Rifle May-June 2020

The above question comes up quite often, especially from writers who show up at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show each year, wander up and down the miles of aisles and come back to the booth asking, “What’s New?” At the recent 2020 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, where it appeared every rifle manufacturer was touting the 6.5 Creedmoor and/or its 6mm spin-off, I asked a friend in the industry, “What’s the next phenomenon of the age?” His answer, “The 6.5 PRC.” I detected a hint of tongue-in-cheek in his response, since there have been numerous shakeups over the “next greatest thing” since I discovered guns in magazines and the Sears & Roebuck catalog in the early 1950s. ...Read More >

Depending on the source, the first trigger on a firearm dates back to the 1400s with the appearance of the matchlock, a mechanism that used a lever to release a burning cord, usually made of hemp or flax, that ignited the powder charge . . . most of the time. This lock system greatly enhanced accuracy, rate of fire and ushered in a new way of thinking in firearms production. ...Read More >

From 1884 through 1904, Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company produced a unique slide-action rifle (aka trombone or pump action) known as Colt’s Lightning Magazine Rifle (CLMR). It was offered in three frame sizes, including “Small” for the .22 Short, “Medium” for the .32-20, .38-40 and .44-40 Winchester cartridges and “Large” for the more potent .38-56 WCF, .40-60 Marlin, .45-60 WCF, .45-85 Marlin and .50-95 Express cartridges. ...Read More >

Model 1886 lever-action rifles originated in the U.S. and have been copied in factories as far away as Japan and Italy. They have been offered as Winchesters, Brownings, Winchester/Mirokus and Cimarron/Ubertis. My opinion is that for reasons unknown, Model 1886s have been admired by the general shooting public more than any other levergun; even those made in vastly more numbers and for longer time periods. In my many years of writing about leverguns – both original and reproductions – this following comment has been heard many times, “I’ve never owned a lever-action rifle, but someday I’d like to have an ’86.” ...Read More >

The subject of snap caps is one that seldom comes up among shooters today. Mentioning the term “snap block” just produces blank stares. ...Read More >

My annual December trips to South Texas consist of a daily routine: bowhunting white-tailed deer from blinds in mornings, and then the day is spent spot-and-stalk hunting wild boars. Early afternoons are spent “corning” roads. Corning is a uniquely Texas verb involving sitting on pickup tailgates trickling bags of shelled corn atop ranch roads in areas wild hogs frequent. Enough time is reserved to comfortably slip into evening deer blinds. Daytime belongs to bows and pure sport. Nights are dominated by ARs, thermal-imaging optics and hog-culling operations. ...Read More >

In the last column I was emerging, almost penniless, from a divorce that separated me from my prized custom .257 Weatherby, my first custom shotgun and any other firearm worth more than two seashells and a corn cob. ...Read More >

Many riflemen have a passion for custom rifles, and even more collect the special editions available to us every year. Some of these guns celebrate an anniversary, a milestone in manufacturing or pay tribute to an accomplished individual. With the 125th Anniversary of the famed Winchester Model 94 on the horizon, the parent company is offering an extraordinary custom lever action far below what a true hand built custom rifle would cost. ...Read More >

Is 5R rifling a genuine improvement over other rifling methods or a clever marketing tactic? Probably some of each. Such a topic is very much akin to highly-opinionated discussions, like breaking in a barrel. ...Read More >

Through the good and bad times of the last 62 years, the foundation of Savage Arms has depended on its Model 110 bolt action. The rifle was first offered in 1958 chambered in .30-06 and .270 Winchester, and the following year in a short action chambered in the .243 and .308 Winchesters. Over the years, the Model 110 has expanded to include, among others, Hunter, Tactical, Target, Long Range, Trophy and Varmint models chambered in a wide variety of cartridges. A check of the Savage catalog shows the vast majority of those rifles feature a synthetic stock. ...Read More >

Federal Cartridge has been producing ammunition for 98 years. The company is known for outstanding quality but gained particular fame among match competitors and big-game hunters with its Premium line of ammunition introduced in 1977. It featured purpose-specific bullets from Nosler and Sierra but was eventually expanded to include bullets from Trophy Bonded, Swift, Woodleigh, Barnes, etc. New for 2020, Federal has developed a new bullet known as Terminal Ascent that is the result of considerable experience in manufacturing bullets and top-quality ammunition, but also includes extensive research and development combined with state-of-art testing and technology. ...Read More >

In 1865 the United States government was pretty broke due to an internal war that lasted four years, but to be prepared for other possible conflicts the U.S. Army needed to keep up with the latest technological trend, self-contained rifle cartridges. These started appearing long before the War Between the States, the inevitable result of the development of the percussion cap, which appeared in the early 1800s when a Scottish Presbyterian minister, Rev. Alexander John Forsyth, developed a fulminate-based compound that exploded when sharply whacked. This resulted in caplock rifles, which immediately began to replace flintlocks, and eventually self-contained cartridges. ...Read More >

Let’s be clear: I never, not even in childhood, longed for a Marlin Model 39. Although I spent many hours poring over the 1965 Marlin catalog, sipping coffee and listening to Gordon Lightfoot, my attention was always directed at either the Model 336 (a real deer rifle) or the modern (and modernistic) short-throw Levermatic Model 57 .22 Long Rifle. I doubt that I ever cast more than a glance at the pages extolling the virtues of the Model 39A. ...Read More >