Johann-Ludwig Werder Creates The World’s
Fastest Single-Shot At The Dawn
Of The Repeating Rifle Era

By Holt Bodinson

One of the most advanced single-shot, military rifles ever fielded is known to few. Its dropping block mechanics were ingenious and robust. It could be fieldstripped in seconds by removing one screw without any additional tools. Most importantly, an experienced rifleman could fire 20 to 24 aimed shots a minute—a rate-of-fire superior to most competing single-shot and bolt-action rifles of the day.

It was thrown into head-to-head competition and punishing ordnance tests with the Berdan, Austrian Werndl and Mauser-Norris rifles. At the end of the testing and after King Ludwig of Bavaria personally inspected the trial rifles, the Werder was adopted by the Kingdom of Bavaria as “the Breech-Loading Rifle Model 1869.” We know it simply as the “Werder.”

Its inventor was Johann-Ludwig Werder, Director of the Cramer-Klett Machine Factory in Nürnberg. Werder was most certainly a gifted mechanic for his inventions ranged from steel buildings to orthopedic devices. He had a fine sense for minimizing the hand motions required to operate a firearm efficiently and rapidly. His Werder rifle was, to use the modern term, “ergonomic.” Here’s how it worked.

The secret to the Werder’s rapidity of fire was a robust extraction-ejection-reloading cycle spring powered and operated by a finger tap on the reverse styled trigger housed at the front of the triggerguard.

With the Peabody/Martini-styled breechblock of the Werder lowered, a cartridge is chambered. As the shooter brings his hand back, he cocks the hammer which is seen as a side lever on the right side of the action. As the hammer is cocked back, a roller attached to the front of the hammer rises and pushes up against the underside of the breechblock closing it. At this moment, the breechblock is locked in place by a bar attached to the reverse-styled trigger.

Cocking the hammer compresses two springs—a Q-shaped hammer spring and a separate V spring which rides underneath and tensions the rear of the breechblock.
When the shot is fired and the rebounding hammer falls to strike the internal firing pin, the roller attached to the front of the hammer falls away and no longer pushes up against the underside of the breechblock.

Werder’s “Blitz” action rifle produced a remarkable rate-of-fire
and lead to a call for “fire discipline” from the higher commands.

Fastest of the single shots, the unique rifle didn’t
survive the bolt-action rifle’s coming supremacy.

gger finger forward tapping the reverse trigger which unlocks the breechblock. Powered by the compressed “V” spring, the unlocked breechblock immediately snaps down and the front of the block strikes the tail of the extractor with force. The fired shell is extracted and ejected with some vigor. The empty case is not simply ejected, it’s expelled!

Werder’s genius was to accomplish three, separate operations with just a forward flick of the trigger finger—dropping the breechblock, extracting and ejecting the case in a split second and making the rifle immediately ready for reloading.

Production of the Werder began at the Royal Rifle Factory in Amberg in 1869. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (July, 1870–May, 1871), only four Bavarian Jaeger battalions fought the war armed with the Werder, but the results were watched carefully by the Bavarians, the Prussians and the French.

Possibly, for the first time for men under arms, the issue of “fire discipline” raised its ugly head. Commanders observed soldiers armed with the Werder too rapidly depleted their basic load of 11.5x50R ammunition. Other than the lingering issue of fire discipline, the Werder drew nothing but praise and shortly thereafter, both a carbine and a pistol were introduced using the Werder action and chambered for a shorter case, the 11.5x35R.

By 1872, the Bavarian War Minister reported all infantry, engineer and Jaeger battalions of the Royal Army were completely armed with the Werder, but Prussia had other ideas.

In spite of a rough bore and chamber, this Werder was still capable
of keeping its bullets on target. As the bore fouled, groups grew.

The Franco-Prussian War had resulted in the unification of the German states with Wilhelm II of Prussia declaring himself Emperor. Under the resulting Imperial Constitution, Bavaria continued to maintain its own military forces and, indeed, Bavarian soldiers continued to swear their allegiance to the King of Bavaria and not to the German Emperor. Nevertheless, the Prussian military, having adopted the Mauser M1871 in 11.15x60R, pushed for the unification of small arms and small arms ammunition.

Phase one consisted of rechambering the Werder from 11.5x50R to 11.15x60R and adding M/71 sights. The modification was not successful. Chambers were hand-reamed, irregular and rough. The higher pressures generated by the 11.15x60R cartridge resulted in numerous mechanical and stock problems. These conversions are known as M1869 “adaptierte” rifles. The Werder pictured here is an “Adaptierte” and is identified by the short knox form (the flats at the breech end) on the barrel.

Phase two consisted of essentially rebarreling the Werder with M/71-style barrels and adding, beefed-up extractors, stocks and 1871-type barrel bands and nose caps. These are known as Werder Rifle New Models, designated M/69 n.M. and are readily identified because the knox form extends all the way forward from the breech to the edge of the rear sight base. It was a workable design, but because Prussia was contracting with all available armories—including Bavaria’s—for the production of Model 1871 Mausers, the Werders couldn’t be built and simply faded from the Bavarian scene. By 1883, existing stores were sold off as surplus.

How do they function and how do they shoot?

The rechambered Werder pictured here is the property of a shooting partner, Cyrus McKeown. The action still functions as well as the day it left the Royal Rifle Factory in Amberg. One of the remarkable aspects of Johann Werder’s design is the mechanical action can be removed as a complete housing unit by simply removing the triggerguard screw and triggerguard. It consists of only 11 working parts, rotating on axis pins and held together by two removable sideplates. Remarkable engineering!

The single-shot, loading cycle of the Werder (above) is amongst the fastest
ever designed. A forward flick of the trigger finger lowers the breechblock
(below), extracts and ejects the shell and makes the rifle ready for reloading.

The barrel and chamber of this Werder are rough but shootable. McKeown’s 11.15x60R Mauser load consists of 28 grains of IMR 4198 and a 345-grain cast bullet sized to 0.446 inch. The load is designed to be effective but not stressful to the rechambered Werder. Yet, it proved pretty snappy with an average velocity of 1,371 fps.

Accuracy was another story. Before heading for the range, I thoroughly scrubbed out the bore with Brownells J-B Non-Imbedding Bore Cleaning Compound loaded onto a .45-caliber, brass-bristle brush. Yes, I could actually see lands and grooves. Rough looking barrels from the lead bullet era often shoot better than they look, but they degrade quickly because of the rapid build-up of leading and powder residue. As you can see from the 25-yard target, the Werder settled down after an initial fouling shot and generated a remarkable 3/4-inch group. At 50 yards, the old Werder strung its group out to 5 inches, but considering the condition of the bore, a 5-inch group is very acceptable after 15 or 20 shots of leading and powder accumulation.

Much to Johann Werder’s credit as a designer, his 146-year-old action performed perfectly. All it took was a flick of my trigger finger, and I was ready to blitz the enemy.

Werder Model 1869
Maker: Royal Rifle Factory Amberg, Bavaria, Germany

Action: Werder “Blitz” action,
Caliber: 11.5x50R and 11.15x60R,
Capacity: 1, Barrel length: 35 inches,
Overall length: 52 inches, Weight: 9.5 pounds,
Finish: Blue,
Sights: Adjustable rear to 1,200 meters,
Stock: Walnut,
Value: $1,300-$3,100
(Gunbroker.com)

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Maintaining An AR Can Be Painless
With The Right Stuff.

By Glen Zediker

A few AR-15-specifc tools make some essential disassembly operations borderline effortless, well, at least compared to the effort without them. Right. I could live without them. Technically. I could also live without tacos, just not happily.

This tool collection has saved me various consternations, ranging from frustration and irritability to puzzlement and blood-blisters. Some are for cleaning, some for routine maintenance, some more for builds.

All the Sinclaire Bolt Vise does is compress the ejector, but, man, that’s a lot. The vise works effortlessly to assist in disassembly and reassembly. Anyone who has done this job with the “suggested” 1/4-inch wooden dowel quickly learns they need at least one more hand. The tool even has a hole for the pin to dislodge through.

The Sinclair AR-15 Bolt Vise makes disassembly of this component
a snap. Otherwise, you usually need 3 hands—just not as quick or easy.

The Mark Brown Carrier Scraper removes crud from places all but inaccessible
in the carrier. Get it from Brownells. And do get it, unless you don’t shoot
much, or at all. Then you can wait.

Carrier Scraper

I’ve gone on and on about the Mark Brown Carrier Scraper for years because it does a difficult job in a few seconds. The area, way back in the bolt carrier, where the tail of the bolt lives gets filthy—caked with carbon. This tool cleans it completely away. I’ve had folks try it on what they said was a “clean” carrier and then just shake their heads at the resulting pile of black residue it removes. The reason this tool is so valuable is this area is one of the prime causes of those “mystery malfunctions” that baffle AR owners.

These “M-M’s” show up at about 1,500 and 2,500 rounds (usually) and many are restored to full function after 5 or 6 turns of this scraper. Without such a tool, we’re forced to apply some serious carbon-cleaning chemicals (like GM Top Engine Cleaner), but because a round bristle brush will not reach in the recesses, there’s still residue. I run mine each cleaning. It’s that easy.

I’ve used pretty much all the upper receiver clamps or blocks out there. I do not like the “clamshell” varieties, even a little bit. The better designs fit inside the upper receiver and use pins through the receiver front and back to secure the part against stresses. And there’s a lot of stress installing a barrel, tightening the collar onto the upper receiver.

The best thing about the XS AR Upper Receiver Armorers Block is they can be used with any upper. That’s because only the inside matters to its fit and security, and all AR-15 uppers are the same on the inside. Outside, there can be big differences, especially among the billet-made parts.

The MOACKS Carrier Key Staking Tool isn’t cheap, and it may seem like an excessive purchase for most of us, but it does a very important job perfectly. That job is to stake the carrier key screw heads in place against possibility of rotation. I have increasingly encountered carriers with screws not staked, but glued. That’s not enough. I’ve seen this on rifles sold whole and in a few carrier assemblies I’ve had here of late.

Back to “mystery malfunctions,” another common cause is if the carrier key screws get even a little bit loose, there goes some gas—too much gas. It’s also a troubleshooting tip, and if yours are loose, this tool prevents that from happening again.

This is the latest take on upper receiver blocks or “clamps.” It’s different because
instead of fitting into the interior of the upper, it’s got cutouts for the receiver
bottom lugs. The push-through pins then snugly retain those. It’s stout and secure
containment. This block can work for an AR-10 or AR-15: one on one side, the other
on the other.

Cleaning “clips” are available from various sources, and this one is from Sinclair.

Trigger Pin Punch

Well, it’s not really used as a punch. It’s a rod with a rounded end to replicate an AR-15 trigger pin (same diameter) and locates and retains the trigger or hammer in place so you can install the pin. The punch is pushed out as the pin replaces it.

Hammers—especially ones with an extremely stout spring—can be a bear to install without this. It’s hard to get the pins through the hammer hole and then through the other side receiver hole with everything in alignment. Your thumb will thank you because it won’t have to crank back and hold the hammer nearly as many times.

Here is the MOACKS staking tool (above). It doesn’t look impressive, but it aids
staking the gas key screws firmly in place. If they aren’t, they come out. This tool
works with all configurations of key screws. It’s goof-proof, which really helps (below).
Otherwise it’s going to usually be an ugly job, albeit effective, done with a punch and
hammer (unless you’re a diamond cutter by trade).

Cleaning Clip

A few different outfits make these. It’s simple. All it does is separate the upper and lower receivers and hold them fixed, while we clean the bore and chamber. But it’s all we need! Without this, the ever-hinging receivers require constant attention. Combine it with an AR-specific cleaning “cradle” and routine maintenance just became way easier.

Even though it’s not specifically an AR-15 tool, I use the Hornady LNL OAL Gauge continually for mine. It’s a handloading tool technically, and it allows you to find the bullet seating depth (cartridge overall length, actually) so you can seat your bullet to touch the lands in your chamber. I say “your” because that’s the whole point of the tool (for me): it helps define your chamber dimensions. That matters, even if you never seat bullets to touch the lands.

It’s easy to determine the chamber throat specs in a rifle, and you can compare the amounts of “jump” different bullets have (distance the bullet has to travel to get into the lands). I use it to keep up with throat erosion, too. After a few reads and a few notes, you’ll easily distinguish between a SAAMI and a NATO chamber, for instance, and those in between.

It’s also of value to some who shoot the long match bullets. We can’t always safely load these to a length allowing them to fit into the magazine, and call it a day. In order to avoid the bullet being jammed into the lands, because of the ogive (nosecone) dimensions or profile, some bullets will need to be seated more deeply into the case than what would give the usual 2.260-inch maximum cartridge overall length of the AR-15 magazine. That’s a dangerous mistake you needn’t make.

There are more special tools to be sure for those who build AR-15’s, and we’ll discuss those in the future if there’s enough interest. Write the editor and tell him. He might listen. Or not.

This is the Trigger pin “punch” at work. It’s from Brownells, and
makes standard trigger and hammer installation a whole lot easier.

The Hornady LNL OAL Gauge was formerly the “Chamber-All Gauge” from
Tom Peterson at Stoney Point, and Glen was the first kid on the block
with one. There are angled or straight versions, and either will work
with an AR, but the angled version gives significantly more consistent
readings.

Shameless Self Promotion

The preceding was a specially adapted excerpt from The Competitive AR-15: Ultimate Technical Guide, from ZedikerPublishing.com or BuyZedikerBooks.com.

Brownells
200 South Front St
Montezuma, IA 50171
(800) 741-0015
http://americanhandgunner.com/company/brownells-inc/

Hornady
3625 West Old Potash Hwy
Grand Island, NE 68803
(800) 338-3220,
http://americanhandgunner.com/company/hornady-manufacturing-company/

MOACKS Michiguns
P.O. Box 42, Three Rivers
MI 49093

Sinclair Int
200 South Front St
Montezuma, IA 50171
(800) 741-0015
http://americanhandgunner.com/company/sinclair-int-l-inc/

XS Sight Systems
2405 Ludelle St
Fort Worth, TX 76105
(888)744-4880
http://americanhandgunner.com/company/xs-sight-systems-inc/

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This Long-Range Rifle Game Requires
Specialized Gear And Gizmos

By Dave Anderson

Recent years have seen a remarkable growth in F-Class competition. Shooting is at various distances from 300 to 1,000 yards depending on the particular match and shooting range. All shooting is from the prone position. Scopes and front and rear rests are allowed.

The two major divisions are F/TR (target rifle) and F/Open. In F/TR, rifles must be chambered for either .223/5.56mm or .308/7.62mm. Maximum weight is 8.25 kg (about 18.2 pounds) including any attached sling or bipod.

F/Open has a maximum weight limit of 10 kg (about 22 pounds) and can be chambered for any cartridge subject to limitations (in the club where I shoot maximum caliber is 8mm).

Some associations also recognize F/Factory division. I’d like to see this encouraged as a way to bring in new shooters and keep costs down. Nonetheless it will never be an inexpensive game. In addition to the basic rifle, scope, base/rings, ammunition, you’ll need a few accessories.

One of the least expensive yet most useful accessories is a shooting mat. Each stage of a match can take a half hour or more, and during the course of a match you’ll likely be in the prone position for two or more hours. The more comfortable you are, the better you will shoot.

The bottom surface of the mat should be water resistant, and with a sticky, tacky material to keep it from slipping. The top should be padded but still firm and stable. Most shooters like a fairly large mat so they can move around a bit while getting aligned on target. Plus it is nice to have your ammo box and log book on the mat rather than in the dirt.

Some mats have grommet holes so they can be staked down on windy days. Personally if the wind is so strong it’s flipping over shooting mats, I may as well shoot offhand for all the difference it would make. Still, in a match you take the conditions as they come and deal with them, so it’s not a bad feature.

Brownells offers several shooting mats, including the Crosstac Precision Long Range Shooting Mat and the Boyt Harness Bob Allen Tactical Mat. (I do love those names!)

Midway USA has a range of competition mats. If you like room to roam, check out the Half Acre Padded Shooting Mat Olive Drab. Currently I use a mat bought on sale at Cabela’s, which they call—wait for it—Cabela’s Shooting Mat.

Other than the lame name, the only thing I dislike is the partial black color. Black gets hot on sunny days, and can provide camouflage for ticks.

F-Class shooters at the 800-yard line shoot at the little white things at the base
of the backstop. If you’re wondering why there are 12 shooters and only six targets,
two shooters share one target and score for each other. After a shot is fired the
target pullers in the concrete bunker lower the target, mark the shot with a white
paster, and the value of the shot with a red paster positioned on the target border.
The shot is recorded on the shooter’s scorecard, then the second shooter has 45
seconds to fire.

At the upper end of rifle builds, master-class competitor and rifle builder Dennis
Lair uses this rifle for F/Open. It’s a Stolle Panda single-shot action, 32-inch
Benchmark barrel with 1:9 twist, Joe West stock, topped with a Nightforce 15-55×52
scope in Nightforce rings chambered for the .284 Shenane (an improved version of
the .284 Win). Using the new Sierra 183-grain MatchKing and H4831 powder, Dennis
gets a muzzle velocity of 2,850 from the long barrel.

F/TR requires the front rest (sling or bipod, though no one uses a sling) attached to the rifle. A rear rest such as a sandbag can be used provided front and rear rests are not attached to one another.

Harris bipods are fairly popular as they are well made, widely available and reasonably priced. Many rifle shooters have one on hand for varmint and big-game hunting, so naturally select them when giving F-Class a try. I’ve also seen several Atlas bipods in use and their owners speak highly of them.

Many experienced competitors prefer bipods with wider leg spacing, to better resist torque when the rifle is fired. Generally they attach to the rifle using an Anschutz or Picatinny-style rail rather than a sling swivel stud. Leg bottoms often have “skis” so they can slide smoothly on the shooting mat during recoil. Other desirable features are precise adjustments to get the rifle level and on target, and light weight, to stay within weight limits even with a long and heavy barrel.

The EVO FTR bipod is highly regarded since it is light (20+ ounces), strong and easily adjustable so the shooter can level the rifle at the desired height. Brownells has the Sinclair F Class bipod, a bit heavy at 30+ ounces but a very strong, rigid model with 10+ inches of elevation adjustment. Brownells also offers the Rorer bipod for F Class, a light (17.5 ounces) from Duplin Rifles.

Mystic Precision offers the MPOD at less than 13 ounces. It is the lightest F Class bipod I know of. Beautifully made by Evolution Gun Works (EGW) in Pennsylvania for Mystic Precision, the MPOD is adjustable for height and cant, and despite the light weight is very strong. A neat feature of the MPOD, as height is increased the legs get further apart for greater stability.

These days, if you use a solid front rest and do your fine aiming by squeezing the rear bag, it likely means you’re an old timer (like me). Currently shooters prefer a solid rear rest, with precision adjustments built into the bipod or rest for fine aiming. As all riflemen know, “precise” generally means “expensive.”

The Joypod from SEB Engineering is a bipod which allows fine aiming using a joystick, for making adjustments from the shooting position. It is so precise, in fact, some F/Open shooters use it instead of their usual heavy front rest when they have to travel to matches by air.

If you have a favorite rifle, don’t be afraid to compete and have fun even if it
doesn’t look like all the others! Rob Moroz uses his Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout
with a 26-inch .308 Win barrel (above). The bullpup design gives a compact overall
length even with a fairly long barrel. Sighting is by a Schmidt & Bender 5-25×56
scope over an Atlas bipod. For a truly competitive, off-the-rack rifle for F/TR
division, the Savage 12 FTR (below) stands alone. With a rigid single-shot action,
trigger adjustable down to 6 ounces, heavy 30-inch barrel chambered .308 Win, it
offers excellent performance and value. This Savage has a Vortex 6-24×50 scope.
The SEB Joypod bipod is beautifully made, light and strong, and the joystick
allows precise aiming while maintaining the prone shooting position.

Incidentally the “SEB” in SEB Engineering refers to Sebastian Lambang of Indonesia, an avid rifleman, engineer, and something of a mechanical genius. Prices fluctuate with currency exchange rates and cost of material but seem to be in the $550 to $600 range. Don’t expect to haggle over price as they are chronically backordered.

F/Open division doesn’t require the front rest be attached to the rifle. The rest can be as heavy and solid as you like. If you’re really on a budget, a sack filled with 30 pounds of beach sand doesn’t cost a penny.

On the other hand a solid, precision, joystick-adjustable rest costs quite a few pennies. One of the best, and most popular, is the Farley Coaxial II with joystick adjustment. Ready to go it is currently priced at $1,115—and when you see how beautifully it is made, and feel how smoothly it operates, the price will seem reasonable indeed.

SEB Engineering makes the NEO rest in several variations. For F Class shooting the NEO Coaxial with joystick is recommended. As with the Joypod, it seems nailing down the price is like trying to find a politician’s true views on something. But there’s no question about the quality, and as with the Joypod, there is a long waiting list.

Most shooters use “bunny ear” sandbags as a rear rest, sometimes with spacers to raise the height. If you do your fine aiming by squeezing the rear bag, the smaller “Protektor” brand bags are excellent.

Shooters using adjustable front rests usually want a heavier rear bag, since all you ask of the bag is for it not to move. A good choice is the Protektor “Loaf,” a large rabbit-ear bag.

