Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i Shooting Times

I READ WITH DELIGHT THE COLUMNS ON DUELING AND DUELLING PISTOLS used by duelers (or “duellers” perhaps) in the December 2021/January 2022 issue. I am reminded of fictional duels, particularly one involving conjoined twins from Italy in Mark Twain’s original version of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Twain’s advisor suggested the use of conjoined twins in a duel may be a bit hard to offer to the public, what with one of the conjoined twins positioned literally between combatants engaging on the Field of Honor. In the original version, one of the conjoined twins was gungho to fight, while the other was scared to death. A wonderful conflict indeed! Pudd’nhead was also involved in unusual hobbies. The study of fingerprinting led him to use his hobby as a forensic element in his cases.…

Q: Over the years I have heard a lot about breaking in a rifle barrel. Shooting Times writers shoot some fine rifles but never discuss the break-in, if any, that they used. Could you tell me what the rule of thumb should be for a new rifle? John Souder Via email A: You bet! Shooting Times writers occasionally have reported on how they broke in a new rifle’s barrel, although that is not regularly reported. The last time I broke in a barrel was on a custom rifle built by E.R. Shaw, and that was several years ago. I followed their recommendations at that time, which were to shoot one shot and then perform a cleaning routine consisting of running a cotton patch that’s wet with solvent through the barrel,…

WHEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JOEL HUTCHCROFT reminded me that “dangerous game” is the theme of this issue of Shooting Times, I immediately thought about the .375 Ruger cartridge I’d reported on years ago. Since then, some new powders were developed that are just the ticket for handloading the round. So we decided I would revisit it for this column. Hornady and Ruger jointly developed the .375 Ruger, and you could say it is a modern version of the honored .375 H&H Magnum. Its primary attribute is it can deliver essentially the same H&H “magnum” performance while fitting in a standard-length (.30-06) action. My memories of shooting the .375 Ruger all those years ago were not all positive. The original Ruger Hawkeye African rifle I used featured a medium-weight, 23-inch barrel; express-style iron…

COMING OF AGE IN THE LATE 1960S AND EARLY 1970s, my introduction to the Browning Hi-Power 9mm semiautomatic pistol came when I read Serpico, the book by Peter Maas published in 1973 that chronicled the life of New York City plainclothes police officer Frank Serpico during the late 1960s. The book was made into a major motion picture, starring Al Pacino as the intrepid detective. I wanted a Hi-Power immediately. My hankering increased incrementally after I became the assistant editor of Shooting Times in 1992. You see, my office mate, John Crowley, had a Browning Hi-Power that was tuned-up and tricked-out by the Novak company. It was one sweet pistol! I’ve never owned a Hi-Power, but I have a feeling that’s about to change because Springfield Armory’s new SA-35 is…

WHILE ALL PREVIOUS MODELS OF TURKISH MAUS- ers and many of the so-called M1938s were actually made in Europe, K.Kale-marked rifles were manufactured in Turkey. The first domestic-made Turkish Mauser-type rifles, they were built in Kirikkale Tufek Fabrikast, a government-owned “Military Factory.” During World War II, Turkey was neutral but isolated, and for the first time it had to rely on local armories to produce military firearms. Thousands of Gew.98s were parted out and converted to the M1938 configuration. These were for the most part marked ATF, for Ankara Tufek Fabrikast (Ankara Rifle Factory). According to the site turkmauser.com, a few early K.Kale-marked receivers were actually rebuilds using various repurposed, previously made actions. Nearly all these occurred in 1940, at the beginning of domestic reliance. Between 1940 and 1946, the…

LION At maybe 400 pounds, the lion is smaller than the rest, but one must be mindful of what a lion will do to you if you mess up. With low light likely, the lion will usually be hunted with a scoped rifle; a .375 is perfect, a .416 great. Now, if a follow-up is needed, nothing is too big. CAPE BUFFALO I am convinced one will take more and bigger buffaloes with a scoped rifle than with iron sights. The .375 is plenty. Bigger is not “better” but may result in more rapid gratification, provided shot placement is equally good. All this applies equally to water buffalo and other large bovines, but “problems” are less frequent. THE BIGGEST BEARS All bears are unpredictable and can be dangerous. A big…

