Table of contents for July 2018 in Shooting Times

AFTER READING “THE SHOOTIST” COLUMN ON THE VINTAGE SCOTTISH 6.5x53R Daniel Fraser Rifle in the March issue, I was wondering what a “baronet” was. With “et” on the end, I thought it was a woman. Wow! A lady taking all that game. So I looked up the word. Here’s what “baronet” means: “British hereditary dignitary, first created by King James I of England in May 1611. The baronetage is not part of the peerage, nor is it an order of knighthood. A baronet ranks below barons but above all knights except, in England, Knights of the Garter and, in Scotland, Knights of the Garter and of the Thistle.” Any chance you could show the game log on the buttstock more clearly? Thanks for some wonderful reading and looking. Tony Cassano…

INTRODUCED WHEN GRIZZLIES STILL ROAMED the West, when there were still occasional conflicts with hostile Indians, and when blackpowder was still the propellant of choice, the Model 94 capably survived the transition to smokeless powder and went on to become America’s highest-selling hunting rifle of all time. Over seven million were manufactured and sold during its original 111-year run. It may surprise many to suggest that the Model 94 was the AR-15 of its day. It offered high magazine capacity, low recoil, above-par ballistics (for that era), and could be fired with incredible speed. Purists maintain that the finest 94s were built prior to 1964. Pre-’64 Model 94s were made in varieties. Winchester cheerfully built just about any custom configuration a customer could dream up, including various barrel lengths and…

ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO I HAD THE pleasure of reviewing Walther’s PPQ M2 with 5.0-inch barrel for Shooting Times, and the gun changed my opinion of striker-fired polymer-frame pistols altogether. I stated in that article that prior to shooting the PPQ M2, I had not been a fan of such pistols. After putting it through a thorough shooting evaluation, I concluded I was wrong. I came away with a genuine appreciation for the gun, and I can say the same h ng bout h n w PPQ Q4 TAC I’ll go further and say I like it even better than the 5.0-inch-barreled PPQ. Here’s why. Features The PPQ Q4 TAC has all the improved features of Walther’s M2 series. Those include three interchangeable backstraps, a reversible push-button-style magazine release, a…

LYMAN’S NEW X-BLOCK GUNSMITH BENCH BLOCK IS THE RIGHT TOOL for anyone driving pins out of firearms. It has a “V” slot and a rounded slot running across the face to support barrels, slides, and frames. The X-Block is made of a tough, non-marring polymer and edged with a softer nonslip outer overmold. The X-Block has multiple holes to take on almost any gunsmithing project, and it also has a molded-in magnet on the backside to catch pins and other small parts as they drop out. The X-Block’s large 5-inch diameter provides a stable base and plenty of support. The Lyman X-Block is in stock and available now. MSRP: $15.95 lymanproducts.com CCI VNT .17 HMR Long-Range Hunting Ammo CCI’s new VNT .17 HMR Long-Range Hunting Ammo features the Speer 17-grain…

AFTER I PUBLISHED A COLUMN ON REDUCED RIFLE reloads, several readers asked about fillers and why their use has fallen off. Fillers are non-energetic solids placed in a cartridge to reduce airspace, maintain the propellant’s position, or both. They generally fall into two classes: fiber “puffballs” and granular. I want to talk about the puffballs—to me they are the most troublesome. Puffball fillers are wads of lightweight fiber and can be natural, like kapok, or synthetic, like polyester fiberfill. Think “pillow stuffing.” Years ago, published reloading information suggested puffball fillers for reduced loads where better ballistic uniformity was needed. You pushed a puffball of the fiber on top of the propellant charge. However, the recommendations rather quickly slowed and, in some cases, stopped. I knew Dave Andrews, my predecessor at…

NO LONGER ARE SHOOTERS AND HUNTERS SATISFIED with simple optical reliability and clarity. Today’s cutting-edge optics offer those elements, but the real selling point is feature-heavy technology. Rangefinders reliably zap targets well past 1.5 miles; precision riflescopes provide sophisticated long-range features only dreamed of by yesteryear’s riflemen; combat optics tout active-use battery life rated in years rather than hours; and hunting optics are beginning to employ smart-device technology. Here’s a look at what I think are the most interesting new optics for 2018. AIMPOINT COMPM5 A reflex collimator with LED red dot, the new CompM5 provides 5,000 hours of continuous use on one lithium AAA battery. Dot size is a sharp 2 MOA, and the optic is compatible with Aimpoint 3X and 6X magnifiers, offering excellent sight picture for both…

