Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Shooting Times

AS I READ THE RECENT ARTICLE ON THE SHADOW SYSTEMS FOUNDATION Series pistols, I couldn’t help but shake my head and think this is what the Gen 5 Glock should have been. Glock should be listening to consumers and offering real improvements—a customizable grip with a better angle, a good trigger, great sights, and optics ready, all at a reasonable price. This is what Shadow Systems has done! Congratulations to Shadows Systems for paying attention and actually listening to the market. I predict they will be incredibly successful with the Foundation Series. Other manufacturers should design new models around Glock magazines, as Shadow Systems has done. When a Shooting Times article talks about a shiny, new pistol from so-and-so with proprietary $50+ mags, I stop reading and move on. We…

THE SLEEK MODEL 06 SLIDE-ACTION RIMFIRE rifle was conceived as a more affordable version of Winchester’s extremely popular Model 1890. Introduced in 1906, it was manufactured until 1932. About 732,000 were made. Primary “downgrades” from the Model 1890 were a round barrel rather than the more-expensive-to-machine octagonal version and a simple shotgun-type buttplate of hard rubber rather than the crescent steel buttplate, which was more expensive to produce and more time-consuming to install. For the first few years of production, the Model 1906/06 was chambered in .22 Short only. In 1908 the mechanism was modified to function with .22 Long and .22 Long Rifle as well, and from that point on all Model 1906/06 rifles could handle all three cartridges. Three variations of the rifle were made. First, the .22…

THE NEW OPERATOR DMR SERIES RIFLES FROM ROCK RIVER ARMS INCLUDE SIX CON- figurations that feature .308/7.62x51 and .223/5.56 NATO chamberings, 16-inch and 20-inch barrel lengths, BCM SOPMOD buttstocks, and RRA two-stage Ultra Match triggers. Handguards and gas-system lengths vary, depending on the configuration. Some versions come with SilencerCo Chimera 300 suppressors. MSRP: $1,745 to $3,490, depending on configuration rockriverarms.com Vortex Defender-CCW Micro Red-Dot Sight Vortex’s new Defender-CCW micro red-dot sight is 1.6 inches long and weighs 0.95 ounce. Features include a large aspherical lens, a Shockshield polymer insert, the Fast-Rack textured front face, auto-shutoff, 1X magnification, and unlimited eye relief. Powered by a CR1632 battery, the sight is motion-activated, the illumination brightness is adjustable, and the dot is offered in two sizes: 3 MOA and 6 MOA. The…

NOT LONG AGO I WAS DOCUMENTING TWO of my .36-caliber semiautomatic pistols. One is my 9mm Luger Hipes custom Colt Government Model (circa 1976); the other is my box-stock .38 Super +P SIG SAUER P220E (circa 1977). Both predate the “9mm Revolution.” The cartridges are time-linked to 1900 and 1902, and both operated in the same niche, sharing performance for much of the 20th century. Ultimately, the 9mm Luger surpassed and dominated the .38 Super. The .38 Auto cartridge appeared with Colt’s Browning-designed Model 1900 pistol. References show the original loading was a 107-grain FMJ bullet at an impressive velocity of 1,280 fps (6.0-inch barrel). Eventually, a 130-grain bullet at 1,050 fps became standard, likely to reduce strain on the Model 1900’s weak locked-breech system. In 1929 Colt modified its…

Q. I READ THE COLUMN BY ALLAN JONES IN THE MARCH ISSUE, AND I would like to know where the bullet on the right side of the photograph is sold. I purchased some of them many years ago at an auction, but I have not found any since then. I liked them very much. They seemed to be very good bullets. Is it the Smith & Wesson 115-grain full-jacketed semiwadcutter bullet Allan discussed in the column? Do you know where they can be purchased? Art KuntzVia email A. That bullet is indeed S&W’s 115-grain FMJ-SWC I mentioned in the text. Like all the products mentioned in that column, it is quite old and was included for historical reference. Per my records, we conducted tests with it in the Dallas crime…

SIMPLY STATED, A WILDCAT CARTRIDGE IS A round that you can’t buy. You have to make it (and almost always the firearm to fire it). According to a cursory review of SAAMI specifications, there are about 175 centerfire cartridges (139 rifle and 36 handgun) currently listed. This total includes 22 recent additions. Which immediately begs the question, “If there are nearly a couple hundred SAAMI-standardized rounds available, who could possibly need something different?” The easy answer to that question is, “Me.” But I bet plenty of you do, too. Before I get into some of my experiences with wildcat cartridges, I must address that controversial term, need. Most firearms enthusiasts abhor questions invoking the need factor when the discussion involves guns. Historically, our culture boasts individual freedoms and thinking outside…

THE SPORT OF SHOOTING FLYING TAR- gets with muzzleloading shotguns is thought to have had its beginning in various European countries sometime during the 1600s. Many gun builders turned out fowling pieces, but those built by Joseph Manton, who hung out his shingle in London in 1793, were said to have represented the best of the best in that type of firearm. And while flintlock ignition had proven to be far superior to older designs, it still fell short of perfection. In 1807 Scotsman Alexander Forsyth patented an ignition system using fulminate of mercury. Within a couple decades or so it had evolved into a short copper tube closed on one end, open on the other, and containing a “detonating powder.” Eventually called a percussion cap, it was placed on…

IT’S PROBABLY DUE TO WATCHING TOO MANY episodes of Davy Crockett when I was young, but all my life I’ve had this idea that a rifle should be a self-contained unit, kept loaded and ready behind the back door, because you just never know. This belief persisted through 1990, when I was introduced to one of the early Blaser models that featured multiple barrels and scopes, all of which could be dismantled and stored in a handy case with compartments for bolts, barrels, scopes, and so on. Admirable, but should a grizzly appear in the petunias, I thought, it would simply take too long for my shaking hands to get the tool into operation. It’s beautifully made and ingenious to a fault. But a rifle? Not in my opinion. That…

I’M TICKLED TO REPORT ON FRED KIMBLE THIS month because he was born in my hometown of Knoxville, Illinois. Granted, he was born 114 years before I was, so I never met the man, but it’s still fun to be able to write about such an accomplished shooter who came from where I did. Kimble’s accomplishments include developing choke boring for shotgun barrels, inventing an aerial clay target made of a composite material (it was called the Peoria Blackbird), building and patenting a mechanical thrower for those clay targets, inventing the mallard duck call, and breaking 735 consecutive glass balls thrown into the air with his shotguns (more about that later). Fred Kimble was born on October 13, 1846. (Coincidentally, I, too, was born in October—on the 11th to be…