Innehållsförteckning för March 2024 från Shooting Times

IN THE “BULLET CREEP” ARTICLE IN THE JULY 2023 ISSUE, THE PICTURE of three rounds with progressive creep looks like Speer 110-grain JHP bullets. I load these bullets for my Colt Detective Special, and after hearing some odd reports, I checked the roll crimp, which was in the middle of the cannelure, and I thought it was substantial. The COL is 1.455 inches. I didn’t want to bulge the cases, so I ran them through a taper crimp die for a very firm crimp and slender appearance. The ft-lbs info on the 158-grain .357 Magnum in that article was handy, and it speaks to a friend of mine who was not happy with the recoil of his magnum J-Frame. It was a great article. Joseph SolimandoVia email Cut Dead Center…

MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, BEFORE THE Mauser turnbolt action was designed, Asiatic water buffalo were introduced to the Amazon River basin. Although these buffalo can be domesticated, they are among the world’s largest hooved game and can be profoundly ill-natured. Argentinians hunting them quickly cottoned on to the fact that your average sporting rifle cartridge wasn’t sufficient. About the time rinderpest swept Africa in the 1890s and killed 90 percent or more of the Cape buffalo, Asiatic buffalo really took hold in South America. Currently, there are an estimated 1.6 million or more—which is double or more the number of Cape buffalo alive today. Live body weight of a mature bull can top 2,200 pounds, which is 10 to 30 percent more than a Cape buffalo. Then, and some…

BIANCHI (ESTABLISHED IN 1958 BY JOHN BIANCHI AND NOW A BRAND OF the Safariland Group) has a new line of full-grain leather holsters. The new Old Tuscany Italian Leather line includes four holsters. The Cortona is a refined inside-the-waistband design that offers durability. It is built for large semiautomatic pistols. Key features include red-dot sight compatibility, premium-grade leather, a rugged spring-steel belt clip, and sturdy single-piece construction. It’s available for Caspian, Colt, Glock, Kimber, Ruger, S&W, Springfield, Staccato (STI), and Wilson pistols. The Fucecchio is designed for outside the waistband, small-of-the-back concealment and provides a deep cant angle. This holster’s open-top design allows for a fast time to target, and it features a flat rear profile, adjustable tension, premium-grade leather construction, and a 30-degree built-in cant. It’s offered for Glock…

THERE IS A LOT TO BE SAID FOR MAGNUM HANDguns that allow you to shoot lower-power loads—the .357 Magnum/.38 Special combination being the obvious one. But there is something to be said against it, too, and that is that dedicated guns, tailored to lower-powered cartridges, can cease to exist. In many situations, for example, a .44 Special in a lightweight, compact gun might be ideal. But where can you get one? There are one or two around—the Charter Arms Bulldog, for example—but that might not suit your purposes. This situation exists in handguns and shotguns but not in rifles, unless you count those rifles chambered for handgun cartridges. It comes about when a cartridge is simply lengthened to give it more powder capacity, and hence, more power, and is dubbed…

FEATURING NEW HEAT SHIELD TECHNOLOGY, BUTLER CREEK’S ELE- ment Gun Cover (Suppressor) was designed specifically for hot suppressors. With its durable, water- and abrasion-resistant fabric, this rifle case protects your firearm from the harshest conditions in the backcountry and on the range, and the cover’s heat-resistant fabric withstands temperatures up to 900 degrees so that guns can be cased almost immediately after firing. It’s also designed for quick removal and can be easily stuffed into a backpack if desired. The Butler Creek Element Gun Cover fits rifles and shotguns up to 54 inches long, and it’s compatible with firearms outfitted with optics. A gap on the bottom allows for sling or bipod access. MSRP: $49.95 butlercreek.com Vortex Bantam HD 6.5X32 Youth Binocular The new youth-sized Bantam HD 6.5X32 Youth Binocular…

FIREARMS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TUBES FROM which an energetic material—propellant—ejects some form of projectile. How that propellant was activated forced the evolution in firearm and ammo designs that we use today. All percussion priming relies on physical shock to force a violent chemical reaction, creating extreme heat and gas. Its forebear, flint-on-iron ignition (“flintlocks”), relied solely on mechanical friction and sparking to light off the charge. Flintlocks required an intermediate step to ensure proper ignition: fine-grained propellant in a shallow pan next to the barrel. Were the pan charge lost due to wind or leakage, there was no “boom” from your boomstick. In ignition history, percussion-sensitive chemical materials were lumped together as fulminates or fulminating compounds, from a late Latin word for “lightning.” Although many metals can be converted to…

Q. I READ BRAD MILLER’S REPORT ON THE SMITH & WESSON 3-5-7 “7X7” Model 686 Plus in the February issue with great interest. I’m sort of new to handguns, so I took note that he mentioned some terms that I am not familiar with. They are “barrel-cylinder gap” and “endshake.” What do those terms mean? Tanya KellyVia email A.Barrel-cylinder gap is the space between the end of a revolver’s cylinder and the front of the forcing cone of the barrel. It can range from 0.004 inch to 0.007 inch. Typically for Smith & Wesson revolvers, this gap measures 0.006 inch, but it can vary. Most experts believe barrel-cylinder gap does not have any effect on accuracy; however, it does affect the amount of gas being vented, and that can have…

RECENTLY, READER PETE SWANSON ASKED ME about the .458 SOCOM cartridge. Coincidentally, reader Ed Stafford asked about the .375 SOCOM. I first encountered the .458 SOCOM cartridge several years ago on a visit to the PolyCase munitions firm then in Savannah, Georgia. The company made an injection-molded bullet that consisted of a mixture of copper powder metal and a polymer binder. Named the ARX, these unique projectiles significantly enhance the ballistic performance of conventional ammo because the much-lighter-for-caliber bullets are launched at faster velocities than lead, jacketed, or all-copper bullets. Kinetic energy is directly proportional to the bullet’s velocity squared, so the ARXs fly flatter and strike harder. While we were test-firing different ammo loaded with these fascinating copper/polymer bullets, Buddy Singleton, president of Southern Ballistic Research, joined us, and…

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IT SADDENS ME TO REPORT THAT ANOTHER friend of Shooting Times has passed away. Longtime Shooting Times writer P. Richard “Dick” Metcalf died on October 14, 2023. He was 77 years old. Dick was born in May of 1946, in Barry, Illinois, and was raised on the family farm there. After graduating from high school, he attended and graduated from Northwestern University in Evansville, Illinois, and after a stint in the United States Army, he went on to earn a PhD in history at Yale University, with the title of his dissertation being “Inside the Hoop: A Study of Native American Politics.” He was an expert in American frontier history and Native American history, and he taught those subjects at Yale and later Cornell University. He once told me that…