Field and Stream - Ammunition RSS

Polymer Casings: The Future of Ammo?

Online Editors — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:52:23 -0500

These rounds might mark the end of the metal casing. The polymer casing significantly reduces ammunition weight while retaining its accuracy--meaning you can carry more ammo during your next hunt.

An Expansion Demonstration of Federal's Guard Dog Self-Defense Ammo

Online Editors — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:10:24 -0500

Federal's line of self-defense ammunition, Guard Dog, feature expanding-full-metal-jacket (EMFJ) bullets that are filled with a semi-soft polymer. Each bullet expands identically along scored lines in the jacket. It has the benefits of a hollow-point bullet, without the risk of debris getting caught in the hollow, causing it to not expand. EMFJs are often legal in areas where hollow-point ammo is not.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 3

Online Editors — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:48:52 -0500

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 2.

Dave Petzal on SHOT Show 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:27:48 -0500

by David E. Petzal

In a wretched economic year, the pants-wetters, doomsayers, and purveyors of pessimism would be confounded by the life and vitality in the shooting industry. This year in Las Vegas, an estimated 60,000 people (all in the gun biz), many of whom look like Larry the Cable Guy, crowded into a maze of under-ventilated halls to ogle, grope and buy. Guns. What did you think I was talking about?

The most densely crowded venues were dedicated to the wonderful worlds of the paramilitary and law enforcement. Apparently there is an insatiable need for the equipment used in shooting, clubbing, and gassing people. There are suits of full body armor the like of which has not been seen since the Battle of Agincourt. There are all-black deathmobiles, equipped with lethal gear of all sorts. I’m told that Cop World constitutes fully one-third of the SHOT Show. How shooting and suppressing the citizenry ties into Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade is more than I can comprehend, but there it is.

There is also a very notable shortage of Booth Babes. In past years, you could hardly turn a corner without seeing some inadequately clothed young mammal who would cause you to stop dead in your tracks and give thanks to the forces of evolution. Damned if I know what happened to them.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 2

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:34:22 -0500

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 2.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day I

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:48:40 -0500

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 1.

New Winchester PDX .223 and .308 Self-Defense Ammo

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:37:39 -0500

Winchester has added two rifle rounds to its popular self-defense PDX line of ammunition in .223 and .308. Check out this video for more details.

Welcome To SHOT Show 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:52:39 -0500

SHOT Show is the biggest hunting industry event in the world. This year, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and SHOT Business are joining forces to present the most comprehensive coverage possible from Las Vegas all week. On Monday we were on site for Media Day At The Range. Here's an intro video and a quick bit on Winchester Razor Back ammo.

Stay tuned for more videos, blogs and photo galleries.

SHOT Show 2012 Sneak Peek: 12 New Guns From Range Day

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:54:40 -0500

New items from Media Day At The Range from SHOT 2012.

Lessons Learned and Soliciting Queries for SHOT Show 2012

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:15:08 -0500

by David E. Petzal

This past year was an unusually active one for me. I dragged my rotting carcass across both oceans and to a number of states, and took 11 head of big game, with big game being defined as a wild swine or larger.

Looking over the whole business, a number of things stand out. The longest shot I took was at an elk. It was 160 yards. The two shortest--at a red stag and a mule deer--were around 30 yards. The average for everything was 80 yards. None of this is long-range shooting, and leads me to wonder, where are all these 500-yard shots everyone is obsessing about? During the whole season, one person I was afield with took a long shot--400 yards--at an elk, hit it and was unable to find it. In the real world, at least from my experience, things still happen well inside 200 yards.

High-Speed Video: .308 Vs. Soup Can

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:13:30 -0500

by David Maccar

When I was told the folks at Vision Research were willing to let us use two of their very expensive, very high-speed cameras, I knew immediately what had to be done.
Shoot stuff.

So many questions could be answered. How, say, does PowerBait trout goop react to a .223 round at 19,300 frames per second? (Television, by comparison, runs around 30 frames per second.) What happens when you shoot a basketball with an expandable broadhead or a can of tomato soup with a .308?

