By Dave Hurteau

With almost 5,000 votes, I have to make the call. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

The “Pheasants: When Your Hunting Truck is a Plane” post led to some discussion of the effectiveness and mystique of the 28 gauge. I became a 28 gauge believer when I shot my first-ever straight at skeet years ago with a 28 gauge BPS. The heavy (7 pound) pump didn’t kick at all even as the ¾ ounce payloads crushed targets.

Since then, though, I’ve changed my view a little: there is nothing magic about the 28 gauge. It is a very effective smallbore within its limitations. Its combination of low recoil and target-breaking, bird-folding efficiency makes it fun to shoot. However I don’t think it necessarily “hits harder than it should,” as many believe. If anything I think the 28’s reputation for ballistic overachievement stems from the fact that it is often compared to the .410, which underperforms miserably with its skinny bore and light payloads. [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

The always-awaited new edition of the Blue Book of Gun Values came out on April 1. The Blue Book, is, of course, the standard price reference for anyone buying or selling guns for one simple reason. “I am more thorough than anyone else,” says Steven P. Fjestad, the man behind the book. That is, in the words of Will Sonnet, no brag, just fact.

This year’s Blue Book runs 2,408 pages long and includes both values for countless guns in every condition from new-in-the-box to 60% as well as 80 pages of illustrations showing how to grade gun condition.

This year marks the 34th edition of the Blue Book, but it has not always been the single-source indispensible bible of all used gun prices. In the beginning, it was geared toward collectibles only, lever action rifles and that kind of thing. Then Fjestad went to SHOT Show, saw all the new guns and thought, “Why not list new and recently discontinued guns, too?” The book grew from there.

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By David E. Petzal

One of the questions I am most often asked is, is such and such a bullet accurate? To which I invariably reply, “Accurate enough for what?” It’s a relative term. If you want to shoot in competition, you need a different order of accuracy than is required in a hunting rifle. The easy answer is, I don’t know of any bullets, hunting or target, that aren’t accurate, except for what’s in some of the cheap military ammo, which is loaded with industrial waste and possibly a pinch of cat crap.

Competition bullets don’t have to expand or penetrate, they just have to get into the same hole as the previous bullet. Their construction, while requiring great precision and ruthless quality control, is much simpler than that of a hunting bullet, which has to expand and penetrate both, and getting a slug to do this involves complications. The Swift A-Frame, for example, has two cores, not one, and they’re bonded to the bullet’s jacket to keep everything together. Two cores doubles the chance for an error in manufacture, but since A-Frames are made in small numbers with people constantly keeping track of what’s going on, they shoot just fine. If you go to Africa and would like to see your PH smile, tell him you’re shooting A-Frames.

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By Phil Bourjaily

Deadeye Dick asked an excellent question in a comment on the high velocity ping pong ball post: Do you have to relearn how to shoot when you switch to very high velocity loads?

Others will disagree but I will say no, you don’t have to learn to shoot all over again. I haven’t recalibrated my leads consciously or (as far as I know) unconsciously when I shoot high velocity ammo. Remington’s website says the difference in lead between their 1,675 fps Hypersonic and other steel is 11 percent — about eight inches at 40 yards. That would be on a true 90-degree crosser at 40 yards, and most makeable shots in the field occur at shorter distances and shallower angles. On, say, a 20-yard quartering target, the difference in lead between a super-fast shell and a normal velocity shell is negligible. [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

At the beginning of this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid informed the world that he would not introduce a bill containing an assault weapons ban to the Senate for a vote, since there was as much chance of it passing as there is of Bill Clinton taking holy orders (my metaphor, not Sen. Reid’s). This came as a bitter blow to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) who was sponsoring the ban, and whose fondest hope it is to see ARs, and eventually all firearms, outlawed.

I hope that Sen. Feinstein will not mope overly much, because there is work to be done, by gum, and she is the one to do it. In order to make the United States a better place, here are some of my own ideas for firearms-related laws that she might take up.

- A law requiring any candidate for national elective office to be a Life Member of the NRA before they can claim to be a shooter or a gun owner. It would not make this a safer country, but it would spare us all an immense amount of bulls***.

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