renegade Long Range model, I wasted no time placing an order for one. I was pleased when it arrived at my dealer’s door. As with the other XP Rifles, the Renegade is built at the Browning factory in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, and imported by BACO (Browning Arms Co.). The Renegade is…

OPTIMIZED FOR COMPACT AND SUBCOMPACT PISTOLS, SPEER’S new 9mm Gold Dot CarryGun ammo features the recently developed Gold Dot G2 bullet. The Gold Dot G2 has the bonded UNICOR design of the original Gold Dot but with new skives and a shallow nose cavity filled with elastomer rather than the original hollowpoint. The elastomer prevents barrier materials from filling the nose cavity and provides more consistent performance through tough barriers like wood and steel. The skives promote reliable expansion and effective energy transfer while maintaining straight-line penetration. According to the company, the new bullet style has achieved the highest FBI protocol evaluation scores of any ammunition ever tested. The Gold Dot G2 was developed to perform in full-sized handguns, and Speer engineers modified and redesigned it specifically for use in…

S&W Model 57 Mountain Gun Differences? Q: I’M A LONGTIME SUBSCRIBER AND ENJOY SHOOTING Times magazine. I couldn’t wait to read Payton Miller’s recent article on the S&W Model 57. I own a Model 57 Mountain Gun. Are there any differences in my Mountain Gun as compared to a standard-production Model 57 of the same era? My gun is a 57-5. Gene Bayer Via email A: Smith & Wesson produced its Mountain Gun series of double-action revolvers in the 1990s, with .41 Magnum Model 57 Mountain Gun, .41 Magnum Model 657 Mountain Gun (stainless steel), .44 Magnum Model 29 Mountain Gun, .44 Magnum Model 629 Mountain Gun (stainless steel), .45 Colt Model 25 Mountain Gun, and .45 Colt Model 625 Mountain Gun (stainless steel) offerings. The most significant characteristic of…

THE .32 H&R MAGNUM (INTRODUCED IN 1984) IS a straight-walled handgun cartridge. It’s a longer version of the 142-year-old .32 Smith & Wesson and the 124-year-old .32 Smith & Wesson Long cartridges. It has a maximum average pressure of 21,000 psi (almost twice that of its parent cartridges). With modern, no-lube-required reloading dies, cranking out perfectly safe and reliable .32 Magnum handloads is easily accomplished. Tumble clean, inspect, resize, decap, trim and flare the case mouths, prime, charge, seat, and crimp—you’re done. I use an RCBS carbide die set, which will accommodate .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long, and the .32 H&R Magnum. While .357, .41, .44, and other “real” magnum (35,000+ CUP) handgun rounds typically require a case full charge of propellant with a relatively slow burn rate, load densities…

“DAD, I WANT TO GO HUNTING.” I did a double take as my son, Jack, stood there with a serious expression on his face. I am not an avid hunter, and I was surprised that he had brought this up. I enjoy the occasional fall grouse hunt with my father and brother in Michigan. Finding the time to do that, however, has become more difficult as we’ve all gotten older and have families and other responsibilities. Consequently, we had not made that trip for the two years prior to this conversation, so I didn’t know where Jack’s statement came from. After some prodding, Jack said that one of his classmates was hunting deer before school that fall, and he thought it sounded exciting and wanted to give it a try.…

IN THE FALL OF 1883, THE FIELD, A BRITISH SPORTS magazine, sponsored a competition among riflemakers that was destined to go down in history. Under the guidance of its legendary editor, Dr. J.H. Walsh, who went by the pen name “Stonehenge,” the magazine conducted what became famous as the “Field Rifle Trials.” The purpose was to pit the best riflemakers against each other under controlled conditions and determine, scientifically and in full public view, which rifles were better. At the time, British big-game hunters were in the field pursuing some very serious critters, from elephants in Abyssinia to tigers in the Indian hills to rhinoceroses in South Africa. It was barely 20 years into the cartridge era, and prospective hunters leaving for the Colonies—army officers, adventurers, and penniless younger sons—needed…