Gun Digest July 2021

There was a time when I owned a 1968 Camaro. Yes, “owned,” as in past tense. It was the daily driver of my uncle back in his youth, so there was a bit of sentimental value attached to the car, but not a lot. And, honestly, all I could see at that time was the rotting floorboards, rusting quarter panels … and the pieced-out engine in the trunk. Although I had very big ideas, the fact of the matter was that car required a lot of time and a lot of money to get reality to catch up to my dreams. At that point in my life, I needed a newer truck and cash to pay the daycare bills of the kids … so I traded her for a $1,200 check…

HISTORICAL NOTES The .30-30 Winchester, or .30 WCF, was the first American small-bore, smokeless powder sporting cartridge. It was designed by Winchester and first marketed in early 1895 as one of the chamberings available for the Model 1894 lever-action rifle. The original loading used a 160-grain soft-point bullet and 30 grains of smokeless powder, thus the name .30-30 for a .30-caliber bullet and 30 grains of powder. It was adapted to the Winchester Model 54 bolt action, as well as various versions of the original 1894 action, such as the models 55 and 64. Marlin chambered it in the Model 1893 lever action, the improved Model 36 and the Model 336. At one time, the Savage Model 99 lever action was made in .30-30, and Savage also chambered the old Model 40…

My education and adventures with the defensive handgun really began when I became a police officer almost 30 years ago. At that time, the most popular target used in law enforcement was the B27. The B27 target is a life-size black silhouette of a man, and inside the silhouette are five oval scoring rings. Typically, this target was used for qualification, but because police departments hate to spend money, it also became the de facto practice target. As I became involved in combat pistol competitions, I was introduced to the IPSC target. The common IPSC target is a cardboard target measuring 30 inches tall by 18 inches wide. It’s shaped to replicate a human torso and head, and it also has scoring rings—squares and rectangles—in the torso and head regions. The…

Not every handgun you buy comes with a box. Well, the new ones, yes, but even then … a cardboard box? Really? You can’t just pile them up in the safe unprotected, so what do you do? The usual gun case of “cloth” isn’t much protection and can also trap moisture. I can tell you from experience that even a short exposure to Mountain Dew will strip the bluing off of a pistol, and a Cordura case is no protection. So, for the safe, use MTM In-Safe boxes. These are simple and sturdy plastic boxes with snap closures. They don’t have much padding—each one comes with a closed-cell foam sheet inside—but that’s easy to increase. Simply use a clean, dry shop cloth to provide more. If you want additional protection, add a…

There’s an old adage: “Three moves are as good as a fire.” Back when Ronald Reagan was president, I managed to get my hooks into a Dillon 550B. Since then, I’ve moved five times, and Dillon has updated the press they offer to a 550C. I’m pretty sure that when I first got the 550B, it came with spare parts of various items. Yeah, well, that was then. Just recently, I was loading up buckets of ammo for the upcoming pin shoot and my primer pickup tube began to not live up to its name. Not-pickup-tube was more like it. The plastic tip on the end had cracked, and the tension left in the section still working wasn’t enough to hold more than 30 or 40 primers in the tube. This is…

Meprolight is an Israelibased manufacturer of military and tactical equipment with a long history of real-world use. Their newest red-dot sight available to the civilian market is no different, having seen use by the IDF and other special forces groups across the world. The Mepro MOR Pro has the potential to halve the number of gadgets hanging off your rifle. By combining a red-dot reflex sight with an IR laser aiming device, the two most common weapon accessories used by special forces groups have been merged into a single unit. This isn’t only a more efficient use of space, it also brings more weight off the barrel where IR laser units are typically mounted. ALWAYS POWERED The Mepro MOR Pro is powered by four independent energy sources to ensure the reticle is visible…