Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Shooting Times

I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED CRAIG BODDINGTON’S RECENT ARTICLE TITLED “Confessions of a Lazy Handloader.” I thought I would offer a recipe for his 7mm-08 that he described as a problem child. I have a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade in 7mm-08 that shoots the following recipe very well. The handload also works well in two other rifles. The load consists of 42.0 grains of IMR 4064 under the Barnes 140-grain TTSX. The round’s velocity averages 2,856 fps, according to my chronograph. I’ve fired some fantastic groups at 100 yards, and I’ve also hunted successfully with the load. Alan Waggoner Hubbard, TX A Good 7mm-08 Handload Craig Boddington mentioned having trouble getting a good handload in 7mm-08. I use load data from the Barnes website consisting of 47.3 grains of Reloder 17,…

AN EVOLUTION OF JOHN BROWNING’S PUMP- action Model 1897, the Winchester Model 12 shotgun was designed by T.C. Johnson and introduced in 1912. Winchester had enough confidence in it to market it as “The Perfect Repeater,” and time would validate that claim. It has an internal hammer design and was the first truly successful pump-action shotgun with that feature. Nearly two million were manufactured over the gun’s 52-year run. First-year guns were all 20 gauge. In 1913 16- and 12-gauge versions were added, and the latter required a much larger frame size. Although 12-gauge versions are considerably bulkier and heavier, they proved to be outstanding waterfowl guns. Some 20 years later, a 28-gauge version was added, and it’s certainly the rarest Model 12. Of all the bore sizes, the 16…

STOEGER INDUSTRIES HAS a bunch of company logos and one of the compa ny’s mottos is Every Day Tough Those three words surely describe the STR 9 line of semiauto matic pistols including the new-for-2022 SC version SC stands for subcompact. SC Means Subcompact There are three versions of the new STR-9SC. The standard variety comes with a three-white-dots sighting system (MSRP: $329). There is a second configuration that comes with tritium night sights (MSRP: $399) And the third version is optics ready (MSRP $399) meaning its slide is cut for installation of a red-dot optic and it comes with four mounting plates that accommodate a variety of popular red-dot sights Most of the features are the same on all three STR-9SC versions so let’s take a look at the…

REAL AVID SAYS ITS MASTER GUN VISE IS the first real bench vise made exclusively for guns and gun tools. Whether you’re building and customizing, repairing and cleaning, or mounting scopes and accessories, this vise makes the task easier. The base of the vise features an articulating ball-and-socket joint with an adjustable Speed-Cam Lever that applies pressure to the joint, allowing the vise and gun to be positioned and repositioned in any orientation. And the removable Torq-Lok pin intersects the ball-and-socket joint, locking it into the base for applying heavy force. The locking pin can be inserted every 90 degrees with the vise in either the vertical or horizontal position. Another unique feature is the Accu-Level leveling knob. It allows the vise to be tilted 3 degrees to either side…

I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT A BUNCH OF “BILLS” IN THIS column, including Bill Jordan, Curly Bill Brocius, William Collins, William H. Anderson, Billy Dixon, and Bill Doolin. Some were law abiding; some were outlaws. Well, Bill Longley may have been the bloodiest Bill of ’em all—and he certainly did not honor the law. William Preston Longley was born on October 6, 1851, on Mill Creek in Austin County, Texas. He was raised on a farm and learned to shoot at a young age. By 1867 he had dropped out of school and taken up a “wild” life of drinking, carousing, and running with unsavory types. In December 1868, at the age of 17, Bill committed his first confirmed murder, by shooting a former slave who was traveling on horseback with two…

RUGER’S NEW BIRDSHEAD WRANGLER FEATURES A rounded grip frame and birdshead-style synthetic grips, a 3.75-inch barrel, a blade front sight, and an integral notch rear sight. The cylinder holds six rounds of .22 LR ammo. The revolver uses a transfer-bar firing mechanism and loading gate interlock. The barrel is steel, the frame is aluminum alloy, and the finish is Cerakote. All black, silver with black cylinder, and burnt bronze with black cylinder are offered. The revolver weighs 28 ounces. MSRP: $279 ruger.com Springfield Armory 35-Round Magazine New for Springfield XD-M and XD-M Elite 9mm pistols is the 35-round extended magazine. The steel magazine has a black Teflon finish, a polymer basepad, and witness holes at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 rounds. It is 8.5 inches long MSRP: $54.99…

