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longdistance
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 FEBRUARY 2015
Vol. 61, Number 2, 722nd Issue

COLUMNS ON THE COVER

6 CROSSFIRE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

8 PAYTON INSIDER
GUNS
MILLER

12 HANDGUNS
MASSAD AYOOB

14 JOHN TAFFIN
HANDLOADING

18 MONTANA MUSINGS
MIKE DUKE VENTURINO

20 OPTICS
JOHN BARSNESS

22 SHOTGUNNER
HOLT BODINSON
20 Fixed-power scopes.

24 DAVE ANDERSON
RIFLEMAN

28 SHOOTERS
WILL DABBS, MD
R X
Kahr CT45 and
60 KNIVES
PAT COVERT
compact CM45.
PHOTO:
61 VIEWS, NEWS & REVIEWS
RIGHTS WATCH: DAVID CODREA
JOSEPH R. NOVELOZO

78 ODD ANGRY SHOT

DEPARTMENTS
JOHN CONNOR

82 CAMPFIRE
JOHN TAFFIN
TALES
22 Stevens 555 20-gauge.
30 SURPLUS, CLASSIC AND
TACTICAL FIREARMS
THE STAR WARS SHOTGUN
HOLT BODINSON

34

OUT OF THE BOX
RIO GRANDE CUSTOM GRIPS
JOHN TAFFIN

35

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
JEFF JOHN

68 QUARTERMASTER
Featuring GUNS All-stars!
THIS MONTH:
JEFF JOHN

72 GUNS CLASSIFIEDS
74 NEW PRODUCTS
76 GUN OF THE MONTH
80 ADVERTISER INDEX
14 Reloading the .44 Special.
GUNS Magazine (ISSN 1044-6257) is published monthly by Publishers Development Corporation, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, CA 92128. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Diego, CA and at ad-
ditional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTIONS: One year (12) issues $24.95. Single monthly copies, $4.95. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Eight weeks notice required on all changes. Send old address as well as new.
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2014 by Publishers Development Corporation.

4 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 40
KAHR COMPACT CM45
AND FULL-SIZE CT45.

FEATURES
36




HK VP9
HK built the first striker-fired, polymer-framed
pistol decades ago. Theyve done it again.
But this time theyve done it right.
MASSAD AYOOB
56 Ashbury Precision Ordnances
.338 Lapua.

40




THE TWO-KAHR FAMILY
Peach of a pair: The full-size CT45 and compact
CM45 provide big-bore punch in accurate,
smooth-shooting DAO platforms.
J.B. WOOD

46



CAST AWAY
No, you dont have to stick with jacketed bullets
in your pet semi-auto pistol. Really.
MIKE DUKE VENTURINO
46 Cast bullets.

50


GOOD VIBRATIONS
How your rifles barrel moves and affects accuracy.
JOHN BARSNESS

56



THE ASYMMETRIC WARRIOR
Shooting long range with Ashbury
Precision Ordnances .338 Lapua.
JACOB GOTTFREDSON 36 The HK VP9.

ONLINE FEATURE WARNING: Firearms are dangerous and

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM if used improperly may cause serious in-

jury or death. Due to the inherent vari-
BROWNING T-BOLT .17 HMR ables in the reloading of ammunition, be
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www.gunsmagazine.com/product-index arm. Be a safe shooter!

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 5
CRO FIRE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE FINEST IN THE FIREARMS FIELD SINCE 1955

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Thomas von Rosen, CEO;

GUNS Magazine welcomes letters to the editor. We reserve the right to edit all published letters for clarity and length. Due
to the volume of mail, we are unable to individually answer your letters or e-mail. In sending a letter to GUNS Magazine,
you agree to provide Publishers Development Corp. such copyright as is required for publishing and redistributing the
contents of your letter in any format. Send your letters to Crossfire, GUNS Magazine, 12345 World Trade Dr., San Diego,
CA 92128; www.gunsmagazine.com; e-mail: ed@gunsmagazine.com
MEANING?
I am a patriot, a retired professional
soldier, life-long shooter and ardent
supporter of the Second Amendment.
I was moved by the quotation of Tench
Coxe on page 74 of the November
issue. However, my unabridged diction-
ary came up short on the meaning of
hoplophobe and enuretic. Thanks
for a great magazine.
Dwight J. Covington
Lt. Col., US Army (retired)
Plano, TX
Hoplophobe was coined by the late
Col. Jeff Cooper and means people
with a fear of weapons. An enuretic
is someone whose bladder empties
involuntarily.Editor
HANDGUN LIGHTS
I must disagree with John Connor
about using a Hyskore compact
revolver light in lieu of a flashlight in
the December issue. You end up point-
ing your revolver at something you
may not want to destroy. Continue to
use a separate flashlight, and if you
see a bad guy, you can turn on your
Hyskore and deal with the problem.
John P. Ashjian
San Antonio, TX
Probably time to revisit this topic
again. Mas Ayoob will address the
wisdom, utility and methods of using
weapon-mounted lights in an upcoming
issue.Editor
FAVORITES
Having subscribed to GUNS
Magazine for quite a while, I thor-
oughly enjoy reading (and usually
learning from) your articles. Tell
John Connor to keep up the Odd
Angry Shotsuch common sense
and other comments always hit home
with me and a lot of my friends and
family. Massad Ayoob teaches well,
and his opinions are highly valued.
Mike Venturino brings out a lot of
interesting history and perspectives
on reloading and other subjects. John
Check out www.gunsmagazine.com for our digital edition, news, our exclusive
Product Index, Web Blasts, online features, to enter the Giveaway Package and
more! And if you have any news about hot new products youve found, or anything
you think we need to know about, drop me a line at ed@gunsmagazine.com!
Taffins Campfire Tales cant be
missed. I think Id enjoy burning a bit
of powder or sippin coffee with any
of these guys, or the rest of the maga-
zine staff for that matter.
Wayne Sutherland
via e-mail
AIR CHOICE
I enjoyed the article The Short
Answer? by Payton Miller very much
in the December issue , until it comes
to using an air rifle to teach beginners.
One shouldnt start a beginner using a
spring gun as they can be difficult to
learn to shoot accurately. The spring
gun will recoil before the pellet ever
leaves the barrel because the spring or
gas piston is released to compress the
air to move the pellet down the barrel.
My suggestion would be to use a
pump or CO2-powered air gun where
the air is compressed before the trig-
ger is pulled. I have a Daisy Power-
Line TargetPro 953. It is a single pump
.177 caliber, 490 fps, has fiber optic
sight, and a 5-shot self-indexing clip.
This air gun or one similar would be
a much better choice than a spring or
gas piston gun and would probable be
less expensive with a greater degree of
satisfaction for the beginning shooter.
I really enjoy and look forward
to reading your publication, its my
favorite of all the ones I subscribe to.
John Darby
Mo.
There is certainly no shortage
of action options when it comes to
airguns. I grew up with a Benjamin
pump, and can remember working that
pump handle like crazy to get enough
power to perforate a tin can satisfacto-
rily. The one we used for the storythe
Ruger Explorerwas a barrel-cocker,
but the amount of effort required
was only 16-1/2 pounds, which is well
within the capabilities of most kids.
While another type may be intrin-
sically more accurate, this one iwas
certainly good enough for instructional
purposes.PM
Thomas Hollander, Randy Mold, Marjorie Young
PUBLISHER Roy Huntington
Editor Jeff John
Executive Editor Payton Miller
Managing Editor Jade Mold
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Editorial Assistants Sara Cardoza, Holly Parker
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
John Taffin, Holt Bodinson, Dave Anderson,
Clint Smith, Massad Ayoob, Mike Duke
Venturino, Will Dabbs MD, Shari LeGate
FIELD EDITORS
Sam Fadala, David Codrea, John Morrison,
Glen Zediker, John Sheehan, Mike Cumpston,
John Barsness, Dave Douglas, J.B. Wood
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6 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 THE RUGER 9E

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 BACK IN THE
SWING OF THINGS
WHEN IT COMES TO FAMILY DOVE
HUNTS, TRADITION HAS NO LIMIT.
PAYTON MILLER

H
unting, at its best, is a family tradition. Some kids
have fond memories of Wisconsin deer camps, Geor-
gia quail get-togethers or Wyoming antelope hunts.
Mine are of broiling Labor Day dove openers in dead-
flat, plowed-over agricultural acreagewheat, sorghum,
maize, a feedlot, whatever. Anything thatd bring the birds
inlow and fast and dippy when its barely light, higher
and spookier when the sun starts to climb out of the Man, gun, dove: your basic Labor Day Trilogy.
orange-pink haze to the east.
late 1950s. My older cousin Mike was
A cold snap or thunderstorm could of course, the faces have changed. in his third year when I first showed
queer the whole deal. My uncles and The real old-timers are all gone now. up at my Uncle Virgils place in Palm
dad used to say if you werent sweat- But the younger faces of sons (two Desert. Mike told me how lucky I was
ing bullets by 8 a.m., it was too darned of which are mine) fill the ranks for to have been entrusted with a shot-
cold to bother with (I subscribed to the departed. Sometimes recogniz- gun. His first year, he simply shagged,
this notion until I had a pretty good able mannerisms of a badly missed picked and cleaned birds, a task he
shoot not long ago in some rather elder, somehow inherited by a junior could hardly wait to pass on to his
brisk fall weather in South Dakota). member, are cause for a wry, but wist- younger brother Craig. But, shotgun
The Neal family dove hunt began ful comment. or no, all three of us pitched into that
a few years prior to WWII andwith Now the senior circuit includes humongous gray mound of mourn-
a few breakshas continued in one just my cousins Mike, Craig and I, ing dove after each outing (no 10-bird
fashion or another. The locale has and the occasional in-law husband limits back then) as the elders flaked
shifted from various spots in South- lucky enough to get a kitchen pass out, beer in hand, in Virgils ranch-
ern Californias Coachella and Impe- from home. We are now the geezers style house with its industrial-strength
rial Valleys (Indio, Mecca, Indian we used to giggle at affectionately air conditioning. We generally hunted
Wells, Brawley) and has recently relo- when we were kids. south toward Indio in fields, which
cated near Phoenix, Arizona. And, My father began going around the today are packed wall to wall with
ungodly pink Moorish-themed
condos if not mini-malls and golf
courses.
Later, for well over a decades
worth of seasons, our rallying point
was a motel in Brawley, Calif., at
the southern end of the aptly named
Salton Sea. The area was hot, full of
rattlers and gnats and an absolute
blast to hunt in, provided you stayed
hydrated.
We quickly adopted two local
restaurant hangoutsone for Mexi-
can dinners, another for country-
style breakfasts. Both places quickly
became our post-hunt command
centers. And why not? They were
invariably filled with hoards of camo
T-shirt-wearing guys trading lies over
how fast they limited, while at the
Neal family dove hunt, Indio, California, circa 1962 (left to right): Mike Neal, Keith Neal, Payton Miller, same time being remarkably circum-
Howard Miller (with aviator shades), Burton Burton, Virgil Neal. Photo: Mick Neal. spect about exactly where they actually

8 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

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2013, Kimber Mfg., Inc. All rights reserved. Information and specifications are for reference only and subject to change without notice.
 Going, Going,
GONE!
Obama Has Imposed
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ATF Has Halted Imports.
The Few Rifles already in
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Get Your Original, Soviet
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Fax 714-848-7208 www.Mauser.net
Mike Neal takes a bead on an incoming dove
did it. And the food was first class. with his Browning O/U (above). Keeping your
gun loaded is a full-time job when things are
But, of course, the inevitable hot and heavy.
happened. Dads and uncles passed
away. Wives dreamed up home
improvement schemes. People
moved. Divorces shifted the dynamic
of relationships. Kids grew up and
got jobs (Labor Day is a tough time
to wrangle a couple of days off
youre in anything remotely resem-
bling retail sales).
Our last get-together at Mikes
house west of Phoenix, Ariz., was a
skeleton crew compared to the glory
yearsme, Mike, brother-in-law
Doug and his son Neal (named, of
course, after the founding family). My
two boys who, against all odds, had
somehow turned into responsible citi-
zens, had to work. Our puny numbers
were the downside. The upside? The
daily limit had just been bumped up
to 15 birds, a number we hadnt seen
back in California since Shep was a
pup. I asked as I rummaged about in his
Plus, good old Cousin Mike kitchen for Zip-Lock bags and ice.
who inherited Uncle Virgils awesome How did we get so old?
talent for getting permission from I dunno, Mike replied as he tried
landownershad gotten us on to a to decide between taking his new,
true hotspot, a magnet for Eurasian, shockingly lightweight Benelli Legacy
whitewing and mourning dove 28-gauge auto or his old Browning
all just a 20-minute drive from his Citori 12. But it beats the heck out
doorstep. of the alternative.
Still, on the first morning I was Besides, he added, now that
feeling kind of blue. I posed what were old and selfish, we can afford
I thought was a fairly philosophi- nicer shotguns than we had when
cal question during pre-dawn prepa- we were kids. Or when our kids were
rations. How did we get this way, little.
True that, I thought. My first gun
had been a Depression-era Stevens
Model 520 pump 20-gauge marketed
under the Sears Roebuck Ranger
label. It was choked tighter than a
second coat of paint. Our fathers
and uncles had mostly hunted
with 12-gauge Remington 870 or
Winchester Model 12 pumpsexcept
for Mikes Dad, Keith, who liked a
16-gauge Model 37 Ithaca, which,
even today, still sees service when
someone needs a loaner. Or is in a
particularly sentimental mood.
Opening morningmy first ever on
Target loads with No. 7-1/2 or No. 8 shot are prop-
the Arizona side of the borderwas a
good one. By the time the sun was well
er dove medicine. Winchester AAs have plenty of up off the deck, most of the birds were
oomph and will cycle the most finicky autoloader.
coming out of itwhich meant a lot
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

Neal Biery (left) couldnt resist this high-flying barn pigeon. It, too, was featured prominently in the
inevitable barbecue. After suitably heavy marinating, of course. Lightening up for a change of pace:
A Benelli Legacy 28-gauge accounted for several first morning mourning dove (right).
of them never got shot at. Once they
disappeared into that giant orange ball,
they pretty much had a safe conduct
passat least from where I was. Pass-
ing up Hail Mary shots is one of the
best ways I know to improve your bird-
to-shell ratio without having to endure
the public humiliation of a sporting
clays course. But, of course, relatively
few once-a-season shooters have that
kind of fire discipline unless the birds
are coming in like flies.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
But there were enough of them
this timelow enough and out of the
glareto allow us to fill out pretty
quickly. Every now and again, every-
one would countand recountthe
number of birds in the rear vent pocket
of his shell vest against the possibility
of an over-limit ticket and the subse-
quent hassle that would ensue.
Naturally, Neal, the youngest
member of our little band punched out
first. He shoots well, but was also the
unwitting beneficiary of a dove hunt-
ers greatest ally since Improved Cylin-
der and the cheap folding stool. That
would be location, location, location.
After we had breakfast at around
8:30 (breakfast always seems like lunch
on opening morning), we headed back
to Mikes place to clean the birds, get
ourselves air-conditioned and take
a nap. Doug and Neal had to head
back home, so they napped longer
and harder than did Mike and I. Next
morning, of course, both of us went
out again by ourselves. Took us a bit
longer to fill out this time, but it was
well worth it. When we got back, I
called my boys to tell them how things
went. They were suitably envious and
both told me they are good to go for
the later split season. Im good with
that. Ill settle for anything that keeps
things going.
I seem to need it now more than I
ever thought I would.
BY THE NUMBERS
Two state stats: During Arizonas
previous dove season (2013) an esti-
mated total of 36,300 hunters aver-
aged 21.3 birds for the season. During
the same time frame, 63,300 Califor-
nia hunters averaged 13 birds.Cour-
tesy US Fish & Wildlife Service
11
 THE COMFORT ZONE 1911 really, really wants us to keep our
finger outside the triggerguard until
we are in the very act of intentionally
firing a shot.
THE 1911 NOT ONLY ABIDES, The recommended hammer-back
carry frightens the uninitiated, but the
IT FLAT-OUT THRIVES. most important word in cocked and
locked may be the last one. Exqui-
MASSAD AYOOB sitely ergonomic and easy to use once
habituation is developed, that thumb

S
o here I am in the front seat of a van with a laptop lever is a safety net in case a criminal
attacker gains control of the pistol and
on my lap, remembering the student who asked me tries to commit murder with it. Tests
yesterday why more training staff than not were wear- show it may take the unfamiliar user
ing 1911 pistols, when we were obviously familiar with more 17 seconds or more to figure out how
modern technology. to turn on the shooting machine,
and thats a lot of life-
Well not only flat but thin, the and load have proven saving time for the
full-size Springfield 1911-A1, currently themselves from the Good Guy or Gal who
riding in an ARG holster inside my street to the battlefield has been disarmed.
waistband, is more comfortable than for well over a century. If it becomes neces-
almost any other handgun of the same A popular meme on sary to shove the pistol
power level. When seated for an all-day the gun-related Inter- into the waistband
drive, thats importantindeed, its net is handgun cali- without a holster
important for all-day carry whatever bers suck, but youll never a good ideawe
youre doing. have a hard time selling have both thumb safety
Serious shooters appreciate the 1911 that argument to those and grip safety between
because it is, well, shootable. It points of us whove seen what us and an unintended
well in most hands. Various trigger a 230-grain Federal shot if a careless index
lengths and a slim grip profile allow it HST +P .45 round finger or some foreign
to fit the smallest hands, and the larg- does in living tissue. Thumb on hammer, trigger finger object gets caught in
est. Its trigger pull is consistent from The 1911 is one of extended, safety on: Ed Brown Signa- the guard and pushes
first shot to last, and can be made very our most iconic fire- ture 1911 .45 goes into comfortable,
concealable Rosen ARG holster.
the trigger rearward.
controllable. A relatively low-bore axis arms. For my genera- For years Ive taught
minimizes muzzle jump caliber for cali- tion, it was the gun holstering with thumb
ber, and those caliber choices range Grandpa carried in WWI, Dad in on exposed hammer, another safety
from .22 Long Rifle to .50 GI, and the WWII, older brother in Korea, younger net, and one not available on striker-
classic chambering, .45 ACP, is remark- brother in Vietnam, and perhaps even fired guns. The thumb on the hammer
ably versatile. son in the most recent conflict, since the also pulls the web of the hand off the
Some of us like to compete when 1911 .45 still endures as a niche weapon grip safety, putting that component on
we can. The .45 Im carrying, Spring- with our military. For those who carry safe as well.
fields Range Officer model, costs under for protection of self and others, that Bear in mind that some 1911s are
$1,000 retail and long and distinguished not drop safe, and can discharge from
comes with adjust- history of getting the job inertia if dropped or struck sharply.
able sights, which done is comforting. Thats why I like those with internal
adapt to the differ- Contrary to the firing pin safeties, such as the Series 80
ent trajectories of the beliefs of some, a system of the Colt and ParaOrdnance
.45 ACPs wide range quality 1911 can run or the Swartz type on the Kimber II
of available loads. It just fine without your series. Failing that, inertia discharge
is suitable for bulls- gunsmith looking over can be prevented with a lightweight
eye pistol events in your shoulder. That firing pin and extra-strength firing
both centerfire and said, though, it requires pin spring, as found in the Springfield
.45 competition, the attention for mainte- currently on my hip.
Stock class of NRA nance and manual of Habit brings comfort, too. My
Action Pistol and arms. Properly carried generation started shooting when the
the Bianchi Cup, cocked and locked, it 1911 was the only available large-cali-
Limited category in wants an experienced ber, semi-automatic pistol. The years
USPSA, the Custom hand that knows when have made it as familiar as a well-worn
Defensive Pistol divi- to flip the thumb safety pair of slippers. Thats not exactly a
sion of IDPA, any up on safe, and when bad thing, either.
bowling pin shoot, to flick it down into the Ive now mentioned comfort four
Steel Challenge or a Kevin Williams displays splendid con- fire position. With times here. And you know, speaking
PPC Auto match. trol of his Springfield Range Officer its short and relatively of my old favorite pistol, Im comfort-
Defense? Pistol 1911 9mm at ProArms IDPA match. light trigger pull, the able with that.

12 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 John shooting
the late Bill Gro-
vers West Texas
Flat-Top Target
.44 Special. This
was Bills personal
sixgun and has
cylinders in .44
Special, .44 Mag-
num and .44-40.

