Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2020 i RifleShooter

Winchester and the .222 In the July/August issue, Layne Simpson wrote that the Winchester Model 70 was never available in .222. Should this have read “The Winchester Model 70 pre-’64 was never available in .222 Rem.”? Fred Perry, Malta, MT That’s correct. In the article I mentioned having a Model 70 in .22 Hornet that had been rechambered to .222 Rem., and it is a pre-’64 rifle.—Layne Leupold Mark 5HD Gets Army Nod The U.S. Army’s Precision Sniper Rifle program has chosen Leupold’s Mark 5HD as its daytime optic. The contract scope is a 5-25x56mm with a flat dark earth finish and the Army’s Mil-Grid reticle. It will be paired with the Mk22 Mod 0, a Barrett-based multi-caliber bolt action. Chamberings include 7.62x51, .300 Norma Mag. and .338 Norma Mag.…

Set in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, the Sportsman’s All-Weather All-Terrain Marksmanship school at FTW Ranch (FTWsaam.com) is designed to give you an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of field marksmanship as well as to get you to know your equipment better than ever before. I’ve been there numerous times over the years for a variety of instruction, and every time I leave a better shooter. In the classroom, SAAM instructors dive deep into external ballistics and their applications: bullet drop, wind drift, mils/m.o.a., atmospherics, line of sight/shot angle and more. Some of the sessions really had me scratching my head, but in time, thanks to the instructors’ experience and patience, I grasped the concepts. This knowledge has paid off for me numerous times in the field. SAAM reinforces these…

Berger’s new ultra-sleek long-range match bullet, the Long Range Hybrid Target (LRHT), aims to maximize ballistic consistency and minimize aerodynamic drag at extended distances. Further, its hybrid shoulder is engineered to be forgiving of seating depth—or, more accurately, bullet jump prior to engaging the rifling leade. None of this is particularly innovative, but taken together, these three factors provide a subtle but significant increase in performance. Let’s take a look at the engineering concepts behind the design. Ballistic consistency is maximized by Berger’s new Meplat Reduction Technology (MRT). The meplat is the surface of the bullet’s tip that is perpendicular to the axis of the projectile. These inconsistencies affect ballistic coefficient, and at long range even tiny variations make a difference—to the point that some shooters true up the noses…

The hottest trend in the hunting market is bolt-action rifles that incorporate elements traditionally found on long-range competition and tactical rifles into field guns. Perhaps no other firearms manufacturer has been as quick to jump on this trend as Browning, and scrolling through its current lineup of X-Bolt rifles is a tutorial in how to build a crossover gun. This year, Browning has added yet another hybrid hunting rifle to its catalog: the X-Bolt Hunter Long Range. The first feature you’ll notice on the Hunter Long Range is its walnut stock. This may come as a bit of a shock in an age where polymer parts have replaced steel and wood, but there’s definitely renewed interest in walnut-stocked guns. The X-Bolt Hunter Long Range borrows a design element Browning uses…

A few years before I retired from the Marine Corps, there was an initiative at headquarters calling for a wholesale replacement of the M16A2 rifle with the M4 carbine, which would have reduced the rifle’s 20-inch barrel to the M4’s 14.5-inch tube. At the time I was operations officer at I Marine Expeditionary Force, so it was really none of my business, but I went nuts. The obvious loss of velocity, and thus reduced energy and effective range, concerned me. This was back in the Dark Ages, before the Marines had fully embraced optical sights, and I was equally concerned about loss of precision using battle sights with the M4’s much shorter sight radius. I did a lot of research and wrote a paper, and while it may never have…

Modern technology has steadily become more common in our rather traditional firearms industry. Today all manner of shooting accessories incorporate technology not dreamed of 20 years ago. Meprolight’s new Mepro Foresight red dot sight is a pretty interesting example of what can be incorporated into a red dot sight. Meprolight calls it the first “augmented” red-dot sight, projecting real-time data to the user’s field of view. What does this mean? Basically, as you look through the sight you can see multiple displays that provide information in addition to the aiming point or reticle. The Foresight’s display window is pretty big, measuring 33x20mm. Information displayed in the field of view includes a battery life gauge, leveler to prevent cant, Bluetooth connection, compass heading and even a shot counter so you know…

