Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2025 i RifleShooter

Africa Plains Game Rifles on Steroids I enjoyed Craig Boddington’s plains game article in the November/December issue. I have done one safari, and my plains game rifle was a .338 Win. Mag. with the 225-grain Barnes TTSX load. I had no problems on any plains game encountered, but I was also glad I had my .416 Rem. Mag. and 400-grain Barnes TSX loads for a through-and-through shot on a Cape buffalo and one through and through on a zebra. That convinced me the .416 is the ultimate driving machine! Jim Britton, Texas 3-Rifle Batteries In case you missed November/December’s “Last Page,” we asked readers what their favorite rifle batteries are if they were limited to just three. Following are a few responses. Never having had a desire to hunt Africa,…

Compressed propellant charges in your handloads can be good, bad or ugly. A compressed charge is basically exactly what it sounds like. There’s more gunpowder than there is room inside the cartridge case once the bullet is seated. The act of seating the bullet in the case neck compresses the gunpowder down into the case. Let’s start with the benefits of compressed loads, and then address the disadvantages. You’ll find some rules of thumb for loading compressed charges in the accompanying sidebar. Compressed powder granules are held securely in place, and there’s no empty space inside the case. According to Hornady ballistician Jayden Quinlan, eliminating propellant ullage (free space in the cartridge case) is particularly helpful when shooting up or down at steep angles. Compression keeps the propellant from shifting…

Don Burris began working as an engineer for Redfield scopes in the early 1960s, but after a decade he decided to break away from Redfield and start his own optics company. Known simply as Burris Optics, his company focused on rugged riflescopes designed specifically for hunters. One of its first successful products was the Fullfield, which debuted in 1975. Few of the riflescopes that existed in the 1970s are still around, but the Fullfield is one of them. The latest addition to the Fullfield family of scopes is the E1, an optic that’s the product of almost five decades of innovation. But can a scope with roots going back to the age of disco really make an impact on today’s optics market? The Fullfield E1 line consists of the 3-9x40mm,…

There’s been a shift toward hybrid rifles in recent years, guns that combine elements of target/tactical models and traditional sporters. Perhaps no guns typify this more than SIG’s Cross series rifles, which debuted in 2019. In 2022 SIG released its PRS model, which leaned more toward competition, and for 2024 the company is launching the Cross Magnum. As the name suggests, it’s a beefed-up version of the standard Cross rifle with a larger chamber and magazine to accommodate magnum cartridges like the .300 Win. Mag., which is currently the only chambering. It borrows its overall design from previous Cross rifles and features a SIG Precision adjustable folding stock, an aluminum receiver and a full-length handguard with M-Lok attachment points and a full-length Arca rail. The Cross Magnum is a bolt…

A higher percentage of shooters own suppressors than ever before, and that’s a good thing. Suppressors—or silencers or cans, if you prefer—are a fantastic tools for hunters and shooters because they cut down on recoil and muzzle blast, the primary catalysts for developing a flinch. It’s more fun to shoot suppressed, and most shooters find that their accuracy improves with a can in place. Last but not least, they’re quieter to your neighbors at the range and fellow hunters in the field. Since suppressors make shooting so much more enjoyable, it only follows that shooters should want to carry suppressors with them wherever they travel. But while companies like Silencer Central have demystified the rules for owning a suppressor, there are still some unknowns when traveling with a suppressor. I…

Bipods are the hot ticket among rifle accessories these days, both with hunters and the competition set. Warne’s new Skyline Pro has a lot to offer both. Built of aircraft-grade aluminum, it’s available with Lite or Precision legs and with Arca rail or QD Picatinny rail head. My sample incorporated the Lite legs and Pic head, a configuration weighing just one pound, four ounces. This version had an introductory price of $450 at press time. I think the key feature here is the ability to quickly set the stance at 22, 48 or 72 degrees—both legs moving simultaneously with the push of a single button. That’s a really fast way to get the right position, whether you’re dealing with terrain in the field or scenarios at a match. Locking leg…

Thanks, no doubt, to the obsession with all things long range, rifles seem to be getting longer and longer these days. Add a suppressor and they’re longer still. This is fine when you’re in the great wide-open, but how about when climbing in and out of a pickup or on and off a horse? How about in a tree stand or in thick timber? The reality is that there are times when a compact rifle or carbine is a far superior choice than a cumbersome long-range rig. For such an occasion, the Howa Superlite is hard to beat. Weighing well under 4.5 pounds and only 35.25 inches long, this bolt action is about as light and portable as it gets. The Superlite is currently available in .243 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor,…

Survival weapons have been in use with the military for almost a century. During World War II, U.S. aircrews were issued M6 .22 Hornet/.410 survival guns. In the event of a crash, such guns would provide survivors a simple, reliable firearm suitable for foraging for wild game. Since then, a number of survival rifles have been offered for civilians, all of which offered austere designs that were reliable and lightweight. Many of these rifles could be broken down for easy transport on a boat, in a pack, or under the seat of a plane. They were designed to work when called upon, and they were certainly better for food procurement—and possibly self-defense—than a pointy stick. But most of these guns had some rough edges. The TacSol Owyhee Takedown is a…

