From The State:
So far in 2009, the number of South Carolinians wanting to pack heat nearly has doubled over the previous year as people worry about violent crime and feel threatened by partisan politics.

As of mid-October, 28,197 new concealed weapons permits have been issued this year by South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division.

It's an annual record that already has surpassed the 14,630 new permits issued in all of 2008 and by far outstrips all previous years, according to SLED statistics. [ Read Full Post ]

It is for a growing number of hunters. Ironically, ever since Jim Zumbo infamously blogged that black guns have no place in hunting, their popularity among hunters has surged.

From the Twin Cities’ Pioneer Press:

"Last fall, we couldn't keep these rifles in stock," said [Joe’s Sporting Goods gunsmith Bob] Everson. . . ..

Whether Zumbo was treated fairly or not for his opinion is still debated, but what isn't disputed is the popularity of AR rifles. Big-name rifle makers like Remington and Ruger have jumped into the game of making AR rifles (named after the Armalite company that first developed them in the 1950s). . . .

Jim Rauscher, president of Joe's Sporting Goods, said bolt-action rifles are still the most popular style among his deer-hunting customers. But AR rifles appeal to certain segment of hunters. . . .

"There is the guy who still likes the four-door sedan," Rauscher said, "and there are the guys who like the large, jacked-up pickup trucks."

So how about you? Can you see yourself hunting deer with an AR? [ Read Full Post ]

From a company press release:

In support of the fight against breast cancer, GunBroker.com® is hosting a charity auction of . . . a pink AR-15 style DPMS Panther Lite rifle was donated by DPMS Panther Arms.

All funds from the auction will go to the Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk, to be held Oct. 23-25.  The GunBroker.com Family Team will participate in the walk, which benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust.

Click here for details and to bid on the rifle.

[ Read Full Post ]

Finn Aagaard, who was a hugely popular writer on guns and hunting and who left us, much too early, in 1999, was a great storyteller as well. Not long before his death, he sat down with a tape recorder and recounted his early days in Kenya, as a kid, in the bitter campaign against the Mau Mau, and as a professional hunter.

Aagaard, who loved to hunt, and was responsible either directly or indirectly for the death of who knows how many animals, imposed strict limitations on himself about pulling the trigger. He did not hunt predators for himself, either in Africa or later when he moved to the U.S. He did not allow shooting to see something die. By the time he recorded the tape, as he says, he simply was not interested in seeing anything more dead animals on the ground.

[ Read Full Post ]

I received the invitation you see here from Beretta a few weeks ago. They are introducing a new gun called the Xplor and inviting a couple hundred gun writers from around the world to come to Italy to see it. I'll be there and will get a picture of the new gun back to you as quickly as I can.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out what it is. I asked Beretta's shotgun PR manager what he could tell me about it, and what was up with the dinosaur foot on the invitation. I assumed that meant the gun was rugged, maybe armored like a Benelli Nova or Remington 887.

No, he said, it's a gun that's ready for any kind of game, up to and including a dinosaur.

Aha. I'm thinking it's a single shot shotgun with interchangeable rifle barrels, like a T/C encore. Then I thought some more, and it occurred to maybe, it's an O/U shotgun and you can switch on single shot, scoped rifle barrels. That would be cool: a two barreled gun for birds that converted quickly into an accurate single shot for bigger game. That's my best guess for now. You are all free to... [ Read Full Post ]

“It’s better to go broke at the range than it is to make a fortune in the shop.”*--Christopher Self, Alabama machinist, designer and rifle nut.

Last week, I got a further lesson on the folly of attempting shots at long range without actually testing your equipment beforehand. Shooting at 300 yards, a 165-grain polymer-tipped bullet which had shot splendidly at 100 and 200 yards turned in a group with a vertical spread of 7 inches. There was no horizontal dispersion at all, but the slugs were all over the place up- and down-wise.

