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GUNS Magazine
FEBRUARY 2025
DISPLAY UNTIL
JANUARY 28, 2025
2 6 SURPLUS & CLASSIC
Mossberg 151M
Frank Jardim
5 2 HANDLOADING
Trail Boss Powder
Clayton Walker
5 5 QUARTERMASTER
• Garmin Instinct 2 Watch
• Burris Fastfi re C Pistol Optic
• VIKTOS Range Trainer Shoe
• Mystery Ranch
Rip Ruck 24 Backpack
Brent T. Wheat
5 6 2A DEFENSE
The Sensitive Area Scam
Dave Workman
58 NEW PRODUCTS
60 GUN OF THE MONTH
64 ADVERTISER INDEX
DEPARTMENTS
8
CROSSFIRE
Letters To The Editor
GUNS Staff
18 OPTICS
A Tale of Two Sights
Wayne van Zwoll
2 0 SHOTGUNS
Wonderful Walnut
Tom Keer
22 SHOOTER’S RX
The Rib Shack
Will Dabbs, MD
24 RIFLES
Real Survivors Need Rifl es
Dave Anderson
54 KNIVES
ESEE Fixer
Pat Covert
6 2 THINK TANK
In Honor Of
The Red Lantern
Jeff “Tank” Hoover
6 6 GUNS INSIDER
Hunter Across the Pond
Brent T. Wheat
COLUMNS
FEBRUARY 2025, VOL. 71, NUMBER 2, 842ND ISSUE
26
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52
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6FEBRUARY 2025
12 CAMPFIRE TALES
Early S&W Double Actions
John Taffi n
16 AYOOB ON HANDGUNS
Powering Down
Massad Ayoob
2 8 HAMMERLESS
J-FRAME SECRET
A Surprise Inside
Brad Miller
3 0 RUGER AMERICAN
RIFLE GENERATION II
Sometimes A Sequel Is Even Better
Trent Marsh
3 6 WHO CARES ABOUT
SINGLE ACTIONS?
Youngsters Discover The Finer Things
Clayton Walker
4 0 GUNS OF 007
He’s Got A License To Thrill
Will Dabbs, MD
44 OLD SCHOOL COLT
VERSUS S&W
Septuagenarian Shootout
William Bell
4 8 HOGS IN HELL
Mark Hampton’s Last Hunt …
Mark Hampton
Shooting Tips for the Elderly:
Overcoming Grip Strength & Mobility Challenges
Watch GUNS Magazine Podcast Episode #258
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AMERICAN RIFLE
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8FEBRUARY 2025
CROSSFIRE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GUNS Magazine
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letters for clarity and length. Due to the volume of mail, we are unable to individually answer
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blasts, online features, to enter the giveaway and more! And if you have any news about hot
new products you’ve found, or anything you think we need to know about, drop me a line at
editor@gunsmagazine.com!
MISS KITTY AND TOM CAT
Editor’s Note — I was wrong! I
grossly misjudged our audience regard-
ing the response I would receive after
my Insider column discussing nuisance
feral cats and how to deal with them. So
far, the reader mail has been over 98%
favorable with only two angry messages
threatening to cancel their subscription.
Of these two, only one was written in
all-caps, a guaranteed sign the writer
is upset beyond the point of rational-
ity, a common debility I had forecast
in my story. Overall, the whole episode
restored some of my faith in humanity.
Here are some samples. —BW
I couldn’t agree more, the semi-feral
and feral cat problem is very real. I live
in a small town in northeastern Min-
nesota and have seen the devastation
of house cats first hand. I have bird
feeders to feed the birds, not the cats.
Kevin Smith
Mr. Wheat’s recent opinion “Miss
Kitty and Tom Cat” rang a loud steel
hit with me. We live in an urban
setting and do not have feral cats,
but deal with neighbors’ marauding
felines! We have lost far too many
songbirds, rabbits and snakes.
Yes, garter snakes! We enjoy their
presence in our gardens and yard.
But, the cats using our side yard as
a dump station is a frustrating and
constant mess.
(Name Withheld By Request)
Dear Mr. Brent “degenerate ‘pussy-
hating’ scumbag who should burn in
hell” Wheat:
I’m appalled you would deign to
publish such horrid drivel in what
was a respectable, inclusive and polit-
ically correct magazine. Please renew
my subscription immediately! I have
only one thing to say to you when
you arrive at the “fiery furnace”:
Bring ice. A nice bourbon or a decent
single-malt Scotch would also be
appreciated — eternity’s a long time
and I’m sure I’ll be thirsty, along with
our fellow “feral cat” haters.
John VanEpps
Brent Wheat’s GUNS Insider article
“Miss Kitty and Tom Cat” had me
laughingout loud! Mr. Wheat certain-
ly hit the nail on the head!
I have been on the outs with a feral
cat lady. She fed 30 cats, but didn’t claim
any of them. I took the legal route of live
trapping them and turning them over
to the local animal control. When only
about five cats were left, she called the
authorities and lied, telling them she
had heard me shooting the cats with an
air gun. At the time I owned no such
weapon and along with the paper trail
from animal control, nothing became
of her lies. She did receive a very serious
talk from the deputies regarding false
reports! Of course, at 70 years old,
the deputies were not charging her. I
continued on page 65
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10 FEBRUARY 2025
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GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 11
INNOVATION NOW LIVES
IN CEDAR CITY, UTAH.
At RIA-USA, the level of research and precision engineering is
unmatched. And we’re committed to advancing the production of
our fl agship fi rearms right here in America. Revolutionary products
like the 5.0E are only the beginning.
ARMSCOR.COM // FIREARMS FOR THE WAY YOU LIVE.
This is your place to fi nd reliable fi rearms, quality ammunition and
all the advice and information you need to enjoy shooting sports.
We’re proud of the products we build,
and we’re honored to say they’re 100%
sourced and manufactured in the USA,
by American craftsman.
12 FEBRUARY 2025
CAMPFIRE TALES
EARLY SMITH & WESSON
DOUBLE ACTIONS
FROM .44 TO M&P
John Taffin
Sometimes things just happen!
Several years ago a friend
appeared at my door with a
sixgun he wanted to show me. In fact,
he was hoping I would want to buy it.
When he gave me a price, I told him
he would be much better off trying to
sell it somewhere as he could get a lot
more than he was asking and I would
pay. The sixgun in question was a
Smith & Wesson .44. No, not that .44
but the first double-action .44 Smith
& Wesson. That would make it the .44
Double Action Model of 1880.
RARE BEAUTY
It had a 5" barrel, 100% nickel
plating still intact, beautiful pearl
stocks — real pearl not the faux pearl
found so often today — and was in
nearly perfect condition including the
barrel. It had been fired but not very
much. The chambering was not the .44
Magnum of today, not the .44 Special
so many of us appreciate, but rather the
magnificent .44 Russian. Did I buy it?
Surely you jest!
In 1869, Smith & Wesson brought
out the first big-bore, cartridge-firing
revolver with the break-top Model #3
chambered in .44 S&W American. Not
only did this revolver fire a serious
cartridge, it was very easy to unload
and reload. When a latch in front
of a hammer is unlocked, the entire
barrel and cylinder assembly rotates
90 degrees downward and the ejector
assembly automatically ejects the fired
cartridges. It took a couple of seconds
to refill the cylinder, rotate the barrel
and cylinder assembly back into place,
and the gun was ready to fire.
Smith & Wesson’s Double Action
.44 Russian would not be manufac-
tured until 1913; however, all frames
were made prior to 1899. Approxi-
mately 54,000 were manufactured. A
rare variation was the lighter Wesson
Favorite, also in .44 Russian with
approximately 1,000 being produced.
By slightly lengthening the cylinder,
the Double Action became the Fron-
tier Model with approximately 15,000
being made in .44-40 and less than 300
in .38-40.
For many years I have read the
original double actions were very
hard to shoot double action and I had
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Model .44
Special Hand ejectors with 5" and
4" barrel lengths compared.
It was not only more powerful than
Colt’s .38 Long Colt, it was destined
to become the most popular center-fire
revolver cartridge in history. The Mil-
itary & Police revolver was destined to
become the most popular DA revolv-
er of all time.
Originally, in 1899, the Military &
Police was chambered for what was
the service cartridge at the time, the
.38 Long Colt. The .38 Special arrived
shortly thereafter — some say in 1900
while others say 1901–1902 — and
those first cartridges were loaded with
black powder. In addition to being
chambered in .38 the Military & Police
was also offered in .32-20, making it an
excellent varmint and small game gun;
.22 chamberings are very rare. From
1905 until the eve of World War II, just
under 1 million M&Ps were produced.
A new chapter began for the Mili-
tary & Police in 1940 with the 5" Victory
Model. These M&Ps were chambered in
.38 S&W, which was the British service
revolver cartridge, with over one-half
million being made to aid the British
with their lack of weapons. A second
version of the M&P Victory Model
was the same basic sixgun chambered
in .38 Special for our own troops, with
approximately 250,000 of them being
manufactured by 1945. By the end of
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 13
no reason to doubt this. That is, until
I acquired my own Model 1878 .45
Colt and a Smith & Wesson Double
Action Frontier .44-40. By acquiring
I should say both were anniversary
presents from Diamond Dot, a wife
who truly understands.
Perhaps I have a stronger than
normal trigger finger from so many
years of shooting. However, I found
both revolvers easy to operate double
action and also easy to handle when
point shooting. I’ve always had an
immense fondness for single actions
in general and the Colt Single Action
in particular. However, in the past
30 years I’ve also learned to appreci-
ate the Smith & Wesson single action
revolvers — the American, the Scho-
field, the Model #3 Russian and the
New Model #3.
If I had lived in the 1880s and if I
had normally carried a single action
and if I had been introduced to either
the 1878 Colt or the Double Action
Smith & Wesson, what would I have
chosen? Single Action or Double
Action? Colt or Smith & Wesson?
NEW & IMPROVED
The introduction of the 1st Model
Hand Ejector in 1899 also soon intro-
duced a new cartridge, the .38 Special.
The complete series of excuses,
alibis, pithy observations and
general ephus now in a new book.
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In Paperback
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Smith & Wesson .44s includes
the Model #3 Russian, New
Model #3 and the Double Action.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
14 FEBRUARY 2025
CAMPFIRE TALES
WWII, nearly 2 million M&Ps had been
produced. My wife’s premier bedside
sixgun is a .38 Special 5" WWII M&P
— that pretty much says how much we
think of it.
WAR BREAKS OUT
The United States was unprepared
for WWI and did not have enough .45
sidearms. The official pistol for the
U.S. Military was the 1911 Govern-
ment Model .45 ACP. However, we did
not have enough to outfit the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Force nor could we
make them fast enough. The answer
was the Smith & Wesson 2nd Model
HE and the Colt New Service both of
Smith & Wesson M & P
.32-20 (top) compared to a
.32-20 Colt Single Action.
Targets red with
the .38 M & P.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 15
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DISCREET SUB GUN CASES
Several Sizes and Mag Pouch
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WRB Patented
Quick Release Tie Down Straps
Manufactured. in
Gun Barrel City, Texas
which were standardized with 5 ½"
barrels and chambered in .45 ACP.
To make this rimless cartridge
work in the cylinders, an engineer at
Smith & Wesson came up with the
half-moon clip to hold three cartridg-
es. It not only provided proper head
space but also provided for extraction
as without the clips there was nothing
for the extractor star to engage in order
to push empty cartridges out. Today,
of course, the half-moon clips have
evolved into full-moon construction
allowing six cartridges to be loaded
and ejected at once.
The 1917 Smith & Wesson in
military dress was produced from
September 1917 to January 1919 with
almost 164,000 being produced. The
frame is stamped “US ARMY MODEL
1917” and the left side of the barrel is
marked “S&W D.A. 45.” There is also a
U.S. Ordnance flaming bomb marked
on the left side of the frame in front of
the hammer.
The 1917 Smith was modernized
further at approximately serial number
185,000 with the addition of a hammer
block safety, which still remains on
Smith & Wesson double action sixguns
today. Military models were finished in
standard blue with smooth walnut grips
while commercial versions have a deeper
blue and checkered diamond grips with
Smith & Wesson medallions. Grips that
filled in the hand up to the top of the
frame were still approximately 20 years
in the future, so these grips were very
small and did not add much to comfort
when firing.
Smith & Wesson’s rst .44 Double Action
appeared in 1880.
16 FEBRUARY 2025
POWERING DOWN
HOW MUCH BALLISTIC
HORSEPOWER DO YOU REALLY NEED?
Massad Ayoob
T
here seems to be a value system
on the gun-related inter-
net forums that says, “If you
carry more than I do, you’re a para-
noid mall ninja; and if you carry less,
you’re a pathetic sheeple doomed to
die in da streetz.”
I DON’T BUY IT
Every lawfully armed American gets
to determine their own “threat profile”
and arm themselves accordingly. Back
when Smith & Wesson was selling
their LadySmith line with a slogan
touting the best in “feminine protec-
tion,” I wondered if they meant a .45
for heavy days and a .38 for light days.
Let’s get real. On the one hand, the
person carrying only a .380 with no
spare ammo is a whole lot safer than
the vast majority of citizens who go
about their daily affairs unarmed.
That said, we don’t see a whole lot of
bad guys instantly ceasing hostility
from a single body shot with the 9mm
Short. We see a whole lot more “one
shot stops” with larger calibers and the
more powerful the gun, the more likely
a happy outcome is to be achieved.
Any professional big game hunter will
tell you that, assuming identical shot
placement, large, mean four-legged
creatures go down faster when hit with
more powerful rifle bullets. Much the
same is true of large, mean, two-legged
creatures and handgun bullets.
CURRENT TRENDS
I see quite a few credentialed pro-
fessionals these days endorsing .22s
and guns in the .32 caliber range for
personal defense. Some speak of the
“small handgun lifestyle” and the
“J-Frame lifestyle,” explaining if one
is not hunting criminals for a living or
being stalked by one, a lesser weapon
should suffice.
It’s a nice theory, but whenever I
hear it, the words popularized by John
Hearne ring in my ears: “It’s not about
the odds, it’s about the stakes.” Hearne
is one of the rising stars in the training
business and you would be wise to take
training from him (twopillarstraining.
com). Whenever I’ve interacted with
John, he was carrying something
between a 9mm and a .45, and spare
ammo. There is a lesson there.
The vast majority of armed citi-
zens defensive gun usages (DGUs) end
without any bloodshed on either side
— the assailant realizes he is about to
die from a sudden and acute failure of
the victim selection process and sur-
renders or flees. What we’re looking at
here, mostly, is the situation on the far
end of the defensive bell curve when
the criminal perpetrator forces you to
shoot. Larger guns are generally more
conducive to fast, straight shooting
under stress, and we’ve already dis-
cussed the “power factor.”
Larger guns hold more rounds and
current crime trends — larger groups
of felons, criminals with body armor,
attackers on substances making them
insensitive to pain and bad guys who
understand tactical movement and
cover — all mean more rounds likely
to have to be fired to achieve a “stop.”
None of these situations are better
served with a smaller, less powerful,
SIG’s 9mm P365 created a new category of compromise for power and convenience.
Each individual has to nd their own ideal “pistol power level.”
HANDGUNS
harder-to-shoot defensive firearm that
holds less ammunition.
COMFORT FACTOR
Personally, being afflicted with both
arthritis and sciatica, I experience only
mild discomfort for the most part car-
rying the full-size all-steel .45 auto
that has been a lifelong companion. If
sciatica gets bad, I revert to my “ortho-
pedic holster,” a shoulder rig to get the
weight off the hip. About three-quar-
ters of the time, these days I carry a
16-shot 9mm with spare ammo. The
ammo is the best I can get because
the smaller the caliber, the pickier you
have to be about ammunition and the
best modern 9mm rounds will certain-
ly get you through the night. I live in
hot, humid Florida and an unbuttoned
Columbia-style shirt over a T-shirt
conceals the hardware discreetly and
comfortably. Today’s holsters and dress
gun belts make it easy and comfort-
able. I leave the smaller stuff for the
last-ditch backup gun role.
Why? My work has led me to debrief
more gunfight survivors than most
people will ever meet. Three men come
to mind. Their convenient, primary
guns were a little Colt .380, a Seecamp
.32, and a five-shot S&W J-Frame Air-
weight .38 Special. Each of them froze in
a deadly danger situation because they
feared their gun wouldn’t let them stop
the threat. The guy with the .32 survived
only because the gunman didn’t feel like
murdering anybody. In the other two
cases, people were killed.
All three of them hated themselves
forever after for their lack of confidence.