Edgewood shooting bags are next to none in terms of workmanship and appearance. They offer a couple of models specifically for F Class in the “Original” and the “Minigator” bags, but with larger bases having an integral carry handle.

Brownells
200 South Front Street
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000,
www.brownells.com
Tier One
EVO Leisure Ltd., Unit H Orchard Works
Spenvale Street, Heckmondwike
West Yorkshire, WF16 0NQ
www.tier-one.eu

Evolution Gun Works, Inc.
52 Belmont Ave
Quakertown, PA 18951
(215) 538-1012
www.egwguns.com

Edgewood Shooting Bags
8033 Snow Ave. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
(505) 888-2866
www.edgebag.com

Farley Manufacturing Inc.
(405) 732-7852
www.farleymfg.com

GRS Stocks, Kelbly’s Inc.
7222 Dalton Fox Lake Road
North Lawrence, Ohio 44666
(330) 683-4674
www.kelbly.com

Mystic Precision (MPOD)
Jerry Teo, P.O. Box 1245
Summerland, BC V0H 1Z0
Fax (no phone): (250) 494-9610
www.mysticprecision.com

Protektor Model Company
1-11 Bridge Street
Galeton, PA 16922
(814) 435-2442
www.protektormodel.com

Sebastian Lambang (SEB Engineering)
Jl. Wedoro PP 20, Waru
Sidoarjo, 61256, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
www.sebrests-usa.com

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Ruger’s M77 Hawkeye Varmint Target in
.308 Was “Just What The Doctor Ordered.”

By John Taffin

My first dedicated hunting rifle was a sporterized 1917 Enfield .30-06 with a club of a stock. It must’ve weighed at least 10 pounds, but I was young and strong and carried it up and down the Idaho mountains.

But even as young as I was, it still got awfully heavy. So I switched to hunting with a Smith & Wesson 6-1/2-inch .44 Magnum or a Ruger 7-1/2-inch Blackhawk or Super Blackhawk—all in Mexican loop holsters of my own design on a wide cartridge belt. For the past 50 years my life has been spent mostly with handguns, however, there have also been a lot of rifles—especially leverguns. I’ve shot a lot of heavy loads, especially in .45-70 leverguns, as well as such bolt-action favorites as the .338 Winchester and .375 H&H. Now I’ve come full circle and I’m back to a heavy bolt action—the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Varmint Target. How did this come to pass?

On September 23, 2010, everything changed dramatically. The day dawned beautifully and I awoke at 6 a.m. to get everything ready for a day of shooting. But first I had to deliver Diamond Dot and her friend to the bus depot at 7:30 so they could catch the bus to Portland and spend the weekend at a quilt show. Once I got them on the bus I would head for the desert south of town to meet my friend Denis for some shooting, followed by lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Friday would be more of the same and Saturday the kids and grandkids would come over to watch football. It all added up to great plans for an enjoyable weekend.

I got dressed and prepared to load the pickup. As I walked out of the bathroom I experienced the most excruciating pain of my life. It’s often hard to pinpoint where real pain is coming from, but this seemed to be coming from my back and throat. At first I thought I’d pulled a muscle and could just tough it out. Then the dizziness came and I knew something was drastically wrong. I worked my way to the other end of the house and told Dot she better call 911. I went into the front room to sit down and wait for the paramedics. They were there in what seemed like minutes and I remember them putting me into the ambulance and starting to drive. However, I do not remember arriving at the hospital. The rest of the day—plus some of next—is just a blur.

Turns out if Dot had not called 911 immediately I would’ve died within a few hours. What had happened was a tear in the artery to the aorta of my heart. I was on my way to bleeding out. The emergency operation took almost 6 hours. They had to open my sternum from top to bottom and then spread it apart to get to the artery and repair it. Afterward I was informed my chances of survival were less than 20 percent (actually closer to 10).

But evidently it was not my time to go and I did survive. However, I thought it would be a good idea to avoid heavy-recoiling rifles, so I set the .243 as the maximum recoil I wanted to experience. I definitely missed the bigger rifles but I decided to err on the side of caution. But as great as the .243 is, I wanted to experience something somewhat larger. But I remained cautious.

Fully rigged out, John’s Ruger is no lightweight, but it’s set
up for easy, superbly accurate shooting. The scope is Leupold’s
VXR 4-12×40 with a Fire Dot reticle.

Weight Is The Answer

As I watched several of my friends shoot their .308’s, I wanted to do the same, however, I just didn’t think it was a good idea. When my son-in-law told me he wanted to go deer hunting for the first time with his friend, I thought about breaking him in on the couple .308’s I still had in the safe. Naturally, I would have to shoot them first to make sure they were sighted in.

My spirit said yes. My head said no. So I went with the Ruger .243. My son-in-law had never before shot any long gun except a .22, however, he proved to be a quick learner and with a minimum of effort was shooting the .243 extremely well and his deer season was successful. However, I still wanted to shoot something larger and began my search. I didn’t want to experience the relatively heavy recoil of the sporter-weight .308’s I had. I began looking for a solution. It was not difficult to find as Ruger was advertising an M77 Hawkeye Varmint Target rifle in several calibers, including .308. As I looked at the specs I saw the weight was just over 9 pounds. This would be my answer. Almost.

A call to Ruger had one on the way and I looked for solutions to outfit this .308 to make it as pleasant shooting as possible. First I ordered a Ruger muzzlebrake to tame the recoil even more. I dropped the rifle and brake off at my gunsmith at Buckhorn for installation. I soon got a call from them telling me this particular brake had too small of a diameter to fit the heavy barrel of the Varmint Target. I told them to order a proper one and I’d put the smaller one on a Ruger Mini-30.

A look through the Brownells catalog revealed a Shrewd muzzlebrake in satin stainless finish with a diameter of 0.860-inch. This was ordered and definitely required the work of a gunsmith, as not only did the barrel have to be threaded, it was also necessary to open the .22 exit hole of the brake to 0.020-inch over the bullet diameter to be used. This had to be done correctly or accuracy would suffer. The Shrewd brake has multiple offset-pattern gas dispersion holes with a 7-degree forward brake with a length of 2-5/8 inches. This adds approximately 2 inches to the already lengthy 26-inch Ruger barrel. The Shrewd muzzlebrake is designed to reduce recoil and muzzle flip, moving blast and sound forward. I was soon to find it worked.

John renews his acquaintance with a .308 bolt action—in this case,
the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Target Varmint.

This Shrewd muzzlebrake (inset) from Brownells really helps soften things.
That, plus the rifle’s heft may account for John’s surprised “Where’s the
recoil?” expression.

While the Ruger was in the shop I asked the boys to order and install a quality bipod. I had looked at a couple of the cheaper ones they had in stock, but I wanted something substantially stronger with a quality to match the rifle. They went with the Harris Engineering Ultralight Series 1A2. I would be doing the major part of my shooting from a bench and I needed a bipod which would extend a few inches. The Harris works perfectly, extends easily and the legs are locked securely in place. When not in use, the unit folds forward out of the way.

The final step was the scope. I found a Leupold VXR 4-12×40 on sale for nearly 40 percent off and bought it without hesitation. However, when I went to install it I found it was not a standard 1-inch tube but actually required 30mm rings, so the project was held up for about a week while I ordered the right rings from Ruger. This particular scope is a “Fire Dot” which means pushing a button on the left side of the scope results in a red dot in the reticle which can be adjusted for varying intensities. With the muzzlebrake, bipod and scope installed, the total weight came to 11-1/2 pounds. No, it’s not a rifle I would want to carry, however, off the bench it is especially pleasant to shoot—exactly what I was looking for.

The Varmint Target is equipped with a non-rotating Mauser-type controlled-round-feed extractor, a 3-position safety which allows the shooter to lock the bolt or to load and unload the rifle with the safety engaged. The barrel is cold-hammer-forged with a target crown. The 2-stage adjustable trigger has a short take-up stage and breaks at just under 3 pounds with no creep or overtravel.

I chose the .308 not only for its effectiveness and long-range accuracy, but also for its historical significance. Winchester introduced it commercially in 1952. In 1954 the military version (7.62×51) arrived. In 1955 the .308 was necked down to become the .243 and necked up to become the .358 Winchester. By 1958 the wildcat 7mm-08 arrived and in 1980 was standardized as the 7-08 Remington. Another wildcat, the .338-08 became the .338 Federal in 2006. I have had extensive experience with both the .243 and 7-08 and found them to be extremely accurate cartridges. But for this time around I wanted a .308.

I believe in breaking in every barrel “properly” Taffin-style. Regardless of the type of firearm, I break in every one by shooting it. I do not go through the long and laborious shoot/clean, shoot/clean process which many shooters do. I am too old to waste my time working this hard. For the Ruger .308 I fired three rounds at 25 yards to make sure it was on paper. This was followed by three shots at 100 yards which resulted in a desired point of impact about 3 inches high. My first serious group (shots No. 7 though No. 9) was then fired at 100 yards. It measured 1/2-inch. The ammo? Trajectory Technologies Trajetech load featuring a 168-grain Sierra MatchKing at 2,632 fps. With this very first group I knew I had an extremely accurate rifle.

Four different .308 Match Grade loads from Black Hills were then used as well and they exceeded my expectations. Their 168-grain Sierra MatchKing load clocked out at 2,691 fps and delivered a 3-shot, 100-yard group of 3/8-inch. The 168-grain Boattail HP (2,637 fps) grouped at 3/4 inch. Black Hills’ 175-grain Boattail HP (2,607 fps) also stayed at 3/4 inch. But their 180-grain Nosler AccuBond load ( 2,531 fps) proved to be the most accurate load thus far with three shots in 5/16.

All groups were fired using the Harris 1A2 bipod. I am not a rifleman by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve never learned the “breathing techniques” and I’m too impatient to shoot slowly. This makes these groups even more astounding. As I was testing the Ruger, a shooting friend handed me a box of 173-grain military match loads from 1965. It clocked out at 2,658 fps and grouped 3 shots into 3/4 inches. So much for questioning the performance of old ammunition!

John tested his rifle with four Black Hills Match Grade .308 loads
(from left): 168-grain Sierra MatchKing, 168-grain Boattail HP,
175-grain Boatttail HP, 180-grain Nosler AccuBond.

Targets shot at 100 yards (above) with various Black Hills .308 loads
show the rifle’s tackdriving potential. More of the same — the Hawkeye
M77 Target Varmint can do this as long as you can (below).

Making Plans

I pronounce my “Fragile Old Man Rifle” a resounding success. However, this is not the end but only the beginning. The next step is shooting at 200 yards and I’ve also made arrangements with the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle shooters to shoot my .308 at 500 yards on their range. I also have some gas-checked cast bullets loaded up in .308 brass and I will find out how they shoot.

Then there are 700 rounds of factory moly-coated bullets which have been sitting on my ammo shelf for a couple decades just waiting to be tried. These will come last as I have inquired about the use of moly-coated bullets from three knowledgeable people with three different answers. One says it is a real chore to get the moly-coating out of the barrel, another says it cleans out easily, and another says it can be shot out using regular jacketed bullets. I’m in no hurry for any of this so time will tell.

What about hunting with this Varmint Target Rifle? I’m long past the age of walking the Idaho mountains, let alone when carrying a cumbersome 11-1/2 pound rifle. But perhaps someday I’ll get a chance at a long-range coyote, or even at a nice buck while sitting in a deer stand waiting for the sun to come up. No hurry.

We’ll see what develops.

Black Hills Ammunition
P.O. Box 3090
Rapid City
SD 57709
(605) 348-5150
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/black-hills-ammunition/

Brownells
200 S. Front St.
Montezuma, IA 50171
(800) 741-0015
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/brownells-inc/

Federal Cartridge
900 Ehlen Dr.
Anoka MN 55303
(763) 323-2300
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/federal-premium-ammunition/

Harris Engineering
(203) 266-6906

Hornady
P.O. Box 1848
Grand Island NE 68802
(308) 382-1390
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/hornady-manufacturing-company/

Sierra
1400 W. Henry St.
Sedalia, MO 65301
(888) 223-3006
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/sierra-bullets/

Trajectory Technologies
3765 Roundbottom Rd.
Newtown, OH 45244
(513) 233-6585

Winchester Ammunition
600 Powder Mill Rd.
East Alton, IL 62024
(618) 258-3340
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/winchester-ammunition-div-olin-corp/

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By Jeff John

Years ago, after hearing DS Arms discontinued their wood-stocked FAL, I managed to purchase one of the last ones. I lived in California and had it sent to my brother’s house in the Free World until I moved.

The rifle was billed as a reproduction of the US T48, which our country tested prior to adopting the M14. But enough details were just enough off, I couldn’t quite see a way to make it a T48 replica without some major work. Unfortunately, this would’ve included the fabrication of several important parts (translation: really expensive). So I decided to enjoy it the way it was.

I made one sojourn to Arizona to visit and shoot my rifle while living in Calif. Within 100 rounds, a big chip had blown off the top of the butt, and I didn’t notice it. By the time I did, I was 200 miles from the rifle range, since I had taken it along to shoot with friends north of my brother’s place.

The FAL buttplate is a stamped piece of sheetmetal and the butt itself is cut for the buttplate’s rolled edges to fit over the wood. For this to work, the stock’s buttplate relief cut must be long enough so the large flat of the buttplate rests solidly against the end of the stock, without the sharp edges of the buttplate’s lip touching any wood itself. In this case, the thin rolled edges of the buttplate were in contact with the wood and the large flat part was not. Thus the lips of the buttplate acted as a “splitting maul”— blowing off a chip on top, where, of course, it is most obvious.

Thoroughly depressed, I looked over the fit of the buttplate-to-stock closely (now) and discovered the buttplate fit poorly all the way around, touching wood on one side and hanging over the wood on the opposite side. There was really no good way to repair the stock chip, although I relieved the wood so no further damage would occur and I could still shoot the gun. The stock was an ugly, knotty thing anyway. The fore-end and pistol grip were beautiful, however.

The rifle shot very low, too, so I had another problem to ponder. My next big mistake was not buying the tool set necessary to disassemble the gun and adjust the sights and gas system. By the time I really needed the tools, the 1st Great Obama Ammo & Gun Scare dried up everything associated with firearms, including the three specialty tools the FAL needs. These include a gas nut wrench (almost easy to do without), a front sight-adjusting tool (not so easy to do without) and a stock nut removing tool (best have one if you want to take the stock off).

The finished stock sporting a hand-rubbed oil finish. Perhaps too pretty for
a military weapon, but you can never own too nice a rifle!

The original FAL stock underwent many changes to strengthen and improve it, ending with the rifle entirely stocked with synthetic materials. The last wood-stock versions had a reinforcing ferrule fitting over wood at the stock/receiver junction to strengthen the joint, and is the version fitted to the DS Arms (one hurdle recreating the T48, since it uses the earlier style). I prefer the slimmer, more attractive earlier 1950’s-style stock. The book The FAL Rifle, Classic Edition from Collector Publications describes the interchangeability of the variants.

After moving to Nevada, I casually searched out wood and tools on the Internet to no avail until discovering Ironwood Stocks located (of all places) smack in the bluest part of Calif. And, of course, we were in the midst of another ObamaScare and their backorder list was so high they weren’t taking new orders.

One day bright and sunny when Obama was probably golfing, and everything was calm (in the US at least), I saw the tools in stock again at Brownells. More good news, Ironwood’s backorder time had plunged to a reasonable 6 weeks. So checks sent and everything arrived exactly as hoped. Things were looking up!

Sometime during the wait, I stumbled across a Canadian surplus buttplate with a trap for the cleaning kit (the DS Arms stock had neither), and it came with an oiler and pull-through.

The Ironwood stock is about 98 percent shaped and sanded to 150 grit, which is just about perfect for a military gun. The grain runs straight and true and is pleasing to the eye. The sanding is expertly done and has no ripples or other mistakes. It took about 2 hours to spot-and-scrape the butt to the receiver. I perhaps could’ve done it faster, but I wanted good wood-to-metal fit here because the recoil shoulder is so small. Besides, it was a nice cool Sunday, and there was a good race on TV. So why rush? Tools required were inletting black, a Swiss file and Jerry Fisher scrapers (Brownells has ’em). I fit the buttplate so a piece of paper could run easily around the edge between metal and wood. This plate won’t chip out the stock. Even better, the new wood is proud all around the edge. The stock was a hair wider than I liked, so I spent another hour with a file trimming it on both sides, and sanding to 220. A military stock doesn’t really need such careful fitting, but I was enjoying the work.

The interior dimensions of the DS Arms stock were different from the Ironwood stock, and its recoil spring nut—which is also threaded for the buttplate screw—sat a full inch higher in the tunnel. The DS Arms buttplate screw proved an inch short. Looking through the FAL book, the schematic showed the buttplate screw should be 2 inches (or at least it looked to be twice as long), so it would need a washer stack or a new screw.

At Apex Gun Parts I found the 2-inch screw for peanuts (it even came with its peculiar lock washer!). The shipping was three times the part’s cost, so I surfed around and found a rounded triggerguard (the T48’s is square) and a reasonably-priced wooden carry handle. The elusive wood handle was high on my list and had been expensive elsewhere. It wasn’t perfect—it’s used and they do get knocked around—but cleaned up well enough after stripping it of oil, steaming the dents and refinishing.

The DS Arms stock (above) chipped badly due to a poor fitting buttplate and was replaced
by new a stock from Ironwood Stocks. The new one came 98 percent fitted and sanded to 150
grit. During shooting, the sharp lip of the buttplate acted as a “splitting maul” on the
top of the stock (below) and took a huge chip off the end where it is most noticeable.

I stripped the old fore-end and pistol-grip finish with Brownells’ CertiStrip, since I had no idea what was present. I cleaned up the original contours a little, stained and finished the wood with Pilkington’s Oil Finish. A sanded-in oil finish is the lazy man’s way to fill wood pores. It takes time but little else. Oil finishing a stock in this manner takes about an hour every other day for about two weeks. But then I was awaiting the new buttplate screw, handle and triggerguard anyway.

I mix up stock finish in a baby food jar. Since it will begin hardening after a couple of days, if any is left, I spritz a little propane from a plumber’s torch in the mouth of the jar before putting the lid on. The propane keeps oxygen from starting the hardening process.

After the final coat sets, the stock needs rubbing out. Unhappy with the method I had been using, I experimented a bit on this one. My usual method calls for mixing Pilkington’s Stock Rubbing Oil (clear linseed oil) with Rottenstone (a Brownells brand which I had on hand) on a felt pad and rubbing out the stock. This time I thinned 1-part Stock Rubbing Oil with 2-parts mineral spirits and used a cotton 12-gauge cleaning patch. I put a small amount of Rottenstone on the patch and added enough rubbing oil mixture, using an eyedropper to make a paste. I had the whole stock rubbed out in an hour or so and I’m very pleased with the results.

The complex swivel base dropped into its inlet perfectly. A small manual drill was used to drill the three holes for the buttplate swivel and forward stock screw.

The Ironwood stock is very well crafted, has enough wood everywhere and not too much anywhere. The grain layout was excellent. Incidentally, my experience with Ironwood was excellent (owner Matt works to ensure you are buying the correct patterns).

Ironwood also makes wood for most of the Com-Bloc guns should you want to replace a ratty set of surplus wood, or upgrade a rifle imported into the country disguised as a “sporting” arm.

PEX Gun Parts
3105 North Stone Ave
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
(719) 481-2050
www.apexgunparts.com

Brownells
200 South Front Street
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000
www.brownells.com

DS Arms
P.O. Box 370
Lake Barrington, IL 60011
(847) 277-7258
www.dsarms.com

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Choose Wisely, Mount Intelligently, But
Don’t Be Afraid To Mix Things Up A Bit

By Dave Anderson

Back in 1961 when I turned 12 and was old enough for my own deer rifle, choices in a bolt action were Winchester, Savage or Remington. It would be chambered in .270, .30-06, or the then-avant-garde .308.

Yes, there were also rifles from Browning, Weatherby, Steyr-Mannlicher, Sako, but they were for rich people. Not only did I not know any rich people, I didn’t know anyone who knew rich people.

Then came scope selection—Weaver, Leupold, Redfield or Bausch & Lomb. It would be either 2-1/2 or 4X. That’s a total of … 3x3x4x2 = 72 possible combinations—more than enough for many a ferocious campfire debate.

To this day I’m an inveterate scope swapper, indecisive as ever. Sometimes after a few tries my scope/rifle combo seems just right. I do have a few setups I don’t plan on changing. At least not in the near future!

The virtually unlimited choices we have today are a wonderful thing, but can be perplexing. I certainly sympathize with a young shooter who has bought a rifle, and needs a scope. Could I make a recommendation? I could probably list a couple hundred and they would all work. Not helping, I know. About all I can do is suggest a few guidelines, along with a couple of ideas on how to get the most value for your money.

The first consideration is, what are you trying to accomplish? If the scope is for a hunting rifle, what are you planning to hunt? What hunting method do you expect to use most often—from a stand, still hunting, small group drives, spot and stalk? Will you be mostly sitting in a comfortable blind a 1/2-mile off the road, or hiking back into rough, hilly terrain? Do you get out early and stay out late when the light is dim?

