At the age of 12, I went to work on the French Creek Ranch across the Umpqua River from our home in the logging/farm/ranch community of Glide, Oregon. The ranch was loaded with blacktail and Colombian whitetail deer, turkeys, silver gray and ground squirrels and rabbits, the occasional bear, bobcat or lion, along with several hundred head of cattle, sheep and Angora goats. In time, I knew where to look for deer and turkeys at various times of the day, bedded in stands of trees or heavy cover along the creek, or feeding in the shade along the edge of the pastures. As a rule, if the cattle were up feeding, so were the deer. ...Read More >

There’s probably no great need here to list the double handful of distributors that at one time or another imported Howa Machinery (sometimes referred to as Howa Manufacturing) bolt- action rifles into the U.S. since the late 1960s. This is due to the fact that Legacy Sports International and Weatherby dominate that market now. Their respective rifles include a mind-boggling assortment of Howa 1500 models and Weatherby Vanguards. Both of these are fine rifles, with many of the Vanguards somewhat following the traditional lines of the Weatherby Mark V, clearly indicating the company knows its end users, their needs and preferences. ...Read More >

Elsewhere in this edition of Rifle magazine is an overview article on Ruger’s Mini-14 and Mini Thirty rifles. As indicated, there were many Mini-14s manufactured prior to 2005 that produce dismal accuracy; however, most produced since 2007 (when a heavier barrel was incorporated) will generally group around 2 inches at 100 yards with good ammunition. In the above article, one of the test rifles chambered for 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington consistently grouped several loads around the 2-inch mark, as did a blued version with a walnut stock, which was not included. Both rifles were purchased new without modification. Both would throw a first shot flier that landed high and right when compared with subsequent shots. ...Read More >

By my count, only three semiauto rifles saw significant use in World War II. They were America’s M1 Garand, Germany’s K/G43 and the Soviet Union’s SVT40. Every firearms-oriented American knows about the M1. Although it wasn’t perfect, it can fairly be said that it was the right rifle at the right time. Rightly, it has reached iconic status. Germany and the Soviet Union also fielded semiauto battle rifles but theirs are much less well known. ...Read More >