Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från Guns & Ammo

IT’S ASTOUNDING TO SEE how far Bravo Concealment has come since I first started reviewing its holsters in 2015. Back then, the company was a “mom-and-pop shop” run out of owner and founder Rene Aguirre’s garage. Its wares were made-to-order Kydex rigs that stood out for the clean external finish and reliable retention. Like many plastic benders, though, Alamo, Texas-based Bravo realized the difficulty of scaling an operation that relied, essentially, on custom-made goods. At this turning point, Aguirre and his family opted to go all-in on the growing business and change direction in a radical way. The company invested in computer-controlled CNC molding stations and digitized the dimensions of popular handguns to develop new holsters as computer-aided-design (CAD) files. It also adopted a new polymer blend that replicated the…

IN THE DAYS BEFORE widespread use of scopes, few worried much about long range performance. The range at which we could see bucks over iron sights was limited, and we didn’t have rangefinders. We wanted venison and to hammer our bucks, accepting that shots needed to be close. From 1895 to not-so-long-ago, America’s most famous deer-getter was the .30-30 Winchester. Limited in range and power, mild in recoil, it was effective. Throughout the 20th century, Remington and Winchester were serious rivals. Winchester made its bones as a lever-action company. Until the .270 Winchester was introduced in 1925, most Winchester cartridges were rimmed and intended for lever-actions. Remington, being early with slide-actions and semiautomatics, went rimless for better feeding. The rimless .25 Remington performed similar to Winchester’s .25-35. The more popular…

AS THE LAND CRUISER TURNED onto the sandy track of the dry river bed, we spotted them. Two Shona men on foot in the remote wilderness, wielding pump shotguns. We’d already encountered one pair of poachers during a stalk a few days earlier and, when I saw these two figures, a surge of adrenaline shot through my veins. Poaching is a serious problem in Zimbabwe’s remote Zambezi Valley thanks to a corrupt central government, an inept and underfunded National Parks Department, an infiltration of Chinese mining interests and unimaginable poverty. These men weren’t poachers, though, they were game scouts employed by the Dande Anti-Poaching Unit (DAPU, dapuzim.com). DAPU is a privately-funded and operated conservation effort created by Charlton-McCallum Safaris (CMS, cmsafaris.com) in-cooperation with the local community. Thirty-two scouts operate under…

@GUNSANDAMMOMAG COMMEMORATIVES are often valued more by the benefactor or recipient than the general gun-buying public. Sometimes created to raise awareness for a cause or to solicit support for an organization, commemoratives are also used to honor a historical event, person(s), or location. Commemoratives can be simply marked with a unit’s identification, marked with a certain number out of a total quantity, or be distinguished by a non-catalog combination of grips, finishes or features. Artist-embellished firearms have long been commissioned, but Remington made the Custom Shop part of its business in 1962. Colt announced its Custom Shop in 1976, and Smith & Wesson started the Performance Center in 1990. Custom shops are tasked with designing and manufacturing commemoratives, but the practice of making limited editions on legacy platforms expanded during…

“MATCH AMMUNITION” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but it doesn’t seem to have a definition anymore. For some manufacturers, “match” is a category taken seriously, and a lot goes into crafting the most consistent and accurate ammunition available. For other manufacturers, “match” is simply a term that represents ammunition intended for use on paper or steel targets. I thought it would be a good idea to review what goes in to making the former, just so we can appreciate what’s available for quality-focused riflemen. Good ammunition starts with a good brass case. Raw brass destined for use as a cartridge case arrives at the manufacturer in sheets. Machines punch holes in the brass sheets, forming small, thick cups. These cups then go through a four-step drawing…

GARRY.JAMES@OUTDOORSG.COM “I’LL TAKE MANHATTAN.” Q: I’m helping a friend whose husband has passed. He collected high-end rifles and pistols. We think these are Colts, but I cannot find any markings or numbers. Do you think they are Colts? What are the values? Guns & Ammo had a good article in the October 2022 issue, “Transitional Revolvers,” and these look like the Colt pictured in that story. Again, thank you for all the help on identifying the items I have sent in previously. P.S.: I really like watching Guns & Ammo TV. M. K. Mariposa, California A: Thanks for the nice words about my transitional revolver story. I’m glad it prompted you to send this query. It was easy to tell at first glance of your photos that these are…

VIKINGTACTICS.COM FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW ME, you may be fami-lair with my ballistic advisor, Johnny “Dawg” Cone, a hunter and shooter living in Utah. Johnny Dawg kept me straight from the beginning. His casual shooting games inspired me to train hard (and often) to hone and maintain my shooting skills. His spiritual insight has been an inspiration as well. One of Johnny Dawg’s recent diatribes happened to be about carrying a useable sidearm for personal protection. Concealed carry is something we often discuss, but his recent perspective was particularly thought provoking. I’ve always repeated, “Two is one and one is none.” This line was driven into my cranial structure early by my leaders and mentors of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations. Johnny Dawg took this a bit farther…

SAVAGE INTRODUCED variants of John M. Browning’s legendary Model 1911 on December 21, 2022. Those familiar with history might think the saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” applies here, but it doesn’t. There are 111 years between the first Model 1911s and this, so the new Savage 1911 reflects an evolved design. When Savage revealed the Stance in G&A’s February 2022 issue, many were unaware that the single-stack 9mm pistol was not the brand’s first handgun. There was a 94-year gap since the last Savage pistol was produced in 1928, a Model 1917 in .380 ACP. However, even that design followed Elbert Searle’s historically overshadowed Model 1907 in .45 ACP. Searle’s Model 1907 challenged Browning’s Colt Model 1905 in a military trial, which was Savage’s only attempt at…