I don’t ever want to have to go through
what they went through. And I don’t
want you to have to, either.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 17
Compact 16-shot 9mms like
GLOCK 19 (top) or SIG P229R
Legion hit a sweet spot of
shootability, concealability,
round count and power level.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
18 FEBRUARY 2025
A TALE OF TWO SIGHTS
A SPORTING SHOT? IT DEPENDS …
Wayne van Zwoll
“Stay the morning and shoot
rocks,” said my pal. His
concern for my mental
health was touching. On steeps to
10,000 feet 30 roadless miles into Wyo-
ming’s storied Thorofare drainage,
I had worked six days to kill an elk.
The mountains were miserly. Summer
weather followed rut; migration was a
month away; bulls had ghosted off to
hidey holes in dark timber.
SWING AND A MISS
I’d been allowed one chance. “You
blew up a limb,” observed my guide
from behind his bino, with more
exasperation than sympathy. He was
tired too. And no doubt peeved he’d
drawn the client insisting on open
sights. At 165 yards, they hadn’t
shown me the limb.
At week’s end, trudging the last
miles to trailhead, I was in a funk.
“There’s no closed season on
rocks,” said Royal Stukey. “No pref-
erence points, licensing or bag limit.
You don’t have to walk there or back.
You can even use my rifle. It’ll cheer
you up.”
Prerequisite: Forget the fetching
New England Custom Gun sights
on my walnut-stocked .338 Mark X
Mauser. Stukey’s therapy would put
me behind a futuristic Sterling Pre-
cision rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, with
a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x50 optic.
“You won’t need reading lenses and
a squint to aim,” he promised, as we
bumped along on his side-by-side
in dawn’s chill. “That scope has 100
minutes of elevation change. You’ll
need ’em all.”
Far from sights and sounds of
foothill farms, we wormed our way
over ravines and up steeps that under
rain would become grease. There had
been no rain here for weeks.
On a shale bench we unloaded the
rifles, an 85mm 22x Vortex Razor
HD spotting scope, a packing blanket
for a shooting mat. Royal’s shooting
bag disgorged a Garmin chronograph
and a Kestrel ballistic computer that
“talks Bluetooth to my SIG binocular”
— a bewildering array of hardware to
someone freshly rinsed of trail dust
from country hunted by the likes of
Theodore Roosevelt with iron-sight-
ed Winchesters.
Royal punched the Kestrel’s buttons
and the pocket-size device yielded
wind direction and speed, tempera-
ture and barometric pressure, also the
direction and vertical angle to a rac-
coon-size rock on a ridge 200 yards off.
“You can start there.”
I unsheathed my .308, a Boundary
lightweight bolt rifle from Spring-
field Armory. It had proven accurate
and pleasant to fire on my range. Over
sandbags prone, through its Leupold
VX-6HD 3-18x44, the rock looked
pretty vulnerable. My first bullet blew
shards from point of aim.
EASY PEASY
“Child’s play,” muttered Royal, who
mercifully spares cobbles that close. He
directed me to a smaller rock at 300
yards. I dialed elevation, shaded for
slight breeze. Another hit.
We paused briefly as the Kestrel
chewed through numbers that
OPTICS
At the bench, NEGC’s open sights on a
Shilen-barreled Mauser in .338 gave
Wayne this group — but it was not good
enough in Wyoming!
How much distance do you
want? This country tests the
limits of any ri e, load or shooter!
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 19
mattered at 700 yards: My bullet’s
ballistic coefficient, muzzle veloci-
ty from the Garmin, rising ambient
temperature under morning’s sun.
The rifle settled. Bang! Not quite
enough windage.
At 1,000 yards I ran the eleva-
tion dial to its stop, just shy of the
required lift. I’d have to shade the
rest. Stukey smiled. “You need a
scope with a MOA reticle. As on my
rifle and in this spotting scope. We’re
not even to 1,300 yards, and already
you gotta guess.” He shook his head.
Bullet strikes at 1,000 showed
not just the increasing influence of
gravity, drag and wind, but my inabil-
ity to precisely adjust for them. “Your
turn,” I said.
My pal consulted the Kestrel again,
noting minute atmospheric shifts. His
6.5 in hand, he spun the Nightforce’s
elevation dial a couple of revolutions,
then uncoiled his lanky frame on the
blanket beside the bags. He snapped
open a box of handloads: fresh Lapua
brass with 140-grain Berger Hybrid
Target bullets stoked to 2,645fps. As
I nudged the spotting scope’s reticle
to the 1,000-yard rock and called the
mirage as I saw it, he settled onto the
Sterling’s adjustable comb. We talked
through the ripples as they boiled, then
reversed, aware that we saw the most
visible currents, not necessarily the
most influential. At last the shifts gave
way to a relaxed flow. A long second
after the report, dust flew from the
stone’s middle. “Good shot!” I yelped,
duly impressed.
Pestering rocks at 1,300 yards with
the 6.5, we leaned on the Kestrel’s
data, minding too the rifle’s natural
point of aim and a scope-side bubble
level. The Garmin showed velocities
were remarkably consistent. “Details
matter out yonder,” said Royal. Even
at 22x, basketball-size rocks 1,300
yards off appear small. Each spans
less than 1 MOA.
Stukey lasered the next geolog-
ic victim at 1,690 yards, not quite a
mile. Dialing his scope to its zenith,
he added 9 minutes using the reti-
cle’s 1-minute hash-marks. The wind
was taking a nap. I kept my eye to the
spotting scope after the blast — those
bullets were aloft for 3.2 seconds!
Descending steeply, his first booted
dust from the rock face little more than
a hand’s width to 5 o’clock. He turned
and grinned. “Kinda fun!”
LEANING OCCURS
And instructive. To land bullets
consistently near small targets that far
off, you need not only an accurate rifle
and ammunition, but high-magnifica-
tion glass and MOA (or MIL) reticles in
both rifle-scope and spotting scope. A
partner who can intelligently call con-
ditions and strikes is a big help. Stukey
is sold on his Kestrel too. “It’s a ballis-
tic brain. It quickly marries relevant
ammo data to atmospheric conditions.
You get scope settings that bring the
bullet’s arc on target. Without it, you’d
be guessing, and firing a lot of expen-
sive loads to walk bullets in.”
Royal, I learned long ago, is a per-
fectionist. His shooting benches, and
now his adjustable rifle rests, evidence
painstaking engineering and top-
level machining skills. Inexpensive
they’re not. But Stukey’s standards
don’t brook compromise. Sandbags
on a card table can give your .30-30 a
zero for the deer woods. But smacking
1-MOA targets at four-figure yardage
begs attention to small details in
equipment and in technique.
No, making gravel from stones at
1,690 steps is not a spiritual event.
It won’t cheer every hunter whose
last important bullet missed a beast
as big as a bathtub at 165 yards. But
after three hours on that shale bench,
and fewer than 20 shots, we were
both smiling.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
A ballistic computer, the Kestrel talks Bluetooth
with the SIG bino. The Garmin uses radar to
gauge bullet velocities. “They all help when
you’re trying to hit at a mile,” says Royal Stukey.
20 FEBRUARY 2025
WONDERFUL WALNUT
A TRIP THROUGH THE LUMBERYARD
Tom Keer
I
had to suppress my glee at
Susan’s misfortune. Evidently,
one of those pesky fall hurri-
canes toppled the 100-year-old black
walnut tree growing in her yard and
she didn’t know what to do about it.
I did, for while I was talking with
her about the tree, I was emailing
my stock-making buddies to see how
they wanted it cut up. Their responses
came back instantly, and Susan and
I agreed that the following week I’d
drive the 10 hours to her home, cut it
up and get it off of her lawn.
The day prior to my departure I
rang up Susan.
“Hey, just letting you know that I’ll
see you tomorrow,” I said.
“What’s the occasion for the sur-
prise?” she asked.
“I’m coming to cut up that black
walnut tree in your yard.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you, but
there’s no need,” she said. “I had
it cut up and split the day after we
spoke. Now I’ve got three winters’
worth of firewood! But what time
should I expect you, and is Angela
coming, too?”
THE DILEMMA
If you’ve framed recently with
some 2x4s then you might have
noticed their quality is quite a bit dif-
ferent from those you bought in the
past. These days, to satisfy increased
lumber demands, trees are being cut
before they’re mature. All trees have
dense, strong heartwood in the center
and softer, weaker sapwood in the
outer rim. The older the tree the more
heartwood and the more heartwood,
the better the quality. Trees harvested
when they’re young results in lumber
with more sapwood. When it comes to
lumber as with Scotch, patience really
is a virtue.
Of the many different types of
wood usable for firearm stocks, walnut
became the de facto choice. Walnut is a
hardwood that withstands the outdoor
environment, handling the hot and
cold as well as the wet and the dry. It
has a tight grain and handles heavy
working while maintaining its shape
when dried.
Drying is a process that isn’t
rushed. Stock makers initiate drying
by staking wood so that air can cir-
culate easily. The stacks will be left
alone for between a few months and
a few years. When the initial mois-
ture is removed, the wood is dried in
a kiln for up to a week. The goal is to
achieve between 7% and 8% moisture
in the wood.
Walnut achieved its popularity
honestly. The denseness of the wood
helps absorb shock from recoil, can
be fashioned to create a robust Bea-
vertail forend, a Monte Carlo stock,
a splinter forend or straight English
stock. Select from a variety of grades
ranging from a simple, functional
blank to highly figured piece of art.
THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT
Various species of walnut trees
grow in many different counties,
meaning many types of walnut are
available to small gun shops as well
as large manufacturers worldwide.
English walnut has excellent figur-
ing and has been a favorite of stock
makers for a long time. American
walnut is equally popular and has
appeared on many shotguns for over
a century. In the past several decades
there has been an increase in the
use of Turkish walnut, with highly
prized qualities being its durability
and unique grain patterns.
Circassian walnut continues to
be popular and is appreciated for
the distinctive black lines that offer
interesting marbling. Other popular
walnuts are French, Claro, Califor-
nia and Bastogne.
When looking at a piece of walnut,
most folks refer to its figure. Figure
SHOTGUNS
English walnut matched with gorgeous
case colors is a hallmark of Continental
shotguns. Photo: Nancy Anis eld
This Cosmi stock’s exquisite color and
gure matches the uniqueness of the
shotgun itself.
Companies offer four or five different
grades while others can feature up to
a dozen. Some use words to describe
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 21
describes the wood’s aesthetic char-
acteristics. Figure can appear as a
ribbon, a swirl or a wave. You’ll also
see what are called mineral lines and
they are straight or slightly wavy.
Mineral lines come by their name
honestly as they are the lines formed
from the type of minerals found in
the soil where the tree grew.
A PASSING GRADE
Lots of different grades are used
to describe the wood’s grain, color,
an interesting figure or a blemish
that might be on one or on both
sides. Some confusion may come as
they are often described differently.
the grade while others use letters,
numbers or both.
The first point of entry is the Field
Grade. The grains in these stocks are
straight, but the color is uniform and
there is little, if any, figure. They are
durable and economical, and these
Plain Janes help keep down a shotgun’s
cost. Fancy grades have sharper grain
patterns with hints of color. About 25%
of the stock has figure. Extra Fancy has
an increasing amount of figure and
color, with closer to 50% of the figure
appearing on the stock. Exhibition
Grade is the stunning top shelf wood,
with outstanding color and lines, with
75% of the stock being highly figured.
There are variations within these four
categories, and if you’re getting stock
work done then be sure to understand
the criterion for the grades.
Anything done in moderation
shows a lack of interest. Truth be
told, I wanted a piece of Susan’s Black
walnut for a Parker VH I was going
to restock. It didn’t work out, but I
fell in love with an Exhibition grade
slab that should have been used on
a Parker high-grade gun. On one
shoulder was a voice that said to
stay “period correct” and go with
a simple, economical Field Grade
American walnut. But the voice on
my other shoulder said we only go
around once in life but if we do it
right, then once is enough. I went for
it and had the Exhibition Grade stock
made to my dimensions. I smile every
time I pull her from a case, and these
days it’s worth a whole lot more than
the price of admission.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
Stock makers like the ease of working with walnut. CNC machines can be
programmed to work with it, too. Photo: Upland Gun Company
Walnut is the de facto choice
of wood for shotgun stocks.
There are a dozen different
types and grades of the wood.
Photo: Upland Gun Company
22 FEBRUARY 2025
THE RIB SHACK
IN THE SHADOW OF EMMETT TILL
Will Dabbs, MD
I
recently had a bro weekend way
out in the sticks with my dad, two
brothers and a nephew. On the
drive out to the cabin, my youngest
brother and I entertained each other.
He had recently heard a presentation
from an African American minis-
ter who had been a childhood friend
of Emmett Till. The talk had been a
first-person description of the horri-
ble events surrounding Till’s murder.
A DARK AND BROKEN TIME
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old
black kid from Chicago who came
down to Mississippi for the summer
in 1955. There were allegations he had
somehow offended a local married
white woman. Emmett was subse-
quently abducted, beaten and shot to
death by the woman’s husband and
his half-brother.
These two men were acquitted at
their subsequent trial. In an exclu-
sive story they sold for $4,000 to Look
Magazine in 1956, they subsequently
admitted to the crime. By then they
were protected against double jeopar-
dy and got away with it clean.
The details of that tale just broke
my heart as it happened a mere 11
years before I was born. Americans of
sundry races get along quite well in my
little corner of heaven nowadays. It was
tough for me to believe my world could
ever have been so barbaric. I was beset
with a case of melancholia most sordid
as a result.
THE CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU
The weekend was simply epic. My
nephew killed the most impressive
whitetail deer I have ever seen. He
was in the woods less than half an
hour before he stuck that monster
with an arrow. You’d have thought
he won the lottery.
We all stayed up too late swap-
ping lies and watching my dad’s old
football highlight films. Dad was a
football star back in the day and once
had a spread in Sports Illustrated. He
is pretty awesome.
This is a really rural part of Alabama
and there were exactly two places to get
food. One was a gas station. The other
was a simply cracking BBQ place called
the Rib Shack. What we found there
restored my faith in humanity.
SHOOTER’S Rx
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 23
The place was clean, quaint and
popular. A sign in the kitchen read,
“Best in Town.” Given this was the
only restaurant for maybe 30 miles, it
was not a specious claim. However, the
Rib Shack did serve what was arguably
the finest barbecue I have ever eaten.
The Rib Shack is a family business.
The patriarch/cook is an enormous
black man with ample dreadlocks. He
keeps his flowing dreads tucked inside
a pillowcase while he cooks. The man’s
daughter ran the register. His wife
clearly ran absolutely everything, to
include the cook.
The place was packed with patrons
of all shapes, sizes and hues. The
building was alive with laughter and
conviviality. There was a great deal of,
“Nice to see you, Joe. How’s the wife?”
going back and forth irrespective of
ethnic lines. All were clearly pretty
stoked about their pending lunch.
In the context of our Emmett Till
discussion, I found the whole scene
refreshing. Here was an entire build-
ing’s worth of multi-colored humanity
all brought together with the common
goal of securing some simply superla-
tive pig meat. There was not a spot of
acrimony or racial discord to be found
anyplace. Then I noticed it.
Hanging on a nail back in the kitchen
in full view of the patrons was a superbly
accessorized 9mm AR pistol. The stubby
little gun sported a pistol stabilizing
brace, a 33-round GLOCK magazine, a
nice piece of tactical glass, and a pleas-
ing OD Cerakote finish. I do this for a
living and this gun was done up right.
That’s when it hit me.
What happened to Emmett Till will
never happen again, at least not down
here in the Deep South. The reason is
not some profound racial enlighten-
ment, though that is perhaps part of it.
The reason innocent 14-year-old black
kids will never again be lynched down
here is because the restaurant owner
with those epic dreads keeps a locked
and loaded 9mm AR pistol hanging
on a nail in the kitchen of his thriving
little business.
I rather suspect if anyone ever
complained about the gun they would
be encouraged to take their busi-
ness elsewhere (you recall this is the
only restaurant in town). If anyone
was stupid enough to try to rob the
place, the lethal combination of the
AR pistol and Lord-only-knows how
many concealed carriers would put
paid to that nonsense in short order.
And, if anybody got an itch to lynch
somebody, the entire little communi-
ty would turn out en masse to make it
right. And that, my friends, is the real
reason behind the Second Amend-
ment to the U.S. Constitution.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
Will says this is the reason
there will never be another
Emmett Till murder in
America, because the
Second Amendment to the
Constitution is our
society’s ultimate fail-safe.
During an “epic bro
weekend,” Will’s
nephew arrowed this
incredible whitetail
buck. Meanwhile,
Will’s dad willfully
claimed the massive
deer in a picture for
his buddies back
home. Now we knows
where Will “gets it.”
