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.
The Numbers Add Up I was disappointed in Craig Boddington article, “A Numbers Game” (March/April), since in the end, he gave great statistics, but no opinion. As the current dean of firearm and hunting writers, it is his job to share his opinions. Jack O’Connor, Warren Page and others before him were well known for their sometimes controversial opinions. In my long-held opinion, the 7mm/.284 is the most versatile caliber, and I believe Craig’s data clearly confirmed it. W.D.M. Bell used 7mm solids to harvest over 800 elephants. The queen of the 7mm/.284 caliber, the 7mm Rem. Mag., is available everywhere and will cleanly take down the largest North American animals and African plains game. Craig has long been a fan of the 7x57 Mauser and has opined that the…
LANDS & GROOVES Big is in. With the rise in popularity of straight-wall cartridges in formerly shotgun-only deer states, we’ve seen the introduction of “over .30” cartridges like the .350 and .400 Legends, and the .360 Buckhammer. Not to mention the change has provided a boost to older numbers like the .45-70 and .450 Bushmaster. Recognizing this, Silencer Central has introduced the Banish 46, which will handle cartridges up to .45-70. It will work with the .338 Lapua as well, which has a bullet diameter of .339 and is too big for the company’s Banish 338. Like all Silencer Central suppressors, the Banish 46 can also be used for smaller calibers down to 5.56, although you start to lose some effectiveness the smaller you go. I ordered the Banish 46…
The years following World War II were a time of tension due to the growing conflict between Russia and the western world. In 1950, NATO decided it best that all member nations use weapons that shared the same ammunition, which would simplify production and distribution. This new centerfire rifle cartridge needed to produce energies and velocities that approximated those of the .30-06, but with savings in gun and ammunition weight. The final product of this work was the T65 or 7.62x51 NATO cartridge. Shortly thereafter, Winchester decided to offer a commercial version of the cartridge, which it dubbed the .308 Win. Since 1954 the .308 Win. has been built into just about every conceivable action type and used as a sniper and competition round. It has also become one of…
This new scale from Hornady is intended to provide best-in-class, ultra-fine weighing capability. Company spokesman Seth Swerczek said,“The Precision Lab Scale was designed to compete with other lab-grade scales, like the FX120i, which has become so popular in the reloading world.” Since it’s specifically designed for handloaders, I’ll wager Hornady’s scale will not just compete, it’ll dominate. Why is a $500-plus scale that weighs obsessively tiny increments important? Candidly, for everyday hunters and shooters who reload—and even to serious PRS competitors and long-range hunters—it’s not a necessary tool. However, for accuracy-obsessive hand-loaders and particularly for benchrest and extreme-range competitors, the ability to weight-sort components to a highly refined level can make all the difference. Lab-quality scales are more sensitive and provide more detail than common reloading scales. They also cost…
It would be belaboring the obvious to refer to Winchester’s Model 70 as a tough act to follow. But it must have been even a tougher act to precede, although this admittedly bass-ackwards observation may be a touch unfair. What came immediately prior to the Model 70, the Model 54, was—and still is—a good rifle in its own right. Although certainly overshadowed and outproduced by the iconic Model 70, the Model 54 had a lot more going for it than its also-ran status might indicate. “The Model 54 is a key bolt action, since it was the firm’s first big-bore firing high-velocity cartridges capable of taking big game and for use in so-called big bore matches,” wrote R.L. Wilson in Winchester: An American Legend. The Model 54’s run lasted from…
It goes without saying that the last few years have been challenging, thanks to the impact of the Covid pandemic and subsequent upheaval that resulted from supply chain issues. Many companies are simply trying to fill massive backorder lists—a result of the dramatic uptick in firearms sales during the pandemic—and have pumped the brakes on new products. But that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of new guns this year, and at no time since I have been penning the Big Game Rifle Buyer’s Guide have I ever encountered such a broad array of new firearms—from rifles inspired by the long-range shooting craze to the return of the Marlin lever gun and much more. Whitetail, pronghorn, moose or sheep—no matter the game or the terrain you’ll find a gun on…
