BIANCHI & BEYOND | Revolver Loading Strips
It’s been fifty years since John Bianchi introduced the first plastic/rubber loading strip for revolvers. Available in the early 1970s, the “Speed Strip” was made from rubber with a spring steel center. The steel insert [...]
RELOADING FOR PRACTICE AND DUTY
For years many people have said that it is unwise to carry handloaded ammo for defensive purposes. This is based mostly on two elements—both of which I believe are mostly myths. The first point of [...]
SWAGING SATISFACTION | DIY .22 to .223
I have been reloading for over 45 years and casting my own bullets for almost as long. The main reason I got into loading and casting, like many others, was to make my shooting [...]
Speer Gold Dot CarryGun
Founded in 1943, Vernon Speer provided rifle bullets, and later, handgun bullets to reloaders from his small ammunition company. In the 1960s he began loading those bullets for what would become the famous Speer Lawman [...]
OPENING PANDORA’S BOX
Pandora's Box is a genuine piece and was hand-engraved by a gold and silversmith master engraver over many months of work. The gun refers to the Greek mythology when Pandora illegally opened the box given [...]
MOSSBERG MC2 SC | Great Things Come In Small Packages
O.F. Mossberg and Sons is the oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in the United States opening their doors in March. Best known for their shotguns and rifles, it is virtually unknown that the first firearm produced [...]
MAXIMIZING YOUR CCW PRACTICE WITH A CO2 PISTOL
Most of us don’t get to the range as we’d like to or should. I know I don’t. Few of us live where we can just step outside and shoot. Even when we do get [...]
TEXAS RANGER-STYLE 1911
In any gathering of shooters there’s usually some talk about the great or greatest gunfighters and crime fighting organizations of all time. The one group that seems to get mentioned most often is the Texas [...]
MARLIN 1895 .45-70 LEVER-ACTION | Still Viable for Defense or Hunting
The Springfield Trapdoor Cartridge Rifle and Carbine was produced for the military in 1873. It came chambered in an equally new, powerful cartridge. Commonly called .45-70 Government or simply .45-70, the actual nomenclature for the [...]
WMD GUNS .300 BLACKOUT
The inimitable J.D. Jones while working under S.S.K. Industries (a company he started) invented the .300 Whisper caliber in 1992 as a wildcat cartridge. The parent case that J.D. Jones used to make the .300 [...]
DEFESIVE RIFLES LEVER GUN RESURGENCE | What Was Old Is New Again
If I were to pick one class of long guns as my favorite, it would have to be lever-action rifles. They can be chambered in everything from .22 Long Rifle up to Big Horn [...]
FIGHTING RIFLES | Ruger PC Carbine
Carbines that use the same ammunition as a pistol are nothing new, even semiautomatic carbines. The Marline Camp Carbine was introduced in 1985 and had a fair amount of success until in was discontinued [...]
MOSSBERG 590S SHOTGUN | More Versatile Than Ever Before
O.F. Mossberg and Sons is the oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in the United States opening their doors in March of 1919. I’ll admit up front that I’m a Mossberg fan because of their products, customer [...]
KEL-TEC KSG BULLPUP | Who’s A Good Boy?
In 2011 Kel-Tec introduced the KSG—a pump-action bullpup shotgun that held 14 rounds via two tubular magazines. On first seeing the KSG I was immediately reminded of the Neostead shotgun made in South Africa. Like [...]
BROWNING’S THIRD ITERATION | The Auto-5
In my last two shotgun columns I wrote about John Browning’s first two shotgun designs: the lever-action Winchester 1887 and the Winchester pump-action 1897. This month we’ll take a look at his third—the world’s [...]
POTENT PERFORMERS | 20-Gauge Combat Shotguns
I’ve written before about the advantages of a 20-gauge combat shotgun, but I decided it was time to revisit the issue in this column. Up front, I’ll admit that the #3 Buckshot load normally [...]