24 FEBRUARY 2025
Dave Anderson
It’s late October as I write this. On
the northern prairies harvest is
finished. Days are getting shorter
and colder. The leaves have long since
fallen; the first snowfall of winter is
not far away. It’s not everyone’s favor-
ite time of year but I like it. I like
the bright crisp days; I like bring-
ing in the last of the garden produce
or following the dog through wheat
stubble looking for partridges. Even
the short days have compensations. I
enjoy relaxing in a comfy chair in the
evening, reading old books or a stack
of old outdoor magazines, with coffee
on the sideboard and the dog sleeping
with his head across my feet.
We even find time to watch videos.
One has to keep up with the times. I
was fascinated by how much inter-
est there is in nostalgia, self-reliance,
a longing for simpler times. Living
“off the grid” is a recurring theme.
There’s a natural tendency to roman-
ticize the past, to remember the good
and overlook the bad. We watched
a few episodes of a “reality” show
in which 10 survival experts are
set down individually in a wilder-
ness area to see who can survive the
longest. They have satellite phones
and can “tap out” whenever it gets
too tough. Medics visit at intervals to
monitor contestants’ health.
RIFLE REALITY
For some reason, they are not
allowed firearms, which told me at
once this is just a game. If you’re
serious about surviving, you have a
RIFLES
REAL SURVIVORS
SOMETIMES IT’S NOT A GAME …
Much of North America is still wild. And you don’t have to go far
to nd wilderness. It’s right there, ve miles past the last
shopping mall. In America you can fall out of a tree stand, break
a leg and die of exposure within sight of the New York city
skyline. Or spend the morning in a theme park with thousands
of people, and get lost in the Everglades the same afternoon.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 25
rifle. As John Steinbeck wrote in The
Grapes of Wrath — “Wouldn’t go out
naked of a rifle. When your Grandpa
came to this land he had salt, and
pepper, and a rifle. When shoes and
clothes and food, when even hope is
gone, we’ll have the rifle.”
As games go, this one is better than
most, with perhaps as much reality
as the times permit. It doesn’t flinch
from showing animals being killed
and processed into food. Some of the
contestants had good bushcraft skills.
Many talk TV/movie jargon: “Failure
is not an option,” “The bears should
be afraid of me,” “I’m full of grit and
never quit.” For non-quitters, they sure
seemed to tap out quickly. Some didn’t
last even one full day.
As it happened, I had recently read
a story in an old magazine (Outdoor
Life, May 1967) called “I Had To Have
A Moose” by Olive Fredrickson, co-
written by the great Ben East. The
stark contrast between this actual
survivor and modern day game
players was striking. Olive Fredrick-
son was widowed at age 26 when her
husband drowned after his canoe
capsized. It was the late 1920s. She
was left with a quarter-section of
unimproved bush in northern British
Columbia and a log shack. No money,
little food, fewer survival assets than
the TV contestants. Oh, and three
children age five and under.
The nearest town was 27 miles
away and she could get there only by
walking. She was 5'2" and weighed 112
lbs. She survived — and thrived — for
13 years. Not hours or days or weeks.
Years. She only left because she remar-
ried and her new husband had a good
job in a small city, where she lived out
a long life in relative comfort.
When the story appeared, readers
were incredulous. Five more stories
of her life were published, written
with the assistance of Ben East. The
stories were organized into a book
called The Silence of the North and
later into a movie.
TRUE GRIT
Olive Fredrickson didn’t have the
bushcraft skills many boast of today.
She recalled, “I planted a vegetable
garden and started a hay meadow.…
It was all hard work, day in and day
out, dragging myself off to bed when
dark came and crawling out at day-
light to begin another day. But at
least my babies and I had something
to eat.”
Then the food supply ran out and
as the story title said, she had to have
a moose. She couldn’t leave the chil-
dren home alone. “We weren’t hunting
for fun. It was early summer, and the
crop of vegetables I had planted in
our garden was growing, but there
was nothing ready for use yet, and we
were out of food.”
She didn’t have the option of
tapping out, or medical care or a life-
line for help. What she did have was an
unbending will and limitless courage
— and a Winchester 94 .30-30, and
four cartridges.
In the novel Brown on Resolution,
author C.S. Forester wrote: “Brown was
only powerful in consequence of his
rifle, the handiest, neatest, most effi-
cient piece of machinery ever devised
by man … Brown was not a marvel-
ously good shot … but he could handle
his weapon in good workmanlike
fashion; and the rifle asks no more.”
Like the fictional Brown, Olive
Fredrickson was not a marvelously
good shot but she was good enough,
and the rifle asks no more. Yes, she
killed a moose, a young bull. “I had
always hated to kill anything … I
was close to tears. But I reminded
myself that it had to be done to feed
the children, and I wiped my eyes and
explained to them as best I could.”
She field dressed and skinned it on
her own, normally a task two strong
men won’t soon forget. She cooked
some moose meat and they feasted. By
then it was full dark, too late to move
the meat back to the cabin. She spread
a tarp on which the children could
sleep. Then she sat awake all night,
watching over her children, with the
rifle and two remaining cartridges in
case of predators, and a willow branch
to wave mosquitoes away. Next day she
got the meat home and canned it. It
kept the family alive until the garden
produce was ready.
God bless all mothers.
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
“… the handiest, neatest,
most efficient piece of
machinery ever devised by
man …” Dave’s Ruger
stainless steel Gunsite Scout
rie in .308 Win. with
detachable 10-round
magazine and Leupold scope.
If your life, and the lives of your
children, depended on it, could
you kill and process a moose?
How about without a rie?
26 FEBRUARY 2025
Frank Jardim
In 1919, Swedish born Oscar F.
Mossberg and his sons Iver and
Alan founded the company we
know today in a small rented loft. They
did so with inventive genius and tech-
nical innovation, solid engineering and
manufacturing skill, tremendous hard
work and a focus on making quality
affordable guns. Mossberg’s objective
was to give the buyers of their firearms,
“More Gun For The Money.”
During World War II, Mossberg
had to set aside civilian market pro-
duction to support the war effort, but
they didn’t stop thinking of ways to
improve their product line. At the end
of hostilities, they applied those new
ideas to update their pre-war designs.
THE DAWN OF MAN(NLICHER)
The Model 151M was one of
these improved products, specifical-
ly an improved Model 51M — their
immensely popular 15-shot tubular
magazine semi-automatic rifle with
Mannlicher style stock that first hit
the market in late 1939. The “M” in
the model designation stood for Mann-
licher stock.
A Mannlicher stock runs the full
length of the forend and was associat-
ed with expensive European hunting
rifles. Harold Mossberg understood a
great deal of the Mannlicher stock’s
extra cost was in the extra-long stock
blank required to make it. He pat-
ented the idea of using a two-piece
stock joined by a simple sheet metal
stamping to create a low-cost stylis-
tic facsimile. Consumers must have
thought it classed the rifle up, because
these stocks remained very popular on
the post-war rifles.
The 151M was manufactured
from 1946 to 1958. I don’t have hard
numbers to back this up, but I’ll bet
Mossberg sold more .22 rifles with
their faux, two-piece Mannlicher
stocks in the approximately 14 years
they produced them than the total
combined number of all the other
sporting rifles sold with real Mann-
licher stocks.
The Model 151M had a slimmer
stock than the older 51M, a redesigned
bolt and improved action with a stur-
dier firing pin, a new elevation and
windage adjustable S-107 rear sight.
Most innovative of all were the “V”
grooves cut along the length of the
receiver’s left and right side to clamp
scope mounts onto. This type of scope
mount is called a tip-off mount and
was very popular on low-recoiling rim-
fires for decades.
SURPLUS & CLASSIC
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
MOSSBERG MODEL 151M
POST WAR MASTERPIECE FOR THE WORKING MAN
Many WWII draftees learned to shoot on a Mossberg .22 ri e in training, which
probably biased them in favor of the brand after the war. Here the author’s son poses
for a photograph next to the family car.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 27
Mossberg pioneered the concept
of mounting optics without having
to drill and tap the receiver. Not
only was this more efficient for the
shooter, but it made it easier for
Mossberg to sell them scopes as a
DIY upgrade.
Other 151M features carrying
over from the 51M were Mossberg’s
excellent adjustable rear peep sights.
They could be attached by screws at
two or three different distances from
the eye as best suited to the shooter
and folded out of the way when open
sights were preferred. The high cost
of Lyman peep sights was the driving
force behind Mossberg developing
their own, more economical designs
utilizing stamped steel parts to
replace expensive machined compo-
nents. The substitution of stampings
for milled parts became common
in military arms developed during
World War II, but Mossberg was
already there. In fact, if you dismount
the action from the stock on a pre-war
51M rifle, you’ll see Mossberg was
utilizing manufacturing techniques
advanced for the firearm industry at
the time. Such techniques included
heavy sheet metal stampings in the
fire control components and welding
the machined feed lips to the mag-
azine tube support running through
the buttstock.
When it was introduced in 1946,
the Model 151M retailed for $30.90,
which in today’s dollars is equivalent
to $403.24. This was Mossberg’s top-
of-the-line semi-auto .22 rifle at a time
when semi-autos were notably more
expensive than bolt actions. To get a
real sense of what Mossberg was offer-
ing, we need to compare the 151M to
one of its contemporaries, the semi-
automatic Winchester Model 74.
In 1954, the Mossberg 151M cost
$34.95 and the Winchester 74 cost
$39.20. In today’s dollars the $4.25
difference between them equals
$46.68. Both were semi-automatic
with a tubular magazine in the butt-
stock, both were equipped with open
sights and walnut stocks.
TALE OF THE TAPE
The 151M had a 20" barrel and
weighed 7 lbs., while the Model 74
had a 22" barrel but less stock and so
weighed 6.5 lbs. The Mossberg 151M
cost 11% less than the Winchester but
had many standard features that the
costlier rifle did not. The Winchester
had no sling swivels or mounts for
them. Not only did the Mossberg come
with front and rear sling swivels, but
they were an advanced quick-detach-
able type of their own patented design.
The Winchester had a 14-round
magazine while the Mossberg had
a 15-round magazine. The Win-
chester had a single, exposed front
sight post while the Mossberg offered
the shooter the option of switching
between four different front sight
posts with the flick of a fingertip, and
the whole assembly was protected and
shielded from glare by a removable
sheet metal hood.
The Winchester’s rear sight used
a conventional stepped wedge for
elevation. Mossberg’s rear sight
used a clever and easier to manip-
ulate spring-loaded sliding tangent
mechanism that permitted more
precise elevation adjustments. The
rear sight notch could be switched
between “V” notch, “U” notch and
peep options by loosening the mount-
ing screw and rotating the rear sight
notch plate. The Winchester had a
slab sided buttstock while the Moss-
berg Mannlicher stock had a raised
cheek piece. Finally, the Mossberg
came with a precision click-adjustable
receiver mounted peep sight similar
in function to the Lyman microme-
ter adjustable sights of the day costing
$6 to $7 in addition to the cost and
trouble of drilling and tapping the
receiver to mount them.
On top of all those extra features,
the Mossberg 151M with its stock
sculpting around the receiver and
pistol grip is reminiscent of the French
Bertheir rifles of World War I, and its
molded plastic finger groove trigger
guard was a much classier and mod-
ern-looking rifle than the Winchester.
Without a doubt, it was “More Gun For
Your Money.”
The semi-automatic 151M was made
from 1946 to 1958 and was one of
Mossberg’s most popular guns.
Mossberg 22 ries were the cat’s meow in post-war America … and so much fun.
Efficiently designed, innovative and well made, they offered the recreational
shooters a lot of value for their dollar.
Something Only
The Engineers Knew!
Brad Miller
I’ve been monkeying around with S&W J-Frame
revolvers recently, looking at bobbing the hammer
on a 637-2 Airweight 38 Special. The 637 is a single/
double-action 5-shot revolver. I was wondering how
much of the spur I could cut off and still leave enough
metal it wouldn’t weaken the part that hits the firing pin.
I looked at a hammer for S&W’s “hammerless” Cen-
tennial revolvers like the Model 642, to see if that might
be a guide to how much material needed to remain to
still keep the hammer strong. The 642 has a concealed
hammer and is therefore double action only, since there
is no way to cock the hammer for single action.
The internal hammer (reddish)
of the 642-2 cocked to single
action. The trigger is greenish
and the yellow arrow marks
the single action sears.
28 FEBRUARY 2025
I was looking at hammer pictures when something
caught my eye. It wasn’t the hammer nose; however, it was
at the other end, the bottom of the hammer. It was the sear
cut. They looked the same on 637 and 642 hammers. That
is, it looked like the sear on the 642 hammer had the same
cut for single action as the 637 hammer. But how could that
be? The 642 is double action only.
Do 642 hammers really have a single action sear? There
was one way to find out. I happen to have a recent production
Model 642-2. I grabbed it and took the side plate off. Well,
I’ll be damned — the 642 hammer is cut for single action!
Does it work? Yes! With the side plate off, the hammer
can be cocked to single action. Hilarious! Of course, this
can’t happen unless the trigger also has a single-action-
capable sear. The 642’s trigger does.
I put the 642 hammer in the 637. It works there, too,
single or double action. I don’t know if all of S&W’s ham-
merless hammers have the single action cut as I only have
the current production hammers.
Who knew that S&W’s double action only J-Frame
hammers had a single action sear cut!? Well, S&W knew.
And now you do, too.
The hammerless Model 642 (front)
and the Model 637 (rear).
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 29
30 FEBRUARY 2025
As a general rule, I break the shooting sports
industry into two broad groups — hunters that
shoot or shooters that hunt.
It’s marketing that pays the bills, the writing bit is
just fanciful moonlighting where I convince myself I’m
channeling some wayward universal remnant of Ruark
or Hemingway. While wearing my marketing hat, I have
to decide who I’m talking to, the hunters or the shoot-
ers. While they both have some carryover of the other’s
thinking, they are very different creatures.
REAL ROMANCE
The hunter is the romantic. That may not be the first
word that comes to mind when you picture Ed, or Jim,
or Marge headed to their deer blind. It’s not exactly a
Lady-and-the-Tramp Endeavor, the pursuit of wild game.
That is, you wouldn’t think so if you haven’t spent much
time talking to hunters. Most any of them have tales of
fathers or grandfathers, quests for wild beasts, challenges
overcome, victory in the face of certain failure. No, don’t
mistake it, these are romantics.
The shooters though, these are the tacticians. I wouldn’t
call them all cold or unfeeling, certainly not to their face.
They do have a bit of a distance to them, though. They
have reams of ballistic information, handload configura-
tions, dope charts, and bullet weights stored physically or
mentally. These are data-driven souls. Their minds aren’t
changed or opinions influenced by some flippant anecdotes
or whimsical tale of valor.
“Just the facts, ma’am,” as Joe Friday may or may not
have said.
So, when a gun like the Ruger American Gen II
comes along and I sit here in my basement cave think-
ing about who it appeals to and how, I’m struck dumb
at the notion it just might serve both sides of the ledger
without any compromise.
The only thing better than a great original is a well-done
sequel. Who among us doesn’t love to see our favorite film
franchise run it back for a second go-round? The first-
generation Ruger American was somewhat of a watershed
moment itself.
I’ve been blessed to have come of age during the height
of firearm technology and development. I remember being
dumbfounded when the budget-rifle boom was happening.
Ruger, Remington and Savage were delivering solid rifles
at prices consumers loved. These rifles weren’t the glossy-
stocked sexed-up tarts of yesteryear, they were utilitarian
workhorses and they all flat-out shot.
Trent Marsh
Photos: Rob Jones
The Imagesmith LLC
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 31
Sometimes
the Sequel
is Even Better!
PLAYING FAVS
Many will tell you their favorite of the bunch was that
first-generation Ruger American.
A lot of this first wave of high-performing budget
rifles are approaching 10 years old. Not that 10 is an
old gun, but even the romantics like to freshen things
up occasionally. Maybe pass a rifle down to a child or
grandchild. It’s all about the next generation, right? Lit-
erally and figuratively.
The Ruger American Gen II doesn’t betray its roots. This
isn’t an ultra-modern, skeletonized, chassis version of the
bolt gun so many have come to love. The lines are that of
a classic bolt gun with a few notable upgrades to make it
modern and comfortable.
The synthetic stock has a splatter finish that isn’t just a
style choice, it does provide some extra purchase on the rifle
and helps break up the block of color. There’s also a remov-
able spacer pre-installed allowing the length of pull to be
adjusted down to 12" from 13.75. A low comb also comes on
the stock, which for me provided a virtually perfect cheek
weld in multiple shooting positions. Ruger also provides
additional options for the spacer and comb to further cus-
tomize the fit.
