Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Shooting Times

THE OCTOBER 2021 ISSUE OF SHOOTING TIMES WAS A REAL GEM. THE column on the .257 Roberts and the article on the .284 Winchester were especially good. It amazes me that such cartridges are passed over in search of newer, “more modern” deer rifles. I have enjoyed the .257 Roberts since the early 1980s when Remington chambered the Model 700 Classic in that round in the second year of limited-edition releases. Today’s premium bullet selection makes reloading and hunting with the Roberts a real joy. For deer hunting, I like the 115-grain Partition over a healthy charge of IMR 7828 and a CCI Magnum primer. However, many a groundhog has fallen victim to Hornady 75-grain hollowpoints. As Mr. Jones states, “….the .257 Roberts is still a runner.” The road less…

ALTHOUGH COMMON—IN BOTH THE LITERAL AND the literary sense—Stevens single-shot, break-action scatterguns are somewhat difficult to research and document. Hundreds of thousands were manufactured under the Stevens name, but none were serialized until the Gun Control Act of 1968 required serial numbers. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to pinpoint when one was made. The Tenite-stocked Model 94B variant shown here was made sometime between World War I and 1960. Stevens was purchased (after much drama surrounding a failed purchase attempt by New England Westinghouse) by Savage Arms in the spring of 1920. Most postwar guns are marked Savage, as is the one detailed here. Moreover, it’s marked with Savage’s Chicopee Falls address, which Savage left sometime around 1960. Since the Stevens single shot is a simple, hardworking tool for…

MICRO-SIZED 9MM personal-protection pistols are all the rage these days. That’s reflected in the lineup of articles in this issue of Shooting Times. I was lucky to get the assignment on SCCY’s new striker-fired, optics-ready (S.F.O.R .) DVG-1. I say lucky because I have enjoyed shooting SCCY pistols going all the way back to the company’s first semiautomatic pistols, which were introduced sometime around 2003. SCCY pistols are known for their incredibly reasonable retail prices and the very good quality you get at those low prices. These pistols represent some of the best value-for-dollar handguns on the market. I have some neighbors who simply love their SCCY pistols. The new DVG-1 is a departure for SCCY, not in terms of the value for dollars, but in the operating mechanism. Prior…

EVERY TIME I TAKE MY OLD BROWNING CHAL- lenger to the range and pop a few plates, I wonder why I own any other handgun. It devours any ammunition I feed it, it has a great trigger pull, and the grip is so natural you feel like you’re holding hands with your girlfriend. What’s more, the original Challenger was made to standards of fit and finish that are now but a distant memory—they’re as smooth as FN’s Belgian master gunmakers could produce. The name Challenger has been used repeatedly—not just by Browning—so it’s important to know what we’re talking about. It’s essentially an evolution of the Colt Woodsman, which was designed by John M. Browning. The later Browning Arms Company began having it made at FN in 1962. It was…

REMINGTON’S NEW CORE-LOKT TIPPED BULLET OFFERS IMPROVED accuracy and terminal performance for deer and big-game hunters. According to Remington Ammunition’s Director of Marketing Joel Hodgdon, “We have made many advancements since restarting the Remington brand and working 24/7 to get ammunition on the shelves. But this is the biggest news yet.” Core-Lokt Tipped ammunition features the advanced technology of the Big Green polymer tip to improve ballistic coefficient and in-flight accuracy as well as initiate rapid expansion. And when paired with its adjusted rearward center of gravity, the Core-Lokt Tipped delivers match-grade accuracy. Remington’s Core-Lokt Tipped is currently offered in 13 loadings, in .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester, .30-06, .300 WSM, and .300 Winchester Magnum. MSRP: $41.99 to $61.99 per 20 rounds…

