If Best of the Best were a beauty contest, the Vinci would not have won. The test of a shotgun is how it points and swings, however, and the Vinci passed with flying colors. This gun is light—6 pounds 14 ounces in a 26-inch-barreled, 3-inch 12-gauge—and uses a version of Benelli’s proven inertia action. It’s easy to load, thanks to the large bolt release, and the bolt lock is unobtrusively placed and easy to push. The trigger broke cleanly at 51⁄2 pounds. Only the location of the safety in the front of the trigger guard caused any grumbling.

For no more than the price of a good factory rifle, you can design a gun that is yours and yours alone. By the time you choose among 80 chamberings, three types of stocks, chrome-moly or stainless-steel barrels, right- or left-hand, four action lengths, six barrel contours, and much more, there are 100,000 possible combinations, weighing anywhere from 61⁄2 to 8 pounds. Shaw uses modified Savage AccuTrigger actions for the Mark VII. It’s a very simple rifle, and the work is uniformly excellent.

An electric-powered offroad motorcycle, one that hunters and fishermen who relish a quiet entry and exit into the backcountry could use? You might call it tilting at windmills, but don’t say that to Neal Saiki, who holds a masters degree in aeronautical engineering and worked as a project manager at NASA developing high-altitude research vehicles, before founding Zero Motorcycles. At first, the company concentrated on manufacturing motorcycles for urban environments, but his latest model—the Zero X—is meant for serious offroad duty.