Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Shooting Times

I READ JOSEPH VON BENEDIKT’S COLUMN ABOUT THE RAVEN 25 WITH a lot of memories in mind from when I worked on the Sheriff’s Dept. I remember quite a few of us bought them when they came out, and we carried them before being told we couldn’t carry anything less than a .380 ACP off-duty. It was a great little gun. It functioned flawlessly. I could get all six casings in the air at the same time. The safety wasn’t very good, so we didn’t carry them with a round chambered. One deputy still carried one years later and had it in her purse with a round chambered. Her keys caught on the trigger, and the gun fired, sending a round into her leg. She got a one-day suspension. Years…

INTRODUCED IN 1918, NEAR THE END OF WORLD War I, the Remington Model 51 was innovative, useful, and superbly built. It was also complex and expensive. Over the next nine years, about 65,000 were manufactured and sold. Most were chambered for .380 ACP, but some were chambered for .32 ACP. The Model 51 was designed by gun genius John Pedersen, and unlike most of the autoloading designs of the era, it is neither a blowback-operated pistol nor a tilting-breech design. Rather, it’s a “hesitation action.” When the pistol fires, the cartridge moves rearward a fraction, thrust by the pressure in the barrel, before the breech engages a shoulder in the frame and comes to an abrupt halt. This movement of the fired cartridge imparts momentum to the slide, which continues…

UBERTI USA HAS ADDED .357 MAGNUM DALTON AND FRANK revolvers to the company’s Outlaws & Lawmen series. The .357 Magnum Dalton revolver (shown in the photograph) is a replica of the Colt Single Action Army revolver owned by one of the most fearsome members of the Dalton Gang. It features hand-chased engraving from the famed Italian engraving studio Atelier Giovanelli on the frame, grip frame, cylinder, and barrel. Barrel length is 5.5 inches. Simulated pearl grips accentuate the blue/color-case finish. The .357 Magnum Frank revolver is a replica of the 1875 Remington that Frank James used during his life of infamy. It has a 7.5-inch barrel, full nickel plating, simulated ivory grips, and a lanyard loop. MSRP: $1,109 (Dalton), $949 (Frank) uberti.com Swarovski CSO The CSO (cleaning set optics) from…

IN A COLUMN I WROTE ALMOST 12 YEARS AGO, I discussed the differences between copper crusher testing and piezo-electric transducer testing and how that affects the data we ballisticians publish. I still get questions about pressure testing and load development. Here are some common ones. One common question I receive goes like this. How is a pressure barrel different from a regular barrel? The answer is a pressure/velocity (p/v) barrel built to precise industry standards does not fit any existing hand- or shoulder-fired firearm. Unless severely modified, it fits only a Universal Receiver, a massive chunk of precision machining with delusions of being a crew-served cannon. The receiver bristles with ancillary supports for sensors and a heavy breeching/firing mechanism, and barrels are ported for those sensors. Barrels for a Universal…

I REALIZE HANDGUNS (AND ALL GUNS FOR THAT matter) are serious subjects. But every once in a while, it’s good to tap into the fun side of firearms. In my opinion, that’s exactly what the .22 LR Barkeep single-action revolver from Heritage Manufacturing is all about, especially considering its low MSRP ($180.30 to $189.39 depending on the model). Heritage is known for its single-action Rough Rider rim-fire revolvers. They are often referred to as the best deal in terms of a frontier-style single action. The company offers .22 LR models and .22 Magnum/.22 LR convertibles, meaning those guns come with two interchangeable cylinders (one .22 LR and one .22 Magnum). Barrel lengths run from 3.5 to 16 inches. They come in a variety of finishes, and some have six-shot cylinders,…

THANK YOU FOR THE EXCELLENT 6.5X55 SWEDE ARTICLE IN THE Q:February issue. I have a CZ 550 Classic in 6.5x55 Swedish purchased in 2004. I bought it because no one else had one or knew what it was. I fooled around for years trying to find a load it liked. Nothing worked. Recently, however, I found a load that shoots 5/8-inch groups at 100 yards. It uses Lapua brass, Winchester Large Rifle primer, 42 grains of Reloder 19, and the Hornady 143-grain ELD-X bullet. Overall cartridge length is 3.232 inches, and average velocity is 2,428 fps. It is a beautiful rifle with a set trigger, and I am happy to find a hand-load it likes. Why does the author of that article hunt with the lightweight bullets in his 6.5x55…

THE M1 GARAND WAS DESCRIBED BY GEN. GEORGE S. Patton as “the greatest battle implement ever devised!” That might be true, but while it is rugged and reliable, the gas-operated semiautomatic rifle is peculiar when it comes to the ammunition it likes. Before you start to handload for it, let me share a few pointers you’ll do well to follow to avoid excess wear and tear and potential damage to your M1 Garand. Although it’s chambered for the .30-06 cartridge, the rifle was designed to fire a specific concoction of propellant and bullet type/weight. Most .30-06 commercial hunting ammunition uses propellants that cause excessive port pressures and generate too much gas, and it can damage the rifle’s operating rod, bolt, and receiver. There is some factory-loaded ammo made specifically for…

ONE OF A NEW BREED OF RIMFIRES, Christensen Arms’s Ranger 22 features a carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel, a machined aluminum action geared for precision, a carbon-fiber stock, and other space-age features. In terms of ergonomics and accuracy, it’s on a different level than the .22 rimfires our grandfathers carried into the timber. With all of that, plus Christensen’s reputation for high-end, high-performance firearms, you may expect the Ranger 22 to have a jaw-dropping price tag. Not so. Similar to nice-grade rim-fires from Browning, CZ, Ruger, and others, the suggested retail price is $795. That’s a lot of rifle for the dollars. Especially when you consider the match-grade trigger, the superlative engineering, and so on. Let’s dive in and take a close look. A Close Look One of the first things that savvy…

IN KEEPING WITH ITS NAME, WILSON COMBAT’S EXPERIOR COMMANDER Double Stack has a match-grade, stainless-steel, 4.25-inch barrel with a reverse muzzle crown. The outside of the chamber is fluted to provide places for powder residue and crud to go so that they don’t build up in areas that could slow down the slide’s cycling. The barrel uses a traditional bushing, and the pistol comes with a polymer bushing wrench. (It also comes with a small Allen wrench, a Torx wrench, a button-shaped backstrap takedown tool, and a very nice soft gun rug with two zippered outside pockets on one side and seven magazine-size pockets that are covered by a Velcro flap on the other.) Also, the barrel has an integral feed-ramp and a fully supported chamber. The pistol has a…

ONE OF HORNADY’S NEW-FOR-2021 RELOADING PRODUCTS IS THE G3-1500 digital scale. The model 1500 scale has been around for quite a while, and through the years it’s been improved and updated. The latest developments have resulted in the G3 version. The new G3-1500 scale can measure up to 1,500 grains. It features a precision load cell with 0.1-grain accuracy and constant readout up to 500 grains, which gives it the flexibility of being used when powder is trickled into the pan. Of course, it also weighs powder charges, bullets, and cases directly. The compact, portable G3-1500 digital scale is powered by two AAA batteries (not included). MSRP: $69.52 hornady.com…