Your level of experience is another issue. Novice shooters often seem to hunt around to get a full field of view to pick up the target. The rifle is shaky enough already without magnifying the wobble 8 or 10 times. Such shooters may be better served with a lower-power scope with non-critical eye relief and a large field of view. They’ll shoot better, which means they’ll enjoy shooting more, and pretty soon they won’t be novices.

Some conditions—and some shooters—are hard on scopes. Adjustments may work fine for those who want to sight the rifle in and then leave it alone, yet not prove durable enough for those who like to spin turrets for different distances and wind conditions.

Heavy recoil, especially fast heavy recoil, is tough on scopes. So is constant jiggling, such as in the rack of an off-road vehicle. And as the Corb Lund song goes, some people are just Hard on Equipment.

The scope size should be compatible with the rifle. I like the scope rings to be fairly near the ends of the main tube, but at least 1/4-inch away from the power adjustment ring, the adjustment turrets, and the front bell. A third or half the scope extending out past the front ring looks wrong to me, though I admit to having some such setups and they do work.

What about weather conditions? Do you expect to hunt in extremes of cold, heat, rain, snow, dust? How much shooting will you be doing with this rifle, 100 rounds a month or 50 rounds a year? Last but by no means least, how much are you prepared to spend?

At left, a Sako Finnlight .243 with a Swarovski Z3 3-10×42. At right, a
Savage Lightweight Hunter .260 Rem with a Burris Fullfield II 3-9×40.
Dave would like to see the rings near the ends of the main tube, but
without getting too close to the power ring, adjustment turrets,
or front scope bell.

It took me a long time to learn the wisdom of the old adage, “Only a rich man can afford a cheap scope.” In my penniless youth I begrudged money spent on scopes, when the same money could go towards ammo or even another rifle. I’ve probably broken more scopes than many shooters have owned (happily, never during a hunt). Fixed or variable, it didn’t matter—what they had in common was they were cheap. I’d rather buy a good name-brand used scope than a new $59.95 blister-pack “Big Box” special.

With scopes the old rule “you get what you pay for” applies, though I suppose there are exceptions at both ends of the price spectrum. A couple other economic principles apply. One is diminishing returns. Additional production costs bring progressively smaller returns in quality.

Another is the concept of fixed and variable costs. Property taxes (just one example of a fixed cost) are the same whether the company makes 100 scopes or 10,000. Higher volume means lower cost per unit, and vice versa. Because scopes in the 3-9×40 range are so popular, they tend to be exceptionally good values.

Check what sort of warranty and service the manufacturer offers. Don’t just check what they put in writing; ask around among your shooting buddies and see how customers are really treated. Among consumer products in general, scope manufacturers are exceptionally good in guaranteeing their product and keeping customers happy.

To get the most value for your money, be realistic about how rifle and scope will be used. Most big game rifles get shot a lot less than people think. The average casual hunter who owns one big game rifle probably shoots no more than 20 to 50 rounds annually. The rifle enthusiasts who read gun magazines usually shoot a lot more, but they generally own several rifles to share the workload.

I promised a couple tips on getting the most value for your money. Remember the law of diminishing returns? Well, it works in reverse as well. You can save a lot of money while not giving up much.

Realistically, if your rifle will be fired maybe 50 to 100 times a year, you don’t plan to spin turrets, you’re pretty good about not dropping your rifle in a creek or out of a tree stand, and you’re not shooting an 8-pound .416 Rem, you have lots of options. A $200–$300 3-9×40 from any reputable manufacturer will provide a lifetime of satisfactory service.

In the foreground a combo from the 1970s—a BSA Royal .222 Rem on a short Brno action
with a Weaver T10 Microtrac scope, one of the first with reliable, repeatable and
durable turret adjustments. The reason it doesn’t get out much anymore is in the
background: a Kimber Montana .223 Rem with Bushnell Elite Tactical 5-15×40 in Leupold
Dual Dovetail bases/rings. Although the scopes extend past the front ring farther than
Dave likes to see, he can’t say it’s caused him a problem.

Now let’s say some of those conditions do apply. If you shoot a lot, spin turrets, hunt rain or shine, snow or sleet, shoot long range with powerful cartridges, the best you can afford is none too good. Or maybe you just want a top-of-the-line scope. You’re a free American and wanting it is reason enough.

Most of us who like rifles probably have more than one, probably a half-dozen or more. Instead of buying six $300 scopes, consider buying the high-end $1,800 scope you’ve always wanted, and moving it from rifle to rifle. Yes, I know the arguments against such a philosophy, but I also know it can work because I practice it.

What got me thinking along these lines is a truly remarkable scope, the 2.5-10×42 Nightforce NXS. It is the most versatile scope I’ve ever used. If I owned just one scope, this would be it. I’ve used it with .22 LR rimfires, bolt-action and semi-auto .223/5.56, a Weatherby Vanguard 6.5 Creedmoor, and a heavy-barrel Tikka .308.

I don’t yet have a rail on my .375 H&H but when I do it’ll work fine on it as well. I’ve used this scope for target shooting at 1,000 yards and for hunting whitetails in the last few minutes of daylight.

Adjustments are accurate, reliable, and durable, the glass is excellent, and for low light I can press a button and illuminate the reticle (either green or red).

Changing scopes can be a pain if it means changing or moving rings, and burning up a dozen rounds to resight. What makes it practical is the use of Picatinny rails. With a rail on each rifle, the changeover takes about a minute. Loosen the bolts and lift scope and rings off Rifle A, set them on Rifle B, and use the Brownells torque wrench to tighten the crossbolts to 65 in-lb.

It won’t be sighted in, of course, due to differences in cartridge trajectory and minor differences in rifles. But in my experience it will be close enough to hit a 2×2-foot target at 100 yards. Then use the accurate adjustments to dial in the required correction.

If you’re the trusting sort you could get by with just one shot, theoretically. But I’m not, and anyway I like shooting so I’ll fire a few more rounds. Then reset the turrets to zero and refer to the appropriate range card for come-ups and windage adjustments.

Rails cost a bit more than regular scope bases, but you only need one set of rings. I won’t argue it is a perfect system, but a little inconvenience in return for the use of a top-end optic is not a bad tradeoff.

Evolution Gun Works, Inc.,
52 Belmont Ave.
Quakertown PA 18951
(215) 538-1012
www.egwguns.com

Near Manufacturing
P.O. Box 1677, Camrose, AB
T4V 1X6 Canada
(866) 608-2441
www.nearmfg.com

Nightforce Optics, Inc.
336 Hazen Ln.
Orofino, ID 83544
(208) 476-9814
nightforceoptics.com

Talley Mfg.
9183 Old No. 6 Hwy.
P.O. Box 369
Santee, SC 29142
(803) 854-5700
talleymanufacturing.com

Warne Scope Mounts
9500 SW Tualatin Rd.
Tualatin, OR 97062
warnescopemounts.com

Weaver Optics
1 Vista Way, Anoka
MN 55303
(800) 379-1732
www.weaveroptics.com

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Seldom Has The Old Cliché “New And
Improved” Been More Appropriate

By Holt Bodinson

It has punched a jillion targets, plinked a million tin cans, served sportsmen well in woodchuck pastures and jackrabbit flats and has even seen action in distant, clandestine theaters of war. Ruggedly constructed, it shoots and shoots forever, much to the delight of millions of owners. Having been America’s favorite .22 pistol for 67 years, it was high time for a major facelift.

Over its lifespan, the Ruger .22 pistol had undergone incremental changes as reflected in the Mark I, II and III. Over the same span, custom gunsmithing houses and suppliers like Brownells, Volquartsen and Majestic Arms brought to market a variety of mechanical, stylistic and handling improvements for the stock pistol—enhanced triggers, bolts, firing pins and extractors; extended bolt and magazine releases and safeties; compensators, sights, Picatinny rails, magazines, extended magazine base pads, complete accuracy kits, stocks and maybe the most important accessory of all, the Majestic Arms “Speed Strip System” which enables the shooter to remove the bolt of his Ruger without tearing the pistol apart.

While Bill Ruger’s design for the Standard Pistol of 1949 was easy to make and economical to buy, it had a certain degree of complexity capable of defeating many an owner who was adventuresome enough to disassemble it in order to remove the bolt and clean the pistol from the breech end. The problem was many owners were not knowledgeable enough to put the parts back together again. The Ruger is indeed a bit quirky when you have to reinstall the mainspring housing assembly properly in the frame.

Simply because there are so many millions of them out there, I imagine more Ruger Mark I, II and III pistols have been brought into local gunsmiths as parts-in-a-box than any other design of our era.

When I went into Murphy’s Gun Shop in Tucson to pick up Ruger’s new Mark IV for review, I just had to ask Brian Murphy, the owner and a skilled gunsmith, what his experience was with Ruger pistols and frustrated customers. He laughed and admitted he once charged his customers to put their disassembled Rugers back together but now provides the service for free. He’d gotten tired of seeing mangled guns from exasperated owners and untutored hands.

The fluted-barrel Hunter was Holt’s pick from the Mk IV series.

Addressing A Need

Suppose you were the engineer tasked with updating the pistol. Where would you start? You’d probably begin by reviewing all of the custom accessories and upgrades contained in the aforementioned catalogs. Sources for custom parts for the Ruger pistol and 10/22 rifle represent a formidable megabucks industry in itself. You can virtually rebuild a stock Ruger for enhanced performance and invest more in upgraded components than you paid for gun in the first place.

Next, you’d probably winnow through all the aftermarket upgrades to identify those popular or solving a major design complaint and were the easiest to change on a production basis while keeping the pistol competitively priced.

The end result would look a lot like the new Mark IV. Frankly, I was surprised how far the redesign went. Gone is the 67-year-old, 2-piece, welded-up frame. In its place is a solid, one-piece CNC frame machined from stainless steel or aluminum. The solid frame facilitated the major design change of the Mark IV—a 1-button takedown system.

At the front of the solid frame is a steel hinge pin, similar to that of a shotgun. The barreled receiver is notched to ride and rotate on it and is locked down to the frame by a button-activated lug engaging a recess on the rear underside of the receiver. The system is simple and ingenious. Push the black button at the rear of the frame and the barreled receiver can be rotated down and lifted off the frame.

Ruger’s new Mark IV Hunter model is ideal for small
game hunting or paper punching.

Since the bolt is no longer captured by the projecting bolt stop pin, the bolt can be simply slid out the rear of the receiver, enabling you to clean the barrel, bolt and internal fire-control components. Speaking of cleaning, I spend more time cleaning the cruddy bolt than the barrel and use Q-Tips to remove powder residue from the internals. My favorite cleaner-lubricant at the moment is G96 Synthetic CLP Gun Oil. Good stuff!
(For those of you who own Mark I, II and III pistols, the same easy access to the bore and bolt can be had by replacing the solid factory bolt stop pin with Majestic Arms’ 2-piece pin which permits bolt removal without separating the receiver from the frame.)

There are several other significant upgrades in the Mark IV. The traditional round safety button has been replaced by a big ambidextrous safety that locks the sear. And the new bolt stop is also finally big, smooth and finger friendly. Interestingly, gone is the “loaded chamber indicator” seen on the Mark III.

Mark III and Mark IV magazines are interchangeable (you get two). Hitting the magazine release on the Mark IV expels the “drop-free” magazine so be forewarned. There is also a magazine disconnect safety preventing a discharge if the magazine is removed.

Ruger indicates they’ve made a number of internal improvements to the hammer, sear, bolt and firing pin “for smoother, more reliable feeding.” The 2-stage trigger on my Hunter model test gun averaged 4 pounds, 10 ounces on a Lyman electronic gauge. The release was crisp with a minimum of overtravel.

How did the fluted-barrel Hunter perform? Personally, I don’t like the HIVIZ sight set-up for targets or game. To my eyes, it seems coarse, and the HIVIZ light pipe “blooms.” You do get 5 extra green/red light pipes but I’d rather have a standard Ruger target sight. That being said, I like optics on a combination target/game pistol and my choice is the Majestic Arms customized Bushnell Trophy 1x28mm optics package. I used the Bushnell Trophy rig for testing at 25 yards.

Majestic Arms’ Bushnell package features hand-lapped QD
rings mated to a custom rail.

Measuring the best 4 shots in each 5-shot group, the results were as follows: Federal AutoMatch (0.45), Armscor HP (0.52), CCI Mini-Mag (0.55), CCI Pistol Match (0.66), CCI Copper (0.84), CCI Quiet Segmented (1.98).

Overall, the new Mark IV line is an extensive and successful redesign of an iconic pistol. It’s available in two 5-1/2-inch barreled Target models as well as the Hunter. I like the Hunter’s longer barrel and sight radius, its balance and its fluted barrel. It’s ideal for either bull’s-eye punching or bunny rolling.

Brownells
200 S. Front St.
Montezuma, IA 50171
(800) 741-0015
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/brownells-inc/

Majestic Arms
101A Ellis St.
Staten Island, NY 10307
(718) 356-6765
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/majestic-arms-ltd/

Volquartsen
24276 240th St.
Carroll, IA 51401
(712) 792-4238
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/volquartsen-custom/

Mark IV Hunter

Maker: Sturm, Ruger & Co.
200 Ruger Rd.
Prescott, AZ 86301
(336) 949-5200
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/sturm-ruger-co/

Action type: Semi-automatic blowback
Caliber: .22 Long Rifle
Capacity: 10
Barrel length: 6.88 inches (fluted)
Overall length: 11.1 inches
Weight: 44 ounces
Finish: Satin stainless
Sights: Adjustable rear, fiber-optic front, drilled & tapped for Picatinny rail
Grips: Checkered laminate
Price: $769

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Accurate Bullet Delivery
Is “All About The Tube”

By Glen Zediker

This is probably about the 20th time I’ve written such an article, but it is important. Basic understanding of elemental components aren’t inherent, and there are always “new” folks out there needing to know. So this time I want to talk about the most important component to accuracy in any AR-15. That there would be the barrel.

I freely admit to being a barrel snob. I’m a competitive shooter and I want all the points I hold for. The only way to ensure peak accuracy is to install a truly good “match-grade” barrel.

Now, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody’s “match-grade” barrel out there in our industry. Folks, no objective standards apply. None. “Match-grade” is a term entirely freely applied. To me, a true match-grade barrel will win championships. There are more, but here are three names to know: Krieger, Lilja, Schneider. Satern fits in there too.

The best way to judge the quality of a barrel is by cost. Sorry. But it’s true. A handmade or custom-made barrel is expensive. It costs a lot to produce because of the quality controls. It takes time.

For the do-it-hisselfer, Satern Custom makes a truly good barrel available
ready to torque down onto your upper, correctly headspaced (bolt included).

Glen anticipates barrel replacements by following a “motor racing” philosophy where
all parts have a stated service life. They get replaced on schedule, regardless of
“perceived fitness.” It’s how to keep a race car—and a race-gun—winning. Glen uses a
Hornady Chamber All Gauge to monitor throat erosion. When it hits 0.150, he knows
the barrel is done.

What’s Good?

There are tiers of “good” barrels. Those from the first tier, represented by the makers I named. The next tier are “graded” barrels: these are produced relatively en-masse and then checked over for things like straightness and end-to-end uniformity. Shilen, Douglas, and Pac-Nor offer such options. The other tier are barrels that are maybe good, maybe not. They can all claim to be “match” barrels. This last follows the PDL grading method: Pure Dumb Luck gets you a tube that hammers. Some of my Colt HBAR barrels shot as well as all, and others didn’t.

I no longer tell everyone they need to have a truly good barrel. Truly good barrels are ballpark $500, ready to shoot (turned to contour, extension fitted, chambered, port drilled, assembled onto the upper). A little less maybe, but not much. What do you get with a truly good barrel? I’ve had enough experience with this to tell you such a barrel, correctly chambered and installed underneath a likewise correctly done free-floating fore-end tube, will easily group under 1 MOA, often well under. Not can, will. If your AR-15—no matter the barrel dimensions or length—won’t shoot under an inch at 100 yards, then there’s your solution. And now consider your judgment: what level of accuracy do you expect? If you can be happy with groups between 1 and maybe 1-1/2 MOA, then something from the “second tier” will be rewarding. Anything lower than that could be, well, anything…

Another thing a truly good barrel has had done is stress-relieving. This process varies from maker to maker in specifics, but the point to it is to eliminate any heat-induced warpage issues. Some barrels, especially small-diameter profiles, can “look” to a different point when they get hot. This factor is extremely important in a carbine-style barrel. If you want a light barrel that shoots well, it had best have been properly stress-relieved. Internal finish also favors the custom barrel. They’re all hand-lapped.

Stainless or chromemoly? Stainless. Stainless doesn’t shoot one bit better, but it shoots at its peak accuracy longer. Usually to the tune of about 15 or 20 percent more “best” accuracy rounds. The problem with stainless is when it stops shooting its best, it stops right then and there. It’s abrupt. Chromemoly tends to fall off over a narrower cone of shot dispersions and will still shoot “OK” for a good number of rounds after it’s lost its edge.

The two materials wear differently and this is a culprit in the discrepancy. First, barrel “wear” is virtually all in the chamber throat (it’s the area immediately ahead of the cartridge case neck area within the chamber). Focused burning gases eat away at the barrel steel, deteriorating it. The commonly used term is “throat erosion,” and that’s descriptive.

Stainless vs. chromemoly is another endless argument. Stainless steel will give
more on-point accurate rounds, but when they quit, they hit the wall. Chromemoly
has a less notable decline, meaning less noticeable. They’ll shoot “pretty well”
for a pretty long while. If you want to shoot the heck out of a barrel, go with
chromemoly. Of course, corrosion resistance favors the stainless.

Looking at the throat area of seasoned stainless and chromemoly under magnification, they’re quite different. The stainless surface looks like a dry lake bed. It will have cracks between flat areas. Chromemoly will have an overall roughened appearance, like coarse sandpaper. I think this is why the stainless shoots better longer: the bullet can still ride the smooth flats OK for a spell. Well, until the cracks get too big, then it’s like a cheese grater. It just rips at the bullet jacket. The chromemoly more or less just continues to rough-up the jacket, to abrade it but not necessarily as severely as the very worn stainless throat will.

As counterproductive as this may sound, testing by myself and others seemed to show we continue to get better groups for a little longer time if we abandon the use of a copper-solvent in stainless barrels. Seems the fouling hiding in the cracks makes a smoother surface. I noticed this after seeing the more age the barrel got, the more and more rounds it took to settle back in on zero after a thorough bore cleaning. I’m not saying don’t clean your barrel: just don’t use anything with ammonia in its later stages. And, speaking of such, how long does a barrel last?

An AR-15 barrel lasts around 5 seconds. Put another way, say, 5,000 rounds at one millisecond per round (which is the approximate amount of time the bullet spends inside). How many rounds is partly subjective. A High Master is going to think a barrel is done before a beginner will. And there are some very good shooters who report upwards of 7,000 accurate rounds.

The primary contributor to the progress of the severity of throat erosion is bullet weight. Even though a smaller, lighter projectile has more burning propellant behind it, it’s the slower acceleration of the bigger bullet that does more damage. The intensity of the flame-cutting is higher over a shorter distance. So a steady diet of 50-grain bullets extends barrel life over constant use of 75’s.

Next time, more and more specifics. I want you all to understand barrels! It’s the most important part of your rifle.

The preceding was a specially adapted excerpt from The Competitive AR15: The Ultimate Technical Guide, by Glen Zediker and Zediker Publishing. Check it and other materials by Glen at ZedikerPublishing.com or BuyZedikerBooks.com.

Brownells
200 South Front St.
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/brownells-inc/

Douglas Barrels
5504 Big Tyler Road
Charleston, WV 25313
(304) 776-1341
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/douglas-barrels/

Krieger Barrels
2024 Mayfield Road
Richfield, WI 53076
(262) 628-8558
http://gunsmagazine.com/company/krieger-barrels-inc/

Lilja
P.O. Box 372
Plains, MT 59859
(406) 826-3084

Pac-Nor
99299 Overlook Road
Brookings, OR 97415
(541) 469-7330

Satern Custom
33 S 18th St.
Estherville, IA 51334
(712) 362-4991

Shilen Rifles
P.O. Box 1300
Ennis, TX, 75120
(972) 875-5318

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Johann-Ludwig Werder Creates The World’s
Fastest Single-Shot At The Dawn
Of The Repeating Rifle Era

By Holt Bodinson

One of the most advanced single-shot, military rifles ever fielded is known to few. Its dropping block mechanics were ingenious and robust. It could be fieldstripped in seconds by removing one screw without any additional tools. Most importantly, an experienced rifleman could fire 20 to 24 aimed shots a minute—a rate-of-fire superior to most competing single-shot and bolt-action rifles of the day.

It was thrown into head-to-head competition and punishing ordnance tests with the Berdan, Austrian Werndl and Mauser-Norris rifles. At the end of the testing and after King Ludwig of Bavaria personally inspected the trial rifles, the Werder was adopted by the Kingdom of Bavaria as “the Breech-Loading Rifle Model 1869.” We know it simply as the “Werder.”

