Innehållsförteckning för June 2023 från Guns & Ammo

GWOT GUNS Mr. Poole, I enjoyed your recent column about commemorative guns from PARA Ordnance. Having carried an 14-45 while employed by an armored car company until my retirement, I am more than familiar with the quality of those guns. When my son, who was a sergeant with the 34th Division “Desert Bulls,” advised me of the availability of a commemorative for his unit’s deployment to Iraq, I jumped at the chance to get one. The rule was that the order must come from a soldier stationed “in-country,” so he ordered two for us. They were engraved “OIF 06-08” for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and the years of his deployment. Additional markings to the slide included the unit’s emblem on the opposite side over the outline of Iraq’s map. The grips…

SPORTS have many disciplines. I’ve done some shooting since I was a kid, but my deep-water plunge into it — and hunting — started actively about 22 years ago with a rifle. If you are a subscriber to Guns & Ammo, you are already familiar with Craig, my husband. It was him, my boyfriend at the time, who encouraged me to explore these endeavors. Though I shot occasionally, I had little overall experience with firearms. To my amazement, I enjoyed the challenge, not to mention the travel that went along with the hunts that Craig pursues. Today, I would say I am proficient with a rifle and competent with a shotgun. When it comes to handguns, on the other hand, I must concede that I am a novice. “Why,” you…

UNARMED, Jorge Adleberto sat in a blind he built to scout the edge of a cornfield. He expected turkeys would come into the area and scratch before flying into the trees above to roost, but, without a sound, a large jaguar slowly moved in. Jaguars are the largest cats in the Americas, third in the world, and have a bite force that’s powerful enough to crush the bones of a cow and pierce a turtle’s shell. For a half hour, Jorge didn’t move, twitch, or make eye contact. Though coming as close as 4 feet from the blind, the large cat eventually left uninterested. Before sunset, a gang of turkeys emerged from hiding, and a week later, Jorge brought me to the same spot. Refreshing the vegetation that camouflaged our…

BY THE THIRD QUARTER of the 19th century, there was no dearth of repeating rifle designs. Nor was there a scarcity of bolt-action systems. The trick was to get fussy logisticians and penurious war departments to realize the aptness of one entity for the other, and to arrange a suitable marriage. Alas, the courtship, if not a particularly long event, would be a wary one. Practical percussion bolt guns had appeared on both sides of the Atlantic in time to prove valuable in the European revolutions of the late 1840s, as well as the American Civil War. Multi-shot long-arms, such as the Spencer and Henry, had also shown their worth on the American battlefields. Due to the numbers available, and general usefulness, the Spencer continued to see limited employment following…

THE “NEW” MARLIN 336, this time made by Ruger, was unveiled at the 2023 SHOT Show. For me, it was the most exciting new firearm I saw. From the excitement on the firing line during NSSF’s Industry Day at the Range, to the buzz I saw at the booth, everyone agreed. The bolt-action became the dominant sporting rifle shortly after World War II. This has not changed, but millions of shooters still love lever-actions. Today, many younger folks are considering the all-American levergun. With 6 million made, the Winchester Model 1894 is the world’s most prolific centerfire sporting rifle, which is still in production. The Marlin 336 is the world’s second-most-popular at 3.5 million produced. Thanks to Ruger, it’s in production once again. I love classic Winchesters, but, at the…

TAKING A BREAK from its mainstream lever-action products, Henry Repeating Arms unveiled a semiautomatic carbine chambered in 9mm at the 2023 SHOT Show. Normally, I wouldn’t get too excited about a pistol caliber carbine (PCC), but the Homesteader is such a well-executed and handy rifle that it’s hard not to love. Anyone looking for a soft-recoiling carbine that’s inexpensive to shoot, good for plinking and self-defense should be interested. RIFLES CHAMBERED LIKE PISTOLS The Homesteader has a 16.3-inch barrel, an aluminum receiver and feeds from detachable magazines in one of three flavors: Henry, Glock, or Smith & Wesson. It is a blowback-operated carbine. There are a couple of reasons why someone would want a short, light carbine chambered in 9mm. The first is money. A 9mm PCC is a lot…

THE SPRINGFIELD ARMORY HELLION is a semiautomatic version of the Croatian-made VHS-2, introduced in 2013, with a number of refinements that resulted during development for the American market. Although the Hellion is new to America, first revealed in the April 2022 issue of Guns & Ammo, the fundamental VHS platform has been an important part of Croatia’s history since 2008. The VHS prototype was created in 2003 and announced in 2005. Variants deployed with Croatian troops in support of ISAF to Afghanistan. Upon their return, soldiers who carried it provided HS Produkt valuable feedback that led to the improved select-fire VHS-2 series revealed in 2013. The semiautomatic American version required further developments, but the Hellion has proven to be the best version yet. WARTIME ROOTS Development of the VHS occurred…