It’s not often that we introduce new elements into the American Rifleman formula, but in our March 2024 issue, you’ll find one listed under the “American Rifleman Classics” icon shown above. We will use it on occasion to take a look back across the ARC of history through unique content from long-forgotten issues of the magazine. This month’s installment, “The Rifleman In The Atomic Age” was published 72 years ago in March of 1952, yet seems eerily appropriate in the increasingly dangerous first months of 2024.
We also don’t typically run movie stills on the cover, but the March 2024 issue's exception is explained in the story “’I Reckon So’: The Guns Of ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’” in which NRA Museum Director and longtime American Rifleman contributor Phil Schreier recalls striking cinematic gold while preparing for a popular exhibit some 23 years ago. The story was simply too entertaining to pass up since it intertwines the real-life history of the Walker Colt revolver with the reel-life prop guns used by acclaimed actor and director Clint Eastwood in his 1976 landmark Western. It is an educational and entertaining example of how such movie magic can remind us of the true influence that significant firearm designs have had on American history.
On the topic of commercially available firearms that are breaking new ground, we enlisted the aid of another longtime contributor, Craig Boddington, to run an unusual new rifle through its paces. With more African safaris under his belt than most hunters ever dream of, Boddington is no stranger to rapidly bringing a rifle to bear on game, and in “Strasser’s Innovative RS 700 Straight-Pull,” he proves that the back-and-forth action is not only alive and well, but that one capable of being reversed is just the thing for southpaws such as himself.
Another example of unexpected new products that we felt compelled to share is notable since it’s not every day that a firearm manufacturer so synonymous with one type of platform decides to bring a completely different one to market. But, in the case of Henry Repeating Arms, well-known primarily for its lever-action rifles, that’s exactly what has taken place. In “Practical Heritage: Henry’s Big Boy Revolvers,” Field Editor Jeremiah Knupp evaluates two versions of the new handgun, which promise to gain ground among traditionalist and new shooters alike with their high quality of manufacture and distinctive appearance.
Handloading is alive and well, and it isn’t only practiced by those who shoot matches. But when it comes to creating loads for hunting, does it really matter if the same sort of fanatical care that target shooters use to develop recipes for shooting from the bench is applied to loads for the field? One of the most experienced handloaders and western hunters I know, Field Editor John Haviland, set out to answer exactly that question and reports his findings in “Essential Handloading Steps.”
This mix of entertainment, new-product evaluation and technical advice is designed to satisfy your hunger for knowledge about firearms and shooting, but it’s also intended to inspire your enjoyment of our Second Amendment freedom. Not only are shooting skills perishable, our freedom to exercise them could be as well. In fact, whether we use firearms for hunting, plinking, self-defense or collecting, our ownership of them is the most tangible evidence that we are all still, for the time being, armed citizens and not defenseless subjects.
That is perhaps the most important distinguishing feature of America as a nation—and one worth fighting for.
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