MOSSBERG SAYS THAT ITS MVP RIFLES COUPLE THE CAPACITY AND FLEX- ibility of AR-style magazines with the accuracy and reliability of a bolt action. And that is the defining feature of the MVP series. Announced less than two months ago (as this report is being written), the newest MVP is the MVP Patrol chambered for the popular .300 Blackout (BLK) cartridge. The .300 BLK is sort of an odd duck, so its popularity defies logic. It is the .221 Fireball necked up to .30 caliber, and it has the ballistics of the vintage blackpowder .32-20 Winchester. The appeal is that one can shoot pointed bullets out of an AR, and as I have been told by those knowledgeable on this subject, the real purpose of the .300 BLK is urban…

YEARS AGO, I WAS TOLD THAT PROFESSIONAL hunters in East Africa wanted a young PH to have a close call with a Cape buffalo early in his career. Why? Because, they said, you could hunt and kill 500 buffalo without incident, become complacent, and number 501 would get you. Better to learn a lesson early. Recently, a writer I know and respect, who has hunted all over the world, including many Cape buffalo, wrote that he did not know, personally, anyone who had experienced a problem with a buffalo, much less an injury. Nor, he wrote, did any of the professional hunters he canvassed on the subject. Cape buffalo, he insisted, are overrated. (In fairness, he later told me it was semi-serious hyperbole.) Well, I beg to differ, and I…

THE FAST-HANDLING AND QUICK-SHOOTING 5.56X45MM PISTON- driven FN SCAR 16S has been upgraded with NRCH (Non-Reciprocating Charging Handles). The new, dual charging handles enable any shooting position, grip style, and optic choice for flawless braced and barrier-contact shooting positions. The carbine features a rugged monolithic upper receiver with MIL-STD-1913 rail and a folding butt-stock with adjustable length of pull and cheekrest height. It’s offered in FDE and black finishes with 10-round and 30-round magazines. MSRP: $3,569 fnamerica.com Auto-Ordnance 1911 Stainless Auto-Ordnance has introduced an updated stainless-steel, American-made 1911 to its line of GI models. Enhanced features include an adjustable trigger, a skeletonized hammer, a full-length recoil guide rod, an extended beavertail grip safety, and an extended magazine release. The frame, slide, and barrel are forged stainless steel. The slide, sear,…

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE .45-70 GOVERNMENT cartridge. Well, and the .50-70. At the start of the metallic cartridge era, these two mass-produced military rifle cartridges were among the few truly suitable to North American dangerous game. Other early cartridges suffered from greatly restricted propellant capacity and relatively light bullets. The .45-70 and the .50-70 both held plenty of black-powder and pushed 400-grain and heavier bullets in the range of 1,200 to 1,300 fps. Not an overabundance of energy, but they delivered at longer ranges and were successful on bison where penetration was especially important. And they were readily available. These cartridges were designed for single-shot rifles and were incompatible with early repeating rifles. Sharps and other single shots dominated the power niche except for a few primitive bolt rifles…

JOHN MOSES BROWNING WAS BORN ON JANUARY 23, 1855, to Jonathan Browning and Elizabeth Caroline Clark Browning. Jonathan had travelled to Utah in 1852 in order to join Brigham Young and other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John M. would grow up to be one of the greatest American gun designers—if not the greatest. As mentioned in the article on Springfield’s new SA-35 elsewhere in this magazine, his successful guns include the Hi-Power. He also designed the Model 1911, the Colt Woodsman, and at least 11 other semiautomatic pistols; the popular SA-22 and Remington Model 8 semiautomatic rifles; a bunch of fully automatic machine guns, including the M2HB and the BAR; the Winchester Models 1886, 1892, 1894, and 1895 lever actions; the classic Superposed over-under…