Its inventor was Johann-Ludwig Werder, Director of the Cramer-Klett Machine Factory in Nürnberg. Werder was most certainly a gifted mechanic for his inventions ranged from steel buildings to orthopedic devices. He had a fine sense for minimizing the hand motions required to operate a firearm efficiently and rapidly. His Werder rifle was, to use the modern term, “ergonomic.” Here’s how it worked.

The secret to the Werder’s rapidity of fire was a robust extraction-ejection-reloading cycle spring powered and operated by a finger tap on the reverse styled trigger housed at the front of the triggerguard.

With the Peabody/Martini-styled breechblock of the Werder lowered, a cartridge is chambered. As the shooter brings his hand back, he cocks the hammer which is seen as a side lever on the right side of the action. As the hammer is cocked back, a roller attached to the front of the hammer rises and pushes up against the underside of the breechblock closing it. At this moment, the breechblock is locked in place by a bar attached to the reverse-styled trigger.

Cocking the hammer compresses two springs—a Q-shaped hammer spring and a separate V spring which rides underneath and tensions the rear of the breechblock.
When the shot is fired and the rebounding hammer falls to strike the internal firing pin, the roller attached to the front of the hammer falls away and no longer pushes up against the underside of the breechblock.

Werder’s “Blitz” action rifle produced a remarkable rate-of-fire
and lead to a call for “fire discipline” from the higher commands.

Fastest of the single shots, the unique rifle didn’t
survive the bolt-action rifle’s coming supremacy.

gger finger forward tapping the reverse trigger which unlocks the breechblock. Powered by the compressed “V” spring, the unlocked breechblock immediately snaps down and the front of the block strikes the tail of the extractor with force. The fired shell is extracted and ejected with some vigor. The empty case is not simply ejected, it’s expelled!

Werder’s genius was to accomplish three, separate operations with just a forward flick of the trigger finger—dropping the breechblock, extracting and ejecting the case in a split second and making the rifle immediately ready for reloading.

Production of the Werder began at the Royal Rifle Factory in Amberg in 1869. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War (July, 1870–May, 1871), only four Bavarian Jaeger battalions fought the war armed with the Werder, but the results were watched carefully by the Bavarians, the Prussians and the French.

Possibly, for the first time for men under arms, the issue of “fire discipline” raised its ugly head. Commanders observed soldiers armed with the Werder too rapidly depleted their basic load of 11.5x50R ammunition. Other than the lingering issue of fire discipline, the Werder drew nothing but praise and shortly thereafter, both a carbine and a pistol were introduced using the Werder action and chambered for a shorter case, the 11.5x35R.

By 1872, the Bavarian War Minister reported all infantry, engineer and Jaeger battalions of the Royal Army were completely armed with the Werder, but Prussia had other ideas.

In spite of a rough bore and chamber, this Werder was still capable
of keeping its bullets on target. As the bore fouled, groups grew.

The Franco-Prussian War had resulted in the unification of the German states with Wilhelm II of Prussia declaring himself Emperor. Under the resulting Imperial Constitution, Bavaria continued to maintain its own military forces and, indeed, Bavarian soldiers continued to swear their allegiance to the King of Bavaria and not to the German Emperor. Nevertheless, the Prussian military, having adopted the Mauser M1871 in 11.15x60R, pushed for the unification of small arms and small arms ammunition.

Phase one consisted of rechambering the Werder from 11.5x50R to 11.15x60R and adding M/71 sights. The modification was not successful. Chambers were hand-reamed, irregular and rough. The higher pressures generated by the 11.15x60R cartridge resulted in numerous mechanical and stock problems. These conversions are known as M1869 “adaptierte” rifles. The Werder pictured here is an “Adaptierte” and is identified by the short knox form (the flats at the breech end) on the barrel.

Phase two consisted of essentially rebarreling the Werder with M/71-style barrels and adding, beefed-up extractors, stocks and 1871-type barrel bands and nose caps. These are known as Werder Rifle New Models, designated M/69 n.M. and are readily identified because the knox form extends all the way forward from the breech to the edge of the rear sight base. It was a workable design, but because Prussia was contracting with all available armories—including Bavaria’s—for the production of Model 1871 Mausers, the Werders couldn’t be built and simply faded from the Bavarian scene. By 1883, existing stores were sold off as surplus.

How do they function and how do they shoot?

The rechambered Werder pictured here is the property of a shooting partner, Cyrus McKeown. The action still functions as well as the day it left the Royal Rifle Factory in Amberg. One of the remarkable aspects of Johann Werder’s design is the mechanical action can be removed as a complete housing unit by simply removing the triggerguard screw and triggerguard. It consists of only 11 working parts, rotating on axis pins and held together by two removable sideplates. Remarkable engineering!

The single-shot, loading cycle of the Werder (above) is amongst the fastest
ever designed. A forward flick of the trigger finger lowers the breechblock
(below), extracts and ejects the shell and makes the rifle ready for reloading.

The barrel and chamber of this Werder are rough but shootable. McKeown’s 11.15x60R Mauser load consists of 28 grains of IMR 4198 and a 345-grain cast bullet sized to 0.446 inch. The load is designed to be effective but not stressful to the rechambered Werder. Yet, it proved pretty snappy with an average velocity of 1,371 fps.

Accuracy was another story. Before heading for the range, I thoroughly scrubbed out the bore with Brownells J-B Non-Imbedding Bore Cleaning Compound loaded onto a .45-caliber, brass-bristle brush. Yes, I could actually see lands and grooves. Rough looking barrels from the lead bullet era often shoot better than they look, but they degrade quickly because of the rapid build-up of leading and powder residue. As you can see from the 25-yard target, the Werder settled down after an initial fouling shot and generated a remarkable 3/4-inch group. At 50 yards, the old Werder strung its group out to 5 inches, but considering the condition of the bore, a 5-inch group is very acceptable after 15 or 20 shots of leading and powder accumulation.

Much to Johann Werder’s credit as a designer, his 146-year-old action performed perfectly. All it took was a flick of my trigger finger, and I was ready to blitz the enemy.

Werder Model 1869
Maker: Royal Rifle Factory Amberg, Bavaria, Germany

Action: Werder “Blitz” action,
Caliber: 11.5x50R and 11.15x60R,
Capacity: 1, Barrel length: 35 inches,
Overall length: 52 inches, Weight: 9.5 pounds,
Finish: Blue,
Sights: Adjustable rear to 1,200 meters,
Stock: Walnut,
Value: $1,300-$3,100
(Gunbroker.com)

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The Winchester 1866 Rifle And Colt
1872 Open Top Made An Admirable Duo,
But No One Knew Back Then!

By Jeff John

Handgun/rifle combos were once a very important concept—and are still valid today—allowing simple interchangeability of ammo between dissimilar arms. While this first “pairing” fizzled originally, two of the very first guns sharing cartridges are replicated today in Cimarron’s 1866 Yellowboy and 1872 Open Top both in the modern calibers of .38 Special, .45 Colt and—our test subject—a .44 Special.

Cimarron’s 1866 rifle replicates the last version once available, which sold alongside the wildly popular and more versatile 1873 for decades. Visually, the most obvious change between early and late model 1866 rifles is the rear sight as used on the 1873—a buckhorn style sitting farther up the barrel—rather than the quaint, hard-to-use Civil War-era Henry style of the early 1866 rifles.

The notch in this later rear sight is wide and deep, giving a fast sight picture. For my eyes, it is a little too wide for precise shooting, but excellent for speed shooting paired with the square post front. While I believe I could shoot tighter groups were the notch smaller, it was quite easy to quickly roll soda cans at 30 yards. The curved rifle buttplate kept the rifle anchored to my shoulder as I worked the lever.

The hammer and lever are very nicely case colored, and many of the screws are a brilliant heat blue. The bright blue screws are beautiful against the brass. The brass receiver is soft and scratches easily. If you’re obsessed with keeping guns pristine, an 1866 is likely not for you, but I find the rifle gets more attractive as the finish ages and begins to show wear. Overall fit and finish of this 1866 was up to Cimarron’s high standards.

One extra advantage these brass actions offer is smoothness. All the ones I’ve tried have a better feel out-of-the-box than the steel-framed 1873 and this one was no exception.

The only safety present is the half-cock notch on the hammer, so it should be carried with an empty chamber. If, for some reason, you lower the hammer on a loaded round, be sure the hammer rests in the notch. The hammer should never be allowed to rest on the breechpin when the chamber is loaded.

One initial fly in the ointment was sight problems. I thought I had a nice group going when the gun suddenly shot 12 inches to the right. Ended my day right there.

Once back home I tried to move the rear sight first. Unable to budge the tiny rear sight set screw even though I ground a Brownells screwdriver bit to fit (the firm makes a nifty grinding wheel just for this purpose), I wound up damaging it. Disappointed, I moved on to see what sort of disaster I could perpetrate on the front sight. The front sight set screw loosened easily, and the sight fell out of the dovetail. At least the problem was obvious! I upended the sight and raised a lot of little divots on the base with a prick punch. Now it went in with a little effort and the setscrew locked it down. Wasn’t good enough, and Day 2 at the range also ended early. Now it was time to get tougher, so I dimpled the barrel dovetail, too, and the sight held, and has held through a little more than 100 rounds.

A funny thing (funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha) about this 1866 was the
ejection pattern. If Jeff kept his face on the stock, the cases launched
a good foot in the air (above). If he lifted his head off the stock, the
cases dribbled up and out (below). They all came out, mind you, and no
malfunctions occurred during feeding or cycling. Just one of those odd
things he hadn’t noticed with other rifles. But he’s not altogether sure
what conclusion to draw from it either. Photos: Roger Renner

Shooting The Yellowboy

The trouble with choosing the .44 Special is it’s never been offered in “rifle” ammo configuration, and factory ammo has widely disparate overall lengths. Cartridge OAL is of prime importance for this type of rifle, since the OAL doubles as the cartridge stop for the carrier/lifter to rise. Factory “Cowboy” ammo with 200-grain bullets, most popular in those loads, are too short to feed. Factory roundnose ammo is out because the cartridge nose is resting on the primer of the round ahead of it. Factory ammo (and my handloads) with semi-wadcutter “Keith-style” bullets wouldn’t feed worth a lick due to the bullet’s sharp shoulder.

Handloaders need be wary, too. My Lyman 49th Edition lists maximum OAL for the .44 Special as 1.615 inches. The window in which the carrier rises in the 1866’s receiver is only 1.610. There is some wiggle room in the overall length, though. My handloads at 1.485 inches function with no problems, as do factory loads as long as 1.580 inches.

When the rifle arrived, little did I know how wide and deep ObamaScare had dried up component availability. I had brass, powder and primers, but a lack of suitable bullets stalled me. Molds were unavailable, and commercial cast bullets were out thanks to long backorders.

So I started with what I had. A problem arose when the crimping groove proved too high on 200-grain bullets designed to work in the .44-40. Seating out the bullet for the correct overall length, I used a Lee .44 Special Factory Crimp Die to put a heavy taper crimp on the round. As a test, I loaded the rifle to capacity and topped off the magazine every five rounds for five groups. None of my reloads telescoped into the case.

Although 240-grain “Keith”-style bullets didn’t feed a lick, and had to be fed one at a time for the group, the bullet weight proved promising and they shot better than my 200-grain loads.

Eventually the component shortage eased and I acquired Oregon Trail 240-grain bullets profiled to feed. Sadly, they have a crimping groove too high to feed in the rifle. The Lee die fixed this problem, too. The loads with the OT bullet fed like a dream and shot decently well at 50 yards in the rifle over Trail Boss and Unique. No rounds telescoped. But my quest for rifle/handgun combo took an unexpected turn.

The first levergun/sixgun combo was the 1866 and 1872 both in .44 Henry.
Cimarron reproduces a similar pair in .44 Special. Holster by Old West
Reproductions and knife by Matt Lesniewski.

The front sight offers a square post easy to pick up (above).
The only mechanical problem occurred when the front sight refused
to hold zero. It was coaxed to do so by stippling the bottom of
the sight and the dovetail.

1872 & 1860

The natural handgun pairing for the Yellowboy is the 1872 Open Top. Mine is marked “.44 Colt,” a modern cartridge case duplicating the dimensions of one of our very first centerfire cartridges. The new .44 Colt’s smaller rim and a length roughly split the difference between .44 Special and .44 Russian, and is loaded with a similar inside-lubricated bullet rather than the outside-lubricated heel-based original. Apparently the chamber reamer was run in too far and my 1872 chambers .44 Special.

A pattern is appearing here, as the late model Uberti S&W No. 3 tested in the May 2015 issue is marked “.44 Russian” and chambered in .44 Special, too. (I know they used to be chambered in .44 Russian because both John Taffin and Duke Venturino have older ones so chambered.) Neither instance is a deal breaker for me, but if it is for you, check before you buy. Anyway, it gave me the idea for this story, and led me to order the 1866 in .44 Special.

A new fly landed in the ointment. Handloads feeding well in the 1866 rifle don’t easily chamber in the 1872. While I’ve been shooting both factory and handoaded .44 Special for about a year in the ’72, loads using Oregon Trail 240-grain bullets seated out for the 1866 wouldn’t always chamber. It seems the exposed leading band of the 0.431-inch bullet is just larger than the cylinder’s chamber mouth area. (Fortunately, Oregon Trail will sell bullets in 100-count bags for less expensive exploration.)

The OT handloads do chamber and shoot exceptionally well in the 1860 Richards Type II chambered (and so marked) for .44 Special, which led me to add it to this story. While it originally was never offered in rimfire, it was a contemporary of the 1866, and would’ve been a more economical handgun companion than the 1872 back then although it muddies the historical context I began with about “first rifle/handgun” pairing.

Conversion has a breech ring enclosing the back of the cylinder and the firing pin is mounted in the ring. When William Mason got involved, the firing pin was placed on the hammer and the breech ring no longer enclosed the cartridge case heads. In the Type II (tested), the ejector is fitted to the loading lever slot of a leftover percussion barrel. After Colt used up the percussion barrels, the later Richards-Mason had a barrel made just for the cartridge guns. Cimarron offers both the Type II and later Richards-Mason.

The Cimarron 1866 Yellowboy comes in many calibers and originals saw widespread
use in the Old West. It remained a steady seller even after the introduction of
the superior 1873, and has its own following today among Cowboy shooters.

The buttplate is all brass, too, but lacks the original’s trap for a
cleaning rod. The screws are nicely fire-blued and offer a nice accent
to the brass.

The rear sights of the traditional buckhorn variety found on later
1866 rifles made alongside the 1873. It has a wide notch—easy to
acquire for quick shots.

The tang is not drilled for a sight. The tang screw
is also heat blued, another nice accent on the 1866.

The 1860 conversion here is the Richards Type II. The original Richards Conversion has a breech ring enclosing the back of the cylinder and the firing pin is mounted in the ring. When William Mason got involved, the firing pin was placed on the hammer and the breech ring no longer enclosed the cartridge case heads. In the Type II (tested), the ejector is fitted to the loading lever slot of a leftover percussion barrel. After Colt used up the percussion barrels, the later Richards-Mason had a barrel made just for the cartridge guns. Cimarron offers both the Type II and later Richards-Mason.

Manual at Arms for the 1872 and 1860 Richards conversion is the same as the Colt Single Action Army with one exception. These hammers have only two notches instead of three as does the SAA. That first “click” is missing as you pull the hammer back to the loading notch. Load one chamber, skip one, and load four. Cock the hammer and lower it on the empty chamber. Do not ever carry these revolvers with the hammer lowered on a live cartridge.

I enjoy both handguns, yet the 1860 consistently outshot the 1872 until I tried Black Hills .44 Colt in the 1872. I found a misplaced box on my shelf and gave them a shot, since the revolver was so marked. The 1872 positively loved the load featuring a 230-grain bullet and delivered a 15-yard, 5-shot group of 1-7/8 inches. The worst of four groups was smaller than any other load delivered. They are, of course, too short to feed in the 1866.

Meanwhile, the 1860 Richards shot a handload featuring the Oregon Trail bullet over Trail Boss powder into a 1-7/8-inch, 15-yard group. I can’t shoot the period-style sights any better than that.

Trail Boss has become my favorite for these original-style actions. While made from modern materials, these mid-19th century designs are such they don’t have the extra margin of safety to compensate for a handloading mistake.

I still can’t decide whether I prefer the 1860 large “Army” grip or the 1872 smaller “Navy” grip. Both feel great. The Navy is identical to the feel of a Colt SAA and I can shoot it well right or left-handed. The Army grip only feels right in my right hand. Practice would fix it. The 1872 can be ordered with either the Army or Navy grip.

The 1860 is chambered in .44 Special and so marked, although no +P should be used. Mostly I handload to paraphrase early .44 Colt loads with a 200- or 225-grain bullet in the Special case. I shot what little .44 Colt I had in the 1872 and didn’t try it in the 1860.

The 1872 and 1860 look like different guns from the opposite side,
and the asymmetry is one of their many charms.

The 1860 rear sight is a simple notch in the nose of
the hammer, looking like a cloven hoof.

Both front sights are similar white metal blades fixed on the barrel.
The 1872 rear sight is machined integrally with the barrel.

The Sight Situation

The rear sight on the 1872 is milled integrally with the barrel and the front sight is a fixed blade, curved to holster and draw easily. They are easy to use, if somewhat obscure for my aging eyes (one reason I shot my pistol groups at 15 yards). The Black Hills .44 Colt ammo with 230-grain bullets shoots a little high but is on for windage (the 1872 shoots a little to the right with everything else).

The rear sight on the 1860 is a notch on the hammer, a feature the Richards Type II conversion shares with its cap-and-ball forebear. You can see the rims of the cartridges on these versions too, unlike early 1860 Richards Conversions which had the rear sight on the conversion’s breech ring.

The front is identical to the 1872 and—so far—I shoot everything a little to the right. I’ll try .44 Colt when I get more and see if it shoots to point of aim. If not, I’m ornery enough to put a dovetailed front sight aboard. Both the 1872 and 1860 have delivered sub-2-inch 15-yard groups with their favorite loads. Zeroing both guns to point of aim would be worth the expense.

This test led to annoying problems. But they were solved by handloading (leading to other problems more studious handloading will also resolve). The rifle/handgun conundrum is a stark one. The load shooting best in one gun may not shoot as well in another. So far, by switching revolvers I wound up with a great shooting pair leaving no soda can safe out to 50 yards (and well-ventilated aluminum crushes easily for recycling, too).

Replication of the first pairing using the .44 Special is a little more problematic than I imagined, although the Special offers much versatility for handloaders. The .45 Colt is the most popular current pairing today, and the most practical if you only shoot factory ammunition. The simplest path for the casual shooter or competitor would be to go .45 Colt all the way. Handloaders can amuse themselves playing with bullets and loads in the .44 Special. Just make sure to adjust the seating depth for feeding in the rifle by using dummies.

For the .44 Special rifle there is an unusual fix which solves the handgun dilemma (and is truer to history). Adding a Smith Carrier to load and shoot .44 Russian (or perhaps .44 Colt, since it shot so well in the handgun) is the perfect choice for utility and historical accuracy, if this is your goal. Cost is $169 plus installation and requires slight modification to the bolt.

In terms of ballistics, the .44 Russian with a 200-grain bullet is very close to the .44 RF and easily fits in the Open Top. The short Russian case handles small powder charges well, and handloads should be kept mild anyway for these old-timey guns.
For pure plinking fun, these old cowboy guns are tops.

The 1872 Open Top hadn’t proven as accurate as the 1860 until some Black Hills
.44 Colt ammo was tried. Every group was better than those of other loads, and
this one was a day’s best of 1-7/8 inches at 15 yards.

At 50 yards, the 1866 proved decently accurate, although finer sights might have
worked better for Jeff. The gun functioned perfectly once the cartridge’s overall
length issue was settled.

The Oregon Trail 240-grain bullet over Trail Boss powder loaded to work in
the 1866 rifle shot well, if high in the 1860 at 15 yards.

The Cimarron 1860 Richards Type II is a large arm and points and shoots like
a dream. It has rapidly become one of Jeff’s favorite plinkers. Ejection is
via a rod fitted to the hole for the percussion version’s rammer. An innocuous
safety is placed in the hammer of both the 1860 and 1872. Turning the little
screw just seen in the middle of the hammer body rotates out a block to keep
the firing pin off the cartridge primer.

Paired Up

The honor of earliest pairing of levergun and sixgun involves a Winchester 1866 rifle and a S&W or Colt revolver, all in .44 Henry Rimfire. The value of a rifle and handgun sharing cartridge ammunition was a brand new idea then, and likely stayed undiscovered until frontier experience created the demand. The simple fact was these few new guns were expensive, and the makers focused on government contracts—from any government.

By far, civilians armed themselves with the tons of surplus arms in the post-Civil War era, many considered cutting edge like the Spencer and Henry. This flood wiped out many gunmakers including Spencer. Winchester’s new rifle solved complaints with the Henry, and the firm made more than 170,000 1866 rifles in its 40+ years of production, although most were made concurrently with the superior 1873.

The repeating rifle was here to stay, if expensive. The new Model of 1866 still sold for a whopping $43 in 1871 bucks. For a skilled man, the ’66 was a month’s wages or more. As a comparison, surplus Spencers or Henrys were around $20 to $25, and an old musket around $1.50. Surplus cap-and-ball handguns, were more widely available than new ones.

