Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Gun Digest

Magazines are an essential component to the properly functioning semi-auto firearm. You have to feed the “machine,” otherwise it won’t run reliably. Although AR magazines haven’t evolved a lot, especially compared to the rest of the AR platform, there are some tips and upgrades that make them more reliable. This is especially true of the GI aluminum M-16/AR mags, which were originally considered disposable. We now know that with proper care these mags will last a long time. The Making Of A Magazine The magazine has four parts — the magazine body itself, the spring, the follower and the floor plate, which holds everything together. Mags are made from aluminum, steel and polymers … and not all are the same. During Vietnam, a long list of companies made mags on…

Pulling up to the hunting lodge at the Diamond K Ranch in central Texas, the first thing I saw was guide Thomas Neuberger and his son, Reed, skinning a 5-foot rattlesnake. I looked down at the Irish Setter snake boots on my feet and fervently hoped I wouldn’t have to test them against a live specimen during my hunt for Rio Grande turkeys. Rattlesnakes and I have a long history of mutual hostility, and I was not eager to renew the feud. Forty-eight hours later, I was feeling snake-bit, but not in the traditional sense. Hunting hard, I’d had plenty of close encounters with turkeys. They just weren’t the right kind of turkeys. Twice, Reed and I were practically run over by pairs of jakes. On one occasion, a hen…

With its bicentennial in the rear-view mirror, the Remington Arms Company opted for a new take on an old classic, the Remington 870. The 870 is the model most often cited by gun owners as their favorite model from Big Green’s vast catalog; it seems more shooters have owned or do own the classic pump shotgun than those who do not. The real question was how to make it new. After all, more than 11,000,000 have been sold since the model was launched in 1951, and there are literally dozens of configurations already available. In the end, the answer was simple, really: the Remington 870 Tac-14, a non-NFA shotgun with a 14-inch barrel and a pistol grip. The key phrase here being “non-NFA.” Since the National Firearms Act (NFA) was…

You’ve heard about the “drop-test” concerns the P320 has experienced. We all have. In early August, a few third-string gun bloggers sent the issue into the viralsphere, muddying the situation so thick that it would’ve been impossible to discern a .45 Auto from a 9mm if it were in your hand. To jog your memory, it was reported that the P320 could potentially discharge if repeatedly dropped at a negative 30-degree angle — on concrete — at a height in excess of 4 feet. Is it a serious issue whenever a gun goes off unintentionally? Absolutely. Was this situation blown completely out of proportion? Yup. My interest here is not to pick sides or to sweep this situation under the rug on behalf of Sig. But there’s a storm of…

The pump-action shotgun has been the favorite choice of many American hunters for well more than a century. Its popularity is widespread with all types of shooters and for any shotgunning applications, including hunting, competitive shooting, self-defense, law enforcement and the military. The pump, or slide-action, can do any job well. Generation after generation, the pump-action remains a favorite scattergun for a variety of reasons. It’s the go-to gun for those shooters who prefer its simple design over the more complicated autoloaders and the pricey doubles and over/unders. Many shooters prefer the sighting plane of a single-barrel shotgun. America has been called a nation of riflemen, and those who learned how to shoot with a rifle are likely to be more comfortable sighting down the rib of a shotgun with…

For a rifleman or a hunter, only a teenage supermodel crush matches the allure of a custom rifle chambered for a wildcat cartridge. Many of my friends in high school had the iconic bathing suit poster of Farrah Fawcett on their wall. I didn’t, but under my bed were dozens of magazines filled with images of custom rifles I fantasized of firing. Once bitten, that lust never subsides, but as I matured my tastes became more specific. Because they might best bridge the gap between varmint and big game cartridges, I’ve always had a thing for quarter bores. My obsession started with the .250-3000 or.250 Savage, progressed through the.257 Roberts, and included a brief, though tenuous affair with the .25-06. For many, and I’m no different, to really like a…

“Say these guns fire 10,000 rounds a week from April through October. That’s seven months at say 28 weeks, times 10,000 rounds. That means roughly 280,000 rounds every season.FOR 10 YEARS!” No wonder all the shotguns are blazing. You can see thousands of doves in the air. Your shotgun’s muzzles are doing a mini dance back and forth as you decide which winged target to zero in on. You know your gunning partners are experiencing the same excitement. This is only your first afternoon of shooting, but you are already realizing that the billing and extreme shotgunning about this trip have not been exaggerated. In fact, the shooting is already even better than expected. In the few seconds you’ve been thinking this, you realize your gun is empty. As you…

Suppressor Bill Set Aside The Hearing Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 367), a bill that sought to remove added restrictions placed on suppressors by the National Firearms Act (NFA), has been shelved indefinitely following the recent Las Vegas shooting in early October. The bill would’ve removed the NFA tax stamp on suppressors and simplified the background check process, making the purchase of a suppressor similar to that of a standard Title 1 firearm. Two days after the shooting, and after a closed-door meeting with fellow Republican lawmakers, House Speaker Paul Ryan, (R-Wis.) said the bill would not be debated on as scheduled. “That bill is not scheduled now,” said Ryan. “I don’t know when it’s going to be scheduled.” Prior to the shooting, a house committee had approved the bill…

PERFECTING YOUR RANGE PRACTICE When you go to the range to work with your defensive handgun, what do you practice? Do you know what you should be practicing to make the most of your range time and available ammo? I suspect some do and some don’t. When it comes to working with a defensive handgun, there are some things you can practice at home and some things you need a range for. If you’re operating on limited time with a limited budget, here are some tips to help you keep from squandering your time at the range. Utilize a benchmark drill. In other words, find a good drill that combines accuracy and speed, and begin and end each practice session with it. Something like the Forty-Five Drill, where you have…

In the last five columns, we discussed how external variables could affect how much gravity and wind change your bullet’s path. Simply, the faster a bullet gets to the target, the less it deviates off of its original path. There are three variables that determine a bullet’s speed on its way to the intended target: 1. The initial speed of the bullet 2. The efficiency of the bullet 3. External/environmental variables In the last two columns we explored the first two elements of the three external/environmental variables: air density and temperature. In this column, we’re going to discuss the third element, humidity, and introduce a way to account for all three elements at once. Does Humidity Even Matter? If you’ve followed along so far, this one might be a curveball.…

Sizzling muzzle velocities sell steel shotshells, but they also equate to performance. That’s why many waterfowlers turn to the muzzle-velocity champion of factory loads: Remington’s HyperSonic Steel. Several manufacturers produce non-toxic shotshells with advertised muzzle velocities in the 1,600 to 1,650 fps range. However, Remington’s HyperSonic Steel leaves the barrel at about 1,700 fps, giving it superior downrange energy — and lethality. In fact, HyperSonics are so fast that Remington said hunters are able to reduce their lead by about 8 inches on a duck flying at average speeds at 40 yards. HyperSonic shells achieve their super-hot muzzle velocity via Xelerator Wad technology, which has an ignition chamber and Xelerator Wad Stress Concentrator. A hotter primer ignites a small powder charge in the ignition chamber, moving the payload forward slightly…