By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

Savage Arms, which gave the shooting industry the leaping fantods when it introduced the Accu-Trigger, has just announced the Accu-Stock, which is just as radical. In stocks, as in other areas, the more rigid the better, and there are a couple of ways to achieve this. The first is used by High Tech, McMillan, and New Ultra Light Arms, who employ Kevlar and graphite, or reinforced fiberglass, to create a stiff stock. The materials themselves, when fused together, are more rigid than a rifle barrel, but such stocks are made largely by hand and are expensive.

The second approach is to use something limper, like polymer (which can be made fast and cheap) and strengthen the stock with an aluminum spine. The Accu-Stock is polymer, reinforced with an aluminum spine that runs from the action all the way down for fore-end. But there is more: Savage employs a wedge bolt to push the recoil lug back into the aluminum spine. This is not a new idea; Ruger has been doing it for decades but with a bedding screw that pulls down and back at a 45-degree angle. In addition, the Accu-Stock’s bedding cradle squeezes the action from all sides, fusing (or so... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

Just in time for the holidays.

From The Arizona Republic:

An unexpected donation from actor David Spade is expected to provide Phoenix police with enough money to buy an additional 50 semi-automatic rifles for patrol officers in 2009.

The $100,000 gift announced Monday means as many as 300 officers could soon be armed with Bushmaster AR-15s [despite] the city's ongoing budget strife.

[ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

The beauty of the Internet (or the bane, depending on what side of the argument you're on) is that you can sit at home in your pajamas and anonymously view the creative weirdness of other anonymous souls without having the slightest bit of context or backstory for what you are viewing.

When you think about it, modern humanity isn't linked by common goals, dreams or desires. That's so 20th-century. Forwarded joke e-mail pics depicting giant rattlesnakes, drunken peccadilloes, trail-camera mystery monsters and the singular obsessions and unfortunate mishaps of others is the glue that now binds the global community. Who hasn't received those captionless, authorless photographs that endlessly swirl through the electronic ether and settle in our in-box, captured moments of some unknown soul's life suddenly digitized and exposed to the eyes of the world without benefit of explanation? So we're forced to make our own reality for what we see.

Like this photograph:


I have absolutely no clue as to the who, what, when, where or how of this photograph. It simply appeared in my in-box, almost lost in... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

That’s right, Lisa Jackson—as in the same Lisa Jackson who helped Gov. Jon Corzine put an end to bear hunting in the Garden State.

From The Louisiana Weekly:

President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that New Jersey's Lisa Jackson, a New Orleanian, will become the first African American to lead the Environmental Protection Agency under his administration.

Your reaction? [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

From the Post Crescent:

Statewide, meat processors participating in the venison donation program say Wisconsin hunters have given more than 6,500 deer to help feed the hungry this season.

That's a 40 percent drop from the previous year, said Lee Dudek, founder of Hunt for the Hungry. . . .

"Deer hunters fortunate to get extra deer this year are giving the deer meat to relatives or other folks in need," Dudek said. "Considering the economic times we are living in, these are unprecedented conditions for donations." [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau & Chad Love

From The Charlotte Observer:

A south Charlotte homeowner held a shooting suspect at gunpoint in his garage until police could arrive and arrest the man. . . .

It just so happened that at that moment, Davis, Jr. had been showing off his early Christmas present – a brand new deer rifle. As the family ran upstairs, Davis, Sr. grabbed the rifle, loaded it, and headed to the garage. He cornered the man behind his car and told him to put his hands up. [ Read Full Post ]