Before sunrise on one morning in October 2016, along with my friend nicknamed “Shrapnel,” I was sitting on top of a ridge in southern Montana waiting for a film crew to arrive. Little did I expect that we would still be there when the sun set. ...Read More >

Sometime around 1750 – the dates are vague – guns came to a fork in the road. Those with rifled barrels went one way, those with smoothbores went another, and from then on we had rifles and shotguns. This separation, followed by ever-increasing specialization in both types, did not stop either shooters or gunmakers from trying to regain those early days when we had either the best of both worlds or, depending on your point of view, the worst. ...Read More >

This is written on December 9, 2020. My wife, Roberta, and I just yesterday sent a note of condolence to Randy and Coni Brooks, former owners of Barnes Bullets, in remembrance of their good friend Chuck Yeager, who died on December 7, 2020. I am deeply in debt to the General as I remember reading, in the Glide High School library just prior to graduation in 1962, about his challenge to break the sound barrier in the Bell XS-1 on October 14, 1947. It simply wasn’t possible that a kid with mediocre grades graduating near the middle of a class of 33 students would be sitting next to the General at dinner in a restaurant in Reno, Nevada, a little more than a half-century later. ...Read More >

Most reader queries received here at the office are of technical interest, such as which powder might provide the best accuracy and velocity with a specific cartridge/bullet/gun. Given enough detail, our staff writers can easily clear up any apprehension a reader might have by offering suggestions that should lead them toward an end goal. Other questions aren’t so easy to answer due largely to the fact that any response would be based on speculation and a large helping of personal preference. While personal experience must come into play to validate answers of a technical bent, more general questions should be and are answered with kid gloves. ...Read More >