Category Archives: Gun Reviews

To Shoot a Charging Bear with a S&W Model 69 in 44 Magnum?

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Have you practiced hitting  a 3 inch ball (the size of a bears brain) coming at you, undulating up and down at 20 miles an hour? I took some shots yesterday with the Smith & Wesson Model 69 Combat 44 magnum at just a  stationary target and I could only get one bullet, the first shot, in the kill zone out of 5 shots. See Video below.

But that was just initial practice. Serious practice with a moving target over time would be best. And you or I might reach the conclusion that we are not up for that task.

I saw a video where someone used a 1911 pistol in 45 ACP place more than one bullet in the brain kill zone however the 45 ACP is not Brown Bear medicine and would not likely penetrate the skull before the bear reached your body.

Brown bear experts suggest that a 12 gauge shotgun with slugs and 00 buckshot are best in brown bear country.

But on black bear here in New England the S&W Model 69 for general use on deer in regular gun season or bear is just fine say for an archery bear hunt where the bear is climbing the tree you are in and you want more protection than spray repellent.

So where does that leave us in our testing with the SW Model 69 Combat Magnum? I like the confidence I feel with a pistol in 44 Magnum on my hip and will share more on my carry of it in the deer woods this fall.

Note: during deer Muzzleloader or Bow season, you must have “license to carry permit with you” in addition to your muzzleloader/archery license or leave your pistol home.

Open Carry it during “regular”gun season if you like but if concealed under a jacket you need a “conceal carry permit”. When in doubt call NH F&G to get any questions answered before hitting the woods. Unless you have a conceal carry permit, you must unload your pistol while in a vehicle just like your rifle or shotgun. Bone up on pistol laws.

Be Safe! Good Shooting!

 

A Quick Walk with Ruger American 6.5 Creedmoor and Ruger M77 African in 375 Ruger

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OK, it’s August and it is time to get the cobwebs out of my Gun Safe.  My two most accurate rifles for the price are the Ruger American Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor ( around $400 retail) and my Ruger African M77 in .375 Ruger ($900 retail). Today I am about to shoot them when I met fellow rifleman Joe Chicarello shooting his bull barrel .22 Long Rifle. I am sure he was having a great time and nearly done shooting when I arrived at our club range. Joe was easy to talk to and we resonated on shooting and safe handling practices. He has a Browning .223 that he has yet to shoot due to a scope ring issue. I hope you get the rings soon Joe! I invited him to check out my Ruger Rifles. He has never shot any of them so after putting a round down range in the larger bullseye at 50 yards off the Caldwell bench rest with the 6.5, I invited him to try it. I said, it does kick a bit more than the .223 so my bullet hit the center target just off the dead center by a half inch. I put three rounds in the clip with an open bolt and got Joe ready to try it, again at 50 yards, but to shoot a smaller target in the upper right corner. The scope was my Leupold VX-3, a superior hunting scope ready to hunt anywhere in the world

So he shot and I put  my binoculars on it and grinned. Joe it is dead center in the bull, I said excitedly. Kicks more than I expected, he exclaimed. So I put a neoprene pad on his shoulder and he fired again. Just that one hole there, I observed. How did the pad work? I asked. Much better, he added. You’ve got another shot left Joe. So he took aim again and fired. He said, “maybe I wiggled on that one!” Accordingly, I observed that same one hole there. Lets take a look Joe  and see what’s up. The range was made cold and we walked to the target.

Arriving at the target, here we are looking for strays but when we looked close enough there was one tri-cloverleaf hole in the upper right target. All the time Joe said, I’m a bit shakey.  I assured him that was not the way the bullets saw it,and congratulated him on such fine shooting.

In my testing this rifle a year ago, I shot 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards with other hand loads in the Ruger American and was thinking these were hand loads too but not so. They were right out of the Hornady Precision hunter box which features ELD-X™ bullets (Extremely Low Drag) that I used this past summer in a different rifle where I popped 8 inch balloons at 1000 yards at the NH Sig Sauer Academy with my son Jason.

