Rifle May/June 2019

The first, brand-new unfired hunting rifle I ever laid my grubby hands on was a Remington Model 760 .257 Roberts. My stepfather brought it home from the Glide Saw Shop where it was purchased one Saturday afternoon in late summer of 1956. It was to be Mom’s deer rifle. ...Read More >

My father’s Model 700 ADL was far more than the sum of its parts, but this was learned the hard way. The .222 Remington was quite a nice rifle. It was perfectly practical for a preteen to discover the ins and outs of shooting a centerfire rifle at empty Aspen soda cans, paper plates, distant rocks in the East Mojave and, occasionally, a five-pound, black-tailed jackrabbit. Over time, the .222 provided foundational handloading knowledge and was ideal for spending three hours, or three-day weekends, away from chores, homework or any of the doldrums a grade school kid suffers through. ...Read More >

When this edition of Rifle magazine arrives in mailboxes and at newsstands, the days will be growing longer and warmer, which means that it is time to hunt varmints. There is a large selection of excellent cartridges that begins with several rimfires and ends with high-velocity centerfires that include .20, .22, .24 and .25 caliber, plus others. ...Read More >

Before World War I, the average American big-game hunter predominantly used leverguns. During that war, millions of young Americans got their first exposure to bolt actions. In time those rifles became the norm in the woods. During World War II, millions more young men were exposed to M1 Garands and M1 .30 Carbines. Afterward, semiautomatic sporting rifles appeared on the commercial market, albeit they never rivaled bolt-action sporters in numbers. Young Americans sent to Southeast Asia were initially issued M14s but eventually handed them in for M16s and M16A1s. At that time back in the States, AR-type rifles weren’t well accepted by varmint hunters or big-game hunters. For varmints, ARs were not considered accurate enough, and for big game, they weren’t powerful enough. ...Read More >

All serious riflefolk believe there is always a need to own just one more rifle. There may even be some justification for this. For example, a desire to try the latest and greatest new round should qualify; so would a rifle chambered for an old cartridge with which a rifleman happens to have no experience. ...Read More >

While discussing hunting equipment during a recent hunter education class, one student wondered how hunters determined how far away a deer or antelope was without a laser rangefinding binocular. One of the instructors answered that distances were often misjudged back then, especially past 300 yards, and if an ethical hunter was unsure of the range, he did not shoot, or stalked into sure range. ...Read More >

As one of those odd individuals who actually enjoys cleaning rifles, I tend to pay close attention to the appearance of patches when they come through the bore. Over the years, I have pretty much learned what to expect and how to interpret everything from “inky black” to “streaky blue.” Thus I was unprepared for what I saw when I began cleaning an old rifle that, outwardly, appeared to have nothing in the bore except normal smokeless powder fouling, and not much of that. ...Read More >

For many decades, if someone thought, utilitarian lever-gun, a mental image of one Marlin or another would likely have appeared in their mind. That is not criticism, it’s just how it was – but not anymore. Marlin even has a custom shop these days that produces some high-dollar custom rifles. And as will be examined shortly, Turnbull Restoration Company is offering less-expensive, gussied-up Marlin leverguns. ...Read More >

In 1907, the Rigby company turned the 7x57 Mauser into a British sporting round, calling it the .275 Rigby. This might sound like corporate theft but is actually a long-time tradition, perhaps as old as self-contained metallic cartridges. Many “European” rounds are the metric equivalent of both British and American cartridges such as the 6.5x52R (.25-35 Winchester) and 10.75x73 (.404 Rimless Nitro Express). The cartridges Americans call the .300 and .375 Holland & Holland Magnums were originally introduced by H&H as the Super-Thirty and the .375-Bore Magnum High-Velocity. ...Read More >

The first five rounds fired from the new Shaw Custom Rifles Mk. X grouped inside an inch. The scope was then adjusted to shift point of impact closer to center, and another group was fired that measured around .60 inch while the third group was around .40 inch. But it was the fourth group that really had my attention – five shots inside .250 inch, and there had been no barrel break-in. ...Read More >

The modern standard for rifle accuracy is a three-shot group fired at 100 yards. There are exceptions, benchrest rifles being the obvious one, but for the average hunting rifle or even a casual target rifle, this is how most people measure accuracy. ...Read More >

Production of the Weatherby Mark V has skipped here and there across the world since Roy Weatherby brought his rifles to market in 1958. Initial assembly of the rifles occurred at Weatherby’s plant in South Gate, California, with the receiver and parts manufactured by several companies in California. Production shifted to J.P. Sauer in West Germany in 1959, to Howa in Japan in 1973, Saco Defense in Maine in 1994 and in 2011 to Weatherby’s plant in Paso Robles, California. Weatherby hopes to permanently settle into its new 75,000 square-foot headquarters in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 2019. ...Read More >