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The Gun Nut Nation Survey 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:42:59 -0400

Sound off, Gun Nuts. Tell us what you love about today’s rifles and shotguns. Tell us what you hate most about the perception of gun owners in the media. Tell us about your hopes and fears concerning a certain election this November. Tell us about what makes you a Gun Nut in the following survey—a collection of questions about the politics, economics, and state of Gun Nut Nation. The results will be published in the July 2012 issue of Field & Stream. Thank you for participating.

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.

The 600-yard hopefuls are split into two squads; one pulls targets while the other shoots, and then they switch. You can use any rifle you choose, any scope, or iron sights, and since this is a qualification and not a competition, you can use a bipod or sandbags or a mechanical rest.

All the shooting is done from prone. You start at 100 yards to check your zero, then you move back to 200 and fire five shots for record. All five have to be on target or you go home. The highest possible score is 50. Then you move back to 600 and get to fire a few sighters, after which you make whatever corrections you need and shoot five shots for record. Same rules—every bullet has to score or you get to slink off.

There are half a dozen coaches, all experienced over-the-course competitors to whom this is old stuff. They score you, and will give you advice if you ask for it, but otherwise they leave you on your own because they want to see if you have the knowledge and equipment to get the job done.

For my trial by fire I used a Shaw Mark VII .30/06 with a Bushnell Elite 6500 scope with a mil-dot reticle. Ammo was handloads—155-grain Berger VLD bullets at 2,840 fps. I also used a short Harris bipod. The only question in my military mind was which dot to use to get in the black at 600 yards. Through a mixture of Euclidian geometry, trigonometry, basic physics, consultation with ballistic tables, The Book of Kjells, prayer, fasting, and a whiny call to Kenny Jarrett, I determined that the fourth dot down would get me into the promised land, or at least my bullet would go there.

We had a beautiful calm morning with only a 2 mph breeze, and my first shot went into the eight ring at 2 o’clock. I needed to come left half the width of the eight ring, so I put in enough clicks to do that, and then I had to come down about six inches, so I did that. The next shot was a 10, so it was time to shoot for record.

I ended up with a 45x50—two 10s, a 9, and two 8s. This was good enough to qualify, but in competition it would get you looks of pity and contempt. The guy for whom I was pulling the target shot 50x50-4X, which means he put four out of 5 shots in 6 inches at six football fields. I wish I had the chance to find out what he was shooting, but was able to learn only that it was one of the 6.5s.

A final note: The shooter to my left, who was using an AR, asked me what that huge cartridge was in my ammo block. “A .30/06,” I said, and smiled, because when the old ’06 qualifies as a huge cartridge, we’ve come a long, long way.

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.

As long as you mount the gun by pushing it out toward the target, you can shoot a longer stock than you might think you can without tangling it up in your hunting coat. The advantage to a longer stock, I think, is that it makes a gun mount smoother. If I mount this gun correctly, bringing it to my face, the stock just meets my shoulder without my having to pull the gun back into my shoulder pocket, possibly pulling the muzzle off target as I do so.

On the other hand, sometimes I wonder how much stock length matters. I could always shoot my son’s 13-inch youth stocked 1100 pretty well. As long as you aren’t punching yourself in the nose with the thumb of your shooting hand, maybe stock length doesn’t matter.

It was, and may still be, a trend among some sporting clays shooters to shoot absurdly long stocks. I have seen people my height (6 feet) shoot guns with a length of pull as much as 17 inches. I could sort of shoot their guns if I mounted them first, but I couldn’t mount them from a low gun start at all.

Ohio Man Shoots Amish Girl While Cleaning Gun

Sarah Smith — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:02:41 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

This story out of Fredericksburg, Ohio serves as a freakish, tragic reminder that the only place to shoot a rifle is into a safe backstop. Fifteen-year-old Rachel Yoder was driving her buggy home when she was struck in the head by a muzzleloader bullet apparently fired a mile and a half away, by a man “cleaning” his gun who had fired it into the air. That the bullet landed where it did defies probability, but that doesn’t change the fact that it happened and cannot be undone.

While no one knowingly cleans a loaded gun, it is common for blackpowder hunters to unload their rifles at the end of a hunt by shooting them. Perhaps that’s what happened here, and if so, in an instant of carelessness someone ended a young girl’s life and ruined his own.

Be careful in 2012.

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.

The guy who posted this says someone gave him this Model 50 as a gift and, since he “doesn’t hunt yet” he modified it to use as a tactical gun, until he could afford “a proper tactical shotgun” such as an 870 or Mossberg 590. All he has done is wreck a neat old hunting gun in the name of having a stopgap tactical gun. And, for the price of the sights, heat shield and shell holder, he could have paid for about half of an 870 Express while keeping his Model 50 intact. Someday, if he does take up hunting, he finally will realize what he has done.