Then I shot a .375 Ruger light hand load (2200 fps) of speer 235 grain heads out of the stone cold gun and it hit 1 7/8 high from the dead center. I invited Joe to try but he said he was done. Perhaps a bit fearful, I dunno. Doesn’t kick any more than my T/C Encore muzzleloader with 100 grains of Pyrodex I said. Nope, Joe wasn’t ready.

So I proceeded to put 2 more shots in the center bullseye using the same aiming point. If you look close you can see my first shot from the 6.5 in the center bull as well.

All said and done that was a nice short walk in the park (range) and made a new friend I too. I asked his permission to use his name in this article. Of course, he said.

Good Shooting!

© 2017

Savage 12 Palma in Mid Range Prone F T/R Match by Jason Hale

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Since I’ve started long range competition, I’ve been exploring ways that our readers may enter the sport at a reasonable cost, of course you can select your hunting rifle in your safe, but if you become serious, the modifications will start.  Enter the Savage Precision Target Rifle Line.  We reached out to Savage and requested the 12 Palma due to it’s unique stock configuration and caliber choice.  Most of the Precision Target Actions (PTA) have a screw spacing of 4.41″, however the 12 Palma has a screw spacing of 3.44″, the reason for which I am not sure.

To learn about Palma Rifle competition Click Here!

All PTA’s accept large shank barrels from your favorite Savage pre-fit barrel supplier.  What I really liked about this configuration was the adjustable stock and 3-way adjustable butt-plate.  See below for some stats on the rifle.

Savage 12 Palma Match Rifle

One thing you’ll notice right away is the odd twist rate of 1:13″.  This twist rate is indicative of the intended bullet that was intended to be used, 155-156gr bullets.  As soon as I received the rifle, I quickly picked up a rail for it and mounted the 7-42X55mm Gold Ring Leupold Competition Scope & Shade we are testing (Outstanding Scope) and ordered some 155.5gr Fullbore bullets from Berger. I recognize that this was not the set up that the rifle was designed for, but the purpose of testing was to determine accuracy potential of the rifle. You can tell that this was really meant for iron sights as you can see the front sight cut near the muzzle of the rifle so that you can clamp-on front sight tubes.  In the pictures below, you’ll also see the 3-way adjustable butt-plate which is fantastic for customizing the fit of the rifle to a specific shooter.  It can be adjusted for length of pull, cant, and height.  I made some minor adjustments to the cant and height, and left it there.  I could have spent more time on tuning the stock, but didn’t.

Once the bullets came in, I took inventory of the powders that I had on hand and selected IMR 4166 which is supposed to be temperature insensitive much like Hodgdon Varget and got to putting some test loads together.

Following a break in process, the rifle immediately demonstrated it’s accuracy potential.  Being limited for time, I settled on a load of 45 gr of IMR-4166 with a COAL of 2.800″ which was limited by the Palma Chamber, which has a very short throat.  See the group shot below.  Not bad at all for an afternoons work.

In all fairness, if this was my rifle I would have spent more time tuning to reduce Standard Deviation and Extreme Spread of velocities, but given the limited distance (600 yards), vertical dispersion would not be as bad as longer distances.  Wind would be more of a challenge.

The day of the Mid-Range Prone match, I was excited to take the rifle out and see what it could do.  I knew that with good loads, it would likely out shoot me, which is a good thing.  The prone match included 3 strings of fire at 300, 500, and 600 yards, with 15 rounds for record with unlimited sighters at each distance.  The wind picked up during the day peaking with 10 mph switching winds during my 500 yard string after settling into a more predictable rhythm for my 600 yard string.  Overall I was pleased with the day, but was a bit frustrated during the 500 yard string being behind on some wind calls that cost me more points than I wanted.  I was only one of two F T/R shooters there, the other being a good friend and great shooter Barbara Lamb, she only dropped 3 out of a possible 450 points for the day, which is fantastic.

Barbara Lamb scoring for me, while Art Lamb (in line for saint-hood, in my mind) was graciously scoring for all on our target.

My scores were 143-0X (300), 131-0X (500), and 144-2X (600), with an aggregate of 418-2X.  The rifle shot great for the little time I put into load development.  I am sure that I could have done more tuning, but in the end I needed more time on the rifle to improve.

