Braced for a jolt of recoil the first time I pulled the trigger of a .458 Winchester Magnum rifle, I thought: That wasn’t as bad as a turkey gun.

A .458—an elephant gun—generates up to 65 foot-pounds of recoil that you feel as a shove. Meanwhile, a 12-gauge loaded with a high-velocity 31⁄2-inch magnum lead turkey load cracks you with up to 75 foot-pounds of recoil. Turkey guns are light to make them easy to carry long distances, and turkey loads contain lots of shot driven at high speed to ensure penetration of skull and vertebrae. The result is massive recoil. It offends my sense of proportion that guns for a 21-pound bird kick harder than rifles designed for the most dangerous game in the world, so I avoid the heaviest turkey loads on principle.

That said, in the excitement of shooting a turkey, no one feels the gun go off. Should we just accept brutal recoil as part of the price of a masochistic sport, along with sleep deprivation, mosquitoes, and chiggers?
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By Chad Love

Remember last month, when the EPA was petitioned (once again) to ban lead ammo and fishing tackle? Well, guess what? The EPA has (once again) rejected the petition...
 
From this story on infozine.com:
 
The Environmental Protection Agency today rejected a request for federal regulation of toxic lead in hunting ammunition, again abdicating its responsibility to protect the environment from toxic substances. Earlier this year, 150 organizations in 38 states petitioned the EPA for federal rules requiring use of nontoxic bullets and shot for hunting and shooting sports to protect public health and prevent the lead poisoning of millions of birds, including bald eagles and endangered condors.
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By Phil Bourjaily

A lot has changed in the world since we ran a questionnaire like this one six years ago. There has been one economic meltdown and two gun buying booms – or maybe just one long boom. It’s an election year. The shooting sports have changed, too, as zombies and wild pigs spread across the land. Once we gather your answers and publish them in the July issue, we’ll have a picture of who Field & Stream readers are as shooters and gun owners.

To answer a survey question at random: Longest shot I ever took at an animal?
B. 100-200 yards. It was 125 yards at a very large wild pig in California with a CZ bolt action .30-06. The guide told me to imagine a football right behind the pig’s ear and shoot it. Whatever was behind the imaginary football was some very vital organ, because the pig fell over instantly.

Click here to take the 2012 Gun Nut Nation Survey
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By David E. Petzal

In addition to it being Field & Stream policy, here’s why I don’t disclose the names of companies whose stuff gives me trouble.

First, when it comes to equipment of all sorts, I’m a Jonah. I’ve had so much different stuff fail, at all price levels, over so many years, that I have to admit I’m cursed and accept the fact. A small example:

The late George Herron, who is now in the Knifemakers’ Guild Hall of Fame and who was as careful a craftsman as ever stepped up to a grinder, made 2,000 knives over a 30-year career. Of that number, the edges failed on two. Guess who got one of them.

Second, because of the nature of the Internet, whatever you write is bound to be distorted and go ricocheting around cyberspace where it will live forever. Thus, if I wrote that so-and-so’s MSR failed to extract and that I had to pull out a live round with a pliers, in two days I would read that the rifle had blown up and that I was carried from the range minus my left eye and brains leaking from a quarter-sized hole in my skull. You have to be aware that you can do a lot of unintended damage to companies’ reputations if you’re not careful.

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By David E. Petzal

I am now in the thick of testing rifles for Best of the Best, and am sometimes accused of receiving specially selected and tuned rifles. Yes, and Ms. Elisha Cuthbert calls me up several times a week for dates. This morning, I took the very first shot from a medium-expensive MSR and after the gun went bang, it failed to extract the spent shell. The bolt slammed the next round in the magazine against the base of the stuck shell, neatly jamming the bolt, the magazine, and the live round. (This was, by the way, commercial ball ammo.)

Working very carefully with a Leatherman tool, I was able to grab the live round and pull it back far enough to unjam the bolt and the magazine. It took about 10 minutes, and in my long but thin association with ARs, was the best stoppage I’ve ever had. The rifle will go back where it came from, accompanied by a blistering e-mail.
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By David E. Petzal

At any given time I’m likely to be shooting loaner rifles, and so I keep eight or so scopes on hand to mount on these guns. Some of the scopes have been around for 15 years or more, and I keep using them because they work. The other day, however, I was shooting with one that had been around a long time, and on the other rifle I was using I had a brand-new Meopta MeoStar. When I switched from the rifle with the Meopta to the one with the old scope it was as though I had suddenly developed glaucoma. Everything went dim and muddy. 

Often, when this happens, it’s because the lenses have acquired a coating of what looks like dried oxtail soup, topped by a layer of dust. You clean them off and they’re fine. But the lenses on this old scope were clean. What was at work? New scopes are so much better than those from only a decade ago that they make them look...disadvantaged. Optical progress, which used to proceed at a measured and stately course, now moves at the same breakneck speed as everything else.

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