Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Shooting Times

THE “TRANSITIONAL PROPELLANTS” COLUMN BY ALLAN JONES WAS A well-researched and very interesting piece recounting the early developmental history and challenges of the gunpowder propellants that we know, use, and love today. It kept my interest and shed some perspective on how far this chemistry has come since the early days. Good job! Pete Hegedus Clearwater, FL What the .25-20 Is Good For I enjoyed the question and answer in the “Ask the Experts” department in the July issue. My answer is that back in 1963, when I was a high school senior, I traded a Marlin 39A to my brother for a Winchester Model 1892 in .25-20 that he had found on a hunting trip in Montana. It was my first centerfire, and it got me on the road…

CONCEIVED AS AN AFFORDABLE OVER-UNDER for American sportsmen, the Ruger Red Label cost about the same as two blue-collar home mortgage payments in 1977 when it was first introduced. Built under directive of Bill Ruger, it was a sleek, classic gun well suited for hunting upland game and busting clay birds. Introduced in 20 gauge, early iterations were blued, with very nice walnut, fixed chokes, and 26-inch barrels. Two years later, in 1979, Ruger added 12-gauge guns, and eventually barrels of 28 and 30 inches became available. Much later, in 1994, 28-gauge models were created. Fixed chokes gave way to more modern, adaptable screw-in chokes in the mid-1980s. Eventually, guns with stainless-steel receivers were introduced, and they are considered by many to be the most aesthetic Red Labels. Tang safeties…

RUGER’S NEW MAX-9 OFFERS ALL THE FEATURES YOU WANT IN A MICRO- size personal-protection pistol: high magazine capacity; a slide that’s ready for installing a reflex-type dot sight; light weight; a consistent, smooth trigger pull; and styling that lends itself to easy concealment. On top of all that, it has a great MSRP of $499. The MAX-9’s barrel is 3.2 inches long, and it’s cold hammer forged and finished with black oxide. The muzzle is crowned. The hardened alloy-steel slide is also finished in black oxide, and it is contoured for concealed carry on the top of the sides, at the muzzle end, and at the rear, too. It also has angled grasping grooves at the front and the rear. The polymer frame (Ruger calls it glass-filled nylon) has subtle-but-effective…

A FEW YEARS AGO, I VENTURED OUT TO WEST Texas to hunt aoudad in the mountains south of Alpine. We arrived at the ranch, where I was questioned about my rifles and given the standard briefing by the ranch manager. The rifles I brought were a Schultz & Larsen M65DL in .358 Norma and a custom Mauser in .250-3000. The manager was not familiar with either one, but after I explained, he seemed to think the .358 Norma might do the trick. After all, he said, “aoudad are hard to kill, and they don’t leave much of a blood trail.” What’s more, he added, unlike desert bighorns and similar animals, an aoudad’s vitals are located farther back in the body. “Don’t shoot behind the shoulder,” he said. “Shoot farther back.”…

ARMSCOR PRESIDENT AND CEO MARTIN TUASON SAYS THE NEW STRIKER- fired Rock Island Armory STK100 “gives shooters all the advantages of metal for the price of polymer. It’s perfect for recreational shooting, self-defense, and even law enforcement, which makes it incredibly versatile.” The 9mm STK100 features a carbon-steel chassis, an aluminum grip frame with an extended beavertail and integral grips, a 4.5-inch Parkerized barrel, an optics-ready slide, fixed sights, and a 17-round magazine. Overall length is 7.91 inches, height is 5.16 inches, and width is 1.25 inches. The pistol weighs 29 ounces unloaded. MSRP: $599 armscor.com/stk100 Bushnell Rimfire Riflescopes Bushnell has added two new rimfire-specific 3-9X 40mm riflescopes to its lineup. Both models are specifically designed for .22 LR rifles, and they are intended for varmint and small-game hunting as…

THE .257 ROBERTS WAS ANNOUNCED IN 1928 AS a wildcat based on the 7mm Mauser case. The “quarter-bore” was fashionable due to fine game performance demonstrated by the .250 Savage. The wildcat became the “.25 Roberts,” honoring its lead developer, Maj. Ned H. Roberts, a well-known outdoor writer and experimenter. The final form of the .25 Roberts was only slightly changed from the 7mm Mauser. In addition to a smaller neck, the wildcat had a shallower 15-degree shoulder angle and a slightly shorter case. It did not take long for custom riflemakers to begin building .25 Roberts rifles. Then, in 1934, Remington took interest. Remington’s .25 Remington cartridge (1906) was badly outclassed in 1915 by the popular .250 Savage. The company needed a modern product for the increasingly popular bolt-action…

Q : I GENERALLY ENJOYED THE RECENT RELOADING COLUMN ABOUT creating .41 Special loads, but I had two questions I hope you can clarify. First, is it necessary to utilize shortened brass to safely create these loads? Second, the chart included four handloads using Blue Dot powder, but since the manufacturer has a safety notice warning against using Blue Dot for .41 Magnum handloads, is it safe for .41 Special handloads? Terry Tobias Via email A : The .41 Special is not a factory cartridge and there aren’t any standard performance criteria, so a handloader must empirically develop safe load data. Of course, this “wildcat” round has been around for decades, and several experienced handgunners have developed and published their hand-load recipes. I used that data to experiment with my…

CHARLES NEWTON IS NOTED IN THE ANNALS OF early-20th-century firearms history for his unique rifles and proprietary cartridges. The .256, .30, and .35 Newton rounds delivered exemplary ballistic performance not matched until years later. He also designed the .22 Hi-Power and .250-3000 for Savage. Newton also purportedly toyed with a .22-caliber .250 Savage case and shared his idea with J.E. Gebby years before Gebby debuted the .22 Varminter wildcat. Newton was a brilliant engineer, but he was not successful as a business entrepreneur. After several failed attempts, the last Newton rifle manufacturing facility folded in 1927. Only 5,000 rifles had been produced, and Western Cartridge made the last .256 Newton ammunition in the late 1930s. The .30 and .35 Newton cartridges were original designs, i.e., there was no parent case.…

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN REMINGTON’S Model 760 slide action and Model 742 autoloader in .30-06, .270 Winchester, and other popular cartridges ranked among the bestselling rifles in America. This caused much agony and embarrassment among Winchester executives because their company had not a single quick-shooting firearm capable of competing against those two. The Model 94 lever action was still being built, but the grand old .30-30 cartridge was short on horsepower when stacked against its competition. The time to introduce rifles capable of racing neck-to-neck with the two Remington thoroughbreds was upon them. Winchester’s eventual answer to the Remington 742 was the gas-operated Model 100, and one of the chamberings was the rebated-rim .284 Winchester. The company had never built a slide-action centerfire rifle, but decades of successful lever…

BORN IN LOUISIANA ON MAY 28, 1850, FRANK H. Mayer lived to the ripe old age of 103 years and nine months. During his long, adventurous life, he became an expert marksman, and one researcher called him a “true, dyed-in-the-wool gun crank.” Another writer, in the pages of our sister publication Guns & Ammo (Fall 1958 Vol. 1, Issue 2; also available at gunsandammo. com), referred to him as the “scientific buffalo hunter.” The Mayer family moved to Pennsylvania when he was five years old. He grew up hunting and fishing and became an amateur gunsmith, learning to build muzzleloaders. He also learned to be a fine rifle shot, often beating older shooters in informal competitions. His first favorite rifle was a full-stock Kentucky rifle with a 51-inch barrel and…