RELOADING sixgun, the first N-Frame from Smith

& Wesson. Officially it was the 1st

THE .44 SPECIAL

Model Hand Ejector, also known as
the New Century and best known by
collectors and shooters alike as the
Triple-Lock.
IT MAY BE THE MOST THE HEATH BULLET
IMPORTANT HANDGUN CARTRIDGE The Triple-Lock was a beautifully
made sixgun and got its name from
OF THE 20TH CENTURY. the fact it locked at the front of the
ejector rod, at the back of the cylin-
JOHN TAFFIN der, and then with a third meticu-
lously machined lock where the yoke

W
hen I wrote my first book, Big Bore Sixguns, I put meets the frame. All this security was
certainly not needed for the extremely
forth the idea the .44 Special was the Cartridge of mild .44 Special factory load, however,
the Century20th century of course. The .45 Colt it would soon open some very large
and the .38 Special arrived in the 19th century, so the .44 doors. Not too long after the arrival of
Special, which arrived in late 1907, competed with the .357 the .44 Special sixgun and cartridge, a
Magnum (1935), .44 Magnum (1955) and .41 Magnum (1964). man by the name of Heath in Massa-
chusetts designed what would become
Now most, at least those who are not devotees of the .44 known as the semi-wadcutter bullet.
Special, would immediately say no way the .44 Special During the 1920s (and we have no
could compete with these three magnums. That is true, way of knowing if he ever saw the
however only with factory loads. Heath design). Elmer Keith came up
with what is universally known now as
It is very difficult to try to figure bullet of about 250 grains at 750 feet the Keith bullet.
out exactly what Smith & Wesson per second. When the longer case .44 There are many bullets and bullet
was thinking as far as the .44 Special. Special arrived it was a dead ringer for designs offered bearing the name
They had been chambering their top- the .44 Russian with the same bullet Keith, which has become somewhat
break sixguns in the magnificent .44 at the same muzzle velocity and was generic, however, just because a bullet
Russian since the 1870s. Standard even loaded with black powder. The is of the semi-wadcutter design does
loads for the .44 Russian used a lead great grand difference was the new not make it a Keith bullet. Elmer

14 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

laid down specific specifications for
a bullet bearing his name, namely
three equally sized full-caliber driv-
ing bands, a deep crimping groove
between the middle and top bands,
and a large grease groove between the
middle and bottom bands. Of course,
the bottom is totally flat with no bevel.
I started loading for both the .44
Special and .44 Magnum in the 1950s
and my standard choice, my first
choice, for a bullet for loading the
.44 Special at the all levels desired is
what is normally known as the Keith
bulletnot a generic design but one
close to what Elmer had in mind. I
started with the Lyman 429421, which
Elmer had designed in the late 1920s
for the old Ideal Company which
preceded Lyman.
I also especially like the Keith
bullet as it drops from both the RCBS
44-250KT and the NEI Keith 260.429
molds. I have a 4-cavity aluminum
mold for the latter which makes cast-
ing very easy, and although I have a
4-cavity steel mold for the original
design as well as an old H&G 4-cavity
503 Keith, at this stage of my life I find
them so heavy it is fatiguing, so with
the Lyman and RCBS Keith bullets I
have two molds for each and run two
at a time.
The Keith bullet makes the .44 really Special.
Keith bullets, here shown standard and hol-
lowpointed (above, left and middle) and the
hollowpoint version John recovered from a 600+
pound feral pig. The Keith bullet has been the
standard for loading the .44 Special since the
1920s. In addition to Keith bullets, the Thompson
429244 gas checked (far right) is also an excellent
bullet for use in the .44 Special (below).
Cast from my alloy, which is
normally old-style wheelweights or
a 50-50 alloy of pure lead and type
metal, all Keith bullets weigh approxi-
mately 250 to 260 grains. I recently read
a declaration of the fact for reload-
ing the .44 Special a cast bullet is stan-
dardized at 0.430-inch. This is a very
simple answer and is definitely not the
case if youre looking for the best possi-
ble accuracy out of a particular sixgun.
Bullets should be sized to fit chamber
throats, and I have American-made
.44 Specials whose chambers throats
are as tight as 0.427-inch and as large
as 0.433, as well as a Spanish copy of
the old Smith & Wesson Triple-Lock,
which has 0.437-inch throats. Trying
to make a 0.430-inch bullet work for
every one of these would be an exer-
cise in futility if I was concerned about
accuracy. I size my .44 bullets to fit each
particular sixgun as close as possible.
Now lets get down to why I consider
the .44 Special the Cartridge of the last
century. In the late 1920s, Keith, after
blowing up an old black powder .45
Colt Single Action Army, switched
to the .44 Special to get the power he
wanted. At first he had No. 80 powder
to work with and got up to 1,100 fps
with his bullet. When 2400 came along
he switched to it and was able to get
1,200 fps. Remember, the factory load-
ing was only 750 fps. At the time he was
using the older style .44 Special brass,
commonly known as balloon-head
brass, which has more case capacity
than modern solid head brass. Keith
used 18.5 grains of 2400 in old style
brass only. When I duplicated his load
using the older style brass and 2400, I
got just over 1,200 fps from a 7-1/2-inch
barrel.

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16 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 When the new solid brass arrived
in the 1950s, Keith cut his load down
to 17.5 grains of 2400. This is still a
very hot load, and especially with
currently produced 2400, I normally
use it only in .44 Special brass to be
fired in .44 Magnum sixguns. I did
use this load a few years back to take
two feral pigs one of which weighed
over 500 pounds and the other right at
650 pounds. I used the Keith bullet in
hollowpoint form and the bullet went
all the way through the smaller pig
and we found it mushroomed on the
offside under the skin for the larger
pig. Performance was perfect.
The .44 Special Keith load pre-
dated the .357 Magnum and when the
latter arrived Keith said his bullet at
1,200 fps was still a much better choice
for game than the new .357 Magnum
158-grain bullet going 200 or 300 fps
faster. Keiths experiments with the
.44 Special, which he shared with
readers for nearly 30 years, is directly
responsible for the advent of the .44
Magnum. We can easily say without
the Special there would not have been
the magnum.
I rarely use the Keith load these days
in .44 Special sixguns. In fact, today I
usually cut back to 15.5 grains of 2400
for my top loading of the Keith bullet.
I only go above this level with lighter
weight bullets. At this stage of my life
I am not looking for the most power-
ful loads possible. My standard loads
are assembled with 7.5 grains of either
Unique or Universal, 17.5 grains of
4227, or 8.0 grains of Power Pistol.
Depending upon barrel length,
sixgun and bullet, these loads will
normally be in the 900 to 1,000 fps
range, and are certainly capable of
doing everything we normally expect a
sixgun to do. If Im looking for a little
more velocity, I normally go with the
Lyman/Thompson 429215GC. Lubed,
sized and with gas check applied, it
weighs around 220 grains. For this
bullet 8.5 grains of Unique results in
980 fps in a 4-inch-barreled S&W, while
15.5 grains of 2400 delivers 1,140 fps.
With a 5-1/2-inch-barreled sixgun such
as the Colt New Frontier or Freedom
Arms Model 97, 9.0 grains of Unique
is just under 1,150 fps.
For those who dont cast their own
bullets there are several custom cast-
ers offering Keith bullets. I often use
the Oregon Trail Laser Cast 240-grain
SWC. This is not a true Keith bullet
and even has a bevel base; however, it
often amazes me how well it shoots.
With 6.0 grains of Unique and a
5-1/2-inch sixgun, the result is a very
pleasant shooting, and accurate, load
of 825 fps, or slightly more than the
original .44 Special loading from
more than 100 years ago. Going up to
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
Appropriate
powders for
the .44 Spe-
cial in the
Colt Single
Action include
Unique, 2400
and 4227.
.44 SPECIAL HANDLOADED AMMO PERFORMANCE
BULLET POWDER CHARGE VELOCITY BARREL LENGTH
(BRAND, BULLET TYPE) (BRAND) (GRAINS, WEIGHT) (FPS) (INCHES)
Lyman429421 Power Pistol 8.0 980 4-1/4
Lyman 431244GC Power Pistol 8.0 983 4-1/4
Lyman 429421 4227 17.5 1,056 5-1/2
Lyman 429421 Power Pistol 8.5 1,035 5-1/2
NEI 260.429 Universal 7.5 1,038 5-1/2
NEI 260.429 Power Pistol 8.0 998 5-1/2
Lyman 431244GC Unique 7.5 1,024 5-1/2
Speer 225 SWC-HP 2400 15.0 1,075 5-1/2
Lyman 429421 Unique 7.5 975 7-1/2
Lyman 431244GC Unique 8.5 1,080 7-1/2
Lyman 429421 2400 15.5 1,146 5-1/2
Lyman 429215GC Unique 8.5 1,085 4-3/4
Lyman 429215GC Universal 9.0 1,144 5-1/2
RCBS 44-250KT Universal 7.5 1,053 7-1/2
Oregon Trail 240 SWC Bullseye 5.0 925 7-1/2
Oregon Trail 240 SWC Universal 6.5 947 7-1/2
Notes: Chronograph screens set at 10 feet from muzzle.
CCI 300 primers used in Starline brass.
my standard load of 7.5 Unique regis- weighing me down and shoot very
ters just over 1,000 fps from a 4-inch pleasantly with minimum felt recoil.
S&W Model 1950. The .44 Special may be well over a
Speer offers what I consider just century old, but for the reloader it is
about the perfect jacketed bullet for still brand-new.
the .44 Special. This is their 225-grain
SWC-HP. This is one of the first jack- Alliant Powder
eted bullets offered by Speer nearly 50 P.O. Box 856
Lewiston, ID 83501
years ago. It is a natural outgrowth of (800) 379-1732
the half-jacketed bullets of the time,
and unlike traditional jacketed bullets, Hodgdon Powder
this one consists of a full-length copper 6430 Vista Dr.
Shawnee, KS 66218
cup with a lead core. I push this one (913) 362-9455
a little more with 16.5 grains of 2400
yielding over 1,200 fps from a 5-1/2- Lyman Products
inch single action. 475 Smith St.
Middletown, CT 06457
For the recently offered lightweight (800) 225-9626
.44 Specials sixguns, such as the 3-inch
S&W Model 396 and the Charter Arms Oregon Trail Bullets
Bulldog Target revolvers, I use the P.O. Box 529
Baker City, OR 97814
Speer 200-grain Gold Dot HP designed (800) 811-0548
for the .44 Special over 7.7 grains of
Universal. Muzzle velocity is 750 to 775 RCBS
fps and groups under 1-inch for 5 shots 605 Oro Dam Blvd.
Oroville, CA 95965
at 20 yards in the 5-inch Charter Arms. (800) 533-5000
Most of my .44 Special shooting
these days is through what I call Perfect Speer Bullets
Packin Pistols. These are single-action 2299 Snake River Avenue
Lewiston, ID 83501
or double-action sixguns with barrel (800) 379-1732
lengths from 4 to 5-1/2 inches. They
holster easy, carry all day without For more info: www.gunsmagazine.com/index
17
 MOUNTAIN
MAUSERS
THE G33/40 WAS INTENDED
FOR SPECIALIZED TROOPS AND
IS ONE OF THE MORE
RARE VARIANTS TODAY. In a most unusual feature, since the rifle would
likely be used as a walking stick on icy
slopes, the left side of its buttstock was given
a sheet steel protector plate.
MIKE VENTURINO PHOTOS: YVONNE VENTURINO

I
ve become besotted with military Mauser rifles. My racks read the figure of 250,000 for G33/40
now hold a bakers dozen representing at least a half production, but it seems Balls figures
dozen nations, but the most recent is especially note- are more authoritative.) Compared
to 11,000,000 K98ks often quoted for
worthy. It is a German G33/40, a rather rare variation of the that rifles 10-year production period,
basic Model 1898 chambered for what the Germans called G33/40s were made in tiny numbers.
the 7.92x57mm. In America we call it the 8mm Mauser. Their survival rate into the 21st
century has not been good. Starting
The designation G33/40 is ironic. a country under German domination about in the 1950s and continuing still,
Starting circa 1935, Germany named at the time. Another specific was its custom gunsmiths discovered G33/40s
their standard issue infantry rifle K98k. purpose for issue to German Gebirg- superb production quality. Also,
The capital K stands for Karabiner, struppen or mountain troops. Because because they were built with lightening
i.e. short rifle or carbine in English. it would likely be used as a walking cuts they could be turned into exqui-
With a barrel length of 23.6 inches stick on icy slopes, the left side of its site and lightweight sporting rifles.
and a weight of 8.5 pounds, the K98k buttstock was given a sheet steel protec- Therefore, the considerable numbers of
is almost identical in size to the US tor plate. (Once I was advised this plate G33/40s surviving the rigors of World
Model 1903 Springfield, which no one was actually to protect the buttstock War II battlefields were torn apart for
mistakes for a carbine. Conversely, when troops were clicking their heels their actions alone.
the G in G33/40 stands for Gewehr, in coming to attention. Considerable Upon embarking on assembling
i.e. rifle in English. Barrel length for research caused me to discount that.) my collection of WWII firearms, little
G33/40 is 19.6 inches with nominal And finally another interesting fact thought was given to G33/40s. In fact,
weight of 7.9 pounds. G33/40s are about G33/40s is their meager numbers, I had personally laid eyes on only one
carbines in fact. both in rifles produced in the original in my career of which I was aware. But
What else makes a G33/40 so special? time frame and also in the numbers once in a phone conversation with a
One thing is its origins: G33/40s were existing today in original form. Lets fellow about another Mauser rifle he
not made in Germany. They were consider the total numbers produced casually mentioned selling his G33/40.
produced at the huge arms produc- first. G33/40s were only made in the I decided to buy it even though it was
ing complex in Brno, Czechoslovakia, between 1940 and 1942, according to actually a parts rifle. That means his
the book Mauser Military Rifles Of G33/40 was not in original condition.
The standard German battle rifle of WWII was The World by Robert W.D. Ball. On Its stock was an original G33/40, but
the K98k (top gun). The G33/40 (bottom gun) is page 107 of this books 3rd edition, of laminated wood. By its 945 code
the specialized carbine primarily intended for
mountain troops. Both are based on the Maus-
Ball gives an approximate production and 1940 manufacture date it should
er Model 1898 action. total of 120,000 G33/40s. (I have also have worn a solid wood stock. Also its

18 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

Dukes first G33/40 (above) was of first year
production albeit not with all matching serial
numbers. The 945 was Germanys first code for
the Brno factory in Czechoslovakia. Dukes most
recent G33/40 find (below) does have all match-
ing numbers. Its dot code was Germanys
second code for the Brno factory.

bolt did not serial number to the action

but was also was a proper G33/40 bolt
because its knob was hollow as all
G33/40 bolts were.
Here are some specifics about
G33/40s. They carried the basic
Mauser Model 98s internal box maga-
zine with 5-round capacity. Sights
consist of a mere blade front with
open rear graduated to 1,000 meters.
There is no provision for windage
adjustment save for drifting the front
sight in its dovetail.
During the Nazi era in Germany
the Wehrmacht did not put manufac-
turers names on weapons. Instead
they were given codes consisting of
numbers and/or letters plus the year
of production. When first devised,
G33/40s were marked 945, and
most if not all of those were dated
1940. Soon thereafter the code was
changed to dot with the year.
Note I said first above. Wonder
of wonders, I now have two G33/40s.
A friend spotted another for me in a
pawnshop and I bought it too. It is
all-original, albeit obviously it saw
much outdoor use because most of
the exterior metal finish has turned
gray. Also its laminated stock carries
many dents and dings. That said, all
serial numbers are matching, func-
tion is perfect as is the bore. I paid the
same for it as my parts one, which
is much less than the going rate. With
my handloads duplicating German
WWII ammunitions ballistics, this
second G33/40 is on for windage and
hits center at 200 yards for elevation.
G33/40s had one blemish in their
otherwise sterling reputation. Military
loads with 198-grain bullet at 2,500 fps
caused soldiers to complain of recoil.
They do belt you, but if a shooter can
handle a modern sporting .30-06 rifle,
he can tolerate a G33/40.

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 19
 THE CASE and higher-quality lenses shortened

FOR FIXED-POWER
overall length. Most shooters liked
these changes, especially shooters who
carried rifles over steep terrain. But

SCOPES once variables became the rule rather

than the exception, lightweight internal
parts proved to be a disadvantage.
No matter how often scope compa-
IT GOES LIKE THIS: THEYRE nies claimed their lightweight variables
were shock-proof or recoil-resis-
LIGHTER, SIMPLER, STRONGER AND tant, they malfunctioned more often
CHEAPERWITH LESS VARIABLES than fixed scopes. They had to. Despite
aircraft-grade aluminum and space-
TO GO WRONG. age plastics, theres no way to make a
variables complex erector-tube assem-
bly both as lightweight and as tough as
JOHN BARSNESS the simple erector tube of a fixed-power

S
scope. This is exactly why many snip-
ome shooters wonder why fixed-magnification rifle- ers using the first Redfield variables in
scopes exist in the 21st century, when variables are Vietnam left their scopes on the same
superior in every way. Yet several companies make magnification, essentially turning them
and sell quite a few fixed-power scopes because they still into fixed-power variables.
Consequently, some scope compa-
possess certain advantages. nies started beefing up variables in
One is mechanical simplicity. In a variable scope the erector lenses the right places, especially companies
Modern riflescopes have an erector also slide back and forth inside the making scopes for military use. This
tube inside the main tube, contain- length of the tube, changing magni- naturally resulted in larger, heavier
ing one or more lenses. Its called fication. This is accomplished by yet scopes, but when your mission and life
an erector tube because its lenses another tube on the outside of the depend on a scopes reliability, a little
erect the image from the objective. primary erector tube, with angled slots extra weight doesnt matter.
Otherwise the image would appear to cam the erector lenses back and Many hunters still prefer lighter-
upside-down, making aiming diffi- forth. This extra camming tube not weight scopes, especially hunters who
cult, though not impossible. When only introduces more moving parts climb mountains or move quietly
we turn a scopes adjustment knobs to possibly screw up, it takes up more through the woods, rather than sit in a
were moving the erector tube, chang- room inside the scope. stand. However, with the present trend
ing point of impact. In a fixed-power For most of the 20th century toward long-range hunting (however
scope those are the erector tubes scopes shrank, both in size and you define it), more hunters are using
only two functions, and the erector weight. The brass and steel of older heavier variables designed for military
lens is firmly attached to the inside tubes and eyepieces were mostly use. This is partly because the eleva-
of the tube. replaced by aluminum and plastics, tion and windage adjustments are often
more precise and reliable, though the
adjustments in all hunting scopes tend
to be better these days. Meanwhile,
a few makers of heavier scopes are
also starting to make semi-lightweight
scopes aimed at the hunting market,
such as the Nightforce Compacts.
Even with beefed-up scopes,
however, fixed scopes still have their
advantages. Most long-range scopes
also have multi-point reticles along with
easily adjustable turrets. (This might
be considered the belt-and-suspenders
approach to long-range shooting, but
there it is.) Most variables sold today
have second focal-plane (SFP) reticles
placed behind the erector/magnifica-
tion tube. SFP reticles change in size
relative to the target with magnifica-
tion changes. As a result, some tacti-
cal scopes now feature first focal-plane
(FFP) reticles placed in front of the
A fixed approach to long-range rifles: On top is a .26 Nosler Patriot with a 10x40 Leupold Mark 4 erector/magnification tube, so the reti-
scope, below it is a Remington 700 in 7mm SAUM with an SWFA SS 10x42. cle doesnt change size relative to the

20 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

target. However, at lower magnifica-
tions, an FFP reticle can almost disap-
pear, especially in dim light.
Another disadvantage of variables
lies in the extra room required for the
double-layer erector tube. Since theres
more room inside a fixed scopes tube,
the erector tube can be elevated more
for longer-distance shooting.
Because a fixed-magnification
scope is tougher anyway, it doesnt
need to be heavythe reason many
hunters after large, dangerous game
prefer small, fixed-power scopes. My
friend Phil Shoemaker, an Alaska
Master Guide well-known for getting
clients on to huge brown bears, has
had the same 2.5X Leupold on his
primary back-up rifle, a relatively
light Mark X Mauser .458 Winchester
Magnum, for over two decades with-
out any scope problems.
My own big rifle is a CZ .416
Rigby, and its 3X Leupold Big Bore
has kept on functioning while several
variables on the big-bore rifles of my
hunting companions have gone belly-
up. And no, 2.5X and 3X scopes arent
necessarily limited to short range. Both
Phil and I have used them on animals
beyond 300 yards, and many hunters
prefer the simplicity and ruggedness
of 6X scopes to the supposed versatil-
ity of the typical 3-9X variable. Theyve
found 6X works fine both at very close
woods ranges and out at 500 yards.
At the other end of the spectrum,
if our rifle is specifically designed
for longer-range shooting, why do
we need the lower end of a variable
scope? Were not going to sneak-hunt
through the woods with a 10-pound
long-range rifle anyway. Besides, most
hunters use 8X or 10X binoculars
without ever wanting to turn them
For open country hunt-
ing a fixed 10X works
fine on big game,
whether closer or far-
ther. Eileen Clarke used
a 10x40 Bushnell Elite
Tactical to take this
Montana pronghorn at
150 yards.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
The 3x20 Leupold
Big Bore scope on
Johns .416 Rigby
never bobbled on
this hunt in Tan-
zania, while the
variable on his hunt-
ing partners .458
Lott died toward the
end of the safari.
down to 3X, even in timber. So why
not just use a 10X scope?
I have them on a pair of my longer-
range hunting rifles, a 10x40 Leupold
Mark 4 on a .26 Nosler Patriot and
a 10x42 SWFA SS on a Remington
700 7mm SAUM. My wife Eileen has
used a 10x40 Bushnell Elite Tactical
on a .22-250 for game from jack-
rabbits to pronghorns. Weve never
wished for more or less magnifica-
tion, whether at 150 yards or several
times as far. Plus, their reticles never
change in size relative to the target,
plus both scopes allow more eleva-
tion adjustment than most similar-
sized variables.
This brings us to the final advantage
in fixed-magnification scopes. Since
theyre simpler to make, fixed scopes
normally cost less than variables of the
same quality. In fact, the 3x20 Leupold
Big Bore, 10x42 SWFA SS and Bush-
nell 10x40 Tactical Elite are among the
best bargains in the business, all priced
at around $300. The adjustments on
the SWFA and Bushnell are as precise
and repeatable as scopes costing several
times as much, and the Leupold is one
of the few hunting scopes able to with-
stand hundreds of rounds of heavy
recoil from stopping rifles of over
.40 caliber.
While some shooters like to brag
about how much they pay for optics,
others dont mind when the same jobs
can be done for less money.
Six of John Barsnesss 11 books are
on firearms and shooting. His latest,
Modern Hunting Optics, was just
published by Deep Creek Press. Its
available through www.riflesandreci-
pes.com, P.O. Box 579, Townsend, MT
59644-0579, 406-521-0273.
Bushnell Corporation
9200 Cody, Overland Park, KS 66214-1734
(800) 423-3537
Leupold & Stevens
14400 Northwest Greenbriar Parkway
Beaverton, OR, 97006
(503) 646-9171
Nightforce Optics, Inc.
336 Hazen Lane, Orofino, ID 83544
(208) 476-9814
SWFA Outdoors
5840 E. US Hwy. 287, Midlothian, TX 76065
(972) 726-7348
For more info: www.gunsmagazine.com/index
21
 England Westinghouse Company
acquired Stevens, renaming it the
J. Stevens Arms Company, and
used its production capacity to build
Mosin-Nagants for the Russians
and Browning machine guns for the
Americans. At the end of the war,
Savage Arms Corporation bought
Stevens from Westinghouse and
refocused the companys direction
toward the production of shot-
guns rather than single-shot pistols
and rifles, which were no longer in
demand.
It is reported that by 1926, the
In the dove fields, J. Stevens Arms Company was the
the Stevens 555 largest shotgun manufacturer in the
proved itself a wor- world. Among its keynote innova-
thy field gun and
helped keep Steamer tions was the Model 520, Americas
puffing in the heat. first slide-action hammerless shot-
gun. In 1936 Stevens ceased being a
separate company and was absorbed

FROM TURKEY, as a division of Savage Arms.

Under Savage, the Stevens name

FOR DOVE
developed an excellent reputation
for reasonably priced, well-designed,
well-built shotguns.
I suspect a Stevens single-shot
STEVENS 555 20-GAUGE shotgun was the first smoothbore a
majority of young hunters coming of
IMPORT PROVES ITSELF A SLEEK, age in the 1940s and 1950s carried
afield. A couple of years later, they
LIGHTWEIGHT UPLAND O/U. may well have graduated to a Stevens
bolt-action or pump shotgun. And
HOLT BODINSON later as adults they may have ended
up with a Fox/Stevens SxS.

