Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2020-21 i Shooting Times

The Real “Rifleman” WHEN I READ THE “HIPSHOTS” COLUMN IN THE JUNE ISSUE, BEING A FAN of the old The Rifleman TV show, I quickly saw the parallels between the real Pink Higgins and the fictional Lucas McCain, who was also a rancher that helped maintain justice during rough times. Higgins’s prowess with his lever action obviously predated the TV character, but the similarities are striking. Perhaps Pink Higgins was the inspiration for The Rifleman in the same manner that old-time lawman Bass Reeves is thought to be the basis for The Lone Ranger. The column described Higgins using his cows to pair up with their rustled calves. I recall an episode of The Rifleman in which rancher McCain did the exact same thing to retrieve his stolen bull calf!…

I BORROWED RUGER’S COMPANY SLOGAN FOR THE EC9s for the headline of this report. The company’s wording goes like this: “Everyday Carry, Everyday Affordable.” I tweaked it slightly. Let’s get the affordable part out of the way right off the bat. The standard EC9s retails for $299. I’m highlighting a version of the pistol that is exclusive to Davidson’s (I’ll get to the details of this special pistol in a few minutes), and it retails for $294. I think just about any serious handgunner will admit that $294 is pretty affordable, especially for a gun that’s manufactured by one of the most reliable gunmakers in the United States. With the affordability issue out of the way, let’s take a close look at the EC9s. Regular Features The EC9s is very…

COMPARED TO BATTLES WITH FAMILIAR/FAMOUS names like Waterloo, Gettysburg, and Stalingrad, the Battle of Walker’s Creek in June of 1844 was minuscule. Just 15 Texas Rangers fought for their lives against a raiding party of 75 Comanches. History records that the Rangers won. The Comanches left 20 dead, while the Rangers lost only one man. The surviving Comanches withdrew. While Walker’s Creek did not alter the course of a war, like Waterloo or Gettysburg, it had far-reaching consequences beyond the Comanche wars. The decisive factor in the battle was Colt’s five-shot revolver, and it changed the world. First, it led directly to the resurrection of Samuel Colt’s company, which turned into one of America’s greatest industrial concerns. Second, it dramatically changed the way firearms were manufactured, and this became a…

RCBS Rebel Plus Reloading Kit RCBS HAS SEVERAL NEW RELOADING KITS, INCLUDING the Rebel Plus Reloading Kit. This new kit includes a solid-cast-frame Rebel single-stage press, a Uniflow III Powder Measure and Advanced Powder Measure Stand, 1,500-grain digital pocket scale, hand priming tool, Speer Handloading Manual Number 15, Pow’r Pull bullet-pulling kit, stainless-steel calipers, powder funnel, fold-up hex key set, accessory handle, case neck brushes, primer pocket brushes, deburring tool, case-loading block, Case Slick spray lube, six die lock rings, and six shellholders. MSRP: $649.95 rcbs.com Savage Southpaw Model 110 Elite Precision Savage has announced new left-hand versions of the Model 110 Elite Precision bolt-action rifle. Featuring MDT Adjustable Core Competition chassis, full-length ARCA rails, Savage blueprinted stainless-steel actions, titanium nitride bolt bodies, user-adjustable Accu-Triggers, AICS magazines, and more, these…

I SUFFER A FASCINATION WITH INTERESTING cartridges that exist just off the beaten path. Several are metric cartridges used in African colonies whose overseers were mainland Europeans, not English. I’ve found interesting ballistic considerations—and some survivors—among these pre-1940 cartridges. German, Austrian, and Dutch colonials were more likely to use magazine rifles rather than double guns, and the cartridges reflect this. I am a ballistician, not a professional big-game hunter. I look to technical merits. In researching, I found repeated references to hunter and author John Taylor. I’d owned his book Pondoro for years but not African Rifles and Cartridges that he wrote in 1948. To eliminate middleman interpretations, I found a very affordable facsimile copy that was reissued by Martino Press in 2014. Any hunting observations here are Taylor’s, not…