IF YOU ARE A SERIOUS SHOOTER, HANDLOADER, OR GUNSMITH AND YOU haven’t considered using a borescope yet, then you really should. Sure, borescopes can be expensive, but you can do a lot with one, and once you have used one, I bet you’ll be hooked. I’m currently using the Shooting Edition Hawkeye Borescope from Gradient Lens, and it helps me monitor how the barrels of my firearms are wearing. It’s also useful when I’m checking out used guns to see what they look like on the inside. My borescope has come in handy to look at the inner surfaces of my reloading dies and to inspect the consistency of flash holes in the cartridge cases I use for handloading. I’ve used it to identify irregularities and erosion in the forcing…

ON A HOT DAY IN JUNE 1874 IN THE NORTH TEXAS Panhandle (about 150 miles south of Dodge City, Kansas), Billy Dixon made a confirmed 0.8-mile-long shot on a raider two days after a skirmish that has since been known as the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. He used a single-shot Sharps Model 1874 rifle chambered for either the .50-70 or .50-90 blackpowder metallic cartridge (historians are unsure which). A few months later, Dixon was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service as an Army scout in the lesser-known Buffalo Wallow Fight, during which he, another Army scout, and four troopers were attacked and wounded by a band of Comanche and Kiowa warriors but held them at bay and survived the fight. Dixon was born on September 25, 1850,…

Q: I THINK THE .303 BRITISH NO. 4 RIFLE, WITH ITS 100-ROUND DETACH- able magazine that allows the shooter to top off with a ready rifle in hand, the cock on closing, the sights, and the lower recoil and noise but entirely adequate round, is the best bolt rifle of World War II, so I enjoyed Allan Jones’s April “The Ballistician” column on the .303 British round. In that column, Jones describes the .303 Mark VII bullet as “quite stable in air.” A rear center of mass in arrows and airplanes make them less stable. Why is that not true for bullets? Mike DeMaria Wasilla, AK A: Behavior of moving elongated objects comes down to stability. Stability can be natural or artificial. If an object does not have natural stability,…

IT’S UNUSUAL TO DEVOTE AN ENTIRE COLUMN to a reloading manual review. However, in this case, Shooting Times Editor in Chief Joel Hutchcroft and I agreed that Speer’s new 15th edition publication warrants the attention. It’s been 10 years since the previous Speer manual was released, and several new cartridges and components have been introduced since then. It’s long overdue. This new manual is what I refer to as a “full-service” reloading manual because the 15th edition includes much more than just load recipes for the old standby cartridges, still-popular cartridges, and the latest new cartridges. At nearly 1,000 pages, this manual is better characterized as a handloading tome. In addition to the expected load data, it includes editorial content on cartridge history, cartridge/component description, why and how to reload,…

CMMG’S MKW ANVIL AR-15-STYLE RIFLE has a lot of features and is chambered for a host of popular and unique cartridges. A recent addition is a nice carbine chambered for the 6.5 Grendel cartridge, a terrific little round that hits way above its weight class. The ANVIL is a noteworthy achievement in firearms design and not just another AR. CMMG says the ANVIL is “ultra durable,” and a peek at the design shows why. The ANVIL is a midsized platform built to handle cartridges with a larger case diameter and higher bolt thrust than the 5.56 NATO. The ANVIL has what CMMG calls its “POWERBOLT,” which allows the rifle to utilize a modified AR-10 (i.e., .308-sized) bolt for increased strength and durability. This is important for larger cartridges. The Grendel…

THE GUN RESTORER IS THE MAN WITH THE KNOW- ledge of what a gun was originally and the skill to bring it back to life exactly as it was the day it left the shop. For American guns, the absolute preeminent man in the field today is Doug Turnbull, who has carved for himself a unique niche in American gunmaking. There is no one better. This is not to say, however, that there is no one else who can do it extremely well. Looking back, I’ve had about a half-dozen rifles and shotguns restored. Turnbull did one: a Winchester 1886 I got for half its value because some cretin had spent several winters carving on the woodwork with a dull knife and an even duller intellect; the metal was corroded…