T
o those who can remember when guns were sold While the Harrington & Rich-
ardson and New England Firearms
largely through hardware stores Sears & Roebuck brands have pretty well taken over
and Montgomery Ward, the name, Stevens has a the single-shot shotgun market,
magic ring to it. Founded in Chicopee Falls, Massachu- Stevens (by Savage) has recently
setts, in 1864 by Joshua Stevens, the Stevens Arms and been importing affordable, Turk-
Tool Company was, by the turn of the century, the largest ish-made SxSs and O/Us under the
Stevens name.
sporting arms manufacturer in the world. The company had For several years, the lines
1,000 employees and a plant occupying 275,000 square included the Model 512 Gold Wing
feet of shop space. O/U and the Model 612 Gold Wing
SxS. The new line this year is called
Famous for their lines of single match riflesthe company also the Stevens 555. Initially introduced
shot, tip-up pistols and single- invented the .22 Long Rifle cartridge in 12-gauge, the 555 line now includes
shot rifles at every level of quality in 1887 (possibly the companys most a svelte 20 Ive had the pleasure of
and priceincluding the famous enduring achievement). working with during the September
Stevens-Pope line of Schuetzen At the beginning of WWI, the New dove season.

The Stevens 555available in 12- or

20-gaugeis an example of Turkeys
emergence as a hotbed of modern
shotgun production and design.

22 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 The more Turkish shotguns I see
and handle, the more impressed I am
with the Turkish gunmaking indus-
try. Turkey is currently the source of
every quality-level of shotgunfrom
the finest-grade trap gun to the least
expensive repeater. Its remarkable
really how fast the country has come
on-line as a hotbed for innovative
shotgun design and modern produc-
tion practices. The Stevens 555 is a
perfect example of this happy state
of affairs.
My first impression of the 555
20-gauge was how light it is. In fact,
with its 26-inch stackbarrels featur- The Stevens name continues to be Savages
ing ventilated top and side ribs, it The slim pistol grip (above) is a real plus for core shotgun brand.
tips the scales at only 5-1/2 pounds. shooters with small hands. The fine checkering
pattern (below) shows the quality of the Turkish
The weight savings is made possi- walnut used in the Stevens 555.
ble by scaling the receiver to proper
20-gauge proportions, using trun-
nions rather than a full-hinge pin as
the pivot point, and machining the
action from aluminum. The trun-
nions are steel inserts as is the face
plate on the standing breech, and
theres a solid steel underlocking lug.
Its a smart, modern and durable
design, precision-machined and well
fitted. Theres no slop in the action,
but neither is it stiff.
The true 20 platform results in
a shallow frame measuring only 2.3 The pistol grip feels very slim
inches from the bottom of the frame so I measured it as well. It has a The firing pin section of the standing breech is
to the top of the standing breech. circumference of only 4-1/2 inches reinforced with a steel plate.
This, plus the upswept line of the and is well swept back and open.
Schnabel fore-end, minimizes the Small hands will find it exceedingly
distance from the bore axis to the comfortable. There are simple
palm of your leading hand. This yet amplecheckering patterns on
all-important, hands-to-barrel rela- the fore-end and pistol grip. The
tionship is the mark of all fine game checkering pitch is very, very fine,
guns. We call this quality point- which speaks well for the quality of
ability. The Stevens 555 has it, and the walnut. The butt is capped off
it also balances wellexactly at the with a solid pad. The oil finish is a
hinge point. low sheen, and during the first day
Featuring straight-grained, but of hunting, the stock emitted the
nicely colored Turkish walnut, the memorable odor of linseed oil. Both top and side ribs of the barrels are venti-
stock is eye pleasing with good The Stevens features a single selec- lated to enhance cooling and reduce weight.
lines. Length of pull is 14-3/8 inches. tive mechanical trigger controlled by
Measured with Brownells LOP and an easy-to-thumb tang safety. The promotional Estate label ammu-
Drop Gauge, the drop-at-the-comb Model 555 has extractors, not ejec- nition, featuring 7/8-ounce of lead
is 1-1/4 inches and 2-3/8 at the heel tors, which is fine for a field gun 7-1/2s at 1,210 fps.
with zero cast. since fish and game departments The dove season in South Central
(not to mention landowners) frown Arizona was not particularly good
STEVENS 555 on empty hulls being left behind. this year, primarily because grain
MAKER: KOFS, LTD. The 26-inch barrels are chrome crops had been replaced by miles
ISPARATA, TURKEY lined and fitted with screw-in choke of uniform cotton fields. However,
IMPORTER: STEVENS BY SAVAGE tubes. A neat little locking choke- there was enough action to keep the
100 SPRINGDALE RD.
WESTFIELD, MA 01085 tube kit is supplied containing 5 Stevens warm and old Steamer busy
(413) 642-4262 tubes (Cylinder through Full), a shagging downed birds.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX wrench and, would you believe, foam The Stevens 555 handled exceed-
Action type: O/U, Gauge: 20 (3-inch ear plugs (I like that touch!) ingly well in the field. It was easy to
chambers), Capacity: 2, Barrel length: I ran the Stevens through a point- hit with. I found the recoil from this
26 inches (ventilated top and side ribs), of-aim test before heading to the 5-1/2-pound gun to be minimal, indi-
Overall length: 44-7/8 inches, Choke:
C, IC, M, IM, F tubes supplied , Weight: dove fields, and it was smack on, cating good stocking.
5.5 pounds, Finish: Blued barrels, black indicating excellent barrel regula- With a price of $692, the Stevens
anodized action, Sights: Ventilated rib, tion. For choked tubes, I selected 555 is a sound value with performance
brass front bead, Stock: Turkish Walnut, a 4-notched IC for the lower barrel to spare. Its nice to see this famous
Stock dimensions: Length-of-pull: 14-
3/8 inches, drop at comb: 1-1/4 inches, and a 3-notched M for the upper. old name continue as the core shotgun
drop at heel: 2-3/8 inches, Price: $692 My dove load was the inexpensive brand in the Savage lineup.

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 23
 WHERE TO BEGIN?
NEW SHOOTERS HAVE TO START
SOMEWHERE. TWO GOOD CHOICES
INCLUDE AIR-POWERED AND RIMFIRE.
DAVE ANDERSON

I
n the farming community where I grew up, several of my
friends had their own .22 rifles, usually single-shot bolt
actions costing $10 or so. My parents, at least in my view,
were overly protective. Instead of a .22, for Christmas I got
a spring-piston, barrel-cocking .177 air rifle.
An air gun for an 11-year old! Id just right. Being a single shot, and
have been humiliated except I knew amazingly accurate, it taught me to
I could use Dads Savage pump .22 fire one shot at a time, and if the shot
whenever I wanted, as long as I missed it was me, not the rifle.
supplied the ammunition. Unfor- Most importantly I could finally
tunately a box of .22 Shorts cost shoot as much as I wanted. A tin of
around 35 so I couldnt afford to 500 pellets cost not much more than
shoot much. a box of 50 .22 cartridges. When it
Looking back I realize the little was too dark or cold to shoot outside
air rifle was exactly what I needed I could shoot in the basement. For
at the time. It weighs a couple of years, until I went off to college, I
ounces under 4 pounds (yes, I still shot it virtually every day. It was rare
have it more than 50 years later). I for a tin of 500 pellets to last more
had long arms for my age even then than a week or two.
and the 13-inch length of pull was The little air rifle made shooting

The Umarex NGX APX (left) is a multi-pump pneumatic air rifle capable of shooting both BBs and
.177-inch pellets. The Umarex 4x15mm scope is attached to the integral 11mm rail. This air rifle
is an excellent trainer for new shooters, and also great fun for experienced rifle shooters. The
Umarex NGX APX pump-up pneumatic rifle is available on its own, or with accessories (above)
such as RWS pellets, BBs, protective shooting glasses, and 4x15 scope with mounting rings to
fit the integral 11mm rail. The Umarex NGX APX is manually cocked for each shot by pulling back
the bolt handle, which also opens the loading port. Lead pellets can be single-loaded into the
barrel. If there are BBs in the magazine, raising the muzzle allows a BB to roll into the port where
it is held by the magnetic tip of the bolt. After the rifle is cocked, the operating handle is pumped
to the desired power level, from two to 10 pumps.

24 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 The Ruger American Rimfire Compact (above) is under a yard long, weighs just 5.38 pounds, with a
fun, which in turn made learning 12.5-inch length of pull. It has a very good trigger pull and is an outstanding training rifle for young
shooters. Stock comes with two comb heights for iron sights or scope use. It also accepts the lon-
enjoyable. I loved shooting from ger stock inserts of the full-sized American Rimfire (available as accessories) for a 13.75-inch length
an early age and would likely have of pull. The rifle is fitted with a Leupold Ultralight 2-7x28. At right (below) is the spring-piston air rifle
persisted if the only firearm I had Dave got for Christmas in 1960. For several years it was an unusual week if he didnt go through a
was a black powder .50 caliber. But tin of 500 pellets. Center, the new Ruger American Rimfire Compact is an outstanding training rifle
for younger shooters. It is also mighty handy to tuck in the tractor cab or behind the seat of the
do the youth in your world a favor pickup. When the new shooter is ready for a centerfire, the Ruger All-Weather Hawkeye .223 will
and help them get started with qual- expedite the learning process. Scope is Leupold Mk 4 3.5-10x40mm M1.
ity gear they can enjoy. My parents
found the right rifle for me half a
century ago, and there are lots more
choices available today.
TODAYS VALUE
The Umarex NGX APX is a fine
choice for a new shooter, and a lot of
fun for any rifleman. Being a multi-
pump pneumatic it has a couple of
advantages over my old springer. My
old rifle shoots pellets at about 450
fps. If I want more power I have to
go to another rifle.
With the APX, three pumps give
around 420 fps, ideal for plinking.
If more power is needed, 10 pumps
produce over 600 fps with 7-grain
pellets. Umarex claims it will do 800
fps with lightweight pellets.
The other advantage is lack of
recoil. My old springer has little
recoil, of course, but spring piston
rifles react to the piston driving
forward and will break scopes made
to withstand centerfire recoil.
The APX is very well made. With
RWS Hobby pellets groups under 1/2
inch were routine at 15 yards. Pellets
are loaded individually after pull-
ing the bolt handle back to cock the
action and expose the loading port.
MULTIPLE AMMO
A port on the left side allows up to
75 BBs to be loaded in the magazine.

NXG APX AIR RIFLE

MAKER: UMAREX USA
7700 CHAD COLLEY BLVD
FORT SMITH, AR 72916
(479) 646-4210
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX With the bolt retracted, raising the Opening the pump handle auto-
Caliber: .177 (4.5mm), Type: Multi-pump muzzle and tilting the rifle a bit to matically engages the manual safety.
pneumatic, Barrel length: 20 inches, the right lets a BB roll into the port, The synthetic stock is well designed
Length overall: 39 inches, Weight: 3.5
pounds, Ammunition: .177 pellets (single where it is held by the magnetic tip with a soft, comfortable cheekpiece.
shot), BB (75-shot magazine), Sights: of the bolt. BBs werent as accu- The only criticism I can make of the
Adjustable rear, fiber-optic front, Scope rate, only delivering 1- to 2-inch rifle is the trigger, which has some
mount: 11mm rail, Safety: Automatic on groups, but were more fun for tin can creep and breaks at over 7 pounds.
cocking, Price: $79.99
plinking. Iron sights are very good, with an

26 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 .177 AMMUNITION PERFORMANCE
PELLETS: RWS HOBBY 7-GRAIN FLATNOSE
NUMBER OF PUMPS PELLET VELOCITY (FPS) BB VELOCITY (FPS)
3 420 475
5 509 544
7 553 578
10 605 625
Notes: CED Millennium Chronograph, temperature 80F,
10 feet from muzzle to center of screens

adjustable rear sight on the barrel,

and fiber optic front sight. An 11mm
rail makes it easy to add optical
sights. Its an excellent little plinker
both youth and adults can enjoy.
RIMFIRE UP
Ive been looking for a .22 rifle
to introduce youngsters to shoot-
ing. I wanted a compact, manually-
operated repeater. It had to have a
decent trigger, adequate iron sights
and the capability to accept optical
sights. Ideally it would have a short
length-of-pull to fit young frames,
and the ability to grow along with
the shooter.
Kids sure grow fast and tall these
days. I was one of the taller guys in my
high school class at 5 feet, 11 inches in
socks. Today when I attend a gradua-
tion it seems half the girls and most of
the boys are taller than I am.
I read with great interest Holt Bodin-
sons article (March, 2014 issue) on the
Ruger American Rimfire. What most
impressed me was the rifles excellent
AMERICAN RIMFIRE
COMPACT
MAKER: STURM, RUGER & CO.
411 SUNAPEE STREET
NEWPORT, NH 03773
(603) 865-2442
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX
Type: Bolt-action repeater, Cartridge:
.22LR (tested), .17 HMR, .22 WMR,
Magazine capacity: 10, Materials:
Blued alloy steel, black composite
synthetic stock, Barrel length: 18
inches, Length overall: 35.75 inches,
Length of pull: 12.5 inches, Sights:
Adjustable folding leaf rear, fiber optic
front, Scope base: 3/8-inch grooved
receiver, drilled and tapped for bases,
Price: $329
VX-2 2-7X28 ULTRALIGHT
MAKER: LEUPOLD
14400 NORTHWEST
GREENBRIAR PARKWAY
BEAVERTON, OR, 97006
(503) 646-9171
FOR MORE INFO:
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX
Actual magnification: 2.4X to 6.7X, Eye
relief: 3.5 inches (2X), 3.1 inches (7X),
Main tube diameter: 1 inch, Main tube
length: 4.8 inches, Length overall: 10.1
inches, Objective diameter: 28mm,
Adjustment range: 85-MOA elevation
& windage, Weight: 8.5 ounces,
Adjustments: 1/4-MOA clicks,
Price: $414.99
Gusty winds varying from 10 to 25 mph made
.22 LR shooting even more of a challenge than
usual. Champion rifle shooter David Tubb once
told Dave when he is testing a rifle or load, if the
winds are gusting and time is short, he just for-
gets about the wind and considers group height
only. I set this target at 50 yards and did try to
time the wind for consistency, not always suc-
ceeding. The group is strung out horizontally
but the group height gives a better measure of
the rifles accuracy potential.
trigger pull, a quality many rimfire
rifles seem to lack.
When Ruger announced a
compact version, I had to have one.
It is short, light, accurate, balances
and handles well. The trigger easily
adjusted to a crisp 3 pounds. The
stock comes with two comb height
options, for either iron sights or
scope sight. I fitted the higher comb
and a Leupold Ultralight 2-7x28mm
scope.
L A BEALR
CKAL GE
Two other features I really like:
the rifle uses the wonderful Ruger L A
B CTICT GOR T
rotary 10-shot magazine, proven by A S E .
50 years use on the great 10-22 rifle. T JU GHT NG
Half a dozen 10-22 magazines I had BRIODUC I
ICS.L
A
INTTR
on hand all fitted and functioned on
the American Compact. A C T T
LIGH
The other feature is the inter-
changeable comb. In addition to the
two heights supplied, the Compact
also accepts the combs made for the
standard American rimfire (which
can be purchased separately from
Ruger), changing length of pull
from 12.5 to 13.75 inches. When
your 5 foot, 4 inch 12-year old is a
hulking 6 foot, 4 inch adult, the rifle
will still fit.
This Ruger rimfire is a sweet little
rifle, whether for youth or adult, easy to
shoot, easy to carry or pack along in a
pickup truck or ATV. What the heck, if
none of the kids want to shoot I can get BROWNING.COM
lots of use out of it myself.

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 27
 FASTER THAN exceptional shot. I can operate most
anything that throws bullets but theyll

A SPEEDING BULLET
THE PHYSIOLOGY INVOLVED IN
REFLEXIVE GUN HANDLING IS TRULY
A MIRACLE OF MOVEMENT.
WILL DABBS, MD
never be singing my praises in the sweat
lodge as a world-class pistolero or
wingshooter. I just enjoy the mechan-
ical challenge of running a gun. As a
result, I do have a fair amount of expe-
rience at it.
The movements required to regis-
ter a threat, disengage the thumb break
on my holster, draw the gun, deactivate
the safety, acquire the sights, fire off a
PHOTOS: SARAH DABBS dozen rounds from a proper 2-handed
grip, then stroke the magazine release

I
t was a beautiful spring day in rural Mississippi and my and point the empty gun skyward
happened with absolutely no conscious
two boys and I were in our element. The family term was thought on my part.
going on an explore and such Saturday walks in the Muscle memory is the pedes-
woods frequently turned up turtle shells, bones, unusual trian term for fine motor movements
plants or cool rocks that made the outing both fun and programmed as subroutines into the
educational. As I was outside the house, I was packing a pre-frontal cortex of your brainready
for instant access whenever needed.
gun in a shoulder holsterin this case a Smith and Wesson Motor learning is a more accurate term
.22 with a 12-round magazine. and its very existence is breathtaking
for its complexity.
The weather was warm without In man-made systems, electrical
being hot, so the mosquitoes had not currents move along wires to accom-
yet quite arrived in force. I was on point plish the things we desire. In physiolog-
so as to minimize subsequent encoun- ical systems, however, stuff generally
ters with spider webs and those annoy- happens as the result of a combination
ing green sticker vines. I positioned of tiny electrical potentials as well as
myself to step across a little tributary, a differing concentration gradients.
tiny stream no more than 2 feet across. Imagine a bucket filled with water
It was then I felt something move that includes a membrane through the
underneath my left foot. middle that divides the bucket into
I had fixated on the far side of the essentially two separate containers.
little brook and had failed to watch Water will pass through the membrane
where I was putting my foot and got a but nothing else will. Now picture
rude surprise. The water moccasin was one half of the container is filled with
as big as my arm and arrayed in a lazy slightly salty water and the other is
S-shape, its well-camouflaged body filled with very salty water. Water will
blending perfectly with the surrounding tend to move across the membrane
foliage. Under the pressure of my boot, such that the concentrations try to
the snake cocked its massive head and Even the simplest creature is unimaginably become equally salty. This tendency of
threw open its jaws to reveal that spine- complex. Learned sub-routines inscribed on the the two connected liquids to achieve the
pre-frontal cortex allow a tree frog to leap from
chilling white responsible for the nick- one branch to another (below), or for an armed
same level of saltiness is a natural force
name of cottonmouth. My 6-year- citizen to protect himself against a threat. called an osmotic gradient. This force
old was a few feet behind me and clos- makes most things happen in physi-
ing fast. There wasnt time to speak. ological systems. It is defined by the
The world exploded and mud, osmotic diffusion of charged ions and
debris and bloody pieces of snake molecules across cell membranes.
showered down around us. Before I In the case of nerves, these mecha-
had any conscious thought the slide nisms are a function of sodium and
was locked back and the spent maga- potassium ions with a little calcium
zine was on the ground, the empty gun thrown in for flavor. There are micro-
now anxiously awaiting the fresh one scopic gates and carrier proteins thrown
Id failed to drop into my pants pocket into the mix (solely to torment 1st-year
before we left the house. medical students) but the basic mecha-
After we all took a deep breath and nisms are driven by these osmotic pres-
gathered our wits, we had opportunity sures. This system is an order of magni-
to talk about snakes, guns and field- tude more elegant and precise than its
craft as we finished our strollalbeit a man-made electrical counterparts and
bit more carefully from then on. can operate blisteringly fast. These elec-
I love to shoot but Im not an trochemical processes are so efficient

28 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

they allow fighter pilots to fly low-level
strike missions at 500 miles per hour
without contacting the ground. Choose
whatever term you wish to describe
the process, but miraculous is what
jumps to my mind.
Based loosely upon this process,
communication through nerves to
muscles is a combination of both
chemical and electrical mechanisms.
This is the reason tasers are so marvel-
ously effective. In really large nerves,
impulses called action potentials can
move at speeds upwards of 100 meters
per second.
COMMAND AND CONTROL
The process by which our brains
rapidly reason through variables, then
apply logical, moral and physical
considerations to our actions is beyond
the scope of this article. I also dont
dwell upon it unduly because there is
not a single human being on the planet
who really understands the mechanism
well.
The human brain is comprised
predominantly of fat and weighs about
3 pounds. This amazing computer is 80
A trained marksman can account for variables
such as range, wind direction and speed, the
ballistics of his rifle and ammunition, and the
nature of his target all simultaneously. The actu-
al neurological process involved is complex
beyond measure.
The term fundamental neuroscience is an oxy-
moron. There is little fundamental about it. The
practical complexity of shooting accurately in a
crisis situation is breathtaking.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
percent water, consumes 1/5 of your
total oxygen intake, operates on about
10 watts of power, and stores more
information than five sequential copies
of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
If you were to stretch out all the
axons and dendrites in a typical human
brain end to end, they would run more
than 100,000 milesenough to circle
the globe four times.
There is actually a little thinking that
takes place outside your brain as well.
When you brush your hand against
a hot stove, the pain sensation trans-
mits to your spinal cord and triggers a
motor response to remove the offended
digit from the hot burner before the
impulse even reaches your brain.
By mechanisms still not well-under-
stood, fine motor movements can be
imprinted upon our neuromuscular
machinery to allow certain repetitive
motions to take place beneath the level
of conscious thought. It is this extraor-
dinary capability that allows certain
people to pitch a baseball accurately,
conjure Rachmaninoff out of an other-
wise inert keyboard, pilot a unicycle,
or throw a .45 caliber jacketed hollow-
point into an assailants chest in a
dimly-lit parking lot. The key to these
remarkably complex actions is repeti-
tion and practice. Research has shown
that it takes 5,000 to 10,000 repetitions
before these subroutines are firmly
established. This is why truly good
shooters do so much shooting.
Knowledge of how these systems
work can improve our weapons
handling. Discipline yourself to train
the right way every time while replicat-
ing actual defensive scenarios as much
as possible. If practical, move while
shooting, incorporate no-shoot targets
and do most of your training on the
gun you actually carry. In so doing you
will program your machine to do what
it needs to do when you lack the luxury
of time.
Practice makes perfect is more
than a tired clich. It is a gross
The physics of hitting moving target from a
moving platform taxes our capacity to calcu-
late, but a trained shooter can execute this
maneuver with remarkable accuracy without
much conscious thought.
oversimplification of the immeasurably
complex process intrinsic to the human
physiological supercomputer. A trained
shooter can register a threat, assess
options, initiate an incredibly compli-
cated combination of commands to
activate hundreds of biological actua-
tors, and then reassess the results so
further action can be taken, all in a
remarkably brief period of time. All
the while the machine is exchanging
carbon dioxide for oxygen, pumping
blood to the tune of 2,000 gallons per
day, coaxing the nutrients out of the
greasy garbage from the local fast-food
restaurant, monitoring countless differ-
ent chemical and hormonal levels criti-
cal to normal life, and standing ready
to suck in its gut and smile should a
pretty girl cross its path. The complex-
ity of life is breathtaking to consider in
its totality.
The complexity implicit within
the otherwise simple acts of walking
across a room, reading and compre-
hending these words, smiling at your
wife, or squeezing a trigger are mind-
boggling. When such actions are coor-
dinated to make split-second decisions
that preserve your life or protect your
family from harm, they are all the more
extraordinary.
The act of training ourselves in
the fine art of tactical shooting is not
unlike dancing, water skiing or making
music. The combination of imprinted
subroutines we program into the
biological microprocessor that rides
around on our shoulders produces a
desired mechanical result. This is useful
when that 10-inch steel plate standing
downrange needs to be taught a lesson.
It could also be handy when you inad-
vertently step on a water moccasin
while out walking with your kids, or
hear glass breaking downstairs in the
wee hours of the morning. The result-
ing skills are available subconsciously
whenever they are needed.
We are indeed fearfully and
wonderfully made.
29
SURPLUS, CLASSIC AND
TACTICAL FIREARMS
HOLT BODINSON

