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1 May 2008 No. 237 $ Printed in USA $5.99 U.S./Canada

Sporting Firear earms Journal May-June 2008 Volume 40, Number 3 ISSN 0162-3593 Issue No. 237 Page 44.

22 Rimfire Magazine Tubes Light Gunsmithing - Gil Sengel Universal Scopes Optics - Ron Spomer 24 I Didn t Like Africa Down Range - Mike Venturino 28

...35 Whelen Classic Cartridges - John Haviland 34 44 Savage American Classic Celebrating the 50th Anniversary Stan Trzoniec Horse Cavalry Carbines

2 Sporting Firear earms Journal May-June 2008 Volume 40, Number 3 ISSN Issue No. 237 Page Africa Spotting Scope - Dave Scovill Rifle Range Convenience Straight Talk - Ron Spomer.22 Rimfire Magazine Tubes Light Gunsmithing - Gil Sengel Universal Scopes Optics - Ron Spomer 24 I Didn t Like Africa Down Range - Mike Venturino 28 Page Whelen Classic Cartridges - John Haviland Savage American Classic Celebrating the 50th Anniversary Stan Trzoniec Horse Cavalry Carbines Shootability Versus Size and Weight Mike Venturino Custom Takedown.44 Magnum DRC Marlin 94 Brian Pearce Aiming in the 21st Century Ranging, Clicking and Twirling John Barsness Page Marlin Guide Gun Mostly Long Guns - Brian Pearce 54 Whatever Happened to the.22 WMR First of the Modern Magnum Rimfires John Haviland 4 Background Photo: 2008 Royal Tine Images Rifle 237

On the cover... The Savage Model 14 Classic is chambered for the.270 Winchester and wears a Leupold Vari-II, 3.5-10x scope in Talley mounts. Photo by Stan Trzoniec.

Page 79 Page 80 Page 54 80 Remington Model 798 Overview of Remington s Mauser Al Miller 88 96 98 Sisk Walkin Varminter Product Tests - Clair Rees Website Showcase Special Advertising Section - What s

3 On the cover... The Savage Model 14 Classic is chambered for the.270 Winchester and wears a Leupold Vari-II, x scope in Talley mounts. Photo by Stan Trzoniec. Also shown, a Sharps Civil War-era carbine. Photo by Yvonne Venturino. Page 79 Page 80 Page Remington Model 798 Overview of Remington s Mauser Al Miller Sisk Walkin Varminter Product Tests - Clair Rees Website Showcase Special Advertising Section - What s New in the Marketplace Inside Product News - Clair Rees Weatherby Custom Shop Make It Your Way! Custom Corner - Stan Trzoniec 06 Winchesters Rifles & Woodsmoke - John Barsness 106 Issue No. 237 May-June 2008 Sporting Firear earms Journal Publisher/President Don Polacek Associate Publisher Mark Harris Editor in Chief Dave Scovill Managing Editor Roberta Montgomery Art Director Gerald Hudson Production Director Becky Pinkley Contributing Editors Associate Editor Al Miller John Barsness Ron Spomer Brian Pearce Stan Trzoniec Clair Rees Mike Venturino Gil Sengel Ken Waters Advertising Stefanie Ramsey: stefanie@riflemag.com Tom Bowman: bowmant@mauryboyd.com Advertising Information: Circulation Circulation Manager Michele Elfenbein circ@riflemagazine.com Subscription Information: Rifle (ISSN ) is published bimonthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (928) Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Change of address: Please give six weeks notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept., Rifle Magazine, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rifle, 2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona Background Photo: 2008 Royal Tine Images Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copyrights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. Wolfe Publishing Company 2625 Stearman Rd. Suite A Prescott, AZ Tel: (928) Fax: (928) Polacek Publishing Corporation 6 Rifle 237

Cities, counties and states build bicycle trails for bicyclists, dirt bike parks for dirt bikers, snowmobile trails for snowmobilers, kayak runs for kayakers and skateboard parks for truly crazy

