By David E. Petzal

One of the most useful tools in the ongoing struggle to shoot good is dry firing—aiming and snapping the trigger with no ammo in the chamber. Dry firing had no greater champion than the late Creighton Audette, a gunsmith, a friend of mine, and a high-power competitor who was good enough to shoot on the Palma Team, and coach it. “Recoil,” he said, “is a form of distraction.” He believed that any serious shooter should do far more dry-firing than practice with live ammo. (Creighton also said “Everyone should have at least one gun the government doesn’t know about,” if you need any further proof of his wisdom.) [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

Early this year the SKB factory in Japan closed its doors after 155 years in the gun business.  The owners cited the declining American shotgun market, the need to modernize equipment and an aging workforce. The average SKB worker is 70 and there are no young workers  in the town of Tomobe coming along to replace them.

The factory closing is sad news for shotgunners.  Imported by Ithaca, Weatherby and under its own name, SKB have always been solid, well-crafted mid-priced guns. I’ve owned three, and still have a Model 100 side by side, an excellent featherlight grouse gun. Unfortunately I don’t own the gun I’m shooting in the picture: the new GC7 target gun.  It has a host of competition-ready features, an adjustable comb, and sells for under $2000. Like all SKB O/Us, it locks very solidly by means of a Greener style top cross bolt. [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

After four rounds of play and some 3,700 votes from you, we have our final matchup. Are you sitting down? ’Cause you’re not going to believe it….

It’s .270 vs .30-06. Shocker, right?

Okay, maybe not. But I’ll admit to being a little surprised at the absolute thumping these rounds put on the venerable .308 and the all-the-rage .270 WSM, respectively. It speaks to the enormous popularity of our finalists—and cements the fact that the .270 and .30-06 are the Titans in the category. The real heavy hitters. And now they go head to head.

So on one hand it’s no surprise that it boil down to that quintessential question that’s been perennially debated at deer camps for decades: Which is the better whitetail round, the .270 or the .30-06? On the other hand, here’s our big chance to settle it.

In the last post, WA Mtnhunter suggested that the one-seed .30-06 is the Duke of deer rounds, which doesn’t bode well for the .270 given last night’s game. On the flipside, plenty of you have argued that the .270 should have been a one-seed to begin with. So our final should come down to the buzzer, too.

Okay, go for it: Vote... [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

In reviewing my voluminous and infallible records yesterday, I saw that I have killed a very large number of deer with the 7mm/08, never had to shoot twice at the same critter, and never had one travel more than 50 yards. This is pretty good performance from a mild-mannered, unassuming cartridge that gets less attention than it deserves. [ Read Full Post ]

By Philip Bourjaily

Previously I posted about the sale of author Nash Buckingham’s missing A.H. Fox shotgun  “Bo Whoop,” the most famous American shotgun of all time. It disappeared in 1948, resurfaced in 2006, and was sold at auction earlier this month. In a followup post I said it sold for $175,000 at James D. Julia’s auction on March 15. Wes Dillon of Julia’s corrects me: there was a 15% buyer’s premium (a fee the buyer pays to the auction house) added, so the full price paid was $201,250.

Dillon also told me the buyer’s name: Hal B. Howard, Jr.  Howard is Buckingham’s godson, the son of Nash’s best friend, and a frequent hunting companion. Not a gun collector, Howard bought the gun purely for sentimental reasons. He will present it to Ducks Unlimited at DU’s national meeting in Dallas this May. Bo Whoop will go on display at DU headquarters in Memphis, alongside Nash’s second Super Fox, Bo Whoop II, which is already there. Short of Howard or his children – he is 84 -- knocking down limits of greenheads in flooded timber with his godfather’s gun, that is the absolute best ending to the... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

With nearly 600 votes cast, we have our first-round Division I winners. And unlike this weekend’s basketball games, the results are all chalk. The closest match (I don’t mind pointing out) was between the 1 and 8 seeds, in which the .260 Rem (claimed by one prescient commenter to be radically under-seeded) gave the .270 WSM a mild scare, but couldn’t pull out a win (with such a blatantly unfair draw).

Moving on to the Elite Eight with the .270 WSM are the .243, .25-06, and .270 Win, which pretty much embarrassed the .257 Weatherby. Now we shift to the Division II matchups, featuring some very heavy hitters in the .30-06, .308, and .30-30—not to mention the sleeper 7mm-08. SHOT Business contributing editor Christopher Cogley has seeded the contenders as follows: [ Read Full Post ]