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This year, 2012, promises to be the year of the .22. Why? Because $20 for 550 rounds of .22 Long Rifle is much better than $20 for 20 rounds of something else if you are just shooting for fun. When I referred to “affordable” in my recent post about the Ruger LCR in .22 Long Rifle, I was referring more to the ammunition cost than the gun itself. But the next Ruger handgun I just received (literally, I have only checked the serial number to log it in) retails for less than the LCR .22 and is still chambered in .22 Long Rifle. It is the Ruger SR22, and it is on the way to your dealer now.
January 02, 2012
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“Pretty bold to call your rifle the American, Mike,” I told Ruger President and CEO Mike Fifer. He just grinned at me. Product Manager Mark Gurney and the engineers at Ruger’s Newport, N.H. factory, had given me a full briefing on the design, features and construction of the company’s latest model. Finally I am able to talk about the newest all-American-made bolt-action rifle. In case you haven’t put the puzzle pieces together, it is called the Ruger American Rifle, and it reflects the growing trend toward the economical bolt-action hunting rifles that are dominating the firearm industry. Ironically, it started in 1963 with the Savage Model 110, and has been dog piled on by Remington, Marlin and others. Last year, the hottest selling rifle in this class was the Savage Axis.
January 02, 2012
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It is really amazing how many cartridges have long service lives. During this centennial year of the great .45 ACP cartridge (and the gun that shoots it), we remember a full century of service for this legendary problem-solver. Students of the .45 know that the basic idea is more than 100 years old, since Colt made early relatives of the 1911 as far back as 1905. The desirable ballistics of a big, slow-moving .45 slug for military service goes back as far as 1875 with the .45 Schofield round and 1873 for the .45 Colt. That turn of the century era was fertile time for ammunition designers. We saw the .38 Spl. introduced in 1898, the 9 mm Luger in 1904 and the .44 Spl. in 1907. The .38 Spl. became the top police cartridge of the 20th century in America. It also was the basis for .the famous .357 Mag., which ushered in the Magnum handgun era.
December 22, 2011
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It was much easier deciding to carry a handgun on a daily basis than it was deciding how to carry that handgun. I knew I wanted it accessible, but well hidden, and I had to be able to train with the system. I also knew that I wanted to carry my Kimber Ultra Carry in .45 ACP.
December 21, 2011
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My blog on the Ruger Lightweight Carry Revolver (LCR) chambered for .22 Long Rifle has brought up a groundswell of requests for the gun to be chambered in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR), better known as .22 Mag. It looks to be especially attractive with the introduction of new loads, such as Hornady’s Critical Defense with a .45-grain FTX bullet, which according to factory data leaves a short 1 7/8-inch barrel at 1,000 fps, delivering a muzzle energy of 100 ft.-lbs. So why can’t you buy a .22 WMR LCR right now? The .22 Long Rifle seems to work fine, why not the .22 WMR?
December 20, 2011
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Even if you don’t need a last minute gift, buy this book because it’s a must-read for anyone with an interest in the inside story of the most fascinating firearm since Eugene Stoner invented the AR180, which became the AR15/M16 family. What gun could as dramatic in its impact as the M16? What else? The Glock.
December 20, 2011
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The “From The Editor” I wrote for the February issue (if you missed it don’t worry; it won’t be in your mailbox until mid-January) was based on two trends I have seen developing for 2012: Manufacturing guns to be affordable and the introduction of a host of new .22 Long Rifle rifles and handguns that are actually affordable to shoot.
December 16, 2011
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I obtained my first CWP back in the mid ‘90s in Mississippi. This was during the early stage of the Brady Bill, so at the time I wanted the permit more for purchasing a firearm than carrying one, as Mississippi allowed CWP holders to forego NICS check. In fact, there were only a few occasions when I actually carried a handgun on my person that didn’t involve hunting or horseback riding.
December 15, 2011
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The Baughman front sight was created on special order for a senior agent and firearms expert for the FBI. Frank Baughman was well-known in the Bureau as a close confidant of J. Edgar Hoover in the tumultuous time before World War II.
December 15, 2011
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In the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, many of us forget to be as vigilant as we should. I am as guilty of this as anyone, and sometimes have to remind myself to scan my surroundings while trying to control a 15-month-old grabbing at everything within her reach.
December 14, 2011
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For as long as automatic pistols have been in existence, designers have come up with many different ways to make them work. And by “work,” I mean handle or operate. Another term that I have often used is lockwork, which is the functional relationship between the various components of the action—hammer, trigger, sear, etc. Basically, we are talking about a series of hand motions or manipulations that make the gun shoot, reload and return to a safe, carrying condition. When it all started, the guns were almost always pure single-action, where the hammer was cocked by the movement of a recoiling slide, then released to fire by a crisp single-action trigger. Since the hammer was cocked, the designers usually provided a manual safety. This is the system used on the enduring Model 1911 and the one preferred by many professionally trained pistoleros.
December 14, 2011
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The Insider just placed a call to the North Pole and, after assuring Santa that he does not intend to hunt caribou anytime soon, was formerly pronounced “nice.” Accordingly, I put together the Insider’s Christmas Wish List and submitted it to Santa:
December 12, 2011
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