One thing I can say, is that if the other rifles in the Savage 12 PTA series shoot similarly, you can’t deny the value, considering the cost of most custom F-Class rigs being between $3000 and $5000, or more even.  Great bang for your buck.  If you’re interested in a quick and relatively inexpensive upgrade that can be further modified easily in the future, check out Savage’s M12 Precision Target Action line.  If you want to start from the ground up and build one, you can purchase an action from Northland Shooters Supply. I’ve done plenty of business with Jim; they’re awesome!

Shoot Straight and Shoot Often!

See you at the range!

Copyright © 2017 All Rights Reserved.

 

 

The .270 Winchester vs the 6.5 Creedmoor- by Ed Hale

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Rifle manufacturers over the years knew that there were few calibers that can perform at the mild recoil/increased accuracy level of the .270 Winchester for hunting with 130 grain bullets (reduced recoil). It was Jack O’Connor that made the .270 Winchester as famous as it is but it was time in the hands of a broad spectrum of hunters that continuously prove that.

The .270 Winchester is not a target rifle cartridge as it has more recoil than the 6mm/243. Its parent case is the 30-06 Springfield designed for the WW I battlefield and the .270 Winchester was designed for hunting, from varmint to big game which delivers high energy at long range.

But the new kid on the block is the 6.5 Creedmoor can deliver high energy too and is a CXP3 cartridge (Controlled eXpantion Performance) like the .270 Winchester and capable of killing up to and including moose size game with excellent shot placement due to low recoil.

For my son Jason, I took the .270 to Africa years ago and he shot my hand loaded 150 grain Nosler Partition in the Ruger M77 rifle… all one shot kills on CXP2 class game but had potential to kill CXP3 like Kudu.

I keep mentioning the CXP nomenclature as I am trying to imbed/educate it in hunter lexicon as it aids in hunting cartridge classification.

I believe the 6.5 Creedmoor will likely never supersede the .270 Winchester as a hunting cartridge but future “new rifle sales” for accuracy and long range hunting at the 500 yard level will likely go to the 6.5 Creedmoor for the target shooter and their great extremely low drag bullets that hold their energy equal to the .270 at long range.

I believe the competitive target shooting market is driving sales and innovation of the 6.5 Creedmoor cross-use bullets such as Hornady’s 143 grain ELD-X Match grade Hunting Bullet and Nosler’s 129 grain long range AccuBond hunting bullet. But manufacturers are increasing catching on the hunting rifle sales in 6.5 Creedmoor to a younger and recoil sensitive hunter market.

If the 6.5 Creedmoor ammo is made available at the local sporting store as is currently, it will increase in popularity but the .270 Winchester ammo and existing rifles will always be there. The .270 Winchester is like comfort food, it satisfies the nostalgia in many older men hunters but the rifle buyers are younger and women are increasingly in the market for a new all around hunting rifle.

The 6.5 Creedmoor is rapidly earning a new well deserved place in the hunting community! Cheers!

Good Hunting!

© 2017

 

Highlight- The Remington 783 Rifle comes with a Scope for How Much?

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Since 2013 the Remington Model 783 has come down in price and includes a 3-9x40mm Scope ready to shoot. Price – around $340.00 to $400.00 with scope. Can you say Wow! Just several years back you’d pay $800.00 to $1000 or more for the Rifle alone…And for a bit more it comes in Camo too!

I have not shot this rifle but coming from Remington you should have great aspirations for at least 1 MOA or better if you hand load. It has so many features that I get dizzy reading about them all for that price! A new hunter has only to buy his ammo and head to the range! An exceptional value for a budget conscious hunter! Read more at the Remington site below.

https://www.remington.com/rifles/bolt-action/model-783/model-783-scoped

Adjustable Trigger

Great Recoil Reduction 54% Super Cell

Dual Pillar Bedding

Free Float Barrel

Cartridges – Just about anything up to 300 Winchester Magnum.

GOOD HUNTING! GOOD SHOOTING!