WHEN P.O ACKLEY GAVE THE 280 REMINGTON a steep 40 degree shoulder and straightened out most of the cartridge case’s body taper, he likely knew he was on to something special. However, it’s doubtful he anticipated that more than a half-century later, his 280 Ackley Improved cartridge would blossom into a favorite of savvy open-country hunters across the West Decades ahead of his time in cartridge design Ackley became a household name for his work at least among cartridge enthusiasts He d take a typical factory-designed cartridge reduce the amount of taper in the body of the case and increase the shoulder angle aggressively. These modifications resulted in added capacity, which increased velocity, and less case stretch which resulted in longer case life What Ackley didn t change was the…

WITH THIS ISSUE LOOSELY DEDICATED TO SELF- defense, I’m departing a bit from my usual focus on a lawman, an outlaw, a hunter, or an exhibition shooter to revisit an example of how a community’s citizens came together to put an end to the lawless exploits of some infamous outlaws. I’m referring to the townsfolk of Coffeyville, Kansas. In the 1890s, federal lawmen had been trying to capture the notorious Dalton Gang. The Daltons were robbing banks and trains all over the Oklahoma Territory and keeping things in a general state of unrest. Wells Fargo had sent in Fred Dodge, its best investigator. Dodge and Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas joined up and started to tighten the net around the Daltons. In October 1892, Thomas, Dodge, and a handpicked posse…

Berry’s Hybrid Hollow Point Expansion? Q: I ENJOYED LANE PEARCE’S “THE RELOADER” COLUMN IN THE AUGUST issue on Berry’s hollowpoint plated bullets for handguns and his recommendation that they can be used for regular-velocity personal defense, but I have a question. He didn’t mention how well the hollowpoints expand. Is expansion adequate? Mike Barrett Via email A: I didn’t do any expansion testing for that column, but Berry’s Marketing and Sales Manager Justin Taylor sent me two expanded Hybrid Hollow Point bullets that were fired into ballistic gelatin. One is .45 caliber, and the other is 9mm. A pristine, unfired .45-caliber bullet has a measured diameter of 0.451 inch. The expanded bullet’s diameter measures 0.890 inch. For the 9mm bullets, an unfired bullet has a diameter of 0.356 inch, and…

IF YOU’VE READ MY COLUMN FOR A WHILE, YOU know I’m fond of odd cartridges and enjoy handloading obsolete and wildcat rounds. The latest of which I’ve designated as the .30 Newton-PRC. The idea came about while I was reviewing the .300 PRC for Hodgdon’s 2020 annual reloading manual. One of the rifles included in that review was a one-off version of Montana Rifle Co.’s M1999 Extreme Tactical Hunter. Although it would readily chamber factory-loaded cartridges, the action and magazine were approximately 0.15 inch short. That minor issue was easily overcome by single-loading factory rounds and building my handloads to 3.5 inches COL. However, the Magpul vertical-stack magazine, which was designed to accommodate five .300 Winchester Magnum rounds, wouldn’t work with .300 PRC ammo. After inserting the third .300 PRC…

THE 5.7X28MM CARTRIDGE IS A HIGH-VELOCITY, LOW-RECOIL, BOTTLE- necked round that was developed by Fabrique Nationale Herstal 30 years ago for the FN PS90 personal-defense carbine and the FN Five-seveN semiautomatic pistol. The new Ruger-57 pistol is, according to Ruger, “Fun to shoot! Cool to own!” so it can do double-duty as a plinker, trail gun, and defensive tool. I truly appreciate the pistol’s rakish lines, minimal recoil, and extra-high-capacity magazines. Although the Ruger-57 looks bulky, it actually feels lighter than it appears it should, and it is rather nimble to operate. The most difficult operation is stuffing the magazines (it comes with two) full of the tiny centerfire rounds. Until recently, only FN supplied the ammunition. For this report, I secured FN 40-grain V-Max ammo and Federal American Eagle…