Colt, S&W and others vied to replace the Army’s percussion handguns and turned their attention to a centerfire at the army’s request. Thus distracted, all apparently never thought of marketing their handguns as a companion to the 1866 rifle. Colt discontinued the Open Top rimfire after making some 7,000 replacing it with the more stoutly made Single Action Army .45. S&W turned their attention to Russia, and no others pursued the concept.

The utility of a rifle/handgun combination took until the late 1870’s to solve after two arms—the Winchester 1873 .44 WCF and Colt Single Action Army .45—proved frustrating over several years of combined frontier use. The problem of carrying two nearly interchangeable rounds was solved when the “Colt Frontier Sixshooter” .44 cemented the concept. It’s been with us since.

Black Hills Ammunition
3050 Eglin St.
Rapid City, SD 57703
(605) 348-5150
www.black-hills.com

ML Knives, Matt Lesniewski
P.O. Box 769
Hagaman, NY 12086
(518) 843-7216
www.mlknives.com

Old West Reproductions
446 Florence South Loop
Florence, MT 59833
(406) 273-2615
www.oldwestreproductions.com

Oregon Trail Bullet Company
P.O. Box 529
Baker City, Oregon 97814
(800) 811-0548
www.laser-cast.com

The Smith Shop
69 Lillian Court
Warwick, RI 02886
(401) 864-2348
www.thesmithshop.com

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Hatfield’s $225 12-Gauge Auto
Has “Hit” Written All Over It

By Holt Bodinson

Remember those Hatfields, who were always fussin’, feudin’ and fightin’? Well, they’ve gone from feuding to gunmaking. In fact, you might remember some of their products—their svelte muzzleloading rifles or featherweight 28-gauge doubles. A prominent member of the family, Ted Hatfield, has spent a number of years in Turkey, assisting Turkish gunmaking firms in refining their product lines for international sales. He now serves as director of product development and marketing for UTAS-USA.

Hatfield’s latest products bearing the “Hatfield” label are a well-designed 12-gauge semi-auto and a folding 20-gauge single barrel. When he showed the two shotguns to Walmart’s purchasing staff, Walmart bought Hatfield’s entire 2016-year production of both models. Why? Because Walmart can price the semi-auto at $225 and the single barrel at $99 and can still make a reasonable profit.

Hatfield’s folding, single barrel is strictly utilitarian, but the Model SAS 12 autoloader is remarkable not only for its price, but for its innovative action.

The leading semi-auto systems are gas, inertia drive and long-and-short-recoil. Well, now there’s another—a hybrid. I’ll let Ted describe it:

“It’s a gas assist/inertia operating system. The gas piston moves only 1 inch and kicks the bolt body rearward. There’s no bolt carriage with action arms, driving ring, etc. Consequently, with reduced friction and less mass, the bolt flies rearward easily, ejecting the spent shell and then is propelled forward by a Benelli-style return spring to pick up and load the next round. With so few moving parts the gun works incredibly well and will shoot anything from light loads to 3-inch magnums.

As to the styling of the SAS 12, it’s totally out of the $225 shotgun league. If you handed me the SAS 12 without telling me how much it costs, I would say it had to be the product of a high-end Italian design house. Notice the sculpted walnut fore-end with gripping grooves aligned along the barrel where they should be. Then there’s the progressively thickening palm swell ending in a sweeping, elevated radius just forward of the receiver. While the fore-end checkering pattern isn’t radical, the laser-cut, recessed diamond pattern is distinctive looking and very “grippy.”

Holt and Steamer (above) found Hatfield’s SAS 12 to be an impressive bargain.
Hatfield’s SAS 12 and Federal’s new Gold Medal Grand ammunition (below) proved
a deadly combination in the dove fields.

Maybe the most interesting design motif of all are the three textured horizontal lines which appear first at the rear of the fore-end, are carried across both sides of the receiver flats and end as three short lines at the beginning of the pistol grip.

(I know I’m beginning to sound like an art critic, but overall, the SAS 12 sports some very unusual and eye-catching lines normally associated with shotguns carrying a far heftier price tag.)

According to my Brownells gunstock pull-and-drop gauge, the Turkish walnut buttstock has a 14-inch LOP with a drop of 1-5/8 inches at the comb and 2-5/8 at the heel and is finished off with a 1-inch ventilated rubber recoil pad.

The receiver of the SAS is machined from 7075 aluminum and is treated with a high-gloss anodized finish matching the black chrome finish on the 28-inch barrel. The barrel itself has a full-length vent rib and sports a 3-inch chamber and chrome-plated bore. The gun comes with three screw-in choke tubes—IC, M and F. The trigger pull on mine averaged 7 pounds measured with a Lyman electronic gauge.

How did the SAS shoot? The first thing I always check is to see whether or not the point-of-aim and the point-of-impact coincide. Often they don’t. Some of the worst offenders in my experience have been pumps and automatics with interchangeable barrels and screw-in choke tubes.

The POA/POI test is simple. I use Hunterjohn’s Clays target with a center aiming point in red surrounded by flying clays (actually a plain sheet of paper with a 4-inch aiming point drawn in will do just fine). Select the full tube, place the target 15 feet from the edge of your shooting bench. Then select any load handy, bench and aim the shotgun like a rifle, taking a center or 6 o’clock hold and shoot. The result will be a ragged shot hole in the target plus one or two holes punched through by the wads. Your POA and POI should coincide. With my test SAS 12, they did.

Holt used Hunterjohn targets to pattern the SAS 12. Each “X”
indicates a dead bird—meaning three or more pellet strikes.

The second test is a simple patterning test, using the load and distance you’ll most likely be shooting. For the upland hunting I do, I like to place The Hunterjohn Clays patterning target 30 yards out and shoot it with a load of 7-1/2 shot. The 126 clays in the target are roughly the body size of our smaller game birds. If I can achieve a 30-yard pattern with 3 or more pellets in most of the clays in the core 20-inch area with only minor patchiness, I’m a happy hunter.

On hand for testing and for some dove hunting to follow was Federal’s new Gold Medal Grand Competition shotshells packing 1-1/8 ounce of hard No. 7-1/2 shot with a rated velocity of 1,235 fps.

The Gold Medal Grand features a solid base wad for reloading longevity, a “Soft Cell” 2-piece wad to reduce perceived recoil and a “PrimerLock” head for improved rigidity and enhanced primer sensitivity. If the SAS didn’t perform, it wouldn’t be the fault of the ammunition!

As you can see from the target shot at 30 yards with a Modified choke, the “X’s” indicate dead birds (3 or more pellets) while the “0’s” indicate scratch hits (2 pellets). Hatfield’s SAS 12 produced nice patterns.

After the range session, it was off to the field with my dog Steamer for a late-season dove hunt. Between Steamer, Hatfield’s $225 semi-auto and Federal’s Gold Medal Grand ammunition, the hunt couldn’t have gone better!

Federal Premium Ammunition
900 Ehlen Dr., Anoka, MN 55303
(800)-379-1732
www.federalpremium.com

Hunterjohn Targets
P.O. Box 771457
St. Louis, MO 63177
(314) 531-7250
www.hunterjohn.com

Hatfield SAS 12

Maker: UTAS (Turkey),
Importer:
Hatfield Gun Co.
1247 Rand Rd.
Des Plaines, IL 60016
(847) 768-1011
www.hatfieldguncompany.com

Action: Gas assist/inertia
Gauge: 12 (3-inch chamber)
Capacity: 4+1
Barrel Length: 28 inches (vent rib)
Overall Length: 49 inches
Choke: IC, M, F tubes supplied
Length of pull: 14 inches, Drop at comb: 1-5/8 inches
Drop at heel: 2-5/8 inches
Weight: 7-1/2 pounds
Finish: Black anodized, black chrome
Stock: Walnut, Sights: Red bead front
Price: $225 (Walmart)

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The .30 M1 Carbine May Be The Best
Home-Defense Tool You Never Thought Of

By Tiger McKee

I grew up shooting “the carbine.” Back then the term meant the military M1 .30 caliber version, just like saying “forty-five” meant the 1911. The M1 Carbine is lightweight, compact and short-stocked. It has very little recoil and is easy to operate. It was the ideal rifle for a kid to shoot and my dad, who was with the 20th Special Forces Group, always had plenty of ammo.

Easy to Find, Inexpensive

When I was younger, M1 Carbines were very common; even small gunshops— which were everywhere — usually had several in the racks. Carbines were affordable. My first official purchase once I was “of age” was a great military surplus specimen for less than $200. Almost everyone who was into firearms had at least one, and “real” shooters usually had several. Today, very few people are familiar with the M1 Carbine. This is a shame because the “War Baby” still has a lot to offer.

The idea behind the M1 carbine and the M2 select-fire version was to create a small, lightweight weapon to fill the gap between the full-size M1 Garand and the 1911 service pistol. Today it would be called a “PDW” (Personal Defense Weapon). The carbine was chiefly intended for military personnel who couldn’t lug around the heavier, longer Garand while carrying out their primary duties. It was also issued to paratroopers in a folding-stock version which was even more compact and ideal for jumping.

By the time production ceased in 1945, over 6 million carbines had been manufactured by 10 different military contractors. Since WWII, carbines have seen action in Korea and Vietnam — sometimes by both sides — and have been used around the world by over 50 countries. The M1 Carbine was America’s first night or low-light sniper rifle. Although it required a huge backpack battery and the infrared scope was large and bulky, the modified M3 version was used for night fighting in the Pacific during World War II and later in Korea. Even today the M1 carbine and its variants are still in use by more countries than you’d think.

The M1 Carbine is lightweight, easy to operate and makes a good defensive weapon
just as it is. With a few modifications it would be great for self defense.

Even in tight, cramped quarters the M1 Carbine works well. This is one of the
first PDW’s (Personal Defense Weapons) designed to fill the gap between a full-size
battle rifle and a handgun.

Collectible or Shooter?

It used to be that if you wanted an M1 Carbine you had to get an old surplus military one — which didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t been rebuilt or modified — or you bought one of the aftermarket ones, which lacked a little in the reliability department.

Today you have several choices. You can find original “G.I.” carbines, but they are expensive and considered collector’s items rather than “shooters.” Or, you can get “new” carbines from companies such as Inland Manufacturing, Fulton Armory or James River Armory. All of these companies offer quality M1 Carbine repros that are faithful to the originals.

Enhanced ammo supply, old and new: Carbine mags come in 30- and 15-round
versions. “Jungle” clips are used to attach two mags together for a rapid
reload (above). Three 35th Division infantrymen (right) take cover in Korea.
The soldier on the left is using what appears to be two taped-together 30-round
magazines for his carbine, which could be a select-fire M2 version.

The Power Factor

During its military career, the .30 Carbine was considered by many to be inefficient at stopping the enemy, especially when compared to the .30-06, which offered a lot of penetration and energy. Stopping power was really criticized during the Korean War where the enemy — often hopped up on stimulants — was usually wearing bulky, cold-weather clothing.

However, the ballistics of the .30 Carbine are surprising — the standard military round with a 110-grain bullet at around 1,900 fps generates about 900 foot-pounds of energy. This is better performance than the .357 Magnum, which is an excellent choice for defensive purposes. The problem back then was the FMJ ball ammo used by the military, which basically punches right through an adversary without expanding or fragmenting. Choosing the right ammo is the key to defensive effectiveness, and modern designs with expanding JHP bullets will perform nicely. Some examples? Federal has a 110-grain JSP Power-Shok offering that has an average velocity of 1,990 fps. Hornady offers their FTX version of the .30 Carbine with a 110-grain Flex Tip bullet at 2,000 fps. According to their specs, this round delivers 15 inches of penetration in ballistic gelatin, which provides enhanced stopping power.

The New York Stakeout Squad provides a good example of the M1 Carbine’s effectiveness with “defensive” rounds. In Jim Kirchner’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad (which I highly recommend) Jim Cirrilo called the carbine “one of our best stoppers” adding, “the M1 Carbine was one of our favorite weapons…it was fast to shoot, light recoil, and you had 15 rounds.” The Stakeout Squad hunted bad guys and had good results using JHP bullets in the M1 Carbine.

For a complete history of the M1 carbine and its variations, get the “War Baby”
series by Larry L. Ruth. These books give you all the details about the M1 Carbine’s
development, including how to identify all the various manufacturers, their markings
and subtle differences in the parts they produced.

While Tiger was growing up, his dad always kept him well-supplied with .30 Carbine
cartridges. This original military ammo came in a wooden crate with two tin cans.
Each can has bandoliers loaded with ammo on stripper clips and the adapters for
the magazine.

The “mil-spec” ammo on the right is old Norinco ball ammo which averaged 3 to 4″
at 100 yards. The only problem was there would always be one or two flyers. The
commercial Federal and Hornady grouped at an average of 1-1/2″ at 100. Either
of these would be good defensive rounds.

Enough Accuracy

A lot of people complain about the M1 Carbine’s accuracy, but for self-defense you aren’t going to need something that will shoot half-minute groups at 100 yards. First off, it would be very difficult to justify firing on someone at that distance. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it’s very rare. Next, there are very few people who can shoot that well under stress. Most M1 Carbines — which should shoot a 4-inch group or less at 100 — will be more accurate than we can actually realize under stressful conditions.

As with any firearm, you’ll need to experiment to discover exactly what type ammo is going to be the most accurate in your gun. M1 Carbines are particular, and to get the most accuracy possible, you’ll want to try a variety of ammunition under the most consistent conditions to determine which ammo your gun prefers. At the same time you’re checking for reliability. Remember, for defensive purposes everything — ammo included — has to function reliably.

And don’t forget to test out your magazines. M1 Carbine magazines have been made by dozens of different companies, and there are even reports of “fake” military mags which have the proper markings but are definitely not actual GI specimens. From what I know, almost all the 15-round mags are GI; it’s the later 30-rounders you have to be careful with. But regardless of what type mags you have, make sure they function properly.

This group was shot rapidfire from the standing position at 100 yards, using the
old Norinco ammo. Tiger was firing as fast as possible while still trying to ensure
hits on the plate. He was also using the iron sights, which he claims is getting
more and more difficult as he gets older! He feels a red-dot or “Scout”-type scope
would definitely help.

The M1 Carbine is similar in size and weight to an AR. But there’s something
about wood and metal and the smell of gunpowder that just feels right.

The M1 Carbine is fairly simple to maintain. With a few simple tools and
instructions, such as one of the old military manuals, you’re good to go.

Optimizing and Accessorizing

When it comes to aftermarket parts, there aren’t a lot of options. But then you really don’t need to do that much to modify the M1 Carbine for self-defense. I keep mine original, at least as they came to me. If I decided to use them for defensive purposes there would only be a couple of modifications I’d perform.

UltiMak offers a rail system that replaces the factory top handguard, providing the ability for you to set up the M1 Carbine according to your anticipated use (Brownells #100-001-780WB). This mount requires removing the barrel assembly, but it’s not extremely complicated. With a rail you can mount a red-dot sight, which is perfect for defensive use. This same mount also allows you to attach a forward-mounted Scout-type scope with low magnification, which would work well out to the 300-yard limit of the .30 Carbine round. Attach a flashlight and you’ve got a great defensive combination.

For defensive use you’ll definitely want to replace the military-type sling, which is really too short. The Agile Sling from Combat Labs, a two-point sling with a quick release buckle, is simple, versatile and looks right at home on the carbine.

You can leave your M1 Carbine as-is — getting into the retro thing and learning about its history — or can update it into an effective defensive firearm. Like always, there are a lot of different options.

UltiMak has a rail that replaces the handguard allowing you to mount red-dots,
like this Aimpoint Micro. Or you can install a forward-mounted scope and a flashlight.
Adding these features brings the M1 Carbine into the “serious” department for self defense.

Although removing the charging handle takes a little practice (requiring
some twisting and turning), fieldstripping the M1 Carbine is an easy task.

Old School in Session

Most of my training/practice is done with an AR, but every once in a while it’s good to mix it up some and go “old school.” The M1 Carbine is a great firearm. It’s lightweight, reliable and easy to operate. And it’s a good thing to know about the history of our military weapons. I also think it’s extremely important to pass this information and experience on to younger shooters who think all military weapons are black and plastic. There’s just something about metal and wood that feels good.

For self-defense the M1 Carbine is a good option, especially if you live in a state where you can’t have an AR. In today’s shooting world most everyone gets caught up in what’s new and different. Sometimes it’s nice to look back and reconnect with the old stuff, which might work out much better than you imagined.

For a full history of the M1 Carbine, check out the “War Baby” series from Collector Grade Publications: www.collectorgrade.com

Here are two M1 .30 caliber Carbines and one Ruger 10/22 clone. You can see how
close to the same they are, and transitioning from one to the other is easy. The
same skills used on one apply to the other (above). Although the Tech Sight’s 10/22
sights are closer to the old A1 style for the AR, they are close enough to the M1
Carbine sights to get the job done (below).

The Clone Option

Although it’s not a military weapon another one of my all-time favorite firearms is the Ruger 10/22, which is very similar in size, weight and operation to the M1 Carbine. I have one 10/22 over 30 years old and have shot many thousands of rounds of .22 LR through it. The last time I cleaned it was about 20 years ago. This thing is a shooter.

Next to the AR, the 10/22 is probably the most customized firearm out there. You can set one up for practically any purpose. While the 10/22 is a great carbine, there are two things I don’t like about it — the sights and the stock. Converting your 10/22 into an M1 Carbine clone addresses both of my gripes.

I like having twins of my firearms, and having a .22 clone is great because it allows you to shoot more, plus you can start younger shooters or beginners out with it. There’s almost no recoil and very little noise. After learning the fundamentals, it’s an easy transition to the .30 Carbine.

The issue with the sights is easily corrected by installing Tech Sights’ GI-style aperture sights from Brownells (#100-006-910). These feature an adjustable post front and a flip-aperture rear with windage adjustment. They’re not exactly like the M1 Carbine, but they are close enough for a .22 clone. There are also a variety of rails available for the 10/22, so mounting a red-dot or a Scout-type scope is possible. This allows you to match your clone to your M1 Carbine.

My stock problem with the 10/22 is the concave shape between the heel and toe. To solve this problem I installed a West One Products carbine-style stock from Brownells (#100-005-624) which is a replica stock similar to the M1 Carbine.

The sights, rail and stock are easily installed without any special skills or tools.

While changing stocks I also installed a custom trigger and extended mag release. There are a variety of different triggers and accessories for the 10/22 available from Brownells. For detailed information on more extensive modifications like trigger installation or replacing the magazine catch, Brownells has books and DVD’s on the 10/22.

For magazines I use Ruger’s 25-rounders. Since the purpose of having a .22 is shootin’, why would you want to have to reload after only 10 rounds (which is what the standard factory mags hold)? Ruger’s 25-rounders are available from Brownells ( #780-001-311WB) are reliable and extend your shooting pleasure. There’s also a shorter 15-round version (#780-001-369WB).

Once you get everything set up it’s time to hit the range. What, more shooting? Yes, but that’s a good thing, right? First, you’ll need to zero the new sights. I suggest using affordable cheap ammo for the zeroing process. Then, once you’ve got a decent zero, start testing different ammo. Rimfires are definitely ammo sensitive, so for best accuracy and reliability, you’ll need to test a lot of different ammo (yep, more shooting required).

When I find the most accurate ammo (usually more expensive than plinking ammo!), I perform a final zero with it. Then I’ll test the various other types of ammo to find the one that shoots closest to the “final zero” super-accurate stuff. That’s what I’ll use for high-volume fun.

Reconnecting

My dad’s two favorite firearms were his 1911 and the M1 Carbine. Every time we went shooting these two firearms were always included; these are the guns I grew up shooting, cleaning and taking care of. When he passed on several years ago, all his firearms came to me. For this article I pulled out dad’s M1 to shoot; the first time I’ve shot “his” carbine in over 40 years. Shooting it reminded me of our shared love for firearms. For me, some of the best times I spent with dad were when we were shooting. I never turned down the chance to go with him.

Since I had his M1 Carbine out, I couldn’t help but dig through the safe for his 1911 to also run a few mags through. I was a kid again, and could feel dad standing behind me, offering tips and coaching me on how become a better shooter. It was one of those magical times, when dad talked to me like another man instead of his son, who still had a lot of growing to do.

Afterward we would spend time in his gunroom, cleaning the firearms with him telling me stories. That night I’d go to sleep. My eyes were closed, but in my mind I was seeing the target, feeling the recoil, smelling gunpowder and hearing the words of my father and trying to remember the wisdom he was passing along.

It was a good day on the range.

Brownells
www.brownells.com

Inland Manufacturing
www.inland-mfg.com

James River Armory
www.jamesriverarmory.com/

Fulton Armory
www.fulton-armory.com/

Remington Ammo
www.remington.com/ammunition

Hornady Ammo
www.hornady.com/ammunition

Agile Slings (email)
combat_lab@nullyahoo.com

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Tract Toric 3-15×42 Impact BDC
Delivers Sophisticated Performance
At A Budget-Friendly Price

By John Barsness

Tract Optics was formed by a couple of former Nikon employees who decided to market Japanese-made riflescopes and binoculars directly through the Internet. This eliminates the middle-marketers of conventional retailing and supposedly allows customers to buy higher quality at a lower price.

