Rifle July/August 2023

The late Bill Ruger (1916-2002) needs no introduction. Rather, suffice to say that he possessed a remarkable blend of talents that included being a firearms designer (holding many patents) and developing innovative manufacturing techniques. Plus, he proved to be a marketing genius, a shooter, a hunter and a family man. He was especially known for his many charitable contributions. ...Read More >

After moving to Montana in the 1970s, much of my leisure time and financial treasure was spent on shooting and learning about varmint and hunting rifles. Both types of hunting were scarce or completely absent in the area of my birth. Whenever there were enough extra bucks in my pocket to afford another rifle of a different caliber, one was added to my assortment. Also, necessary items included reloading accessories. As a fledgling gunwriter, I put my shooting/reloading experiences into words and photos and several such articles appeared on these pages starting about 1980. ...Read More >

This column will wrap-up coverage of Winchester’s amazing Model 52 rifle. In the last edition of Rifle, we left off at the operation that has driven many owners of Model 52Cs to tears – removal and replacement of the breechbolt. The reason is that 95 percent of 22 rimfire bolt guns require only pulling back on the trigger to allow the bolt to slide out. Model 52Cs don’t work that way. The other five percent use a lever or button to release the bolt. A Model 52C doesn’t work that way either. ...Read More >

Huskemaw was not only on the spear tip of extreme long-range shooting but has developed riflescope systems that make shots at long-range much easier. Huskemaw uses patented technology to make dialing elevation and windage easier to understand and confidently extend the maximum effective range in the field. Huskemaw’s patented HuntSmart Reticle allows a dead-on hold instead of holdovers, plus employing horizontal hash marks for wind drift hold-offs. ...Read More >

Let us first cast back almost a century to 1932, when Judge Charles Singer Landis published his best-known book, 22 Caliber Rifle Shooting. At the time, C.S. Landis was a well-known shooter and gun writer, having competed regularly, and won occasionally, at the national smallbore championships at Sea Girt, New Jersey. He was a friend of C.C. Johnson, a famous gunsmith and target shooter and could casually drop such names as Harry Pope. I mention all this to bolster Judge Landis’s bona fides as a man one could trust, his law degree notwithstanding. ...Read More >

In spite of being out-of-production for 60 years, few rifles are so widely known, treasured and respected as the outstanding Winchester pre-’64 Model 70, but like most great products, it is not without controversy. Nonetheless, in the opinion of this shooter, hunter and rifleman that has used and evaluated virtually every modern bolt-action rifle and has extensive experience with the Model 70, it is a great rifle by any measure. ...Read More >

There are many golden ages throughout history and all have one thing in common: They are only recognized years after they ended. It can be a decade or a century, but there is always an intervening time when the past comes into focus and we realize what we have lost. ...Read More >

There was a time when my tastes ran to blued steel and walnut. At the time, I considered synthetic stocks an abomination, as I truly cared about the aesthetics of a firearm. But then I became obsessed with bows and arrows and the rifle shooting I continued doing almost exclusively involved predators and varmints. After maybe 30 years of shooting only the occasional big-game animal with a rifle, my firearms obsession had shifted to burrowing rodents in the spring and summer and predator calling in the winter. ...Read More >

A wink of sun on horn pulled us both to a stop. The bull was less than a dozen steps away, mostly hidden. We checked the impulse to lift rifles. Statue-still, we stared at parts of both horns, black and thick, sweeping deep from enormous bosses far from tattered ears. The hooks were heavy as truck axles. ...Read More >

My friend and fellow outdoor scribe, Chub Eastman, avoided the 270 Winchester. He didn’t like Jack O’Connor and if O’Connor said to hunt with a 270 Winchester, Chub wasn’t going to do it. Chub told me why one evening at the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City, Oregon, where we were staying for a big-bore/double-rifle shoot. ...Read More >