By Dave Hurteau

After more than 3,500 votes per matchup, the Division I Elite Eight cartridges are settled: The 7mm Remington Magnum obliterated the .260 Remington; the .30- 06 predictably crushed the .243 Winchester; the .257 Weatherby Magnum edged past the .257 Roberts; and, in our first upset win of the tournament, the .25-06 Remington took down the excellent 6.5-284 Norma.

And now, on to Division II. You know the drill. Layne Simpson’s seeded selections for this group are listed and explained below. Check out the bracket (you can click here to print out a copy if you want to fill it out by hand). Then vote for your preferred long-range deer cartridge in each matchup below to begin Division II play. We'll follow up with the Elite Eight, Final Four, and finally the F&S Long-Range Deer Cartridge Championship.

Division II

[1] .300 Winchester Magnum: Three out of five doctors recommend the .300 Winchester Magnum for shooting deer at long range. And plenty of Alberta outfitters who specialize in big whitetails and mule deer agree with the prescription.

[2] .264... [ Read Full Post ]

By Phil Bourjaily

Time for a special “Science Monday” Gun Nuts post. Steel shot, we know, is ballistically challenged because it’s light. Driving it at very high velocities is inefficient because it loses velocity quickly, but it’s the only way to make steel hit harder without going to a larger size pellet. Field experience among waterfowlers generally shows that high velocity steel does outperform slower steel shot.

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By David E. Petzal

In writing my post on the M-14, I alluded to our less-than-sterling record of not always putting the best guns in the hands of our servicemen. This is not a base canard; it is a dismal fact.

Let us start with the War of Southern Miscalculation, when the Union’s issue weapon throughout the conflict was the Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Musket (above). It was a good weapon as muzzle-loaders go, but it had a sustained rate of fire of two rounds per minute (three in the hands of someone who was really good) while the cartridge-firing lever-action Spencer, which was available in the latter stages of the war, could deliver 20. Union Ordnance would have refused to issue the Spencer at all save for the direct intervention of A. Lincoln, who tried it and liked it. The Spencer rifle and carbine established an admirable record and might have shortened the conflict had they been in wider use. [ Read Full Post ]

By David E. Petzal

In the strange and generally disappointing record of U.S. small arms development, no rifle has an odder history than the M-14. The original concept behind it was so addled that Joe Biden could have come up with it—a single weapon that would replace the M-1 Carbine, the M-3 Grease Gun, the M-1 Garand, and the Browning Automatic Rifle. Starting after World War II, and using the Garand as its foundation, the Springfield Armory came up with a modified design that weighed slightly less, held 20 rounds in a detachable box magazine instead of an 8-round clip, and had an option for semi-auto or full-auto fire. It was chambered for the 7.62 NATO cartridge, a more compact version of the .30/06, but with just about the same ballistics.

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Editor's Note: Less than a year ago, it seemed as though only the most vehemently anti-gun politicians wanted to go near the issue of gun control. Polls persistently showed that, by a wide margin, most Americans didn’t support new gun control measures. In the national media, a few articles declared the gun control debate over. How quickly things can change.

As we all know, the horrific mass murder of school children at Sandy Hook Elementary school, just one of a string of high-profile mass shootings, has brought the issue of Second Amendment rights and gun control to the forefront of the current political debate, in Washington and in the media.

It’s a serious issue that deserves serious discussion, but it seems that the voice of hunters and recreational shooters is missing from most of the media coverage.

That’s why Field & Stream has launched this series of interviews on the topic. In the coming weeks, we’ll be talking about gun rights with some of the leaders in the sportsmen’s community—heads of conservation and sportsmen’s rights groups, executives from firearm companies, politicians, industry leaders and representatives.

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By Anthony Licata

F&S Editor-In-Chief, Anthony Licata, sits down with the VP and CEO of the NRA to talk about the Obama administration's proposed gun policies. [ Read Full Post ]