Rifleman Report: Intrinsic Motivation

Shooting is a discipline that depends upon a sound mind, benefits from a fit body and is perfected by countless hours of practice and experience on the range and in the field.

American Rifleman editors and contributors put tremendous amounts of thought and countless hours of work into their writing. It is all designed to educate, enrich and encourage NRA members by increasing their understanding of firearms and related subject matter and to improve their shooting skills. To spread such passion for firearms through the written word is a calling.

For example, the work of Field Editor Justin Dyal regularly appears within these pages, and his passion for training others comes through each time. His experience in that regard, and the insights that result from it, benefit all of us. I recently witnessed Dyal’s expertise with a rifle firsthand as he cleaned up on a walking course with reactive steel in the wide-open spaces at the NRA Whittington Center—the incomparable shooting and hunting facility in New Mexico that should be on every NRA member’s bucket list. While sharing a Ruger Generation II American Rifle—along with a host of useful tips—with my wife, Kathleen, he inspired her and the other 16 participants through example, demonstrating just how quickly a bolt-action can be brought to bear on multiple targets at unknown distances.

Another one of our regular contributors, Field Editor Aaron Carter, is a former full-time staff editor with whom I’ve worked closely for two decades. An avid hunter and reloader who annually spends numerous days in the field practicing his skills and countless hours at the bench perfecting his loads, Aaron’s examination of this month’s cover gun, “Raising The Bar: Ruger’s Generation II American Rifle,” explains exactly why the newest versions of that company’s trendsetting design are even more refined and capable than the originals. Again, such observations are invaluable because of how thoroughly they are informed by years of hard-won experience.

Yet another AR contributor and experienced handloader, Field Editor Frank Melloni, offers the results of his time experimenting with a relatively young cartridge designed to address the challenge of running .30-cal. bullets through AR-15 platforms. In “Hitting The Mark: Wilson Combat’s .300 HAM’R,” Melloni explains that because the cartridge’s case is nearly 1/4" longer than that of the .300 Blackout, enough additional propellant space is available that .30-30 Win. performance can be wrung out of America’s quintessential black rifle. Taking such time to work with the powders, bullets, cases, primers and loading techniques that go into cartridge reloading demonstrates Melloni’s commitment to his craft and expands our collective knowledge on the subject.

And while African hunting is not something many of us ever get the chance to experience (if we do, it is most often for plains game), few can deny that a dangerous-game safari presents the most challenging and exhilarating form of field work for a rifle or shotgun—pitting man against deadly beast. It certainly makes for interesting reading, so we enlisted the expertise of professional hunter and longtime American Rifleman contributor Joe Coogan to write “Guns Of The Professionals.” Coogan, who has worked with some of the most famous PHs of the past 50 years, recounts specific rifles preferred by a select few and why they trusted them so implicitly when life and limb were on the line.

As I’ve written about many times before, our passion for firearms is only possible because of our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. With a presidential election fast approaching, we should all keep in mind as we make our way to the ballot box that such passion is not only for the pursuit of a hobby but also for the preservation of liberty.