The oversized bolt handle may be a small departure from
the classics but it allows the action to be worked easily from
multiple angles and even the off-side hand.
While the gun I tested was chambered in the newfan-
gled 6.5 Creedmoor, there is no shortage of options when
32 FEBRUARY 2025
RUGER
AMERICAN 2
GEAR LIST
Scope: Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x
Rings: Seekins Precision
Binos: Vortex Razor HD 10x42
Ammo: Ammo Inc. Hunt LR 129-grain SST
Rifle Case: SKD 4909 Single Rifle Case
Saddle and tack gear courtesy of
Lehigh Valley Trail Rides in Bath, PA
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 33
The splatter-nish composite stock
hides the gun without trying to look too
“tacti-cool” and offers grippy texture
without being obnoxious.
34 FEBRUARY 2025
it comes to chamberings. For the romantics among us, .308
Win, .223 Rem, .204 Ruger, 7mm-08 Rem, .243 Win, .30-06
Springfield, .270 Win and .300 Win Mag are all options in
the standard configuration tested.
FOR THE TACTICIANS
The Ruger American Gen II is a fine piece of shooting
technology. They were already efficient and reliable fire-
arms. However, the latest iteration is a true crossover rifle
that doesn’t sacrifice design or durability to go to the field,
but is more than capable of performing on the bench.
Of particular note is the Ruger Marksman Adjust-
able trigger, adjustable between 3 and 5 lbs. I found the
trigger to be quite a treat to shoot. The first stage take
up was smooth and free of grit or catch, while the break
of the second stage was crisp and lacked any noticeable
creep. A set of 10 pulls on my trigger pull gauge ranged
from 3.86 lbs. to 4.22 lbs.
The action is also incredibly smooth and
without wobble or slop. I was able to run
the action with either hand, which isn’t
the case on many bolt guns. The oversized
bolt handle helps but so does the one-piece
stainless steel bolt design.
The barrel design is always worth
mentioning. The fluting is both attractive
and functional, saving weight on the overall
package. As you would expect, Ruger uses their Power
Bedding integral bedding block system to secure the
receiver and float said barrel. The accuracy comes
through. More on this in a bit.
For those tacticians who appreciate the latest caliber
offerings and pour over ballistic charts to find the one
that suits them perfectly, the standard configuration is
available in some of those sexy modern variants like the
6.5 Creedmoor tested, as well as the 350 and 400 Legend,
6mm ARC, 6.5 Grendel, 6mm Creedmoor, 450 Bushmas-
ter, 6.5 PRC, 7mm PRC and 22 ARC.
ON THE RANGE
The Ruger American Gen II is just a pleasure to shoot.
Whether off-hand, standing from a tripod, prone or from
a table, the ergonomics of the rifle allow for multiple shoot-
ing positions without discomfort. Granted, the 6.5 isn’t an
especially heavy hitting round but you can still usually find
a shooting position where the recoil results in a pinch or
punch leading to discomfort. I did not find a position where
that was the case.
The attractive factory-installed
radial port muzzle brake
reduces recoil or removes to
allow for a silencer.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 35
As mentioned, the trigger was a real pleasure to shoot,
and very easy to get comfortable with as the pull was very
repeatable and reliable.
After getting on paper with some bulk-quality ammuni-
tion, I moved over to the better stuff for groups at 100 and
200 yards. I was a bit surprised the Gen II preferred the
Winchester Deer Season XP to the Hornady Match ELP, as
this was the first 6.5 Creedmoor rifle I’ve shot where this
was the case.
Both shot perfectly acceptable groups, but the three best
three-shot groups with the Winchester Deer Season XP aver-
aged just 0.86" with the smallest coming in at 0.74" center
to center.
The three best three-shot groups with the Hornady
ammunition averaged 1.07" and the best group snuck in
just under an inch at 0.98".
Being safely under the sub-MOA threshold with
hunting ammunition, even at 100 yards, is nothing
to sneeze at. Social media and the internet have reli-
ably informed us virtually everyone you see at the
range is shooting sub-MOA groups with regularity,
and failure to do so means you should walk away from
shooting in shame. However, I’ve spent enough time
on the range with enough shooters and rifles to tell
you the number of sub-MOA capable guns isn’t nearly
as high as you would be led to believe. The number of
sub-MOA shooters is even lower.
There was nothing approaching a red flag or issue while
on the range. I expected it to be a shooter based on the per-
formance of the first-generation American. It did not betray
its heritage.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Typically, when someone says, “the times, they are
a changing,” it’s said with a tone of lament or long-
ingness. When it comes to the quality of firearms we
have today, the changing times mean we are living in
a golden age of accuracy, quality and reliability.
Finding a true lemon of a modern gun is all but
impossible these days. The vast majority is well above ser-
viceable and every so often, a true standout comes along.
That’s the Ruger American Gen II. Unlike so many
sequels or remakes, the second-generation rifle was
very clearly a deliberate reinvention of an already suc-
cessful franchise. Incorporating the latest technology
and design elements with tried-and-true bones, it is a
rifle for virtually any occasion.
It’s traditional enough to be at home in the deer
blind, without any fluff or silliness that tends to cause
more problems than it solves — and advanced enough
to enter the realm of crossover rifles capable of doing
the work of precision pieces.
Make no mistake — finding a lemon is hard to do
these days, but so is finding something that actually
stands apart from the crowd. When you consider all
Ruger has delivered with the Gen II rifle at an MSRP
of just $729 (street prices around $500), it becomes
very difficult to figure who doesn’t have room for one
in their safe.
Ultimately, both romantics and tacticians alike can find
a reason to embrace the Ruger American Gen II.
Ruger.com
Some models feature an extended magazine release (left) while others utilize an AR-style magazine, depending on the
chambering. The comb and length of pull are both adjustable to whatever sights you choose. The one-piece stainless
steel bolt (right) is CNC machined from stainless steel and uses a 3-lug design for a 70º throw to clear most optics. The
bolt handle uses a 5/16-24 thread for easy swapping.
36 FEBRUARY 2025
Clayton Walker
Though I turned 41 this year, I’d hazard I’m still
among the youngest contributors here at GUNS —
a motley crew consisting of a number of veteran
writers I grew up reading. Today, I’m about to let you,
dear reader, in on a secret I’ve kept from some of the fellas
I revere because I feared it might lead to a few frowny
faces. So here goes — when it comes to the single action
revolver, I could take it or leave it.
HERESY!
Part of this is cultural, I think. Growing up in the ’80s
and ’90s, a lot of my entertainment consumption was far
more Die Hard than Gunsmoke. More Heat than Hondo, as
it were. I’ve read a few takes on the decline of the Western as
one correlates with the vanishing of any new “frontiers” left
to discover, and of a general cynicism towards the notion
of American or moral leadership. Whatever the case, it was
my father’s generation who watched The Rifleman on TV
and played Cowboys and Indians in the backyards of Sub-
urbia — not mine.
Nevertheless, I have come to find myself in a position
where I like and respect single action revolvers and all of
their idiosyncrasies, even though I may never love them.
FIRST, THE GRIPS
In 99% of all cases, to shoot the single action revolver
well is to make peace with its plowhandle stocks. For just
about everyone who has grown up with an autoloader or
The single-action revolver has been written off
by a large percentage of younger shooters who
grew up with striker-red 9mms, but some are
rediscovering the joys of “anachronism.”
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 37
substantial muzzle break — not a grip shape that rolled
in the hand. You’ll find similar design specs on most
other big-bore magnums.
I owned a single action revolver for years in .45 Colt
— many argue this is the “one true caliber” for any SAA
or SAA clone. Simply put, I just didn’t like putting up
with all the shoving and rolling it wanted to do. It’s one
of the few guns I’ve sold and have very few regrets about
doing so. It just wasn’t for me.
THE GOOD
First, I will say this: Supposing you’re willing to
commit heresy with respect to caliber, one’s
concerns about recoil behavior can be mit-
igated by finding something with smaller
holes in the cylinder. If one just wants to
mess about with some manner of single
action revolver and is unwilling to change
the (otherwise helpful) habit of gripping
every handgun as firmly as possible without
inducing a tremor, shooting .38 Special or
.22LR through these designs is indeed a lot
of fun.
I have also come to appreciate the level
of mechanical engagement the single
action revolver requires of its user. Nothing
happens automatically here. Cartridges must
be loaded one at a time. Hammers must be
methodically cocked to provide them with
DA revolver designed since 1900, the grip is bound to feel
foreign. It provides much less to hang on to, sits relatively
narrow in the hand and positions almost all of the mass
of the gun well past one’s knuckles. Some have argued
the grip makes these guns instinctive pointers — I find it
takes concerted effort to stop the gun from nose diving.
Additionally, the gun was designed such that under
heavy recoil, it would roll up in the hand. This is theo-
retically convenient, as it puts the hammer nearer to the
shooter’s thumb and allows the user to drive the gun back
down and onto target fast and instinctively. I have also
heard it said single action revolvers make big bore shoot-
ing less punishing since the recoil
forces are distributed over a longer
amount of time through the roll.
Speaking personally and having
learned my best shooting comes from
holding pistols with a “do it like you
mean it”-level of grip strength, it
doesn’t feel right to hold any gun in
a loosey-goosey grip to facilitate the
desired “roll.”
I would also add this touted recoil
taming effect is greatly overstated.
When Smith & Wesson developed
the X-Frame revolver, they decided
the way to make .500 S&W manage-
able for mere mortals was through
a lot of mass, rubber stocks and a
The Colt Anaconda tames recoil
through mass and cushy rubber
grips. No “roll” required!
With more pushing and
shoving, .45 Colt is just plain
harder to shoot than the
ever-popular 9mm.
38 FEBRUARY 2025
to placing each round as accurately as possible. If your
ass were on the line and you were unable to make up
for any misses with fast reloads or blistering split times,
what would you have left? Making each and every shot
count, of course.
PRACTICAL PLUSES
The other benefits to the single action revolver are
consistency and simplicity. While I don’t want to under-
state the complexity of any revolver’s lockwork, there’s
simply less to do in the single action sixgun. Additionally,
with the cylinder fixed in place with a base pin, there’s a
lot of wiggle that can be taken out of the handgun overall,
resulting in more consistent barrel/bullet engagement.
It’s not to say this makes an SA revolver more accurate
the potential energy to bust a primer and to index the
cylinder, so the next round is carried up into position.
Five or six rounds later, all of the empty cases need to be
manually shucked out one by one.
Like a manual transmission on a sports car, shooters
are invited to connect with the handgun as a mechani-
cal object. Everything the gun does, it needs the user to
make it happen.
Because of this, the single action revolver is a platform
where every round matters! The pacing of loading, shoot-
ing, and reloading makes it virtually impossible for any
shooter to show up at the range and blow through a box of
50 rounds in only a couple of minutes. While it’s not guar-
anteed, a shooter new to the single action revolver might
find the going a little slower than they’re used to, which
forces introspection, mindfulness of habits and a general
appreciation of being away from the day-to-day grind.
Along the way, shooters are also invited to recon-
nect to a mindset of pistoleros from years gone by,
where volume of fire was a losing strategy compared
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 39
IRONY!
Despite my thoughts on the single action revolver, my
relationship with the double-action revolver is something
else entirely: I learned to shoot on a Smith & Wesson
model 627 and very soon bought a S&W 586 of my own,
followed by more Colts, Rugers and other wheelguns than
any person reasonably needs. The DA revolver feels like
a natural extension of my arm and I shoot them better
than any of my semi-autos.
Now, however, I can say I’ve lived long enough to
witness Gen-Z shooters regard even what I would call
the modern DA revolver as an archaic “cowboy gun.”
Even autos with visible hammers are suspect to them in
an era where just about everything is polymer-framed
and striker-fired. As a dude who feels well-armed with
an S&W Model 15 as a home defense gun — a model with
no rails or red dots, mind you! — my tastes are drifting
farther and farther away from what the kids like.
I suppose there are two lessons. The first is that
no matter what we find comforting or comfortable in
terms of tools to get a job done, someone will eventually
engineer something younger generations will unani-
mously consider “better.” Today’s whiz-bang striker-fired
wondernine will undoubtedly become old hat, if its pro-
ponents only live long enough to see it happen.
Secondly, and just as importantly: We’d learn quite a
bit if we were to give a full appraisal of how previous gen-
erations were able to adapt, quite capably, with the tools
at their disposal. Again, I’ll admit to not loving the single
action revolver. However, having shot a few thousand
rounds through them, I can say somewhat begrudgingly
I like them, and they can absolutely put rounds on target.
Colt’s original patents on the Model of 1873 have long
since expired, making the Single Action Army — like the
1911 — essentially an “open source” firearm. As such,
it’s a design destined to remain in continuous produc-
tion, always findable, ever shootable, connecting shooters
across generations. Sure, I shoot other guns better, and
Colt’s “Peacemaker” was never really part of my boyhood
dreams. Nevertheless, the single action revolver has
taught even a skeptic like me that fun and simplicity
will never be obsolete.
than a DA revolver, but a potential source of inaccura-
cy is removed.
Because of all these qualities, I would contend a
shooter would probably not be able to find a more rugged,
reliable, and accurate revolver than the Ruger Blackhawk
at the price Ruger is asking. The same goes for any of the
quality SAA clones existing on the market, such as those
made by Uberti. To this, I would add the gun buyer who
purchases a Blackhawk or any variety of SAA (or SAA
clone) also has the benefit of knowing there exists a near-
infinite amount of spare parts and extensive gunsmithing
knowledge of how to tune and repair those guns. If it goes
down, it can be revived!
Beyond all that, used gun counters are usually awash
in single action revolvers. The reason is often a mismatch
between what sellers “know” these guns are worth and
what many buyers are willing to pay for what they see as
antiques. After these guns languish on shelves for a year
or more, sellers become a lot more willing to negotiate
with someone — anyone — who throws out a reason-
able offer! Those who still care to dip a toe into the past,
whether through total adoration or morbid curiosity, are
often handsomely rewarded for their interest.
While other single action
revolvers certainly exist,
none are more ubiquitous
than the SAA and its clones.
Sure, we know they couldn’t be more different, but both are “cowboy
guns” to a new generation.
Will Dabbs, MD
James Bond. 007 — License to kill.
Women want him. Men want to be
him. Ian Fleming’s fictional super
spy has captured the imagination of gen-
erations around the globe. Something
about the guy just strikes a primal chord.
I freely admit to having drunk that
Kool-Aide myself. Monty Norman’s
inimitable guitar riffing Bond theme is
the ringtone on my smartphone. Some-
times when I’m just driving to work and
feeling extra awesome, it plays uninvited
in my mind. If I could pick one movie
character to be in real life — and Super-
man was already taken — it would be
James Bond.
And what’s not to like? The guy
drives the coolest cars, wears the
sharpest clothes and hangs out with the
hottest babes on Planet Earth. He is ever-
traveling the globe on critical missions,
personally saving the world every few
years.
Lamentably, real life is nothing like that.
If 007 was a real guy, he most likely would
have been tortured to death by his 23rd
birthday. Even if he somehow survived the
operational demands of his job, he would
have no doubt succumbed to cirrhosis of
the liver and venereal disease long before
reaching mandatory MI6 retirement age.
Regardless, I like my fantasy world.
Despite being happily married for 37
years and already having what is argu-
ably the coolest job in the universe, I still
enjoy visualizing myself as a suave British
secret agent. And, a big part of that James
Bond mystique is the hardware.
The difference is obvious from the
back, the original PPK (left gun) is
signicantly larger than the
PPK/S. The original PPK (right)
was somewhat shorter than the
later PPK/S.
40 FEBRUARY 2025
Bond’s ordnance is an integral component of his
mythos. For the serious student of firearms, it is fasci-
nating to dissect Bond’s firepower across 39 officially
licensed novels and 25 full-length movies. Fleming
penned 14 of those books himself.
Ian Fleming was no ordinary word monkey. He
actually was a spy during World War II. With the
exception of his children’s book Chitty, Chitty, Bang,
Bang, Ian Fleming drew from a deep well of opera-
tional experience.
THE BEGINNING
Men have snuffed each other with handguns for cen-
turies. However, the practice only became high art in
the past couple of generations. Militaries went to war
in the first half of the 20th century armed with some
laughably anemic pistols. Fleming’s first choice to arm
James Bond was the positively Lilliputian Beretta 418
in . 25ACP.