*The Model 50 is an interesting gun, made in the 1950s and early 1960s with an inertia system that featured the floating chamber developed by David “Carbine” Williams that actually moved almost a tenth of an inch under recoil. (The first guns could be fired without a barrel attached, causing concern at the federal law enforcement level. Winchester modified the gun so it could not shoot without a barrel attached). Winchester made both a steel and an alloy “Featherlight” receiver version, and the gun formed the basis for the great and weird steel and fiberglass-barreled Model 59. Winchester made a couple hundred thousand of them, and while the gun wasn’t a huge success, Model 50s still show up regularly in used gun racks which is a testament to their durability.

Do You Treat Your Reel As Well As You Treat Your Gun?

Sarah Smith — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:16:00 -0400

About a month ago, I wrote about the necessity of maintaining and servicing your fishing reels. Some readers noted doing a lousy job of tackle maintenance while at the same time taking meticulous care of their firearms.

That brings up an obvious question: Why is this so? Or what’s the difference? Seems to me that if you’re going to make the effort to keep a prized rifle or shotgun in top shape, then you might lavish the same attention on a nice, quality reel--be it fly, spin or baitcasting.

Guns and reels both perform better with appropriate care. But somehow guns are often seen as treasured heirlooms while various tackle items are usually not. Historically, it’s an attitude that goes back a long way, which I learned as the former director of a flyfishing museum and often went through boxes of old, usually neglected fishing stuff.

Personally, I’m far more of an angler than a hunter. But I do own firearms and enjoy hunting occasionally. I try to do at least a half-decent job of maintaining and cleaning my rifles and shotguns once in a while. And I do the same with fishing reels, especially those I use most often.

It’s quite true that a fishing reel does not have the potential of saving my life or defending my home, as a firearm might do in some unforeseen circumstance. Maybe that’s the reason that arms--both historically and today--are so much more revered.

So I’m looking for answers, just out of curiosity. If you’re among the (seemingly) many who carefully maintain a firearm while often ignoring a fishing reel--why is that? What’s the difference?

Jim Baird’s Arctic Adventure: Lube Your Gun for Negative-40 Degrees

Online Editors — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:27:52 -0400

Two days before I saw this bird, I got a couple ptarmigans for the pot. My gun worked with out incident. This bird in the video got away because my firing pin was frozen. Once the trip was done, I told the story to my friend Pat in Ulukhaktok, and he showed me what he uses to lube his gun in extreme cold.

He uses a fast-drying graphite spray made for aviation applications that can handle extreme cold. Oil-based lubricants get very slow and sticky at low temperatures. In the deep cold, the heat created from firing your gun creates condensation that can freeze your pin. In these conditions, it’s better to use no lube at all if you don’t have a dry lubricant, wiping all the oil-based lube from your gun. I would also consider putting a stronger spring in my gun in future situations like this.

Moral of the story: If your gun freezes up when your ptarmigan hunting, you’ll go hungry. If your gun is freezes up when you’re being charged by a bear, the bear doesn’t go hungry.

Graphite spray it is.

Announcing the 2011 Gun Nut Target Photo Contest

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:22:42 -0400

Petzal: A Lesson in Simplicity

Online Editors — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:01:55 -0400

This past August, I shot in a trap league in order to stay off the streets and out of trouble, and on one Sunday I shot on the same squad as a fellow who could really shoot. His scores were as follows: 16 yards, 49x50; handicap, 49x50; doubles, 49x50. In big-time ATA meets this sort of thing is the norm, but for a social shooter like me it’s highly edifying. He was very fast, and he was also incredibly consistent. He pounded every target, and I doubt there was a difference of 3 feet, shot to shot, where each one met its end.

His gun was a Winchester Model 12. It had fancy wood and lots of engraving, but it did not have a screw-in choke, an adjustable comb, or an adjustable butt. It did not have that abomination known as a release trigger. It did not have a super-high rib. There was nothing you could change, alter, or fiddle with. When I asked him if he didn’t feel deprived, he said,

“I can make the gun do what I want it to.”

The lesson here is one that's repeated over and over. The people who can really shoot find what works for them and stay with it. They do not screw with it, alter it, or tune it. If they get into a slump they recognize that it is they who are messing up and not the gun. Say amen.

Phil can now write a post on rifles.

Petzal: All About Gun Cleaning

Online Editors — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:36:43 -0400

Some time ago, I was asked how to clean a rifle. There are as many different ways to do this as there are to summon Beelzebub, and there is no single “correct” method.

Whatever works, works. Here, instead, are some general tips.

*Think of cleaning as a two-stage process. First you get out the powder fouling, then you get out the copper.