THE STAR WARS As a military leader, George Wash-

ington was particularly fond of buck-

SHOTGUN
shot according to Harold Petersons
Arms and Armor of Colonial America.
Writing to the Board of War, Wash-
ington wrote, It appears to me that
Light Blunderbusses on account of
THE UTS-15 REDEFINES the quantity of shot they will carry
TACTICAL SMOOTHBORE. will be preferable to Carbines, for
Dragoons, as the Carbines only carry
a single ball, especially in case of close

T
heres a whiff of buckshot embedded in the Ameri-
can DNA. We love our combat smoothbores. As a
country, weve carried them in every battle and police
action of the last two-and-a-half centuries, and when the
fighting gets close in, theres still nothing more devas-
tating than a fast volley of buck from a street sweeper.
So, too, the design of the combat shotgun continues to
evolve and improve. Meet the UTS-15, one of the latest
advanced designs to shoot its way into the marketplace,
but first, lets briefly look at our own buckshot legacy.
action. His request wasnt looked
upon with favor, but Washington went
on to recommend that his troops load
for their first volley one musket ball
and four or eight buck Shott, accord-
ing to the strength of their pieces.
The buck-and-ball load continued
to be popular during the Civil War.
Given the lack of arms on both sides
in 1861, family shotguns commonly
marched off to the front by necessity.
Confederate cavalry units were partic-
ularly prone to use sporting shotguns
and buckshot with deadly effect.
Possibly, the most famous
smoothbore unit was New Yorks
Irish Brigade. The Brigade made a
conscious decision to hold onto their
1842 smoothbore, .69-caliber muskets
and buck-and-ball loads, distinguish-
ing themselves throughout the war,
particularly at Gettysburg, where

A their place in history is marked by a

Celtic cross and an Irish Wolfhound
monument.
As the country moved West so did
the ever versatile shotgun in the hands
of farmers, ranchers, peace officers,

C
(A) The combat shotgun has a long history in
the US. The UTS-15 brings the concept and pay-
load into the 21st century. (B) Lifting the top
cover exposes both magazine tubes and the
chamber for a quick, visual safety check. (C)
The dual magazine tubes load from the top and

B
are sealed by dust covers. (D) A true Scout
shotgunshorter, lighter, more maneuver-
ablethe UTS-15 delivers a lot of firepower in a
compact package. The UTS fire control system
is right off the familiar AR-15.

D
30 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
guards, the military and a hoard of
neer-do-wells.
WWI brought us the first general
issue, mission specific, combat shot-
guns, the Winchester Model 97 Trench
Gun, Model 1917, along with the
Winchester Model 12 and Remington
Model 10 Trench Guns. At the urging
of Gen. Pershing, approximately 30,000
were issued, which brought howls of
official protests from the Germans,
describing it as American barbarism.
WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghani-
stan and Iraq brought us new models
with brand names like Mossberg,
Remington, Savage, Stevens, Benelli,
Browning, Beretta, Franchi, Manville,
Colt, S&W, Ithaca, Winchester and
High Standard, and the combat shot-
gun continues to evolve. The new
UTS-15 is a sterling example of how
really high-tech the modern combat
shotgun has become.
When you open the box of a
UTS-15, you know immediately its
all business, with a little bit of Star
Wars thrown in. Its imposing. The two
magazine tubes running down both
sides of the barrel carry either 7 rounds
of 12-gauge, 2-3/4-inch or 6 rounds
of 3-inch magnums. With one in the
chamber thats 15 rounds or 13 rounds
of shot, buckshot, slugs, tasers or non-
lethal rounds at your command on a
selective switch basis. With 15 rounds waiting in the tubes, the muzzle end of the UTS-15 is a sobering sight.
You pick it up, and you real-
ize it only weighs 6.9 pounds and in engineering and OEM manufacturing. got it right, but its still a radical design,
its bullpup format is only 29 inches Remember the svelte Hatfield muzzle- which will have to prove itself over
long with a full-length 18-1/2-inch loading rifles of yore or the exquisite, thousands of rounds.
barrel. Magic? No. The receiver is 100 Turkish-produced, Augusta, Marias or My first thought on picking up the
percent polymer. In fact, 80 percent of Valier series of shotguns once offered UTS was it would require a lot of prac-
the total shotgun is carbon fiber rein- by Kimber? Those were the conceptual tice to master the design and constant
forced, injection molded polymer. Its creations of Ted Hatfield. He knows his practice to keep its controls in memory.
the brainchild of Ted Hatfield, UTAS- business. In fact, he grew up in it. Was I ever wrong. Its a very straight-
USA Director of Product Develop- The original UTS-15 got off to a forward pump shotgun. The fire control
ment, and UTAS of Turkey, a firm rough start with just a bit too many system is out of an AR-15. The pump
which specializes in firearms design, synthetic parts. This second generation action is simple, with a rotary-head
locking bolt. Loading the two maga-
zine tubes is only a matter of stuffing
cartridges into them from the top of the
gun rather than from the bottom.
Its a super safe design. Simply lift-
ing the hinged top cover lets you visu-
ally inspect the ends of both magazine
tubes as well as the chamber for live
rounds. Its an instant check. Also, all
shells loaded into the magazine tubes
are clearly visible from the outside of
the gun. Really fine design touches!
The only aspect of the design which
threw me was the loading tube selec-
tor switch which can be seen just aft of
the rear sight. Its a 3-position switch.
Switched to either the left or the right,
it controls which tube the gun will feed
from. Its a great idea. For example,
you could have buckshot in one tube
After removing the barrel-
retaining nut, the UTS breaks and slugs in the other. Anyway, look-
down into three modules. ing at the switch, I assumed that when
you flicked it to the left, the gun would

32 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

feed from the left magazine tube, and
to the right, the right. Wrong! Its a
cut-off switch. When flicked to the
left, the left tube is cut-off, and the
gun feeds from the right tube and vice
versa. To my mind, that switch is totally
counterintuitive.
What happens when the switch is
left in the 12 oclock position? The
action feeds from both magazine
tubes. Thats 15 rounds of lead hail
as fast as you can rack that pump
handle.
As supplied by the factory, the
UTS-15 does not come with a set
of sights, just a full-length Picatinny
rail, giving the owner maximum flex-
ibility in setting up the gun just the
way they want it. Being a straight-
stocked bullpup, the line-of-sight is
high. A small optical unit in keeping
with the featherweight gun would be
the ideal solution. As an accessory,
the company does offer a combina-
tion laser/flashlight unit, which slides
into the front housing and is acti-
vated by a side-mounted switch on
the frame.
I tried a set of metallic, factory,
accessory sights in which the front
sight is screw adjustable for elevation
and the rear sight, which is windage
Holts favorite 12-gauge defensive load is Win-
chester PDX slug/buck combo shell, and at 15
yards its devastating (above). So, too, are 27
pellets of No. 4 buck from a 2-3/4-inch shell at
15 yards (below).
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
UTS-15
MAKER: UTAS-USA
1247 RAND RD
DES PLAINES, IL 60016
(847) 768-1011
WWW.UTAS-USA.COM
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX
Action type: Pump, Gauge: 12, 2-3/4- Or
3-inch , Barrel length: 18-1/2 inches,
Overall length: 29 inches, Choke tube:
Cylinder, Beretta thread, Weight: 6.9
pounds, Finish: Hunter camouflage
(tested), Sights: Picatinny rail, Stock:
Polymer, Price: $1,450
adjustable, offers a flip over combina-
tion of an open V or a ghost ring
aperture. Nicely made sights, but the
front sight screw would not screw
down far enough to give me a perfect
15-yard zero.
I think I would set-up the UTS
with the integral laser/flashlight unit
and a compact optical sight mounted
on the rail.
Both the magazine loading ports
and the ejection port are covered with
dust covers. The ejection port cover
is magnetic and opens immediately
when the bolt is retracted. Ejection is
to the right. As a check, I fired the
UTS from the left shoulder without
catching an ejected case so thats not
a problem. The right-hand mounted
safety is not reversible. It should be.
How did it shoot? The UTS comes
with a cylinder choke. The thread
form is Beretta. The gun also came
with a 10-inch barrel extension and
3-shot and 5-shot plugs. The trigger is
a joy. On my Lyman electronic gauge,
it averaged 4-1/2 poundslight and
crisp. With 2-3/4-inch buckshot, slug
and Winchesters PDX buck-and-
slug combo round, its an easy gun
on the shoulder and, being straight-
stocked, muzzle flip and recovery
time is minimized. Being short, it is
maneuverable and fast-on-target.
With a length-of-pull of 12 inches
and OAL of only 29 inches, the
bullpup has a distinctive feel and
handling characteristic quite unlike The factory set of accessory metallic sights
a conventional firearm. Its really a includes a peep (top), which can fold down to
reveal an open sight (middle) The protected
Scout shotgunshorter, lighter front is a large bead (bottom).
and more maneuverable.
The company website, which is
entertaining, promotes the UTS-15 modular sections lying there in front
as a turkey or big game gun. It would of you, you begin to understand how
certainly serve perfectly in either role 80 percent of the UTS is composed
with the proper chokes, and its avail- of carbon fiber, reinforced, injection
able in six different exterior finishes molded polymer. And if you want to
and patterns. Its a shotgun at its best continue to strip the modules down
deliberately aimed. It would not be further, the exceptionally well illus-
an ideal wing-shooting smokepole, trated owners manual will take you
however. down that road to the last little screw.
For cleaning purposes, the modu- The UTS-15 is an impressive concept
lar UTS-15 simply comes apart in gun, reflecting brilliant engineering and
your hands after the barrel-retain- advanced production processes. Its a
ing nut is unscrewed. Its remarkable, 21st Century firearm with a bit of Star
and when you have the separated Wars flair thrown in.
33
 OUT OF THE BOX
DRESS UP YOUR
SHOOTING IRON
RIO GRANDE CUSTOM GRIPS.
M
any sixgunners purchase a single action and are
content to use it just as it is for their entire shooting
life and then pass it on to someone else. I am not one
of them! I prefer to make most of my revolvers distinctly my
own and the easiest way to do this is by adding custom grips.
I have purchased grips for my
sixguns ever since I bought that first
inletted 1-piece walnut block for an
1860 Army in 1957. Since that time I
have spent everything from $5 for a pair
of B-Western faux stags at gun shows
all the way up to several hundreds of
dollars for ivory, stag,
pearl, bone and rams
horn. Now there is a much
easier, and certainly less
expensive way to person-
alize sixguns and that way
is Rio Grande Custom
Grips.
Dale Ayars of Rio
Grande designs the
molds to fashion high-
strength engineered poly-
mer grips. These grips are
then tattooed using a
patented process on the
polymer surface provid-
ing a durable and perma-
nent application. Once
that image is applied, Rio
Grande Custom Grips are
salt, solvent, water, impact
and abrasion resistant. A
large array of images are
offered including patri-
otic, animal skin, animal
images, dragons and many
other striking patterns. In
addition to the standard
patterns Rio Grande can duplicate
customers images and also add such
things as initials to their standard grips.
The grips pictured are of the
Rattler pattern and made for
all Ruger Single Actions on the
XR3-RED pattern. The bane of all
custom grip makers is the fact manu-
facturers have not always maintained
the same tolerances, which is why
high dollar grips require the maker
have the frame itself for custom
fitting. I felt the Rattler image
would look good on a smallbore .30
Carbine Blackhawk, however I found
my 45 year-old Blackhawk had grip
pins larger than the holes on the
34
Rattler grips. I switched to a fairly
recent production .22 Single-Six and
the grips slipped on perfectly. By the
time you read this Rio Grande plans
to have Ruger grips to fit the New
Vaquero and New Model Flat-Top
Blackhawk grip frames.
Rio Grande Rattler
grips dropped on
Johns modern Ruger
Single-Six.
John chose Rio Grande Custom Grips (above)
Officers Model-style Dead Mans Hand for his
compact Officers Model 1911 and the full size
grips emblazoned with an eagle and flag called
the American Spirit. The Dead Mans Hand Rio
Grande grips (below) for the Officers Model size
1911 feature the poker hand Wild Bill Hickok
allegedly held when he was shot.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
JOHN TAFFIN
The color and texture of the Rio Grande Rattler
grips is exceptional.
After more than 100 years the basic
1911 remains right at the top of the
list of most popular semi-automatic
pistols. Personally, I prefer to make
all my pistols just that, personally
mine. Polymer pistols are wonderful
pieces of machinery; however, it is
very difficult to make them a distinc-
tive part of myself. When it comes to
a 1911, it simply a matter of loosen-
ing two screws on each side of the grip
frame and replacing the panels. Rio
Grande Custom Grips offers dozens
upon dozens of different grip panels
for both 1911 standard models and
the smaller Officers Model-style semi-
automatic pistols.
Of all the Rio Grande grips, my
particular favorite, among many
favorites, is the black grip panel with
Wild Bill Hickoks Dead Mans Hand
consisting of black aces and 8s and the
jack of diamonds.
1911s are offered, and have been
offered, by dozens upon dozens of
manufacturers and there is no guar-
antee every one is manufactured to
the same tolerances, so some slight
alteration may be necessary to the
Rio Grande grips to make them fit
the chosen grip frame. I had two pairs
of Rio Grande Custom Grips at my
disposal. For the 1911 it is a most
attractive American Spirit in red,
white and blue with an eagle head on
each panel. Switching to the Officers
Model-style I had the Dead Mans
Hand. It was necessary to spend about
a minute with a Dremel tool to relieve
the top of the back of the left grip
panel and also open up the notch ever
so slightly for the free operation of the
magazine release. This is very common
depending upon the particular pistol
selected. Rio Grandes are priced at a
very reasonable $64.95.
Rio Grande Custom Grips
(303) 330-2812
www.gunsmagazine.com/index
QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS

JEFF JOHN
SIGHT
BACKWARDS?
In the Oct. 2014 issue on page OBSOLETE PARTS
Q:
ing Block Rifle. After comparing the Q:Colt (with the interchangeable
41 you show a NY State Roll- I have a Marlin 1892 in .32 Long

rifle pictured with my rifle and check- firing pins) and I need some parts for
ing the books on NY State Rifles it it. I couldnt find them at Gun Parts
appears the rear sight in the rifle is or Jack First. Can you recommend
on backwards. another source?
Rick Blacow Harold Pierce
via e-mail Louisville, KY

A: unique (and I believe an after- A:need, so I cant guarantee

You are correct. The sight has a You dont say what parts you

market) windage adjustable elevator, success. Many newly made reproduc-

The rear sight on this Rolling Block is more
sophisticated than the military sight and Jeff
believes it was modified for target shooting
and remounted backwards. The elevator is also
adjustable for windage and its notch subtends
the military front sight well. The staff has had very
fine elevation markings added, and the coarse
military markings are still on the other side.
and the staff has had new very fine tion parts are available from Wisners,
elevation hashmarks impossible to see and the firm offers parts for the small-
if the sight were mounted correctly. frame Marlin lever guns among many
The obverse side of the staff has the others. Good luck! The little Marlins
coarse hashmarks of a military sight. are nice guns.
Im guessing the back of the original
staff was modified for target shoot-
ing and then the sight reversed. Since Wisners Inc.
P.O. Box 58
the backside of the staff would be Adna, WA 98522
unmarked, the sight maker wouldnt (360) 748-4590
have to remove the old markings first. www.wisnersinc.com
Got a burning question to ask the editor? Contact him at: E-mail: ed@gunsmagazine.com
or postal at: GUNS Q&A, 12345 World Trade Dr., San Diego, CA 92128.
Due to the volume of mail received, GUNS cannot offer a personal reply.

877.255.6433 Conceal
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www. AlienGearHolsters.com ConcealedNation.org

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 35

VP9
HK
HK BUILT
BUILT THE
THE FIRST
FIRST STRIKER-FIRED,
STRIKER-FIRED, POLYMER-FRAME
POLYMER-FRAME
PISTOL
PISTOL DECADES AGO. THEYVE DONE IT
DECADES AGO. THEYVE DONE IT AGAIN.
AGAIN.
BUT THIS TIME THEYVE DONE IT RIGHT.
BUT THIS TIME THEYVE DONE IT RIGHT.
MASSAD AYOOB PHOTOS: GAIL PEPIN
W
e have a new generation of
millennials among us hand-
gunners, bless em, but they
dont see entirely eye-to-eye with us old
folks on handguns. Many of them seem
to think any handgun made entirely of
metal belongs in a museum. Some of
them have declared on the Internet how
happy they are the stodgy old Germans at
HK have finally gotten with the times and
offered a striker-fired, polymer-framed
pistol under their esteemed brand.
Au contraire, young Jedi knights. We of Yoda age
(and wrinkles) remember when HK introduced the very
first such pistol, the VP70Z, way back in 1970. Designed
originally as a machine pistol, which needed a shoulder
stock with integral selector switch to hit its incredibly
high rounds-per-minute count, it absolutely sucked as a
36
Mas demonstrates
controllability of HKs
VP9: The spent cas-
ing from his first shot
(arrow) is followed by
muzzle flash of the
second one, without
the muzzle flipping
off target.
semi-automatic. The trigger felt like a mile of bad road,
the strange shadow sight picture was impossible for
most shooters to see, and it tended to jam on anything
but RN ball ammo or Remington 115-grain JHP.
Prior to the VP70Z, HK had introduced the
very first polymer-frame pistol, the P9/P9S series.
With polygonal rifling (recognize another harbin-
ger there?) andin the Target seriesan exquisite
adjustable trigger complete with trigger stop, the
P9S was awesomely accurate. However, its peculiar
double-action decocking mechanism was the sort of
thing that made firearms instructors wake up scream-
ing in the middle of the night. The procedure entailed
holding the decocking lever down, pulling the trigger
and then slowly releasing the lever upward.
The pistols slide-mounted safety lever had to be
enlarged to become really workable at speed, and like
the VP70Z, it was only reliable with ball or Reming-
ton JHP if you didnt have a gunsmith throat the feed
ramp. As to striker-fired design pioneering, HKs
P7 series in that very configuration was popular for
many years (and still has devoted fans).
Now, all these years later, HK has made amends
for the VP70Z. Behold the new VolksPistole in 9mm,
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
HOW A GUN FEELS
IN YOUR HAND
IS, OF COURSE,
SUBJECTIVE. BUT,
SUBJECTIVELY
SPEAKING, I LOVE
THE FEEL OF THE
VP9. THERE.
I SAID IT.
otherwise known as the HK VP9. My first impres-
sions of it are as follows:
Coming out of the box with a nice array of inter-
changeable backstraps and side grip panels, the VP9
embodies recent developments in German handgun
technology. Yes, it resembles Walthers PPQ M2. But
the Walther in turn resembles the earlier hammer-
fired HK P30. Which in turn seemed to draw from
the Walther P99, andoh, the heck with it!
How a gun feels in your hand is, of course, subjec-
tive. But, subjectively speaking, I love the feel of the
VP9. There. I said it.
My two problems with the hammer-fired P30 series
were pretty straightforward. In the traditional double-
action mode, the decocking lever seemed to have been
designed more for orangutan paws than human hands, The distinctive ears at rear of the
and the interior lower surface of the triggerguard slide (inset) aided manipulation and
where the dual-paddle magazine release levers sit did not compromise concealability.
tended to pinch my trigger finger painfully. Both of
these problems are solved in the VP9 design.
The striker-fired system eliminates any need for a us experience. Thirty-some years ago Bruce
decocking lever. Just as with a Glock, the trigger pull is and I both shot on Team HK. He used his
the same all the time. Apparently I wasnt the only one tuned and compd P7 at the Bianchi Cup while I
bothered by the configuration of the P30 triggerguard. shot a P9S Sport/Target. There aint a whole lot about
I hear Bruce Gray is now offering a modification of HK (or SIG) pistols that Bruce doesnt know.
P30 triggerguards to prevent the pinch that some of The geometry of the VP9s triggerguard seems to
have been altered to where the pinch has been pretty
much eliminated. The only time I felt it was shooting
from the bench, where my rested elbows altered my
wrist angle, subtly affecting how my finger sat on the
trigger.
The VP9s magazine release is a downward-pressed
ambidextrous paddle on the underside of the trig-
gerguard, which goes back through the P30 and the
USP and all the way to the P7M8 of the early 1980s.
It allows your trigger finger to hit the paddle, at once
getting it away from the trigger for safety and elimi-
nating the need to shift the gun in your hand for your
thumb to reach a magazine release button. The result
is, simply, faster reloads.
Looking down at the top of the pistol, youll notice
rounded-edge wings at the rear edges of the slide.
This useful feature helps your hand gain purchase
The HK VP9 was accuracy tested with these three 9mm loads ranging there. Unfortunately, those edges are too rounded
in bullet weights from 115, 124 to 147 grains. and dont protrude enough to catch against belt or

