Field and Stream - Shooting RSS

10 Rifles and Shotguns Sure to Become Tomorrow's Classics

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:04:31 -0500

Connecticut Shotgun Model 21

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:02:14 -0500

The Winchester Model 21 was the last of the great American doubles, surviving into the ’80s long after WWII killed off its peers. But it finally went away too, apparently never to return. Then, in 2002, Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Co. bought the rights and tooling and started building the guns again. These are not only better than any 21 Winchester ever made—they are world-class custom shotguns. CSMC will make you anything in any gauge, from a plain finished gun up to an engraved masterpiece.

Savage 220F

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:00:11 -0500

There were other bolt-action slug guns before the 220F. The Browning A-Bolt was the right gun at the wrong time; the tack-driving Tar-Hunt cost too much; the Mossberg 695 was too clunky. The 220F, however, is the gun that will bring popularity to the bolt action among slug shooters. It has Savage’s AccuTrigger, which offers a light, adjustable pull. It’s a 20-gauge, a sensible choice given the quality of today’s slugs. It’s accurate and affordable.

Marlin XL7

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:57:45 -0500

It is an inexpensive gun, and there is not an original idea in it, but oh boy is it a good gun. If the Marlin designers are not original thinkers, they are definitely sound thinkers. This simple, elegant, accurate bolt-action firearm is proof of how much you can accomplish when you use what works, give it some grace of line, and make it with pride. It even lacks that customary hallmark of the cheap rifle, the detachable magazine. The fact that the XL7 has a bargain price tag is incidental.

E.R. Shaw Mark VII

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:52:55 -0500

Forget the eye-popping accuracy and strange-looking spiral-flute barrels. What gets the Mark VII on this list is the fact that it represents the way rifles will be made in the future. Rather than having a standard line of models, Shaw offers the buyer 10,000 combinations of caliber, barrel dimensions, stock, right- or left-hand, and on and on. The one I have is a minute-of-angle gun, or a little better, and others I know of shoot just as well. For the price of a factory rifle, you get to design something that is yours and yours alone.

Barrett Model 98B

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:50:21 -0500

Over a quarter century ago, commercial .50-caliber rifles redefined long-range shooting. Since then, firearms for Way Out There have become more sophisticated. The Model 98B is a magazine-fed bullpup chambered in .338 Lapua, a round that offers much of the range of the .50 BMG but with greater accuracy, less recoil, lighter weight and, in some states, fewer legal complications. Bullpups have been around since the 1950s, but always as a fringe design. Not anymore, courtesy of the 98B and firearms like it.

Beretta 391

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:46:54 -0500

The latest incarnation of Beretta’s successful 300 series of semiautos, the 391 succeeded the 390. It is in a league of its own when it comes to gas gun reliability, as it runs forever without cleaning or jamming. If you rent a gas semiauto at a South American dove lodge, it will be a Beretta. If you see a serious sporting clays shooter with a semiauto, it will be a Beretta. The 391 cycles everything from 7⁄8-ounce target loads up to heavy turkey ammo and does it in a package that is slim, soft-kicking, and easy to shoot.

Savage Model 12 Long Range Precision Varminter Dual Port

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:43:19 -0500

In designing this rifle, Savage went to cutting-edge custom gun builders for their input. From the dual-port loading and ejection, to its super-heavy barrel and ultralight trigger, to its three-screw bedding system, it is total state of the art—a custom gun at one-fifth the price of a custom gun. It is also probably the most accurate rifle you can buy over the counter. To take full advantage, you had better be a very good shot.

Benelli Ultra Light

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:40:52 -0500

Only a few featherlight upland semiautos have ever been made, and all attracted cult followings: the Model 59 Winchester, the Franchi 48 AL, the Browning Double Automatic Twentyweight. Three years old, the Benelli Ultra Light is already the best of the bunch. Built around the proven inertia action, the Ultra Light weighs just 6 pounds in 12 gauge and 51⁄4 in 20. It saves weight with an alloy receiver, a 24-inch barrel with a carbon-fiber rib, and a shortened magazine tube and forearm. In either gauge it carries beautifully and easily and does not pound you.