First produced somewhere around 1920, the Beretta
418 was a true pocket pistol. Featuring microscopic fixed
iron sights, a 7-round magazine, and the classic Beretta
open-slide design, the 418 was relatively uninspired. A
blowback-operated last ditch deep cover weapon, the gun’s
anemic chambering would have made it ineffective beyond
bad breath ranges.
Fleming had Bond carrying his 418 “skeletonized” with
the grips removed, presumably to make it even easier to
conceal. It seems to me the only thing that might do is fill
your heater with pocket lint, but I’m not the one who sold
100 million books.
Once Bond’s books saw widespread circulation, fans
began offering feedback. One of those alert readers was
a British firearms enthusiast named Geoffrey Boothroyd.
Boothroyd wrote to Fleming and explained the diminu-
tive little Beretta was actually more of a lady’s gun. The
two exchanged letters, and a friendship blossomed. It was
Boothroyd who suggested Bond carry the Walther PPK.
James Bond,
Code-named 007 of
the British Secret
Service and
licensed to kill, has
been issued a wide
variety of handguns
over many decades
of ctional service.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 41
42 FEBRUARY 2025
Fleming agreed and wrote the sexy German pistol into
his next novel. In appreciation, he also patterned Bond’s
long-suffering Quartermaster “Q” after his gun fanatic
friend. In the books, Q’s actual name is Major Boothroyd.
THE DEFINITIVE PISTOL
In the novel Dr. No, Bond is nearly killed when his
silenced Beretta 418 snags on the waistband of his pants.
As a result, his boss “M” directs Q to issue 007 with a new
weapon. Here’s his pitch, “Walther PPK, 7.65mm with a
delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window. Takes
a Brausch silencer, with little reduction in muzzle velocity.
The American CIA swear by them.”
Hmmm … none of that seems real. However, it is some
simply splendid wordsmithing. Thus began Bond’s love
affair with the Walther PPK extending all the way to the
present day.
Nowadays, the Internet brings losers like me together
to dissect the most arcane minutiae about guns in movies.
Movie makers are held to a lofty standard regarding pro-
duction value and technical continuity. However, such was
not always the case.
Where to begin? In the first Sean Connery Bond, Dr. No,
007 is supposed to be trading in his Beretta 418 for a PPK.
However, the gun he hands over is actually a Beretta M1934
in 9mm Corto, and the weapon he receives is a long-bar-
reled Walther PP. Before the film is complete, he has wielded
the PP, a Browning M1910 and an M1911 .45, sometimes
switching back and forth in the same scene. Apparently,
the prop guys just threw a random gun at him and called
it good. Subsequent films got the ordnance much better.
They used two Walther PP pistols in Dr. No, one of which
sold at auction in 2020 for $256,000. By the second film,
From Russia With Love, somebody had actually sourced a
pair of PPKs. However, where the guns in the book were
chambered in .32ACP, those in this film were .380s.
Legend holds when Connery was posing for the still
imagery that was to become the iconic movie poster,
Will says other lm gun nerds call
him a heretic because he was
smitten with Bond’s Walther P99.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 43
nobody thought to bring along one of the PPKs as a
prop. As a result, photographer David Hurn just sub-
stituted a Walther .177-caliber Luftpistole 53 he kept in
his basement studio for killing rats. This is the reason
the archetypal Bond movie poster had Fleming’s steely
eyed covert operator wielding a spring-powered pellet
gun. The airgun used on the poster, serial number
054159, sold at auction in 2010 for $437,000.
Bond went on to use dozens of weapons to
include the ArmaLite AR-7, Walther P-38, Colt
Police Positive, Savage 99F, Sterling submachine
gun, Gyrojet rifle, AKS-74U, HK MP5K, AR-180
and an S&W Model 29 .44 magnum. He wielded
fake laser weapons in Moonraker as well as a
speargun in Thunderball. Up until the 1997 Pierce
Brosnan effort Tomorrow Never Dies, the trim little
Walther PPK kept him company throughout. However,
that film marked a sea change in Bond’s firepower.
Tomorrow Never Dies dragged 007 into the modern age.
THE HEIR APPARENT
Walther still apparently held a monopoly on the
MI6 arms room so Bond’s new heater was the super-
lative P99. I have always been a fan and feel it to be an
underappreciated combat pistol. A friend who spent
more than a decade as a Delta Force shooter carried
one operationally and swears by it. Truth between us,
don’t burn me at effigy or anything, but I prefer it to
the PPK.
The P99 came in several flavors. Featuring a
polymer frame, 15-round magazine, and unconven-
tional single action/double action trigger, the P99
represented the state of the art in 1997. Bond subse-
quently used the P99 through Daniel Craig’s epic debut
Casino Royale.
RETURNING TO CANNON
In Quantum of Solace, Bond inexplicably regains his
trusty PPK. I personally mourned the passing of the P99,
but Craig’s Bond was so awesome he could have been armed
with a French Chauchaut and I might still have swooned.
Quantum of Solace was, in my opinion, the weakest of the
Craig Bonds. However, he made up for it in Skyfall. Skyfall
saw 007 packing a PPK/S with an extended grip and some
fake “smart gun” technology.
There were still many others, really too many even to list.
The HK UMP submachine gun in 9mm spanned Casino
Royale and Quantum of Solace. Bond used a liberated HK
416 during the frenetic final gunfight in Skyfall. Addi-
tionally, the extended opening scene in Spectre involving
a GLOCK 17 KPOS carbine during the Day of the Dead
celebration in Mexico City was arguably the best introduc-
tory sequence in the history of film. No kidding, I’ve likely
watched it 20 times.
RUMINATIONS
Many of Bond’s long guns are essentially unobtainium
on this side of the pond. However, any concealed carry
holder serious about his craft should pack a PPK in a shoul-
der holster at least once. Walther will naturally oblige.
Thanks in large part to Ian Fleming and Geoffrey
Boothroyd, the PPK has remained incessantly popular from
its introduction in 1931 to the present. Walther currently
offers the PPK/S, the extended version of the gun mandated
by the 1968 Gun Control Act, in .380ACP in both stainless
and black finishes. They have also recently introduced both
the standard PPK and the PPK/S in the original .32ACP
chambering as well. These new guns are made in America
in both black and stainless.
So slip into your favorite tux and don a minimal-
ist Galco shoulder rig prior to your next serious social
outing. The steel-framed PPK is heavier than more
modern fare but that really doesn’t matter. You don’t
pack a classic Walther for any practical purposes. You
carry such a piece so you can, at least for a little while,
imagine you’re actually a British spy.
WaltherArms.com
Bond has used quite a few
long guns over the course of
his many lm fora.
Bond was originally
equipped with a
diminutive Beretta
418 .25ACP.
William Bell
M
ea culpa — I’m an old “Mossy-Back” and when
I walk into a gun shop, I ignore all the black
guns and polymer frame wonders because I’m
on the lookout for classic handguns. To me “Classic”
generally means one of the old-school brands, made of
steel and wood; handguns at least as old as I am. These
guns are getting harder to find at reasonable prices, but
sometimes you luck out and discover a gem or two. This
happened to me within the past few months.
S&W PICKUP
The local gun shop in my little town changed loca-
tions and I hadn’t had a chance to drop in and peruse
their offerings. I was driving by recently and decided to
stop in. They had a bigger and better showroom and I was
pleased to see a lot of used guns, many with reasonable
price tags. In a display case near the front door, I found
a Smith & Wesson (S&W) 32-20 Hand Ejector double-
action revolver in excellent condition. It was priced at
about half of what it was worth in my estimation.
I asked the shop owner about it and he said due to
the oddball .32-20 WCF cartridge, he hadn’t been able
to move it. I happen to be a fan of the .32-20 or .32 WCF
Winchester introduced in 1882 for their Model 73 lever-
gun and Colt later chambered in their Single Action
Army revolver. I told the man that I would do him a
favor and take it off his hands. No box (sigh) but it came
with an almost full box of vintage Western .32-20 car-
tridges in the old yellow “bullseye box”!
When I got the new S&W home, I grabbed my copy
of Roy Jink’s book History of Smith & Wesson. I paged to
the chapter on K-Frame revolvers and found a chart on
These double action
revolvers from Smith &
Wesson (top) and Colt
(bottom) were made in
the rst half of the 20th
Century — the asking
prices for both were
“Bargain Basement.”
44 FEBRUARY 2025
the Hand Ejector Models. They are called this because
when you swing out the cylinder, you push the ejection
rod by hand to remove the empty cartridge cases. I dis-
covered per the serial number, my sixgun dated from
1938-39 and was a Model of 1905, Fourth Change; the
final K-Frame Hand Ejector variation up to 1940.
Seems the .32-20 Hand Ejector didn’t set any sales
records and was dropped from production in September
1939. From 1899–1939, some 144,684 .32-20 Hand Ejec-
tors were produced with barrel lengths of 4", 5" and 6" and
with a blue or nickel finish. Mine had a soft-luster blue
finish, 5" barrel, square butt, and checkered walnut service
stocks with a “diamond” around the stock screw but no
S&W medallions. There was just a hint of finish wear at the
muzzle and a few tiny rust pits here and there, but the stocks
were like new and I’d rate it in NRA Excellent Condition.
FINDING A COLT
Around two weeks later, I was doing a periodic check of
GunBroker.com and found a listing for a Colt Army Special,
blue with a 6" barrel, in .32-20 WCF. There were numer-
ous photos in the GB listing and it appeared to be in good
Bill’s new Colt (middle) is an
Army Special like the stock
version below but the
custom sights make it look
like an Officers Model (top).
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 45
condition. However, there were some
areas where light rust plus wear and
tear had taken its toll on the blue
finish. The checkered walnut
stocks with silver Colt medal-
lions looked good, and the
starting bid price was acceptable
for a “shooter-grade.” Like the S&W, it had
a swing-out cylinder and hand-ejection. It also had
some unusual features I’ll cover shortly. I bid the starting
bid price but nobody seemed interested in this six-shooter
but me. I ended up winning the bid with no competition
to jack up the price.
The old Colt arrived days later and it was time to
do some research to see what I had. I checked the six-
digit serial number on the Colt Mfg. website and found
my Colt was indeed an Army Special made in 1914.
According to the Standard Catalog of Colt Firearms
edited by James Tarr, this model was made from 1908-
1927. It was chambered in .32-20, .38 Colt, .38 S&W
(Special) and .41 Colt. It could be had with a 4.5" or
6" barrel, blue or nickel-plated, with checkered hard
rubber grips. It was built on the “E” or .41-Frame.
Here’s where my “GB-Special” took a left turn. The
stamping on the left side of the barrel read Colt Official
Police 32-20. The OP was the successor to the Army Special,
so this was not the original barrel. The stocks were wood, not
hard rubber, and the serial number penciled inside the stock
panels did not belong to this gun. So, they weren’t original
either. Further, the fixed rear sight in the frame top-strap had
been replaced with a square-notch, blade-style sight pinned
to the frame. The half-moon front sight had a target-type,
rear-sloping patridge sight pinned over-top of it. This work
had obviously been professionally done.
The sights gave it the look of an Officers Model target
revolver or the same era. I bought it as a shooter, not a col-
lector’s item so it being a “Franken-Gun” didn’t really upset
me. It helped both the Smith and Colt were under $400 each.
HOME ON THE RANGE
I’m not an accumulator of “Safe Queens” — all the guns
I purchase go to the range. As both of my new-to-me Colt
and Smith revolvers were old-school, pre-war sixguns in
the same caliber and with similar features, I felt a shoot-off
was in order. I roll my own .32-20 handloads but most loads
are made for use in my Remington slide action carbine and
Winchester Model 92 lever-gun so I ruled out these loads.
I didn’t want to use any of the higher-pressure .32-20
cartridges in these old sixguns; back in the day special “rifle-
only” cartridges were made in .32-20. In “yesteryear,” folks
were expected to read warnings printed on a box, unlike
Here is the target (below, left) Bill used for his multiple shooting exercises with the vintage Colt and S&W sixguns; neither proved
really superior to the other — they were just fun to shoot! Five rounds each of the test cartridges were shot from the S&W at a
distance of 10 yards (below, right); three bullets from the Western box key-holed off the target; the 12-shot group was 3 ¾".
The Colt Army Special (top)
originally had a front
sight much like the one
on the S&W; someone
had a custom
target-type front sight
affixed over the
half-moon front sight.
46 FEBRUARY 2025
today. Instead, I selected three factory loads from my ammo
locker suitable for handguns. The first was Black Hills
“Cowboy Cartridges” with a 115-grain lead flat-point (LFP)
bullet; next was a Precision Cartridges load 120-grain LFP
bullet, and lastly the vintage Western cartridges I received
with my Smith. They have a 1,000-grain LFP bullet with a
copper-colored Lubaloy coating and are age-wise contem-
porary with the gun.
My range session was at an indoor facility with a short-
distance backstop. Time was limited so to avoid having to
send multiple targets back and forth in my lane, I selected
a CCI-PIQ Target from ConcealedCarry.com. It is an IDPA
silhouette type, which also has other targets printed on the
same big sheet of paper.
I elected to shoot 5 shots with each of my .32-20 test car-
tridges from the rest, single action. Up first was the Colt
six-shooter. I believe whoever had the target sights installed
on this gun may have also had an action job done on it
too. The single action trigger pull was crisp and light, plus
the double action pull was as smooth as warm molasses.
Of course, this old shooting iron was made back when the
action was hand-fitted at the factory.
The 15 shots of mixed-brand test ammo went into the
center bullseye of the target and the group measured 2 ⅞". I
did the same thing with the S&W on a different bullseyes.
Ten of 15 shots went into a group measuring 2 ½". The S&W
didn’t like the old Western ammo. Two shots expanded the
group out to 3 ¾" and three bullets key-holed, impacting
outside the target.
I did the rest of my shooting with the Black Hills car-
tridges. Aiming at the “head” of the IDPA-type silhouette at
10 yards, I shot 10 shots with each gun, double action stand-
ing with a two-handed hold. All but two impacts stayed
inside the 6"x6" head. I moved the target up to 7 yards, and
using a duelist, one-handed stance, shot both guns single
action at four small squares on the sheet.
The superb single action trigger of the Colt allowed me to
get closer to the squares than I was able to do with the S&W.
I took a few more shots from 7 yards double action with the
S&W at some rectangular targets on either side of the sil-
houette to get a better feel for its DA trigger pull. Of course,
it has the famous “Long Action” many old-time shooters
preferred over the post-war “Short Action.”
Following my abbreviated shoot-off, I would have to say
neither of these sixguns proved overly superior to the other.
I am sure both are capable of better accuracy than what was
demonstrated by the Septuagenarian pulling their triggers.
To me there is no better nexus to history than shoot-
ing old guns like these. I had an enjoyable hour burning
powder with these two classic sixguns, and I will be at
the reloading bench soon cranking out some handgun
handloads for these two fine six-shooters.
Three brands of
factory .32-20 WCF
cartridges were used
in the Colt vs. Smith
shoot-off — the
Western cartridges
are as old as the S&W
revolver; the other two
are modern.
The same exercise was performed with the Colt; shooting
was from a sandbag rest, single action, it had no problems
with the ammunition and produced a 2 ⅞" group.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 47
Mark Hampton
Editor’s note — this is the last story Mark submitted
shortly before his passing in Africa in June 2024.
When I told my wife I’d like to go back and
hunt for giant forest hogs in the Central
African Republic (CAR), she gave me the
evil eye. I had it coming, and she had every right to
ask, “Have you lost your mind?” You see, I had hunted
in CAR a couple of times, spending 19 days before I
had a crack at Lord Derby eland. I came home with
severe intestinal bacteria of some sort, sicker than a
dog, losing 15 lbs. and looking like death warmed-
over. My friends thought I had cancer and was dying.
It took several weeks to recover fully.
WELCOME TO HELL
On top of that, Karen had learned the country had
six coups since 1960 with a tumultuous past of violent
conflict and political instability. Incidents involving
landmines and other explosive devices were common
especially in western CAR. Rebels, militants, and
armed groups were widespread and well-known. The
terrorist groups acted more like a criminal gang than
terrorist, burning villages, torturing men, women and
This 10" Freedom
Arms Model 83
performed perfectly in
the harsh environment
in CAR. The revolver is
topped with a Leupold
2.5-8x scope.
48 FEBRUARY 2025
girls, further committing atrocities. As they say, “It’s
a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there!”
Back in the day, CAR was a true mecca for big game.
The country was blessed with a plethora of desirable,
highly sought after species including four of Africa’s Big
Five. Sudanese poachers have wiped out a huge popu-
lation of game. Market hunting, selling meat to local
villages, has also contributed to the population decline.