 

New BELLM Trigger for TC Pro Hunter -update

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UPDATE : I had trouble installing the new spring for the trigger so I am sending the frame to BELLM to do the work.

As  most of you know, I tested the TC Pro Hunter 50 cal. Muzzleloader/30-06 Springfield Rifle Combo this summer and fall…and I bought it! The cheek rest and ammo pouch is an add on of mine.

I love the combination as I can now buy barrels for shotgun and other calibers for it. The only thing that can be significantly improved upon is the trigger. So I ordered the G2 kit below from the new website. http://1gunshop.com/catalog/?ret_id=1485279

G2 Trigger Job and Spring Kits

I want the trigger pull in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound range so Kurt from the 1gunshop set me up for it. The kit should be here soon so I can install and test it before my Russian Boar Hunt.

In addition I will test the trigger with Nosler’s 30-06 Springfield 168 grain E-Tip that Zach Waterman of Nosler is sending me.

E-TIp Lead Free Ammunition Banner

 

along with Leupold’s VX-6 zoom scope. It has a lighted crosshair too…

Good Hunting!

© 2017

 

New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine winning Ruger, Hornady and Leupold Combination by Ed Hale

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New Hampshire Rifleman’s winning combination is the Ruger American – Predator Rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor winning Hornady bullet and winning Leupold VX-6 3-18x 44mm CDS scope.

The Rifle

The rifle that won my value driven pocket book is the Ruger American for under $400 dollars yet shoot sub-Minute of Angle at 100 yards as my Test Rifle. Not long ago it took a few thousand dollars to shoot groups like that. Adjustable Trigger, floating barrel and so much more that you have to read the spec sheet below. http://ruger.com/products/americanRiflePredator/specSheets/6973.html

In particular I have tested two of the rifles, one in 243 Winchester and the other in 6.5mm Creedmoor in the Predator series. Both shot sub MOA out of the box and both were in the $400 price range. Exceptional performance from these rifles was uncanny. I bought them both but later sold the .243 as recoil was similar to the 6.5 Creedmoor and it delivered more energy punch hands down. Wow! Accuracy? We got it!

The Cartridge

The 6.5 Creedmoor Cartridge is just slightly smaller than the .308 Winchester yet with a 143 grain bullet at 1000 yards it beats the long standing military champ .308 or 7.62 NATO in both trajectory and wind deflection. As a first time 1000 yard shooter, I was able to break 8 inch balloons at 1000 yards. If you couple that with an Extremely Low Drag Bullet you have a fabulous combo for Target, as that was the original intent of the cartridge, but what about Hunting? The 6.5mm Creedmoor can handle a wider array of big game bullet weights than the 6mm/243 Winchester. I suspect the 6.5 will in time overshadow the 6mm at least as a big game hunting round as it delivers a bullet in the .270 Winchester class with the mild recoil of a 6mm. Of course bullet velocities are a bit slower. The .270 Winchester is still a faster bullet as is the 7mm Remington Magnum but at a higher cost of recoil as well.

The Bullet

Hornady Precision Hunter ELD-X™ in 143 grain with new Heat Shield™ Tips Patent Pending with AMP® Advanced Manufacturing Process. Mushroom design as low as 1800 fps and stays together out of the barrel. ACCURATE-DEADLY-DEPENDABLE

In testing by Hornady, the Hornady Precision Hunter ELD-X™ Extremely Low Drag Bullet has a very impressive G1 Ballistic Coefficient of .625/ G7 BC .315 for hunting at any distance within the delivered Energy Envelope for the game hunted such as 1000 ft-lb for deer 1500 ft-lb for Elk size game. Click the video below.

 

The Target

 

The Scope

Leupold VX-6 3-18x44mm Side Focus CDS see the VX-6 video below

 

The most expensive item was the scope. The VX-6 is unparalleled in quality and zoom and has dual erector springs that are vital in a far off hunt. This scope raises the bar in optical quality. You can spend more, but you will likely not get more dollar for dollar.  It is a scope for all time, near or far it is my best scope to date. It’s versatility, reliability was nearly unimaginable just a few years back.  Retail $850 to $1430 and worth every penny. Leupold Scopes are All American Made!