More on Long Range Shooting

Sarah Smith — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:30:40 -0500

by David E. Petzal

Back in April, 2011, I became a probationary member of the Scarborough Fish & Game Association in Scarborough, Maine. The name notwithstanding, SF&G is a shooting club, and a very large, very active one at that. They stage just about every kind of rifle, shotgun, handgun and archery event you can think of, and there is a dedicated range for cops to practice shooting people (so if you have any wants and warrants outstanding, stay away).

Among their assets is a beautiful range with shooting points from 100 to 600 yards, but since the Association’s official religion is safety, they do not let anyone use that range until they’re vetted. You qualify there or you stick to the 100-yard ranges; SF&G does not want any bullets sailing over the backstop. If you raise your muzzle above the level of the backstop you get a warning. If you do it again you are requested to leave.

Did You Get a Gun For Christmas, Too?

Sarah Smith — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:27:15 -0500

by Dave Hurteau

Actually I got a winter restoration project—a Savage Model 24 in .22LR/.410 with good bores and solid wood but a very rough exterior. As far as I’m concerned, the Model 24 in this configuration is the perfect squirrel gun.

By the way, did you know that squirrel hunting makes excellent practice for hunting whitetail deer, the species about which this blog is solely dedicated?

As I was saying, it’s a fantastic squirrel gun, particularly for small woodlots close to populated areas, because you can use the .22 when your backdrop will stop a bullet and the .410 when it won’t. Plus it’s just a damned cool gun that I’ve always wanted to own.

Jingle Bells With a 1911

Sarah Smith — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:48:01 -0500

Happy Holidays from the Gun Nuts!

Rot and Evil and the Military Channel

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:32:58 -0500

by David E. Petzal

Like many of you, I’m addicted to both the History Channel and the Military Channel. Were it not for them I would have to learn canasta or take up calligraphy while I wait for the end to come. The Military Channel still runs some good stuff, but I’m seeing it drift farther and farther from bullets and bayonets and more toward show biz.

The first example of this is a program called “An Officer and Movie,” in which a war film is played and the host, the actor Lou Diamond Phillips, quizzes a combat veteran about what the movie purports to show. The concept is a good one, but the films are some of the lamest military flicks ever made (Heartbreak Ridge? Spare me.) Mr. Phillips is no military authority, the officers are given no time to say anything important, and the questions are innocuous. Aside from that it’s fine.

If the Military Channel would like to do something meaningful, how about having Colonel Jack Jacobs host the program? Colonel Jacobs (USA, Ret) won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam and does military analysis for MSNBC. How about running movies like Attack, a film that stars Jack Palance and came out in 1956. It deals with cowardice under fire, and has some distinctly unpleasant things to say. Or Decision Before Dawn (1951) which was the first postwar American film to show Germans in a sympathetic light, and is about loyalty to a cause, and what it can do to you. Neither film makes for easy watching, and I’d love to see one or both on “An Officer…” but I won’t hold my breath.

On Fouling Shots, and Choosing Your Friends

Sarah Smith — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:36:38 -0500

by David E. Petzal

A friend of mine called from Wyoming with grave concerns about his rifle, a .300 Win Mag with a #4 contour barrel from one of the really good makers, and all the other Right Credentials.

“It never prints the first shot with the others,” he said. “The first shot is always an inch high, and then you can cover the next three with a badly worn dime. What’s wrong with the gun?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” I said. “It just needs a fouling shot. About half of my rifles do. I have no idea why. I keep cheap ammo for just that. When I shoot, I put the first round in the dirt alongside the target and then get to business. Same when I go hunting. I sight in here and don’t clean the bore until I come home.”

How To Make Ice Cube Bullets

Sarah Smith — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:50:46 -0500

Are you a deer camp mixologist looking for a way to add a little bang to your drinks? Then here you go!

From geekstuff4u.com:

Creates bullet shaped ice cubes that are perfect for that killer drink! Just fill up the tray with water, like you would do with a standard Ice cube tray, and place it in the freezer. Then enjoy your beverage!

Good Ammo: Berger Bullets

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:07:13 -0400

by David E. Petzal

Recently, at a shoot where I qualified at 600 yards, I heard the word “Berger” so often it was like working at Wendy’s. These Bergers were not beef, but copper and lead; it seemed everyone and his uncle was handloading the creations of Walt Berger, a Hall of Fame benchrest shooter—including myself.