Add an influx of cattle by armed herdsmen from Sudan
or Chad and you have serious problems. With all this,
there are still a few resilient, audacious outfitters offer-
ing adventurous hunts in very remote locations. The stars
must have lined-up perfectly when Karen agreed and said
she would come along.
We were hunting with Eric Marav’s Central African
Wildlife Adventures. The enormous, remote hunting area
is situated in the southeastern portion of the country cov-
ering over 2 million hectares. The hunting area is best
described as a mosaic of equatorial rainforests blend-
ing with a vast rolling plateau of woodland savannah.
Freshwater streams meander through the forest galler-
ies contrasting with dry, burnt landscape nearby. Our
main camp was located on the banks of the Koch and
Siriri Rivers in a picturesque setting. This is truly wild
Africa, and hunting is very difficult — but so rewarding.
MONSTERS IN THE MIST
My primary goal on this hunt was to take a giant forest
hog with a handgun. There were other species on my
“wish list” including central African savannah buffalo,
harnessed bushbuck, red river hog and whatever else we
might encounter. The Freedom Arms Model 83 in .44
Magnum was my primary choice and an Encore in .375
JDJ was along as backup.
Hunting in CAR can best be described as excessive
walking in extreme heat. It’s just part of the deal. We
drink plenty of water and keep on walking. You will not
see game around every bush but when you do, it’s heart-
pounding excitement!
Christophe Morio, our professional hunter, is one of
the hardest working, dedicated professional hunters in
Central Africa. He has an impressive background with
giant forest hogs along with other game including the
buffalo. I felt pretty confident we would be successful if
I kept up my end of the deal.
Mark, Christophe, and the
trackers were jubilant after nally
scoring on this giant forest hog.
Mark carried his Freedom Arms
revolver in a Barranti Leather
Northwest Hunter rig.
Bog-Pod’s shooting rest came in handy during Mark’s
hunt. Anything to enhance shot placement will benet
the shooter and lessen the chances for wounded game.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 49
The first morning, a haze covered the sky as we hiked
from one salt lick to another, searching for fresh tracks. It
doesn’t take long for the sun to burn through the mist and
well before lunchtime, the heat cranks up unmercifully. We
didn’t find any tracks worth pursuing, or see much game,
but we sure did get our exercise in for the day.
It was slow going for the first few days. Long hikes
were the norm. Before I knew it, day five was on us as a
death march-like pace ensued to check more salt licks.
Suddenly Christophe stopped abruptly and threw up his
binos. Feeding in an open area on lush grass was a herd
of a dozen or more central African savannah buffalo. I
couldn’t believe my eyes!
Utilizing sparse clumps of brush, we eased our way
closer. When we worked our way inside of 100 yards,
one of the trackers spotted the bull on the left side of
the herd. His reddish coloration shining in the early
morning sun was a beautiful sight! We sneaked a little
closer and set up the Bog-Pod shooting rest. Christophe
let out a call as the bull turned broadside. The .44 Mag.
was resting in the cradle of the Bog-Pod with hammer
cocked. As the bull stood perfectly broadside in the
morning sun, I slowly tugged the trigger. The shot
interrupted our early morning solitude and to every-
one’s surprise, the bull dropped in his tracks! Buffalo
Bore’s 305-grain ammo performed like a champ and
we all were elated. Before the photo session was over,
sweat bees by the millions swarmed around our faces.
They didn’t sting but will dive into your nose, mouth,
eyes, ears and ultimately drive you insane. Regardless,
it still didn’t distract our jubilation over this magnif-
icent bull.
BROKEBACK BUSHBUCK
The next morning, we continued our pursuit of giant
forest hog. We bumped into a harnessed bushbuck par-
tially hidden by the thick bush. One peek through the
binos revealed this guy was an old warrior well past his
prime. The old male had a broken horn on one side and
a chunk out of the other horn. I quickly switched guns
and grabbed the .375 JDJ Encore. As the ram started
walking a little over 100 yards away, I picked out an
opening and waited. As he entered the window of oppor
-
tunity, I squeezed off a round and we were headed to the
salt with the smallest of the bushbuck species, one of the
most beautiful spiral horned antelope.
Our luck with finding giant forest hogs was lacking.
We did accidently come across a sounder of red river
hogs but initially couldn’t seal the deal. The trackers fol-
lowed the spoor for quite some time before we eventually
spotted the hogs feeding leisurely, unaware. Christophe
and I slipped closer. We spotted the boar vigorously
rooting up ground behind a little tree. With a good rest,
I executed one of the biggest blunders in my hunting
career. When you get excited and rush your shot, things
often go south! The bullet hit the tree, and it was the end
The Harnessed bushbuck is the
smallest of Africa’s bushbuck
sub-species. It is a beautiful spiral
horned antelope and this ram was an
old warrior, well past his prime.
50 FEBRUARY 2025
of the game. A total train wreck on a prime opportuni-
ty! It was the last time we saw red river hogs.
KING OF BACON
The giant forest hogs are the largest living pig
species and can weigh well over 400 lbs. They are not
an easy animal to hunt as they are both shy and wary.
They have a massive head with a long snout and below
the eyes are gigantic warty growths. They weren’t dis-
covered by science until 1904. I’m pretty sure a fairly
large number of giant forest hogs are taken as targets
of opportunity — encountered while hunting other
game. There has been less than a handful taken with
a handgun.
It was later in the evening and we were meandering
along the stream, a quiet time of day without any wind. The
trackers were in front looking ahead. As luck would have it,
Karen happened to look behind us in a slough jutting out
from the stream. She poked me in the back and pointed
at the black object mostly hidden in the tall grass. At first,
I thought it was a big rock until I saw his tail swish back
and forth. I snapped my fingers getting the attention of the
trackers and Christophe.
When I pointed at the black object in the grass, Chris-
tophe took one glance through his binos and immediately
set up the tripod. The Freedom Arms .44 Mag. came to a
rest as I tried to steady the crosshairs of the scope. When
the hammer fell, the hog flinched and took off. We raced
over the stream, and I tried my best to put another round
or two in this monster.
After a good bit of excitement, we had a giant forest hog
with a revolver. It was a perfect ending to another wonder-
ful hunt in Africa! We all were soaked in sweat and ecstatic!
As we departed on the charter flight out of camp, troops
were assembled on the dirt runway, training for a conflict
with poachers. Once we reached Bangui, French Special
Forces were seen everywhere. Our plane was surrounded
by armed military personnel and a jeep with a .50 caliber
mounted in the back. Apparently, they were guarding the
plane — at least that is what I was hoping. As we taxied
down the runway and took off for Paris, my wife said, “I
hope you don’t want to hunt here again.”
The unique giant forest hog is the
largest species of pigs in the world.
Mark took this monster with a
Freedom Arms .44 Magnum shooting
Buffalo Bore 305-grain ammo.
Dinner at main camp was relaxing and
a time to reect on the day’s hunt.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 51
52 FEBRUARY 2025
TRAIL BOSS POWDER
IT’S NOT JUST FOR COWBOYS!
Clayton Walker
Look at the illustration on the
cover of Hodgdon’s Trail Boss
powder and you’d be forgiven
if you associated it only with sixguns
and spurs. Indeed, back when IMR first
came out with Trail Boss in 2005, it was
intended to fill a niche mainly inhabit-
ed by cowboy action shooters.
To be more specific, many Single
Action Shooting Society (SASS)
members wanted a powder suit-
able for reduced loads out of various
sixguns and leverguns. Naturally, the
SASS crew shot a lot of .45 Colt with
a good deal of .38 Special and .44
Special to boot. All of these rounds
share a big commonality — they orig-
inated as black powder cartridges. As
a result, their case capacities tend to
be voluminous.
Certainly, “mouse fart loads” for
these calibers have existed for the
better part of a century. Problem
is, most rely on a small charge of
extremely fast-burning powder. The
worst-case scenario is double- or even
triple-charging one of these cases in
a moment of inattention, making for
what experienced shooters have termed
a KB: Kaboom!
I’ve found starting loads for these
calibers often have a more mundane
problem. While the reloader follow-
ing published data is of minimal risk of
sticking a bullet, a teensy charge of any-
thing in the upper tiers of the burn rate
chart often tends to be position sensitive.
Test it yourself — raise the gun at
a 45º angle before coming back down
to target, so the powder is right next
to the primer, and fire a round. Then,
fire a second round by raising the gun
upwards from a low ready where the
powder is adjacent to the bullet. You’ll
likely encounter a noticeably different
report and level of recoil along with a
significant velocity difference. Note:
Make sure every round indeed makes
it out of the barrel!
THE BENEFITS
For any straight-walled pistol
case — and most straight-walled
rifle cases — Trail Boss will get
you right in the “sweet spot” of a
reduced-velocity target load without
position sensitivity. Here’s the secret:
It accomplishes this because it’s
really puffy.
Unlike nearly every other smoke-
less powder, Trail Boss is almost
immediately identifiable by its
donut-shaped rings. It takes up a lot
of space in the case and therefore
doesn’t exhibit much performance
difference in “powder forward” or
“powder backward” configurations.
As a result, I have found accuracy is
usually very good, not just because
it doesn’t have a tendency toward
big velocity swings, but also because
nearly every shooter on the planet
can shoot a sedate, reasonable load
better than one that kicks their ass.
As an additional plus, Trail
Boss is very difficult to mistakenly
double charge. For the longest time,
Hodgdon gave shooters the general
advice of marking where the base of
the projectile would be, then filling
to 70% of the remaining case capacity
as a starting load for any straight-
walled cartridge. Double a typical
powder charge and your bench will
likely be covered with little gray
donuts. We’d call this a clue!
Put these two qualities togeth-
er and you’re left with just about
the perfect powder for a beginning
handgun reloader to learn with.
Almost instantly, they’ll reap the
benefits of incredibly accurate hand-
loads, assembled with a powder that
precludes the biggest potential hazard
of reloading.
THE TRADE-OFFS
First and foremost, this is a
recreational powder aimed primar-
ily at producing grins. Certainly, I
wouldn’t volunteer to stand in front
HANDLOADING
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
Don’t judge a powder by its cover: Trail
Boss has some excellent utility beyond
Cowboy Action Shooting.
The typical result of a double-charge.
Trail Boss’ bulk can be a safety feature.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 53
of any bullet launched by a charge
of Trail Boss but there are other
powders far better suited for veloc-
ity, if that’s what you’re after.
Past that, I’m absolutely happy
to cater to some of the minor sac-
rifices Trail Boss asks of me when I
get in front of my bench, but experi-
enced reloaders might find it a bit of
a pain. Because Trail Boss takes up a
lot more space, those using mechani-
cal powder measures are going to need
knobs twisted or moved up to the next
sized powder bar or drop disc when-
ever first putting a new load together.
On top of this, Trail Boss doesn’t
meter quite as well as … well, just
about anything else. I have a pet load
in .38 Special of 3.5 grains of Trail Boss
underneath the ubiquitous 158-grain
LSWC. And by that, I mean 3.5 is the
mean charge as it will frequently meter
a 10th of a grain up or down.
IN REALITY?
Oddly enough, performance is
incredibly consistent even with the
mediocre metering. I’ve found I can
mechanically expect the aforemen-
tioned .38 special load to give me at
least 2" at 50 feet through my revolvers
in those rare occasions I shoot rested.
Velocity should run about 700 fps, give
or take 50 fps depending on barrel
length. However, I have an incredible
affinity for the load simply because its
genteel nature allows me to shoot my
snubbies and small-framed guns up to
their full potential.
For similar reasons, Trail Boss also
has excellent utility in both .44 Special
and .44 Magnum. I will admit the 3"
S&W 629 in my collection is not a very
fun gun to manage with max-power
loads. However, Trail Boss has pro-
vided the foundation for some very
sensible, sub-900 fps loads with a
number of lead bullets. I’ve found it’s
a lot easier to shoot this gun accurate-
ly when every trigger pull isn’t a test
of will.
As a final note, readers may note
Trail Boss has been hard to find as
Hodgdon recently paused produc-
tion. If you see a dusty jug on a store
shelf, snag it. In response to a recent
email, the powder manufacturer told
me they were optimistic they could
once again bring this great product
back to the market though did not
have an ETA. Until then, reloaders may
want to investigate Vihtavouri’s N32C,
another powder with high load volume
like Trail Boss, developed for Cowboy
Action Shooting and provides similar
benefits to the reloader.
Even with the small
sights of Clayton’s
SAA clone, his fav
Trail Boss load put
5 rounds into 2" at
50 feet, with the
best 3 in 0.6"!
Offhand, DA
performance from
a 2" Model 15.
Trail Boss makes
snub-nosed
shooting
downright fun!
At left is 4 grains of the much bulkier Trail Boss
versus 4 grains of the fast-burning WST.
54 FEBRUARY 2025
ESEE FIXER EDC
SHOULD YOUR NEXT EDC
BE A FIXED-BLADE?
KNIVES YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
Pat Covert
T
he modern tactical folder boom
of the early 1990s had many
spinoffs, none more prolific
among cutlery users than the EDC,
or “everyday carry.” Despite this
onslaught, as the decades progressed
I noticed another small, but stalwart,
group of aficionados who chose to
EDC fixed-blades among ESEE Knives
users on Facebook. As social media
expanded exponentially, EDC fixer
fans have grown even more prominent
on a variety of cutlery groups today.
Out of curiosity I put together an
EDC fixer, choosing the smaller ESEE
CR2.5. I liked its long handle (4.0")
and short blade (2.5") and figured, if
so desired, I can always move up to a
larger knife. To convert the ESEE to
an EDC, I chose an Armatus Architect
Kydex sheath in Flat Dark Earth (FDE)
with an Ulticlip 3.3. Slim. I went a bit
further with a set of FDE G10 scales
with orange liners for indexing from
Carroll’s Custom (Etsy), as well as an
RK Custom (Etsy) FDE neck knife
sheath for an added alternative. The
whole conversion package, not includ-
ing the knife, ran around $120. The
ESEE CR2.5 can be had for around $80
dealer price. Total outlay was around
200 bucks.
WHY YOU’LL LIKE IT
There are two main advantages
for fixed-blade carry. First, the knife
does not require opening, a time
saver when accessing the blade. Sec-
ondly, there are no moving parts or
mechanisms to break. The downside
is fixed-blades are harder to conceal,
making wearing the shirttail out or
jacket a necessity. The fixed-blade
stows more loosely in the pocket than
a clipped folder as well.
I have been carrying around the
small ESEE for a couple of weeks now
with no big adjustments whatsoever.
Of course, you should always prac-
tice when making such a change. The
fixed-blade is a viable EDC option
and there are a good number of knife
enthusiasts who rotate their daily
carry. Choosing an EDC fixed-blade
may just suit your particular needs for
the day, or every day — and options are
always welcome!
ESEEKnives.com
Here is the CR2.5 conversion with new scales,
Armatus Architect Kydex sheath and Ulticlip.
The orange liners on the scales can make
indexing easier by sight if needed.
The pull-down neck sheath is a viable
option for alternative carry for hiking,
jogging and the like — or you may
prefer it. Sheaths can also be had for
horizontal belt side carry or Scout carry
behind the back.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 55
QUARTERMASTER BRENT T. WHEAT
BURRIS FASTFIRE C PISTOL OPTIC
If you’re searching for a red-dot
pistol optic, you might not
have considered one of the
“old standby” names in
the industry — Burris.
However, I’ve used and
carried a couple of their
pistol optics over the
last two years and I’m
now sold on the brand
for concealed carry. The
new Fastfire C (for “compact”) is
designed for sub- and micro-compact
pistols with an RMSc footprint. With a 25,000-hour life on the
CR2032 battery, it also features a low profile for co-witness
of iron sights without the need for elevated sights. When you
add in both manual and auto-brightness adjustments to the
6 MOA dot, the FastFire C is a workmanlike optic you can
depend on, at a good price.
MSRP: $276
www.BurrisOptics.com
MYSTERY RANCH
RIP RUCK 24 BACKPACK
I
was convinced I wouldn’t like the Rip Ruck 24 backpack,
but I was saddled with it on a recent week-long 10,000
mile trip. Turns out I was big-time wrong.
The bag is smaller than the packs I usually travel with
— 1,465 cubic inches — so I had to cut back on some
of my usual excessive load of travel
flotsam. I also didn’t think I’d
like the magnetic rip-open
lid or the two zippered
pockets which close via
a pull cord. It seemed
gimmicky.
The capacity turned
out to be a good feature
on crowded flights
as the bag fits under
the seat. Both the
smaller pockets and
the magnetic main bag
proved quick to open and
close, yet stayed secure.
