Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från Shooting Times

I JUST FINISHED READING THE ARTICLE ABOUT THE RESTORATION OF A commercial Mauser in Shooting Times. It was very enjoyable, but it strikes me that current firearms literary law seems to require the mention of the controlled-round feed when discussing these fine rifles. In Ludwig Olson’s fine book on the development of these rifles, much more emphasis is placed on the fact that the Mauser extractor system prevents double feeding, which is important in the heat of war. Decades ago, you would sometimes read articles that mentioned this in hunting dangerous game, but I don’t remember seeing it recently. I guess it’s just the other side of the same coin when discussing this system. Bob ConnellVia email Loves the 8mm Rem. Mag. I have subscribed to Shooting Times for many…

MODEL 50 RIFLES WERE BUILT IN BELGIUM, BY super-supplier Fabrique Nationale—the same company that made many of John Browning’s early designs. Although labeled and sold for a blue-collar demographic, this J.C. Higgins rifle features some very high-end components. For starters, the rifle’s action is a genuine commercial Mauser 98 type, built by craftsmen well versed in the design. The barrel was made by High Standard and is chrome lined. As you can see in the photo, the Model 50 also had a nice stock of dense walnut. And it was properly laid out so the grain runs straight and strong through the wrist area behind the action. Sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co., the J.C. Higgins brand was named for Irishman John Higgins, an immigrant who dedicated his full career…

AMONG BILL RUGER’S MANY BRILLIANT MOVES in the gun business, probably number one was his decision to reintroduce the single-action revolver to the American public after Colt discontinued the Peacemaker. The Ruger Single-Six and Blackhawk seized the market in the early 1950s and prodded Colt into bringing back the Peacemaker, for all of which American revolver lovers should be truly grateful. But I have one complaint. As a devotee of the .44 Special and the .32 S&W Long and the .32 H&R Magnum, I believe they have been given short shrift by Ruger. This is not to say they haven’t been made, because they have. But they have not been made in the configuration many of us would prefer, at least not in sufficient numbers that they are not priced…

THE NEW XERO C1 PRO CHRONOGRAPH from Garmin uses Doppler radar to measure projectile velocities ranging from 100 fps to 5,000 fps, and it fits in your pants pocket. It features a button-operated design and intuitive user interface, and data is easily accessible directly from the user’s cell phone via the new Shot-View smartphone app. The Xero C1 Pro is capable of chronographing bullets, arrows, crossbow bolts, shotgun slugs, paintballs, and airsoft ammo. It provides average speed, standard deviation, extreme spread, maximum speed, and minimum speed, and it can be customized to show power factor and kinetic energy. The Xero C1 Pro measures 3x2.8x1.4 inches and weighs just over 100 grams (3.5 ounces). It is IPX7 water resistant and powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. MSRP: $599.99 garmin.com/outdoor Heritage…

A 2011 REALITY SHOW’S HOSTS WERE SURprised to find that a 9mm FMJ bullet fired into solid ice was found undeformed. I wasn’t—because my ice surprise came in 1971. In my first months at the crime lab, we had to compare an evidence .22 Short lead bullet of very soft alloy to test-fired bullets from a suspect revolver. We had only a cotton-filled bullet recovery box; our new facility with a water retrieval system was not finished. The evidence bullet was well-marked, but our cotton-caught test bullets were wiped by the fibers. Attempts at rearranging the cotton packing failed. Then we remembered something from an old firearms examination text: ice. My trainer and I had previously dismissed this as insanity, but being out of options, we made an ice block…

I SAY THE RIGHT NAME FOR THIS GUN IS 3-5-7 7X7 .357. HOLD on, let me break that down. This double-action revolver is part of what Smith & Wesson calls its 3-5-7 Magnum series. These are S&W L-Frame Model 686 Plus revolvers that hold seven rounds of .357 Magnum ammo. They come with 3.0-inch, 5.0-inch, and 7.0-inch barrels, hence the 3-5-7 name. They all have custom wood grips with .357 engraved on them. They all feature unfluted cylinders. Okay, so what about the 7x7? Well, I made that up. But it seems right for the revolver I reviewed for this report. It’s a seven-shot revolver with a 7.0-inch barrel. If that doesn’t require/earn/demand the name 7x7, I don’t know what does! L-Frames are in-between the medium-size K-Frame and the large-size…

THE NEWLY ANNOUNCED PD380 FROM WAL- ther Arms, which replaces the earlier PK380, has a lot going for it. I’ll get into the details in a moment, but to me, the new pistol’s greatest attribute is it’s easy—as in easy to shoot, easy to rack the slide, and easy to carry on your person. The Basics The new PD380 is a double-action/single-action compact personal-protection semiautomatic pistol chambered for .380 ACP. It has an exposed hammer, a 3.7-inch-long barrel, and a nine-round magazine capacity. The pistol weighs 22.8 ounces unloaded and measures 6.48 inches long. It’s 5.15 inches tall and 1.5 inches thick. The Details Now for the details. First, using my jury-rigged gauge, the slide requires 10.5 pounds of pressure to rack. That’s way less than an awful lot of…

ONE OF THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED HANDGUN- ners of the modern era was Col. Rex Applegate. As such, he was awarded the Outstanding American Handgunner Award in 1996. He is best known for developing techniques of close quarters combat, particularly point-shooting, and training military and law enforcement personnel in those tactics. But he was much more than that. A direct descendant of a pioneer who blazed the Oregon Trail in 1843 (and also established the Applegate Trail through Idaho, Nevada, California, and Oregon), Rex Applegate was born on June 21, 1914, in, you guessed it, Oregon. Rex started hunting and shooting at an early age and learned marksmanship from his uncle Gus Peret. Peret (1886–1963) was a famous exhibition shooter for Remington-Peters and a professional hunter. Rex attended and graduated from…

Q. I REMEMBER STEVE GASH ONCE DISCUSSED HOW HE CHRONO- graphs shotshells. I’d like to try it, but I can’t find the issue of Shooting Times where he gave those details. How can I chronograph my shotshells? Andy HaleVia email A.For the most part, the chronographs we use today have photoelectric screens to start and stop a timer to measure the time it takes the shot to travel a known distance, giving us the load’s speed. This is expressed as feet per second (fps). The process is relatively simple for single projectiles, but it is much different for multi-projectile ammo, i.e., shotshells. The problem is to know when to start and stop the timer. A shot charge starts to change shape as soon as it leaves the muzzle of the…

IF YOU’RE A SERIOUS RELOADER, YOU LIKELY have a dozen or more propellant bottles near your loading bench. A friend of mine had 100+ one-pound containers (77 still factory sealed) carefully stored in his climate-controlled shop. My inventory includes a similar quantity that I’ve accumulated during the 50+ years I’ve been handloading. Let me strongly remind you: Only your acute awareness and rigorous periodic surveillance can avoid a hazardous event. Small arms propellant—even when carefully stored in a safe environment—can chemically deteriorate and, worst case, spontaneously ignite. Fortunately, I’ve never experienced that type of frightening event, but my brother did. Recently, he and his wife were sitting in their family room watching TV. Suddenly, from behind his recliner, there was a loud “WHOOOOSSS!,” and a huge flash of fire erupted…

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