David E. Petzal

Rifle Review: Petzal Tests the Marlin .338 MXLR

Online Editors — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:04:02 -0500

With all due respect to the many great Marlins of the past, this rifle bears an uncanny resemblance not to them but to the cult favorite Winchester Model 71. Both rifles are lever guns that deliver Serious Thump—in fact, the ballistics for their respective cartridges are almost identical. The main loading for the 71’s cartridge, the .348 WCF, is a 200-grain bullet at 2,530 fps. The sole loading for the .338 Marlin Express (developed and loaded by Hornady) is 200 grains at 2,500 fps.

The rifle I got to try out is ...

The Truth About High Velocity Hunting Bullets

Online Editors — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:34:46 -0500

Back in 1915, firearms designer Arthur Savage stood the shooting world on its nonfunctioning ear by introducing a cartridge that sped an 87-grain bullet on its way at the then galactic speed of 3000 fps. Called the .250/3000, it appeared in an era when the .30/30 was considered a red-hot round, and it marked the start of a craze from which we have not yet recovered. With every decade cartridges get bigger and muzzle velocities get higher. Maybe it’s time to ask why.

Petzal: Winchester's Wonderful Model 71

Online Editors — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:51:22 -0500

Last week, while rooting through the used guns in a sporting-goods store upstate, I chanced upon a Winchester Model 71 in very nice shape. “That rifle,” said the store owner, "belonged to Floyd Patterson.” Patterson, who died in 2006, was heavyweight boxing champion from 1956 to 1962. He was one of the best men, and one of the worst fighters, ever to hold that title. In any event, he had fine taste in guns.

The Model 71 was a modification of Winchester’s Model 1886, which has my nomination as the finest rifle ever built in America. Technically, the 71 was ...

Petzal: The Best Camo for Hunting Away from Home

Online Editors — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:35:52 -0500

On my recent trip to Oregon, a bunch of us were sitting on a ridge waiting for a mule deer to do something stupid, and one of our number left to walk down an adjoining ridge. When he was 1,000 yards away or so the head honcho of the ranch said: “You know, I can see him as clearly as if he were wearing blaze orange. That camo of his doesn’t work.”

And it was true. The ridgerunner was wearing some kind of dark camo designed for sitting in a tree in a Southern swamp, and at a distance all the branches and leaves and Spanish moss and cottonmouths in the pattern blended together into a dark and highly visible mass. I’ve seen this many times; very few camo patterns travel well.

There are three that do, and they work because ...

Petzal: Testing Nosler’s New Lead-Free Ballistic Tips for Varmints

Online Editors — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:30:40 -0500

One the one hand, I don’t give an assfull of ashes for the idea that shooting lead-free bullets will do the planet one iota of good. We get lead from the ground and we return it to the ground, albeit at very high speeds, so BFD. On the other hand, mandated lead-free zones have given us some dandy new homogeneous bullets by Hornady, Nosler, and Barnes, so it’s not a total waste.

The most recent of this genre is from Nosler—a lead-free Ballistic Tip for varmint hunters. The batch I tested is .224-inch and 35 grains, but there will be lighter and heavier slugs out shortly. These new Ballistic Tips are made with a disintegrating copper core, an alloy jacket, an extra-large expansion cavity in the nose, and an attractive polycarbonate tip.

To test them, I fired ...

Is Dave Petzal Still Alive?

Online Editors — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:21:29 -0500

This question came up on another gun blog when someone mentioned that they had seen a rifle of mine for sale, and another blogger asked about the gun—a 7x57—and inquired if I was still alive. Far from taking offense, I see this as a reasonable question, and will attempt to answer it as best I may.

An Expert Gunsmith on Over-Pressure Rounds and Exploding Handguns

Online Editors — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:28:47 -0500

A note to all you Gun Nuts: The photo below (and three more, which you can see by clicking here) came into my inbox attached to the following caption:

Petzal: Collecting Versus Earning Your Game

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:22:06 -0500

Robert Ruark, writing in his journal about some particularly good African trophy that he had hammered, noted that it was “…collected, but not earned.” He believed, as many hunters do, that there should be a certain amount of work you put into bagging an animal or else you don’t really deserve it. This is a nice sentiment, but of course it is nonsense. You expect to have to work, and if you do work very hard and get something good as a result it is more rewarding, but that’s as far as it goes. Despite our touching belief that hunting is a matter of skill and perseverance, a lot of it is sheer dumb luck.

Petzal: How to Sweat Up A Ridge

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:54:55 -0400

This past summer, a geezer friend of mine was railing at the current generation of hunters who roost in trees like so many spavined turkeys and rarely walk anywhere.

“They haven’t sweated up ridges like you and I have,” he snarled.

Sometimes, you gotta walk uphill, and if you haven’t done much of it, here are some tips from someone who has done a lot it and hated every yard.

Petzal: Dakota Arms is Back from the Brink

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:37:49 -0400

In 1987, Don Allen a retired airline pilot from Sturgis, South Dakota, and his wife Norma, founded Dakota Arms, a company that produced high-grade hunting rifles based on a design worked up by him and ace metal man Pete Grisel. The Dakota Model 76, the company’s basic model, was an immediate success, and was soon joined by other variations.