Innehållsförteckning för April 2024 från Shooting Times

TWO COLUMNS IN THE NOVEMBER 2023 issue of Shooting Timesbrought back many memories for me. The first, “Seven Forgotten 7s” by Allan Jones, describes the 7-30 åWaters cartridge, a round that I used successfully for many years in a stainless Thompson/Center Contender with a 16-inch heavy barrel and an aftermarket stock. Hornady and Sierra made “single-shot pistol” bullets in 7mm, and the 130-grain Hornady was my choice for hunting. It took several deer, and two memorably dropped in their tracks. I eventually traded the Contender for a Browning A-Bolt chambered for 7mm WSM, a rifle I couldn’t wait to sell. The second was Joel J. Hutchcroft’s “Hipshots” column entitled “A Reloader’s Role Model” about the designer of that 7-30 cartridge, Ken Waters. I am lucky to be old enough to…

NEARLY TWO CENTURIES AGO, RIFLEMEN WERE abuzz with the potential for firearms that loaded from the breech. Innovation abounded among those of inventive bent, and myriad different designs were attempted. Most failed. Others enjoyed a brief existence but faded when metallic cartridges roared onto the scene in the aftermath of the Civil War. Sharps single-shot rifles did not fade. Perhaps they were the only exception. Christian Sharps’s falling-block, breech-loading design of 1848 utilized paper-bodied cartridges and could be loaded with a loose .52-caliber bullet and powder in a pinch. After a few years’ worth of refinements, it was renamed the Model 1863, and it became a popular breechloader that fought during the Civil War in the hands of Berdan’s Sharpshooters. Various iterations also served in conflicts from India to Argentina…

SIG SAUER’S NEW CROSS MAGNUM BOLT-ACTION RIFLE IS CHAMBERED IN .300 Winchester Magnum and comes with a 24-inch 5R barrel with an integrated radial compensator, an aluminum Coyote anodized frame, a two-stage match trigger, a free-floating full-length M-LOK and ARCA rail handguard, a forward-angle PRS-style grip with a right-hand thumbrest safety, an adjustable folding precision buttstock, and a six-round AICS magazine. The switch-barrel rifle features a new magnum action receiver that is designed to make switching barrels fast and easy yet provides super-solid lockup for extreme consistency, which translates into optimal accuracy. The rifle is 45.2 inches long overall and weighs 8.9 pounds. MSRP: $2,499.99 sigsauer.com Blackhawk Stache IWB Holsters Blackhawk now has Stache inside-the-waistband holsters to fit Springfield Hellcat Pro and SIG SAUER P365-XMacro pistols. The Stache holster is…

I PREVIOUSLY SURVEYED OLD LEVER-GUN cartridges that, in their day, were considered appropriate for very large game. There are two that, with the .45-70, survived the “Great Dying” of big lever-gun cartridges after World War II. Both were Winchester developments, and both were quite impressive for the time. I’m referring to the .405 Winchester and the .348 Winchester. The .405 Winchester Winchester’s first box-magazine lever gun, the Model 1895, was initially chambered for existing .30-caliber deer-class cartridges like .30-40 Krag and .303 British. For larger game, Winchester created two new heavy-caliber cartridges for the Model 95. Handicapped by blackpowder and low velocity (about 1,400 fps), the .38-72 and .40-72 cartridges were little more than throwbacks to the 1880s, and they failed to thrive. Winchester replaced the two underperformers with potent…

THE MILITARY IS ALWAYS ON THE LOOK- out for better armament, and this includes new cartridges that can fill many roles. Infantry magazine is published by the U.S. Army in Fort Benning, Georgia, and in a 1999 edition of the magazine an article by Stanley C. Crist (1921-1998) was printed. That article called for the development of just such a new cartridge. Crist was a former tank commander, platoon sergeant, training NCO, scout section leader, consultant, and writer, and he called his hypothetical round the 6mm Optimum. It would have more power than the 5.56mm NATO; light recoil; about the same terminal performance as the 7.62x51 NATO; and could be used in infantry rifles, machine guns, and sniper rifles. And the ammo would weigh about the same as the 5.56.…

IN ITS INITIAL FACTORY LOADING, THE .220 SWIFT launched a 48-grain bullet at a velocity of 4,110 fps and had a trajectory like a stretched banjo string. It was introduced in 1935 by Winchester Repeating Arms, into a world that thought the .219 Zipper was pretty hot stuff. It left them in the dust. If velocity were everything, the Swift’s career would have been stellar. But velocity, it turned out, could take you only so far. A cartridge also needed a supporting cast of gunmakers, ammunition companies, and—above all—influential supporters. Alas, many of the influential men of the 1930s, men who wrote about rifles in magazines like American Rifleman, had reason to hate the Swift. Several, such as Jerry Gebby and Grosvenor Wotkyns, had been involved in early development of…

Q. WHILE CLEARING MY UNCLE’S HOUSE, I FOUND THE NOVEMBER 2013 issue of Shooting Times, and I have a question. In the “Ask the Experts” section, Bill Dluzniewski asked about 9mm compatibility, and Allan Jones provided a very good answer, in which he referred to several 9mm cartridges. However, he didn’t mention anything about the 9mm Browning Long cartridge. I have 10 boxes of 9mm Browning Long ammunition, and I’d like to know if any current guns are chambered for it. I also would like to know if it is actually the 9x23. So, what about the 9mm Browning Long? Greg Bell Via email A. First things first. The 9mm Browning Long is not the 9x23. In Allan’s answer (we’ve reprinted it here, along with Mr. Dluzniewski’s original question, for…

SHOOTING TIMES READER DALE BALDWIN recently acquired a used Ruger No. 1 rifle chambered for .204 Ruger and asked for a few good handload recommendations. He also asked how the .204 Ruger compares to the .22-250 as a varmint cartridge. Fortunately, I’ve had quite a bit of experience with both rounds and currently have a pair of bolt-action rifles chambered for each round. The .22-250’s legacy began around 1915 when Charles Newton (a brilliant firearms and cartridge designer) designed a powerful .25-caliber round for Savage’s 1899 lever-action rifle. Based on a shortened .30-06 case, the .250-3000 Savage originally pushed a 100-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,800 fps. Savage wanted a bit more marketing shazam, so Newton reduced the bullet weight to 87 grains and bumped up the velocity…

TWO OF THE MOST POPULAR SHOOTING-RELATED SHOWS ON MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) are Shooting Gallery and Shooting Gallery Online. Both are hosted by my friend Michael Bane. Michael is a successful journalist, writer, constant adventure seeker, and recognized expert on firearms. He is a colorful character, and he has an entertaining personality. I’ve been on several hunts and attended many new-product seminars with him, and he has a lively way of relating his experiences. He has decades of experience and knows an awful lot about hunting, shooting, self-defense, and related topics. He has traveled throughout the world, and he has received numerous broadcasting awards, including seven “Tellys,” multiple “Golden Moose” awards, an Outdoor Channel Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Communicator of the Year Award from the Professional Outdoor Media Association and the…

LONGTIME READERS OF SHOOTING TIMES MAY recall that I’ve referred to myself as a gun acquirer rather than a gun collector. The difference is subtle, and I won’t go into it here. But in addition to acquiring guns, I also have acquired a lot of gun “stuff.” Recently, while going through some of that stuff, I came across a photocopy of an old Guns & Ammo article that I had made sometime in the 1990s. Dated February 1964, the article was about three decades old when I originally photocopied it. It was written by Elmer Keith, and it was about a 20-year-old shooting phenom named Thell Reed Jr. As I reread the article recently, I thought Reed would be a great character for this column. Born in Downey, California, on…