For testing they sent their top-of-the-line Toric 3-15×42 scope with Impact BDC reticle, designed specifically for hunting. The Impact BDC is a “Christmas tree” type reticle, with several increasingly longer horizontal lines below the central aiming point, designed for holding off in wind at longer range. In the Impact BDC the lines are intermittent, providing a more precise hold without totally blocking the view of the target. My one small criticism is there aren’t enough hashmarks on either side of the center crosshairs for wind-holds when dialing-up for longer ranges.

Accurate elevation dialing requires consistent and rugged click adjustments and while the Toric 3-15X weighs 22.3 ounces (indicating its insides are beefed up for repeated use), not all scopes with field-adjustable turrets work consistently—especially when subjected to considerable recoil. Over the decades I’ve found .300 magnum recoil is the basic dividing-line: From .300 on up the rate of a “internal injuries” increases enormously, so the Toric mounted on one of my primary scope-test vehicles, was a very accurate Heym SR-21 .300 Win Mag.

This rifle normally has an old 6×42 Leupold mounted in Talley detachable steel rings, attached to steel Talley bases epoxied to the action with Brownells Acra-Glas Gel. The Leupold has never shifted point-of-impact since it was first sighted-in several years ago, making it easy to mount a test-scope. After the rifle is placed in a padded vise, a collimator is attached to the muzzle, and a note made of the position of the crosshairs on the collimator grid. Then the 6X is detached, the test scope mounted in another pair of Talley steel rings, and its crosshairs adjusted to the same place on the grid.

The test load used the 210-grain Berger VLD with a maximum charge of Hodgdon Retumbo for a muzzle velocity just under 3,000 fps. With the 6X Leupold, 3-shot groups average a little under half an inch, so any little scope-quirk will definitely show up on a target. According to Sierra’s computer program, recoil with the Toric mounted is 35 foot-pounds, just about exactly twice as much as an 8-pound .308 Winchester with 150-grain factory loads.

The first 100-yard group measured 0.54 inch and I then turned the elevation dial up 48 clicks and shot another round. This landed right where it was supposed to, so I ran the turret back down 48 clicks and shot again, the bullet landing right in the middle of the initial group. Clicking the scope up again resulted in a second bullet hole cutting the first one. This was repeated, resulting in a bottom 5-shot group measuring 0.72 inch and a top 3-shot group of 0.44 inch.

I then repeated this basic test twice on other aiming points, but clicked the scope between every shot until two 3-shot groups formed. With the exception of one group, where the “nut behind the bolt” caused a flier by turning the turret 50 clicks instead of 48, the resulting 3-shot groups averaged 0.45 inch. The distances between the groups indicated the clicks measured the advertised 1/4 MOA.

Finally, I sighted the rifle in right where the crosshairs intersected at 100 yards and waited for a decent day to go to the 1,000-yard range of the Broadwater Rod and Gun Club 5 miles from our house, where my wife and I are life members.

The range contains a bunch of steel gongs ranging from hanging 6-inchers to much larger stationary squares. I used the BC numbers from Bryan Litz’s book Ballistic Performance of Rifle Bullets and Berger’s ballistic program to calculate the number of clicks needed to shoot out to 1,000 yards at 4,000 feet above sea level at 35 degrees Fahrenheit, about average for mornings in March.

The Toric 3-15X functioned perfectly during the firing of several
dozen rounds of 210-grain .300 Winchester Magnum ammunition.

After all the longer-range testing, the Toric 3-15X was returned
to the zero-stop setting, shooting this 3-round group right where
it was sighted-in at 100 yards to start the test.

Wind Read

However, March isn’t exactly calm in Montana, and it took a week for a decent test-morning to arrive. At the beginning of the session my Minox Windwatch indicated a right-hand breeze of no more than 2 mph, so it didn’t take long to work out to the small gong at 600 yards, hitting it repeatedly with exactly the number of predicted clicks.

In fact, I probably had too much fun shooting the 600-yard gong, because by that time the “wind” had picked up slightly and more ammo than anticipated was used to work out to 1,000 yards. By then the Minox showed up to 5 mph. This may not seem like much, but the Berger program indicated at 1,000 yards, the 210-grain VLD’s drift would be right around 10 inches at 2 mph and 25 inches at 5 mph.

After the initial 100-yard sight-in, I’d installed the factory-included zero-stop kit on the Toric’s turret and, like some others, it only allows one turn of the elevation dial. The Berger program indicated the scope would run out of adjustment at around 900 yards, and that’s exactly what happened. The program also indicated the 3rd hash-line would be just about right. So I shot at the center of the big stationary gong and, because the 210 took almost two seconds to get there, could see dirt on the berm below the gong splash almost exactly at the 3rd line. By then three rounds were left in the ammo box and were used clanking the gong.

After all that I went home and loaded some more ammo, the next morning returning to the 100-yard range. After resetting the turret to the zero-stop’s 100-yard setting, three shots went into 0.44 inch right where the crosshairs intersected.

Tract says the Toric’s optical system uses “SCHOTT HT (high transmission) glass, ED (extra low dispersion) lens and a fully multicoated lens system that provides incredibly sharp, bright images.” To test scope optics I use a chart of my own design, featuring 10 alternating black and white lines starting an inch wide at the top of the chart, shrinking in width to 1/16th inch at the bottom. Tests are made at night at 25 yards, with all scopes set on 6X to level the playing field, and the chart illuminated by a 100-watt lightbulb, also 25 yards away.

Scopes are rated by the smallest line visible, and so far every scope has tested between 5 (the 3/8th inch line) and 8 (1/8th inch), with the 5’s all old scopes with uncoated lenses. Coated-lens scopes average around 6, with 7 definitely above average and the 8’s have all been fully multi-coated scopes retailing for over $1,000.

Or at least they were until the Toric came along. It rated a definite 8,and on Tract’s website the price is listed at $694, another strong indication their claim of consumer-direct sales provide higher quality for a lower price isn’t just marketing. Any hunting scope selling for well under $1,000 with both really good optics and accurate, rugged adjustments is a real deal.
Half of John Barsness’s dozen books are on firearms and shooting. Modern Hunting Optics was published by Deep Creek Press in 2014, and is available through
www.riflesandrecipes.com
P.O. Box 579, Townsend
MT 59644-0579
(406) 521-0273

Toric 3-15×42 Impact BDC
Maker: Tract Optics
119 N. Duke St.
Hummelstown, PA 17036
(844) 747-4928,
www.tractoptics.com

Magnification: 3X-15X
Eye Relief: 3.9 inches (3X), 3.8 inches (15X)
Objective diameter: 42mm
Tube diameter: 1 inch, 1-piece tube, argon gas filled, water, shock and fog proof
Weight: 20.1 ounces
Overall length: 13.84 inches
Field of view: 34 feet (3X), 6.9 feet (15X)
Click value: 1/4 MOA
Internal adjustment: 50 MOA, elevation & windage
Reticle: Impact BDC
Price: $694

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The “Secret” To AR Accuracy

By Glen Zediker

The fore-end tube on an AR-platform firearm is essential to good on-target accuracy. Friend, gunsmith and AR-15 accuracy pioneer Derrick Martin (Accuracy Speaks) said it perfectly correctly a long time ago: “Float a good barrel.” That’s the “secret” to AR-15 accuracy.

Here’s why: The original ArmaLite/Stoner system has the two handguard pieces fitted into a receptacle attached to the barrel nut at the back and to the front sight housing at the front. Well, the front sight housing is likewise attached to the barrel and so too is the sling swivel. That creates a pressure point.

It may be hard to see how a sturdy metal tube (a barrel) can be “bent” by something as seemingly benign as a little pressure from a rifle sling looped around a shooter’s arm, or rested off the top of a fence post, but it dang sho is. The Bic Pen-contour barrel didn’t help any. Pressure points don’t really “bend” a barrel, but they suggest the direction the barrel will look during the pressure-induced vibrations and movement in firing. Steel becomes quite elastic under the pressures of firing (super-high-speed video shows downright frightening looking images when you can see the contortions going on way too quickly for the eye to detect).

In virtually every venue where accuracy matters, a free-floating barrel is an essential ingredient in the build. “Free-floating” means just as it says: the barrel doesn’t touch anything but its attachment point in the action or receiver. No pressure. The entire length of the barrel is suspended.

That’s what a tube-style fore-end does for an AR-15. Now the question is, what does the fore-end tube do for the shooter?

I think—but I’m not positive—the original “float-tube” debuted on the Rodman Labs experimental rifles in the 1960’s and do remember the first one I ever saw for sale was made of oil well recovery pipe. Now there is a vast array of fore-end tubes available. It’s gone wildly well-beyond specialized. It’s so specialized all I can really do is speak in generalities so, in general, here are a few ideas on how to choose and use a tube.

Most, by the way, are made of aluminum—a good metal for this job. Steel is too heavy. Carbon fiber tubes are available at a sometimes significantly higher cost. They are very light in weight and also are noticeably cooler to the touch during high-volume fire. There are various takes on heat shields as well and they’re welcome as the round count rises. Solid-style rail covers likewise help, since some AR’s can get exceedingly uncomfortable.

Glen strongly suggests the substitution of a carbine-length tube for a
rifle-length tube, if the configuration allows. It’s way better to shoot
with the longer tube. This one (right) is from Medesha Firearms and has
a cut-out to preserve the standard front sight housing mount.

Here’s a good tube from Daniel Defense. Not cheap to buy, not cheap in build
(they’re related). This is a rifle-length tube with carbine system cut-out areas.
This one has had the extra step taken of smoothing all the rail-cut edges, but
Glen still recommends the rail cover pieces. Brownells has ’em.

If you’re starting out with a conventional-style handguard system (2-piece plastic)
and you want to incorporate a tube, there are 2-piece float tubes split top and bottom.
Those allow installation without breaking down the barrel, and stripping all its parts.
Tubes need to install from the muzzle-end so front sight housing has got to go. They
work as well as a 1-piece, properly installed. This one is from Midwest Industries.

Yankee Hill tends to be one of Glen’s “go-to” tubes. They’re easy to install
on a straight index and accept rail pieces of varying lengths screwed down
where needed.

Competition Tubes

For across-the-course use, a float-tube will have a handstop attachment rail on its underside and usually a number of vents to relieve weight and provide cooling for the barrel. Make double-dang sure the topside is free of vents. It should be solid to reduce barrel-heat-induced mirage. If it’s not, get to a home store and buy a plastic Venetian blind replacement slat. Then attach it to the float tube with either two or three hook-and-loop double-sticky pads or zip ties. Works wonders! (I won’t show a photo of such in this nice magazine. It’s kind of like me showing you how to fix busted taillights with red tape.)

The better competition tubes are also longer than normal and my preference is a 15-inch (“standard” rifle-length is 12). Longer extends hand-positioning options for a long-armed shooter like me. I also suggest an extra-long tube for a varmint-style rifle since it also extends options for bipod positioning, and, I think, the geometry works better when the bipod is farther on out there. And same advice for a field gun: no vents on the top. Another competition-essential feature of a good tube is it can be rotated to suit the user’s preference in establishing rifle cant.

I have developed a preference for smaller-diameter tubes, and many of the competition tubes are a little big around for my tastes. Smaller circumference just fits my hand better and is also more “aerodynamic” so it doesn’t get caught and moved as much by wind.

Fore-end tubes for carbine-length barrels are better longer than shorter, in my belief. The “standard” 7-inch carbine tube length fits in behind a standard front sight housing (conventional carbine gas port location) but for me forces an uncomfortable, unsteady hold. A rifle-length tube is way on better. To get this to work, though, you’ll need to match up pieces to allow full coverage of the gas system within the tube. Plus, then you can mount the front sight on the tube at an extended distance. Win-win.

Speaking of mounting, most “tactical-style” fore-end tubes are covered with Picatinny rails at all four clock-face points. That’s fine, but for my own use I prefer a smooth tube with selectively attached mounting blocks. A smooth tube is simply more comfortable in my hand, and overall less obtrusive. Otherwise, I suggest considering rail covers for the unused exposed teeth. Those can snag.

If you have a fore-end tube on the gun, use it! It’s what should be the base for any attachments that won’t fit onto the upper receiver rail. Do not install anything onto the gas manifold. I know they are often provided with rail spots, but it’s still attached to the barrel and even consistent pressure is not as good as no pressure.

I have encountered clearance issues matching gas manifolds and float tubes. On a short gun I like the tube to cover the gas block and that means the manifold has to fit within the tube. Usually, choosing a gas block and float tube from the same manufacturer solves this quick like and in a hurry. Otherwise, choose a “low-profile” manifold.

The key to accuracy is “Float a good barrel.” Glen abides by the advice in
every build, including his colorful racing-inspired AR.

Shameless Self Promotion

The preceding was adapted from The Competitive AR-15: Builders Guide written by Glen and available at www.BuyZedikerBooks.com.

Accuracy Speaks
3960 N. Usery Pass Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85207
(480) 373-9499
www.accuracyspeaks.com

Brownells
200 South Front Street
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000
www.brownells.com

Daniel Defense
101 Warfighter Way
Black Creek, GA 31308
(866) 554-4867
www.DanielDefense.com

Medesha Firearms
10326 E. Adobe Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85207
(480) 986-5876
www.MedeshaFirearms.com

Midwest Industries
W292S4498 Hillside Rd.
Waukesha, WI 53189
(262) 896-6780
www.MidwestIndustriesInc.com

Yankee Hill Machine
20 Ladd Avenue, Suite 1
Florence, MA 01062
(413) 584-1400
www.yhm.net

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Will The Unique Attributes Of This Latest Entry
In The Polymer-Pistol Sweepstakes Sway Buyers?

By Massad Ayoob
Photos: Gail Pepin

Beretta first entered the polymer pistol market with their rotary-breech Px4, a traditional double-action (TDA), hammer-fired pistol adaptable to double-action only. Unfortunately, the Px4 lacked the panache of its famous sibling, the 92, and came out at a time when the training world was focusing on the KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and TDA pistols were going out of style. As a result, the reliable little Px4 did not become a sales winner.

The Px4 is, however, going through a current resurgence of popularity, largely due to the efforts of Beretta maestro Ernest Langdon. In any case, Beretta—the world’s oldest manufacturer of anything, let alone firearms—has entered the striker-fired polymer parade. Behold the APX.

The APX shares the general blocky silhouette of the GLOCK and its competitors, but its most striking visual departure from the rest of the pack is its approach to slide grasping grooves. These run completely from front to back. The raised segments are a little over 0.10-inch high, protruding from slide flats roughly 0.40-inch apart, with an open space left on both sides of the slide in the region of the ejection port. The rationale of this is to give the support hand traction in emergency operations during the worst conditions of inclement weather and stress, where a shaky, wet hand might hit the wrong part of the slide when clearing a dud round or completing a slide-lock reload. The slide of the APX is wider than on a 9mm GLOCK, more like a .45 caliber GLOCK 21 when you measure all the way across to the protuberances forming the grasping grooves.

Another unique feature is a plunger on the slide rises as the trigger is brought back and falls back into the slide when the shot is fired. Erik Stern, Associate Product Manager at Beretta’s Pro Shop, explained the reasons for this feature on a pistol forum, saying, “Tradition mostly. We’ve done it for most duty size pistols since the 92SB (8000 Series, PX4) and it has advantages. It allows for a consistent and thorough function check in the field with minimal tools. The FPB popping up lets the user confirm all safety features are properly functioning. This is something I’ve not 100-percent bought into, but there are folks who state the presence of the hole in the slide permits more thorough cleaning with forced air and solvent. It allows for one to have a built in “gadget”-type device by holding their thumb over the FPB to ensure the trigger is not being pulled during holstering. With a 92/8000/PX4, it’s not very useful in this regard since those are hammer guns, but with the Nano and APX it is as if they are striker guns. If you feel it rising during holstering, you know the trigger is being snagged by something.” Stern attributes a lot of the above insight to a Beretta Forum user who goes by “arcfide.”

Another feature of the APX I like very much is striations molded into the frame above the triggerguard, where the trigger finger can feel a proper point of register when it is drawn but it’s not yet time to fire. It is one more safety net, a concept I first saw in the Taurus 24/7 with a depression for the trigger finger in the same place. Nicely done, Beretta!

Groups went way low at 25 yards from the bench, using post-in-notch sight picture. When a 3-dot
alignment sight picture was used, it raised point of impact.

For accuracy tests, Mas ran the APX off a Caldwell Matrix pistol rest at 25 yards with 115-,
124-, and 147-grain ammo.

Trigger

The trigger of the APX is definitely GLOCK-ish, right down to the safety lever. The major difference from the shooter’s end is the flat face of the trigger. Depending on taste and habituation, some love it and some don’t. It’s highly subjective. With the smallest of the grip options in place and the barrel straight in line with the long bones of the forearm, my average-size adult male hand found the whorl of the index finger’s fingerprint perfectly centered on the face of the APX’s trigger.

Using the handy Lyman digital trigger pull gauge I got from Brownells, I weighed the trigger from both center and toe. At the center, where the finger is most likely to be positioned, pull weight averaged 6.935 pounds. Pull weight measurements are often taken from the bottom portion of the trigger—the toe—and the greater leverage given at this point reduced the APX’s pull weight by 1.21 pounds, to an average of 5.725 pounds. This is not out of line for SFA (striker-fired action) duty pistols. No one can credibly sustain a false allegation of “negligent discharge due to hair trigger” with this APX, in my opinion.

Why would such an allegation be made at all? Because for unscrupulous, politically motivated prosecutors, it’s hard to establish the element of malice necessary for a murder conviction, but much easier to establish the key ingredients for a manslaughter conviction which are recklessness or negligence. Why would a plaintiff bringing a lawsuit make such an allegation? Because an intentional shooting does not get into the deep pockets of your homeowner liability insurer if you blast a home invader, since virtually all such policies exempt payment for the deliberate “willful tort,” but they can get into those deep pockets with an allegation of negligence.

Take-up is a little shorter than on a GLOCK before your finger meets the firm resistance some call “the wall,” and the roll through the wall itself seems a bit longer. In the slowest of slow fire you can feel some parts’ friction, but not the herky-jerky resistance most of us describe as “creep.” The faster you shoot, the less likely you are to feel anything but a clean release. Once the shot breaks, you can feel a bit of backlash, or continued movement to the rear of the triggerguard’s window after the trigger’s resistance ceases, but none of the testers felt it impaired their shooting with the APX.

Beretta’s Erik Stern advises, “We ship these pistols coated in preservative. Removing the chassis after purchase to clean the preservative out and lightly oil the fire control will significantly improve the trigger feel, as will a few hundred cycles for break in.”

Having always appreciated the high accuracy standard of stock Beretta 92’s, I had high hopes for the APX when I took it to the concrete bench at the 25-yard line and put it on a Caldwell Matrix rest. Each 5-shot group was measured once overall for an idea of how it would perform for a veteran shooter when solidly held in a state of calm, and again for the best three of those hits, a measurement the decades have taught me will discard enough human error to give an excellent approximation of what the same pistol and ammo will do with all 5 from a machine rest. I used three different brands of ammo, in the three most popular 9mm bullet weights.

For 147-grain subsonic I used Winchester WinClean, the most accurate “low-lead” training round I’ve yet used. The 5-shot group was a disappointing 4.05 inches, but the best three were in a little more than half that, 2.10 inches. All measurements were center to center between the farthest flung bullet holes in question, to the nearest 0.05 inch.

For 124-grain I chose SIG’s accurate V-Crown jacketed hollowpoint, and the APX liked this better. The 5 shots went into exactly 2.50 inches and again the tightest trio clustered just over half that, 1.55 inches.

The 115-grain I selected is one always proven accurate in my several Beretta 92 pistols in Federal’s 9BP, a classic cup-and-core 115-grain JHP. From the APX they delivered the second best 5-shot cluster, 3.20 inches, but the best of the “best three” was 0.9 inch.

When not behind the camera, petite Gail Pepin found the APX easy to control..

APX came quickly back on target for Mas even in 1-hand rapid fire, as evidenced by position
of spent casings (circled).

Mas was able to shoot a “clean qual” with the APX. Any 300 out of 300 score is good to go!

How To Sight

I was using a post in notch (PIN) sight picture, dead-center on Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C bull’s-eyes as aiming points and all my groups went way low: almost 5 inches for the 115 grain, 4 inches for the 124, and almost that for the 147 grain. The big, blocky APX 3-dot sights come quickly to the eye (fiber optic and tritium night-sight options are available from Shop Beretta). I learned a long time ago since the dots are set lower than the top edge of the sight we aim with for precision, if you “drive the dots” and align them with the front dot on the spot where you want to hit, your group will come upward. This turned out to be the ticket, and using the dots instead of the silhouetted sight picture, I was able to hit point of aim/point of impact at 25 yards. Windage was fine out of the box with either sight picture.

The holsters I had ordered for the APX (available from Beretta) had not come in by the time my deadline was approaching, so I reached out to friend and colleague Paul Carlson of Safety Solutions Academy. He had worn his APX in a Raven Concealment outside the belt holster while teaching, and found it about the same for comfort and concealment as packing a GLOCK 17. He had noted no issues with sharp edges or snagging on clothing.

