Field and Stream - Ammunition RSS

Olympic Medalist Kim Rhode on Prep for London Games

Online Editors — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:40:43 -0500

Kim Rhode will be competing in the Olympic Skeet event in 2012, where she hopes to break an Olympic record by winning five medals in five different Olympic Games. She talks with Phil Bourjaily about her practice routine and prep work leading up to the London games.

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.

Winchester Blind Side Expands Ammo Line

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:46:17 -0500

Blind Side shotshells are now available in 1s, 3s and 5s and also 20 gauge. The shells are specially designed for waterfowl hunting and are packed with hexagon-shaped shot.

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.

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.

Thoughts on Stock Length

Online Editors — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:25:24 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

How long should your gunstock be and how much does stock length really matter?

The Beretta 391 in the picture came with spacers allowing me to alter the length. I made it 15 inches for shooting in T-shirt weather back in dove season, intending to remove a spacer to accommodate bulky waterfowling clothes. Instead, I left it and never noticed the extra length.

Jingle Bells With a 1911

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

Happy Holidays from the Gun Nuts!

When Good Guns Happen to Stupid People

Sarah Smith — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:37:46 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Spend enough time surfing the internet and you will see horrible sights. This video is one.

During last week’s discussion of the Benelli Montefeltro, the Winchester Model 50’s name came up. Thinking it would be interesting to write about the Model 50*, I went looking on Youtube in search of a video illustrating the gun’s unique action. Unfortunately, the video here is what I found instead. It’s probably better that some readers (Tom from Cody, I’m thinking of you) don’t watch this at all. This is a gun project so horribly wrong-headed I almost didn’t get through to the end of the clip myself.

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.

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!

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.”

Pheasant Hunting With Rescue Dogs

Sarah Smith — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:47:09 -0400

by Chad Love

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of expending a truly inordinate number of Federal's new Prairie Storm FS Steel shotgun shells during a pheasant hunt at Dakota Hunting Farms in Hecla, South Dakota. The hunt was jointly sponsored by Federal Premium Ammunition, Pheasants Forever and Benelli.

I discovered many new things on this hunt, but these three stand out: the Prairie Storm FS steel loads work very, very well on pheasants and will be an absolute boon to those of us who hunt steel-shot areas, the new 28-gauge Benelli Legacy is sweeter than my grandmother's cinnamon rolls, and when your guide tells you that the dog who just flushed and then retrieved the pheasant you shot isn't a lab, but rather a lab/Dalmatian mix, don't let your jaw hit the ground, 'cause there's stickers down there.

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.

Review: Small Bore Hevi-Shot Ammo

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:47:29 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

The good news is, if you want better-than-lead non-toxic performance from your small bore, Hevi-Shot now comes in 28 gauge and .410. The bad news is, it will cost you $2-$3 per shell. The further bad news is, no, the price of tungsten-iron loads won't ever come down, because raw tungsten is very scarce and expensive stuff.

Nevertheless, some people love to hunt with little guns and, at decoying duck ranges, a light load of Hevishot 4, 6 or 7 shot is completely adequate. My friend Dave (shown below with his Lab, Jazz) is a smallbore nut, and when we duck hunted together last week I brought him some of the new 28 gauge 6s to shoot out of his SKB.

Guns, Doves and Steel

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:21:35 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

Almost as heated as the debate over legalizing dove hunting in Iowa was the fracas over what type of shot Iowans would shoot at doves. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad originally signed off on the Natural Resources Commission’s decision to mandate non-toxic shot for doves statewide. Hunters, gun owners and the governor’s son threw a fit until he reversed the decision to permit lead shot. Rather than rehash the political and environmental arguments for and against steel, out of curiosity I thought I would shoot it at doves this year to see how it works. Here’s what I found so far:

Cost
Nearly every angry post and letter I read online complained about the high price of non-toxic shot, with many claiming steel costs $20 per box and more. I don’t know where those people are shopping because at local stores lead and steel dove loads cost exactly the same: $5.99 a box.

A Few Words About Buckshot

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:04:53 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

Regular reader Jim in NC recently suggested I write more about buckshot, adding that I should not dismiss buckshot deer hunters as “a bunch of knuckle dragging rednecks who should be shooting driven pheasants with Holland and Hollands.” Hardly. One of the best features of the shotgun is its versatility. With a 12 gauge shotgun and a selection of ammo from 9s to buck and slugs you can shoot anything on Earth that walks or flies.

Coming from a “slugs only” state I have shot plenty of deer with shotguns but none with buckshot. But, I have always been intrigued by buck shot and have a shot a bunch at paper to see how it acts. Here is what I have observed:

Measuring a Shot String With High-Speed Video

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:35:01 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

This week’s Gun Nuts clip features some high speed photography in an attempt to answer the question, “How long is a shot string?” The high-speed videos allow us to measure shot string either by comparing them to the hashmarks on the wall, or by measuring the interval in milleseconds between the first and last pellet strikes. The answer, in both cases, is around 6-8 feet.

As I mention in the clip, the system is a huge improvement over the one used by my predecessor Bob Brister, who built a target stand on a boat trailer and had his wife tow it past him at 35-40 mph while he shot at it. The 18-foot long sheet of paper often showed lead payloads strung out from one end to the other. Pictures of the trailer and of many of the patterns Brister shot can be seen in his classic book, Shotgunning, The Art and Science, and are well worth a look.

Going Out Like a Gun Nut: Have Your Ashes Loaded In Ammo

Online Editors — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:44:20 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

There have been outfits before that would load your remains into a cartridge, but Holy Smoke definitely has the best name and a cool logo, too. What makes Holy Smoke different from and better than the other company I remember is that their predecessors would only load your remains into one shell, while the Holy Smoke guys will make a whole flat of ammunition with each shell containing a portion of your ashes. I have to say that makes Holy Smoke’s service a much more attractive alternative. How could you rest in peace if you were worrying that the person you trusted the one and only shell containing your ashes to might miss?

This way whoever gets your ashes has 250 chances to make a memorable shot. You have to like those odds better.

From a company release:
Mobile, Ala., July 27, 2011 -- You want to plan your loved one's final arrangements in a way that not only celebrate his or her life but also reflect that person's passions and interests. Holy Smoke LLC can help you honor the deceased outdoors person with a unique memorial that commemorates his or her love for shooting sports. Have your loved one's cremated ash placed in live ammunition so you can share one more round of clay targets, one last bird hunt or one last stalk hunt.

Last Chance to Enter the 2011 Gun Nut Target Photo Contest

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:44:36 -0400

Enter the 2011 Gun Nut Target Photo Contest before it's too late!