Hunting

The bulk of our evaluations at Gun Tests consist of head-to-head match-ups of like weaponry. However, every once in a while we come across firearms that occupy such a small niche, that competing products are hard to find. The best that we can do is match them up by job function, and see which product we prefer.The job this month is long-gun self defense. The Kel-Tec SU-16 is, for all intents and purposes, a lightweight AR-15 that folds in half.

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(GunReports.com) -- Weatherby has brought back the Vanguard Deluxe rifle for 2011. Brad Ruddell, Weatherby's vice president of sales and marketing, said, 'Initially introduced as the VGX many years ago, this rifle is nearly identical in appearance to our classic Mark V Deluxe and has many of the same features, but costs much less. Like all our Vanguard rifles, its performance is backed by a written accuracy guarantee.'

(GunReports.com) -- Our Marlin came with mighty nicely figured walnut. The buttstock wood matched the wood of the forend, both having prominent contrasting grain and some fiddleback. The wood appeared to have an epoxy-base finish, it being quite hard and scratch-resistant. The checkering was excellent, with decorative touches. It wrapped the forend and was generous at the grip. The butt had a hard-rubber pad that curved to fit the shoulder, though it did little to cut recoil. There were sling studs, too.

(GunReports.com) — The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is bringing its annual convention, affectionately known as “Elk Camp,” back to the Reno/Sparks Convention Center, March 3-6, 2011.

(GunReports.com) -- Stoeger's new M3500 3.5-inch 12-gauge semi-automatic is a waterfowling/wild turkey/upland gamebird shotgun that handles a range of loads from 2.25-inch up to the potent 3.5-inch Magnum without adjustment. The Stoeger M3500 uses the Inertia Driven operating system that doesn't use propellant gas venting into the action.

(GunReports.com) –- Hunter Safety System has introduced a new line of safety vests designed just for the ever-increasing number of women hunters taking to treestands. The new Lady Pro Series safety harnesses offer all the features of the regular Pro Series HSS vest but with refinements specifically designed with the female physique.

(GunReports.com) -- Auction Arms, the official auction site of the NRA, and GunReports.Com have announced a letter of intent to establish the Auction Arms News Bureau, a weekly E-Letter that will deliver gun news, pricing trends and other information for the serious shooter.

(GunReports.com) -- Gun Tests Magazine, the 23-year-old consumer resource for the serious shooter, will partner with Auction Arms to collect and report up-to-the-minute, accurate firearms pricing.

(GunReports.com) -- The pump action is a very popular shotgun type, mainly for its ease of operation and its ruggedness. While a self-loader may be a bit faster in trained hands, the point is debatable. Expensive autoloaders are reliable, but in the end a dirty or well-used pump is always more reliable than a dirty autoloader. We recently tested an affordable pump—the H&R Pardner, a basic copy of the Remington 870 design beneath the humpback receiver. We bought the gun at Academy Sports, a giant sporting chain that offers rifles, pistols, and shotguns as well as other sporting goods. We were surprised to see the pump-action shotgun listed for less than $200 in an Academy Sports sales paper—it was listed at $180.

Our team gathered and shot the gun using 2.75-inch Winchester Super Target loads (1-ounce charge of No. 8 shot, 2.75-dram equivalent, 1180 fps muzzle velocity) and also a new steel trap load, the Winchester Xpert Game/Target load WE12GT7, a 2.75-inch 12 gauge with 11‚ÅÑ8 ounces of No. 7s, Max dram, developing 1280 fps, according to Winchester.

These relatively simple instructions from the American Gunsmithing Library will get you through the disassembly and troubleshooting of all the various Marlin lever-action 336 models, as well as the 30 and 36.

Whenever we hear the term “package deal” we can’t help feeling this will be synonymous with compromise. At only $449 for rifle and scope, we feared we were in for a disappointment. But the Savage 110 GXP3 was a lesson in how to and where to save money.The walnut stock was pleasingly sculpted and stained to a smooth low-gloss finish that highlighted its grain. Lacking a grip cap and featuring pressed, not cut, checkering, this was still a tasteful piece of woodwork.