Innehållsförteckning för February 2018 från Gun Digest

‘Tanker’ Trouble Jerry Lee’s article on the M1 in the December 2017 issue was a nice “primer” on this most legendary service rifle, but I think to list the Tanker Model as a “variant” is a bit misleading. No Tanker Models of the Garand were ever made either for or by the U.S. Government. They’re all after-market rifles, built by clever folks with a bit of ingenuity and some machining skills. Oftentimes they were built on welded receivers. These guns might be fun to shoot (most guns are), but they certainly have little if any collector value. I would caution the reader to not pay too much money for a Tanker Garand. –Don J. Kemps, Stockbridge, WI Don, you’re correct in stating that the U.S. Government never officially introduced a…

In 1966, Ruger invited a select group of gun writers to a meeting at the NRA convention in Chicago to unveil a new rifle. It was a classic-style single-shot based on John Farquharson’s falling-block design that was patented in Scotland in 1872. The rifle was designed to appeal to the traditional sportsman who appreciated and understood the challenge — as well as the advantages and disadvantages — of having one shot. In the 1967 edition of the Gun Digest Annual, the late Roger Barlow wrote a review of the new Ruger rifle and eloquently described the appeal of the single shot. Originally, the rifle was going to be named the Victorian, due to its 19th century styling, but not long after it went into production, the name was changed. From…

I just spoke with a Deputy Chief of Police for a major metropolitan police department who’s responsible for overseeing the “special” divisions, which includes SWAT. We were talking about firearms training, and I brought up some typical issues that I’ve noticed over the years while training military and police snipers. He asked me an easy question that one would expect I would be asked all the time of my courses: “What’s the biggest error I see with new students?” Interestingly, to me anyway, I cannot remember ever being asked that question before. It sure seemed like a question for which I’d have a canned answer ready. But I didn’t. So, I did the next best thing — I just rambled about common issues I correct on the first day of…

‘‘Essentially, these three methods of measure are the same as three different languages, all telling you the same thing. The confusion comes from trying to translate one language to the other.” Long-range shooting is a mystery to most. Funny thing is, aside from applying the basics of marksmanship and using good equipment, hitting at long range is nothing more than solving a math problem. The hard math is done for shooters by ballistic programs; it’s the simple math they struggle with. Part of this trouble comes from not understanding minutes of angle and milliradians, and trying to relate it all to inches quickly for precise shooting. Before we start a math lesson, let’s do some science. Gravity is the constant in the trajectory equation. All bullets fall to Earth at…

I’ve never asked any successful shooters — of any discipline — how often they shoot a .22 LR without getting some form of overwhelming praise for the lowly “little” .22 LR cartridge. Developed in the late 1800s, the popular .22 LR is chambered in everything from low-priced utilitarian guns to precision target rifles and pistols costing several thousand dollars. It’s been used in Olympic shooting competition since 1924, and almost everyone who shoots has a portfolio of fond memories of shooting a .22 LR. One of the most important attributes of the .22 LR is its utility as a training vehicle. Low cost, low noise and mute recoil make learning to shoot with a .22 LR fun and without intimidation. The utility is enhanced when the training firearm looks, feels…

The .22 Magnum Rimfire was introduced in 1959 by Winchester, but the company didn’t market a gun to shoot it until well into the following year. Ruger and Smith & Wesson, on the other hand, advertised revolvers for the new round before the end of 1959, and Savage chambered its Model 24, a .22/.410-bore over/under combination gun, for the Magnum Rimfire shortly thereafter. The discontinued slide-action Winchester Model 61 was the first rifle of that manufacture available for the brand new round. At present, there’s a wide variety of single-shot and repeating rifles, as well as pistols and revolvers of American and European manufacture, available in .22 Magnum Rimfire. The standard bullet is a jacketed 40-grain type, although Federal introduced a 50-grain bullet in 1988. CCI recently introduced a hyper-velocity…

Not all bullets are created equally. The subtleties of dimension, shape and how they correspond to the performance within a particular barrel can give a ballistician fits of rage. There are times where things don’t go according to the script, and it might leave you scratching your head. I experienced just such a situation recently, and it got me thinking about the relationships between a bullet’s bearing surface, and the correlative load data. The Starting Point Firstly, let’s take a renewed look at the reloading manuals, and the online data, that we all use on a day-to-day basis. I’ve heard the argument way too many times: “The load data in Reloading Manual (Insert Company Name Here) is the best data; it gave me exactly what I needed and they really…

