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The game of competitive shooting changed at the 2013 Rocky Mountain Rifle Championships in Colorado Springs.

In this test we looked at four different polymer handguns that offer higher round capacity but take up less space than full-size models. Our first pistol, the $503 Taurus PT24/7 Pro 45-BP-12 could be considered a true compact, especially when compared to Taurus's new OSS pistol. The Springfield Armory XD45 4-inch Compact XD9645HCSP06, $589; and the Springfield Armory XD45 5-inch Compact Tactical XD9655HCSP06, $619, have undergone the Colt Officers treatment, receiving a shortened grip frame attached to a full-length slide. The $637 Glock SF21 is a remodeling of the Glock 21, but the SF21 does not seem to be much smaller. We wanted to find out if any of its subtle streamlining added up to a better pistol than the original.

Once President Obama announced the return of 34,000 servicemen and women from Afghanistan within a year, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) said that it will continue providing free firearm safety materials, including gun locking devices, to America's returning armed services members. NSSF is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry.

Birchwood Casey's Shoot-N-C Targets are known for leaving a bright ring around bullet holes for instant feedback. For 2013, Birchwood Casey has introduced Shoot-N-C Pink Reactive Targets.

The MidwayUSA Foundation, Inc. and Scholastic Shooting Trust, a public charity established by MidwayUSA founders Larry and Brenda Potterfield, will continue to match both proceeds from its fundraising promotions as well as private donations to endowment accounts.

The new FederalPremium.com makes choosing the right ammunition quick and easy. Hunters and shooters can easily navigate the new website to find photography, educational graphics, and one-of-a-kind tools.

Ron Coburn's recent retirement after 25 years as chairman and CEO of Savage Sports Corporation has led to the appointment of another Ron to succeed him. On Feb. 6, Savage Sports Corporation named Ron Johnson as its new CEO.

A California National Guardsman needed an extra suitcase to haul away the hardware he collected at this year's U.S. Army Small Arms Championship held at Fort Benning, Ga., Feb. 9-10.

Harvey Berger, a Gun Tests reader who lists his home state as the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, praised the just-published comparison of 40 S&W ammo in the February 2013 issue. But there’s a “but.” He wrote:

Savage Arms Company introduced the now-famous Model 1899 lever-action rifle in—not surprisingly—1899. The new rifle was based on the invention of Arthur W. Savage of Utica, New York. Mr. Savage had previously designed lever-action rifles, one for military trials in 1892 and another, a commercial version in 1895, which was produced for Savage by the Marlin Firearms Company in New Haven, Connecticut. Some 6,000 of the 1895 model were manufactured between 1895 and 1899. Savage Arms Company was formed in 1897, and began producing the rifle themselves in 1899. The Model 1899 is an outstanding and unique design in many ways. It offered an internal rotary magazine that held five shots, along with a very strong and simple lever-action operation. The Model 1899 also incorporated an unusual and thoughtful cartridge-counter feature; the shooter could see the number of cartridges remaining in the magazine by viewing the cartridge counter through a small window on the left side of the receiver. In addition, the new rifle was equipped with a hammer-cocked indicator on the top of the receiver. Another innovative feature was the sliding safety that locked the trigger while at the same time locking the lever in the closed position.

As the owner of a firearm test range, I mount dozens of scopes each year. I get to see first hand how they perform, as well as the performance of scopes mounted by others. The two main complaints I hear about scopes usually center around those that fail to remain sighted in or group poorly on target. These complaints are usually very well founded. Most complaints about scope mounting are the direct result of poor scope-ring alignment and the accuracy-robbing stresses inherent between metal parts. These stresses pull and twist, causing the scope to move and to become misaligned. The scope never really settles down as bullet point-of-impact changes over time or even as a target group is being fired.

The ACULON A211 binocular officially launches Nikon’s all-new ACULON optics family to the world, with seven fixed-power and two zoom models.