Stag Hunter 7

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:38:01 -0500

Truly, the M16/AR-15 has come a long way to arrive at this point. Stripped down to the bare essentials, devoid of multiple high-tech sights and rails, this is a big-game rifle, pure and simple. The cartridge for which it is chambered—the 6.8 SPC—is an adaptation of the ancient .30 Remington, a hunting load. If the Stag 7 gives the Fudds fits, so be it. AR-type rifles are going to be a dominant form in the future of sporting rifles.

Browning Cynergy

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:32:56 -0500

When Browning introduced the Cynergy, it had the lines of a concept car and was almost too ugly to be taken seriously. Yet the radical Cynergy may be a better gun than its stablemate, the Citori, which is based on the Superposed that John Browning invented in 1926. The Cynergy has a low profile for natural pointing. Its unusual action provides a huge amount of bearing surface between the monoblock and the receiver, so the gun will never wear out. The trigger has a clean, crisp feel and a fast lock time. The toned-down classic model is the one to buy.

2009 Holiday Gift Guide: Ten Great Gifts for Hunters and Fishermen

Online Editors — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:09:08 -0500

Gear Review: Rail Riders Extreme Adventure Pants

JayCassell — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:34:31 -0400

Okay, here’s a pair of pants from a company I’ve never heard of – Rail Riders. A look at railriders.com will tell you that the company was started 19 years ago (!), by one John d’Arbeloff, who was in a 24-hour yacht race off Martha’s Vineyard, got soaking wet in 6-foot seas, and started wondering why he had to wear uncomfortable clothes that wouldn’t dry. Some sketches, designs, and plans ensued, and before he knew it he had a company that was making technical wilderness clothing that adventurers the world over wanted.

Best New Lever-Action Deer Rifles

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:43:28 -0400

The All-American deer gun is back. Thanks to recent advances in polymer-tipped, spire-point bullets that are safe to use in tubular magazines, lever-action rifles—once generally considered to be short-range, big-woods specialists—are now as capable as many short-action bolt rifles. Even the top-selling deer round of all time, the venerable if traditionally lackluster .30/30, is now a potent deerslayer capable of accurate shots out to 300 yards in today’s lever guns.

Marlin 338MXLR

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:39:37 -0400

The Specs: 24" barrel; 7 lb.; .338 Marlin Express The Skinny: This is a souped-up Model 336 chambered for the new .338 Marlin Express, a rimmed, short-action cartridge with long-range trajectory and terminal energy similar to the .30/06. It has all-stainless-steel metalwork, a laminated hardwood stock, a fluted bolt, an extra-long barrel for increased velocity, and a Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad. The model I handled was heavier than listed and felt a little bulky but seemed rock solid.

Henry .30/30

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:36:14 -0400

The Specs: 20" barrel; 8.3 lb.; .30/30 The Skinny: The company that introduced the lever action in 1860 has finally added a .30/30 model for deer hunters. Available in either a blued receiver with round-bull barrel or a solid-brass receiver with octagonal barrel, the new rifle has a handsome, straight-grip American walnut stock. A Marbles adjustable buckhorn rear sight and brass-bead front sight add to the gun’s classic good looks.

Browning BLR Lightweight Pistol Grip Stainless

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:32:23 -0400

The Specs: 20" (standard) or 22" (magnum) barrel; 61⁄2 or 63⁄4 lb.; .243 Win., .308 Win., .270 WSM, or .300 WSM The Skinny: Because the BLR is fed from a clip and not a tubular magazine, it can be chambered for a variety of short-action cartridges, including magnums with pointed bullets. As such, it has long been the most powerful lever on the market. The aluminum receiver keeps weight down; the steel-to-steel lockup of the rotary bolt to the barrel extension provides the strength of a bolt rifle.

