By David E. Petzal

Occasionally I’m asked: At what point is a rifle too inaccurate to use? (I’m also asked what diddy-wah-diddy means, but that’s not important now.) I’ve just come across a perfect example. It is a .30/06 of excellent pedigree, a factory rifle, not custom.

By David E. Petzal

This has absolutely nothing to do with guns, but since many of you have military backgrounds, or an interest in militaria, I thought I’d pass it along because it’s sweet and has a lot of heart. It was told to me by a former Navy aviator (call sign Cobra) who served during the Late Unpleasantness in Vietnam, and the incident took place on the carrier Coral Sea in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1972.

By David E. Petzal

The real test of a rifle like this is to use it as it is used in combat. So, with Field & Stream Senior Editor Colin Kearns holding a stopwatch, I paced off 25 steps from an NRA 25-yard Timed-Fire target (5 ½-inch bull) and cranked off five rounds as fast as I could, which turned out to be 9.9 seconds. I had two 10s, two 9s, and an 8. That is about as good as I can do with a heavy rifle. The bolt fairly flies back and forth, and the gun kicks remarkably little considering its 9-pound weight.

By Philip Bourjaily

Judging by the number of replies, my recent rant against the painful recoil of 3.5-inch lead turkey loads touched a nerve, so to speak. Some of you wondered about the recoil of shotgun slugs by comparison. The answer to that question is, there is no comparison. Shotgun slugs kick, but they can’t touch a 3.5-inch turkey load when it comes to bringing the hurt.