*For powder fouling, I use Shooters Choice solvent and phosphor-bronze brushes. When you’re finished with a brush, give it a toot from a can of Birchwood-Casey Gun Scrubber; this will get the dirt off the brush and will keep the Shooters Choice from eating the bronze bristles.

*For copper fouling, I use J-B Non Imbedding Bore Cleaner. Other copper-killers will not work on some barrels, or take forever, or will pit your bore if you leave them in too long. This stuff works fast, and will get all the copper out for sure.

*Keep your rods clean. That is why God invented paper towels. A dirty rod is an instrument of terrible destruction.

*Do not use slot-type patch holders, You do not want to drag dirty patches back and forth through the bore. Each patch gets one trip only.

*When you think you’re done, leave the bore wet with Shooters Choice for a couple of hours and then run a dry patch through. If it comes out with no green on it, you’re done. Then run a Rem-Oil patch through the bore and a dry one after it.

*Clean the chamber with a dry patch. You don’t want anything at all left in there.

*The source for all cleaning supplies is brownells.com

The Gun Nuts On Television

Online Editors — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:55:05 -0400

That’s me -- I’m the one on the left -- on the set of “The Gun Nuts” the other day. We had just filmed a highly scientific test on the shot-resistant properties of shooting glasses. What happens when 8 shot launched at 1200 fps meets polycarbonate lenses protecting googly craft eyes on cantaloupes representing human heads? Tune in to The Gun Nuts to find out.

Starting today, every Wednesday at 9:30 PM (EST) Dave and I will do our best to bring this blog to life onscreen on the Outdoor Channel. We will blast melons, torture red dots, debunk myths and even break out Dave’s famous Ballistic Buffalo. We’ll talk about guns both classic and new, give shooting advice, and speak our minds about gunny subjects. We may give some stuff away, too.

So far it has been a lot of fun to work on The Gun Nuts, and I hope the end result is as much fun for you to watch. We’ll find out soon enough. If you can’t wait until next Wednesday, then play the preview clip below, which the Outdoor Channel worked up for the show. -- Phil Bourjaily

How to Shoot a Magazine for Fun and (Maybe) Profit

Online Editors — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:20:41 -0400

We want you to take the July issue of Field & Stream out and shoot it. Well, not the whole magazine, but the target on page 49. It’s part of the special Gun Nut issue, in which DEP and I put this blog on the pages of the Field & Stream. In the section you’ll find shooting advice, lots of guns, Gun Nut rules to live by and such vital minutiae as my five favorite gun scenes in the movies and Dave’s nominations for the Three Meanest Gunwriters Ever. The issue hits newsstands on June 22nd.

Back to the target. We want you to shoot it. Really. With any gun, at any range. One shot or many – doesn’t matter – then shoot it again, this time with a camera. You can be in the picture, too. Whoever takes the photo our editors like best wins a Smith & Wesson M&P MOE in 5.56mm. And by “wins” I mean, we give it to you (via a registered FFL dealer) and you get to keep it. You can enter the contest here once your issue arrives.

I have shot a bunch of phone books (you test penetration by seeing how far in the alphabet the pellets reach) but I don’t recall ever shooting a magazine so you are on your own in your choice of guns and ammunition. My only advice is be safe, be creative, have fun, and send us your pictures.

There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t send in pictures of more than one target. That will require buying more magazines which, of course, is all part of our insidiously brilliant plan. Magazines are supposed to be dying out, killed by the Internet as delivered on home computers, laptops, phones and iPads. Maybe someday, but for now, we are proud to say we have created an app for a magazine that can’t be replicated on a screen. Well, I guess you can shoot your laptop if you want to, but we won’t let you win a gun for doing it.

Bourjaily: Update on My Beretta A400

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:08:40 -0500

Beretta’s A400 semiautos – which I saw in Italy earlier this fall -- are trickling into the country. I have one and have been putting it to good use. Thus far, I like almost everything about the A400. Through a flat of target loads and an assortment of hunting loads, it has worked almost perfectly. Its one failure to fire came on the second shot of skeet doubles. I was using 2 ¾ dram, 1 1/8 ounce target loads, and the second round chambered but the bolt didn’t close 100% of the way and the gun went “click.” I think the loads were a little light for this 3 ½ inch gun, although it may eventually cycle them with complete reliability after I shoot it more.

Starting from a low gun I shot 24x25 at skeet the first time I tried it. I blew my straight by choking on high six (Idiot!) proving that, for me, the A400 fits, points and swings well, and re-proving that no gun, not even the latest, greatest high tech wonder, can break targets you are determined to miss.

The Kick-Off recoil reducer does take a lot of the bite out of heavy loads. I’ve been shooting 1 3/8 ounces of HeviShot at 1450 fps in the field. Normally in a gun this light (7 pounds for mine, not the 6.6 pounds Beretta lists) would rattle my teeth with such heavy loads, but recoil is remarkably light with hunting and target ammo.

