Rifle July/August 2021

Years ago, there was a small amount of ugly chatter and insults tossed about on the internet from cyber trolls who, for whatever strange reason, decided my choice in toting a new Mossberg 4x4, bolt-action .300 Winchester Magnum to the Alaska Range in 2008 was counterintuitive for hunting Dall’s sheep. I just laughed it off, and still do when thinking about that hunt and when catching a glimpse of the sheep mount in my home office/reloading room. I can agree that the rifle, with its somewhat futuristic stock, was not very traditional, but it shot well. Plus, with today’s standards, especially modular stocks, it would not be far out of line. ...Read More >

Many years ago, I needed a Remington Model 700 chambered in .17 Remington specifically to develop handload data for LoadData.com. This is a relatively hard rifle and caliber to find. I had several dealers searching for me, but to no avail. One of the dealers inquired if I had any experience with Match Grade Machine barrels, which I had not. ...Read More >

The last four decades of the nineteenth-century was a time of great learning in regard to metallic cartridges and their rifles. Prior to that, most rifled barrels were not meant for bullets – as in elongated projectiles. Most civilian rifles were muzzleloaders shooting round balls, or in military usage, muzzleloading rifle muskets that shot Minié balls. Those firearms were rifled with very slow rifling twists, often as slow as 1:72. ...Read More >

In the last issue, I looked at the most common form of set trigger, usually referred to as the double-set because it has two triggers like a double barrel shotgun. The rear “trigger” is the setting lever that cocks the mechanism; the front trigger fires the rifle. A more technically correct term is one-lever, or one-piece set trigger (the setting lever is never counted). More on this in a moment. ...Read More >

Studies conducted by various military agencies have long demonstrated the human eye is a poor instrument for determining accurate ranges. Practice leaves a shooter better equipped to estimate range at most viable big-game hunting yardages, but changing terrain quickly complicates matters. When I was a big-game outfitter and my clients’ success depended on accurate range estimates (before laser rangefinders), I became pretty good at eyeballing range estimates. Still, shooting across wide-open spaces, like canyons or steep topography, made it easy to make mistakes. ...Read More >

The quality of today’s custom rifles never seems to end, and this one from Ben Piper is a prime example of how the art of building a fine, personalized rifle is still much in demand today. The lines are clean, with the overall presentation one of class, fine execution and style, with all the wood and metalwork done by Ben himself. ...Read More >

This all began at a very early date, but I can’t say exactly when. I first became aware of it in my teens, however, and that is pushing 60 years ago. It was traditional, when writing a hunting story, to begin with some breathless partial account of derring-do (to be completed later), run through the background and finish up with the clean and efficient dispatching of the animal in question. The writer then told us all about his equipment – rifle, cartridge, scope and binocular. ...Read More >

On March 31, 2006, Winchester Repeating Arms Company (USRAC) ceased production of all firearms in its historic plant located in New Haven, Connecticut. After 112 years of more or less continuous U.S. production, the most famous and popular sporting rifle of all-time – the Winchester Model 1894 was over. However, the demand remains strong among collectors and shooters. To help meet that demand, Cimarron Firearms has worked with Italian manufacturer Uberti to recreate this classic rifle, which is available in rifle and carbine configurations and offered in .30-30 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester. The new reproduction is of high quality and the rifles are handsome and accurate. ...Read More >

I’ve always found single-shot rifles innately elegant and esthetically pleasing, especially the falling-block design. The falling block includes a metal breechblock that rides in vertical grooves cut into the rifle action that is manipulated by a swinging underlever. Pulling the underlever tightly against the action lifts the sliding breechblock into place and seals the chamber for firing. Pull the underlever downward and the breechblock is lowered and the chamber is exposed to allow ejection/extraction of the fired case and shoving the next round home. It is a simple but ultra-stout arrangement. Engaging the breechblock creates a solid “wall” of steel that doesn’t require lugs to lock the chamber solidly. It is an action type also used in heavy artillery firing shells as big as a man’s leg. ...Read More >

The name Fegyver és Gépgyár is not one that rolls easily off the non-Hungarian tongue; its acronym – FÉG – is not widely known, and Budapest is never thought of as a hotbed of riflemaking on a par with Steyr, Oberndorf or Liège. But for two decades between the wars, the city and the company were involved in some serious military rifle innovation. ...Read More >

Though some major technological advances appeared in rifles during the twentieth-century, the nineteenth-century began with flintlocks, black powder and patched round balls, and ended with smokeless powder, jacketed spitzers and self-contained metallic cartridges. The self-contained cartridge made repeating rifles possible, something firearms designers had dreamed of for centuries. Until cartridges appeared, the closest they came was cap-and-ball revolvers. But soon afterward, the “cap” became the primer in a cartridge. ...Read More >

In 1913, Great Britain’s Enfield Arsenal completed the design of a new battle rifle with the intent of replacing the Lee-Enfield in .303 British. About 1,000 Pattern 13 rifles chambered for the .276 Enfield were built for military trials. Like the Lee-Enfield, its firing pin cocked as the bolt was pushed forward and closed. World War I began during the summer of 1914, and when ill-equipped Great Britain declared war on Germany in August, the new cartridge was shelved, the rifle was chambered for .303 British and its designation changed to Pattern 1914. ...Read More >