Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i RifleShooter

Marlin Moose First I would like to say, I love your magazine. Of all the different outdoor and gun magazines I receive, this is the one I look for. On page 31 (“Memoriam for Mediums?” May/June), Craig Boddington stated he shot the moose in the lead photograph with a .338 Rem. Ultra Mag, but he has a lever action. I know they do not make a lever action in .338 Rem. Ultra Mag. Thomas Gresch Once again your old, befuddled editor has fallen down on the job. Craig submitted images of two different moose, and in looking at his caption list I got them mixed up when I added the caliber to the text of his article. He killed the moose in question with a .338 Marlin Express.—Scott Best Bet…

The Remington 700 has been a mainstay of the American rifle shooter since 1962, and its action has been cloned more than any other in history. It is easily among the most customizable rifles you can own. Limitless upgrades exist for this platform, chief among which is the trigger group. I did some digging to round up and test the best of the best for your consideration. JARD ULTRA MATCH While Jard itself has been in business since 2000, this trigger has only been around since late 2024—spurred by a demand for a four-lever trigger when rival trigger maker Jewell ceased production. This system increases mechanical advantage, allowing for the lightest pull possible. I found a pull-weight adjustment range of four to six ounces, making it the lightest I would…

I was lying prone on a stone outcropping in northern New Mexico watching the FireDot of my Leupold VX-6HD Gen 2 scope settle on the chest of a yapping coyote. While I didn’t take the shot because we were hunting elk, the encounter offered me an opportunity to test the VX-6HD Gen 2’s low-light capabilities. Dawn was nothing more than a silver streak on the eastern horizon at that time, and I couldn’t see the ’yote with the naked eye. With the scope, however, I could clearly make out the dog as it lay in a bare patch on the prairie. I wasn’t particularly surprised by this since the previous-generation VX-6HD was heralded for clarity and lowlight performance. Leupold’s outstanding Professional Grade Optical System carries over to the new Gen…

It was a roundnose-bullet world until 1898. The French Balle D was developed by Capt. Georges Desaleux and adopted in the 8x50 Lebel cartridge. Not only was the new French bullet sharply pointed, it was also the first known boattail design. The improved aerodynamics of the revolutionary Balle D increased maximum ranges, and most of the world’s militaries, including ours, soon shifted to pointed projectiles, often boattailed. The German word Spitzgeschoss means “pointed bullet,” and we still use “spitzer” to differentiate a sharply pointed bullet from a roundnose or flatpoint. That says nothing about the base, which could be flat or boattailed. The boattail reduces drag and increases a bullet’s ballistic coefficient—the index we use to judge a bullet’s ability to overcome air resistance or drag and to fly flatter.…

John Rigby & Company introduced the .416 Rigby in 1911 on a lengthened version of the commercial Mauser Model 98 Magnum action. The Model No. 5, .416 Bore Big Game Rifle had a 26-inch barrel, and it weighed 10 pounds. The magazine held four rounds and the three-leaf rear sight was said to be regulated for 100, 200 and 300 yards. Rigby also introduced ammunition loaded with 410-grain softnose, hollow-nose and steel-covered solid bullets at a velocity of 2,371 fps for 5,119 ft.-lbs. of energy. Cordite—an extremely temperature-sensitive smokeless propellant introduced by the British in 1889—was used, and because the ammunition would be subjected to the tropical climates of India and Africa, it was loaded to a rather mild chamber pressure of 38,100 psi—about the same as American loadings for…

The improved access to suppressors is one of the best things to happen to shooters and hunters in a long time, but some big game hunters are understandably concerned about the added length and weight. Enter Silencer Central’s Banish Backcountry ($1,099, SILENCERCEN TRAL.COM). Able to handle chamberings up to and including .300 Rem. Ultra Mag, it is just 5.5 inches long and weighs only 7.8 ounces. By comparison, the Backcountry’s Banish 30 stablemate, which has a similar caliber range, is seven inches long and weighs 11.2 ounces without its extension. That may not sound like much, but it makes a huge difference. The Backcountry ships with a direct-mount hub with a 5/8x24 thread pitch. That is going to fit the vast majority of barrels in big game chamberings, but if…