Just a few days ago I got to abuse the A400, laying out in a cornfield for ducks and geese in the early stages of a blizzard. At one point my friend Mike looked over to my blind where I was taking the gun apart to clear the barrel. “You’ve got duck blood all over your pants and snow in your barrel,” he said in a way that suggested life doesn’t get any better. Back home, the A400 cleaned up with ease. It’s very convenient having the action spring on the magazine tube where you can get at it without removing the stock.

So far the A400 seems to be a heck of a gun but, of course, for $1600, it ought to be.

Bourjaily: The Browning Maxus “Turnkey” Plug

Online Editors — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:44:17 -0500

When Browning introduced the excellent Maxus semiauto last year one of their engineers walked me through all the features of the gun, including the “turnkey” magazine plug. It is pretty slick: you take the forearm off, use any car key to turn the plug through 90 degrees, and you can slide it out of the magazine tube without any disassembly, increasing the capacity from two shells to four. The plug goes back in just as easily if you need to limit the magazine capacity to two for migratory bird hunting.

I thought, that’s clever, but so what? I can’t remember the last time I took the plug out of a shotgun other than to clean a magazine tube.* I leave my plugs in all the time so there’s never any question about whether my gun is legal. Besides, I am of the belief that if shots 1 through 3 didn’t get the job done, numbers 4 and 5 probably won’t either. But a lot of people do swap their plug in and out, and they, not I, are the turnkey’s target market.

For instance, last weekend a friend of mine took a guest pheasant hunting. They got their gear on, got the dogs out of the truck and loaded their guns. The guest realized he had neglected to remove his plug and couldn’t run four shells up the tube. Over my friend’s protests the guest disassembled the gun right there in the long grass. As so often happens when you take the retainer out of the magazine tube, the magazine spring flung itself out of the tube and many feet from the gun. The party searched the prairie grasses for an hour and never did find it. In trying to turn his three-shot gun into a five-shot, the guest made it into a single shot instead.

Having heard that story I understand why Browning invented the turnkey system but I’m still trying to get a fix on how many people take plugs in and out and how many just leave them in all the time, as I do. So, do you ...

1. Leave your plugs in all the time?
2. Change them in and out?
3. Skip migratory birds and run unplugged all the time?

Discuss.

*I use a 12 gauge chamber brush. You’d be surprised what kind of junk you find in a magazine tube.

Bourjaily: Stop New-Shotgun Misfires with Break Free CLP

Online Editors — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:43:54 -0500

This really is about gun care, but I will begin by digressing: my 13 ½ year old English setter Ike (pictured here hard at work guarding my hunting clothes last year) went completely blind two weeks ago. When I go pheasant hunting, Ike still gets to ride in his crate to the field and back. I let him out to wander around sniffing things as I get ready, then I put Ike back in the box, get Jed out, and that’s the extent of Ike’s “hunt.”

In 12 full seasons Ike had a bunch of pheasants, a few quail, half a dozen woodcock and two Hungarian partridges and a snipe shot over his points. He has been a beloved house pet, too, and now is a blind, beloved house pet. I have few regrets about his life as my dog.

Here is one regret I do have: last fall, on what turned out to be his last point in the field, my gun misfired and it was my fault. Ike was good for about 20 minutes of hunting a day last year. One morning he pointed the only covey of quail I saw in Iowa all season. It was in a foodplot of standing corn, and I could see the birds on the ground and my dog downwind and locked up, tail held low in that old-timey setter way of his. I stepped into midst of them, the air filled with bobwhites, I picked one, and my new gun went “click.”

What happened? Guns come from the factory covered in grease, which you have to clean off with a cloth and a spritz of oil. Often, there’s grease on the firing pins of new guns, too, and it can slow the pins down, resulting in a few light strikes on the primer when the gun is brand new. The problem cures itself quickly, but if you don’t want to experience it at all, the remedy is simple: a drop of Break Free CLP down the firing pin hole(s) as you’re degreasing your new gun is all it takes.

Unfortunately this tip falls under the heading of “Do as I say, not as I do,” because I keep forgetting my drop of Break-Free when I clean up a new gun for the first time, and that’s what happened when Ike pointed the quail.

Bourjaily: The CSMC A-10 American

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:37:51 -0400

A year ago I visited Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company and witnessed a Marvel Of Our Age – a world-class fine double gun maker located right here in the US, in New Britain, Connecticut, to be precise. CSMC employs about 70 craftsmen, and, save for a few springs and widgets, every part of every gun is made entirely in house.

