Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2021 i RifleShooter

Going Rogue While we all remember TR’s lion medicine (“Strong Medicine,” November/December 2020), we forget Kenneth Anderson, who hunted man-eating tigers, panthers and bears with his 1895 in .405 Win. very successfully. He even took on rogue Asian elephants with this rifle. Matthew The One-Gun Man Commenting on Craig Boddington’s article on old military cartridges (“Old Warhorses,” July/August 2020), perhaps some older people like me remember Grancel Fitz from the 1940s and 1950s. He was the first man to hunt all 25 species of North American big game, and he used a .30-06 (far r.) on all of them—and that included a walrus and a Kodiak bear. Bernard Walker, Creswell, N.C. Marines Change Rifle Qualification The Marines’ new rifle qualification course will focus more on combat-style marksmanship, such as moving…

Lyman’s Tac-Mat Long Range HD is a versatile and handy mat whether you’re practicing for your next match, practicing for your next hunt, taking it on a hunt or just plain shooting. At 87 inches long, even tall people will not run out of real estate, and it’s three feet wide, which means it will accommodate any prone position you might use—as well as give you plenty of room to rotate left and right while still staying on the mat. The Tac-Mat has several nifty features. The front of the mat has dedicated stops (photo 1) to lock in your bipod for a solid position. An additional flap extends out front to keep dust blow-up to a minimum—handy for those who shoot muzzle brakes—and there are grommets on the flap…

It’s almost a cliché to write about Savage’s well-deserved reputation of providing excellent accuracy at an affordable price. I own a Model 116 in .300 Win. Mag., and it shoots great. I’ve tested dozens of other Savage rifles over the years, and with only one or two exceptions, they’ve always delivered on their top-notch accuracy reputation. At the same time, I don’t think all that many people equate “Savage” with “innovation”—despite the fact that it developed the gold-standard Accu-Trigger and the excellent AccuStock and AccuFit stock concepts. At last year’s big firearms trade show, a number of editors and writers got a tour of the Savage booth by none other than its new president, Al Kasper. He leads a group of investors who bought Savage from former owner Vista Outdoor.…

If a Marlin 39A gets soaked in rain or snow or just needs a good cleaning and oiling, taking it down is easy. The right-side and left-side receivers are held together by a thumbscrew. Cock the hammer and turn out the screw until it is loose, but do not remove it completely from the right-side receiver. If a rifle has not been taken down in a while and the receivers resist separation, grasp the wrist of the stock with one hand and with the other hand holding the fore-end, position the rifle left-side down (thumbscrew-side up) and tap the end of the barrel on a padded surface. Remove the bolt by pulling it rearward from the left-side receiver. The firing pin comes with it, so do not let it fall…

When it was introduced almost five years ago, the 9mm AR-pattern Wilson Combat AR9 could be had in versions fed by Glock, Beretta or S&W M&P magazines. While still available fed by Glock or Beretta magazines, Wilson Combat now has a new option: an AR9X fed by Wilson’s X9 magazines. Considering the EDC X9 has been Wilson Combat’s most successful pistol ever, offering a carbine option fed by those same magazines seems like a very smart idea. The carbine version is offered with two different barrel lengths: 14.7 inches and 16 inches, the barrels round or fluted. The 14.7-inch model has the company’s Q-Comp permanently attached to bring the overall length up to 16 inches. I secured a 16-inch fluted sample for testing. With an empty 18-round magazine in place,…

Springfield 2020 Waypoint Built on an all-new two-lug action, Springfield’s entry into the hunting rifle market features a choice of either a carbon-fiber barrel from BFS or a fluted stainless barrel. The barreled action is set into a hand-laid AG Composites carbon-fiber stock, and it’s available with a standard stock or one with an adjustable cheekpiece. Finish choices are Evergreen or Ridgeline (shown) camo. It has a TriggerTech trigger that’s adjustable from 2.5 to five pounds, and it feeds from an AICS-pattern single-stack magazine. Calibers are 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Win. >> $1,699–$2,399, SPRINGFIELD-ARMORY.COM Leupold SX-2 Alpine HD The newest spotter from Leupold incorporates its Twilight Max light management system, which produces better images in extreme low light and reduces image wash-out due to glare. It’s got a…

The term “stalking rifle” comes to us from across the pond. It refers to a style of gun favored in the Scottish Highlands for hunters in pursuit of red deer who “stalked” or hiked after their quarry as opposed to sitting in a blind—basically, what we would call “spot and stalk” or “still-hunting.” The classic stalking rifles were light sporters chambered in light to medium calibers, with the 7x57 Mauser/.275 Rigby often mentioned. Rifles of this type were carried by some of the legendary hunters of the past, including one Frederick Courteney Selous. While he earned his fame as an African elephant hunter, Selous traveled the world in search of a wide variety of game. One famous photograph shows him sitting in a chair reading or writing, and propped up…

