By David E. Petzal

In between ogling booth babes at the SHOT Show, you may have noticed me groping a monster Zeiss riflescope whose designation is Victory FL Diavari 6X-24Xx72 T*FL. It’s designed as the ultimate tactical/varmint/predator scope, and incorporates every optical refinement that Zeiss can muster. This Zeiss is big, heavy, and expensive. Its real world price hovers right around $4,000.

To test it, I put it up against the nearest equivalent scopes I had on hand, which consisted of a Zeiss Diavari 6X-24Xx56, two high quality tactical scope with 30mm tubes and 56mm objectives, and, just for s**ts and giggles, the 2.5X-10X Trijicon** that sits on my beanfield rifle. At $800, it was the least expensive scope involved.

By David E. Petzal

Latest Update: At  2:40 PM, EDT, I talked with a spokesperson from Freedom Group, which owns Marlin, and the news is better than first reported. The company is not, I say again, not, going out of business. The North Haven plant will be closed, but Marlin Firearms will be moved to a new location and will continue. Where, exactly, I don't know. Also, I wish to eat crow publicly for assuming the general news media did a story on guns and got the facts right. I of all people should have known better.

By Philip Bourjaily

Over the weekend, I did my annual bit as a celebrity in a good cause at Aiming for a Cure. It’s a combination preserve hunt and sporting clays shoot benefitting the University of Iowa’s Pediatric Oncology ward. My fellow celebrities and I are teamed with hunters who have paid to hunt and shoot with the likes of us. Here are a few field notes from this year:

I did something on Saturday I had never done in over 30 years of hunting: I actually used a barrel selector on an O/U while a bird was in the air. Single selective triggers have always seemed to me completely useless.

By Philip Bourjaily

Matt Carmel, owner of Constitution Arms in Maplewood, NJ, wanted to sponsor a youth baseball team, only to be voted down by the South Orange-Maplewood Baseball Committee. He was then asked to sponsor a flag rugby team, only to have the offer rescinded. . . all because he sells guns.

Notice, as he points out in the video, the “Cluck U” chicken place gets to sponsor a team while “Constitution Arms” which has, to my ear, a much more wholesome ring to it, does not. Which name would you rather explain to a young kid?