According to some balistically sophisticated friends of mine, there are three possible causes:

1. The polycarbonate tips melted off by the time they got to 300 yards and caused variations in the bullets’ flight.

2. The bullets were stabilized at 100 and 200 but by the time they reached 300 their loss of velocity destabilized them.

3. Satan.

I saw a similar occurrence with a .300 Weatherby Magnum which shot handloads using Norma MRP very accurately at long range. When the MRP ran out, I worked up a load with RelodeR 22 which gave about 50 fps less velocity and nearly identical accuracy. At 100 and 200, fine. At 300, all over the target.... [ Read Full Post ]

A couple of months back, the Savages took me on a prairie dog hunt and the evening before the shooting started I was handed a new version of the Model 12 Series Varmint in .223 to sight in. I did so, and what I saw 100 yards away in the fading light caught my interest—all five shots went in one ragged hole. Could this, I wondered, be the long-sought factory rifle that would break the ½-moa mark?

So when the hunt was over, I asked Savage for a loaner so I could beat on it at length with a variety of ammo and, after a suitable delay they gave me one with 600 rounds through it, also in .223. Now, before I tell you how I did, I should describe the rifle.

The Model 12 SLRPVDP is a lineal descendent of the Model 12, which won our Best of the Best award in 2006. It’s a single-shot with an oversized bolt knob, an H-S Precision Varmint stock with an aluminum bedding block (and three bedding screws), a special Accu-Trigger that can be set from 6 ounces* to 2.5 pounds, a 26-inch, deeply-fluted, extra-heavy 26-inch stainless barrel** and a ball-breaking weight of 12 pounds.... [ Read Full Post ]

In our town, elementary school ice cream socials are a long-standing institution. You go, get a little cup of ice cream in a hot gym, then get volunteered for things you don’t want to do. I dutifully went for all the years my kids were in grade school and am now thankfully done. Seeing this video, I can’t help but think how much more fun would a “machine gun social” would be.

The event drew 500 people recently and I don’t blame them for showing up: $25 bucks for full magazine, a BBQ sandwich – something they know how to make in South Carolina – and a chance at a rifle is a pretty good deal.

My only quibble with the idea is, why raffle off an AK-47? At the very least, a candidate to lead the National Guard (SC is the only state that elects its Guard adjutant general) should award a US service rifle. It would be even better, though, to give away a gun made in South Carolina: why wasn’t first prize a Jarrett rifle or a South Carolina-made Model 70?... [ Read Full Post ]

The October 2009 Popular Mechanics  “Self Reliance Issue” is all about fending for yourself: surviving emergencies, living off the grid, as well as just being generally handy. One feature, “The Soul of an Old Machine” profiles do-it-yourselfers who prefer to fix and maintain old stuff rather than replace it. It includes a sidebar called “Tomorrow’s Classics,” listing four tools which, if given a modicum of care, will work for you and for your children. [ Read Full Post ]

It's always refreshing to see a  person reject "liberal" versus "conservative" politics in favor of  non-partisan rationality, and a good example of this can be found in this essay on the "liberal"-leaning news site Salon.
 
From the story:
 
I was a violent kid. More than anything, I loved to  play war. In my basement, I built a sandbag foxhole out of stacked-up sofa  pillows. I would hide inside and peer out at what I imagined were the smoking slopes of Iwo Jima, crawling with Japanese soldiers ready to fight to the death.

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A special guest post by Thomas McIntyre

Familiar to readers of fieldandstream.com is regular poster Robert Millage, better known as “idahooutdoors.” Now, it seems, Millage is getting known by everyone in the country with an interest in wolves.

Click here or on the image to see more photos

Tuesday, the 1st of September was the opening of Idaho’s controversial wolf-hunting season. Millage, a fifth generation, 34-year-old Idahoan from Kamiah—who is a dedicated outdoorsman when he’s not a realtor with Idaho Land and Home or guiding hunters for Selway Ridgerunner Outfitters—has seen the explosion of wolves in his state, and the (coincidental or not) steep decline in elk numbers. All of which made him look forward to the chance to take one of Idaho’s big game quota of 220 wolves.

[ Read Full Post ]