Named with a subliminal message, Savage’s new Klym rifle is built for mountain country. Made with a skeletonized lightweight receiver, composite and carbon-fiber stock, and carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel, it tips the scales at just five pounds, 15 ounces. It’s light enough to take into the most rigorous terrain on earth. Savage Arms cut no corners on the Model 110 Klym. Its lightweight receiver is factory blueprinted, meaning it’s squared and trued like a custom action. It’s made of Blackout Cerakotefinished stainless steel for an action that’s as impervious to corrosion and abrasion as any action can be. In order to keep the Klym as light as possible, Savage fluted the bolt with a unique series of spiral grooves in a crosshatch diamond pattern. Where the metal bolt knob usually is, there’s…

Smith & Wesson was quick to follow up its .44 Mag.- chambered Model 1854 lever action with a .45 Colt version. It’s a rifle that will appeal to hunters, plinkers and Cowboy Action competitors because it’s a handy, fast-handling and light-recoiling carbine. When Keith Wood reviewed the initial rifle in this line in our July/August 2024 issue, he had the synthetic model. When the .45 version came out, I requested the 1854 Traditional because I know a lot of RifleShooter readers appreciate wood stocks. The Traditional’s is a good-looking checkered walnut, with textured grip panels on the wrist and fore-end. The butt is capped with a relatively hard black rubber recoil pad and includes a sling swivel stud. The fore-end’s texturing coverage is nice and full, and there’s a hole…

The smokeless powder revolution caused rapid rearming worldwide. The 6mm Lee Navy grew out of the U.S. Navy’s early enthusiasm for the 6.5 Mannlicher-Schonauer in the early 1890s. A logical discovery was there is no task a 6.5 does that a 6mm can’t do better while using fewer resources in making ammo, and the ammo weighing less while shooting flatter with less recoil. The Navy eschewed the Army’s .30-40 Krag for the same reasons. A flat-shooting cartridge was paramount if sharpshooters were to engage enemies ship to ship or ship to shore. Still, a 6.5 was adopted by Japan, Italy and Sweden to name a few. Only the U.S. Navy went smaller by adopting the .236 USN or 6mm Lee Navy as it was called commercially. The Model 1895 Lee…

These days, America’s sportsmen and women are clamoring for more “content,” as we call it in the media: more articles, more television shows, more website info. Outdoor Sportsman Group—which publishes this magazine as well as bringing you the Sportsman Channel and Outdoor Channel—has answered that call with the My Outdoor TV (MOTV) app. It’s a resource like no other, a curated treasure trove of outdoor-oriented television shows and videos. Think of it like your own personal Neftlix, with episodes of “Gun Stories” with Joe Montegna, the gun restoration show “The Gunfather,” “Guns & Ammo,” “Shooting USA” and more. The universe of content is even bigger when it somes to hunting, and I know a lot if not most of you enjoy your time in the field. Check out “Petersen’s Hunting…

Most of us reading this magazine know that “.30-06” is short for “Cartridge, Ball, Caliber .30, Model of 1906.” In 1900, the U.S. military began developing a new rimless-cartridge bolt-action rifle—loaded via stripper clip—to replace the side-loading Krag-Jorgensen and its rimmed .30-40. Essentially, we wanted to keep pace with the European powers. There was an experimental .30-01, and in 1903 we adopted the 1903 Springfield and the .30-03 cartridge with a 220-grain roundnose bullet. The 1903 Springfield served us well for decades, but the .30-03 cartridge was a blunder, largely because of its roundnose bullet. European powers had already shifted to spitzers. The subsequent Model of 1906 round was shorter, with .046 inch removed from the neck. The .30-03 case was 2.54 inches, while the .30-06 case is 2.494 inches.…

Stylistic trends in AR-type rifles and carbines seem to change faster than women’s fashions. What is cool and cutting-edge one month seems to be internet-obsolete merely months later. One could quickly go broke trying to keep up with the latest trends in AR accessories. Perhaps it is this fickle reality that has helped create the nostalgic demand for “retro” rifles and carbines. The latest big entry into the retro market is from Springfield Armory, which recently released the SA-16 rifle—a modern adaptation of the M16A2 rifle that helped the U.S. military bridge the gap from the Cold War to the Global War on Terror. The SA-16 is an almost exact clone of the M16A2, and its design elements mirror those of the classic service rifle. Like Eugene Stoner’s original M16,…

During the final years of the 19th century, more than one designer believed that a self-loading big game rifle chambered for a powerful cartridge capable of sending a bullet with each squeeze of the trigger would make all other designs obsolete. Blackpowder kept the creation of such an engine only a distant dream, and then came the development of smokeless. Winchester dealt the first hand with the blowback-operated Models 1905, 1907 and 1910 rifles chambered for the .32, .35, .351 and .401 Self-Loading cartridges. All but the .401 were marginal in power for taking game as large as deer and black bears. Remington entered the race in 1906 with the Autoloading Repeating Rifle, as it was originally called, and it went on to become the most successful of the early…

The original LC (Lightweight Compact) Carbine from Ruger was chambered in 5.7x28, and that gun offered such an appealing, shooter-friendly design that it should come as little wonder that Ruger expanded the LC family. I’m not sure anyone outside the company expected the second version of this blowback-operated autoloading carbine to be chambered in .45 ACP, though. Perhaps Ruger didn’t want to cannibalize PC carbine sales, or maybe it thought the many fans of the .45 Auto deserved a carbine designed just for them. Regardless, this is a gun you’ll quickly grow to love. Like the 5.7x28, the .45 ACP LC Carbine comes with an aluminum receiver with a black Type III hard-coat anodized finish and a 16.25-inch alloy steel barrel with a .578x28 threaded muzzle. The 7.5-inch free-floating handguard…