Anybody who knows anything about knows about the Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting is recognized by most people on the planet and is reportedly insured for 800 million dollars. Most of us don’t know much about art, but we know what we like, and we like the Mona Lisa. Likewise, anyone who knows anything about scatterguns is familiar with the Remington Model 870 pump-action shotgun. The Model 870 came to us in 1950 (some will tell you 1951) and went on to become the best-selling shotgun of all time, now numbering more than 11 million sold. American shot-gunners know what they like, and they like the 870. The Ever Popular 870 There are Remington 870 pump guns sitting in closets, gun cabinets and bedroom corners all over…

“The Colt M4 OPS looks very authentic on the outside, but it’s a completely different animal on the inside.” The advantage of conversion kits for your standard AR is that they are cheap and essentially give you two guns. However, the rifling on the AR is not standard for the .22 LR nor is the sizing of the barrel exact. The kits work, but many people prefer a dedicated AR-style rifle exclusively chambered in .22 LR, which improves the rifle’s function and accuracy. Among ARs, the most popular are the carbine versions, and if you want a real M4, you have to get a Colt. The problem is that Colt only sells the M4 to the military and law enforcement, and they don’t make one in .22. Colt does make…

“ Some popular .357 PCP rifles give a projectile weighing about 150 grains a velocity of 800-900 fps and, thus, produce muzzle energies in the 200-300 fpe range, about equivalent to a .38 Special load. Even a .45-caliber model generates energies in the 400-500 fpe range, about the equivalent of .45 Auto or .45 Colt loadings.” Guns that launch projectiles by means of compressed air are nothing new. In fact, an airgun accompanied Lewis and Clark on the Corps of Discovery Expedition of 1804-1806, and airguns were not new even way back then. In the early 1900s, multi-pump airguns became common, with one of the most common models being the Benjamin. Although the Lewis and Clark airgun was a .33-caliber model, the most common calibers were .177 and .22 for…

Military Funding Bill Makes Surplus 1911/1911A1s Available In late December of 2017, President Donald Trump signed H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (NDAA), into law. A good portion of the bill authorizes appropriations for a number of Department of Defense (DOD) activities and programs; however, another provision also included in the bill would require military surplus 1911/1911A1 pistols currently in storage to be made available for the American public. An earlier version of the NDAA signed into law under the Obama administration in 2015 authorized, but did not mandate, the Secretary of Defense to transfer up to 10,000 1911s per year to the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) for sale to the public. This version requires it. The provision in the new NDAA effectively creates a…

One of the best calibers ever created is the .22 LR rimfire. It’s fun to shoot, affordable — and you can have almost any style firearm you want in .22. Every gun owner needs a good .22 LR, and the AR is one of the great firearms of all time, so pair the two and you’ve got shooting bliss. In addition, the AR’s ergonomics are perfect, with all the controls exactly where they should be. With the variety of accessories available, the AR can be set up to fit anyone, and almost any application. Combining the .22 rimfire and the AR gives you the best of all worlds: The .22-caliber AR is fun, easy to shoot and a perfect firearm for every gun owner. Most of us learned to shoot…

TACTICAL SOLUTIONS RIDGE-LITE BARREL $355 Looking to upgrade your Smith & Wesson SW22 Victory’s barrel? Look no further than TacSol’s RIDGE-LITE Barrel. The upgraded barrel kit comes equipped with a fluted barrel, a stainless steel shank, an aluminum picatinny rail and fiber optic sights, which are fully adjustable for windage and elevation at the rear. The new barrel weighs 8 ounces and has a length of 6 inches. The barrel itself is manufactured from 6061-T6 aluminum and features a chomoly steel liner. CCI .17 HMR VNT $18/ BOX OF 50 This new load from CCI is tailor made for taking down varmints at longer ranges. At the center of the .17 HMR VNT is a 17-grain Speer bullet with an extremely thin jacket and precision-built polymer tip. The result is…

“ … don’t make the mistake of examining a bunch of similar-looking .22 cartridges and assuming they’re all the same on the inside.” The first problem was a beautiful viper — this cottonmouth could have starred in an episode of Animal Planet — was determined to nest in my brush pile. It was dusk, and my German shorthaired pointer trotted right past it. All I could imagine is her striking out at Cooper or clamping down on my big toe. As I trotted back to the house in my flip-flops, I was thinking about the second problem: How was I going to shoot this snake without invoking the ire of my neighbors? A gunshot in my neighborhood either goes completely ignored, or Camp Lejeune deploys the Marines. The solution was…