I probably should follow my own advice, but I’m no different than most in that I often don’t! I’ve often written that varmint shooting offers the best practice there is. Woodchucks in the East and rockchucks in the West are good, likewise small rodents like ground squirrels and gophers… but there’s nothing better than prairie dogs.
Serious benchrest shooting is one of the most demanding shooting disciplines. It’s essentially a scientific search for ultimate accuracy. I don’t pretend it’s my game. I’m primarily a hunter, and my preference is to get away from the bench and spend as much practice time as possible shooting from field positions.
However, shooting from the bench is essential for achieving the desired zero, as well as determining the level of accuracy your rifle delivers and which loads produce optimum accuracy. So, although I have never been and probably never will be a benchrest competitor, I do a lot of benchrest shooting.
Caliber .270, bullet diameter .277-inch, is primarily an American phenomenon based on the .270 Winchester, which was introduced in 1925. Its origin is murky; there was an experimental 6.8mm Mauser developed for China so rare that standard references show no photos. No evidence confirms that Winchester was even aware of this obscure cartridge.
Nobody knows for sure why Winchester’s Roaring Twenties engineers settled on that bullet diameter. They probably wanted something based on the .30-06 case that might shoot flatter, kick less, and be almost as versatile. There were other options; both the 6.5mm and 7mm (.264 and .284-inch) bullet diameters were popular in Europe and making inroads in the United States, but in xenophobic post-WWI America, using a “European” diameter might have been out of the question. Continue reading “.270 versus 7mm: Too close to call!”
America’s population of feral hogs is now estimated at around nine million, growing and seemingly unstoppable. With crop and property damages running into the billions of dollars, pigs are clearly a plague for many farmers; what’s more, their status as a non-native invasive species means that we don’t yet know the long-term impact they’ll have on native fauna and flora. That said, hunting wild boar is a boon for hunters: They are our second-most numerous “big game animal” after the whitetail deer.
Pigs are intelligent and prolific, and I’m not at all convinced that conventional hunting techniques can control their numbers. But that’s above my pay grade. As a game animal, they provide excellent pork, are fun and surprisingly challenging to hunt, and can often be pursued year-round. They’re tough, and under the right (or wrong) circumstances they can be dangerous. I like to hit them hard, with plenty of bullet and enough gun.
Continue reading “Loaded for Hunting Wild Boar”
Let me be perfectly clear: I am not an expert turkey hunter! No way am I going to give you calling tips or turkey hunting tips. I bumble along, and fortunately we have a lot of turkeys to hunt these days.
So, important admissions made, I’m pretty good at shooting turkeys if and when I get a chance. Over the years—and I can go back about 50 years—I’ve hunted all the varieties, and I’ve hunted turkeys in a lot of places. My opinions have shifted over time, and may shift again. In part this is because, as turkey hunting has exploded, our turkey guns and turkey loads keep getting better.
Today I am convinced of three things: To anchor turkeys consistently you need good chokes, you need good shells, and sights are a really great idea.
Continue reading “Turkey Time!”
Let’s accept that what we call the “AR” is a controversial firearm. It’s widely demonized by the anti-gun crowd, but even among shooters it receives a mixed reception. Those who love it, really love it, but many of us have more traditional tastes. There are a lot of shooters from my generation who aren’t crazy about the AR platform, and I believe that, in part, it’s because many of us simply don’t understand them.
Now, I know I need to be careful! The only gun writer I know who had the temerity (or ignorance?) to say bad things about the AR in a Friday-night blog post woke up Monday without a career. (A shame, really—he’s actually a good friend of mine!) So, let me be clear: From my standpoint, there’s nothing bad to say about the AR. Gene Stoner’s 60-year-old design remains a fantastic firearm! (For those who don’t know the AR’s history, Stoner delivered the AR10 in 7.62×51 in 1955. His engineering team-mates, Robert Fremont and Jim later scaled it down to the AR15 in 5.56x45mm.)
What do you think of when someone mentions double rifles? For many, the double rifle conjures romantic thoughts of nostalgia and tradition. In the United States, we tend to think of the double rifle as a large caliber specialist, meant only for dangerous game. In Europe, however, double rifles are favored for driven game thanks to the fast second shot. There’s no reason why a double rifle (of the appropriate caliber, of course) couldn’t be effective in the US for black bear, wild hogs, or any close-cover hunting where shots beyond a hundred yards are unlikely.
Although modern manufacturing techniques have lowered the costs of purchasing customizing a double rifle, they’re still generally more expensive. The double requires more hand-fitting, and getting both barrels to shoot together is a time-consuming process. The double is the least accurate action type, but it’s a short to very medium-range arm…and nothing is faster for delivering a second shot.
First of all, please note that I didn’t use the title “scope mounting made easy.” I don’t find this chore easy! It is, however, essential to get it right.
Rifle accuracy is a slippery concept; with an unfamiliar or new rifle, you don’t really know what kinds of groupings are possible, or what loads will work best to get the grouping you want. On the other hand, when accuracy is noticeably worse than expected or if a rifle inexplicably shifts zero or won’t come into zero, troubleshooting becomes a process of elimination. A bad scope isn’t impossible, nor is uneven bedding, nor a bad barrel, but the first thing I check are the scope mounts, and they are often the culprit.
I am mechanically challenged. Changing a tire taxes my abilities, and mounting a scope approaches my limits. I hate messing with all those tiny little screws; I admit, I tend to break screws and strip screwheads. Although these little mistakes keep my local gunsmith in business, I do manage to do it myself most of the time.
Mozambique was colonized by European explorers–in this case, Portuguese explorers–in the late 15th Century. It gained its independence in 1975, but suffered through a civil war until 1992. Throughout the wartime period, poachers destroyed much of the country’s varied wildlife population, but today, the government works with several organizations on wildlife restoration and conservation efforts.
I was recently privileged to share a hunting camp with Craig Boddington in Mozambique through Zambeze Delta Safaris. ZDS has maintained a vast hunting area for the past 24 years, and its anti-poaching efforts have restored much of the wildlife. (On our trip, for example, we learned that they’re in the process of reintroducing more than two dozen lions to the area.)
Craig and I were there to hunt buffalo and plains game. We went in late October, which is supposed to be at the end of the dry and cool season. However, it was unseasonably hot this year—temperatures ran as high as 115 degrees in the shade during the day and in the 90s at night. Thankfully, the last few days of our hunt cooled down considerably, and we enjoyed some comfortable days and cool nights. Below, you’ll get a day-by-day report of what we did on our safari and our experiences with Zambeze Delta Safaris.
It’s late autumn now, so your deer season might be over. My deer hunting is coming up soon—next week I’m going to the thick brush of Quebec’s Anticosti Island, a place I’ve long wanted to see. Then, after Thanksgiving, comes “my” deer hunt, the 12-day rifle season on my Kansas farm. I decided which rifle to use in Anticosti a long time ago, but I’m still pondering exactly what I’m going to use in Kansas.
This is a rare luxury. I love my job, but I have to produce what my editors want. This often means that I have an obligation to use a particular new rifle or cartridge on a hunt instead of one of my old favorites. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s fun to try out some of the new whiz-bangs. On the other hand, there’s a down side: constantly switching rifles, cartridges, and optics is probably not a great key to hunting success! Never forget the old adage “beware the one-gun man.”
I’m not complaining, mind you—I know I’m fortunate. I get to spend a lot of time at the range and in the field for a living. All that time has shown me that choosing a sound deer rifle and sticking with it critical, perhaps especially so for the multitude of hunters who are limited in both practice time and days afield!
