RifleShooter, the magazine dedicated to advanced rifle enthusiasts. All rifle sports are covered including hunting, target shooting and collecting, while focusing on fine custom rifles, great classics, and new high-tech designs.
A Polarizing Rifle I read J. Scott Rupp’s article review on the Christensen Arms Modern Hunting Rifle in the May/June issue. I was amused when he compared using the MHR to dating a supermodel. Indeed, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I personally see the MHR as being “six-pack ugly”! Granted, the MHR is constructed from state-of-the-art materials, and I have no doubt that it shoots well—as it should for its asking price of $3,500! But it is one of the ugliest rifles that I have ever seen. My idea of an appealing supermodel rifle is one containing fine exhibition walnut and blued steel like the Weatherby Mark V Deluxe or the ultimate in beautiful factory production rifles, the Colt Sauer by J.P. Sauer & Sohn—both of which…
LANDS & GROOVES Collecting firearms helps preserve the past, teaches appreciation of the skill and craftsmanship of our forebears and is a tangible way of preserving wealth. Pristine guns—those of exceptional rarity and condition—should be carefully preserved and admired as is. Done well, they appreciate the fastest in value. Rifles with some finish wear—what I call the “Shoot once a year on Sunday” type—have too much original finish for everyday use but just enough wear that a box or so of ammo won’t depreciate value. They’ll appreciate, too, but not as fast. Rifles with lesser amounts of finish can be enjoyed more often. These guns don’t appreciate as fast, but with care they won’t lose value like a new gun will, which might lose half its value out the door.…
Despite the popularity of the .270 Win., there hasn’t been a wide variety of .277 caliber cartridges offered to hunters over the years. That changed in 2001 when Winchester released its .270 Winchester Short Mag., which offered better ballistics than the .270 Win. in a short action. While some of Winchester’s other short magnums didn’t fare well, the .270 WSM did. Because it could be built in light, short-action rifles, it was suitable for light mountain rifles, and it shot flatter and hit harder than its .270 Win. cousin and carried about 150 additional foot-pounds of energy—while producing less recoil than the .300 magnums. Hunters liked what they saw and bought lots of .270 WSM rifles. A lot has happened in the cartridge world since 2001, and one of the…
A big change in the past couple years affecting a lot of whitetail hunters has been the new attitude some states are taking toward centerfire rifles. Some states that were shotgun only—or shotgun, muzzle-loader or handgun only—have relaxed their stances to allow straight-wall rifle cartridges. One such state is Illinois, which incidentally produces some monster bucks. Effective this year, hunters will be able to use centerfire rifles in certain calibers—mostly straight-walls but also a few bottlenecks like .300 BLK. The catch? The rifles have to be single-shots. Ruger was quick to seize on the opportunity afforded by the new law and has designed the One-Shot Sled ($25) for its popular American rifle. It’s for short actions only and handles such deer-centric, Illinois-legal straight-walls as .350 Legend and .450 Bushmaster, along…
An old friend of mine had a terrific custom .30-06 rifle built. He chose top-shelf components and had it built by a gunsmith who really knows his craft. The rifle wouldn’t shoot. It wanted to, but it regularly threw fliers that opened up tiny groups. After several unsatisfying range sessions, he contacted me. We headed to the range together for a little accuracy therapy session to see if we could determine the issue. While observing my friend at the bench, watching for signs of human-induced inconsistencies, I checked out a few rounds from his box of hand-loads. All the signs indicated he was doing everything right—until I looked at the cases’ headstamps. In the five or six cartridges I held, there were three different stamps: Winchester, Remington and Hornady. When…
The turnbolt rifle wasn’t new in the 1860s; it was just patiently awaiting development of suitable ammunition. The arrival of U.S. Gen. Hiram Berdan’s .42 Berdan centerfire cartridge soon had nations worldwide rearming with a variety of single-shot, turnbolt models using drawn brass cases, many suspiciously similar to the .42 Berdan. Ferdinand von Mannlicher revolutionized the payload quest by putting five shots of Austria’s 11.15x58 ammo—another cartridge suspiciously similar to the .42 Berdan—into a sheet metal clip. The whole packet was pushed down to quickly charge the rifle, and the clip fell out the bottom when the last round was chambered. Mannlicher’s equally revolutionary straight-pull action required but two motions to eject and feed another cartridge, rather than the four of the turnbolt, resulting in the highest sustained rate of…