The green color and design
were remarkably unremarkable and I
even used it as a hunting day pack. After bashing the bag in
six different airplanes, a week of van travel and even a couple
of days in the woods, I’ve suddenly fallen in love with the Rip
Ruck 24 and that’s why it’s leaving with me on my next trip!
MSRP: $169
www.MysteryRanch.com
VIKTOS RANGE TRAINER XD SHOE
When first offered the VIKTOS Range Trainer Shoe, I
thought “Here we go again, my Fred Flintstone feet
will never fit inside a European-made shoe.” I was later
pleasantly surprised to slip my tootsies just fine into the
exceptional comfort of these very lightweight trainers.
My black and green pair feel like the lightest sneakers I
ever worn but with a subtle adventure vibe I like. The soft
rubber soles are surprisingly grippy even on wet surfaces
and though I haven’t tried a stream crossing, I think the
light material would dry quickly. Overall, if you want a
comfortable “tenner shoe” that looks nice when matched
with cargo pants, shooting gear and backpacks, the VIK-
TOS Range Trainer XD is an excellent choice.
MSRP: $95
www.VIKTOS.com
GARMIN INSTINCT 2 WATCH
I
was looking at my watch for the umpteenth time
when I realized it’s one of my most prized outdoor/
shooting accessories and deserved a write-up.
The Garmin Instinct 2 watch incorporates a host
of features typical for a high-performance watch but
my favorite by far is the GPS function. By touching a
button, you can record your track and later down-
load it to your smart phone. I’ve used this feature
across the U.S., Caribbean and Europe and found
it works perfectly nearly every
time. I love going back to
see where the trail took
me or the route of my
latest meandering
motorcycle journey.
The watch also
includes an electronic
compass and altim-
eter, along with a heart
rate and sleep monitor
used to calculate your
overall stress level and body
battery. This has proved helpful
when traveling to remind yourself to
slow down occasionally. Overall, this is one critical
piece of kit I recommend to everyone.
MSRP: $199
www.Garmin.com
56 FEBRUARY 2025
THE “SENSITIVE AREAS” SCAM
ANTI-GUN STALL TACTIC
2A DEFENSE
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
Dave Workman
Five months ago, attorneys rep-
resenting several gun rights
organizations filed a petition for
an en banc rehearing of a case they’ve
been fighting in California challenging
the state’s anti-Second Amendment law
designating all kinds of public venues
to be “sensitive places” where licensed
concealed carry is prohibited.
About the same time and
all the way across the country,
gun rights groups were
jumping into a case known
as U.S. v. Ayala regarding the
indictment of a Florida postal
worker who was prosecut-
ed — and cleared by a federal
district court — of carrying a
firearm in a federal facility.
These cases came shortly
after another case called
Christian v. Chiumento was
challenging New York’s pro-
hibition on lawful concealed
carry in public parks and all
private property open to the
public such as shopping malls,
movie theaters, etc.
Likewise, there was a case
unfolding in Illinois where the
issue was a concealed carry ban on Illi-
nois Public Transit. For many people,
it’s the only way they can get around,
especially to and from work in Chicago
and other urban areas. A case known
as Schoenthal v. Raoul was making its
way through the federal court. Second
Amendment proponents maintain the
ban is clearly unconstitutional.
SNEAKY TACTIC
What’s this all about? They are
examples of laws passed by fanatical
anti-gun legislators who are furious-
ly resisting the U.S. Supreme Court’s
ruling in the case of New York State
Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen,
which crushed a hundred-year-
old unconstitutional Empire State
concealed carry law designed to dis-
courage and prevent concealed carry.
The ruling recognized the exis-
tence of so-called “sensitive places”
where firearms carry by private citi-
zens might be logically prevented, but
the concept was to have been rather
narrow. Instead, gun-hating politi-
cians and bureaucrats scrambled to
designate as many places as possible
as “sensitive” in hopes they’d get away
with it.
Groups including the Second
Amendment Foundation, Firearms
Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of
America, the Gun Owners Foundation,
Gun Owners of California, Liberal
Gun Club, California Rifle & Pistol
Association and others were quick to
fight back.
SAF Executive Director Adam
Kraut, himself a practicing attorney,
pretty much explained the issue at
the center of this ongoing war against
extremist gun prohibitionists.
“We contend that sensitive places
are intended to be rare exceptions to
the right to carry by private citizens,”
Kraut said.
We are in a brand new year. There
is a new Congress, and we’ve got a
new tenant in the White House, but
this is the same old, tired effort to keep
Americans disarmed. It’s time for this
nonsense to stop, even if it takes federal
legislation, which narrowly defines a
“sensitive place” and carries harsh pen-
alties — such as withholding federal
funds — for states that stubbornly con-
tinue to deny legally armed citizens the
tools they might need in an emergen-
cy to defend their lives and the lives of
other innocents.
The futility of such des-
ignations was dramatically
illustrated one year ago this
month when, in February
2024, a teenage thug from
Venezuela who entered the
country in September 2023
was arrested and charged
with the shooting of a Brazil-
ian tourist in Times Square.
That area of New York City
was designated a “sensitive
place” by officials who are
loathe to the notion of private
citizens defending themselves
from armed criminals who
ignore such designations.
What’s wrong with telling
people they can’t carry fire-
arms for personal protection
in public places? The short
answer: Everything. Armed private
citizens have intervened more often
than the media or government offi-
cials, either stopping or effectively
interrupting violent crimes. For
example, who can forget the heroics
of 22-year-old Elisha Dicken in July
2022, a month after the Bruen ruling,
when he fatally shot a would-be mass
killer at the Greenwood Park Mall in
Indiana with a legally carried pistol?
Although that murderer had killed
two people with a semiautomatic rifle,
Dicken — from a distance of about 40
yards across the mall’s food court —
fired 10 rounds and connected with
eight of them to drop that monster in
his tracks. Dicken was subsequently
hailed as a hero by local officials.
Some time ago, LawNews.TV
put together a list of mass shootings
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 57
stopped by armed citizens. An article
in The Hill back on Nov. 30, 2023 by
John Lott, head of the Crime Preven-
tion Research Center, also reported
on violent incidents stopped by “good
guys with guns.” This does not appear
to be as rare a phenomenon as the
media and the gun prohibition lobby
would have the public believe.
STUPID IS …
Which brings us back around to
the point of this month’s 2A Defense
column. “Sensitive Place” designations
are based on the same stupidity that
gave us “gun-free zones.” They have
been proven to cost lives and people
who advocate for more such places
know this.
Pay attention to the people propos-
ing and adopting such zones. They
need to be called out for these actions
and forced to justify them. Demand
they offer evidence such designations
work — because they can’t.
While the courts seem to be —
albeit reluctantly in some cases
— whittling away at these “sensitive
places” designations, there should still
be a federal law with teeth to discour-
age anti-gun-rights lawmakers from
creating more.
What these people are hoping for
are openings on the Supreme Court to
be filled with liberal justices to reverse
or stop pro-Second Amendment
rulings. They are essentially playing
a stalling game by adopting laws and
regulations they know to be uncon-
stitutional, but which will take time
to adjudicate. Their long term goal
is to make lawful concealed carry so
burdensome as to one day discourage
the people from exercising their carry
rights. Gun-free/Sensitive place advo-
cates are playing the long game.
The right to keep and bear arms is
enshrined in the federal constitution
and a majority of state constitutions.
It is not a second-class right, no matter
how gun prohibitionists try to make it
seem otherwise. It is both an infringe-
ment and impairment to designate vast
areas of public access as “sensitive.” If
it takes federal legislation to derail this
demagoguery, so be it.
ADD THIS
TO YOUR LIBRARY
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Smith & Wesson guns featured in American
Handgunner and GUNS Magazine from 2010
through 2019.
Enjoy this journey through history as you
Enjoy this journey through history as you
read — and re-read — some of your favorite
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58 FEBRUARY 2025
FEBRUARY 2025
NEW PRODUCTS
NEW PRODUCTS
58
M&P15 SPORT III RIFLE
SMITH & WESSON
The M&P15 Sport III Rifle is part of the Smith & Wesson Sport Series. Built on the
proven Sport II platform, the next iteration is equipped with enhancements to
increase performance while being offered at a lower price. The Sport III is a gas-
operated semi-auto MSR chambered in 5.56 NATO/223 REM. Offered in 30+1 and
10+1 capacities, upgrades to this platform include a 16" Armornite coated barrel with
a threaded muzzle, 5R rifling, and a 1:8" twist that allows a wider variety of ammo to
be used. MSRP: $799. For more info: (800) 331-0852,Smith-Wesson.com
BLACK SERIES TACKDRIVER
CARBON DT
DEAD RINGER
Dead Ringer’s Black Series Tackdriver
Carbon DT is constructed with a
lightweight aluminum alloy frame, carbon
fiber arm and tool-free locking arm knob.
The bow sight ensures accuracy in any
condition with its integrated sight level,
adjustable 0.010 pins, fiber housing and
rechargeable sight light for low-light
visibility. Windage and elevation adjust-
ability allow for increased precision.
A carbon extension arm isavailable
for the Black Series Tackdriver Carbon
DT in9" configuration as well. MSRP:
$149.99. For more info: (844) 471-4868,
DeadRingerHunting.com
NORMA
POWDER VALLEY
Powder Valley is offering
customers even more
options with the addition of
Norma ammunition products
to its inventory. Powder
Valley is now carrying
Norma products, including
the world-famous cartridge
cases, to provide reloaders with superior op-
tions to replenish their ammo supply. They’re
developed with the best raw materials with the
narrowest tolerances. MSRP:
$52.99 for the Norma Bondstrike
Ammunition 6.5 PRC 143-Grain
Polymer Tip (box of 20). For
more info: (800) 227-4299,
PowderValleyInc.com
HUNTING ARROWS WITH
ADDITIONAL SPINE OPTIONS
VICTORY ARCHERY
Victory Archery is offering archers
Hunting Arrows with Additional
Spine Options. This will allow them to
find the ideal arrow for flawless per-
formance in the field. Several of the
company’s high-quality hunting arrows
are now available in additional spine
offerings, and each spine will come in
Elite, Gamer, and Sport models with
straightness tolerances of ±.001, ±.003
and ± .006”, respectively. For more info:
(866) 934-6565, VictoryArchery.com
MULTIFLEX HOLSTER
N8 TACTICAL
Customizable
to fit over
275 full-size and
compact hand-
guns and easily
converted to IWB
or OWB carry, the
new N8 Tactical
MultiFlex Holster
is suited for a
long day at the
range or for your
daily carry needs.
The MultiFlex is built around a two-piece
holster design crafted from high-quality
polypropylene. Comes with a suppres-
sor height sight channel and an optic cut
to accommodate red dot sights. MSRP:
$49.95. For more info: (888) 732-5011,
N8Tactical.com
PVS-14 PINNACLE ELITE
ARMASIGHT
Armasight introduces the PVS-14
Pinnacle Elite for enhanced vision
in any scenario. For a limited time, the
Armasight PVS-14 Pinnacle comes with
a complimentary 3x and 6x magnifier.
The bundle allows Enhanced Target
Identification, Versatile Stargazing and
Observation and Improved Tactical
Awareness. The compact and lightweight
magnifiers easily attach to the front end
of the PVS-14, for flexibility and conve-
nience. Whether mounted on a helmet
or worn around the neck, the magnifiers
offer unparalleled versatility and ease of
use. MSRP: $5,499. For more info: (801)
372-1629, Armasight.com
WARLOCK GLOVE
VIKTOS
The insulated Warlock
Glove is the ideal
addition to any cold-
weather operator’s
kit. Built from a
soft-shell chassis, it
provides backhand
warmth while
allowing unprec-
edented firearm
feedback. These
cold-weather gun
grippers also have
these features: reinforced fingers
from stippled polymer to prevent
wear, touchscreen-enabled fingertips
and more. MSRP: $45. For more info:
(800) 597-7179, VIKTOS.com
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 59
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 59
MSRP is subject to change without notice. FMG Publications presents the MSRP in good faith and is
believed to be correct at the time of printing. To feature your product, contact: ADVERTISING@fmghq.com.
For more New Products visit us online at GunsMagazine.com
PDX-SD CALIBERS
MAXIM DEFENSE
The PDX-SD Calibers personal defense weapon
from Maxim Defense with integrated suppres-
sor is now offered in .300BLK and 7.62x39mm
chamberings. The PDX-SD embodies performance, power, convenience and silence in a
single package. Born out of engineering achievements and attention to detail, this short
5.5" barreled PDW comes chambered in 5.56mm, .300BLK and 7.62x39mm. Designed
for compactness without sacrificing performance, the PDX-SD sets a new benchmark in
the firearm industry. The built-in 7.4" soup can silencer, with an outer diameter of 2.25",
significantly reduces noise and gas emissions, making this weapon stealthier to oper-
ate. MSRP: $3,695. For more info: MaximDefense.com
SKULL SYSTEM
FULL RANGE
HANGING SYSTEMS
The Skull System from Full Range
Hanging Systems is constructed of
strong, durable steel. It
features four points of
contact to the skull for the
most secure attachment
when displaying your trophy.
The system also offers a
wide range of mo-
tion to achieve
the ideal angle
for showcas-
ing a skull in
any space.
The easy-
to-use Skull
System comes
with everything
you need to
install in any room
of the house. MSRP: $40. For more info:
(336) 886-6258, FullRangeSystems.com
4X FIELD SPRAY
SCENTLOK
The ScentLok 4X Field
Spray is formulated
and proven to be deadly
in the whitetail woods.
Developed from over 30
years of advanced mo-
lecular science, its Liquid
Alloy technology ab-
sorbs, prevents, neutral-
izes and destroys odors
for 4X more scent control protection.
Spray down your boots, bow, range-
finders and even your dryer. Become an
odorless warrior with ScentLok. MSRP:
$7.99 for the 12 oz. and $12.99 for the
32 oz. For more info: ScentLok.com
FINISHER LIGHTWEIGHT
TURKEY PANT
BLOCKER OUTDOORS
A
season ago, Blocker
Outdoors introduced
the Finisher Turkey Series.
Previously, it was mostly
cobbling together with
whitetail gear that did its
best to match the tempera-
tures, terrain conditions and
general needs of turkey hunt-
ing. For the 2024 gobbler
season, Blocker introduces
the Finisher Lightweight
Turkey Pant, a lighter weight
version of the original
Finisher Turkey Pant. MSRP:
$99.99. For more info:
BlockerOutdoors.com
PRIME PACK 21L
CONDOR
Condor’s Prime Pack 21L doesn’t scream tactical but has all
the essential features for a daily carry or travel bag. It is PALS
Webbing/MOLLE compatible with a dual-zipper clamshell main
compartment, internal zippered pockets, front zippered pocket w/
side access, contoured, padded shoulder straps and a 15" padded
laptop compartment. With overall dimensions of 18"x12"x6", the
Prime Pack is hydration compatible. MSRP: $74.95. For more info:
CondorOutdoor.com
ACHRO BAG LINE
MISSION FIRST TACTICAL
Mission First Tactical announces they have added
Dark Lagoon as a color option to their Achro Bag
Line. Designed to meet the needs of modern commut-
ers and travelers for functionality and security, the
Achro line offers organizational options in a comfortable
platform. Whether you’re a daily commuter, law enforce-
ment professional or a responsible citizen, the Achro
bags and packs cater to your lifestyle. These versatile,
everyday-carry bags and packs offer a discreet firearm
storage system. MSRP: $179.99 for the Achro 30L
Backpack — Slick. For more info: (267) 704-0001,
MissionFirstTactical.com
TOMAHAWK
BALLISTICS RANGEFINDER
HENRICH TECHNOLOGY
The TOMAHAWK Ballistics
Rangefinder from Henrich
Technology provides convenient and
accurate trajectory correction for your
best shooting game. It is the most
accurate and professional ballistic
solver on the market. It can reach from
875 yards/meters or 1,500 yards/
meters ballistic distance and can go
as far as 2,200 yards/meters ranging
distance. With this rangefinder, you can
detect the smallest target. For more
info: info@HenrichTechnology.com,
HenrichTechnology.com
60 FEBRUARY 2025
FEBRUARY 2025
SUBMIT
YOUR
ENTRY
ONLINE:
If you are unable to
enter online, mail a
postcard with your
name and address
(no envelopes
please). Entries
must be received by
February 28, 2025.
Limit one entry per
household.