This week they announced their latest project: the A-10 American, which you can see here: a10american.com. It’s a sidelock O/U, not unlike the Boss or Woodward O/Us from England, or the Fabbri O/Us from Italy. “Sidelock” means all the parts of the lockwork are located on the inside of the steel plates on the sides of the receiver. On most sidelock guns, these sideplates unscrew by means of a little twirly-screw (I believe that’s the technical term) that you can undo with one finger, meaning you can easily pop the locks out to clean, repair or admire. On this gun, the locks detach by means of little flush mounted tabs that pop up to release the sideplates. It is a very elegantly made gun.

If the A-10 is built as well as any other gun that comes out of Connecticut Shotgun, it will be gem. That’s the good news. The bad is, it lists for $7,995, which, while a bargain for a sidelock O/U (you can spend ten or twenty times that amount on an English or Italian model), is still a lot of money. If you order now, and pay in full, the price drops to $4,995, still well out of my price range, but not so far out that I can’t dream a little.

Petzal: Some Peeves from a Gunsmith

Online Editors — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:49:39 -0400

If there is a more put-upon group of people than gunsmiths, I can't think who it might be. These gunsmith gripes are from John Blauvelt of Wallkill, NY. I would add one of my own to the list: People who chew a gunsmith's ear off about what they should buy, then go buy it at Wal-Mart to save $3.68.

Filthy guns. Just because you are having your gun repaired by the gunsmith does not mean that he is going to clean it for free.

Supplying your own parts. Usually goes like this-- "I bought these used parts off of EBay and tried to install them myself...." Try this the next time you go to have your car repaired. See where your auto mechanic tells you to put those parts.

"I want to pick your brain." This is the start of the phone conversation that then goes on for a half hour. What the hell. I was sitting here with nothing to do, waiting for you to call for free advice on how to install the parts you bought on EBay.

Gun puzzle in a box. Starting line while holding cardboard box: "I took it apart to fix it, and I cannot get it back together." So now I have to put it back together, find out what's not working, and then take it apart again to fix it, then reassemble it again. Of course I am not to charge extra for this.

"How much?" The customer wants 47 different custom things done and is trying to find the cheapest gunsmith to do them. This list usually comes in the form of an e-mail and was sent to every gunsmith he can find on the internet. You never hear back from him.

"That repair is almost the price of the gun." The gun was bought by his father, used, in 1927, and is a Sears Roebuck brand. My usual reply: "Gasoline was also 10 cents a gallon then. What are you paying now? "

Thanks for allowing me to vent.

Bourjaily: Tighten Chokes, Lighten Up

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:50:10 -0400

My first takeaway from this year’s Iowa State Sporting Clays shoot: tighten your chokes.

I’ve never believed in cranking choke tubes into the muzzle super-tight, but I do make sure they are firmly seated, then I nervously check them periodically during a day in the field or at the range.

From now on I’ll be examining my tubes more often after seeing somebody launch one – something I had heard of but never witnessed before this weekend.

There were five of us recreational Hunter-class types squadded together, and at the last minute, Frank, a Master-class shooter, joined us. He had an ever-so-slightly abrasive manner and an absolutely beautiful O/U that cost in the neighborhood of $15,000-$20,000.

At Station Four, he crushed a target. What I thought was the wad went flying through the pieces. Then we looked at the muzzles of his gun, and one of the extended tubes was gone. The tube had come so far unscrewed that the threads in the muzzle weren’t even damaged. The shot charge just snagged the choke and took it along for the ride as it flew out the barrel. It fell in some long grass where there was no chance of finding it without a metal detector. Frank screwed in another tube and kept shooting. “That was a $60 shot,” he kept saying.

My second takeaway from the shoot: lighten up. Even before he sailed his IC into the prairie grass, Frank was not having a good round. He missed three at the first station – a disaster for someone at his level -- then he let his anger and frustration turn a bad start into a trainwreck.

One of the keys to breaking five identical pairs in a row is to keep an even pace to your shooting. Frank would rush through each station (I think he just wanted to be done with the round), smashing targets but taking less and less time between pairs. Watching him, it was painfully obvious at every station that he was headed for a miss in the fourth or fifth pair. When he did whiff, I thought he was going to throw his gun. All he had to do was slow down, set an easy pace and enjoy himself, and he’d have shot a much better score.

In the interests of full disclosure, my attitude at the state shoot was awesome: I was relaxed, happy, took my time between pairs and Frank still outshot me pretty badly. On the other hand, I had a great time and he did not, so which of us really came out ahead? Even when enjoying yourself doesn’t help you shoot better, it is its own reward.