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 37

With the extensive line
of authentic Umarex
action pistols, now
you can train without
traveling to the range.
They are authentic in
shape, weight, and
feel, like their firearm
counterparts, but use
readily available, low
cost ammunition.
See the selection here:
UmarexUSA.com/HANDGUNNER
38
holster for emergency slide manipu-
lation. These wings, called charging
supports, are removable and can be
replaced with flat spacers available
from HK.
ON THE RANGE
With a Glock-ish trigger tab safety,
the VP9 has a bit of take-up before it
hits resistance. As is the case with all
pivoting triggers, leverage comes into
play. If you gauge the trigger from
the toe, it takes less effort to break
the shot than if your finger is in its
normal position at roughly the center
of the trigger. Measured from the toe
with a Lyman digital gauge, the pull
weight on my test sample averaged
5.28 pounds from the toe and 5.78
pounds from the center. Pulls were
very consistent shot to shot. The re-set
could be described as medium.
In loading the magazine, I noted
the feed lips of the mags were sharp
on the thumb, but unlike some other
pistols, no great pressure was needed
to get the last (15th) round into the
magazine, although a magazine load-
ing tool is available from HK.
Bore axis is slightly higher on the
VP9 than on the Glock, though I
honestly couldnt feel any difference
in muzzle rise. Butt to top of slide, the
VP9 is slightly larger than the Glock
19 (and has the same 9mm cartridge
capacity).
The VP9 comes with luminous
sights that need to be lit up before-
hand with a flashlight or some other
light source. The sights glow brightly
at first, but start to fade after half an
The pistols fixed sights (above) were big and
easy to see. Red dot indicates ready to fire.
From this angle (below) the VP9s light attach-
ment rail, forward slide grooves and luminous
front sight are plainly visible.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
HK VP9
MAKER: HECKLER & KOCH
5675 TRANSPORT BLVD.
COLUMBUS, GA 31907
(706) 568-1906
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/HK
Action type: Striker-fired DAO, Caliber:
9mm Parabellum, Capacity: 15+1, Barrel
length: 4.09 inches (polygonal rifling),
Overall length: 7.34 inches, Weight:
25.56 ounces, Finish: Corrosion-
resistant matte black, Sights: Fixed,
luminous 3-dot combat, Grips: Polymer
(interchangeable backstraps/panels
included), Price: $719
hour. Scuttlebutt has it that this is due
to European tritium regulations being
tighter than those in the US. So if
you want real night sights, plan on a
tritium retrofit.
As is traditionally the case with
HK pistols, the VP9s sights were
regulated very close to point of aim/
point of impact, something occasion-
ally not the case with other brands.
Hits were a whisker left for this shoot-
ers eyes at 25 yards, but were OK for
elevation with 115- and 124-grain
ammo, although grouping a tad high
with 147-grain subsonic loads. Accu-
racy testing was done from 25 yards
off a Matrix rest on a concrete bench.
Federal 115-grain +P+ 9BPLE, the
load the Illinois State Police and other
departments made famous as a man-
stopper, put five shots into 2.85-inch.
The best four of those shots clus-
tered in 1.85-inch, while the best three
stayed in 1.55-inch. Its always a good
idea to keep an eye on the best three
measurement, which tends to factor
out unnoticed human error, giving a
good approximation of what the same
gun and load will deliver for all five
shots from a machine rest.
Black Hills famously accurate
124-grain JHP was Best of Test
for accuracy, with five shots in 1.95-
inch (and a best three measurement
of 1.10-inch). Winchesters Winclean
147-grain subsonic jacketed truncated
cone ammo is hugely popular in this
country and famous for its accuracy.
It delivered a 5-shot group measuring
2.35-inch and a best three of 1.20.
RELIABILITY
Although gunwriters dont get to
test each firearm with tens of thou-
sands of rounds, I did get several
hundred rounds through the VP9.
The closest thing to a malfunction
was an unintended slide-lock in mid-
firing cycle from the benchrest, which
may have been human error due to the
shooter (me) leaving his thumb in too-
close proximity to the easy-to-operate,
ambidextrous slide-release lever.
I spent a couple of days carry-
ing the VP9 in a hybrid IWB holster
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BUFFALO BORE AMMUNITION:
Twenty-five yard accuracy results (top to www.buffalobore.com
bottom): Black Hills 124-grain JHP, Federal
115-grain +P+ JHP, 147-grain Winchester Win-
clean JTC subsonic.

cut for the P30 by Remora, in which

it fit perfectly. Felt about like carry-
ing a Glock 17. The side panels might
be abrasive enough to cause some
discomfort against bare skin, but
proved to be no problem with a tee or
polo shirt between grip and epider-
mis, and an untucked shirt or vest for
concealment.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
HK is deservedly famous for BMW-
class workmanship, and a comparable
cachet. But with a retail price of $719,
the VP9 dramatically undersells the The Blade-Tech Ambidextrous Klipt
similar-feeling P30. The shootabil- IWB Holster is user adjustable. It has a
ity factor is high, and with its blend reversible easy on and easy off clip that allows the user to adjust for right hand or left hand wear,
of BMW workmanship with upper- making our popular appendix style holster ambidextrous. In addition, the ride height of the firearm is
end Volkswagen price, I think the fully adjustable. The Blade-Tech Ambi-Klipt Holster uses positive lock trigger guard retention to ensure
VP9 will make a lot of friends among a secure fit and is ideal for smaller handguns. Check website for availability.

American handgunners.
W W W. B L A D E - T E C H . C O M 877.331.5793
Grey Guns Inc.
33479 Hwy. 19-207 2014 BLADE-TECH INDUSTRIES
Spray, OR 97874
(541) 468-3840
grayguns.com
Remora Concealment & Security Products, LLC
P.O. Box 990340
Naples, Florida 34116
(239) 434-7200
www.remoraholsterstore.com

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 39
 A
lthough Kahrs comparatively compact
CM45 has been around for a while, it now
has a full-sized stablemate. The CT45 is a
more recent addition to the companys lineup,
so lets look at it first. In the price category,
it occupies the less expensive area. With
Kahr, though, this doesnt mean it is less
carefully made. You still get the quality
and dependability the Massachusetts-
based company built its considerable
reputation on. Both are chambered in
the hard-hitting .45 ACP.
The CT45 is a full-sized pistol, but the polymer
grip-frame is very slim in cross-section. The single-
row magazine holds 7 rounds. The grip-frame is ample
for even the largest hands. The front and back have very
effective checkering, and there is a deep incurve at upper rear.
And, saints be praised, there is no silly hook on the front of
the triggerguard.
Another thing also mercifully absent is a magazine-discon-
nect safety. If the magazine is lost in a scuffle, you can still
fire a chambered round. With the double-action-only trigger
system, there is no manual safety. On the inside, the striker

40 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 PEACH OF A PAIR:
THE FULL-SIZE CT45
AND COMPACT CM45
PROVIDE BIG-BORE PUNCH
IN ACCURATE, SMOOTH-
SHOOTING DAO PLATFORMS.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 41
THETWO-KA

42 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

AHR FAMILY

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 43
 All Kahr pistolsno matter the sizefeature a broad sighting plane and
excellent high-visibility white dot/white square sights (above). The dovetailed
rear is drift adjustable, although both of J.B.s guns shot to point of aim right
out of the box.

J.B. feels the fantastically smooth trigger pull

(left) is one of the real strong points of both
Kahr .45sregistering 5.5 pounds on his
scale. Kahr pistols feature a minimal amount The polymer grips and stippled
of controls, Thankfully, neither the CM45 nor frontstrap of both models per-
the CT45 has a magazine disconnect. mit a secure, non-slip grip.

is automatically blocked until the last fraction of the
trigger pull.
That trigger pull, by the way, is marvelous. When
the slide is cycled, the striker is set in an intermediate
position. As the trigger is pulled, the sear rolls over,
taking the striker rearward then letting it go. To my
trigger finger, this operation felt awesomely smooth.
On my Lyman Electronic Scale the measured let-off
averaged 5.5 pounds.
The trigger surface is plain, with no annoying ridges.
The other controls are the push-button magazine release
in the usual location and the slide-release latch. When
the slide stays open after the last shot, youll find the
latch is perfectly located for quick accessat the top of
the grip on the left side. It is within easy thumb-reach,
without having to shift your hold on the gun.
The sights are square-picture and the dovetail-
mounted rear can be drifted laterally. Long ago Kahr

EXPOSING THE ELEMENTS

For routine maintenance, the CT45 and CM45
disassemble quickly and easy into their major
components
T
he Kahr disassembles easily into its major components.
First, as always, make sure the pistol is unloaded.
Remove the magazine, and double-check to ensure the
chamber is clear. I stress this not to be redundant, but
because youre going to have to press the trigger to free the
striker. This way you wont have any unwelcome surprises!
OK, once youve checked to make sure the chamber is
unloaded, pull the slide back until the relief cut in the slide is
over the slide stop (on the compact CM45 model, the spring
is under a lot of tension, which is why I indicated earlier it
may not be the best choice for those with little or diminished
manual strength). Next, push out the slide stop. You might
need to help things along by using a non-marring hammer
or screwdriver handle.
Now, check the chamber again and squeeze the trigger
to disengage the striker. Pull the slide off the to the front.
The recoil spring isnt captured, so keep it under control
as you lift it from the rear of the slide. You dont want it
flying around the room (speaking of which, it is always
a good idea to wear safety glasses when disassembling
anything featuring powerful springs). Lift the barrel up and
out of the slide and youre ready to clean or perform routine
maintenance chores. Reassemble in reverse order.

44 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

hit on a good sight pattern. The front
has a white dot and the rear has a white
square below the notch. Just put the
dot on top of the square and there you
are. At 7 and 15 yards, I found both
pistols shot to point-of-aim, with no
adjustment needed on my part.
All of the features mentioned are
essentially the same in the compact
CM45except, of course, its actual
size. The shorter barrel and grip frame
make it much more concealable (a
factor that will be important for some
users). Also, as it falls into the next
Kahr price category, it costs a little
more than the newer CT45.
The shorter grip-frame means
a 5-round magazine. However, the
7-round magazine from the CT45
works just fine in it. Thus, if you have
both guns, the magazine from the big
one could be used if necessary. Even
though it is significantly smaller than
the CT45, I should mention that the
grip-frame of the CM45 has room on
the frontstrap for all three fingers of my
average-sized hand.
There is one caveat Id like to make CT45 & CM45
about selecting the smaller CM45. MAKER: KAHR ARMS
If age or injury has weakened your 130 GODDARD MEMORIAL DRIVE, WORCESTER, MA 01603
grip (or your arm), youd better (508) 795-3919, WWW.KAHR.COM
try it before you decide. The short- CT45 GUN: CM45
ened recoil spring system results in Locked breech DAO Action: Locked breech DAO
pronounced resistance as the slide is .45 ACP Caliber: .45 ACP
retracted to load. This factor is pres- 4.04 inches Barrel length: 3.14 inches
ent not only in the Kahr, but in many 7+1 Capacity: 5+1
of the small pistols. Of course, the 24 ounces Weight: 23.7 ounces
macho guys will say, Oh, racking the 6.57 inches Length: 5.79 inches
5.25 inches Height: 4.75 inches
slide aint very hard to do! Still, if
1.01 inches Width: 1.01 inches
you have diminished strength in your
Stainless steel Slide: Stainless steel
hand or arm, you should try things Polymer Frame: Polymer
out before you make the call yourself. $449 Price: $517

From a standing position with a 2-hand hold,
J.B. got 3- and 3.5-inch groups respectively with
the CT45 (above) and the CM45 (below).
At the range most of the shooting
was done at the classic 7-yard combat
distance from a standing position with
a 2-hand hold. The ammo I used was
mostly the standard 230-grain full metal
jacket load from Magtech, but I also
tried a few 165-grain +P rounds from
CorBon. Both guns worked perfectly
with both. Felt recoil was not unpleas-
ant, even with the hotter CorBon load
in the CM45.
My groups were monotonously
good and well-centered. Usually, the
first two shots would be dead center,
with the succeeding ones clustering
nearby. With the CT45, group size aver-
aged 3 inches. With the smaller CM45
it was 3.5 inches, I noticed with the
larger pistol, the final three shots in
each group were above centerwith
the CM45 they were below. This was
very easy to for me to watch happen on
the big 8-inch black of the Champion
VisiShot targets I was using.
As regular readers may know, my
favorite pistol calibers are 9x19mm
and .32 ACP. However, if you are a
big-bore guy, you need one of these
Kahrsor maybe both. I have visited
the Kahr factory, and I can attest to the
fact if anything they make isnt perfect,
it doesnt leave the premises.
Champion Traps & Targets
1 ATK Way, Anoka, MN 55303
(800) 635-7656
CorBon
1311 Industry Road, Sturgis, SD 57785
(800) 626-7266
Magtech Ammunition
248 Apollo Drive, Suite 180
Lino Lakes, MN 55014
(800) 466-7191
Maxpedition Hard-Use Gear
P.O. Box 5008
Palos Verdes, CA 90274,
(877) 629-5556
Quartermaster Knives
P.O. Box 1121
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
For more info go to:
www.gunsmagazine.com/index

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 45
 CAS T
AWAY!
NO, YOU DONT HAVE TO STICK WITH JACKETED
BULLETS IN YOUR PET SEMI-AUTO PISTOL. REALLY.
MIKE DUKE VENTURINO included in handloads for semi-autos and, whenever
PHOTOS: YVONNE VENTURINO possible, factory ammunition is used as well. But for my
own personal use, I cast bullets.

T
his last politically inspired compo-
nent/ammunition scare has hit
hard and lasted long. At this writ-
ing shortages have eased somewhat,
but supplies at many gun stores are not
back to normal. Just like everyone else,
I am hostage to manufactured compo-
nents such as primers, powders and
factory-made rifle bullets.
But in regard to handgun bullets, this past shortage
has had zero impact on me, even for my autoloading
pistols.
Thats because I cast my own. When gathering infor-
mation to present in my articles, jacketed bullets are
A great many handgunners and handloaders think
jacketed bullets are mandatory for their autoload-
ers. And that may be true, if their own guns come with
specific instructions to avoid lead alloy bullets because of
specific types of rifling. Personally, I dont own or hand-
load any gun with this handicap anyway.
But I do currently reload for 17 autoloading pistols
chambered for the following cartridges: .32 ACP,
7.65mm French Long, 8mm Japanese Nambu, .380
ACP, 9mm Parabellum, 9mm Makarov, .40 S&W and
.45 ACP. Every single one of those pistols feeds, func-
tions and shoots accurately with bullets I cast for them.
It is not a difficult process, although some specif-
ics must be addressed differently than when casting for
revolvers. The first such factor is alloy temper. Autoload-
ing pistol bullets go through a violent journey in feed-
ing from magazines, often up rough feed ramps and then

When checking out his Montana

property, Duke often carries
his Les Baer Thunder Ranch
Special .45 ACP. Mostly it is
loaded with cast bullet hand-
loads. He loads RN cast bullets
from Lymans 452374 mold
(inset, left), but if an FP bullet is
needed, RCBS 45-230CM (inset,
right) also functions well in
most pistols.

46
 These five WWI 9mms are used almost exclusively with Dukes home-cast bullets (above, left and
stopping abruptly in chambers. This down): Inglis/Browning Hi-Power, Inglis/Browning Hi-Power with shoulder stock and FN/Browning
means the bullet must be strong and Hi-Power. Two others (right and down) include a German P08 Luger and a Walther P-38. Duke casts
bullets for these semi-auto handgun cartridges (below, from left): .32 ACP, 7.65mm French Long,
locked securely in the case. 8mm Nambu, .380 ACP, 9mm Parabellum, 9mm Makarov, .40 S&W and .45 Auto.
A strong bullet is a hard bullet.
There is just no way around it. Auto-
loading pistol bullets must be hard.
Lyman recommends their No. 2 alloy
blend as minimum for autoloading
pistols. Its Brinell Hardness Number is
about 15. In times long gone, that alloy
could be formed by adding a pound of
50/50 solder to 9 pounds of wheelweight
alloy. Unfortunately, wheelweights made
of lead and antimony are rapidly disap-
pearing as is lead-based solderagain due to politically was made in such enormous quantities it is still encoun-
inspired factors. tered in salvage yards, and modern equivalents from
Lymans several cast bullet manuals (the most recent alloy dealers are commercially available.
written by yours truly) list linotype alloy as the hardest Now get this: Only 5 of my 17 semi-auto pistols are
one practical for cast bullet shooting. It is usually rated civilian models (Colt, Les Baer, Kimber). The rest were
as having a BHN of 22making it a wonderful choice manufactured in their respective nations for military use.
for semi-auto pistols (as well as for rifle bullets exceeding None have been altered in any way. All function perfectly
about 1,500 fps). Being so hard, linotype pistol bullets with linotype cast bullets if they are of the proper shape.
are also slick in regard to sliding up feed ramps with- Semi-wadcutter cast bullets with their sharp edges
out damage. and flat meplat have been all the rage for revolvers for the
Linotype was a product of the printing trade and is past half century. Sometimes they will actually function
also becoming a thing of the past. But dont despairit through semi-autos, but its a chancy thing. My very first

Duke relies on cast bullets when

shooting his shoulder-stocked Ing-
lis/Browning 9mm. He likes Lymans
356242 for 9mm handloading (inset),
but wishes they would offer it in a
4-cavity mold instead of just a dou-
ble-cavity version.

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 47

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GUNS MAGAZINE
9mman S&W Model 39handled
SWC bullets fine. None of my current
9mms will at all.
The nearest thing to a SWC that
will usually function through unal-
tered semi-autos is the roundnose/flat-
point (RN/FP). Such a bullet shape
was originally intended for lever guns
with tubular magazines. The flatpoint
bullets were insurance against rounds
setting off primers ahead of them in
the magazine. Ive used those lever gun
bullets in .40 S&W and .45 ACP with
no problems.
However, the king of all cast bullet
shapes for semi-auto handloads is the
plain old roundnose. All the bullet mold
manufacturers offer .45 ACP, 9mm and
.32 ACP RN designs, but an interest-
ing fact is that the Big Three (Lyman,
RCBS and Redding/SAECO) do not
offer a RN .40 S&W bullet design.
Heres another tip from me gained
from reloading for autoloaders for
46 years at this writing: Buy a mold
with multiple cavities. I started with a
Lyman 452374, 225-grain RN for my
first 1911. It was a single-cavity model
because it was all I could afford as
a college student. That thing nearly
The easiest way to avoid semi-auto functioning
woes with cast bullets is to cast them hard and
with rounded shapes (from left): 9mm/Lyman
356242 (120 grains), .45 ACP/Lyman 452374 (225
grains), .32 ACP/RCBS 32-77RN (77 grains), 8mm
Nambu/RCBS #8mm-110RN (110 grains) and .40
S&W/Lyman #401043 (170 grains).
Bullets must be locked in semi-auto cases
securely. Ruptured cases (above) can result if
they become pushed back on top of powder
charges, raising pressures. Another problem
that can be encountered with lead alloy bul-
lets is slivers being peeled by the case mouth
during bullet seating (below). The case mouth
must be expanded and its edge chamfered
properly. The accumulated lead can interfere
with headspacing.
Duke shot this group at 21 feet (above) with a
Walther PP .380 ACP using his own cast bullets.
His 1938-vintage 9mm Luger shoots home-cast
bullets very well at 25 yards (below).
worked me to distraction! Now I have
the same bullet design in a Lyman
4-cavity mold, so a few hours of casting
nets me a pile of .45s.
At times the mold manufacturers
try to stifle my joy. For instance, after
discovering that my 9mm pistols all
shoot well with Lyman 356242 (120-
grain RN), I tried to buy a 4-cavity
mold for it but they only make that one
in double-cavity molds. The same was
true for my favorite .40 S&W choices
either Lyman 401043 or RCBS
40-180CM. They are only available in
double-cavity blocks. Redding/SAECO
is more open-minded. They offer all
their semi-auto pistol bullet designs in
either 3- or 4-cavity blocks.
Heres another tip gained from
personal experience: Many new casters
start out by sizing their new bullets to
the same diameter as jacketed bullets
for their chosen cartridge. They pick
0.355-inch for 9mm or 0.400 for .40
S&W or 0.451 for .45 ACP. Conversely,
Ive learned from actual shooting expe-
rience that more in the way of accuracy
will occur with larger-than-nominal
cast bullets. My standard sizing diame-
ters for the three above-mentioned cali-
bers are 0.356-inch, 0.401 and 0.452.
Ive even used 0.357 for 9mm military
pistols with good results, but rounds
with bullets that large may not chamber
in tighter commercial chambers.
Early on I mentioned cast bullets in
semi-auto handguns must be locked
in. That means they must have some
sort of crimp. Going back to my first
experiences with the 9mm S&W Model
39. I just seated cast bullets into the
cases friction tight and they shot fine
until one got pushed back on the powder
charge during its trip up the feed ramp.
Result? The case wall blew out with the
escaping gas splitting both wooden grip
panels. No other harm was done, fortu-
nately, and a good lesson was learned.
For most semi-auto handloading,
a taper crimp is recommended (with
jacketed bullets too) but that is not

48 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

a universal rule. Rounds such as .45
ACP and .40 S&W are rimless. There-
fore headspacing is done by the case
mouth stopping on the end of the
pistol barrels chamber. The .32 ACP
is considered a semi-rimmed case. You
can actually apply a bit of a roll-crimp
on .32 ACP bullets without problems.
Then of course, bottleneck cases head-
space on the case shoulder so they can
get a full roll crimp. Examples of those
are .30 Mauser, .30 Luger and 8mm
Nambu (the former two Ive hand- These two oddball WWII-vintage pistols (above) make fine cast-bullet shooters. At left is French
loaded with cast bullets in the past and Model 1935A 7.65mm Long. At right is Japans Type 14 8mm Nambu. Duke developed cast bullet
handloads equaling factory jacketed bullet loads in these three pocket pistols (below, from left): FN/
the latter one I still do). Browning Model 1922 .32 ACP, Walther PP .380 ACP and Hungarian PA63 9mm Makarov.
In regards to reloading dies and cast
bullets the handloader needs to think
about plugs: expander plugs and seat-
ing die nose plugs. The seating die nose
plug needs to fit the bullets nose profile.
At the minimum an improper plug will
score the bullets nose with an unsightly
ring. At most it will seat the bullet
crooked in the case, which will do noth-
ing good for the finished loads.
To get cast bullets properly seated
without damage, the case mouth must
be flared so bullets base starts without
shaving alloy as they are pushed into
cases. Also the case mouth edge should
be chamfered. However, another
consideration is the diameter of the
expander plug in those dies. Most
companies supply expander plugs for
semi-auto pistol calibers about 0.002- But an expander plug that is too load 0.355 lead alloy bullets. Are they
inch less than nominal bullet diameter. large or too small can cause you going to be tight enough in cases when
For instance, I just measured the problems. The one in my RCBS cycled through the pistol? Remem-
expander plug from a set of Lyman .40 9mm Parabellum die set is only ber what I said happened to me when
S&W/10mm Auto dies. It is 0.398-inch 0.352-inch. Thats OK for jacketed a loose bullet was pushed back on
in diameter whereas the nominal jack- bulletstheyre strong enough to the powder charge? All this talk of
eted bullet size is 0.400. Likewise, with force the case to accept the 0.003- measuring bullets, expander plugs and
a set of Lyman .38 Super dies. Jacketed inch larger bullet. But if you want to so forth is why wise handloaders keep
bullets for that cartridge are supposed seat a 0.356, or even 0.357 bullet in good micrometers and calipers on their
to be 0.356 (although most jacketed 9mm cases expanded with a 0.352- reloading benches.
bullets today are 0.355) and Lyman inch plug, they may be damaged. Im At this point Im sure some read-
supplies a 0.353 plug. Most times and not saying they will be dangerous to ers are waiting for me to tell them,
with most brands of cartridge cases shoot, but they probably wont group specifically, what some really great
these expander plugs will work well as well as youd like. semi-auto cast-bullet handloads
with cast bullets because were usually Now lets look at it from the other are. I cant. My own loads for my
only going 0.001 inch over jacketed direction. Lets say your expander own guns I know well, but with the
bullet diameters. plug is 0.353-inch and you need to vast assortment of semi-auto pistols
available today, I cant say what will
work in all of them.
But heres what I will say. Start with
good, hard bullets sized about 0.001-
inch larger than jacketed bullets and
carrying a well-known brand of
commercial lube. Load them over
charges of Bullseye, Accurate No.
2, Hodgdons HP38 or Titegroup
that you garnered from Lymans 4th
Edition Cast Bullet Handbook or
their 49th Edition Reloading Hand-
book. Seat the bullets and crimp
properly and you will be shooting
every bit as accurately as I do.
Duke has owned this Hungarian PA63 9mm Lyman
Makarov for 20 years and fires home-cast 475 Smith Street, Middletown, CT 06457
bullets in it most of the time. (860) 632-2020
www.gunsmagazine.com/index

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 49
 Shooting a ladder test at longer
ranges can help find the accuracy
node for a certain load.

