Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Shooting Times

I HAVE ENJOYED SHOOTING TIMES FOR YEARS AND REALLY ENJOYED THE pieces in the July issue on the Browning Model 71 and the .348 Winchester cartridge by Joseph von Benedikt. I went through the identical issues he did when I bought the used (like new) rifle, finding only four boxes of Winchester factory ammo at a local store ($75 per box at that time). Luckily, I found brass and other loading components, and a close friend handloaded about 200 rounds for me. I am writing because I did get a chuckle out of Joseph’s statement, “While it is sometimes difficult to find, Hornady’s LEVERevolution.….” I have not seen a factory box of .348 Winchester since that initial four boxes some six years ago. Winchester always states the .348 Win. is…

BEST KNOWN TODAY AS THE WORKINGMAN’S rifle of Africa, BRNO had its start prior to World War I as a military arms producer. Regulated out of the fighting-gun business by the Treaty of Versailles, BRNO shifted gears and began making Mauser-based sporting firearms. A BRNO in 9.3x62 became the quintessential “big game” (dangerous game) rifle for the Germanic populations farming in Africa. Production restrictions eventually loosened, and BRNO designed the VZ-24 action, producing some 800,000. Sporting rifles continued to be a staple of its business. Meanwhile, in South Africa, a man named Benjamin Musgrave was earning notable status as a competitive shooter. He sent his son Trevor to the U.K. to learn the art of barrel-making from W.D. Lain. Returning to Bloemfontein, South Africa, with a rifling machine in 1953,…

THE NEW DOUBLE-STACK PRODIGY 1911 from Springfield Armory isn’t the first wide-body 1911—it isn’t even the first wide-body 1911 from Springfield. The concept has been around for better than 30 years, and Springfield offered one as far back as 1999. It was called the High Capacity. But the new-for-2022 Prodigy, a thoroughly modern version of the high-capacity Model 1911, is special in its own right and is an excellent all-round 9mm pistol. Its 17-round and 20-round standard magazines give it a lot of firepower, and there’s an accessory magazine that puts a whopping 26 rounds on board. Para-Ordnance is often credited with coming up with the wide-body Model 1911 concept back in about 1988. The company first offered a kit with a wide-body grip frame. Then about two years later…

TAURUS BROUGHT OUT THE GX4 MICRO pistol in 2021, and now there is the brand-new GX4 XL T.O.R.O. that is a real bell ringer. It has all the bells and whistles that today’s handgunners demand. Shooting Times Editor in Chief Joel J. Hutchcroft reviewed the GX4 when it arrived on the scene last year, and he wrote that Taurus was describing the micro-sized striker-fired, polymer-frame 9mm pistol with words like “artful,” “intelligent,” and “much praised.” I think the same can be said about this year’s new GX4 XL T.O.R.O. Whereas the GX4 has a 3.06-inch barrel, the new GX4 XL has a 3.7-inch barrel. It is 6.43 inches long overall and 4.4 inches tall (the same height as the GX4). It weighs 20 ounces unloaded. The frame is 1.0 inch…

FEATURING AN ALL-NEW GRIP MODULE, SIG SAUER’S NEW striker-fired P320-XTEN is chambered for the 10mm Auto cartridge. The grip module incorporates the XSERIES deep trigger undercut, extended beavertail, and aggressive stippling. Other features of the P320-XTEN include a 5.0-inch bull barrel, a flat XSERIES trigger with a 90-degree break, a Nitron-finished stainless-steel optics-ready slide, XRAY3 day/night sights, and two 15-round steel magazines. The pistol is 8.5 inches long, 5.6 inches tall, and 1.3 inches thick. Weight is 33 ounces. MSRP: $899.99 sigsauer.com Mauser M18 Savanna The newest version of the bolt-action Mauser M18 is the Savanna. This rifle features a Savanna tan stock with grip inserts, a cold-hammer-forged steel threaded barrel, a three-position safety, and an adjustable trigger. Standard magazine capacity is five rounds, and 10-round magazines are also…

THE .338 FEDERAL GRABBED MY ATTENTION FOR two reasons. I’ve always had an appreciation for compact cartridges that seem to work well, and I found .338-caliber cartridges more interesting after we tested the wildcat .338-06. I’ve heard it quipped that Federal conceived the .338 Federal cartridge so it could have a rifle cartridge with the company’s name on it. I find that rather dismissive. My standard is to ask if a cartridge plays well in a particular niche, and I had no trouble seeing where the .338 Federal played. American hunters have a long tradition of “the woods cartridge.” This is usually a cartridge of low to modest velocity pushing big bullets for “busting brush.” Popular old-timers were the .33 Winchester, .35 Remington, and .348 Winchester, all popular in lever…

HANDLOADING IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE AN adventure. Fascinating? Yes. Illuminating? That, too. It’s also supposed to save money, tailor loads to your needs, and keep old guns shooting when no commercial ammunition is available. What it is not supposed to be is eye-, finger-, gun-, or life-threatening. Having emerged from 60 years of handloading with all body parts intact and no history of unintentional gun damage, I find myself—oddly enough—more fearful, not less, when it comes to crossing the line. Over the years, I’ve read enough accounts of hand-loaders who became, first, arrogant, then careless, and finally dead. Loaders like J. Bushnell Smith, who reportedly blew up his entire shop when some ash from his ever-present cigar dropped into the open keg of Unique (I think it was Unique)…

Q: I HAVE ENJOYED ALL THE VARIOUS ARTICLES ON “TIPPED” BULLETS. They seem to be all the rage, but I have a question regarding some old Remington bullets in my possession. I have a box of Remington 180-grain Bronze Point bullets. I believe they were designed in the 1950s and/or early 1960s. The bullets appear to have a two-part base, with the outer jacket over the flat bottom copper piece. I am an avid reloader and have taken both mule deer and elk with these bullets. Was the Bronze Point bullet a prototype, maybe designed with a tip other than lead at the time for a special purpose? I think Winchester came out with its “Silvertip” at about the same time. Wes LeightonSan Diego, CA A: That’s a great question!…

A READER RECENTLY ASKED ABOUT SOME RIFLE brass he’d inherited. The mixture of new and fired cases was likely 40 to 60 years old, and he wondered if they were safe to load after he’d cleaned and inspected them. In order to provide a more insightful answer than a simple “yes” or “no,” I did some research. It’s been 50+ years since my material science studies in college and nearly 15 years since I retired from my engineering career, but it was interesting to rediscover facts I’d forgotten and learn just how cartridge brass is made and what factors affect loading/reloading it. First, “yellow” cartridge brass is not an exotic or complex material. Composed of approximately 70 percent copper and about 30 percent zinc (with a smidgen of lead and…

I ALWAYS ENJOY THE NOVEMBER ISSUE OF THE magazine because its theme is handloading. In light of that, here’s a profile of one of the great handloading writers of our time. I’m sure you’ve all heard of him, and many of you have read his writings. I’m referring to the late John Wootters. John was often called the “hunter’s hunter” and “Mr. Whitetail” because he was the consummate whitetail hunter, but I tend to think of him as “the complete handloader.” In fact, that’s the title of one of the many books he wrote. It was published in 1988. He had also written another book on handloading titled The Complete Book of Practical Handloading in 1976. Before that, he wrote about rifles and reloading forShooting Times (from May of 1973…