The Ten Best Best Bargains In Shotgunning

Online Editors — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:01:35 -0400

In this recession, bargains are everywhere—if you’re shopping for pickups and plasma TVs. Guns and ammunition are the exception, still selling fast in the wake of the November election. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, sales in the first quarter of ’09 were 27.1 percent higher than in the first quarter of ’08. Even in this down economy, you may not find the gun of your dreams red-tagged and gathering dust on your dealer’s shelf.

There are still wise buys beyond the basic 870 Express and Mossberg 500, however. Several products give you an excellent return on your dollar, and that’s very important right now. Here are shotgunning’s top 10 values, from the most expensive to the least:

[1] Beretta 682 Gold E Beretta isn’t normally considered a “bargain” brand but rates two entries on this list because they have learned something about gunmaking after nearly 500 years in business. My first pick, the 682 o/u, has taken shooters to the pinnacle of the shotgun sports—the top of the Olympic medal stand—competing against guns costing more than twice as much. The 682 features a durable, low-profile action that makes it both lively and strong. The barrel shoulders and other action parts are replaceable, so this is the last target gun you’ll ever have to buy. It’s available in trap, skeet, and sporting models. Starting at $4,075; berettausa.com

[2] Browning BT-99 Browning discontinued this classic break-action single-shot in 1994, then reintroduced it in 2001 as a plain-finished, extractor-only version at a lower price. It doesn’t look quite as good as the original, but it shoots better, with a backbored barrel and Invector-Plus chokes. $1,329; browning.com

[3] Beretta 3901 When Beretta replaced the 390 autoloader with the 391, they sent the old machinery to Maryland and started building a plain, budget-priced model called the 3901. As a 391 owner, it pains me to admit that the 390/3901 is every bit as good a gun and a little sturdier. Its reputation for high-volume, low-recoil durability on sporting clays ranges and Argentine dove fields is well deserved. Starting at $850; berettausa.com

[4] CZ Bobwhite A classic double with a price tag that reads like a misprint, the Turkish Bobwhite is popular with bird hunters who have always yearned for a double but couldn’t afford one. The woodwork is good, and its lines are slim. Each gauge is built on its own proportional frame, making the small bores delightful. $789; cz-usa.com

[5] Baikal MP153 Known for the past few years as the Remington SPR453, the MP153 is back with its original importer and its original name. The MP153 is what you would expect a 31⁄2-inch, 12-gauge Russian autoloader to be: plain, low-tech (you have to adjust it to shoot light and heavy loads), and as solidly reliable as a T-34 tank. $605; ussginc.com

[6] A Shooting Lesson You can burn ammo on your own until your shoulder bleeds, or take a shortcut and get better fast by taking a lesson from a professional. A one-day session yields huge results. You’ll have fun, you’ll improve, and most important, you’ll learn to diagnose your own misses. $385–$535; orvis.com or ospschool.com

[7] Winchester Xpert High Velocity Steel Inside 40 yards, a duck or goose won’t know if it’s been shot with Xpert steel, premium steel, or pricey tungsten-iron. These pellets, made by a cost-saving proprietary process, are misshapen but fast and deadly, achieving velocities up to 1550 fps. Available in 23⁄4-, 3-, and 31⁄2-inch lengths in 12 gauge; and 3-inch in 20 gauge. $15–$22 per box of 25; winchester.com

[8] Combat Arms Range Plugs Worn yellow side out, they work like conventional earplugs. Turn them around, and a tiny plastic filter allows normal sounds to pass but shuts out sudden, loud noises. Wearing these inexpensive hearing protectors in the field (stick with plugs and muffs at the range) will save you money in hearing aids down the road. When someone touches off a shot next to your ear in the duck blind, you’ll be glad you’re wearing these. $14 a pair; aosafety.com

[9] Federal TruBall Slugs Before you drop a bundle on a rifled gun and sabots, try TruBall slugs in your smoothbore. A plastic ball in the hollow back end helps the full-bore slug expand concentrically upon firing. The TruBall shoots very well; my unrifled Ithaca 37 prints sub-2-inch groups with them at 50 yards. Available in 12 and 20 gauge. $6 per box of 5; federalpremium.com

[10] Gun Mounts You can become a better shot without spending a dime. With an unloaded gun, stand in a ready position, look at a spot on the wall, and concentrate on raising the stock to your cheek first, not to your shoulder, as you point the muzzle at your target. Also, start with an unmounted gun and pretend to shoot crossers; trace the juncture of the wall and ceiling as you mount the gun. Spending 10 to 15 minutes a day on gun mounts will improve your shooting far more than a new gun will.

Bourjaily: The 870 Project

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:09:46 -0400

I think we might all agree that they don’t make 870s – or a lot of other guns – quite like they used to.

A little while ago, I mentioned the 70s vintage 870 Wingmaster I picked up and made a mag-tube recoil reducer for. Once upon a time, it must have been someone’s duck gun, but in these days of steel shot, a 2 ¾ inch chamber and a fixed full choke is not what people want. The gun had been beautifully cared for, the barrel was 30 inches long, the action was left-handed and the price was only $269. I grabbed it.