MY EDITOR RECENTLY RECEIVED A LETTER ASKING about cartridge case life. It was a great question, but it opened a Pandora’s box of ballistics issues involving firearm condition, case types and metallurgy, pressures, and more. This is akin to asking your mechanic, “How long will my car last?” I have some .38 Special cases from 1969 fired exclusively with light target loads; they are still serviceable after logging 20+ firings. In the lab, I’ve had belted rifle cases become questionable for continued use after one firing. Case life is a concern specific to handloaders; if you shoot factory ammo, this point is moot. In bottleneck rifle cases, survivability depends primarily on case wall stretching ahead of the case web that is affected by headspacing. These cases should be monitored for…

ALTHOUGH IT LOOKS hard-used, the pistol shown throughout this report is actually a brand-new, high-end version of the SIG P365 pistol that revolutionized concealed-carry guns a few years back. Made in SIG’s Custom Works division, it features a special grip, slide, and trigger treatment. That battle-worn look is intentional, and it is called “distressed.” There are two versions of the Custom Works Spectre line. This is one, which I’ll detail shortly, and another one has the same mechanical upgrades but features a TiN Gold finish on the trigger and barrel and a clean, new-looking Nitron finish on the slide. It has the bling. The distressed one featured in this report has the attitude. Before diving into the special features and characteristics of the XL Spectre versions of the P365, let’s…

AS MENTIONED IN THIS MONTH’S “ASK THE EXPERTS” on page 16, Ambrose Burnside developed and patented the breechloading .54-caliber Burnside Carbine and its unique, conical-shaped brass cartridge shortly before the start of the Civil War. (You can see a photograph of the cartridge on that page.) Burnside was more than a gun and cartridge inventor. He was a military man, a businessman, and a politician. And his surname and distinctive style of facial hair inspired an often-used word still to this day—sideburns. Ambrose Everett Burnside was born on May 23, 1824, in Liberty, Indiana. His father was a native South Carolinian who freed the slaves he owned when he relocated to Indiana. As a boy, Ambrose attended Liberty Seminary. In 1843, through his father’s political connections, he obtained an appointment…

Q: I KNOW THAT CASES OF THE SAME CHAMBERING FROM different manufacturers can weigh differently, and that can affect the case capacity. But what effect does case weight really have on velocity? Tommy Harp Via email A: You pose an interesting question, one that I have tried to derive an answer for many times in my 50+ years of handloading. Here’s one experiment I conducted not long ago that may help you. Having several different brands of fired .308 Winchester brass on hand, I picked out five boxes, decapped, and sorted the cases by weight. I selected six pieces from each box that weighed the same within +/- 0.2 grain. Then I handloaded six rounds each using CCI 200 primers, 43.0 grains of IMR 4451, and Hornady 165-grain JSP bullets.…

MOST FOLKS THINK THAT GASTON GLOCK INTRO- duced pistols with plastic receivers in the mid-1980s. Actually, Remington introduced a bolt-action, single-shot handgun with an injection-molded Zytel stock more than 20 years earlier (1963). Granted, the XP-100’s receiver was not plastic—neither is the Glock’s—but the XP-100 was definitely not a conventional handgun. It was commonly identified as something the sci-fi superhero Buck Rogers might have used as he traveled around the universe fighting evil. Obviously, such a uniquely exotic firearm warranted a specifically designed cartridge. In this case, it’s the .221 Fireball. Typically referred to as being derived from the .222 Remington, the .221 Fireball is more aptly described as a shortened .223 Remington. The Fireball’s case length is about 0.38 inch less than the .223’s, with all other features the…

THE NEW PELTOR SPORT TACTICAL 500 MUFFS ARE THE brand’s premier electronic hearing protectors Using pro prietary 3M Smart Technologies this high tech headset stifles the sound of gunfire while amplifying speech. Blue tooth wireless technology allows users to sync the headset to mobile devices, thereby making and receiving phone calls or listening to music. The feature-laden Peltor Sport Tactical 500 is comfortable thanks to its vented and adjustable headband. The ear cushions are soft and tapered so that they don’t interfere with obtaining a proper cheekweld when shooting a long gun. They also feature rubber bumpers to dampen vibration and enhance purchase should a cup contact the stock. Power is provided by either two AA batteries or 3M’s lithium-ion Alpha 1100 rechargeable battery, and pressing the power button for…