During a class taught by Massad Ayoob and sponsored by Safety Solutions Academy, almost all
of these folks got to shoot the APX and most liked it.

The APX shot this group (above) from 25 yards with SIG V-Crown 124-grain ammo, although the post-in-notch
sight picture placed the group low when aimed at the upper bull. Shooting Federal 9BP 115-grain JHP at 25
yards gave Mas this fine group (below) with the Beretta APX. Note the “double.”

Shooting the APX

Lacking a holster, the best I could test for handling was to shoot a qualification course from low ready with the APX. At 4 yards non-dominant hand only, the pistol produced a pleasing cluster; ditto dominant hand only. At 7 yards, 6-reload-6 two-handed brought round count up to 24, all in a smaller than fist-size group. At 10 yards, 18 shots from high and low kneeling saw the group open a bit, and the final timed 18 from the 15-yard line saw me push one to starboard, right to the inside edge of the center zone, with the group clustering lower. I suspect I forgot to go with the “drive the dots” sight picture instead of post-in-notch at this point.

I finished with 300 out of 300 points. Throughout I had been impressed with the APX’s very smooth reloads and how good the pistol felt in my hand. The sights came right back to the point of aim every time, speaking well of the APX’s pointability. Not the best group I had ever shot over this course, but 300 out of 300 is certainly satisfactory.

I get the idea of the grasping grooves all the way up and down the slide. In practice, though, I found them a little sharp and rough on the hands, and wouldn’t want to spend a whole hour doing malfunction drills with the APX without a glove on my support hand. I’ve also never been thrilled with any design encouraging the shooter to grasp the slide close to the pistol’s business end. I have known two very capable shooters who blew fingers off their hands working their slides from the front.

I particularly appreciate how Beretta molded horizontal grooves in the frame above the triggerguard to give you a palpable place to put your trigger finger “in register” when the gun is drawn but it is not yet time to fire. I like the ambidextrous slide stop lever, though I wish its edges weren’t quite as sharp. Southpaws will appreciate the reversible magazine release. The APX is more “lefty friendly” than most pistols.

I like the seemingly extraneous plunger atop the slide. It’s no distraction to the shooter, being blocked from the aiming eye by the right side of the rear sight, but as an instructor it lets me monitor the movement path of the shooter’s trigger finger, which is hard to see watching just the hand on a short-stroke SFA trigger. It’s sort of like watching the cylinder when the student shoots a revolver double action.

Reliability? From Florida to Ohio I watched more than a dozen shooters running the Beretta APX with hundreds of rounds of all sorts of 9mm ammo, and didn’t see a single malfunction. In 9mm, the steel-body magazines hold 17 rounds, drop free and insert cleanly. Even when filled all the way up they inserted easily and locked in place positively with the slide forward.

At $575, the APX is right in the ballpark of the polymer service-size pistol market. So is its 17+1 round 9mm capacity. It’s hard to shoot the APX and not like it.

APX

Maker: Beretta USA
17601 Beretta Dr.
Accokeek, MD 20607
(301) 283-2191
www.berettausa.com

Type: Striker-fired, semi auto
Caliber: 9mm (tested), .40 S&W
Capacity: 17+1
Barrel length: 4.25 inches
Overall length: 7.55 inches
Weight: 28.24 ounces (unloaded)
Finish: Black, Sights: 3-dot
Grips: Polymer, with interchangeable backstraps
Price: $575

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This Sweet-Running “Linkless” 1911 Has Innovative Touches
Above And Beyond Your Basic Browning Template

By John Taffin

At the beginning of the 1990’s—as semi-auto pistols began to take center stage—we saw the advent of three .357 Magnum specimens. Two of these were exceptionally large handguns—namely the now-defunct Grizzly (basically an enlarged 1911) and Israel’s Desert Eagle.

Dan Coonan, who designed the pistol which bears his name, went a different way to come up with a truly portable, packable .357 Magnum semi-auto. Today, he offers two basic 1911-style and sized .357’s—the full-size Coonan Classic and the Commander-style Compact. Both versions are offered in several variations and finishes. Coonan has now taken the next step with the .45 MOT.

When I started shooting, you could have any .45 ACP pistol you wanted just as long as it was a surplus Government Model 1911. This was in the mid-1950’s and I rarely, if ever, saw a commercial version. Custom gunsmiths were just really getting started accurizing the 1911 and fitting them with adjustable sights. Sometimes, progress can be wonderful and this is certainly the case when it comes to the 1911.

It would be a daunting task to try to list everyone who has manufactured a .45 ACP 1911 in my shooting lifetime. We have an endless line of choices from basic no-frills guns to high-dollar custom ones which cost more than my first house. All of this is good for shooters. Competition between manufacturers means 1911’s different from the ordinary will always be available. This might include extreme hand-fitting to a difference in the basic design.

With the Coonan line, we see basic John Browning with ideas borrowed from both the 1911 and Hi-Power. Due to the length of the .357 cartridge, the grip on the .357 Coonan is necessarily a different size than the standard 1911, but with the .45 chambering, we get back to the more familiar 1911 grip size. Looking at the Coonan .45 for the first time, it’s easy to conclude this is indeed a standard 1911. However, Coonan points out three distinctive features not normally found on a standard 1911.

First is an external extractor, something which gunmakers, gunsmiths, and shooters have been arguing over for more than a century. Coonan uses it to improve reliability of both cycling and ejection. It certainly works as I had no problems whatsoever on either score with factory and handloaded ammo featuring different bullet configurations. Instead of a leaf spring, this external extractor is powered by a longer-lasting coil spring, which also provides for stronger extraction.
The other two qualities we find in the Coonan .45 are rarely—if ever— seen in other production 1911’s. The Coonan 1911 .45’s trigger is on a pivot. The factory claims this results in a more consistent trigger pull. Factory specs call for a trigger pull of 4 to 5 pounds, however, as it came from the factory, the pull on my test sample registers at 7-1/2 pounds on my Brownells’ Trigger Pull Gauge, and for my everyday use I would prefer to have this figure cut in half. The trigger itself is wide and smooth, as I like, and also skeletonized with three holes.

It wouldn’t be a “Taffin Test” without John trying out some of his pet .45 ACP practice handloads.
Note the Coonan’s large external extractor.

John’s groups using factory ammo with the Coonan .45 MOT were impressive. The cluster at the right was fired with
the ultra-lightweight 135-grain Black Hills Honey Badger, which despite its high velocity was surprisingly “in tune”
with the conventional sight setting.

Look Ma, No Link!

The most radical difference with the Coonan .45 compared to other models is the fact the 5-inch barrel is linkless! Yes, the familiar movable link on the back of the barrel which is used to lock it into the slide/frame is gone and replaced by a solidly attached under-barrel groove. The purpose of this change in design is for increasing accuracy, while at the same time reducing feeding problems. The lockup also remains more consistent for a longer period of time than with the standard link. Again there was no problem whatsoever with feeding, no manner which ammunition I tried and accuracy was excellent (more on this later). Takedown, in spite of the change in barrel lock up, is the same as any 1911.

Taking an overall look at the Coonan .45 we see a classic looking 1911 pistol of all stainless steel construction. The sights are fully adjustable, 3-dot Novak-type with the rear sight set deep in the slide. This is a far cry from the way adjustables were set on the top of the slide in the early days of accurizing.

Looking at the rear sight from the back we see an excellent design—sloped to the front with the rear face serrated and a square notch with a white dot on each side. This mates up with a dovetailed front sight which slopes to the front with a white dot on its face. In short, the sight setup is excellent.

Moving on to the slide we find slanted cocking serrations below the rear sight and external extractor. The hammer is Commander-style. Both the thumb safety and the slide lock are of the extended variety and easily accessible. The beavertail grip safety protects the back of your hand from being bitten and the memory bump helps you depress the grip safety fully.

The flat mainspring housing is checkered for a firm grip. The grip panels themselves are smooth walnut with the Coonan logo. Finally, the Coonan .45 MOT comes with two 7-round magazines in a padded black zippered bag.

I test-fired the Coonan .45 MOT with three handloads using cast bullets and 11 factory loads. Both of my standard practice loads using 4.0 grains of Bullseye performed exceptionally well. Those loads assembled with Oregon Trails 200-grain RNFP hardcast bullets proved the most accurate, resulting in a 1-inch group for 5 shots at 20 yards (muzzle velocity: 720 fps). Switching to their 200-grain SWC (basically the same design as the H&G 200SWC or the RCBS 45-201), muzzle velocity was right at the same level with a group of 1-3/8 inches.

John’s cast bullet practice loads performed exceptionally well in the Coonan .45.

The Coonan MOT handled a variety of factory .45 ACP brands and bullet configurations, and did so flawlessly.

st accurate proved to be SIG SAUER’s 230-grain FMJ at 850 fps (1-1/4 inches) and Winchester’s 185-grain FMJ at 900 fps (1-3/8 inches). This range test was also my first time to try several new types of ammo. We’ve all noted the advent of a new style of copper bullet resembling a Phillips screwdriver bit. From Ruger it is known as the ARX, weighs 118 grains and clocks out at 1,325 fps. This one grouped at 1-3/4 inches for me. Black Hills’ version is the 135-grain Honey Badger with a muzzle velocity of 1,245 fps. This one came in at 1-3/8 inches. Even with their lighter weight and higher velocity, these two loads still shoot close to point of aim. With the adjustable sights of the Coonan they can be dialed in exactly. Both are designed for self-defense, providing penetration as well as a large wound cavity. I also tried the new RNP Interceptor .45 loading. This is a 130-grain bullet made of powdered metal and is designed to disintegrate and turn back to powder upon hitting a hard surface. This makes them safe for steel plates at close ranges. Muzzle velocity, incidentally, is over 1,200 fps.

As you may have noticed this particular Coonan’s Model name is MOT. I tried to puzzle out what in the world “MOT” stood for by looking at their website as well as the owner’s manual. Finally I contacted David Dietz who is the director of marketing at Coonan and asked him.

He replied, “As you may be aware, we are a very small company and quite informal as a result. There is a 120-pound German Shepherd roaming the front administration office area and he belongs to Greg and Connie White who are the CEO and office manager. This dog is a cuddly sweetheart to all he knows, but when someone comes to the door he doesn’t recognize, let’s just say his bark goes down two octaves and his volume increases several decibels thus achieving the true guard-dog effect. When working on the new pistol, we realized we needed a model designation for all our new standard 1911-sized frames. Of course it needed to be another TLA (not Texas Longhorn Arms, but a Three Letter Acronym) as is the convention in our industry. Well, we all wracked our brains attempting to come up with something either very clever or very descriptive or, ideally, both. Well, we gave up on this idea. The German Shepherd’s name is Motley and so was born the new platform name, the Coonan MOT. Now in .45 ACP!”

You gotta love a company with a sense of humor!

The Coonan’s barrel lacks something familiar to all 1911 aficionados—the link!

To keep the Coonan .45 running flawlessly, John used Hurley’s Gold lube.

Gold Standard

In addition to trying some new-style factory ammunition, I also had the occasion to try Hurley’s Gold—a new composite firearms lubricant. This is a high-temp lube—good up to 1,000 degrees F—with a blend of synthetic oil, mineral oil, grease additives and long-lasting dry lubricant. For the Coonan .45 MOT I used to drop on each rail and then brushed some on both ends of the barrel. It seems to work very well and I will be using it in the future, especially on semi-autos to aid in keeping them running perfectly.

Hurley’s Gold
P.O. Box 130276
Carlsbad CA 92013
(623) 202-4433
www.hurleysgold.com

Alliant Powder
P.O. Box 856
Lewiston, ID 83501
(800) 379-1732
www.alliantpowder.com

Black Hills Ammunition
P.O. Box 3090
Rapid City, SD 57709
(605) 348-5150
www.blackhills.com

Oregon Trail Bullets
P.O. Box 529
Baker City, OR 97814
(800) 811-0548
www.laser-cast.com

PolyCase/RNP
41 Artley Rd.
Savannah, GA 31408
www.polycaseammo.com

SIG SAUER
72 Pease Blvd.
Newington, NH 03801
(603) 418-8102
www.sigsauer.com

Starline Brass
1300 West Henry
Sedalia, MO 65301
(660) 827-6640
www.starlinebrass.com

Sturm, Ruger & Co.
200 Ruger Rd
Prescott, AZ 86301
(928) 7786555
www.ruger-firearms.com

Winchester Ammunition
600 Powder Mill Rd.
East Alton, IL 62024
(618) 258-3340
www.winchester.com

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A Lightweight Custom 7mm RSAUM Rifle On A Budget

By M.L. McPHERSON

My brother Stan and his wife Helen were in a location and situation allowing them to do more than their share toward clearing Stan and my parents’ estate—emptying out and cleaning the house, yard, painting, etc. My situation did not allow me to do anywhere near my share. So, as small tokens of appreciation, my friend Austin Metcalf built Helen a very special custom walking stick, and I built Stan a custom hunting rifle.

For the latter, I started with the Savage 11/111 Lightweight Hunter in 7mm-08, which is a fine rifle, perhaps an ideal choice for hunting smaller species of deer. To complete this rifle and make it handier and more suitable for elk hunting, I made the following changes: Installed 2-piece aluminum Weaver-style scope bases; Installed lightweight aluminum Leupold rings; Installed customized Leupold VX-3, 4.5-14 scope; Skeletonized butt section of stock; Changed bolt heads from standard to magnum; Fitted 26-inch 7mm No. 2 contour Shilen barrel chambered in 7mm Remington SAUM; Modified two magazines; Built and installed custom muzzlebrake.

For this work, I used tools and parts obtained from Brownells and Pacific Tool & Gauge. My machinist friend, Randy Arndt, helped with finishing and installing the brake.

The Savage action is already lightened with cuts on the receiver and a spiral-fluted bolt. The way the Savage is
designed and built optimizes customization. Caliber changes are easy as are barrel changes. The only limiting
factor is the magazine, one reason the 7mm RSAUM was chosen. Leupold’s Custom Shop allows personalizing of the
scope as well.

I would have preferred to chamber this rifle in .284 Winchester because this would have allowed 3-round magazine capacity and the .284 gives enough performance for Stan’s needs (his lifetime tally of deer and elk, using the .284 and the .280 Remington, far exceeds 100). However, the .284 case will not work in the only magazine available for this gun). Conversely, the 7mm SAUM fits this magazine perfectly.

At under 7 pounds, loaded, with scope and sling, this rifle is exceptionally handy. It is ideal for my brother’s elk and mule deer needs. A very mild handload, using Enduron IMR 7977, launches the 7mm, 154-grain Hornady SST at 3,010 fps, with 1/2-MOA accuracy. Several propellants might give higher velocity, but 7977 is far less sensitive to temperature variation, practically eliminates copper fouling and gives phenomenally uniform velocity.

No doubt, we could find a load safely launching this bullet faster, but that would add little to the usefulness of this gun for Stan’s needs. It might not be possible to find such a load giving similar accuracy, so any such effort would be a gamble.

Mic zeroed the rifle while developing this load. Prior to the hunt, Mic adjusted the scope to center shots 3-inches
high (above) at 100 yards for a 300-yard zero. This shows why Mic chose the 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum
case (below), rather than the preferable .284 Winchester or the more common 7mm Winchester Short Magnum. The body of
the 7mm SAUM case fits perfectly behind the magazine indentations that holds rounds back against recoil. Mic bought
100 Norma cases, giving his brother a lifetime supply for this big-game rifle.

For superior retained energy and improved terminal performance, we might eventually look for a similarly accurate load using the more efficient 168-grain Nosler Extended Range AccuBond with its 24-percent higher BC. If so, we will work with 7977 and look for good accuracy at about 3,000 fps.

Besides dramatically reducing recoil, the custom LAW brake (I made in my shop) minimizes added noise to the shooter and dramatically reduces downrange noise. Therefore, firing the gun is less apt to disturb downrange targets. Stan demonstrated this when he killed an elk. His bull was 453 yards distant, across a canyon. Two small bulls were below him, at about 275 yards. Seven cows and calves were near his bull. The shot didn’t spook any of those other elk. Only after his animal crashed to the ground did the remaining elk herd up and wander off.

Leupold is looking into offering custom reticles to the customer’s specifications. A reticle I designed should suit Stan’s needs. It has guides to help him estimate distance to either deer or elk, and to indicate aiming points once he has estimated the distance. When Leupold offers this service, I will have this reticle installed in Stan’s scope. Leupold already added custom markings to the VX-3 4.5-14X scope, and these adornments are a fine addition to this custom rifle.

The folks at ROBAR NP3 plated the metal parts. It would take an entire article to explain this electroless plating process and to detail how durable, attractive, slick and corrosion resistant this advanced metal finish is. What I will say here is simply this: However good you think NP3 might be, it is better.

ROBAR also engraved the barrel with the appropriate legend. This added a fine touch to this special rifle.

The Savage Model 11/111 started life as a 7mm-08. A versatile platform for a custom rifle, it has now had the bolt
head changed and a new Shilen barrel installed in 7mm RSAUM, all in an Austin Custom stock. Note Leupold scope
(inset, personalized in the Leupold Custom Shop), NP3 plating and LAW muzzlebrake. Not attached is the handy,
lightweight Limbsaver sling. The second magazine (on the bench) highlights the single drawback of this conversion—limited magazine capacity holding only two of these fat rounds—but magazine functionality is flawless and 3 shots should suffice. If not, a quick magazine change is available. Stan’s rifle is posed on the amazingly handy Hench Bench. Mic uses this sturdy,
folding, 17-pound bench when varmint hunting and zeroing in the field.

The folks at ROBAR NP3 plated the metal parts. It would take an entire article to explain this electroless plating process and to detail how durable, attractive, slick and corrosion resistant this advanced metal finish is. What I will say here is simply this: However good you think NP3 might be, it is better.

ROBAR also engraved the barrel with the appropriate legend. This added a fine touch to this special rifle.

My total investment, from sling through scope, was $2,500. Fair compensation for gunsmithing would be about $500, putting total fair-market cost near $3,000. This seems quite reasonable for such an accurate, durable, low-maintenance, handy and effective custom hunting-rifle package.

Just before Stan’s hunt, in September 2016, my sons Jody, Joey and I spent a weekend working up handloads for this rifle and for Joe’s .300 WSM and Jody’s .338 Lapua. Using Enduron propellants, we easily found phenomenally consistent, sub-1/2-MOA loads for each gun.

Spending time with my sons developing loads: A blessing. Being there when my brother blooded his new rifle for the first time: Icing on the cake. Seeing my brother’s eyes light up when I presented this gift: Priceless.

Custom 11/111 Lightweight Hunter

Maker: Savage Arms
100 Springdale Road
Westfield, MA 01085
(413) 568-7001
https://gunsmagazine.com/company/savage-arms/

Action type: Bolt-Action
Caliber: 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum (7mm SAUM)
Capacity: 2+1
Barrel length: 26 inches (Shilen)
Overall length: 48-1/4 inches (with brake)
Weight: 5-1/4 pounds
Finish: ROBAR NP3
Sights: None, drilled and tapped for scope
Stock: Walnut, BASE
Price: $991 (before custom work)

VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm

Maker: Leupold & Stevens
14400 Northwest Greenbriar Parkway
Beaverton, OR 97006
(503) 646-9171
https://gunsmagazine.com/company/leupold-stevens-inc/

Magnification: 4.9-14.4X (Actual)
Objective Diameter: 40mm
Eye Relief inches: 4.4 inches (4.5X), 3.7 (14X), Internal Adj. Range, 67 inches at 100 yards elevation & windage
Click Value: 1/4 MOA
Tube Diameter: 1 inch
Weight: 13 ounces
Overall Length: 12.6 inches
Reticle: Duplex
Price: $649

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K6s .357 Snubbies

Kimber’s K6s .357 Snubbie Has Great Sights And A Good Trigger.
Not To Mention A “5+1” Cylinder
By Massad Ayoob
Photo Takashi Sato

Kimber’s K6s is an answer to the suggestions of many revolver experts who had called for a pocket-size 6-shooter—Ed Lovette, Michael deBethencourt and Grant Cunningham to name three. But it’s got more going for it than an extra hole in the cylinder.

The all-stainless steel K6s sits in your hand as solid as a blackjack. The action is smooth and single stage—no stacking or increased pressure required toward the end of the DA-only trigger stroke. It “pre-times,” meaning the cylinder locks the next chamber in place just a little past the halfway point of the trigger stroke.

The hammerless configuration is touted for its sleek and snag-free profile. That’s a plus, but it also offers two more advantages. (1) It allows the rear of the frame to sweep up higher, allowing higher hand placement, lowering the bore axis and giving the shooter more leverage, resulting in less muzzle jump. (2) It eliminates the chance of a politically motivated prosecutor turning a justified self-defense shooting into a claim of a reckless, negligent accident due to cocking the revolver beforehand and creating a “hair-trigger” effect.

