Rifle September/October 2020

It was just over 30 years ago when Mark Harris, publisher of Wolfe Publishing Company at the time, suggested we do a book on big-bore rifles. Essentially, he wanted to do a reprint of all of the big-bore features and cartridge profiles from Handloader and Rifle and add a few new ones. The only question I had was: “What’s a big bore?” ...Read More >

Even though this column was written in mid-June, by the time it’s published and found on newsstands, mid-summer will hopefully have begun ushering in cooler evenings. Hunters across the country will have but one thing on their minds: spending long days in the outdoors hiking up and stalking along tall ridgelines for elk or mule deer, slithering up sage-filled washouts in pronghorn country or standing high in a perch awaiting a whitetail. About the same time every year, another summer tradition (more like a phenomenon) is the natural urge to buy a new hunting rig, a new or used rifle usually chambered to a cartridge that has not yet been used in the field. ...Read More >

For more than a century, CZ has been producing a huge variety of military and sporting firearms that include pump, autoloading, side-by-side and over/under shotguns, autoloading pistols and bolt-action rifles, which are of particular interest. The CZ story really began during World War I (circa 1916 to 1918) with the building of the Zbrojovka Brno plant, which was followed with moves and mergers that lead to CZ producing arms in Uhersky Brod, around 1936. During World War II, the company ultimately suffered from Germantakeover. Like so many other gun companies during this era, it produced a variety of non-firearm related products, including diesel motors. In 1995 CZ-USA purchased Dan Wesson, which produces outstanding Model 1911-pattern pistols, and its double-action .357 Magnum revolver offers legendary accuracy. ...Read More >

Of all smokeless powder military rifles and carbines worldwide, it is doubtful if any are held in as low esteem as Italian Carcanos. My personal opinion is that there are three reasons. One is that they were imported into this country by the ton after World War II. They were priced below bargain-basement levels and must have been shipped loose, because many arrived in a condition I would call dingy, rusty and dusty. ...Read More >

This being Rifle magazine, we try to keep the subjects related to rifles. However, this time we are dealing with only half a rifle – one barrel is chambered for a rifle cartridge and the other a shotgun round. The gun is an over/under (O/U) sold by J. Stevens Arms and Tool Co. as the No. 22-410 Rifle and Shotgun beginning about 1940. ...Read More >

The AR rifle, whether AR-15 or AR-10, is an American rifle. These handy autoloaders are so popular the National Rifle Association estimates U.S. gun owners now own eight to 10 million of them. Continued improvements to the original ArmaLite design have made them more affordable, reliable and more accurate. Given this degree of accuracy, it was only natural shooters would begin adding optics to their ARs, looking for added precision and reach. ...Read More >

When Allen Pritchard contacted me about a gun for “Custom Corner” and mentioned it was an African plains rifle, I could not wait until I saw photos of it. When the pictures reached my desk, the gun was indeed beautiful, but my thoughts of a big bore, heavy rifle vanished when he revealed it was chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge! ...Read More >

Years ago, a friend of mine made a habit of going out on weekends, wandering up and down the wide power lines that cut a broad swathe through the woods behind his house. If it was deer season, he was deer hunting; in the winter it was wolves or coyotes, and any other time of the year it was, well, anything huntable that came along. ...Read More >

The new .27 Nosler is fast, flat-shooting, accurate and offers a substantial performance advantage over Grandpa’s .270 Winchester, and many other modern long-range cartridges. ...Read More >

The age of specialized hunting rifles is upon us. No longer is a basic bolt-action rifle topped off with a variable-power scope sufficient to hunt big game. Up-to-date hunters now require a rifle with specific qualities, and by extension believe they possess those same merits. ...Read More >

Sir Winston Churchill once described Stalin’s Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” In some ways, the same is true of the old Joshua Stevens arms company (Stevens Arms), and in particular, some of the finer rifles it produced in its heyday. One such is a rifle named “Lucile.” ...Read More >

For more than 50 years, the .30-06 served as the primary small arms round of the U.S. Armed Forces in two world wars, the Korean War and numerous smaller conflicts. No fewer than five rifles chambered for the .30-06 were adopted by one or all of America’s service branches. These were several versions of ’03 Springfields, U.S. Model 1917s, M1 Garands, Model 1941 Johnsons and Model 1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifles (BAR). Besides rifles, serving alongside American troops were several types of .30-06 crew served machine guns. Most prominent among infantry troops were variations of water-cooled Browning Model 1917s and air-cooled Model 1919s. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard even bought a number of .30-06 Lewis Machine Guns that are instantly recognizable by their top mounted rotary magazines. (The only U. S. Coast Guardsman to win the Medal of Honor in World War II was fighting with a .30-06 Lewis Gun.) ...Read More >

Charles Ballard patented his first single-shot rifle action in 1861, then sold the patent. Over the next few decades several manufacturers built single shots using Ballard-design actions, but the last belonged to John Marlin, which through various reorganizations still exists as Marlin Firearms. ...Read More >