GUNS Magazine
GOM February 2025
PO Box 488
Escondido, CA
92033
FIREARMS PACKAGE GIVEAWAY
FIREARMS PACKAGE GIVEAWAY
WINNERS CHOSEN BY RANDOM
DRAWING. Limit one entry per
household. To protect the privacy
and security of winners, their names
will NOT be made public. Contest
void where prohibited by law. Win-
ners must undergo a background
check and comply with all other fed-
eral, state and local laws. Taxes and
fees will be the responsibility of the
winner. Contest open to U.S. resi-
dents only. Employees and agents of
Publishers’ Development Corp. are
not eligible. No purchase necessary.
Attention deployed military: Use
stateside address! Giveaway guns
and accessories may have evidence
of being test fired or exhibit minor
handling marks. Factory warranties
may apply in some cases.The Gun of
the Month package is awarded only
to the entrant drawn and will not be
awarded if the firearm presented is
illegal in the jurisdiction of the win-
ner. An alternate, authorized winner
will be selected. No substitutions or
transfers to a third party are allowed.
60
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62 FEBRUARY 2025
working in a kennel of a musher. He
started from the ground up, literally,
meaning he shoveled a lot of doggy
doo-doo from the kennel yard. Along
the way he learned how to care for,
feed, train and run a dog kennel.
He obtained a handful of dogs, bred
some, and his pack grew until he had
over 30 dogs. Training runs showed
him who the top performers were,
what skills they possessed for posi-
tion assignment on the harness and
he eventually had his team of dogs.
He started by entering shorter
races, progressing to longer and more
challenging races. Qualifying for the
Iditarod requires you to complete one
200-mile race and two 300-mile races
in the same year.
FINALLY …
This past year, Jeff competed in
the Iditarod — and finished, quite
an accomplishment! Along with his
wife, a gaggle of family, friends and
former SEAL teammates, he brought
the team to Anchorage, the starting
point for the race. On the eve of the
race, a commotion was heard outside
from the dogs. In the morning, Jeff
noticed his lead dog, Clyde, limping.
He had a puncture wound in his front
paw. One of his females had come
into heat, causing a ruckus amongst
the males.
Jeff “Tank” Hoover
Photos: Jeff Reid
T
he Iditarod is Alaska’s challenging
dog sled race, perhaps the tough-
est race of any kind in the world.
It is not for the faint of heart. It requires
stamina, combined with an ability to
withstand exposure to dangerously
cold arctic temperatures mixed with
high winds. Also pertinent is an acute
knowledge of sled dogs, mixed with
good planning skills, all performed with
little or no rest. You’re literally putting
your life in the hands of 16 sled dogs
to pull you through 1,049 miles of the
toughest terrain known to man.
FROM NAVY SEAL
TO DOG MUSHER
Jeff Reid is a former Navy SEAL.
He spent several years on the teams
with two deployments overseas, for a
total of nine years. SEALS are interest-
ing characters — they aren’t like most
people — they’re their own special
breed. Words like “driven,” “adventur-
er,” “warrior” and “never quit” come
to mind when thinking about them.
After nine years, Jeff noticed his body
reacting negatively to the rigors of
SEAL training. Knowing it was time
to leave the Teams, he needed to find
something to fill the void the Teams
had filled.
Jeff read a book about dog mushing
in the great white north and something
clicked. He wanted excitement and the
type of relationships the Teams offered,
so becoming a dog musher seemed like
the perfect solution. The only problem
was he had no experience whatsoever.
But being a former SEAL, he was no
stranger to sticking his neck out and
taking risks.
With the support of a wonderful
wife, the two headed to Alaska to start
their adventure.
SHOVELING $HIT
Jeff figured the best way to gain
experience in mushing would be
HONOR OF THE RED LANTERN
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
THINK TANK
Jeff, his wife Jeri Ann, with Secretariat
and Dani at the nish line.
A much-needed rest,
consisting of a hot meal
and sleep on straw.
GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 63
Although separated in pens, Clyde
must have pawed at one of his fellow
team members and got bit for his
efforts. Jeff had to withdraw him.
Luckily, he had brought an extra dog,
but Clyde was the Michael Jordan of
the team, the team leader.
THE JOURNEY
Under ideal conditions, the dogs
average around 9 mph on flat terrain
with perfect snow conditions. The dogs
perform best at zero to -20 degrees
Fahrenheit and start getting hot when
it reaches 10 degrees while pulling a
sled. At one point during the race, it did
warm up to 10 degrees and the dogs
were showing signs of being overheat-
ed. A fellow musher told Jeff to remove
the dogs’ protective booties. He did,
although now he was worried about
their paws, but the dogs responded. Jeff
changed his strategy and started travel-
ing by night so it was cooler for the dogs
and they could wear their booties.
Without Clyde leading the way,
Bonnie took over but her inexperience
YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
was obvious during parts of the course
with several finger trails leading off the
main trail. Bonnie would get confused,
leading the team in a zig-zag pattern
which added over 7 miles to the course.
While climbing some of the steeper
hills, Jeff transitioned to “lead dog” —
pulling the sled with the pack. When a
dog would get lame, they’d ride in the
sled until they recovered.
There are coordinated rest stops
roughly every hundred miles where
the dogs get a chance to eat as well as
sleep on straw for bedding. Jeff would
also give the dogs “power bars” every
two hours along the trail, consisting of
frozen ground beef, salmon or venison,
mixed with water and cut into single
portions for the pups. Another high-
light of the race is the rest point at the
town of Unalakleet where Jeff was able
to order a pepperoni pizza after days
of eating trail food!
THIS BUD’S FOR YOU
The Iditarod winner complet-
ed the course in 9 days. It took Jeff
12 days to finish the grueling race.
Reverting to his BUD’s days, Jeff
never “rang the bell,” meaning he
never gave up. Near the end of the
course, it is boring for the dogs as
they can’t see any possible ending
and get frustrated, especially after
pulling for so many days.
Near the last day, there were several
steep mountains to conquer and Jeff
became leader again, pulling with the
dogs for over 20 miles.
When reaching the final peak, Jeff
and the dogs could see the lights to
Nome, 12 miles away. Both the dogs
and Jeff were excited now!
Jeff was the last man in and given
the “red lantern award.” An old tavern
in Nome keeps a lantern lit until the
final competitor safely crosses the
finish line. The Red Lantern recipient
is assigned the task of extinguishing
this flame.
Jeff and the team were enthusias-
tically greeted at the finish line by
his wife, Jeri Ann, and sister-in-law
Candis. The dogs recognized them and
were excited to see them. During the
race, Jeff packed a GLOCK 20 10mm
pistol for protection of the team.
At the finish line, there’s a carved
wooden arch of a dog team. Two
months after the race, the arch col-
lapsed from rot. Jeff Reid, former Navy
SEAL, was the last man to cross under
this arch during a race. In my book,
that’s pretty darn cool!
Cold? Are you kidding?
We’re just getting warmed
up! At least the dogs are.
The trail can be a lonesome
— although beautiful — ride.
64 FEBRUARY 2025
Advertiser Index
FEBRUARY 2025
The companies listed have featured advertisements in this issue.
Look to them rst when you are ready to make a purchase.
American Handgunner
Subscription ................ 5
Armscor/
Rock Island Armory .......10-11
Bravo Company USA ........... 2
Dixie Gun Works Inc. .......... 15
FMG 2025 Calendar ............ 3
FMG Publications
“Best Of Smith & Wesson
2010-2019” ................ 57
FMG Publications
“Shooting Iron” ................64
FMG Special Editions “Old West” ....9
GUNS Magazine Subscription .......7
Kirkpatrick Leather Co.............13
PrOlix .........................17
Ruger .........................67
Spartan Blades USA..............15
Springfield Armory ..............68
WRB Inc. ......................15
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GUNSMAGAZINE.COM 65
limits and firing in the direction of
beaters not allowed, frustration hung
thicker than the fog.
In the end, after four such hunts in
one day, I fired exactly one shot and
tagged the single largest trophy of the
hunt — a pedunculated oak, Quercus
robur. A running fallow doe I was
tracking for a fast 30-yard chip shot
ran behind the tree just as I pulled the
trigger. With the bad weather, shooting
restrictions and overall unfamiliarity
with the program, it proved to be the
only deer I had my sights on.
Thus, I set a new personal hunting
record I’ll probably never surpass —
I traveled over 9,000 miles roundtrip
to assassinate a future packing crate.
END GAME
As the sun went down, the group
reassembled around the spruce boughs
where the dressed deer and pigs were
now carefully arranged inside. In the
growing blue-black twilight, punctu-
ated by four dancing corner fires, we
held another ceremony which was even
more reverent. The successful hunters
were presented with a sprig of greenery
to signify the last meal of their quarry,
then after a benediction of sorts, the
group dissolved quietly into the night.
It was later explained the ceremo-
ny was meant to thank the animals
for giving up their lives, offer credit
to the red gods of the hunt and gen-
erally show recognition to nature for
providing this bounty. That the whole
thing was done in earnest and without
a trace of awkwardness was remarkable
to an American. I could only imagine
how the orange-clad deer hunters at
the local greasy spoon would react to
such things.
Ultimately, the entire day had
been refined but still wild, thoughtful
without being stuffy, introspective yet
not self-absorbed. The ceremony was
like the First United Methodist Church
meets American Sportsman. The whole
thing was totally foreign yet strangely
familiar — and I liked it, a lot.
Now I’m just wondering how the
boys down at Henriettas Hash House
are going to react when I show up
wearing a tie on opening day.
GUNS INSIDER
continued from page 66
instructions, then more horn-blow-
ing and singing before things drew to a
close. The musician was good, and the
whole effect in the gray morning dawn
was quite stirring, even for Americans
who didn’t understand a bit of it.
ON STAND
We then adjourned to our des-
ignated stands with our assigned
guns. Mine was a CZ bolt-action
rifle in .308 bearing a Vortex scope.
We wouldn’t get any familiarization
time but since most shots would be
at across-the-street distance, it didn’t
really matter.
The weather was ugly, a heavy
freezing fog with about 40 yards of
visibility. At my stand — actually a
spray-painted number on a large tree
— it was as quiet as a midnight grave-
yard. I had a Czech minder with me
but the first thing he did was show
me his phone pulled up to Google
Translate displaying “I don’t speak
English.” I responded likewise with,
“I don’t speak Czech,” so we both
shrugged and waited in silence for
something to happen.
Suddenly, a clear horn note
sounded in the distance. In the fog,
it was eerie and sent another chill up
my spine not entirely attributed to the
cold. Then came pandemonium.
On the signal, the beaters and their
dogs began shouting, hollering, singing,
smacking sticks together and making all
manner of un-hunt-like hullabaloo. The
sound echoed among the rolling hills as
sporadic rifle fire began to punctuate the
gray. I stood ready.
The shooters are supposed to
face outward to avoid danger to
the beaters. In actuality everybody
looked inward toward the drive at
the amazing sight. Fallow deer and
huge red stag ran willy-nilly through
the misty forest, just like mice when
you open the door to an old grain bin.
The numbers were amazing, even
when you consider the supplemental
feeding and other herd enhancement
techniques in use. With the stags off
GUNS INSIDER
CROSSFIRE
Miss Kitty And Tom Cat
continued from page 8
completed the trapping and was very
happy with the lack of cats and cat scat.
Archie Ellwood
And now, one of “those” emails. I’ve
replaced the bad words. — BW
As to writer Brent T. Wheat, and I use
that term lightly … is this guy a com-
plete #### idiot? Your writer is a total
#### idiot who is also a #### liar. Better
get writers who don’t lie when writing
articles. Signed, #### off about liars,
(Name Withheld by the Editor).
Just another “Cat Advocate” keepin’
it classy! —BW
OOPSIE
Regarding the article “The Guns
of Die Hard” by Will Dabbs, MD in
the December, 2024 issue. Dr. Dabbs
is a talented writer and I always enjoy
his material. However, there is a small
error in the article. There is a picture on
the last page showing the guns of the
good guys. There is a revolver identified
as a S&W model 15. The revolver pic-
tured is not a S&W model 15 but is in
fact a S&W model 19. The revolver pic-
tured has a shrouded ejector rod, heavy
barrel, and is clearly marked “S&W .357
Magnum” on the barrel. The model 15
did not have a shrouded ejector rod. It
had a tapered barrel and was chambered
for 38 special only. Itwas never cham-
bered in .357 magnum. Keep the great
material coming Dr. Dabbs!
Paul Geraci
Two Mea Culpa on this one. First, Will
is embarrassed to admit he took a picture
of a Model 19 instead of the correct Model
15, though he’s not sure why. He does
know the difference. Secondly, I looked
at the photo in detail but it never regis-
tered. Considering my first “issue” cop
gun was a Model 19, I should know better.
Just “one of those things” that leaves you
shaking your head in the midst of the daily
confusion of building a magazine. Thanks
for the eagle eye. —BW
66 FEBRUARY 2025
HUNT ACROSS THE POND
WE CERTAINLY WEREN’T IN KANSAS ANYMORE …
GUNS INSIDER YOUR NEXT GUN STORY BEGINS HERE!
continued on page 65
Brent T. Wheat
I
consider myself fairly worldly —
my passport is well-thumbed; I’ve
drank a sweating Red Stripe beer
in a seedy tropical port and I knew not
to argue with the overbearing supervi-
sor at French Customs who reminded
me of a real-life Pepe LePew.
However, I wasn’t really prepared
for hunting in the Czech Republic.
SURPRISES
Like most interesting things, this
adventure started with an unexpected
message. The fine folks at Sellier and
Bellot (S&B) ammo had invited me to
a tour of their factory, some sightsee-
ing and a taste of European hunting.
Frankly, it was this last
activity which really
perked up my ears.
Unlike gun writing
royalty, I’ve not spent
any time on The Con-
tinent hobnobbing
with wealthy barons
and Dukes over estate
wine while waiting for
the peasants to gather
up your game.
My tastes run
more toward straight
whiskey and a well-
used briar on the porch
of a ramshackle deer
camp, but I figured
I could endure this
genteel way of hunting once “just to say
I did.”
After verifying the S&B email wasn’t
a sick joke by Tom McHale, I started my
preparations beginning with research.
My knowledge of the Czechs consisted
solely of knowing many professional
hockey players in the U.S. come from
the country. Honestly, I’ll admit I wasn’t
100% sure they weren’t still going by the
name “Czechoslovakia.” On this last
point, Wikipedia schooled me on the
fact there was a “Velvet Revolution” in
1992 when the good citizens kicked both
the commies and the country of Slova-
kia to the curb. Thus, the modern Czech
Republic was born.
I kinda remembered seeing some-
thing in the news — who says Americans
are clueless about world events?
NIGHT WITH AN OLIGARCH
Our hunt began the night before at
the estate of a wealthy bathrobe-wear-
ing man whose made lots of money
when the capitalism sudden began
legal. I don’t think he was official-
ly ranked as a Top-Ten Oligarch but
I did see a photo of him and Vladi-
mir Putin hanging out, so there is that.
His modest home included a smallish
casino, bowling alley, underground
spa, golf and racing simulators, and a
trophy room with everything from full
mounts of crocodiles to an aardvark.
Why you would want to shoot an aard-
vark is beyond me, but to each his own.
The delicious welcome dinner was a
test of wills — and we lost. The menu
was literally 19 courses, and I think we
only made it halfway through before
collectively throwing in the napkin. We
discovered, too late, the Czech culture
is fanatically devoted to becoming a
world superpower in party-hosting. For
the first time ever, I saw a group of gun
writers saying “No more!! This is too
much food!” You have no idea how rare
and noteworthy this is.
We were there for what might be
called a “management hunt” in the
U.S. Game animals are mostly pri-
vately owned in the Czech Republic so
the estate manager was responsible for
thinning the deer herd when it got too
numerous. The charge to our group of
10 people was to kill up to 50 does, year-
lings and spike-bucks. Wild boars of any
denomination were a designated “shoot
on sight” target.
This would be a driven hunt,
meaning hunters would be positioned
on one end of a chosen forest block while
a large group of beaters would start at the
other end. The beaters
would drive the animals
past the shooters.
But, before the hunt
started, we gathered for
a ceremony. The Czechs
are allegedly one of the
least-religious coun-
tries in Europe but they
do wholly embrace its
hunting rituals.
First, a large rectan-
gle of spruce boughs is
laid on the ground with
fire logs placed at each
corner. There are two
one-meter openings in
the boughs as a sort of
theoretical doorway.
The hunters gather on one side, with
the beaters on the opposite. Hats were
removed and held over your heart. On
our left were the hunt officials and on
the right was a distinguished-looking
older guy toting something resembling
a French horn.
On an unseen signal, the gent played
a slow, haunting melody on the horn,
interspersed with excellent singing
in Czech. After the music, the hunt
master said a few words and offered
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