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…

Winchester’s new .21 Sharp fires true .21 caliber projectiles out of classic .22 Long Rifle rimfire cases. The bore diameter of .21 Sharp rifles is .210, rather than .223. Some of you are already thinking: Is this not the answer to an unasked question? That depends on where you’re from. If you live in California or some other lead-restricted region and have struggled to achieve adequate accuracy with nontoxic .22 LR ammo, the .21 Sharp may be exactly the answer you’ve been looking for. One of the four initial loads offered by Winchester is a speedy flatnose 25-grain Copper Matrix monometal bullet. Yes, it’s light compared to the standard .22 LR’s 40-grain bullet, but it exits the muzzle at a speedy 1,750 fps. Inside practical hunting distances out to 100…

Back in 2010, rifle manufacturers were battling to build the most affordable, accurate bolt action. Savage’s entry into that budget bolt-gun market was the Axis, a bare-bones push-feed design with an inexpensive injection-molded polymer stock and plenty of chambering options. Eventually the company offered the Axis II with an AccuTrig-ger, as well as the XP models, which shipped with a pre-mounted and bore-sighted scope. The Axis has remained a best-seller for Savage for more than a decade, and this gun has made it into the hands of enough shooters that if you have a few hundred bucks to spend and want a reliable, reasonably accurate hunting rifle, then the Axis is an ideal choice. But times and tastes have changed, and the original Axis/Axis II was getting a bit long…

Historically, case trimming is tedious and slow to accomplish because it requires a lot of fiddling. Hornady’s new 3-in-1 powered case trimmer alleviates that. Rated to trim, chamfer and deburr up to 25 cases per minute—accomplishing these tasks all in one step—it enables you to process a few hundred cases in a half hour or less. That is a big deal. The High Speed 3-in-1 powered trimmer accepts cases from 1.450 inches up to 3.5 inches long, and up through .30 caliber. The unit is easy to install. Position the trimmer appropriately on the edge of your bench. Mark and drill two half-inch holes in your bench and secure the trimmer with machine bolts (not included). Plug it in, and you’re ready to go. The High Speed 3-in-1 trimmer has…

Traditional bolt-action rifles are as American as baseball and apple pie, but our friends on the far side of the Atlantic prefer straight-pull designs. In places like Germany and Finland, where driven hunts are common, the straight pull has become the rifle of choice. We’re seeing more straight pulls show up in the States every year, though. Companies like Blaser, Heym and Merkel have been importing a limited number of straight-pull rifles for years. Savage introduced the first American-made centerfire straight pull, the Impulse, in 2021, and most recently Beretta began offering its BRX1 straight-pull rifle in the U.S. The BRX1 has been available in Europe for a few years, so while it’s not technically a “new” rifle, it is a recent arrival on American gun store shelves. In concept…

First came outlaw “sniper” matches. Precision rifle competitions typified by the Precision Rifle Series followed. Inevitably, rimfire games with a similar type of format came along. Such matches require an accurate rifle that is capable of being shot from practical real-world positions. Bergara has recently introduced the BMR-X (Bergara Micro Rimfire) Carbon, a lightweight precision rifle with several attributes that make it a competitive factory option for small game hunters, varminters and plinkers alike. It just so happens that, in the process, the company may have developed the nearly perfect factory rifle for precision rimfire matches. Like most competitive shooting leagues, NRL22—one of a handful of governing bodies for precision rimfire—allows for different equipment categories. One of these is the Base division, designed to allow shooters to compete with factory…

When you’ve got a hot product, you run with it, and that’s exactly what Ruger is doing with its LC Carbine line. The latest addition is a 10mm model, and if you’ve been looking for a handy and powerful self-defense carbine, this might be the one. The LC Carbine is highly adaptable. The charging handle and magazine release can be relatively easily changed from the left side to the right. The gun ships with these controls on the left side, which is how most right-handers would shoot it. A thumb safety is located on both sides of the aluminum-alloy receiver. The bolt hold-back lever is on the left only. You can use it as a release or, simpler for righties, activate the right-side bolt release button just above the trigger…