Bill Ruger was a brilliant firearm designer, and part of his brilliance was an ability to take a classic firearm design and reinvent it in a way that made it even more desirable. One of his early designs, the Ruger Blackhawk, was (and is) a modern take on Colt’s single-action revolver. Bill Ruger also designed a single-shot rifle based on the Farquharson falling-block design in the form of the Ruger No. 1. Even in the modern era of carbon-fiber barrels and chassis guns, the elegant No. 1 continues to have a large and loyal following. Another of Ruger’s forward-thinking developments was the Ruger Model 77. In the 1960s Remington revolutionized the rifle world by developing a cheap, functional push-feed action for its Model 700. To compete with the Model 700,…

There are some guns you never forget. Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to have that gun in your safe right now. For many of us it slipped through our grasp. For me, one such gun was a Dakota Model 97 I used to kill my first mule deer. The action was silky smooth, and the 97’s claw extractor took a mighty bite on the rim of the .300 Win. Mag. rounds that ran through the action. Accurate as it was—and it was very accurate—the thing I remember most was how well the gun balanced and handled, coming to the shoulder more like a fine shotgun than a hunting rifle. It was light enough to carry all day and heavy enough to absorb recoil. I’m convinced it would have been my go-to…

Standing alone as the arm most responsible for the conversion of the North American buffalo herds into fertilizer, fur coats, industrial equipment and, occasionally, food is the Sharps rifle. Other arms helped, of course, but the Sharps side-hammer became the symbol not only of the destruction of the buffalo but also of the end of the Indians’ way of life, the opening of the prairie for farmers and the rise of industry in the East. Because of its storied past, beginning before the Civil War, original Sharps rifles even in relic condition bring top dollar. For shooters, the Cadillac of the repros has long been the Shiloh Sharps Model 1874, a rifle long on my want list. So when an early Hartford Model 1874 custom barreled in .44-77 by John…

Without a doubt, precision rifle competitions are among the fastest growing of the various shooting sports. The highly-competitive Precision Rifle Series and National Rifle League have exploded in popularity and have driven rapid innovation amongst rifle and component manufacturers seeking a competitive advantage. Among the critical pieces of the precision rifle puzzle is a stock suitable for stable and comfortable long-range shooting. Phoenix-based McMillan fiberglass stocks have been the standard by which other brands have been compared in the tactical rifle market for decades, but now there is some serious competition from both traditional synthetic and chassis stock makers. To help meet that challenge and to provide a product that would cut the lead times required to custom-build stocks, McMillian developed the Z-1. The Z-1 has all the standard features…

I don’t watch hunting shows, so I had no idea who Steve Criner was. Turns out he is a die-hard coyote hunter and has a show called “Dog Soldier” on Sportsman Channel. His name is on this new Axeon scope because he helped design it. It’s a 4-16x50mm second-focal-plane scope with a 30mm tube, and it features side parallax adjustment to 500 yards and an illuminated reticle. With the adjustable eyepiece turned all the way in, the scope measures 13.5 inches long, and weight is one pound, six ounces. Eye relief is 3.5 inches. The power ring is nicely designed, with angled scallops that provide a sure grip—particularly going down in power. Adjustments are 1/4 m.o.a. courtesy of capped, low-profile turrets. The specs indicate there’s 100 inches of elevation travel,…

I grew up in lever-action rifle country, and it was not unusual for Winchester 94 versus Marlin 336 versus Savage 99 debates to keep fires in deer camps burning deep into the night. But there were no such arguments when the best rifle for smaller targets was discussed. In those days there were two types of small-game hunters: those who had a Marlin 39A (or one of its ancestors) and those who desperately wanted one. At the ripe old age of 14, I managed to become a member of the elite group by spending an entire summer helping a neighboring farmer clear trees and brush from bottom land for crop planting. With that hard-earned money in pocket, I went rifle shopping. At the time, the Marlin 39A with curved grip…

I don’t how many reams of paper have been written on the Model 1892 lever gun, but if the count is as high as I think it is and I got a dollar for every page, I would be sitting on beach somewhere with a cool drink. It is one of the most popular of all the John Browning designs, a lighter and smaller version of his larger-framed Model 1886. While the .44-40 Win. was the most popular caliber, it was also chambered for the .32-20, .38-40, .25-20—even a very few in .218 Bee. The gun is still in production from a few manufacturers. One of the most popular is the Rossi R92, which is available in 17 different variations and chambered for cartridges from the .22 Long Rifle to…