50 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 This particular ladder test was
shot at 400 yards with a .223
WSSM and H1000 powder, one
the Hodgdon Extremes, result-
ing in less velocity variation at
different temperatures.

JOHN BARSNESS

M
any shooters call the vibrations of a fired rifle barrel
harmonics, but anybody whos ever seen a slow-
motion video of a centerfire rifle being fired would
have a hard time applying a musical term. The barrel whips
up and down like a jiggled fishing rod, and those are just
the vibrations we can see, since it also expands slightly as
the bullet passes through the bore, like a snake swallowing
a mouse, and even twists due to the torque of the rifling.
In rifles chambered for more powerful rounds the visible
whips and snaps often extend into the action and scope.
The largest barrel movement, cope with its effect, using three meth-
however, is up and down. Shooters ods: freedom, repression and whats
normally hold a rifle with the trigger often called tuning.
underneath and the sights on top, so Free-floating, naturally, is the free-
when the rifle goes off, recoil tilts the dom method, theoretically allowing
rifle upward. This effect is reduced with the barrel to vibrate the same way
a very straight stock and high scope or every time. To be truly free-floated
sights, but our upper body still tends the barrel cant touch the fore-end
to bend backwards during the push of even during its deepest bends. This
recoil, even from a light-kicking rifle. confuses some people, including a few
Plus, at rest the barrel bends downward supposedly professional gunsmiths,
slightly, due to gravity. This droop who believe if a folded dollar bill can
tends to straighten with the pressure slide between barrel and fore-end,
of a bullet traveling down the bore, then the barrels free-floated.
and combined with the natural upward Unfortunately, many bill-floated
movement of the rifle emphasizes verti- barrels will touch the fore-end when
cal vibrations. fired, resulting in some really weird
Unfortunately, we cant totally vibrations. My basic test for free-float-
prevent barrel whip. All we can do is ing is to grab the tip of the fore-end and

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 51
 A FAT BARREL DOESNT VIBRATE
AS WIDELY AS A THIN BARREL,
BUT FAT IS A RELATIVE TERM.
the barrel in one hand and squeeze. If and the screw inside, the rifle started
the barrel bottoms out in the fore-end, behaving predictably.
then it isnt floated enough to vibrate In slimmer barrels the torque
freely, but complications can occur. effect of the rifling can also whip the
Many years ago I purchased a Mark barrel back and forth somewhat. As
X Mauser 7mm Remington Magnum, a result, we also need to make sure
and decided to install an early injec- the barrel doesnt touch the sides of
tion-molded stock. The rifle shot very the barrel channel.
well in the original factory walnut The most common method of
stock, and would group most shots vibration repression is a thicker barrel,
well under an inch in the Tupperware the reason for the truck axles on ing had already been tried before the
stockexcept now and then, when a benchrest rifles. A fat barrel doesnt
flier landed an inch or more from the vibrate as widely as a thin barrel, but fat
main group. is a relative term. Were really referring
The fore-end was hollow, so I to a barrels stiffness, and several factors
couldnt see how it could be tapping affect stiffness, including the size of the
the barrel. However, the hollow chan- bore and barrel length. In barrels of
nel contained a plastic pedestal for the same outside diameter, theres more
the fore-end sling-swivel stud, and steel around, say, a .22 caliber hole than
once in a while the barrel vibrated a .30 caliber hole, one reason factory
enough to tap the top. After filing rifles in .223 Remington usually shoot
off about 0.1-inch of the pedestal more accurately than identical factory
52 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
rifles in .308 Winchester.
However, shortening a barrel also
reduces vibrations, and a shorter barrel
also doesnt droop as much from grav-
ity. This effect is particularly noticeable
in thinner barrels, and over the years
Ive cured accuracy problems in several
lightweight barrels by cutting off an
inch or three. (And no, the cure wasnt
due to a new crown, because recrown-
shortening.)
In fact, more than one accu-
racy gunsmith of my acquaintance
refuses to put 26-inch barrels on
hunting rifles, because long sporter-
weight barrels flop around too much
for the finest accuracy. As a result
Ive owned more than one 25-inch
barreled rifle in chamberings such as
.270 Weatherby and .300 Winchester
Magnum. In general, my experience
with long, free-floated sporter-
weight barrels mirrors theirs.
Then there are those trendy flutes.
Some people still claim flutes stiffen
barrels, but removing steel from a
cylinder cant stiffen the cylinder.
Instead, fluting results in a stiffer
barrel than a standard barrel that
weighs the same, because the stan-
dard barrel is thinner in diameter.
However, theres some scientific
evidence that certain kinds of fluting
can help dampen barrel vibrations
but most fluting isnt done scientifi-
cally, and factory fluting is often so
shallow its essentially cosmetic.
Today there are even the trian-
gular-shaped barrels on Remington
700 VTRs. One corner of the equi-
lateral triangle runs along the top of
the barrel, like an integral rib, and Heavy-contour barrels are the most reliably accurate (above), because theyre stiffer, the rea-
probably does reduce up-and-down son benchrest rifles have heavy barrels. The load for this E.R. Shaw 6.5-06 was worked up at 100
yards (below), but still didnt show much elevation variation at 600. The horizontal spread is due
vibrations, especially since the stocks to a slight right-hand breeze.
on VTRs have the typical Reming-
ton speed bump near the tip of
the fore-end channel, placing some
upward pressure on the barrel.
Ive shot several VTRs and own one,

John owns two hunting rifles
with light 26-inch barrels, a
custom .25-06 (top) and a
Weatherby Ultra Lightweight
in 7mm Wby. Magnum. The
fore-ends of both rifles firmly
contact the barrels, dampen-
ing vibrations somewhat, but
the slim barrels are much more
finicky about the loads they
prefer than heavier barrels.
and all shot accurately. In fact the .204
Ruger VTR I own was really accurate
before the barrel was shot out, averag-
ing around 3/4-inch for 10 shots of its
favored handload, fired as fast as possi-
ble with accurate aiming. (This is my
standard test for a varmint rifle used
on abundant rodents, because a barrel
that shifts point-of-impact when hot is
useless for shooting prairie dogs.)
However, when the rifles original
22-inch barrel started losing accuracy,
after about 1,600 rounds of often-hot
shooting, I replaced it with a 24-inch
sporter-weight, stainless-steel Reming-
ton factory barrel, purchased for the
vast sum of $75. (New 700 barrels can
be purchased cheaply on the Internet
because so many rifle loonies desiring
custom rifles buy new Remington 700s
just for the action.)
The replacement barrel fits inside
the wide barrel channel of the VTR
stock like a flagpole inside an eleva-
tor shaft, so in theory should vibrate
far more than the shorter, stiffer
triangular barrel. But it shoots
just as accurately as the old barrel,
demonstrating some overlap in
barrel performance regardless of
contour and length.
Using the stocks fore-end to tame
barrel vibrations sometimes works and
sometimes doesnt. Much depends on
the amount of pressure, how and where
its applied, and the stock. The barrels
of Melvin Forbes New Ultra Light
Arms rifles are full-length bedded,
without a speed bump or any other
extra pressure. Instead the barrels are
epoxy-bedded neutrally in the barrel
channeland NULAs have an envi-
able reputation not just for accuracy
but continuing to shoot accurately
when the barrels hot.
THE 3-SHOT MYTH
One of the oldest semi-myths in
rifle accuracy is all sporter-weight
barrels throw fliers after three shots,
due to heating up, the reason many
people shoot only 3-shot groups, or
allow barrels to cool for a couple
minutes between shots. But when prop-
erly stress-relieved, even light barrels
shouldnt change point of impact as
they heat up.
Instead, the primary reason a 4th or
5th shot often lands outside a 3-shot
group is that three shots arent enough

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 53
to reveal the accuracy spread of any
ammunition. While shooters have
long argued about how many shots are
required, no shooting statistician Ive
ever talked to says three are sufficient.
This doesnt mean some factory
barrels dont start shooting in a differ-
ent direction when warm. I once owned
a heavy-barreled .22-250 made by a
factory noted for accurate rifles, but it
proved useless for prairie dog shooting
because after three or four shots you
never knew where the next bullet would
land. (While heavy barrels tend to shoot
more accurately, they arent a guaran-
tee of accuracy, and heat-warping isnt
limited to sporter-weight barrels.)
At the other extreme, a friend who
bought a NULA with a No. 2 contour
.30-06 barrel reported a 35-shot group
of just over an inch, while firing one
shot after another until, he said, the
barrel was hot enough to light a ciga-
rette. (That may have been an exagger-
ation, but my friend does smoke ciga-
rettesthough only in hunting camp.)
The bullets kept landing in the same
place, and he couldnt keep himself
from pulling the trigger, just to see what
would happen.
With any fore-end contact, stock
stiffness also has an effect on barrel
vibrations. NULA stocks are among
the stiffest made, but another accu-
racy gunsmith I know claims synthetic
stocks should be at least slightly flexi-
ble, which he says helps dampen vibra-
tions. (Some shooters also claim lami-
nated wood stocks reduce vibrations,
and my experience tends to agree.)
Target stocks have even included
adjustable pressure points in the
fore-end, though these days theyre
uncommon.
Firm fore-end bedding doesnt
guarantee accuracy with slim-
mer barrels. In my modest collec-
tion of light hunting rifles are a
couple with 26-inch barrels. Ones a
custom Mauser 98 in .25-06, with a
genuine P.O. Ackley barrel measur-
ing only 0.575 inch at the muzzle,
stocked in straight-grained walnut
with the same sort of neutral fore-
end bedding as in NULA rifles. The
others a Weatherby Mark V Ultra
Lightweight in 7mm Weatherby
Magnum with a factory-fluted barrel,
0.585 inch at the muzzle, supported
by a speed bump in the fore-end of
the synthetic stock. Both are accurate
with very specific handloads, but not
very accurate with others.
Experimenting with various
loads is part of the third method of
tuning barrel vibrating. Most theo-
ries suggest the finest accuracy results
when bullets leave the muzzle during
the same stage of barrel vibration.
Some say this is when the muzzle
54
Johns Remington 700 VTR in .204 Ruger shot
extremely well with the original, triangular-con-
tour factory barrel until it was shot out. The barrel
was replaced by another factory Remington .204
barrel that shoots equally well, despite being lon-
ger and so thin it doesnt come anywhere close
to touching the stocks barrel channel.
These Remington 700 barrels have the same
length and outside diameter, but the .17-caliber
barrel is stiffer than the 7mm barrel, so should
be more accurateand is.
Many believe a barrels free-floated when a folded
dollar bill will slip between fore-end and barrel,
but a cotton cleaning patch is a better test, since
many barrels can still whip enough to contact the
fore-end during the dollar bill test.
pauses at the top and bottom of the
up-and-down whip, but others claim
bullets leaving just before the top
pause shoot most accurately, espe-
cially at longer ranges. This is because
even in the most consistent ammuni-
tion, theres always some velocity vari-
ation and bullets with slower muzzle
velocities exit the muzzle slightly
later in the vibration cycle, when the
muzzles tilted slightly higher. The
higher trajectory of the slower bullets
makes them land closer to the same
place as faster bullets.
Finding this accurate vibration
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
node is the theory behind the ladder
method of testing long-range hand-
loads, usually credited to the late
gunsmith and target shooter Creighton
Audette. Instead of shooting handloads
at only 100 yards to determine which
powder charge groups tightest, single
rounds with slightly varying powder
charges are shot at longer range. This
results in a vertical string of bullet holes,
but several will usually cluster around
a certain level, and averaging those
powder charges results in the correct
charge for longer-range accuracy. (Of
course, other shooters say this is BS,
that finding the most accurate powder
charge at 100 yards results in fine accu-
racy way out there too, especially when
theres little variation in chronographed
accuracy. I am firmly equivocal on the
subject, having experienced good results
with both methods.)
Factory ammo, whether centerfire
or rimfire, can be accuracy-tested by
shooting several brands, or by tuning
the barrel itself, either with an adjust-
able muzzle extension or slide-on addi-
tions. A few factory rifles come with
adjustable muzzle extensions. Proba-
bly the best-known is the BOSS intro-
duced by Browning in the mid-1990s.
Instead of trying different ammo, you
select the brand desired and then tune
the barrel by turning the BOSS.
This works, at least for one range
session, but rifle powders vary consid-
erably in their sensitivity to tempera-
ture, the major flaw of any barrel-
tuning device. If ambient temperature
is roughly the same as when tuning the
barrel, then the load will shoot accu-
rately, but if the temperature changes
considerably it may not. The powders
used in factory ammunition also
change more than most shooters real-
ize, especially in hunting ammo.
Factories do try to make target
ammo as close to the same as possi-
ble from lot to lot, the reason most
rifles shoot it very well. Over the
past couple of years Ive shot quite
a bit of Black Hills and Hornady
target ammo in .308 Winchester, in
rifles varying from inexpensive, slim-
barreled sporters to heavy-barreled
tactical rifles, and both brands
usually shot as well or better than
handloads tuned to particular
rifles, and in temperatures varying
from sub-freezing to 90+ degrees.
After we consider all the factors
in barrel vibrations, it starts to cause
some wonder about how so many
rifles place their bullets in tiny clus-
ters, so consistentlybut if we under-
stand the basic of barrel vibrations
the odds of our own rifles shooting
accurately rise, perhaps even as much
as the muzzle of a .338 Lapua during
the peak of its harmonics.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 55

JACOB GOTTFREDSON
A
shbury Precision Ordnance (APO)
is an upscale, highly technical
and innovative company that,
among other things, manufactures the
SABER-FORSST modular rifle chassis
system. They are also the main distrib-
uter of the Vector series of rangefinder
equipment.
Some people shoot beyond the crowd who sight
in 2 inches above the bull at 100 yards, and it is good
for 250 yards. In fact, at the ranges people are shoot-
ing these days the kit requires a decent rangefinder,
ballistic software, great optics, and the gun itself
must shoot better than very well.
56
But what if your rangefinder would reliably range
objects as far away 6 miles, your ballistic software could
take instructions from the rangefinder, and the rifle could
make a 1,500-yard shot?
APO markets one. I tested it over a 3-month period
here on the coast at 75 degrees and in Montana at
7,000 feet and 35 degrees. The rifle is APOs .338 Lapua
Magnum mounted in their modular chassis system stock
and sporting a 5-25x56mm PM II Schmidt & Bender
scope, a Surgeon action, and a hand-lapped, match-
grade barrel.
The Surgeon action is smooth and up to the task for
the big cartridge, and the 2-stage trigger was reasonably
light with no creep and very slight overtravel. The action
is bedded to the modular stock as-is with no bedding
compounds. The rail is one piece from the action to the
front of the carbon-fiber forearm, to which a bottom rail
had also been added. Rails can also be added to the sides
for lights or other gear.
This A2 model carries a 10-round
magazine and an adjustable field
monopod in the front with a tactical
bipod up front. The white paper on
the side, just above the magazine, is
a quick guide if the decision is made
to use the S&B hashmarks instead
of dialing the elevation turret.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
 Jacob (standing, middle) and fellow
shooters getting their dope figured
out at 1,000 yards in the hills of Mon-
tana, having just arrived from the
coast of Texas. APOs .338 Lapua
Magnum Asymmetric Warrior is out
front. Photo: Bruce Smetana.
The rifle weighs in at about 15 pounds without the
scope, rings, sling and loaded magazine. The mag took
10 rounds. The folding buttstock is easily removed and
so is the forearm and barrel. The chassis system is also
available for other action configurations.
APO sent several rounds of RUAGs 300-grain
ammo. I spent some time on several occasions shoot-
ing at 100, 600, 1,000 yards and points in between. The
ammo printed less than 1 inch at 100 yards, but I had a
bit of difficulty at longer ranges. I could not determine
why. Jacob Bynum of Rifles Only loaned me some Lapua
250-grain Scenar ammo, which solved whatever problem
I was having. I had good luck as well with Black Hills
300-grain Match ammo. The Lapua 250-grain Scenars
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
printed 3.7 inches at 600 yards, which is little more than
0.5 MOA. We shot at 600, 700, 800 and 1,000 yards at
steel, hitting them reasonably well in about 0.8 mils of
wind at 1,000 yards.
The temperature was about 80 degrees and the eleva-
tion approximately 75 feet. The Surgeon action contin-
ued to work flawlessly. The edges of the barrels lands are
the sloped variety, and looking through my borescope,
they are a little worn. I assume this rifle is one used for
demonstration and consignment to writers. Still, the rifle
shot well.
It was mid-November, and temperatures were
running from about 30 to 45 degrees with some brisk
winds. I had made a guess on my ballistic software
Waiting for the long shot, APOs
Asymmetric Warrior in .338 Lapua
Magnum is up to the task. The Vec-
tor 21 long-range rangefinder is an
able companion, offering ranging
capabilities out to 7+ miles.
57
of 30 degrees and 7,000 feet prior to
leaving Texas, which turned out to be
right on the money.
My spotter called low and gave me
a 1-mil come-up. I shot high, came
down a bit for the second and then
a bit more on the third shot, finally
hitting the steel at 1,000 yards. I
looked at the dial and then the soft-
ware. Identical.
I left the setting as-is and let two
other guys in the party shoot the rifle.
All were hits after that on the 1,000- The forearm of the chassis system uses carbon fiber to reduce mirage off the barrel and dissi-
yard steel. At 7,000 feet and 3,000 fps pate heat. Rails ride the top and bottom. Rails can also be added to the sides to accommodate
lights, NVD, infrared or the like. Note also the several holes in the both the rear and the front
velocity, it took 6 mils to make the of the rifle to accommodate a sling. In this view there are three in the bottom rail and one just
hit at 1,000 yards. The software read behind the carbon fiber.
22.9 barometric pressure, whereas
it was 29.92 in Texas. In Texas at 60
feet elevation and about 80 degrees it
took 6.5 mils to hit. That is an 18-inch
difference. Enough for a substan-
tial miss. There is another interesting
point to be made. Many use a lethal-
ity factor for elk of about 3,000 if
adding velocity and energy together.
In Texas that would be around 1,150
yards. However, in Montana the range
would be extended to 1,400 yards. The
velocity in Texas at 1,150 yards is
1,600 fps. In Montana at 1,400 yards The butt folds forward to reduce length. This Here, the foldable stock has been rotated
feature is employed with the press of a but- into the firing position. The cheekpiece
it is 1,600 fps. That is, the lethality ton. The button is very secure, making it nearly is lowered or raised by turning the screw
factor is much extended at the higher impossible to fold without meaning to do so. shown in the detent of the cheekpiece.
altitude.
The rifle is heavy enough and the
muzzlebrake works well enough to
see splash. That is a big plus with a
250- to 300-grain bullet moving out of
the muzzle at about 3,000 fps. When
shooting long range, you need a rifle
that moves straight to the rear and
without muzzle rise, giving you the
opportunity to see where the bullet
hits. If not, you need a very experi-
enced spotter to do that for you.
You also need a lot of practice to
make hits. Try that with a light thun-
derboomer. If a fellow shooting a The bolt handle side of the rifle is where the The buttplate is raised and extended using
7-pound rifle in the big magnum class buttons are located to raise the cheekpiece the two buttons in gray. The monopod folds
and change the engagement height of the up nicely when not in use. This system is
buttplate. The rail has a slope of 40-MOA for extremely flexible, fitting almost any body
ASW PRECISION long-range shooting. size or shooting technique.
TACTICAL RIFLE
MAKER: ASHBURY PRECISION ORDNANCE MFG.
P.O. BOX 8024
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA 22906 shoots more than 20 to 30 rounds per today. APO only uses very high qual-
(434) 296-9260 year, I would be surprised. If you have ity products in and on their modular
WWW.ASHBURYPRECISIONORDNANCE.COM
a friend with one who says the rifle chassis.
Action: Bolt action, Surgeon XL-II does not shoot well, try this: Offer
Repeater, Caliber: .338 Lapua Mag Black Hills Ammunition
(tested), .223, 6.5 CM, .308 Win, .300 to load single rounds on the loading
WM, .338 NM, and .50 BMG, Barrel: 27 ramp while he is shooting. After doing 3050 Eglin St., Rapid City, SD 57703
(605) 348-5150
inches, integrated muzzlebrake and a few like that, put a fired case in the
suppressor system, Trigger: Huber chamber without his knowledge. You Lapua Ammunition
Tactical 2-Stage, Scope rings: SABER Graf & Sons, Inc.
EO, Scope rail: 30 MOA Standard, 0, 20, may see immediately why the rifle does
40, and 60 MOA optional, Hand grip: not shoot well. 4050 S. Clark, Mexico, MO 65265
(573) 581-2266
ErgoGrip, Magpul M1AD, Grip angle The Ashbury Precision Ordnance
adapters: 17.5 degrees standard, 11 and Asymmetric Warrior is an extraordi- Vectronix Inc.
27 degrees optional, Surface coatings: 19775 Belmont Executive Plaza
MIL-STD 810G Corrosion Resistant, Dull nary rifle. It was designed and built
and Non-reflective, Color: OD chassis with long-range precision shooting Suite 550 Ashburn, VA 20147
(703) 777-3900
& barreled action (tested, other colors foremost in mind. It took many long www.vectronix.us
available), Weight: 15.5 pounds, 27-inch years of thought, input and trial and
barrel (approx.), Price: $8,550 (base), For more info: www.gunsmagazine.com/index
$8,750 (A2 Model tested) error machining until it is the rifle of