It’s a gem. The action, as Mike Meyers used to say on Saturday Night Live, is “like butter.” The trigger guard is still cast aluminum, not steel, but it’s much more finely cast than the ones on modern guns. Even the lettering on the barrel and receiver is sharper and clearer than what you see today.

However, my gun had the same ugly, pressed-checkered stock as any other Wingmaster from its era and the stock had field dimensions, where I had bought this gun thinking to shoot trap with it.

Through Remington customer service I ordered a Classic trap stock and forearm, pad, a new stock bolt, washer and lock washer. They told me my parts would come in two packages. One contained the lock washer, the other had all the rest. Go figure.

I bought an 870/BPS/Winchester forearm wrench from Midway, which costs about $15, looks like a super-sized choke tube wrench and works way better than the decoy stake with two nails in it I used to use to unscrew forearms from pump guns. I pulled old wood off, put the new wood on, and voila, I had my 870 trap gun. Here's the cost breakdown:

Gun: $269

Parts: $380

Wrench: $15

Homemade reducer: $8

Total: $671

Yes, I know the parts cost much more than the gun. Even so, I put it together for at least $100 under the best price I’ve seen on a new 870 Classic trap. For $100 in my pocket I can live without choke tubes and besides, it feels good to give a neat old gun a new lease on life.

Bourjaily: It's All About Tempo

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:22:01 -0400

Shooting instructors Gil and Vicki Ash brought their traveling OSP school to town last week (that’s Gil, working with a student in the picture), and once again I got to hear the Ashes harp on the importance of tempo to good shooting. Matching the speed of the gun to the speed of the target is an under-emphasized, critical aspect of shooting a shotgun. Hardly anyone swings too slowly. Much more often, we move the gun too fast and outrun the target, whether it’s a clay or a live bird. The Ashes like to use the analogy of merging onto a freeway. When your car is moving at the same speed as the traffic, the speeding cars seem to be moving in slow motion. When your gun moves at the same speed as the target, the birds actually appear to fly slower.

Tempo is especially important on quartering targets. Too many people, myself included, want to swing away at quartering birds as if they were crossers and the result is a miss in front. I watched Ash work with Jim, an AA class shooter, on short, quartering birds, the kind that look simple and leave you scratching your head when you miss.

Gil let Jim miss a few, then said, “You’re moving the gun too fast. Make your move to the target softer. You can’t start fast and slow down. You have to start slow.” Just like that, Jim started center punching birds, as if it were the easiest shot in the world. And it is, if you move the gun in time with the target.

I am looking forward to slowing down and crushing my nemesis, High 2 on the skeet field, and curing a few of those mystery misses on quartering roosters in the field this fall as well.

Bourjaily: Removable Triggers

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:25:38 -0400

After some gun trading a couple of weeks ago, I wound up with a Browning BT-100 single shot trap gun. The 100 was made from 1995 to 2002, then discontinued in favor of the reintroduced BT-99. I suspect Browning got rid of the 100 because the 99 cost less to make. Don’t get me wrong: BT-99s are also great guns, just not as great as this one. It balances and handles better than the 99s I’ve shot, and, although it costs a small fraction of what you pay for a Krieghoff or Perazzi, BT-100s have one of the niceties of a high-end gun: a removable trigger.

Push a sliding latch behind the trigger, and the whole mechanism comes out so you can adjust the pull, or switch from extraction to ejection. I’ve got mine set for extracting, and the trigger now breaks at 3 ½ pounds. The pull is so light and crisp that even I, who never notice trigger pulls when I shoot shotguns, can tell how nice this one is.

Theoretically, if you broke a spring in competition, you could easily fix it, or take your spare trigger out of the velvet Crown Royal bag you keep it in, put it in the gun and be back on the line in a couple of minutes. In reality, coil springs hardly ever break. The main reason I like this removable trigger is that it’s jeweled and finely made. When I show my new gun to people, I can say, “Hey, check this out,” and pop out the trigger, show it to them, then put it back.

I did that for a friend of mine, who told me the following cautionary tale: he was at a sporting clays club on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and one of the shooters in his party had driven a couple hours across the bay from northern Virginia, showing up with a brand new Krieghoff K-80. K-80s are serious target breakers starting around $10,000. The guy pulled the gun out of his trunk fully expecting to bask in the ooohs and aaahs his friends.
One of them looked at and said, “Nice gun. Where’s the trigger?”

It was at home, in a velvet Crown Royal bag.

