Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Shooting Times

INTERESTING ARTICLE ON THE NEW BROWNING CITORI 825 THAT LAYNE Simpson wrote for the October 2025 issue. Being a fan of the Brownings, I have a 625 Field gun and two 725 Sporting guns with close to 30,000 rounds through them. I wish he would have mentioned that the 825s aren’t ported and why Browning chose to do that. My 725s are ported, but I truly wish that they weren’t (that wasn’t an option when I purchased them). I don’t think the porting improves their performance, and it creates more noise than is really necessary. Plus, they’re a pain to clean. The fellows whom I shoot with are all in agreement on that—nonported is preferred. Chris BatesCoeur d’Alene, ID Knock Off the Cheap Shots Shooting Times has been my favorite…

THE SHOTGUN SHOWN HERE IS PERHAPS THE most elegant and classy over-under ever manufactured in the United States. It’s Ruger’s Red Label in 28 gauge, and it has the straight English-style grip. Red Label stacked-barrel guns were made beginning in 1977 (20 gauge), 1979 (12 gauge), and 1994 (28 gauge), until the line was discontinued around 2014. Only around 150,000 were manufactured. Since the 28-gauge version was made for the shortest time and in the fewest numbers, it’s the most desirable and coveted by Ruger collectors and by over-under hunters and enthusiasts alike. More to the point of this column, the 28-gauge version is arguably the epitome of Red Label perfection. It was built on scaled-down, true-to-size actions, and as nice as the other bore sizes are, the 28 is…

One of the more unique shows available on MyOutdoorTV is Shootout Lane. The name comes from the address of Clark Custom Guns in Princeton, Louisiana, and the show profiles the extended Clark family, which includes Kay Clark Miculek, Jerry Miculek, their daughter Lena, and Lena’s videographer husband. This clan is an atypical southern family of world-champion competitive shooters and custom gunmakers, and the show follows them as they take on their own family members and the world. They build some of the coolest guns, and they can shoot them faster than just about anybody. Follow all the fun when challenges mount and generations collide. Five seasons of Shootout Lane are available, and most contain nine episodes each. Some of the more intriguing episodes include “The 1,000-Yard Shot” (that’s with a…

ACCORDING TO TAURUS, REVOLVER EXPERTS WIDELY REGARD A MEDIUM- frame revolver with a compact grip, quality sights, and a 3.0-inch barrel as the finest fighting revolver ever. The Taurus 66 Combat takes that formula and improves on it in one key area: adding a seventh round. The .357 Magnum Taurus 66 Combat features a high-quality fiber-optic front sight, a tuned DAO trigger, a full-length ejector rod, and a Hogue grip. It also features the Taurus Optics Ready Option, meaning it is drilled and tapped to accept an optics plate (sold separately) that can host optics that utilize the Shield RMSc footprint. MSRP: $972.99 taurususa.com Davidson’s Exclusive S&W 940 Davidson’s has collaborated with Smith & Wesson to reintroduce the DAO J-Frame 9mm Model 940 revolver. The original Model 940 was…

MY EVALUATION OF POLICE HANDGUN ammunition goes back 50 years to my time at the Dallas Crime Lab. We found failed attempts to cash in on the police market, yet we discovered other products that performed close to today’s ballistic standards. When we started our evaluations, gelatin testing of handgun ammo was so new that too often major bulletmakers used modeling clay to test expansion. Far denser than tissue, clay will expand bullets that have no chance of expanding in tissue or gelatin. Water would have been far closer to “real world” than clay. Clay contributed to most of the failures in our tests. Our database stopped growing around 1985 when an increasing regular forensic caseload demanded our full attention, but it still provides a snapshot of where this all…

THERE ARE MANY GOOD THINGS TO BE SAID about the old Colt Single Action Army, and most have been said many times. One essential that has been neglected, however, is its sheer smoothness. I’m not talking here about how the action works smoothly—hammer, cylinder, trigger—but how smooth the gun is itself. Run your hand over an old Peacemaker and it’s like stroking a mink coat. Nothing snags, nothing grabs your hand (I’m talking about dead mink here), nothing scratches or gouges. In the old days of gunfighting, exaggerated as that may be by movies and TV, great store was set, not so much by speed of draw, as by smoothness. That’s one reason the early Peacemaker had a rounded blade front sight and no rear sight at all—nothing to catch…

Q. SHOOTING TIMES ALMOST ALWAYS GIVES THE AMOUNT OF PULL needed to rack the slides of new striker-fired semiautomatic pistols, but I rarely see that for Model 1911s. For example, recent reviews of the Ruger LCP MAX with manual safety, the SAR9C Gen 3, the Rost Martin RM1S, the Ruger RXM, and the Springfield Echelon 4.0 reported their slide-racking pull weights as 15 pounds, 21 pounds, 22 pounds, 18.75 pounds, and 18.6 pounds, respectively. I’d like to know how those compare to the slide-racking pull weight for an average full-size Model 1911. So, how much pull is needed to rack the slide of a Model 1911? Adam JohnsonVia email A. You make a good point, but I should point out that we occasionally do give that information for new Model…

MY COLUMN ON HOW A SAVVY, COMPETENT mentor can greatly assist a novice handloader, and even experienced handloaders too, learn/improve upon safe and reliable reloading practices ran in this magazine a few months ago, so loyal readers will recognize Fred Roe’s name. He’s one of my own reloading mentors. This column is about how I worked with Fred’s pet .308 Winchester handload to help Fred’s grandson Lawson prepare for a deer hunt in Texas. It’s been 50 years since the first time I handloaded the .308 Win. Back then a coworker had asked if I would load a couple of boxes of .308 ammo for him. He and his brother hunted deer on the 600-acre family farm straddling the Tennessee/Alabama border. I promptly informed him I didn’t own a .308…

IN 2008 HORNADY SHOOK UP THE SHOOTING world yet again with a spectacular new cartridge called the 6.5 Creedmoor. The ballistics team shortened and necked down the .30 TC case to form a purpose-designed round that offered terrific ballistics, match-winning accuracy, and modest recoil. The 6.5 Creedmoor has become perhaps the most successful cartridge in modern times. It literally has it all. The combination of long-for-caliber, low-drag bullets with sky-high ballistic coefficients, and precisely designed chambers and cases made the cartridge an over-achiever. Otherwise knowledgeable riflemen said that it couldn’t do anything that the (insert any cartridge name here) wouldn’t do. But as most people with more than two brain cells now admit, that was demonstrably not true. Never inclined to rest on their laurels, the clever Hodgdon folks continued…

ACCORDING TO USASHOOTING.ORG, WILLIS Augustus Lee Jr. became the only American ever to win both the open U.S. National Rifle and Pistol Championships in the same year. The year was 1907. He was clad in a sailor-type wrinkled white uniform that bore his last name on the chest, a nondescript hat, and a cartridge belt, and what he accomplished in one day was astounding. In the individual rifle category—as opposed to team competition—he was one of 684 contestants. He performed rapid fire at 200 and 300 yards and slow fire at 600, 800, and 1,000 yards. With the pistol, he shot slow fire, timed fire, and rapid fire at ranges that ran from 15 to 75 yards. Lee later admitted that he had finished the rifle competition early, so he…