Innehållsförteckning för January 2018 från Gun Digest

So, what’s new? I don’t have to conduct a survey to know that’s the most-often asked question anywhere gun enthusiasts gather. It doesn’t seem to matter how innovative last year’s new products were — in 2018 it will again be a matter of, “Yeah, that was neat … but what’s new this year?” We put a little extra focus on what’s new in this issue because it is, after all, a new year. By the time you read this, we at Gun Digest, along with 70,000 of our industry friends, will be just days away from heading to the biggest industry event of the year: the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. There, just like every year, it all starts again: What’s new? Because this issue goes to the printer long…

While a lightweight shotgun is great for carrying, there are times you might wish for a bit more weight to improve your shooting. Personally, I get into bad habits with light guns. If I don’t concentrate, I’ve been known to wave around a shotgun barrel like I’m trying to slap an angry bee. I don’t shoot well when I’m in what a friend referred to as “flyswatter mode.” I recently played around with a Briley weighted forend cap weight. Briley, best known for its choke tubes, offers this dandy little weight system for several makes and models of semi-auto shotguns. I tested mine on a Benelli Ethos, an autoloading design and engineering marvel that weighs in at only 6 pounds, 6 ounces (with a 26-inch barrel). As much as I…

Introduced in 2000 and chambered in short, light Browning and Winchester rifles, the .300 Winchester Short Magnum demonstrated a remarkably accurate ability to duplicate .300 Win. Mag. velocities, while consuming about 10 percent less powder. The .300 WSM, an original Winchester design, fits handily into bolt-actions sized for a cartridge length of 2.860 inches. For highly efficient and consistent powder burning, the .300 WSM has a short-fat powder column geometry, a concept revered by accuracy-obsessed benchrest shooters for nearly three decades. This cartridge — and all its Winchester Short Magnum siblings — became embroiled in a legal battle, and the end result was a less than enthusiastic appeal on the part of other manufacturers to offer rifles and/or ammunition for sale. However, unlike the Winchester Super Short Magnums that are…

FROM THE GUN BLOGS AT GUNDIGEST.COM GUN COLLECTING 10 Custom Guns From Gun Digset 2018 Our annual review of the finest examples of beauty and artistry in the world of custom guns. GUNS CHATTER New Rifle: Smith & Wesson’s Economical M&P10 Sport Smith & Wesson is giving budget-conscious shooters plenty to consider with the release of the M&P10 Sport. GEAR TO GET 8 Pieces Of Gear To Build A Top Range Bag You need a bunch of gear to ensure quality trigger time when you head to the shooting range, which means you need to kit up a range bag. AMMO ADVANCEMENT 3 Things You Didn’t Know You Needed For Your Reloading Bench There are some relatively inexpensive extras you can pick up for your reloading bench that…

EARLY COMMERCIAL GOVERNMENT MODEL Serial numbers through approximately C4500. All parts had a high polish with fire-blue finish on the trigger, slide stop and thumb safety. Pistols through about serial number C350 had a dimpled magazine catch. Mainspring housing pin rounded on both ends through about C2000. Add 30 percent for 3-digit serial number, 60 percent for 2 digits, up to 100 percent for 99 percent finish. COMMERCIAL GOVT. MODEL WITH NUMBERED SLIDE Serial number C127300 to about C136000 MODEL 1911 U.S. MILITARY SERIES Serial No. range 1-17250 (aka Model 1912) North American Arms 1918 One of the rarest 1911 models. Less than 100 were manufactured. Made in Canada but none delivered to U.S. military forces. Beware of fakes. Get an expert appraisal. Super Match .38 1935 Model Specially fit…

MOSSBERG 590 SHOCKWAVE 20 GAUGE $455 One of the most talked about new products from the 2017 SHOT Show was Mossberg’s 590 Shockwave, a 12-gauge firearm with a 14-inch cylinder bore barrel that bypassed being classified as a short-barreled shotgun under the National Firearm Act (NFA) courtesy of its Shockwave Technologies Raptor grip, which comes factory installed on the gun. In late October 2017, Mossberg revealed a new 20-gauge scaled-down version of the 590 Shockwave with the same features, including the Raptor grip and shorter barrel. Being a 20 gauge, it also shaves off a bit of weight, placing it just under 5 pounds. FEDERAL PREMIUM 224 VALKYRIE $14-$32 The latest new cartridge innovation to come out of Federal is the 224 Valkyrie. Designed for use in AR-style platforms, the…

Many different handgun designs have been introduced since the 1911 appeared more than 100 years ago, but the 1911 pistol is still wildly popular and is probably the most customized handgun in existence. In fact, most of the major firearms manufacturers produce a 1911 even though they make handguns of a newer design, and most of those 1911s have features that years ago were seen only on very expensive customized 1911s. Despite this, the demand for customized 1911s remains very strong. But don’t you dare go in blind. Choosing The Right Gunsmith Because not all gunsmiths do the kind of work expected on a customized 1911, the first step in customizing one is to find the right gunsmith. Complicating the selection is that some custom shops have a stock of…

I’ll say this up front: Although I’ve shot the Winchester Super X3 several times, I don’t own one — and have never owned one — so it’s difficult to do a side-by-side comparison with the new Super X4 or to even recall it well enough to note differences in handling and performance. Of course, there are the notable improvements Winchester points out it has made between the SX3 and SX4, and I have not, with rare exceptions, found improved models of shotguns to not actually be improved to some degree in performance or design, if not both performance and design. Let me say the same thing with different words: Usually the new-and-improved firearms brought out by manufacturers to keep up with improvements in technology (not to mention the competition) are,…