58 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

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60 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015


RIGHTS WATCH
VIEWS, NEWS
& REVIEWS
DAVID CODREA
A FAST AND FURIOUS
GETAWAY FOR HOLDER?
A
New York Times First Draft
goof on its Twitter feed, urging
followers to Watch Obama
resignation press conference here, may
have raised ecstatic, but false hopes
in some. Even so, there is little doubt
where the collective press corps stands
on the president and Eric Holder, who
was the actual person stepping down
after his replacement is secured. The
outgoing attorney general wiped a tear
from his eye as Barack Obama paid
glowing tribute to him in a controlled
media event that twice brought approv-
ing authorized journalists to their
feet in sustained applause.
You not only saw the bittersweet
emotions of both the president and
his attorney general, but you also felt
them, Washington Post editorial board
member Jonathan Capehart gushed.
Holder ... is humbled by his role in this
nations history and efforts to have our
nation be true to its ideals.
GUSHING PRESS
The guy wasnt political at all,
Chuck Todd of NBCs Meet the Press
added. [W]hats interesting about him,
he is a very non-political person.
Not all agree with that assessment.
Eric Holder is the most divisive US
Attorney General in modern history
and, in a vote supported by 17 Demo-
cratic House Members, has the dubi-
ous historic distinction of being the
first attorney general held in criminal
contempt by the US House of Repre-
sentatives, Rep. Darrell Issa, Chair-
man of the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform
asserted, sharply at odds with Todd.
Time and again, Eric Holder admin-
istered justice as the political activist he
describes himself as instead of an unbi-
ased law enforcement official. By need-
lessly injecting politics into law enforce-
ment, Attorney General Holders
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
legacy has eroded more confidence
in our legal system than any attorney
general before him.
Also disapproving was Kelly Terry-
Willis, sister of slain Border Patrol
agent Brian Terry, whose murder in
2010 opened the door to investiga-
tions of the administrations Opera-
tion Fast and Furious gunwalking
into Mexico. The White House and
Holder have consistently impeded
those throughout, abetted by promi-
nent Democrats, and with requisite
cover provided by the same progres-
sive media that thinks the guy deserves
moistened eyes, lumps in throats and
standing ovations.
I do not find it a coincidence that
Eric Holder chose now to resign after
[US District Court Judge John] Bates
denied the request from the DOJ to
delay the release of the Fast and Furi-
ous documents, Terry-Willis told Katie
Pavlich in a townhall.com exclusive. I
personally think Eric Holder was really
hoping that the documents would never
be made public to my family and the
American people.
I do not find it a conincidence that Eric Holder
chose now to resign after [US District Court Judge
John] Bates denied the request from the DOJ to delay
the release of the Fast and Furious documents.
Critics are claiming this could
be the real reason behind Attorney
General Eric Holders resignation,
The Blaze noted. Whether there is
anything damning enough... to force
a sitting US attorney general to resign
remains to be seen.
Perhaps. But more than lists of
documents are involved. What will be
taken off the table with Holder gone
is a chance of establishing that he lied
to Congress when he gave sworn testi-
mony in May of 2011 that hed only from National Drug Intelligence Center
heard of Fast and Furious over the
last few weeks. In fact, Holder was
almost immediately informed of Brian
Terrys death. Former US Attorney for
the District of Arizona, Dennis Burke,
disgraced and sanctioned after leak-
ing sensitive information about the
key Fast and Furious whistleblower in
an attempt to discredit him, e-mailed
Holder aide Monty Wilkinson the very
night Terry was killed.
Ive alerted the AG, Wilkinson
responded to Burke on the morning of
December 15, 2010.
The guns found in the desert near
the murder [sic] BP officer connect
back to the investigation we were going
to talk aboutthey were AK-47s
purchased at a Phoenix gun store,
Burke replied that afternoon.
To suggest the information was
important enough to alert Holder to,
and that he was subsequently kept
in the dark about the walked guns
found at the crime scene, strains credu-
lity. Its also contradicted by confi-
dential informants, and readers must
remember it was through these that the
story first came to light.
SHINING A LIGHT
In late December, 2010, citizen
journalist and blogger Mike Vander-
boegh first reported on a walked
guns connection with the Terry
murder sourced to forum posts on
CleanUpATF, a website maintained
by disaffected ATF agents concerned
with systemic agency corruption.
Vanderboegh followed up on January
7th with a post from a long-established
source that the White House is now
fully briefed on the Walking Gun-
gate scandal and is now calling the
shots. They are in desperate need of a
cover-up, but arent competent enough
to arrange one.
The bottom line: By the time Holder
testified under oath hed only learned
about things weeks before, hundreds
of reports had been filed. Vanderboegh
and I had our sources talking with
Senate staffers by mid-January. The
Mexican press had begun reporting on
Gunwalker by late January. Sharyl
Attkisson had begun her series of
reports for CBS News featuring whis-
tleblower John Dodson by the third
week in February.
Also damning for Holder are memos
Director Michael Walther, showing the
attorney general was apprised of Fast
and Furious as early as July, 2010, and
a letter sent by Senator Chuck Grassley
to then-ATF Acting Director Kenneth
Melson, dated January 31, 2011 that
copied Holder.
While some on the Republican side
are celebrating Holders resignation and
viewing it as something necessary and
long-past due, a few of us have been
warning how that will work against the
truth coming out, and the justice that
ought to follow. So does that mean we
wanted the guy to remain in power?
No, we wanted him removed from
power. Theres a difference.
With Holder stepping down on
his own (or perhaps due to strategists
doing damage control over his abysmal
61
 ROY ALERT! public approval numbers), much of the
Republicans incentive to pursue him
will evaporate. Their natural focus will
be on those remaining in power, not on

BEWARE
SUBSCRIPTION
DEAR READERS: Nefarious scoundre
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rs say, Make check payable to GUNS
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Roy Huntington, Editor
CONFIRM THE ID #
those who no longer present an active
political threat. That means the motiva-
tion to continue investigating him and
the role he played in Fast and Furious
will be diminished. That in turn means
finding out what he may be culpable
for, and what he and his boss may have
discussed about the matter, become
even more problematic.
Also problematic is what will happen
over the next few months, which for
readers of the print edition of GUNS
Magazine will already be in the past
because of scheduling lead times. Spec-
ulation is that a replacement nomina-
tion for Holder could be made before
the November elections and a poten-
tial shift in the Senate majority, or after,
with a lame duck Democrat major-
ity session. Filibuster rules adopted in
2013 no longer require a 60-percent
supermajority to end debate on presi-
dential nominations (except for the
Supreme Court), meaning a straight
majority could bring in a successor
equally hostile to the Second Amend-
ment and equally committed to stone-
walling investigations of administra-
tion wrongdoing.
If either of those two potentialities
occurs, the gun groups will need to try
and stop confirmation using all means
at their disposal. Perhaps pledging an
F grade regardless of everything else
would be persuasive.

DONT BE
For his part, Holder, who is no doubt
NEVER PAY MORE THAN leaving office secure that he cant be
$42.95 FOR A 2-YEAR thrown under the bus because of what
SUBSCRIPTION

A VICTIM!
he knows, will be in high establishment
WHEN IN DOUBT, demand and will land on his feet quite
CONTACT US nicely and lucratively. And human
beings of lesser stature will continue
being killed with guns walked across
the border on his watch.

Visit David Codreas online journal

The War on Guns at
www.waronguns.com,
visit DavidCodrea.com to read
his Examiner column.

Due to the importance of this

column, GUNS will begin
posting Rights Watch
at www.gunsmagazine.com on the
1st of the monthlong before it
appears here.Editor

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.

com/fmgpubs so youll be among
the first to know when Rights
Watch is posted online!

62 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 REVIEWS
EXTREME IRON
Ianything
ve known Stan Skinner for a lot of
years and its safe to say, if theres
out there that shoots, hes
probably shot it. Most of us will never
have access to the types of exotic hard-
ware Stan has had his hands on, but
with his Guide to Extreme Iron: An Illus-
trated Reference to Some of the Worlds
Most Powerful Weapons, from Hand
Cannons to Field Artillery, hes given
us armchair aficionados the next best
thing. Express rifles, submachine guns,
heavy machine guns, Gatling guns,
miniguns, suppressed firearmseven
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CTC_Core_6.67x7_Shooting_Industry.indd
field artillery pieces Gun, German MP-40
such as the Parrott on up to a true machine
Rifle of Civil War
fame are featured. If
pistola select-fire 9mm
Glock 18.
youve ever wanted
to know what its like
to cut loose with a
In fact, if you are seri-
ously interested in owning
Class III weaponry your
drum-fed Lewis Gun own self, theres a chap-
or 7.62x25 Russian ter that lays the application
PPSh-41, its all here. process out in step-by-step
Stan covers the biggest detail. But youd best have
and baddest in hand- a case of wallet overload
guns in the appro- if youre seriousa couple
priately-titled Hand of bursts with a .50 BMG
Cannons chapter. M2 Ma Deuce will easily
And his chapter on set you back a car payment
submachine guns covers stalwarts from or three. And thats not even getting
the legendary Thompson, M3 Grease anywhere close to counting the initial
THE LASER
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 Best Mausers!
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tariff on Brownings unsurpassed heavy
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suppressed and night-vision firearms is
very timely in view of their increasing
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of such combos in fulfilling hog-erad-
ication duties in places like Texas.
Stan is always a pleasure to read
when he gets his teeth into something.
And in this case he has.Payton Miller
Shooters Bible Guide to Extreme Iron, by Stan
Skinner, 2014, softcover, 147 pages, 111
color photos, 10-1/2x8 inches, $19.95, ISBN:
978-1-62636-014-3, Skyhorse Publishing, 307
West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY
10018, www.skyhorsepublishing.com
DEATH FROM ABOVE
A while back I read a feature on
Nazi Germanys FG42 rifle in
the NRAs American Rifleman (Im
a life member, you should join, too).
The Fallshirmjgergewehr 42 is one
of the most interesting rifles fielded
during WWII, but the storys asser-
tions raised more questions than
they answered.
$399
Death From Above chronicles the fascinat-
ing saga of one of WWIIs most effective
riflesthe FG42. Jeff was inspired to order
a semi-auto only version from SMG Guns,
and has been busily engaged in amassing
peripherals such as a scope, ammo and spare
magazines, and bandolier.
Perusing my librarys general
sources gave me meager, conflicting
information, serving only to whet my
appetite for more. I turned to Collec-
tor Grade Publications for a copy
of Death From Above, the definitive
work on the FG42.
The story of the FG42devel-
oped at the behest of the Luftwaffe
for German paratrooperswas writ-
ten by the late Thomas B. Dugleby
and Collector Grade publisher
R. Blake Stevens. The 1st edition,
published in 1990, was followed up
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
with an expanded edition in 2007
as more information was uncov-
ered. More owners worldwide came
forward with pictures of surviving
specimens, and a comprehensive
serial number list of those FG42s
has been compiled.
What makes the 9-pound FG42
so unique is the fact it fires the full-
power 8x57mm cartridge from a
20-round box magazine in either
full-auto mode from an open bolt
or semi-auto from a closed bolt. The
stock has a buffer to cushion recoil
in full-auto, which works in conjunc-
tion with an effective muzzlebrake.
The design also has the barrel in
direct line to the shooters shoulder,
so muzzle rise is negligible. Likely
no more than 8 or 9 thousand rifles
were made. Allied bombing necessi-
tated many redesigns as raw material
became scarce.
The FG42 saw action with the
Fallshirmjgers at Monte Casino and
Normandy and remained in service
to the end of the war. If you, too, had
questions after the American Rifle-
man article, they will be answered by
this book, which presents a wealth of
technical details combined with the
strange array of the various models
in an informative, entertaining way.
The US Armys analysis is included
(it seems our arms designers ignored
the report in the post-war quest for
the M1 Garands replacement).
I was impressed enough to order
one of the new SMG Guns semi-
auto copies of the FG42. Ive
already started collecting the periph-
erals such as ammo, magazines and
a nifty reproduction of the ZF4 4X
scope complete with rubber eyecup,
sunshade and wooden carry case.
Better still, the scope was made by
Czechoslovakian firm Meopta, one
of the original ZF4 contractors.
While the SMG rifle is spendy
in its own right, an original FG42
recently sold at a Rock Island
Auction for $299,000. This makes
me very content with the semi-auto
version!Jeff John
Death From Above, by Thomas B. Dugleby and
R. Blake Stevens, 2007, 228 pages, 278
illustrations, hardcover, $59.95, ISBN 0-88935-
429-4, Collector Grade Publications, P. O. Box
1046, Corbourg, Ontario, Canada K9A 4W5,
(905) 342-3434, www.collectorgrade.com.
NEWS
DOUBLE TRAP GOLD
S taff Sgt. Josh Richmond captured
his second world champion-
ship title in Mens Double Trap
with a perfect score during the All-
Event International Shooting Sport
Federation World Championship in
Granada, Spain.
Also on the line were quota slots
for the 2016 Olympics and Rich-
monds win guarantees Team USA
their first spot for Mens Double
Trap.
The US Army Marksmanship
Unit Soldier and US National Team
member surged to second place after
shooting a perfect 30-out-of-30 in
the 5th round, sealing his spot in the
finals.
Both Richmond and Italian
Antonino Barill shot perfectly to
square off in the gold-medal round.
A miss on the 6th set of targets put
Barilla behind Richmond by one, but
he did not miss another shot, keeping
the pressure on throughout the final.
Richmond kept his perfect run going
ending with another 30-out-of-30,
earning him the World Championship.
The wind at the CEAR de Tiro
Olimpico Rey Juan Carlos Range
often picks up in the afternoon, and
presented a distraction for competi-
tors in the finals. RECOIL LASER TRAINER
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Richmond shot perfectly in the semi-final and Realistic recoil and audible sound!
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Richmond said the wind made his mail@coolfiretrainer.com
eyes water and pushed the gun barrel
around. I had a lot of distractions, Tel: 918-341-4800
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consisting of Richmond, Eller and racy International 5 and 10

Staff Sgt. Jeff Holguin, took the
silver with 422 hits. The Italian team
took the gold, tying the team world
record with 424.
The US National Team earned a
spot in the Double Trap finals in the
last 12 International Shooting Sport
Federation World Championships.
Since 2007, either Eller, Holguin or
Richmond have earned an individual
medal.Sgt. 1st Class Raymond J.
Pipver, USAMU Public Affairs
round magazines in your bolt
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 65
 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
R ecord 2013 firearms and ammuni-
tion sales provided a healthy infu-
sion of funds for conservation projects
across the country through appor-
tionment of a record $760.9 million
from the Pittman-Robertson Wild-
life Restoration Program. Combined
with excise taxes on boats and fishing
equipment, the US Fish and Wildlife
Service (USFWS) distributed nearly
$1.1 billion this year. The Outdoor
Hub website reminded readers of this
valuable contribution from Americas
sportsmen and sportswomen and took
on the issue of what 2014 may mean
for the industry and excise tax collec-
tions, quoting NSSF President Steve
Sanetti: To me, firearm sales data
through the first 7 months is saying
our industry is experiencing a new
normal. Like a rocket ship, weve
returned to Earth, but we havent gone
back in time. With 2014 on track to
be one of the highest sales years in a
decade, I call that a sign of a healthy
industry serving a passionate, growing
customer base.Courtesy NSSF
NEW MARKSMANSHIP CLUB
www.woodmanspal.com
800-708-5191 W ith students returning to classes
this week, the Cal Poly Marks-
manship Club at the California Poly-
Use coupon Code G1214 to receive 20% off your purchase
technic State University, San Luis
Obispo, is kicking off the 2014-15
school year with a $10,000 grant
awarded through NSSFs Collegiate
Shooting Sports Initiative.
Officially formed in April of 2014,
the Cal Poly Marksmanship Club was
established to provide students and
staff with a safe, convenient venue
to participate in the shooting sports.
Club meetings are held on campus
every other week and feature discus-
sions on firearms related topics as well
as presentations by guest speakers. In
its first full month of operation the Cal
Poly Marksmanship Club quickly grew
to 50 members. This year club officials
are hoping, thanks to the financial
support provided by the firearms indus-
try, to expand participation to over 150
members and field teams for intercolle-
giate competition in a variety of shoot-
ing disciplines. Shooting events for the
Cal Poly Marksmanship Club will take
_ Issue Previews place on the ranges of the nearby San
_ Latest News in Firearms Luis Obispo Sportsman Association.
_ Online Exclusives Cal Poly is best known for its Engi-
_ Special Offers neering, Architectural and Agricultural
programs, and is ranked among the
_ New Products and More! best engineering schools in the Western
United States according to US News &
World Reports ranking of Americas
Best Colleges. Its marksmanship club
formed in April and quickly grew to 50
members.Courtesy NSSF
facebook.com/gunsmagazine
66 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
FIREARMS INDUSTRY JOBS
V isit nssf.org/jobs for current
employment opportunities in the
shooting, hunting and outdoor indus-
try. Employers: Log in to post a job
opening.Courtesy NSSF
RIVERINE TACTICS ON
CAMEROON WATERWAYS
C ountries in Africa with access to
coastal and inland waterways like
Cameroon have placed great empha-
sis on riverine operations and patrol-
ling to help ensure the safety and
security of their border.
Marines, Sailors and Coast
Guardsmen from Security Coopera-
tion Team 5 Bravo, Special Purpose
Marine Air Ground Task Force-
Crisis Response-Africa, completed a
theater security cooperation exercise
with members of the Cameroonian
Naval Commando Company during
the month of September.
The skills and tactics shared during
the engagement can help develop
interoperability between different
services. The purpose of the engage-
ment was to increase overall profi-
ciency in riverine operations, patrol-
ling and infantry tactics, as well as
noncommissioned officer leadership.
A service member with the Cameroonian Naval
Commando Company jumps into the water to
establish beach security for follow-on opera-
tions. The COPALCO worked with Marines,
Sailors and Coast Guardsmen part of Special
Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis
Response-Africa, on marksmanship, boat oper-
ations, patrolling and noncommissioned officer
leadership. Photo: Courtesy Photo
We showed the [COPALCO]
coxswains how to do tighter turns
and travel in various formations, such
as the column and wedge, which can
be used to maximize firepower and
safety of boats and personnel, said
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class
Yosida Phaypanya.
Maneuvering in the river, while
simultaneously fighting against
currents and other natural obsta-
cles, is a key component of maritime
interdiction operations. It creates
the ability for the COPALCO to 100

react in an instant, which can assist

with combating drug smuggling and 95
pursuing individuals entering the
country illegally. 75
The team started with marks-
manship training, ensuring all safety
precautions were taken, and built
upon the fundamentals leading up to 25
a live-fire range and timed shooting
competition between the NCOs of the 5
COPALCO. This gave the Marines
of SP-MAGTF Africa an opportu- 0
nity to see the unique capabilities the
COPALCO NCOs bring to the fight.
Cpls. Micah Gray and Isaac Althoff
(two coaches with SCT-5B) even gave
the commands Shoot. Move. Fire.
in French.

First Lieutenant Christopher Kohn, the offi-

cer-in-charge of Security Cooperation Team
5B, Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task
Force-Crisis Response-Africa, talks to the
entire Cameroonian Naval Commando Com-
pany (COPALCO) unit and the SCT-5B team in
Cameroon, Sept. 28, 2014. Kohn thanked the

PistoLaser
COPALCO and SCT-5B team members for their
hard work and dedication to the training. Photo:
Courtesy Photo

Riverine training concluded with Ammo Is Expensive Practice Accurate Shooting

a final exercise, combining inser- with the Pistolero and Use No Ammo
tion and extraction of troops, river
formations and patrolling on shore. Bad Guys and Game Dont Stand Still
The final exercise was followed by the Practice at home with your own pistol or revolver and shoot at a moving laser
presentation of a ceremonial oar to projected target and you will be a better & more accurate shot in no time!
the COPALCO, which represented the Great for practicing target, instinct and tactical shooting.
Marines, Sailors and Coast Guards- PISTOLERO all caliber kit - $250.
men of SCT-5B and the service cama- Moving Target Kit includes PISTOLERO - $595.
raderie developed during training. In use by military and police worldwide.
By presenting the oar it demon-
strated the partnership we gained at
Robert Louis Company, Inc. Phone: 800-979-9156
Also Laser Shooting for the Shotgunner
the completion of the exercise, said
1st Lt. Christopher Kohn, a Cler- www.robertlouisco.com Made in the USA www.pistolaser.com
mont, Fl., native and officer-in-charge
of Security Cooperation Team 5B.
It definitely was an experience, not
only were we able to share some of
our knowledge, but I think more than
anything my team was able to take
away an experience they wouldnt find
anywhere else.
Special Purpose Marine Air
Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-
Africa conducts theater security
cooperation and military-to-mili-
tary engagements while provid-
ing US Africa Command a rapid-
response capability in North and West
Africa.Cpl. Shawn Valosin, Marine
Corps Forces Africa

WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 67
 QUARTERMASTER

THE DIY RUST BLUE

FEATURING GUNS ALL-STARS!

