Later this year, Remington will offer the heaviest, fastest steel loads yet made. The new HyperSonics will containing 1 1/8, 1 ¼ and 1 3/8 ounce loads launched at a screaming 1700 fps. (I know, for you rifle guys, 1700 fps is plodding. In a shotgun, 1700 fps is off the speedometer). The nearest competitor in the speed derby is Kent, whose Fasteel clocks in at 1625, but with lighter payloads.

The technology behind the HyperSonics is ingenious. A new wad called the Turbo Jet (see picture) makes it possible for ......  Remington to put so much shot at such high velocity in a shell without reaching dangerous chamber pressures. A hollow stem running from the bottom of the shotcup to the primer holds a small powder charge; the main charge surrounds it. Upon ignition, the first charge starts the wad and shot down the muzzle. Then, the second charge ignites in the larger space. The increased volume behind the wad allows the remainder of the powder to burn without creating excessive pressure. The result is a shell capable of launching more shot faster than any other I am aware of.

The shotcup is actually self-slitting. It starts out as one piece, to keep the shot together and pattern tighter (like Federal’s Black Cloud) then the “stress concentrators” on the sides cut the shotcup into petals, releasing the pellets.

All of this speed and technology will give you:
1. 16% greater pellet energy.
2. Leads reduced by 8 inches on 40 yard crossing shots.
3. A recoil headache. The 1 ¼ ounce Hypersonics will generate almost 50% more recoil than a “standard” 1450 fps 1 ¼ ounce high velocity steel load.

High velocity steel does seem to work even better in the field than it does on paper* but my gut reaction to HyperSonics is, the extra recoil isn’t worth the extra killing power and shorter leads. Of course, I am easily bruised. So, is it worth it? You tell me.

*I wouldn’t say the same about lead, and I think the current trend to 1450-1500 fps lead loads is silly.

A couple of months back, the Savages took me on a prairie dog hunt and the evening before the shooting started I was handed a new version of the Model 12 Series Varmint in .223 to sight in. I did so, and what I saw 100 yards away in the fading light caught my interest—all five shots went in one ragged hole. Could this, I wondered, be the long-sought factory rifle that would break the ½-moa mark?

So when the hunt was over, I asked Savage for a loaner so I could beat on it at length with a variety of ammo and, after a suitable delay they gave me one with 600 rounds through it, also in .223. Now, before I tell you how I did, I should describe the rifle.

The Model 12 SLRPVDP is a lineal descendent of the Model 12, which won our Best of the Best award in 2006. It’s a single-shot with an oversized bolt knob, an H-S Precision Varmint stock with an aluminum bedding block (and three bedding screws), a special Accu-Trigger that can be set from 6 ounces* to 2.5 pounds, a 26-inch, deeply-fluted, extra-heavy 26-inch stainless barrel** and a ball-breaking weight of 12 pounds. “Dual Port” refers to the slots cut on both sides of the action, enabling a right-handed shooter to load from the left and eject the empties from the right. This was developed for benchrest shooters who want to get their five shots downrange as fast as possible, and is also good for prairie dog hunters whose blood is up.

This rifle is exactly what you’d get if you went to a cutting-edge builder of varmint gunss, gave him $5,000, and asked for his best effort, except that the Model 12, etc., costs $1,273.

The one I was loaned has a Picatinny rail on it, and I strongly recommend this. The scope I mounted is one of the new Bushnell Elite 6500s in 4.5X-30X with mil dots. A better varmint scope I have not seen, and neither have you.

And so to shooting***. I first fired five varieties of reasonably low-rent factory ammo through the Model 12 and so forth, and it responded by doing its own version of projectile vomiting. However, with the very first handload, it announced that it was the rifle I had been looking for all these years. I was shooting 50-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips, W 748 powder, Remington brass, and CCI 450 primers, and the groups averaged .293, with the smallest group .251.

So now the question was whether it was a one-load rifle. It is not. Using various combinations of W 748, RelodeR 7, Berger bullets, Winchester brass, CCI BR4 primers, and some match bullets that gunmaker Mickey Coleman gave me and whose maker I have forgotten, I was able to get comparable groups with ease. The overall average for everything is .306-inch, and is just about what I get from my varmint rifles that cost a hell of a lot more than $1,273. If I had used prepped cases, the groups would have been smaller.