The sights got an immediate thumbs-up from all on the test team. Big and blocky, they give an excellent sight picture that’s easy to pick up at speed, and as precise a picture as you’re likely to need with a snubnose revolver. The sights include three big white dots on the standard model. Fiber optic is one accessory on the DCR (Deluxe Carry Revolver) ($1,088) and night sights are available on the NS model ($919). The sights on my standard K6s, however, never snagged or compromised concealment in any way.

The 6 chambers are counterbored. The cylinder has distinctive, subtle flats instead of flutes, rather like a Chiappa Rhino. An HKS 10A speedloader will fit the K6s cylinder just as it will a D-Frame Colt, but the grips get in the way of the loader and slow down its operation. Fortunately, Kimber included their own speedloader with the K6. It’s a little bit rattle-y, and the loose cartridge fit makes it a tad slow to insert, but it does clear the grips. It releases with a counter-clockwise turn, like a Five-Star loader as opposed to the ubiquitous HKS, which has a clockwise release.

The grips on our standard model test gun, incidentally, are what appear to be an homage to the great boot grips created decades ago by Craig Spegel, and copied in rubber by Uncle Mike’s.

A 6-round capacity is a real K6s selling point. With .357 Magnums, recoil was controllable,
though not particularly fun. The chambers are recessed.

Overleaf: The Scar Blades Scorpion (208/716-1212, www.scarblades.com) is one wickedly curved knife
(and it isn’t a folder!) At the other end is a glass breaker, and the scales are brown Micarta.
Holster is by DeSantis (800/424-1236, www.desantisholster.com),
speedloader by Kimber.

Shooting The K6s

At 23 ounces the K6s is an ounce heavier than an S&W 640 .357 and 2 or 3 ounces lighter than the Ruger SP101 in the same caliber, both of which are 5-shot revolvers. Recoil, of course, is subjective. Because the K6 grips are cut to the back edge of the frame and put steel against the center of the web of your hand, recoil is more uncomfortable than with the hand-cushioning grip standard on the Ruger (which also has a few more ounces to absorb recoil). “Kick” wasn’t bad with the K6s when shooting standard-pressure .38 Special ammo, but you knew something serious was going on when you fired +P.

With full-power .357 Magnum loads it was downright unpleasant, but not intolerable. I did not find the gun to shift in my hand so long as I kept a hard crush grip. Cunningham said “I don’t like the rubber grips they’re shipping with. The wooden ones they debuted with at SHOT were, in my mind, much nicer.” I haven’t shot it with wood stocks and can’t comment on that.

Mas found the 3-dot sights (above) to be excellent, offering a better sight picture than most
small-frame snubbies. Subtle flats (below) replace the traditional cylinder flutes on the K6s.

Accuracy, Velocity

Because of its smoothness, the DA pull didn’t interfere with the gun’s accuracy. While it’s customary to test pocket-size handguns like this one at 7, 10 or 15 yards instead of the industry standard 25, I never got the memo saying bad guys had signed a treaty to give us easier shots if we were carrying short-barrel guns, so I still test them from 75 feet.

On a concrete bench with a Caldwell Matrix rest from Brownells, I ran the K6s with three different loads. Short barrel notwithstanding, 2 of the 3 came within the oft-quoted standard of “4 inches at 25 yards” as acceptable accuracy for a full-size service handgun.

People will tell you it’s useless to use .357 Magnums in short barrels because they lose so much velocity. True enough, I’ve chrono’d 125-grain .357’s out of a true 2-inch barrel at a little over 1,200 fps when the same lot of ammo was breaking 1,400 fps out of a 4-inch duty gun.

But while a .357 isn’t very “magnum” out of a snubbie, a .38 isn’t very “special” out of the short a barrel, either. And if you can handle the recoil, you want all the power you can get. The Federal 125-grain .357 JHP printed 5 shots in just under 4 inches at 25 yards in an “I”-shaped vertical string from our test K6s.

In truth, most folks carry these “Baby Magnums” with .38 Special HPs so they won’t be blinded at night with magnum flash and won’t have to deal with brutal recoil. Lots of .38 Special fans swear by 125-grain loads and I used Fiocchi’s JHP as my representative .38. It was the most accurate of the test. The whole group measured just over 3 inches and the best 3 shots were in a cluster that went 0.60-inch center to center. Yes—about 1/2 inch from a 2-inch DAO snubbie. That’s not a misprint.

Mas found the K6s comfortable and fast when worn cross-draw in this DeSantis Gat Slide holster.
Photo: Gail Pepin

Fortunately, Kimber included their own speedloader with the K6s (above). It’s a little bit
rattle-y, and the loose cartridge fit makes it a tad slow to insert, but it does clear the grips. The
Kimber speedloader releases with a counter-clockwise turn (below), like a Five-Star loader
as opposed to the ubiquitous HKS, which has a clockwise release.

Federal’s 125-grain .357 JHP grouped under 4 inches for 5 shots at 25 yards (above).
Fiocchi’s 125-grain .38 Special was the most accurate load tested—5 shots in 3.05 inches.
Note the “Best 3” cluster! Photos: Gail Pepin

What surprised me was when another tried and true favorite grouped poorly. Remington uses the softest lead to make their “FBI Load,” a 158-grain lead SWC HP at +P velocity, and the most likely of its kind to expand when fired from short barrels. In this one, though, the group was a horrendous pattern, with keyholing. The particular load just wasn’t compatible with this particular revolver.

Of course, accuracy encompasses not just size, but point-of-aim/point-of-impact coordinates as the gun comes out of the box. In close, the test gun shot a bit low and starboard for me. The farther back we moved, the more pronounced deviation from POA/POI became. At 25 yards, the .357 bullets were hitting 3 inches low and to the right. Inside 7 yards, it grouped only a little low right for me.

Several hundred rounds went through the test gun without a hitch. It has a lot of design features I like. One of my colleagues bought one and has had trigger return problems, but this is the only complaint I’ve found. The Kimber K6s has a lot going for it. I think it’s going to be with us for some time.

K6s

Maker: Kimber
30 Lower Valley Road
Kali spell, MT 59901
(406) 260-4390
https://gunsmagazine.com/company/kimber/

Type: DAO revolver
Caliber: .357/.38 Special
Capacity: 6
Barrel length: 2 inches
Overall length: 6.62 inches
Weight: 23 ounces
Sights: 3-dot fixed
Trigger pull: 9.5 to 10.5 pounds
Finish: Brushed stainless
Grips: Black rubber
Price: $899

Micro 9

Dealing With A “Parabellumized” Set Of Stylish Additions To The Kimber Micro Lineup
By Mike Cumpston With Deborah Davison

The Kimber “Desert Tan” would make a pretty good “General Officer’s Pistol” and pack a
lot more punch than the small .32 ACP and .380 ACP pistols issued in WWII. The “Bel Air”
adds a colorful, stylish look to the normally drab, businesslike look of today’s 9mm pistols.

The Micro 9 emerged in early 2016 as a minimally enlarged companion to the successful Micro 380. Variations on the basic theme have proceeded apace with a number of models arriving in 2017. New models feature various sighting options, color schemes and some have Crimson Trace LaserGrips (LG).

We recently received the Desert Tan (LG) and a Special Edition Bel Air with polished stainless slide over pastel blue frame. Both pistols arrived in zippered cases with two magazines each and laser adjustment/cleaning tools for the Desert Tan. All of these magazines were extended 7-round ones, although a flatbase 6-rounder was included.

Both guns have high-visibility 3-dot sights, with both front and rear dovetailed into the slide providing lateral adjustment. They are about 1/2-inch longer and taller than the Micro .380 and the exact size as my Walther .380 PPK (the Kimbers weighing several ounces less due to the alloy frames). They fit the same pocket holster as my PPK. In just about every conceivable scenario, the Micro 9 should be as easy to conceal as the slightly smaller .380.

The factory nominal trigger pull is 7 pounds. Mas Ayoob shot a Micro 9 and reviewed it in the February ’17 issue. He weighed the trigger pull at 9 pounds with his team of shooters agreeing it seemed much lighter. The triggers on the Bel Air and Desert Tan scaled 7.5 and 8 pounds respectively and I felt every ounce. Accurate bench groups from a 6-inch long pistol with 8-pound trigger presented something of a challenge. Mas thought Kimber might have made the triggers heavy as a safety measure.

Kimber’s 9mm Micro pairing (above): The Desert Tan and the pastel-accented Bel Air.
Both pistols have excellent 3-dot sights (below), although the Desert Tan (CT) comes
with Crimson Trace LaserGrips as well. Holster by DeSantis.

Review samples of the early Micro 9’s across the gun press, came with the flat-based 6-round magazines good for 2-fingers on the grip. Some reviewers complained the pistols—particularly those with smooth grips and no frame texture would move in their hands and deliver pronounced recoil. This may be the reason our samples were supplied with the 7-round mags providing room for a 3-finger grip. Neither Deborah Davison nor I considered recoil—even with +P loads—to be at all objectionable and there was no tendency for either pistol to shift under recoil. I suspect bench groups with the shorter magazine would have been challenging, though unsupported shooting went quite well.

Lacking a rest compatible with a pistol of this size, I shot 2-handed on top of a sandbag for my 5-round, 25-yard groups. The heavy trigger pull was a distraction until I refined my method. A few of the first groups exceeded 5 inches. I re-shot these once and the rest of the groups in the table are 1-time efforts. The average groups of 8 separate loads from both pistols measured less than 4 inches with the difference between the two guns being insignificant.

This is about the same dispersion I get shooting the smaller, 1911-type mini-.380’s. My groups went high by about 4 inches and right of my POA by 2 inches. From a rigid 2-handed stance at 25 yards, Deborah aimed below the 7 ring of the B27 target to put most of her hits well-centered in the 9 ring.

The basic Texas handgun license demonstration consists of 50 rounds shot in timed sequences at 3, 7 and 15 yards. Everything in the 8-ring and inward is a maximum value hit. I walked through it with the Desert Tan shooting like most people do—about three times faster than the maximum allotted times—still a relaxed pace. Five of the 20 rounds from 15 yards spread across the 9 ring. The rest of the shots were contained in the 10 and X rings.

The heavy trigger pulls took some getting used to for me, but Deborah thought they were ideal. Further she was keen on the high visibility sights and considered the size, balance and overall handling qualities close to perfect. She was particularly taken with the Bel Air. It seemed lighter and felt better in her hand than the heavily checkered LaserGrip on the Desert Tan. Adjusting to the high point of impact, she delivered tight, rapid-fire clusters back to 15 yards repeatedly, and generally stayed inside of the scoring rings at 25.

Deborah specializes in training inexperienced women shooters and many of them—arriving from high-tax locales in California and New York— seem to view concealable handguns as a key element of the Texas Zeitgeist. This has caused a major increase in her business and a deepening perspective on the needs of beginning shooters not born into a gun culture. She has found the new shooters are put off by the light triggers preferred by precision shooters. They seem much more comfortable when a conscious effort at trigger control is required.

Stripped down for cleaning, the Micro 9 will be familiar to anyone who’s ever owned a 1911.

Function Notes

Early in my shooting with the Desert Tan I encountered slide lock-back with the last round reversed and lying on top of the floorplate. Deborah had one failure-to-feed malfunction each with the Micro 9’s. They probably wouldn’t have occurred if I had paid more attention to the feed sequence. Loading the chamber from a full 7-round magazine caused the second round to ride forward under pressure from the moving slide. On a few occasions the round would protrude enough to impede magazine removal and come out of the magazine as it was pulled from the grip. Loading the chamber and then ensuring the next round was pushed to the rear of the magazine minimized the forward movement and would probably have solved these problems. For some reason the six-round magazine did not have this tendency, nor did the bullet profiles of those loads using Barnes projectiles and the SIG Elite JHP’s.

The manual for the Desert Tan claimed the Crimson Tracer LaserGrips were factory regulated at 50 feet. We found this was exactly right. Shortly after sundown—but with considerable remaining light—we were able to make effective hits from 7 to 15 yards. We also found it possible to precisely place our shots from various non-standard but potentially useful presentations.

The Kimber Micro family addresses the elements most desirable in deep-concealment personal arms. The range of styles and cosmetic aesthetics will appeal to traditional shooters as well as the more eclectic tastes of more recent generations.

Micro 9
Maker: Kimber
30 Lower Valley Road
Kali spell, MT 59901
(406) 260-4390
https://gunsmagazine.com/company/kimber/

Type: Single-action, semi-auto
Caliber: 9mm, Capacity: 7+1, 6+1
Barrel length: 3.1 inches
Overall length: 6.1 inches
Weight: 15.6 ounces
Sights: 3-dot Patridge
Trigger: 7.5 to 8 pounds
Grips: Ivory Micarta (Bel Air), CT LaserGrips (Desert Tan)
Price: $864 (Bel Air), $790 (Desert Tan)

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By Dave Workman

I have always been an advocate of tritium night sights, since they make sense in my often gray-sky Pacific Northwest environs where available light is typically less than ideal for most of the year.

XS Sights, the Dallas-based outfit producing the famous “Big Dot” sight system for many years, has something new and worthy of close examination by any armed citizen or peace officer looking for an edge. After all, anybody who expects to be in a “fair” gunfight is thinking somewhere between wishful and delusional.

New to the XS family is the F8 night sight. This version features a large front sight with high contrast for quick acquisition and there is a tritium lamp in the rear wide notch sight to help make this happen.

The sight alignment, with one dot on the rear and the large “Big Dot” sight up front appearing above the rear is easy to get used to and one can pick up the two sights in a visual “8” vertical layout rather fast.

Tritium is a gas captured in what sight makers call a “lamp,” and it really does light up in the dark or twilight. I’ve used tritium sights on several carry guns over the years and found them to be not only reliable, but reassuring in the event I had to walk down a proverbial dark street or alley, or find my vehicle in a not-so-well-lit parking garage.

Here’s how the F8 sights align with the large orange-ringed green dot up front appearing above the rear dot.

The famous XS “Big Dot” front sight is a well-known commodity in the shooting world, and has legions of faithful fans.

I’ve shot with them in daylight and dark. Night sights are on each of my 1911-platform pistols with the exception of an older Detonics model I’ve got tucked away. Nowadays, I would not be without them.

According to XS, the high-visibility orange ring on the front sight is designed for maximum visibility in bright to low light levels. When it’s bright, this thing looks like any other white dot sight, only a bit larger.

They install easily by hand or with a sight pusher tool. I happen to have one of those from Brownells, and it has saved my day more than once. Anybody who carries a fixed sight pistol with dovetailed front and rear sights ought to have one of these tools because it truly speeds up the sight alignment process.

There’s another advantage with the F8 sight: The rear sight ledge comes in handy when one is forced to cycle the slide with one hand.

The best thing about the F8 sights from XS is that they are produced right here in the United States. They are also covered by a 10-year warranty, which tells you the “shelf life” of these sights is a considerable length of time.

You can find out all about XS sights by visiting www.gunsmagazine.com/company/xs-xights-systems-inc

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They Require Special Care In Removal And Installation

By Glen Zediker

I usually talk about some of the more “nuts and bolts” topics involving AR-15’s, but they’re really more about “pins and clips.” This one here will be all about pins. Roll pins. Reason? I just (again) read a “tip” from an “Internet Armorer” revolving around electrical tape cushioning and Vise-Grips in response to someone wanting to know how to seat a roll pin. Great googly moogly!

There’s good reason to invest in the needed pin kit. Even if you don’t plan on constructing or reconstructing major assemblies, something popular and simple (like replacing a bolt stop or fitting up an adjustable gas manifold) isn’t even a little bit difficult. Well, not difficult if you—you guessed it—have the right tools and are prepared with a little know-how. Here’s the how:

Roll pins are hollow steel with a lengthwise split. The pin diameter is oversized to the hole it fits into by approximately the gap width of the split. It squeezes down as it enters the hole and the tension secures it in place. Roll pins have a bevel on each end, but it’s not always enough to get one started. And that’s the first trick: getting it started.

To do a sano job of driving roll pins, you’ll need two punches, one to start it and one to finish it. The most overlooked is the “starter.” This is hollow so the pin can be inserted into and supported within by the punch. The pin used to finish the seating has a nib fitting into the open end of the pin to help keep the punch from slipping off under impact. For a basic build, as well as repairs and refurbishments, you’ll need No.’s 1, 2, 3, and 4. And to do an even more sano job, it’s very wise to purchase an additional finishing punch to use as a capture- or slave-punch. (More in a bit.)

A roll pin is decidedly not a precision-made part. Look at the ends and you’re liable to see mild to overt cragginess, and also likely ends that aren’t matching up across the split. Fix this by chucking the pin in to a drill and spinning its ends against a stone or emery. I do both ends even though only one is necessarily polished and beveled for installation; removal is easier if the “other end” is also treated. Steel pins poking their way into aluminum holes is way harder on the holes than on the pins. A dab of grease or drop of oil will smooth entry and in no way reduces the “grip.” This also reduces any corrosive “sticktion” potentials (steel and aluminum will—not can—fuse without a surface barrier). This step makes them enter and exit much easier.

I use a small brass hammer to drive pins. The brass doesn’t mar as badly should a miss-hit result in hammer contact on a surrounding surface.
With a couple of exceptions, it doesn’t take much hammering force to drive a roll pin. True hits count! Pins can bend. Most roll pins are a tad shorter than the full span of the hole-to-hole gap, and a sano job finishes with the pin ends at equal depths, and each end should be a tad below flush with the part surface. A roll pin should never protrude above the surface to ensure no snagging potential.

The use of a capture- or slave-punch (another, correctly-sized punch, to line up associated holes
prior to roll pin installation) is a very wise habit to get into. The roll pin will drive the
other punch out.

These are “real” roll-pin punches. One is to start and one is for the finish. These work way on
better than a standard punch set used for other shop needs. Tip: Drive the pin as far as you can
using the starter punch, without contacting the part itself with the punch end. The shorter the
finish, the less chance for a mess up.

Pre-pinning-prep starts with running the roll pin ends over some oiled emery or an oiled Arkansas
stone before installation. This polishes, bevels and “trues” the pin ends so they enter the hole well.
Just chuck the pin lightly in a drill and run on an angle for a few seconds. Do both ends.

Right Set

There are different-length punches available, along with a few specially designed to drive certain pins. The shorter punches are easier to manipulate. However, longer punches are best for some installations because the impacting end extends farther beyond gun parts you don’t want to accidentally contact with a hammer, or have the larger diameter handle portion in contact with a receiver.

I usually polish the surface of smaller punches. Just chuck it up and shine it against some emery cloth. There is often some roughness that’s more annoying than damaging, but it’s a small step that helps. Ensuring there are no imperfections on the surface helps when using a punch as a slave- or capture-punch because, in that duty, the punch has to extend full through the hole set.

The use of a capture-punch or slave-punch (technically the same thing just two different uses for it) is using a punch in place of what ultimately will be the roll pin you’re getting ready to seat, and it’s being used either to hold the pieces-parts together or also to ensure alignment of the pin as the pin crosses the gap and enters the inside of the hole on the other side of the part. Gas tube pins are way on easier to install using a slave punch. That little pin very easily misaligns because the gas tube very easily misaligns. The way to use a slave punch is to let the driving roll pin push it out.

Always use the correct-sized punch! A punch too small in diameter for the pin can deform and also expand (bell) the pin end. One too large can do the same (the nib bells the pin end) and usually won’t enter the hole to set the pin below flush.

I can’t really provide precise details on running a punch you won’t soon learn on your own. Make certain the end is centered and the punch is in-line with the pin. A “follow-through” sort of striking motion is better than the woodpecker routine.

Two more things: tape and paint! I tape over every little bit of area around the installation. Plain old “blue” masking tape. It is not a sign of weakness. It’s a whopping amount of insurance against marring the area from a miss-hit. And: a dab of flat black enamel on the pin ends finishes off the job to “factory” perfection. I use a flat black paint marker.

Aluminum alloy sho’ can crack! Easier than you might ever imagine. I use a piece of wood to back up the part or support the receiver, or both. This is especially important on the triggerguard and easily bent rear sight wind knob’s long thin pin.

And, yes, it’s OK to reuse a roll pin, if the ends are still tapered and the pin is still straight. This may not happen with some of the larger pins, but something like an ejector or gas tube pin can usually be reused without worries.

Proper Pin Procedure

1

2

2

Start the lubricated roll pin (1) lubricated with a drop of oil using a starter punch. Drive it as far as you can with this tool (2), but shy of punch contact with the receiver surface. Switch to the nibbed-end punch and tap it on home (3). Badda-bing, badda-bang. Although Glen removed the blue masking tape for photo clarity, its liberal use eases the impact of a badda-bang. Protrusion should be equal on both sides, which means it ends up just a little below the surface. Finish with a dab of touch-up paint.

Most of the “major” mail-order outlets such as Brownells will have a roll pin punch set, as well as individual pins.

ually be reused without worries.
Shameless Self Promotion

The preceding is a specially-adapted excerpt from the book The Competitive AR15: Builders Guide by Glen Zediker and Zediker Publishing. For more information visit ZedikerPublishing.com or BuyZedikerBooks.com.

Brownells
200 South Front St.
Montezuma, IA 50171
(641) 623-4000
www.brownells.com

Wheeler Engineering/Battenfeld Technologies
2501 Lemone Industrial Blvd
Columbia, MO 65201
(573) 445-9200
www.btibrands.com

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