A perfect 10 combination for a big game hunter for deer, elk and African Plains game with low recoil. And my grandkids can shoot it!

Put a Ruger American-Predator Rifle Combo under your Christmas tree!

Good Hunting!

© 2016

 

 

 

 

TC Encore Pro-Hunter 30-06 Rifle – Out of the Box by Ed Hale

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If you are following my TC Encore Pro-Hunter testing, I received the TC Encore Pro-Hunter as a muzzle loader and wanted to test a rifle barrel with it. It requires the shooter to punch out the hinge pin after removing the forearm. The new rifle barrel received is in 30-06 Springfield. Yesterday I loaded up some 150 grain Sierra Game King boat-tails with 56 grains of H4350 powder and shot the barrel out of the box. The rounds loaded into the breech easily and… after firing the round was lifted by the ejector so I could remove it with my fingers. Nice! I removed the Leupold Scope from the muzzle loader and attached it to the 30-06 with the TC weaver base. Two knurled screws and it was on the rifle. I shot at 25 yards to see where it hit on paper. It was 5 inches high at 25 yards and dead center. Luckily, I was on paper. So how much to adjust the Minute of Angle – MOA down?

Doing the math; It takes 4 clicks/moa at 100 yards to move 1 inch, or 8 clicks at 50 yards to move 1 inch, or 16 clicks to move one inch at 25 yards. Correct? Sixteen clicks at 25 yards is equivalent to 4 moa on your scope elevation dial. Accordingly, 4 moa/inch x 5 inches equals 20 moa or 80 clicks to be on target at 25 yards and will likely be on paper at 100 yards. That’s a lot of clicks but use your scope dial numbers which are in MOA unless it is in Mil’s like a military scope.

Below is a three shot 100 yard group out of the box with the Sierra 150 grain head and the H4350. It is a bit over an inch. This is a great group given that the load was just created. It delivers 2700 ft-lbs at the muzzle and can drop a deer at 450 yards were energy is still above 1000 ft-lbs.  I will shoot more this next week and try different loads and bullets

tc-30-06-tc-out-of-box

The 30-06 barrel performed very well in the Out-of-the Box test.

More testing soon…

Shoot Straight, Shoot  often

 

Copyright 2016 All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

The Leupold dial numbers are written as moa so I turned the dial 20 moa and shot 2 inches or so low at 100 yards. Group 1 was

Then fired at 100 yards

TC Encore Pro-Hunter Muzzle Loader with Leupold VX-III 2.5-8 initial shots by Ed Hale

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Below this article is the detail Physical Exam on the T/C Encore Pro-Hunter Muzzle Loader.

In this article:

This afternoon, I went to the range to get the rifle and Leupold VX-III on paper. I tried a shot with the 300 grain Hornady sabot bullets at 25 yards to see if it was on paper, it was far away from the bull in the lower left. Accordingly, I chose to bore sight the rifle as the easiest way. So I took out the Speed Breech plug with just my fingers and a flip of the wrist and I could see through the bore and the scope. Nice! I dialed in the scope and two more shots later I was near the dead center but a half inch low. I moved the target to 50 yards, dialed up the vertical adjustment 16 clicks, approximately 2 inches, figuring some drop, and chose a 1 inch square in the lower right to aim at… and I hit it. “Guess I figured well. Wow! I thought,  ok now lets shoot at 75 yards with no further drop adjustment but I ran a bore snake in the barrel once before I shot.”  The first shot was an inch high. The second shot was way left as I likely pulled the shot for a myriad of possible reasons but the heavy trigger and newness to the rifle are likely reasons not the rifle itself or the scope.

I let that go and concentrated on the next shot and place that round within an inch of the first 75 yard shot which was just an inch high.  See the target below.

dsc_0001-6

This was impressive but more shooting at 100 yards will tell more and for a three shot group. I pulled the Breech plug, wiped it clean and ran the bore snake in just a few minutes, ready for the next time. The Fox Tactical Butt Stock Cheek Rest pouch worked great to store the long jag.

dsc_0003-2

Until then,

Shoot Straight, Shoot Often!

© 2016