Innehållsförteckning för September 2022 från Shooting Times

I READ THE QUESTION POSED BY A READER about the difference in bullet point of impact between the .357 Magnum and the .38 Special. The question and Joseph von Benedikt’s response got me thinking, so I put together a few handloads and gathered up a 6.0-inch-barreled Ruger GP100, a 20-inch-barreled Marlin 1894 Cowboy, a chronograph, and my 10-year-old son and headed out behind the house. Mr. von Benedikt’s response was spot on, yet the results were fascinating. To get a zero baseline for each gun, I fired .38 Spl. loads with Speer’s 148-grain HBWC and 2.7 grains of Titegroup. They were centered in a B8 bull at 25 yards. From there I shot five-shot groups with two more .38 Spl. loads and two.357 Mag. loads to determine the point-of-impact change…

WHILE THE RED RYDER LEVER-ACTION BB GUN is the iconic model everyone knows, the Model 25 slide-action BB gun is the one that launched the Daisy airgun company into prominence. It was designed by Charles Lefever and introduced in 1914. It was potent, reliable, and popular (more than eight million were made before it was discontinued in 1978). Several anniversary models were made later in limited runs, including 16,725 (according to one source) of the Centennial versions in 1986. In case you’re wondering because the dates don’t line up, it was the 100-year anniversary of Daisy as a company, not of the Model 25. Several small modifications were applied over the decades, but the U.S.-made Model 25 remained fundamentally the same throughout its lifespan. Daisy brought the Model 25 back…

LIKE THEY SAY, TIME FLIES. IT’S hard to believe it’s been two years since Springfield Armory introduced its Ronin family of 1911s. More incredible than that, the pistol that was the foundation for the long-running EMP line (called the Defender) was introduced 17 years ago and was updated and renamed the EMP two years later. In 2007 that EMP pistol had a 3.0-inch barrel, and in 2016 the EMP4, with a 4.0-inch barrel, was added to the line. Now we have a fusion of the unique features of the Defender/EMP with the stylish elements of the Ronin. The Defender was a game-changer back in 2005. It was a reduced-size-but-enhanced Model 1911 like no other because its fore-to-aft dimensions were shortened. That meant a bunch of its internal parts had to…

BERETTA HAS LAUNCHED AN ADDITIONAL SIZE CONFIGURATION FOR THE NEW M9A4 9mm pistol family called the M9A4 Centurion. The new pistol comes with an optic-ready slide, dovetailed tritium night sights, a beveled magazine well, and a three-slot integral frame rail. The Vertec grip frame has aggressively textured 92X-style thin grips, and the enhanced Xtreme Trigger System has DLC coating and a short reset. The pistol is offered with three 18-round, anti-friction coated magazines, with 10- and 15-round magazine capacity options available for states that have capacity limits. Note that the slide comes with a blank cover, and consumers can receive a free optic plate from Beretta (five variants are available) upon the registration of their purchased firearm. The barrel length is 4.8 inches, and the finish is FDE. MSRP: $1,099…

THE DECADE THAT BRIDGED THE CHANGE OF CEN- turies in 2000 was a fertile time for new rifle cartridges. Between 1999 and 2001, Remington introduced four Magnum cartridges that covered almost everything from deer to dangerous game. Remington picked the most popular starting point—.30 caliber—and developed a new, large-capacity case about 2.8 inches long to create the .300 Remington Ultra Mag. Remington had finally answered Winchester’s 1963 debut of the still-popular .300 Winchester Magnum. Better late than never. To me, the non-belted case was the most significant feature of Remington’s Ultra Mags (RUM), boosting a welcome trend toward non-belted “magnums.” As I’ve written many times, most belted cases do not need a belt. Its original function of supporting the firing pin blow has been largely supplanted by generous case shoulders…

IN 1963 REMINGTON shocked the shooting world by introducing the XP 100 bolt action pistol Recall that in those days there weren t such firearms—except in a few arcane custom guns The famous Wyoming elk guide Les Bowman intro duced the gun to the world in the 18th annual edition of Gun Digest that same year. While extolling the accuracy of the new pistol Bowman did not call it a handgun Instead he termed it a holster rifle Another writer later christened the XP 100 a hand rifle and that name seems to have stuck for guns of this ilk Remington’s new gun caused quite a stir. Some of it was due to the shooting public either loving it or hating it Some of the to do was about the…