I grew up in the Southeast at a time when just about every pickup truck had a rifle rack attached behind the seat in view for all to see. It was not unusual to see a Chevy Suburban with racks in both side windows. Winchester 94s, Marlin 336s and Savage 99s sometimes rode there, but the rifle most often seen was the Remington Model 742. For as long as I can remember, we have had an abundance of feral hogs, and a friend at Remington once told me that more 742s were shipped to my part of the country than anywhere else. Pig shooters loved aftermarket 10-round magazines, and to this day they are available from Triple-K. Remington introduced the first truly successful semiautomatic centerfire sporting rifle of American design…

Savage’s 110 is the oldest continuously manufactured American-made rifle, and that success is partly a byproduct of Savage’s ability to evolve to meet the demands of shooters. After all, this is the company that came up with the AccuTrigger, which effectively reinvented the bolt-action trigger market. And it offers the XP line of rifles with pre-mounted optics so hunters and shooters are ready to head to the range as soon as they open the box. The newest member of the XP family is the 110 Apex Hunter XP, which combines a 110 rifle with a black synthetic stock with length-of-pull adjustments and a 3-9x40 Vortex Crossfire II scope mounted on a one-piece EGW zero-m.o.a. rail. The precision-button-rifled, threadin-headspaced barrel measures from 18 to 24 inches depending upon caliber—of which there…

One of the last creatures you might expect to find in the dry deserts of Arizona is a grizzly, but that is exactly what was bearing down on me in the rifle bay at Gunsite Academy. It wasn’t a real grizzly, of course, but a fearsome and quite lifelike interpretation of an irate Ursidae moving in my direction at an unnervingly rapid pace thanks to a motorized torso. I held my ground as its gears whined and it closed the gap in my direction. I hope I never have to shoot a charging bear in real life, because Robobear taught me a valuable lesson that day: Simply knowing how to shoot a rifle at a target and actually placing your bullet in the vitals of a bouncing, rolling creature that’s…

Leupold was quick to embrace the .350 Legend cartridge. The company’s VX-Freedom 3-9x40mm for the .350 Legend ($365) takes its CDS system and matches it to the round’s ballistics—specifically a 150-grain bullet running at 2,325 fps, which is what Winchester’s 150-grain Deer Season XP load does. Say you’re sitting in a stand, watching a woodlot, and your rifle is zeroed for 100 yards because you expect deer to move through the woodlot. But then, of course, you spot a deer across a field 200 yards away. You could hold over, sure. But depending on the deer’s position, you might need to be more precise. With the VX-Freedom Legend scope, you simply adjust the knob to the “2” on the upper portion of the turret and you’ve just applied the right…

THE NEW CROP OF BIG GAME GUNS IS MORE DIVERSE THAN ANY IN RECENT MEMORY. It’s no secret that hybrid target/ hunting rifles are all the rage right now, but despite that, it’s amazing the variety manufacturers are offering this year: a single-shot in .303 British; revolutionary new chassis-style sporting rifle; a titanium rifle weighing five pounds; and two traditional sporters priced under $600. I think this is certainly the most diverse—and perhaps the most exciting—list of new big game rifles we’ve seen in the last decade. (Ed. note: In an effort to keep the chart manageable, not every gun described in the article is found on the chart. In these cases you’ll find the prices given in the main article.) Benelli Benelli is best known for making shotguns, but…

Introduced earlier this year, Winchester’s Renegade Long Range SR version of the popular XPR line is a crossover precision/practical hybrid. While built for accuracy and precision-shooting ergonomics, it’s not so heavy, bulky and complex that it’s out of place for hunting. Grayboe’s Renegade composite stock lends this XPR its name. “Long Range” speaks for itself, and the “SR” portion stands for suppressor ready. Winchester’s XPR action features a full-diameter bolt, which makes for smooth, rattle-free bolt movement. Up front, the bolt’s got three locking lugs, which enables the bolt to find equal-bearing equilibrium when in battery. Fluting on the bolt body reduces weight. Aft, the bolt handle wears a large, grooved, tactical-type knob that aids rapid, sure manipulation. Its shroud is made of tastefully contoured composite. A cocking indicator shows…

When I was a kid, if you wanted a gun that was an exclusive or a “special edition,” you most likely were stuck with a gold-plated M1 Thompson with John Wayne’s likeness engraved on the stock. Now “distributor’s exclusives” represent the lion’s share of the special-edition market, and not only are they guns you want to own and can afford, but also they’re ones you want to shoot. Few gun companies have embraced distributor exclusive editions more enthusiastically than Ruger. The company’s website lists no fewer than six distributor exclusives just of its standard AR-556. For this review I secured the Ruger AR-556 Davidson’s Dark Earth (item #8503). Ruger’s standard models are available from them in any color you want—as long as it’s black. If you yearn for more color…