Hunting

(May 12, 2010) – Thompson/Center Arms Company, Inc., a Smith & Wesson company, announced that it will introduce a new Encore® handgun package as part of the Larry Weishuhn Signature Series at the 2010 National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting and Exhibits taking place May 14-16 in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the NRA convention, the widely recognized Thompson/Center professional hunter, credited writer and television personality will be on hand to promote the new pistol as well as talk one-on-one with attendees and fans.

Here's a recommended gun from sister site Gun Tests magazine--Springfield's M1 Garand 7.62 x 51 mm NATO. If you are looking for a new Garand with a new action, this is probably the one you want, and we believe it will serve you very well. Some of our testers were more than happy with this Garand.

Autoloading .22's are lots of fun and can be lots of gun. They tend to run you broke on ammunition because of the lure of easily and quickly firing off the entire magazine. In fact, this might be one reason to own a semiauto .22 that has a limited number of rounds in the magazine, say five to seven rounds. This limitation tends to force the shooter to make every shot count.

We wrung out a heavy-barrel semiautomatic .22 LR rifle to show you what it has to offer. For this evaluation, we tried the Marlin 7000.

A recent tabulation of 467 respondents to a GunReports.com survey question, “Which is the better platform: The AR or the AK?” showed a strong preference for the designed-in-America ArmaLite Rifle model. Please see the Special Report for full comments.

A recent tabulation of 467 respondents to a GunReports.com survey question, “Which is the better platform: The AR or the AK?” showed a strong preference for the designed-in-America ArmaLite Rifle model. However, the intensity of comments slightly favored the AK.

GunReports.com is now on Facebook. Keep abreast of what's going on minute-by-minute on breaking gun news, harmful gun legislation, firearms victories by becoming a Fan. Look for 'Gun Reports' on Facebook. Also, for inside peeks into Gun Tests' ongoing criticism of firearms, search Facebook for 'Gun Tests'

Springfield's choice of walnut for the stock gave the Tactical Rifle a slightly less businesslike look than the Fulton. We missed the traction of the Fulton on the grip areas, and didn't much like the fat stock, but this rifle performed quite well. The Harris bipod requires attention to keep it tight to the rifle, we found, on this and the Fulton rifles. That big scope had a long hood extension, and an illuminated reticle.

(GunReports.com)--South Dakota has become the fifth state to decide that guns made, sold and used within its borders no longer are subject to rules enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

(GunReports.com)--According to a Tulsa World story, Oklahoma could be headed for a showdown with the federal government over firearms regulation and the scope of interstate commerce.

The Ruger GP100s grips were black rubber without grooves, but the sides had decorative inserts of brown wood-like material (which some actually found attractive) that give the gun a distinctive look. The grips felt just great in both aimed single-action fire and in rapid-fire double action. Recoil was spread over a large area of the hand and that made for good shooting comfort, even with the heaviest loads.

The controls all functioned well and positively, and we found this to be a pleasant gun to handle and shoot. The trigger was well curved and smooth, and the double-action cycling was just slightly heavier than that of the Smith & Wesson. Trigger movement was even and smooth enough to permit good accuracy when shooting it slowly in the double-action mode.

Back in November 1999 we tested three precision .308 rifles by Robar, Autauga, and Dakota. The cheapest of these, by Autauga, cost $3,200, and we thought it was a “Best Buy” at the time. The Dakota Longbow was over $4,000, and the fine Robar was over $5,000. The accuracy of all of those rifles was simply astounding. Half-inch groups were the norm, with match-grade ammunition. We got the distinct impression it was necessary to spend inordinate amounts of money to guarantee such precision, with all the bells and whistles of that group and class of rifle. We may have been wrong.We recently had the loan of a similar rifle, made in the U.S. under FN (Belgium) supervision, and sold only by Fulton Armory, in Maryland. It didn’t quite have all the bells and whistles of the other three precision rifles we tested, but had the more important ones. Called the FN Special Police Rifle, it was a .308 Winchester caliber, with heavy barrel and synthetic stock. Best of all, its listed retail cost from Fulton Armory is $999.95, which we round off to $1,000.

Every December Gun Tests Magazine picks the best from a full year’s worth of tests and distills summary recommendations for readers, who often use them as year-end shopping guides. These “best of” choices are a mixture of the Gun Tests original evaluation and other information the staff compiles during the year.Additionally, the magazine selects the best type of firearm--pistol, revolver, shotgun, and rifle--for its “Best in Class” award.The “Best in Class” Revolver for 2009 was the Taurus Judge No. 4510TKR-3BUL 3-Inch 45 LC/410-Bore, $620. It was originally reviewed in the August 2009 issue.