WHILE I WAS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC FOR A MODEL 600 PRE- launch media event, I was fortunate enough to hunt mouflon with a Lux model chambered in .300 Win. Mag. Hunting a new country often comes with sensory overload. Foggy mists overhung giant forests, rolling gently and broken by hidden meadows. It was October, and the red stag “roar” was on. Guttural, raspy bellows reverberated through the woods, distracting me from my task of looking for wild sheep. My guide spoke a trace of English and had a translation app downloaded on his phone. We crawled up a ravine and peeked over the edge into a meadow—and got pinned by red deer all around us. Three mouflon moved in. Two were immature; one—I was reluctantly given to understand—was too…

WITH THIS BEING OUR “SMALL-GAME HUNTING” issue (see “The Shootist” and “Gunsmoke” columns and the feature-length article on the .221 Fireball for more readings that fit the theme), my thoughts turned to squirrel hunting. I’ve had many relaxing hours hunting squirrels in the timbers surrounding my family’s farm ground and elsewhere, and I simply love the pursuit. Anyway, I had once heard something about some historic Ohio squirrel hunters, so I looked ’em up. Turns out their story wasn’t what I had expected. In September of 1862, during the Defense of Cincinnati, also known as the Confederate Heartland Offensive and the Kentucky Campaign of the American Civil War, a scurry of squirrel hunters came together to help defend Cincinnati, Ohio, from an assault by a contingent of Confederate soldiers. Actually,…

Q: I READ JOSEPH VON BENEDIKT’S QUICK SHOT REPORT ON THE 10MM S&W M&P 2.0 in the July issue, so I know he really liked it, especially the trigger pull. But he said right at the start of his report that the polymer-frame Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 semiautomatic pistol has “long been considered one of the most comfortable, natural-pointing handguns on the market.” Why is that so? Ray Leonard Via email A: The outstanding feel of Smith & Wesson’s M&P pistol is derived from multiple characteristics of the handgun, but none is more dominant than the polymer frame. Made of a space-age high-impact fiber-infused polymer, it’s tough and resilient. More important to ergonomics, it’s endowed with an 18-degree grip angle, profile, and dimensions developed by engineers with a decree…

WE RECENTLY CELEBRATED THE 125TH ANNIVER- sary of the .30-30 Winchester cartridge. Added as a chambering option soon after the Model 1894 Winchester lever action was introduced, the “thirty-thirty” carbine is recognized as the most popular rifle/cartridge combination for whitetail hunters east of the Mississippi. But I wanted to know if the classic lever-action cartridge can perform better in a bolt-action rifle. The first step was to find a bolt gun. I believe only three models were chambered in .30-30 (the Winchester Model 54, the Savage Model 340, and the Remington Model 788). I was fortunate to find a nice Model 788. In total, more than a half-million Model 788s were made from 1967 to 1983, but very few were made in .30-30. Because the Model 788 was chambered for…

7x57mm MAUSER (7mm MAUSER) YEAR OF INTRODUCTION: 1892 ORIGIN: Germany RIM DIAMETER: 0.473 in. SHOULDER ANGLE: 20° 45' SHOULDER DIAMETER: 0.429 in. NECK DIAMETER: 0.321 in. BASE-TO-SHOULDER LENGTH: 1.728 in. BASE-TO-NECK LENGTH: 1.866 in. CASE LENGTH: 2.235 in. OVERALL LENGTH: 3.065 in. DEVELOPED IN 1892 BY THE MAUSER Works of Oberndorf, Germany, it quickly found a permanent home in the then-new 1893 Mauser adopted by the Spanish government during that year. The Spaniards were so pleased with the rifle and its cartridge they awarded Paul Mauser the Grand Cross of the Order for Military Merit, the highest decoration he received during his successful career. The Model 93 was the first Mauser rifle to have an internal box magazine that positioned cartridges in two staggered rows. Cartridges carried by soldiers in…

IN TRUTH, QUITE OFTEN, “SMALL-GAME HUNTING” is not so much an activity as a reasonably credible excuse to go out and wander the creek bottoms with a rifle under your arm or stalk along a ridge to see what you see. Certainly, one could do those things without a rifle, but having one with you serves the same purpose for modern man as a musketeer’s rapier or a warrior’s bow or a mountain man’s Hawken. Psychologically, at least, your rifle is part of you. The reasons for this are buried so far back in history that it would take three shrinks and an archaeologist to explain it. It just is. And, quite frankly, I don’t care why. I do, however, care about the “what.” What makes a good walkin’ around…