The Model 12 etcetera also comes in .22/250, which will probably not shoot quite as well (it being axiomatic that the more powder you burn the bigger the groups), .204 Ruger (your guess is as good as mine; I am not a fan) and 6mm Norma BR (which may actually shoot a little better). In any event, this particular rifle is the most accurate one I have ever shot that you could buy over the counter, and after 40-plus years of writing about these things, that is saying quite a lot.

*You can set it at that weight, but it will malfunction. The trigger will release but the sear won’t. Twelve to 18 ounces will do you fine.
**Savage, which still button-rifles and hand-straightens its barrels, takes some extra pains with these.
***Temperature in the 70s, and no wind at all.

There is little doubt in my military mind that right now, Talley scope mounts are the best thing out there (unless you’re looking for tactical mounts, in which case you look at Leupold Mark 4s). Talley makes a number of systems, but the one I’m referring to is the Fixed Ring, which is actually the second generation. (The first generation is the Quick-Detachable, which you don’t need unless you have serious iron sights as well as a scope.)

The Fixed Ring system is simplicity itself. Each ring is split vertically and connected at the bottom by a massive honking Torx-head screw and at the top by a second Torx-head screw that honks a little less loudly. The rings fit into bases that have a recoil lug front and back, and they have nowhere to go under recoil. There are no joints anywhere, and when properly torqued down, nothing budges, ever.

I have Talleys on all of my hard-kicking rifles—Fixed-rings on three .338s and a .338 Remington Ultra Mag and QDs on a .416 Remington and a .450 Dakota that will show you visions of the next world after a few shots. The machining is impeccable, the prices are reasonable, and there are enough variations in finish, ring height, ring diameter, plus extension bases, that you can get any scope on any rifle. Probably the most eloquent testimonial to Talley’s quality is the number of custom gun builders who choose them. It must be something like 90 percent from what I’ve seen.

You may be saying to yourself, “Well, it looks like Talley reached the old bastard to get press like that,” and you would be correct. A few years ago Talley president Gary Turner bought me a catfish sandwich, and it was a damn good one. Talleyrings.com.

The responses – mostly negative – to the aesthetics of the Benelli Vinci and a recent reader question about using Modifed choke for turkeys brought back a happy memory: twenty-two years ago next week – April 11, 1987 – I carried a Modified choked Browning Double Automatic into the woods and with it shot my first turkey.

It was the first bird I ever called to and it obligingly hopped off the branch and ran to me, stopping only when I shot it at 35 yards with a short magnum load of 5s. A couple of years passed before I shot another turkey, and by then the Double Auto was gone, replaced briefly by a Model 12, then a Model 97, an A-5, a Browning Pump, two Knight muzzleloaders, and a string of other guns.

I miss that Double Auto sometimes. Besides taking it turkey hunting, I shot a lot of pheasants with it. Also, I have a fondness for odd guns, and it was definitely one of the Browning family’s odder inventions. Designed by John Browning’s son Val, it was introduced in 1955 and, as its name suggested, it was a two-shot semiautomatic

The short-recoil action Double Auto came in three versions, all 12 gauge  – the standard model, with a steel receiver: the alloy-framed Twelvette, which I had, weighing 6 and 3/4 pounds or so, and the stripped down Twentyweight, a 6 pound wand.

It also came in different receiver colors: black (mine), gray, brown and green.

Browning advertised it as “Tomorrow’s Gun Today” and it looked like no other shotgun. It had a safety on the back of the trigger guard convenient to left and right handed shooters alike, and a pivoting forearm that latched to the bottom front of the receiver. If you unlatched the forearm and swung it down, you could slide the barrel off, leaving the gun instantly taken down into two pieces.

A lot of people look at the Double Automatic and see a solution in search of a problem. My more charitable view is, the Double Auto was an attempt to put a truly light and spirited bird gun in the hands of hunters for much less than the cost of a double and with a little less recoil.

In a way, the Double Automatic, with its radical-for-the-time styling and unusual features, was sort of the Benelli Vinci of the 50s  The Double Automatic lasted from 1955 to 1972. Will the Vinci last longer? Should Browning bring the Double Automatic back? Are both of them furturistic junk we should spurn while we all shoot a). Parkers or b). Mossberg 500s? Discuss.