Mossberg Model 464

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:26:37 -0400

The Specs: 20" barrel; 6.7 lb.; .30/30 The Skinny: Mossberg’s latest lever action has the look and easy-carrying balance of Winchester’s legendary Model 94. This modern lever, however, has an ejection port designed so spent cartridges clear a receiver-mounted scope. The action is a pleasure to operate, and like Mossberg shotguns, the rifle has a top-tang safety that you can operate without having to move your trigger finger. Its rubber butt pad and hardwood stock are simple but serviceable.

Best of the Best Awards: Best New Hunting Gear 2009

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:47:08 -0400

This year, 27 experienced testers took more than 500 pieces of gear and put them to extreme, exhausting, and real-life use. Some things broke. Others didn’t work as claimed. Many didn’t live up to expectations. What remained is equipment that met our rigorous standards and then some: the Best of the Best Hunting Gear for 2009.

Best New Rifle 2009: E.R. Shaw Mark VII

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:21:04 -0400

For no more than the price of a good factory rifle, you can design a gun that is yours and yours alone. By the time you choose among 80 chamberings, three types of stocks, chrome-moly or stainless-steel barrels, right- or left-hand, four action lengths, six barrel contours, and much more, there are 100,000 possible combinations, weighing anywhere from 61⁄2 to 8 pounds. Shaw uses modified Savage AccuTrigger actions for the Mark VII. It’s a very simple rifle, and the work is uniformly excellent.

Best New Rifle Ammo 2009: Federal Vital-Shok Trophy Bonded Tip

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:15:16 -0400

Trophy Bonded bullets have had an enviable reputation as premium projectiles for the past quarter century, but now Federal has greatly improved them by adding a polymer tip, replacing the flat base with a boattail, adding exterior skiving (fracture lines) for improved expansion, and plating both the bullet and the case in nickel, which reduces fouling and eliminates case corrosion. The bonded lead core and heavy solid-copper shank remain unchanged.

Best New Shotgun Ammo 2009: Federal 20-Gauge Heavyweight

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:10:13 -0400

Federal Heavyweights transform the 20-gauge into a true contender in the turkey woods. They achieve near-12-gauge performance by combining the proprietary FliteControl wad and Heavyweight tungsten-iron pellets. Unlike wads that release the shot charge as it exits the muzzle, the FliteControl holds pellets together inside the shotcup for several feet, resulting in tight patterns even from open chokes. Heavyweight pellets are denser than lead (15 grams per cubic centimeter vs.

Best New Shotgun 2009: Benelli Vinci

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:04:49 -0400

If Best of the Best were a beauty contest, the Vinci would not have won. The test of a shotgun is how it points and swings, however, and the Vinci passed with flying colors. This gun is light—6 pounds 14 ounces in a 26-inch-barreled, 3-inch 12-gauge—and uses a version of Benelli’s proven inertia action. It’s easy to load, thanks to the large bolt release, and the bolt lock is unobtrusively placed and easy to push. The trigger broke cleanly at 51⁄2 pounds. Only the location of the safety in the front of the trigger guard caused any grumbling.

Best New Muzzleloader 2009: CVA Apex

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:55:50 -0400

The break-action .50-caliber CVA Apex is the undisputed Best of the Best for 2009. It scored top marks for shootability, accuracy, durability, and design with the test team, and the price is outstanding. The fit and balance of this solid, 8-pound gun are exceptional, enabling the shooter to pick up the target quickly. The crisp trigger was a standout at less than 3 pounds and can be credited, along with the performance of the Spanish-made Bergara barrel, for the Apex’s exceptional accuracy.

Best New Binocular 2009: Kowa Genesis 33 8x33

Online Editors — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:49:20 -0400

For a 115-year-old company that’s manufactured binoculars for nearly 60 years, Kowa should be better known. Whatever its recognition level, Kowa has a genuinely superb binocular in its lightweight (21 ounces), compact 8x33 Genesis roof prism. Here’s the basic rundown: wide-angle field of view, fully multicoated lenses; armored-magnesium body; tight but smooth solid bridge hinge; locking diopter focus-adjustment wheel; and twist-up eyecups.