JEFF JOHN

I
ve reached a conclusion about rust bluing. Its mostly
superstition, with a few facts tossed in as a distraction.
Practically everything Ive read on it made it sound like
a complicated, difficult and mysterious process. However,
here are some hard facts and techniques on the rust
bluing method:
water. Brownells has both at a reason-
First, you have to know the chem- Second, you have to know the type able price. The set up I use runs off a
icals used for the processes, and the of steel youre working with. Prac- standard BBQ propane tank. Brownells
humidity and the quality of water tically all carbon steel will rust, but sells rust blue solutions, too, or you can
youll be working with. Such facts stainless steel wont. Softer steel mix your own. I once mixed my own,
are fairly well settled, since theyve often used for buttplates and trigger- but dont anymore. Ive been using
been in use for a few hundred years. guardscan finish before the barrel Pilkingtons American Rust Blue solu-
Today, instead of rainwater, the use or barreled action. Continuing the tion for more than 20 years now with
of distilled water ensures the desired acid treatment may begin to etch those good results. It works so well I havent
consistent, repeatable results with no parts before the others are finished. switched (yes, Im superstitious).
surprises. Judging weather and appli- Degreasing thoroughly is paramount. Pilkingtons solution will give you
cation technique is mostly supersti- Get all the oil off the steel. good results on the first try if you
tion, although a home weather station The only major purchase involved follow the instructions carefully. His
takes some of the mystery out of is a water tank big enough to hold a instruction booklet is clearly written
humidity. barreled action and a method to boil the and the first one I read that gave me

68 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015


the confidence to think I could rust
blue successfully.
After you have a couple of jobs
under your belt, youll begin to see
ways to do the task your waywhich
is where you begin to form your own
superstitions!
I get pretty good results using
nothing more complicated than files,
stones and aluminum oxide wet/dry
sandpaper for polishing and steel
wool for carding off the rust, with
a minor assist from a soft wire hand
brush. Most directions say to polish
to 320 grit, which is fine as long as
Jeffs first effort at rust bluing a barrel was on this Ballard No. 5
Pacific (above). It turned out poorly (he didnt boil it long enough),
and he had to repolish and do it all over again to 400 grit, which
gives it a matte finish. The Remington-Gove underlever (below) was
polished to a higher 600-grit for a much more pleasing finish.
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
you get the scratches out, or blended
in the right direction. If you dont,
the scratches will enlarge as the acid
etches them. These days I polish to
600 grit. At the higher polish, I sacri-
fice some depth of color for the sheen
the high polish gives.
Since the acid etches the metal, it
would seem counterintuitive to give
the parts a high polish, but I dont
leave the barrel under the acid as
long before boiling and carding
how long the metal stays under the
acid affects the final look. Since the
humidity is low where I live, I let the
This Krag sporter was polished to 320-grit and
only three long passes of the solution were
used to give it a soft matte gray finish. The safe-
ty and extractor were heat blued on the stove
using a cast iron pan. (Heat bluing in this fash-
ion is time consuming, but inexpensive.)
steel rust for four hours in the first
four passes, and I can do two passes
a day. In areas with higher humid-
ity, Id follow Pilkingtons instruc-
tions of three-hour passes. Then I
go to six hours of rusting until I get
the color I desire (it only takes one
or two more passes). It takes about
five minutes to apply the acid to the
barrel, maybe 15 minutes if a lot
of other smaller parts are blued, so
I can get a lot of other work done
while the parts rust.
The blue is accomplished by apply-
ing the acid-based formula (typically
a solution of nitric acid, hydrochlo-
ric acid with iron dissolved in it and
diluted with water), allowing red rust
to form on the steel, then submerg-
ing it in boiling distilled water for 10
minutes to convert the red oxide to
black oxide and carding the surface
velvet off.
Most instructions call for the use
of power equipment to card the rust.
I dont use it. Since Im doing this for
myselfnot as a businessworking
around my lack of power equipment
isnt too arduous, but it does take a
little more time. I use 0000 steel wool
(factory coated with an oil preserva-
tive) degreased in hot, soapy water
and dried with paper towels. Birch-
wood Casey Gun Scrubber works
well to degrease the steel wool, too.
I spray it over paper towels so the oil
is soaked up.
Most instructions insist you wear
gloves to keep from contaminating the
barrel. If any oil gets on the steel during
the application of acid, it will not rust in
that spot. I wear nitrile gloves to apply
the acid, but not to card. After carding,
I clean the bore and barrel with mineral
spirits (I use mineral spirits and Gun
Scrubber to degrease the parts initially
as well). This removes any fingerprints
or oil left by the steel wool if it wasnt
completely degreased. Running a patch
69
wet with mineral spirits down the bore
keeps the inside of the barrel from rust-
ing. This is important because the bore
isnt going to have any other protection
for several days.
I keep plenty of wooden dowels
which loosely fit the bore (too close a
fit and the water will swell them tightly
in the barrel) and place a dry one in
the barrel while the acid works. I use a
broomhandle with soft iron wire hang-
ers on it to suspend the barrel on the
dowels in the water. As I lift it out of
the water, I use a hair dryer to blow the
water off the barrel and parts, especially
around dovetails. Any water allowed to
puddle will create a spot as it evapo-
rates, and the barrel will be hot enough
to evaporate the water very quickly. In
fact, the water will evaporate so fast it
must be blown off as the barrel as it is
(literally) rising from the water. I lift it
on an angle so I can blow out one dove-
tail at a time. Even this must be done
quickly.
Brownells offers inexpensive soft
iron wire. It is very useful for suspend-
ing small parts or run through the
barrel of smallbore rifles, since dowels
smaller than .38 caliber often arent
strong enough to support the barrel. I
also use a retired stainless steel cleaning
rod through the barrel. Just make sure
it has no oil on it either! Any oil in the
water can spot the blue upon removal.
Oil floats, so get it off the surface with a
paper towel if you see any.
The fixtures I use to suspend the
parts while the rusting occurs are just
Brownells tank, stand and LP gas burner is pretty
much a turnkey operation for rust bluing. Add a pro-
pane tank and a hose and youre up and running.
70
John King and Jeff collaborated on this Wes-
son No. 1 in .45-90 Sharps on a Steve Earle
action with a 34-inch Krieger barrel. It is Jeffs
first bluing effort here in Northern Nevada.
Mike Gouse engraved the action and barrel.
knocked together from scrap wood.
The fixtures differ slightly depending
on the parts to be suspended, and how
I want them suspended while applying
the rust. Being able to turn them with-
out touching them is a big help.
When I lived in Southern Califor-
nia, I found rust bluing wasnt hard
in the summertime, but I had a brand
new learning curve here in Northern
Nevada where the air is much drier.
Humidity is necessary for the acid to
create rust. I managed to accomplish
the Wesson No. 1 barrel without the
use of a sweat box to maintain
consistent humidity, but getting one
is on my to-do list.
Try not to touch the metal if at all
possible during the process, as the blue
is tender and will show handling marks.
When Im satisfied with things, I allow
the barrel to sit overnight with nothing
on it. The next day, I coat everything
generously with Rig and leave it on
until assembly. Dont use a rust remov-
ing oil! It will try and remove the blue
and ruin all your hard work.
In all, the one-time cost for the tank,
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
stand and LP burner are around $500
or so. Rust bluing handguns is even
cheaper yet, since you only need a pot
big enough to submerge the handgun
completely in boiling water on a stove
(with the little ladys permission, of
course). The store-bought chemicals
are relatively long lived, and youll use
small amounts per job.
The beautiful silky blue is its own
reward, and a gift you give yourself.
If you make a mistake, be prepared
to repolish and try again (yup, done
thattwice, so far). My first success-
ful job was on a 1917 Enfield trigger-
guard done in an old turkey roaster
some 30 years ago. My second was
a 1911. I did both with homemade
solutions. I only do a one or two
pieces a year, but the results have
been well worth it. Theyve allowed
me to aspire to more highly finished
arms than I can otherwise afford.
I purposely left out in progress
photos. Frankly, the parts just look
like blobs of, well, rusting metal. My
goal is to inspire you to try by show-
ing the finished product. I was too
intimidated to try for a long time,
because a lot of the stories I read on
rust bluing made it seem more like
voodoo than work.
What sealed the do it yourself
deal for me was the high cost and
long wait times involved in having
rust bluing done at a shop. I know
many GUNS readers have the atten-
tion to detail to give it a try and do
as well.
Brownells
200 South Front Street
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000
www.gunsmagazine.com/index
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 ALPHA SDP
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76 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

 INSTANT
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WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 77
 MORE THIRD- commercially-labeled tins of various

WORLD THINGIES
sizes from soup-can size to a Number
10 can down low, covered with soft
ripe fruits and vegetables. The TP was
on top.
The cart had a long U-shaped
TELL-TALES, TAKE-AWAYS push-handle, with drooping fabric
AND COVERT CLUES. netting suspended between the bars.
The netting held several woven
baskets half-full of straw. I thought
JOHN CONNOR I knew what they were, but asked the

H
driver, Roberto. He confirmed, egg
arken back to the heady days of yesteryear, folks! Well, baskets, and opined she had a lot of
not very far. Just back to the September 2014 issue and laying hens, and took loads of eggs to
Frangipani Paradise, Part II. That column and the two market twice or three times per week.
preceding it were about Third World Things; what we called Her eggs were her currency. She would
come to market with her eggs secured
3WTs. I suggest you refresh your memories on em, to make in the box and return with goods in the
this gibberish less gibbery. Youve asked a lot of questions, box and empty baskets in the netting.
mostly about stuff I didnt have space to go into in those Think about it. An elderly peas-
columns. So, heres a buncha answers. ant woman is on the road alone, smil-
ing, pushing a well-maintained cart
First, some clarifica- containing fresh produce, finished
tion on Second versus One light, one goods and empty baskets sufficient
Third World countries, outlet can funda- to hold several dozen eggs. Judging
mentally change
and my past role when a Third World vil-
from the amount of perishable goods,
traveling in them: Our old lageif it works. which could, unrefrigerated, go over
joke was Whats the differ- in a few days, she was likely supply-
ence between the Second ing a large extended family. She was
and Third worlds? Answer: unafraid and obviously contented.
Two clicks. Meaning, go She was returning from the local
two kilometers from the marketplace/bazaar before noon; only
major cities and towns of an hour after schooltime, when many
developing countries buyers in that area would be going to
the so-called Second World market.
nationsand often, youre When peasants are only buying
in the undeveloped, some- more likely bartering forperishable
times starkly undeveloped consumables, thats not such a good
Third World. Too often, sign. Finished goods and canned
diplomats and envoys from goods are healthy signs, even in very
First World nations never small quantities. Her eggs meant a
cross those two-click zones and as a gray cubicles, eagerly digesting all of successful, well-tended henhouse,
result, get a very badly skewed view our comments on the tone, tempera- and her timing meant she had reliable
of the country as a whole. Unfortu- ture and facts-in-the-field in far-flung regular customers, probably re-sell-
nately, geopolitically important and places. Sometimes, just sometimes, the ers, for them. She had likely sold
expensive policy-shaping decisions are silk-skivvied politicos and dudes with out her eggs in minutes, selected her
frequently based on those distorted gold macaroni on their cap-bills actu- groceries, had a cuppa tea and a chat
observations. ally paid attention to those reports. with old friends, and then hit the road
Its not really those functionaries Sometimes. home with no fear of bandits or thugs.
faults. Their visits and movements are She even had a grin and a wave for a
very closely stage-managed by their CHICKENS, government car. That speaks volumes
hosts. They see only what they are EGGS & SECURITY about local conditions. I had recently
shown, and what theyre shown is what Several asked What was the real seen horror stories. The change was
supports the agenda of whomever is in significance of the toilet paper in the nice.
power. Secondaryunimportant old ladys cart? It wasnt TP to me;
personnel performing ancillary duties it was finished goods. Actually, that CARS, ROADS,
like training and liaising with lower elderly campesina and her pushcart SEEDS AND PIGGIES
echelons of the host nations military provided a wealth of information on About that nice old black govern-
and police forces are less closely moni- local conditions. She was dressed no ment Cadillac and peoples response
toredor not at all. Thats where guys better nor worse than other locals to it: You can guess what it means
like me came in. on the road. Her cart was well- when people scowl, turn away or
Fortunately, back stateside there maintained. The box had wood slat scurry when they see a government
were an army of intense, focused sides and heavy wire front and rear vehicle. In this case they smiled and
analyst-types laboring in anonymous sections. I could see a half-dozen waved. I was even more impressed

78 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015


when I learned that Caddy had never
driven that road before. When new,
it was reserved for top officials in the
capital. As it aged, it became avail-
able to lesser dignitaries, and finally, it
became the courier car to the hinter-
lands. This was its maiden voyage to
the sticks, replacing an older, army-
brown Chevrolet the people were used
to seeing. Whats your take-away from
that?
The roads themselves hold tell-
tales. Too often, First World observers
only see the dirt and dust. Pavement
isnt that important. I was looking
at drainage and underlayment where
the road ran over ditches and small
ravines. What is its year-round wet-
weather condition and capacity?
I had Roberto stop several times.
I saw lots of careful rockwork, both
recent and old with newer repairs; old
supports with newer culverts; runoff
management and steep places where
heavy wood and iron beams had been
inset herringbone-style to provide
drainage, corrugation and improved
traction during heavy rains. I learned
the government had supplied most
materials and some supervision for
local volunteers completing the work
and then maintaining it.
Another tell-tale: Few of these
improvements would accommodate
armored and oversized, overweight
vehicles. The government invested in
common-folk travel and goods-to-
market, not transporting the jugger-
nauts of oppression internally. This is
not what you find in many Second and
Third World places, where they either
provide for tanks, or virtually aban-
don rural areas to their own fates.
Other clues in bazaars and market-
places: Aside from consumables heavy
on protein, sugars and carbs, you
look for future-leading goods: an
active market in seeds, piglets, lambs
and chicks. A lean-to displaying
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City SliCker
COiN PUrSe
When you cant take a gun
or knife, the City Slicker
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A porky
sign of
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of sheet metals, heavy shears and
hand drills. When you see two under-
35 guys in a crossroads village bazaar
enthusiastically negotiating a deal for a
50-piece tap-and-die set while the shop-
keeper happily serves them coffeeas
I saw that daythats an excellent sign
of health in the boondocks! Even
better, folks picking through bins of
small electrical parts!
THE FUNDAMENTALS
Poorer governments may not be
able to project much in the way of
health care and education to their
hinterlands, but an important litmus Great Protection In
test of how much a government cares Crowded Areas & While
about their peopleand what they Vacationing Abroad
can affordrevolves around how far
from the cities do they extend pota- CAN BE WoRN
ble water wells and electricity? With- Tucked in In jacket
out clean communal water sources, waistband In handbag
disease flourishes. In a small village, In pocket
one public light and a single electri-
cal source can change the nature and Carry all of your coins
quality of life fundamentally. & other small heavy items
If your brief is snooping, you
look for emand then, tricky some- with comfort & security
timesmake sure they work! One
time a certain government made a
big deal out of their rural electrifica-
tion project; putting tall pole lights
with electrical outlets in their bases in
remote villages. It was a Look at us,
aint we kind to the peasants? thing. We didnt invent concealment,
A certain Western government paid we just perfected it!
for all the hardware. Photostaken in
daylightwere widely circulated and
the bandits-in-suits took bows on the
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lem? No juice. Not a single live wire
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Robert Louis Company . 67
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80 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015
 continued from page 82
of this function as well as Ridley. One
year later the first Handgun Hunt for
the Sportsman Against Hunger was
held with Temple. I was fortunate to be
among those first hunters.
THE BIG YO
The following year the program had
grown to such an extent the only logi-
cal place to hold such a hunt was on
the Y.O. Ranch, which was founded by
Charles Schreiner in 1880. Schreiner
was originally from Alsace-Lorraine,
which is also where some of my people
came from, and in 1858 joined the Texas
Rangers. It was while he was a Ranger
he discovered the Texas Hill Country.
The ranch originally was a working
cattle ranch and had over 500,000 acres.
By 1990 the main crop was no longer
cattle but rather whitetails and exotic
game from all over the world. I was also
on the first handgun hunt on the YO
Ranch. By then the ranch was run by
Charles Schreiner III, Charlie Three
with his son Louis running the hunting
operation. Louie was one of the most
pleasant folks its ever been my pleasure
to know and we always had a great time
hunting on the Y.O.
I loved the Texas Hill Country from
the very first and never missed one
of the Handgun Hunts. I also made
several other trips to Texas in between
hunts. It was on one of these trips I met
Frank Pulkrabek, another most pleas-
ant gentleman, who not only guided me
on other ranches but also put together
my trip to Africa and accompanied me.
Unfortunately, Frank was killed by a
drunk driver while taking a group of
hunters to the San Antonio Airport.
My guide on the Y.O. was always
Don McMinn who lived on the ranch
with his wife Sharie. Along with Terry
Thompson from SCI, the three of us
hunted together every year and the
McMinns also opened their home to
us so we could stay with them on each
trip. We had some absolutely wonder-
ful times together, and my SSK Custom
Thompson/Center Contender cham-
bered in 6.5 JDJ became legendary. Any
time I felt inclined to turn down a shot
Don would say: Ive seen you shoot;
you can do it. Fortunately, neither
I, nor the 6.5 ever let him down. One
time I was trusted to take one ragged
Corsican ram valued at about $300 out
of a herd of Red sheep, which carried
price tags of around $5,000 each. The
Contender did its job perfectly.
Not only was the Y.O. Handgun
Hunt thoroughly enjoyable and resulted
in many trophies for all of the hunt-
ers, it also had a more serious aspect
as the original idea from Thompson
Temple of Sportsman Against Hunger
was carried on and every year all of
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM
the meat, thousands upon thousands
of pounds, was donated to the Salva-
tion Army to feed the less fortunate.
When I shot my big bison bull I got the
hide and head while the less fortunate
received the meat.
EXOTICS
Ive taken a long list of exotic
trophies on these Y.O. Handgun Hunts,
as have many others as well. As I sit
here and compose this article I can
look around my room and see aoudad,
ibex, Merino, Corsican, Black Hawai-
ian, white Texas dall and mouflon
sheep; sika deer plus chocolate, spot-
ted and white fallow deer; black, brown
and white Catalina goats; my favorite
exoticthe black buck antelope origi-
nally from India, and many domestic
favorites from Texas, namely whitetail
deer. Had it not been for that original
Handgun Hunters Advisory Commit-
tee this wonderful world may never
have been opened up to me.
The original concept was to invite
celebrities, and we did have a few. My
favorite was Major General Joe Engle
who was part of our space program.
The first time I met him on a hunt he
asked my advice about a handgun as
he was just really getting started. I
thought he would never remember
me but 6 months later when I ran into
him at an NRA Show he not only
remembered me, but also had taken
my advice. He was certainly another
one of those wonderful people met
in the hunting fields and I was really
impressed by something he did. While
we were hunting together, along with
Terry Thompson and Don McMinn,
Joe said he needed to get to a tele-
phone before the day was over. This
was long before cell phones had
arrived. So when we got back to the
main camp Joe made his important
Taffin took this bull bison on the Y.O. (above)
with a Freedom Arms 4-3/4-inch revolver cham-
bered in .475 Linebaugh. JD Jones and the late
Ken French of Thompson/Center (below). One
of JDs creationsthe 6.5 JDJ in a T/C became
one of Johns favorite hunting handguns.
phone call. It was to his daughter
to wish her a happy birthday. In my
mind that is a very special man.
I said I had never missed one of
the Handgun Hunts but this changed
in our new century. In 2001, several
things happened. Of course, 9-11
changed everythingespecially
the airlines. It was not long before I
refused to fly, which put a real crimp
in traveling as far as Texas. That same
year Charlie Three and Louie both
died. All of this combined to change
the Y.O. for me forever. I still have
memories, wonderful memories of all
the hunts with so many good people,
as well as a house full of game heads.
Everything in this life touched by the
hand of man changes and now, my
last Y.O. Handgun Hunt has been
held and there will be no more. Only
the memories linger.
Y.O. Ranch
1736 Y.O. Ranch Road
Mountain Home, TX 78058
(800) 967-2624
www.yoranch.com
81
 MEMORABLE likely the reason goes much deeper.
There is something in our soul, some-

HANDGUN HUNTS
thing in our spirit that makes us want
to hunt with a sixgun, semi-automatic
pistol, or single-shot pistol. When
looked at matter-of-factly this does
THE Y.O. RANCH HOLDS not make much sense if the only goal
in hunting is totally wrapped up in the
A SPECIAL PLACE IN JOHNS HEART. animal taken. I cant explain my obses-
sion with handguns, however, I am sure

W
it is something inside of me from birth.
e had spent a long time working our way to the top If you are reading this now you proba-
and as I looked across the canyon there was the bly have the same feeling. We dont need
largest mule deer buck I had ever seen before or to explain it. We only need to enjoy it.
since. I could plainly see his antlers with the naked eye and HUNTERS PARADISE
he had no inkling, at least from the way he acted, we were There are two places, which are
even there. It was a long shot but certainly possible with absolute paradise for the handgun
my Enfield .30-06 Sporter. We were beside a pile of downed hunter. One is Africa and my trip to
timber, which would make an excellent rest. All I would Africa was one of the greatest pleasures
have to do is remove my down vest, fold it into a pad, place I have ever had except for the plane
my 06 on the log, get a solid rest and squeeze off a shot as ride. And that plane ride17 hours in
a cattle carkept me from ever return-
I lined up the crosshairs on the buck. Easy. But there was ing. The other paradise is found right
one problem. The .30-06 was back home. here in the United States and it is Texas.
Texas is the most heavily hunted state
The hike to the top was made much in the country and yet it has, and will
easier by the fact both arms were free continue to have, the greatest popula-
and I wasnt burdened down with that tion of game simply because of correct
10-pound rifle. Instead I was packing management added to dozens of
a Ruger .44 Magnum Flat-Top Black- species of game from around the world,
hawk with a 10-inch barrel and carried exotics, which have been imported and
in a Goerg shoulder holster. Even if I got allowed to thrive for nearly a century.
down on the log, even if I got a steady Texas is the closest you can be to Africa
rest, even if the buck stood absolutely without leaving the United States.
still, the shot was still totally out of the I may have never discovered Texas
question. All I could do was sit there had it not been for the North American
and enjoy the sight of such a magnifi- Handgun Hunters Chapter of Safari
cent Idaho mule deer. I couldve been Club International. In 1989 I was
upset with myself for not having the invited to be a member of the Hand-
rifle along. I wasnt. I couldve second- gun Hunters Advisory Committee of
guessed bringing the iron-sighted .44 SCI with Herb Bobchin as chairman.
Magnum. I didnt. This was the defin- Retired Major General Joe Engle, test pilot for By 1995 more than 60 paid found-
ing moment for me to decide whether I the North American X-15 program, aeronautical ing chapter members proposed the
engineer and a former NASA astronaut, pre-
would be a handgun hunter or not. No sented Herb Bobchin, chairman of the Handgun
creation of the North American Hand-
regrets, from that moment on I would Hunters Advisory Committee of SCI with this gun Hunters Chapter of SCI. Bobchin
be a confirmed handgun hunter. photo montage after a hunt on the Y.O. served as president of the new chapter
How do you explain such a choice? until 2001 when Taz Ridley took over.
The answer is simply it cant be reasons given by those who hunt with In 1988 Texan Thompson Temple put
explained. This is one of those situa- the handgun is a simply they did not on the very first Sportsman Against
tions if understood, no explanation is want to carry a heavy rifle all day, or Hunger Hunt and Bobchin was part
necessary; if not understood, no expla- perhaps, they will say rifle hunting had
nation is possible. One of the major become too easy. Maybe. But more continued on page 81

82 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2015

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