By David E. Petzal

As the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once observed, societies can keep people in check only up to a point. When more people than the cops can handle get cheesed off about something it can cause the dissolution of a large and well established police state (the U.S.S.R.), at least three revolutions (American, French, and Russian) and issue-based insurrections too numerous to count. Did anyone drive 55 mph when Jimmy Carter told us to? Did anyone pass up a drink during Prohibition? Did anyone foreswear the reefer because Nancy Reagan told us to just say no?

Now, we may be on the verge of a new era when firearms laws may be collapsing under the weight of consumer demand. In Maine, the state police are so buried under concealed-carry applications (and Maine is not a pain in the ass about this) that it can take 150 days to receive your permit. In Maryland, during the first four months of 2013, the state police had received more than 57,000 applications for guns—more than had come in during 2008 to 2011. The backlog currently stands at 26,547.

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By David E. Petzal

(L-R) Jack O'Connor, Warren Page, Elmer Keith, Townsend Whelen, Bob Brister

When I broke into the gun writing business in the mid 1960s, I was an editor, not a writer, which meant that I, who did not know what I was talking about, got to meddle with the copy of people who did. And those people were a different breed from today. To start with, they were almost all veterans. Not only did this give them a certain perspective on the use of firearms, but some formal training in ballistics as well. Pete Brown studied naval gunnery at Annapolis; Warren Page was a naval gunnery officer; Charley Askins was an Army ordnance officer, as was Col. Townsend Whelen.

I had the great good fortune to get my start on a small magazine whose main writer was a fellow named Larry Koller. Koller was a consummate outdoorsman. He was an expert shot with rifle, handgun, and shotgun, and a master gunsmith, bamboo-rod maker, flyfisherman, whitetail hunter, and cook. There was nothing he could not do, and do at the master-class level. While a few of the old gun writers were only semiliterate (Elmer Keith), most were far better educated than people are today because everyone was far better educated then. Ol’ Elmer probably never made it through high school, but he was a master storyteller, and if you pick up one of his books today you won’t be able to put it down. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Once a year I shoot my sporting clays gun—a Miroku Charles Daly with 32-inch barrels—on a two-day charity preserve pheasant hunt. The stock is fitted to me and the long, heavy barrels move inevitably to the birds. It’s almost impossible to miss with it.   

Longer barrels are easier to shoot with, especially on any kind of crossing bird. Most of my hunting guns now have 28-inch barrels, which seems like a good compromise length. Of course, barrel wall thickness varies and two guns with 28-inch barrels can have very different balance, but in general they have a little bit of weight forward that makes them easier to shoot. In fact, chances are I will shoot a gun pretty well if I pick it up and it feels too heavy in the muzzle. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Prodded, perhaps, by a poor economy, big-name gunmakers are finally offering no-frills base models of their top-of-the-line shotguns for those who want to buy a popular brand but have $1,000 or less to spend.

You can easily drop over $1,800 on a semiautomatic, but you surely aren’t paying for hand checkering when you buy a shotgun with a plastic stock. Mostly you are paying for new technology and the years of R&D that went into it. You also pay for extras you may not want or need: camo finishes, recoil-reducing stocks, fiber-optic beads, hard-plastic cases. It’s like buying a new car and having no choice but to pony up for the LX version with leather seats and a sunroof when all you want is the base model to get you around.

Now, those base models are available for a real-world price of around $1,000—or much less—listed here from least to most bang for the buck:

Benelli Synthetic Stock Montefeltro

New for 2013, and replacing the discontinued M2 American, this 3-inch gun weighs less than 7 pounds in 12-gauge. The Synthetic Montefeltro is the lower-cost alternative to the regular M2, which gives you Benelli’s vibration-­dampened ComforTech stock with the extra-soft pad and comb insert. In black, that gun sells for $1,359. This gun, with a black stock and a regular recoil pad, lists for $1,139. It comes in a 12-gauge, 26-inch-barreled version only. ­Benelliusa.com

You’ll save: $220.

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By David E. Petzal

About 35 years ago, I bought a trigger pull scale so I could measure trigger pulls. Back then, you could use weights on a rod to do the job, or you could get a spring-style scale with the weights engraved on a brass tube. There was a hook connected to the spring, and you put that on the trigger and pulled carefully until you heard the firing pin fall, and you tried to read where the indicator was at the instant you heard the click.

The scale was by no means perfect. You had to develop a touch with it so you could see what it read at the crucial instant, and every few years you had to polish the thing so you could read it. But it worked. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

In the spirit of the 100-bladed knife that contained a pinfire revolver, today’s curiosity is a flintlock ring.

It comes from the arms and armor collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and dates to 1650-1670. Set in between two pieces of rock crystal is a miniature flintlock, complete with a tiny flint inside. Parts of the lock are blued. The whole mechanism is carefully made and there’s cutout along the top of the ring so you can cock the hammer. [ Read Full Post ]