Rifles

Gun Tests’ Houston- and Idaho-based test teams take detailed looks at traditional bolt-action hunting rifles by Weatherby, Howa, and Thompson/Center in the April 2013 issue of the magazine.

A video demonstration conducted under the supervision Sheriff Ken Campbell of Boone County, Indiana, shows that magazine limitations have little or no real effect on a shooter’s ability to deliver aimed fire, according to an article posted in The Shooter's Log.

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.

To see if today’s rifle shooters really are being treated to superior accuracy at a bargain price, Gun Tests evaluated two synthetic-stocked rifles from Ruger and Mossberg in 243 Winchester in the February 2013 issue. The test rifles were the $449 Ruger American and the $471 Mossberg 4X4. Both rifles are lightweight hunting models fitted with black synthetic stocks, matching blued barrels with recessed crowns, pre-mounted two-piece scope bases, sling attachments front and rear, rubber buttpads, and removable box magazines.

For a test of vintage bolt-action 22 rifles in the February 2013 issue, Gun Tests had the loan of two old-timers, a Remington Nylon 12 and a Winchester Model 69A. Are these old rifles worth looking into?

A good polishing job can save a gun from the junk heap, but a bad job can send it there. Here's how the professional does it.

Rock Island Armory debuted the TCM 22 centerfire rifle at SHOT Show 2013. The new rifle is chambered for the Armscor TCM .22 cartridge exclusive to Armscor.

For 2013, Browning is expanding its current line of X-Bolts to include the Hunter Full Line Dealer model.

For this test of vintage bolt-action 22 rifles, we had the loan of two old-timers, a Remington Nylon 12 and a Winchester Model 69A. We tested with three types of ammo, Wolf, CCI Velocitor, and Blazer, all in Long Rifle persuasion. Both rifles were supposed to handle Shorts and Longs too, so we also tried a few of them. Both rifles fed Long Rifles, Longs, Shorts and also CB caps perfectly. The Winchester's longer barrel made lots less noise with Shorts and especially the CB caps than the Remington. The report of CB's out of the long-barreled Winchester was just a click. Are these old rifles worth looking into? Let's see what we found.

In our test teams initial discussions about evaluating production bolt-action rifles, an interesting sideline emerged. One member of our test team owns a bolt-action rifle built by Roger David of Sulphur, Louisiana (Davids Gunshop, 337-527-5089). Evaluated in our November 2004 issue, it turned out to be a super-accurate rifle. And why not, considering it was hand-built by a master gunsmith and utilized the finest components. But in the last year or two, weve been seeing accuracy results from inexpensive assembly line rifles that come close to the performance of our most prized custom guns. Which leads us to two questions. First, how is that possible? The answer is computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining and new methods of computer-aided design.Our second question was, if we were to choose a couple of these new bolt-action rifles that sell for less than $500, would they really perform at a level of accuracy that just as few years ago would be much more costly in terms of time and money? To see if todays rifle shooters really are being treated to superior accuracy at a bargain price, we decided to test two synthetic-stocked rifles from Ruger and Mossberg. Our choice of cartridge was 243 Winchester because of its reputation of delivering more than adequate power to take down deer while disturbing a minimum amount of meat. Plus, 243 Win. is an effective choice for hog and coyote hunting. Our rifles were the $449 Ruger American and the $471 Mossberg 4X4. Both rifles are lightweight hunting models fitted with black synthetic stocks, matching blued barrels with recessed crowns, pre-mounted two-piece scope bases, sling attachments front and rear, rubber buttpads, and removable box magazines. Barrel lengths for the Ruger and Mossberg rifles were 22 inches and 24 inches, respectively.To give our budget rifles the opportunity to excel, we chose a little more scope than might be found on an everyday hunting rifle. The new Steiner Predator Xtreme model 5003 offered 4-16X variable power with a 50mm objective lens. Built on a 30mm tube, it measured 15 inches in length and weighed 22 ounces. Side parallax adjustment was calibrated from 50 yards to 500 yards to infinity. Click-adjustment value was MOA. We counted 240 total clicks of elevation and 200 clicks of windage from lock to lock. The Steiner Plex S1 is a second-focal-plane reticle that offers ballistic lines for holdover calibrated for most popular calibers and bullet weights. Stick-on reference charts are supplied. In addition, the hold-over lines were bordered by a series of cascading dots to the left and right to help compensate for wind. The dots are calibrated for a 10-mph wind value, according to the owners manual. We found the added visual reference to be useful and clear. The Steiner Predator Xtreme comes with a 30-year warranty.After successfully mounting the Steiner on the Mossberg rifle, we couldnt get the scope to stay seated atop the Ruger. Measuring the interior dimensions of the slots on the Mossbergs scope mounts we found that rear notch on the Mossberg measured only 0.146 inches wide, but the two notches on the front base were larger, measuring only about 0.150 inches across. Whereas the mounts didnt match, they still were able to provide a good enough fit for the thin, round cross bolts of our Leupold Rifleman rings. The Rugers cross-slots were uniform but wider, measuring about 0.156 inches across. Switching to a set of Warne Maxima rings (No. 215M), which utilize rectangular lugs for seating, solved the mounting problem.To test, we chose ammunition topped with four bullet weights. They were Black Hills Gold 85-grain Barnes TSX, Winchester Super X 80-grain Pointed Soft Point, Black Hills Gold 62-grain Varmint Grenade, and 58-grain Hornady Varmint Express ammunition. Each rifle was tested for accuracy from a bench. We shot at targets located 100 yards away. Heres how our rifles performed:

There are groups that undermine and manipulate systems across America to end hunting, trapping and fishing. These same “less-than-honest” groups also often then exploit wildlife and conservation issues in the name of raising dollars for their devious causes. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has identified a dozen organizations that have taken efforts in the past year to prevent you from hunting or trapping:

GunReports.com finds that the Model 788 rifle Remington built to compete with cheaper items remains one of its most popular years later. Repairing it gets complicated.