The old man shuffled to a cabinet on feet that’d carried him for almost 80 years. He grinned, leaned close enough I could smell cows, corn and diesel, and said, “This here’s the good drawer.” It contained a hoard of shot shells. He picked up a candy-striped example, handed it to me and said, “This’ns worth five hundred dollars.” Marv had my attention. Marvin “Marv” Briegel worked hard all his life, but the only paycheck he ever received was during his 3 years in the Army. Marv is a farmer, always has been, always will be. He’s damn proud of it, too, because he knows it’s a profession too good for most. Marv’s also a hunter. On his farm along Nebraska’s Republican River, he once used a .270 Winchester to…

Holster Reluctantly Because of my vocation, I spend a lot of time on the range. I won’t say I’ve seen it all, but I’ve seen a lot. And, to be honest, a lot of what I’ve seen just does not make a whole lot of sense. Take for example the motions some handgunners go through after they shoot their gun. They’ll pull the handgun in close to their body, jerk their head left and right like they’re trying to shake water out of their ears, and then shove the handgun back in their holster faster than Bill Hickok could have pulled one out of his. Though I’m sure I’ve not considered every scenario, the times that you’ll need to holster your handgun in a hurry are as rare as the…

Since 1967, Benelli, the company that revolutionized autoloading shotgun design with its Inertia Driven system, has sold more than 4 million guns. Benelli has never let up when it comes to introducing eye-popping, uniquely designed shotguns — the Ethos and Vinci to name a couple of the more recent innovations — but it was the Super Black Eagle that established Benelli as the leader in the waterfowling world. Its ability to reliably cycle 2 ¾-, 3- and 3 ½-inch shells with no adjustment was a game-changer. Today, the SBE is in its third iteration and is as popular as ever. With this track record of autoloader success, it came as a huge surprise to most shooters when the company introduced its first over-and-under model in 2015. The Benelli 828U is…

The Holy Grail of muzzleloading is to shoot 1-inch groups at 100 yards. I’ve covered all the basics to get you close, but to achieve MOA you must be consistent with everything you do. When you pour powder into your measurer, do you tap on the sides to make it settle? If so, how many taps? Do you scrape the excess powder off of the measurer so it’s precisely full every time? When you swab out the barrel between shots, do you use one side of the damp patch or both sides? Do you follow the damp patch with a dry patch? If you vary your technique you’ll never obtain great accuracy. I start with a completely clean and dry bore. I run a dry patch down the barrel to…

“A hunter who knows the limits of the caliber being used and stays within its capabilities will be successful. Those hunters who blame a cartridge’s inability to kill are bad shots and/ or shoot at distances where they have no business shooting.” When the 300 BLK became a made cartridge by Advanced Armament Corp (AAC) and Remington after being blessed by SAAMI in 2011, there was a lot noise and chatter about the launch of the new cartridge for the AR-15 platform. I didn’t get excited. Not that the 300 AAC BLK was actually new; by then, it was less of a wildcat cartridge than the 300 Whisper. And you can see that was part of my issue. I was very confused about what the 300 AAC BLK was. Was…

On the Texas teal hunt, I used Winchester Blind Side No. 5s. Jimmy Wilson, product management specialist for Winchester Ammunition, also brought along some 3½-inchers. A couple other hunters talked about grabbing 3½s, but 3-inchers would be plenty for teal. Blind Side shotshells caught the attention of hunters because they are filled with coated Hex Steel Shot. The “Hex” is trademarked and refers to the shape of the shot, which is not a hexagon, but a hexahedron. It’s cube shaped with rounded corners — kind of like dice — but the edges are also rounded. The hexahedron shape delivers energy quicker because the flat surface packs more punch, trauma and wound channel than round shot. It’s like the difference between getting hit with a ball or getting thumped with a…

A note about Magnum’s Bisley: I have heard grumblings from some on the Internet that the BFR Bisley is not a true Bisley as far as the design is concerned. I would remind critics that the more well-known Bisley by Ruger is also an interpretation of the design that originated with Colt as a target-style grip named after a range in England. They’re both interpretations of the original design and a better execution in this author’s opinion. As with Ruger’s version, Magnum’s Bisley was designed to better control and mitigate the effects of heavy recoil. Unlike Ruger’s Bisley, however, Magnum Research has provided ample room between the shooter’s knuckles and the trigger guard, all but removing the threat of busted knuckles and the potential for developing a flinch as a…

This thing is big. You won’t be schlepping this revolver on a belt holster. You will need a good shoulder rig to comfortably carry the long-framed BFR. The weight isn’t debilitating (it tips the scales at 4.75 pounds empty and without the added optic), but the length requires shoulder/chest carry. Ammo from commercial producers is all designed for rifles and therefore not optimized for the shorter barrel and cylinder gap. This is a handloader’s proposition if one wants to extract every ounce of performance available to the combination. We did, however, find a number of factory loads that provided exceptional accuracy. Practice using shooting sticks and other field rests when available. With the 10-inch barrel, shooting offhand, while possible, is a bit difficult. The .444 Marlin is as well-suited to…