Berger makes target, varmint, hunting, and tactical bullets, all to match standards. The ones I was shooting were the second category, called Hunting VLD (for Very Low Drag), .308, 155-grain. VLDs are made with J4 copper jackets, lead cores, very small hollow points, a very long secant ogive, and a pronounced boattail base. They come in 6mm through .308. What I can tell you also is that they are exceedingly aerodynamic. The wind can’t seem to grab them, and they drop far less than the numbers say they should. Every time I estimated how much to hold over at long range, they hit higher than I guessed.

Guns & Loads For The Living Dead

Sarah Smith — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:26:17 -0400

by David E. Petzal

While scrolling down the channel guide in my customary evening stupor, I noticed that most of the programming concerned the undead. Land of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, The Living Dead Walk Again, The Living Dead Fart*, and on and on. I wondered why all the interest in Congress, and happened to mention it to a friend who is much younger and hipper, and he said, “It’s not about the House and Senate, you out-of-touch old bastard, it’s about zombies. Zombies are HOT.”

The Best of the 2011 Gun Nuts Target Photo Contest

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:37:32 -0400

The 50 best shots from our 2011 Gun Nuts Target Photo Contest.

Jeff Cooper, Cape Buffalo and the .375 H&H

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:54:47 -0400

by David E. Petzal

While poring through Jeff Cooper’s Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip books (well worth the read) I noticed that he took a couple of occasions to savagely attack the .375 H&H. It was the classic criticism--kicks too hard to be generally useful, lacks the flat trajectory for long shots, and is not enough gun for Cape buffalo. I can follow him part way, but only part.

What I agree with is the buffalo. It’ll kill them, but it won’t impress them. The first one I ever shot was at 15 yards, right where the dewlap runs into the chest, with a 300-grain screw-machine Nosler Partition. He ran off a little ways to think things over while I continued to pump bullets into him. He was not so much hurt as aggrieved. Finally he collapsed under the sheer weight of the lead. The next three followed the same pattern, and that was the last time I used a .375 H&H on old nyati. Since then, I’ve shot them with a .416 Remington, .458 Winchester, and .458 Lott, and all three did much, much better.

What Is Your Favorite .338?

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 12:46:07 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

A Word to Gun Nuts Readers

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:04:58 -0400

by David E. Petzal

It is my duty to inform you that my post of September 1, “Party Poppers for Libya,” contained not a single word of truth. It was political satire, nothing more. A number of you astutely pointed out that it was only a single click off reality, despite its preposterous premise, and you spoke better than you knew.

I was provoked to write it by a White House press conference at which Jay Carney, President Obama’s Press Secretary (a nice young man, but badly out of his depth, sort of like his boss) opined that bombing--the NATO airstrikes on Quadaffi’s hired goons--did not constitute war. This was something straight out of Catch-22. And rather than giving him a chorus of “BUUUUUUULS**T!”, the gutless toads of the Washington press corps simply went on to the next round of inanity. If rocketing and bombing is not war, it’ll do till the war comes along. I invite Mr. Carney to place himself in the middle of an air strike and see if his opinion is not changed.

Party Poppers for Libya

Sarah Smith — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:24:02 -0400

by David E. Petzal

What with all the excitement over Hurricane Irene, you may have missed the following press release from Martha’s Vineyard on 8/23:

“The President, in a gesture of support for the brave freedom fighters of Libya, has ordered the director of the Lake City Arsenal to alter some of our existing stocks of 7.62mm, 5.54mm, and 12.7mm Soviet ammunition for firing in the air as a means of celebration. The United States not only recognizes the right of different cultures to express themselves in ways different from ours, but believes they should be able to do it safely, without the risk of injury from falling projectiles.

“The Lake City Arsenal will remove the bullets from this ammunition, replace the powder with a propellant designed for pyrotechnics, and replace the original projectiles with new ones made from light, biodegradable plastic that cannot cause injury and is not based on animal fats. This will result in increased flash and report, while at the same time eliminating the risks inherent in firing conventional ammunition into the air.

Explaining American Rifle Ammo Designations

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:27:03 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

On today’s Gun Nuts TV clip, Dave explains the system by which centerfire cartridges are named. I have to admit, I am envious of gun writers like Dave who were smart enough to choose rifles as their primary subject matter. There is a seemingly endless supply of rifle calibers to write about as opposed to only six shotgun gauges.