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Are Wildcats Worth It?
By Ron Spomer
Your heart palpitates for a custom chambering, but think before you leap. Forty years ago, as a new shooter and handloader, I was wild about wildcats. Not the furry, spotted kind. The mysterious, esoteric, hot-shooting, custom-formed brass kind. Cartridges like the .22 Varminter, the .224 Clark, the .243 Page Pooper and the .219 Donaldson Wasp soun... READ MORE
Marlin’s XT Youth .22s
By Richard Mann
The XT series of rimfire rifles are budget models with kid-worthy features. It took a long time for gun makers to come around to the notion they needed to build rifles for kids. Maybe this is because when the generation that is now in charge was growing up, there were few youth guns. They learned to shoot dad’s rifle, even though it did not f... READ MORE
Are You Using Too Much Scope?
By Clair Rees
Winter was setting in along the Utah-Colorado border. It was two days before Thanksgiving, and I was slogging slowly through a foot of snow blanketing the Dolores Triangle. I’d drawn a late-season permit for the area. Hunting had been spotty here during Utah’s 10-day October deer season, when only “so-so” bucks were in resid... READ MORE
Don’t Sell the .308 Win Short
By John Barsness
The .308 is a superb whitetail round, but don’t believe it’s too puny for elk, pronghorns, black bears or plains game. Whenever hunters gather around a campfire to discuss big-game cartridges, you’ll hear talk about the .270 Winchester versus the .30-06, some chatter about the 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .300 Weatherby Mag an... READ MORE
Which .22 Centerfire?
By John Haviland
It’s hard not to like cartridges with names like Swift, Hornet and Fireball. Here’s what they do best in the field. Photo: The .22-250 Rem and .220 Swift have the reach when shots are long. There really are only a few popular .22-caliber centerfire cartridges, and each one covers only a certain range of bullet velocities. That makes try... READ MORE
Muzzleloader Tune-up
By Ralph M. Lermayer
Photo: To protect a scope from corrosive blowback, wrap electrical tape around the area just above the breech. To the uninitiated, muzzleloaders are veiled in a cloak of mystery. To hunters who understand them, blackpowder rifles are simple and predictable in operation. What they are NOT is forgiving. Pay attention to the rules, and they will never... READ MORE
Smith & Wesson’s 686 Revolver
By John Haviland
This brother of the Model 19 is great for hunting and plinking. Last summer, I bought a Smith & Wesson Model 686 .357 Magnum revolver, and ever since, I’ve been happily shooting it at the range and in the field. The gun shoots tight groups from the bench and balances well in the hands for accurate offhand fire. It digests a variety of loa... READ MORE
A Most Popular Magnum
By John Haviland
All hail the 7mm Rem Mag — king of the .284 bores. The 7mm Remington Magnum is the most bought, shot and hunted-with magnum cartridge, despite the continuous introduction of other magnum rounds intended to capture some of its appeal. The 7mm Rem Mag acquired its rank soon after it was introduced way back in 1962 and has held onto that spot ov... READ MORE
Field Shooting Effectively
By Ron Spomer
When your target of opportunity knocks, you need to answer in seconds. Greg was as enthusiastic as an 8-year-old on Christmas morning. His first pronghorn hunt! He had a new .257 Weatherby Magnum with a Zeiss scope that could shoot a country mile. Back home on the bench, he was punching sub-MOA groups with 115-grain Barnes Tipped Triple Shocks. No... READ MORE
150 Years of Winchester Lever Actions
By Ron Spomer
In this special preview of the May 2016 issue just sent to subscribers, Ron Spomer explains why lever-action rifles remain ideal for big-game hunting after a century and a half of use. Photo: It wasn’t until John Browning designed the Model 1886 that Winchester produced a lever-action repeating rifle strong enough to handle powerful rounds li... READ MORE
The Amazing .375 H&H Family
By Ron Spomer
Dozens of rounds have been carved from H&H’s magnum opus. Photo: The .375 H&H and its .300 H&H offspring (far left) were too long to function well in standard-length action. Brass was shortened to make the .264 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .350 Norma Mag and .458 Win Mag. No centerfire rifle cartridge has spawned a la... READ MORE
Sauer’s Elegant 303
By Jon R. Sundra
The 303 is a masterpiece of metal machining. In many ways, the bolt-action rifle is an anachronism. It’s been around since the late 1830s and hasn’t really changed much since the definitive Mauser of 1898. Indeed, if we were to take a brand new rifle like a Winchester Model 70, Remington 700 or a Ruger 77, there’s virtually no dif... READ MORE
Short Magnums: A Flash in the Pan?
By Jon R. Sundra
The short, fat case design was a step forward, although a small one, in cartridge development. Photo: In 1998, gun writer Rick Jamison, in cooperation with Ruger and Winchester, developed the .300 JRW, but it never made it to market. The author actually used Winchester-loaded cartridges and a Ruger rifle to take a Texas nilgai that year. For ... READ MORE
Mossberg’s New Lever Action
By Clair Rees
The Model 464 is a classic reborn. With so many semiauto tactical rifles introduced over the last few years, it was refreshing to see O.F. Mossberg & Sons resurrect a style many consider out of fashion. The company’s Model 464 lever rifles would seem right at home in the 19th century. When it comes to hunting rabbits and squirrels, one of... READ MORE
Finding the Sweet Spot
By Ron Spomer
The right bullet at the right seating depth can shoot like a house afire. Pardon the personal question, but how deep is your seat? This has nothing to do with furniture or your personal deep-seated convictions. It has everything to do with how accurately your rifles shoot. Bullet seating depth is critical. You probably already know that a particula... READ MORE