ONE CAN’T BE IN THIS BUSINESS FOR 50 YEARS without occasionally being asked: “How can I develop a depth of ballistics and reloading knowledge.” A complex question, but part of my answer is “be curious and not afraid to dabble within limits of sanity.” In my early days at the lab, we fortunately had time for research and were encouraged to “dabble.” Dr. Atticus James Gill was dean emeritus of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, located next to the Crime Lab building. In addition to being a respected educator and pathologist, Dr. Gill spoke several languages, was a keen historian, was graced with good humor and deep kindness, and was an avid reloader. When the lab began its firearms reference collection, some specimens had not seen…

SHOOTING TIMES HAS already covered several micro-sized 9mm personal-protection pistols this year, and we’re happy to be reporting on two more in this issue. One is the new Stoeger STR-9SC (SC stands for subcompact), and you can read about it in Jake Edmondson’s report elsewhere in this magazine. My review is of the new Savage Stance pistol. That’s right. Savage is making a micro-sized 9mm pistol, and that alone demonstrates just how popular these small-size 9mm self-defense pistols are these days. Lest you think that’s totally inconceivable, Savage actually has an interesting history when it comes to handguns. Maybe the most famous Savage handgun is the .45-caliber Model 1907 semiautomatic pistol that was created and submitted for consideration when the United States military was looking for a service pistol prior…

Q:I SURE LIKED JOSEPH VON BENEDIKT’S COLUMN ON THE RUGER Bearcat. I purchased one at a small country gunshop in the early 1970s and, coincidentally, paid $40 for it, just as the young man in Joseph’s column did. Mine included a holster! I had never heard of the Bearcat and only bought it because I thought it was neat looking and the price was right. In fact, I couldn’t get the money out of my pocket fast enough. I brought it home and shot it a few times over the years, but it’s spent the majority of its time with me in one of my gun safes. Joseph’s column enlightened me about the history of the gun. Comparing mine to the one in the picture and to the other two…

I VIOLATED ONE OF MY MOST SERIOUSLY GIVEN “don’ts” while preparing this column. I’ve often cautioned, “Don’t use any load data found on the Web unless you can verify it from a known, reliable source.” My only excuse is the round is a necked-down variation of a wildcat that was loosely derived from a SAAMI-approved parent cartridge. And the Web data was a Quick Load spreadsheet that had the actual components and performance criteria I intended to use. So why is the .375 SOCOM so interesting that I chose to violate my own advice? I already had a .458 SOCOM upper for my Rock River Arms lower, so I was familiar with its origins. Similar to the straight-walled .50 Action Express pistol cartridge, the SOCOM case is 0.3 inch longer,…

WE HERE AT SHOOTING TIMES LIKE TO REPORT ON “FUN GUNS” AND HAVE done so many times over the 30 years that I’ve been editing the magazine. For me, there’s simply no gun more fun to shoot than a .22 revolver. Heritage Manufacturing makes a lot of .22 revolvers, and one of its newest models is the Rough Rider Tactical Cowboy. While the name has a rather serious connotation, I think it’s darn fun to shoot. Two key features of the Tactical Cowboy are the six-slot Picatinny rail on the topstrap and the threaded muzzle (1/2-28). You’ll find those features on just about every tactical carbine and a lot of tactical semiautomatic pistols these days. Obviously, on those guns, the rail and the threaded muzzle are for installing an optic…

LET US BEGIN WITH AN INTERESTING FACT. OF THE myriad .30-caliber belted magnums available in the 1980s, the one determined to be the most efficient—that is, measured velocity for the amount of powder employed—was the once-revered but now largely ignored .300 Holland & Holland. You can enlarge the cartridge case and stuff in more powder, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in and eventually you are just wasting propellant. Two things you will undoubtedly get, instead of increased velocity, are a much magnified muzzle blast and heavier recoil. Ken Waters, for years America’s indefatigable test-shooter and oracle on all things ballistic, reported that his experience showed the velocity increase realized from two larger .300s (the .308 Norma Magnum and the .300 Winchester Magnum) amounted to only 27 to 72…