Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Gun Digest

I was riding shotgun with a South African Professional Hunter not long ago, bumping through the rock-sprinkled velt in search of whatever Africa’s expanse was willing to reveal to an over-eager American thirsting for adventure. It was a badass little rig, driven by an even more profound man of character, both sun hardened and scratched from an unrelenting life in the most wild of places. Between us rode an ancient .458, the stock pinched between the seat and center console, with its muzzle tapping a reverent beat on the floorboard with each flex of the suspension below. In the eyes of some, I suppose, that gun was damned ugly. The stock was as tattered and worn as the man who possessed it, and the piebald exterior of the blued and…

01 CVA Cascade SR-80 Catering to diverse hunting regulations, CVA has introduced the Cascade SR-80 scout rifle in .308 Win. or .350 Legend. Equipped with a Williams rear peep sight and adjustable front sight, alongside a Picatinny scope base with long eye relief, the rifle offers versatile sighting options. Finished with a durable black graphite Cerakote and earth-colored synthetic stock, it blends reliability with aesthetics. Swivel studs for a traditional sling and a customizable length of pull ensure comfort and adaptability. Compact with an 18-inch barrel and 7.3-pound weight, the Cascade SR-80 embodies the essence of the scout rifle concept. MSRP: $925 02 Maxim Defense PDX-SD in .300 BLK and 7.62x39mm Looking for a bit more thump in your AR-style pistol? Maxim Defense has just what the doctor ordered with…

In my time as a gun writer, I’ve come in contact with just about every corner of the shooting public and their unique cultures. Just like anything we obsess over, barrels are one of those topics that can polarize people. For every 10 shooters, you’ll find 10 different schools of thought on what barrels to buy, what length, what contour, carbon or steel, favored twist rates and so on. One of the more controversial barrel configurations of our day is chrome lining. This feature has passionate proponents—and decided detractors. Let’s look at just what chrome lining is and why it has generated so much divisiveness in the shooting community. AN UNPOLISHED PAST Before we dive into the technical merits of chrome-lined barrels, we should first look at them from the…

HISTORICAL NOTES The .30-378 Weatherby Magnum is the .378 Weatherby Magnum case necked to .30 caliber. It was created by Roy Weatherby in the 1950s, upon request by the U.S.government, which wanted to determine how well various types of armor plating stood up to penetration by high-speed projectiles. Using special lightweight bullets made by Speer Bullet Company, Weatherby managed to exceed a muzzle velocity of 6,000 fps during his tests. Years later, while still a wildcat, the .30-378 became popular among members of the Original 1,000-Yard Rifle Club in Pennsylvania, where it was used to shoot the world record group at that distance. After several years of coaxing by firearms writer Layne Simpson, Roy’s son, Ed Weatherby, decided to add the cartridge to the Weatherby lineup in 1996. During that…

We’ve all got gun cases. Some of us have plenty: the tacti-cool one with 17 pockets and Molle straps all over, one black, one green, one tan, one camo (heck, five camo), the hard one with wheels for flying—I’ve got five or six of those in various sizes—the Cordura one just to go to the range, and I’ve got a whole closet full of those, too, for some reason. But what do you do when it’s wet? Raining? Pouring? None of those help much, and some are worse than help. The solution: get Alps. The Alps OutdoorZ Waterproof rifle case, that is. It’s not just some tough cloth, but a 500D PVC shell, with welded seams and inside padding. The opening is a folding roll-top closure like that found on…

Back in the early ’80s, a friend showed up at the farm with a .44 Magnum revolver. I think he’d traded a set of chrome wheels off his Chevy Nova for it. Like most used .44 Magnums, this one came with a half-box of ammo, and we did our best to try and shoot it all up. I think we gave up after we’d both fired about two cylinders full. If my memory serves, he soon traded it for some other now forgotten gun. That was my first introduction to the .44 Magnum, and though I’ve messed with several since, I’ve never had an inkling to own one. Until now. I was recently browsing the Lipsey’s website to see what was new. Lipsey’s is a Louisiana-based firearms dealer known for…

Big-bore hunting rifles have a unique allure, as more often than not they’re associated with hunting dangerous game, especially African dangerous game. And where I’ve been quoted as saying—from the perspective of the visiting client—that I prefer my cartridges to start with a “4,” a good number of African Professional Hunters cock an eyebrow at me, and tell me they want their cartridges to start with a “5.” Those rifle cartridges in the .50-caliber range are serious stopping cartridges, launching heavy bullets and generating heavy recoil. For ending a conflict with the largest animals on Earth, the .500s are great tools … if the shooter can handle the bone-crushing recoil. Now, not all .50-caliber rifles are created equal—technically a .50-caliber Hawken muzzleloader fits the bill—and there are some of the…

On a typically beautiful high desert morning in October of 2010, I was riding from Prescott, Arizona, to Gunsite Academy with Mike McNett of Doubletap Ammunition. We were discussing the terminal performance of defensive handgun ammunition. I was telling McNett about a test I’d conducted with the Barnes TAC-XP 160-grain bullet in 0.45-caliber. The conversation resulted in McNett offering a new load for the .45 auto that he calls the Mann Load. What I explained to McNett during that drive was that I’d evaluated nine 160-grain TAC-XP bullets using a 5-inch 1911 in .45 Auto by shooting them into 10 percent ordnance gelatin. By handloading, I’d varied the impact velocities from as slow as 809 fps to as fast as 1,263 fps. What I found was quite amazing in a…

I was checking the availability of a particular powder that my .300 Winchester Magnum enjoys very much, when I did a double take. While available, the price was $69.99 per pound. Reeling from the dramatic price increase, I turned to my wife, opened my mouth and heard my father’s voice come as I gave an uncontrollable dissertation on the cost of ammunition and components. Why in the world would there be such a drastic increase in the cost of powder, and why does it seem that the amounts of available powder is diminishing just as quickly? Vista Outdoor announced a price increase just before the 2023 holiday season, indicating that not only would loaded ammunition of all sorts—from rimfire to centerfire to shotshell—see an increase in price, but the components…

Just what is a big-bore AR-15? Before we can determine that we must clearly define our task. To me, it first means it’s the AR-15 not the AR-10 or other amalgams, derivatives or evolutions. So, despite our esteemed editor’s suggestion, a rifle in .308 is not a big-bore AR-15. The second variable one might think of would be that any cartridge hurling a bullet larger in diameter than 0.224 inch is a “big-bore” AR-15. I’m not buying that, either. Oh, I’ve bought such rifles, but I don’t consider a 6mm ARC, 6.5 Grendel or a .300 Blackout to be “big-bore” in an AR-15 … or any other rifle for that matter. No, for me, a big-bore AR-15 has to be pushing a bullet more than 0.308 inch in diameter. So,…

The first shotgun I ever fired was a 20-gauge J. C. Higgins single-barrel single shot. It belonged to the wife of a close family friend, one of two hunting and shooting mentors I had as a kid. I believe Stevens made the gun, but back then, it was marketed under the J. C. Higgins label by Sears, Roebuck and Company. As was typical of that type of single-barrel shotgun, it was very light and gave a healthy jolt with standard loads. So, to offset the recoil, my mentor loaded a few cartridges with about half an ounce of shot and reduced powder. In short, he made .410 loads in 20-gauge hulls. I shot at a tin can about 15 yards away; it was the first time I fired a shotgun.…