Bourjaily: Gun Fit

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:30:54 -0400

A few years ago I had a full-scale fitting done by instructor Gil Ash. We used a try-gun, with a stock that adjusts in every direction, and we began with me pointing the gun at objects on the far wall of the Briley Manufacturing showroom while Ash tinkered with the stock. He gave the gun a little more drop and cast than I thought it needed. “You’ll see why I did that when we shoot the pattern plate,” he said. “No one cheeks a gun as hard when they shoot as they do when they mount it in the store.”

The next step was to mount and shoot at a steel plate on a stand from 16 yards away. Between shots, Ash used a paint roller to put a fresh coat of grease on the steel (some people use white wash, or just a can of white spray paint), and we shot and adjusted until the gun hit exactly where I looked when I mounted at a normal speed and fired when the butt touched my shoulder. It turns out Ash was absolutely right that I didn’t cheek the stock as hard when I was actually shooting, so there was some readjusting to do after the initial fit in the showroom. After that, I used the try gun throughout the course of a lesson, shooting about 250 targets with it. Every once in a while Ash would stop teaching and tweak the stock.

The Briley gunsmiths used my measurements to transform the stock of an old Miroku/Charles Daly trap gun to sporting clay dimensions. Recently, I had another gun stocked to those measurements, the Caesar Guerini Woodlander in the picture above.
In my case, my measurements come very close to standard factory drop, with a little cast on (lateral bend to put the rib squarely under the eye of a left-handed shooter), a 15-inch length of pull, and a change in the pitch (angle of the buttplate) so the gun fits neatly into my shoulder pocket.

A fitting session usually costs about $250-$350. The stockwork costs extra. Is it worth it?

With both guns, I am confident they will shoot where I look. It’s harder to mismount a gun fits, too. The more consistent your gun mount, the more benefit you will get from a fitting.
A gun that fits kicks less than one that doesn’t.

I can shoot either the Daly or the Guerini as well as I can shoot anything. Of course, on the frequent occasions I look in the wrong place, that’s exactly where a fitted gun shoots. Gun fitting helps, but it’s not magic.

Chad Love: Locked & Loaded in Parkland

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:28:51 -0400

There's already been a boatload of bloviation expressed on the recent reversal of the ban on loaded firearms in our national parks, some of it sensible but most of it (predictably) bordering on hysterics.

This column from the Huffington Post is a perfect example:

"In fact, the new rule is likely to make national park visitors less safe around wildlife. Packing heat could give some people a false sense of security and make them more likely to approach bison, elk, moose, and grizzly bears, rather than keep a safe distance which is better for both people and animals."

But the most certain outcome of this congressional action is that it will promote poaching. The National Park Service warned in its fiscal 2006 budget submission each year for the past several years ... The data suggests that there is a significant domestic as well as international trade for illegally taken plant and animal parts." Poaching, the agency said, "is suspected to be a factor in the decline of at least 29 species of wildlife and could cause the extirpation of 19 species from the parks."

Two points I'd like to make in response. First, poaching. When you make an argument it's generally a pretty good idea to make sure the data you use in defense of your argument actually support it. Apparently Mr. Markarian skipped that chapter in his high school debate class. There's absolutely no, none, nada, zip not a shred of evidence or data to support his assertion that allowing visitors firearms "promotes poaching." He, to be perfectly blunt, reached around his backside and pulled that statement out of his a**. And that National Park Service budget submission he quoted was published in...2006. Yes, three years ago. You know, back when packing in national parks was illegal.

Second, it's obvious the author has never visited a national park. If he had he would know that it's complete fantasy to believe that current (unarmed) visitors to our national parks exhibit good judgment and keep a safe, prudent distance from roadside wildlife. Quite the opposite. Thanks to the constant anthropomorphization we're subjected to we now believe that wild animals have a deep, intrinsic empathy toward humans. They would love us, if only we would put down our guns and let them.

In fact, if one could make a sweeping generalization about the common sense of the average American tourist by observing their behavior around national park wildlife, one would have to reach the inevitable conclusion that we're already a nation of clueless, pushy, overly-aggressive suburban jackasses. Guns certainly aren't going to change that. If you point out the obvious fact that wild animals have no interest in connecting with us on a spiritual level but if we intentionally harass them they will most assuredly connect with us on a physical level, then you're simply an unevolved lout who doesn't get it. See video below.

But I'm a pragmatist, and I think I've reached a compromise that will make everyone happy. Why don't we make loaded firearms illegal within say, 100 yards of any RV-accessible road but allow loaded firearms in campsites and on all trails? This achieves two goals: it gives backcountry hikers and campers a measure of personal protection from criminal and animal attack. It also gives park wildlife the freedom to (without the threat of being shot) continue stomping, goring, maiming and otherwise communing with the hordes of camera-wielding Animal Planet watchers who choke our national park roads every summer.