5 STRAIGHT TALK Ron Spomer This country (at least in the neighborhoods where I ve lived) needs more public shooting ranges. These give desperate shooters a place to unload, reducing the random ventilating of road signs and cows. Cities, counties and states build bicycle trails for bicyclists, dirt bike parks for dirt bikers, snowmobile trails for snowmobilers, kayak runs for kayakers and skateboard parks for truly crazy people. Shooters outnumber them all, but what do we get? One town I lived in boasted a 400-yard rifle range in the bottom of a deep, narrow valley. It was managed by a gun club that had been accommodating triggerhappy pistoleers and long gunners for some 70 years and teaching NRA hunter safety classes to school kids for decades. In all that time no one almost got shot. Because of this frightening safety record, the range was closed down by a newly elected crop of safety conscious (alternate spelling: a-n-t-ig-u-n) politicians. You ve got to hand it to them, though: In the seven years since they ve closed the range, no one has still almost gotten shot. You can t argue with statistics like that. In contrast, a small town in which I once lived in South Dakota, where anyone can shoot in practically any direction on any day with any long-range rifle and hit dirt, the official rifle range is a mound of dirt pushed up on the north end of the baseball field inside the city limits. But it is securely protected by an open gate that can and will be closed and locked whenever necessary, which hasn t been yet. There was a complaint once that the booming of someone s RIFLE RANGE CONVENIENCE made it difficult to hear the umpire, but he was calling too big a strike zone for the opposing team s pitcher anyway. The point is we need shooting ranges and we need them to be perfectly safe and heavily policed to prevent the kind of needless violence some people think should occur at them. And I know the perfect such place in a western community near where I sometimes shoot. This facility can and should be emulated by every town. It was built with public money garnered from excise taxes collected on firearms sales. It was built in an old gravel pit a minimally safe 15 miles from town. It was built with covered shooting benches and target buttes from 25 to 400 yards with separate ranges for handguns, shotguns and rifles! It s wonderful. For a measly $7 per day, John Q. Public, who paid for this range, can use it practically for free. All he has to do is wait until the gate is opened at 10:00 A.M. any day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This is because no one has any need to shoot on Tuesdays or Wednesdays or, for that matter, in the early morning when summer temperatures are below 100 degrees and the wind is blowing at less than 30 miles per hour. By 10:00 A.M. heat shimmer and solar winds make any shooting endeavor more sporting, so before the wind and heat can drop appreciably, the range always closes at 6 P.M. This schedule also prevents overcrowding by your average If your county suffers from shot-up road signs, broken bottles, riddled cans and ventilated livestock, urge your politicians to begin construction of a public shooting range like this at once. That will fix the problem. yokel who starts work at 8 A.M. and gets off at 5 P.M. Pretty clever, eh? One could argue that an 8:00 A.M. opening would have been sufficient, given the 15-minute drive back to town, but there are a few shooters who work bankers hours. By 10 A.M. most of them are safely tucked away, leaving dozens of benches free and clear for the eight retirees and two trust fund babies in town. If your county suffers from shot-up road signs, broken bottles, riddled cans and ventilated livestock, urge your politicians to begin construction of a public shooting range like this at once. That ll fix the problem. R Rifle 237

7 Whatever to.22 John Haviland I have come to praise the.22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, not bury it. You would think, though, that the.22 WMR has turned into a dead duck from listening to all the hype about the tremendous might, and success, of the.17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire since it was introduced in Actually, the.17 s popularity has renewed interest in the original rimfire magnum. Shooters are dusting off their old.22 magnum rifles and buying new rifles in.22 WMR. What they have found is the.22 WMR is available in many new loads with a wide variety of bullet weights that are accurate and provide a hard hit on small game..22 WMR LOADS When Winchester introduced the.22 WMR in 1959, the 40-grain bullet was advertised with a velocity of 2,000 fps. That was later throttled back by every manufacturer to 1,910 fps. The speed of most 40- grain bullets I have measured from a variety of 54 Rifle 237

CCI s Maxi Mag+V started the trend toward lighter bullets and higher speed with a 30-grain bullet at 2,200 fps.

8 Happened the WMR? First of the Modern Magnum Rimfires loads and rifles clocked more in the neighborhood of 1,800 fps. As the.17 HMR s 17-grain bullet at 2,550 fps has shown, high velocity sells and that is the direction more recent.22 WMR loads have taken. CCI s Maxi Mag+V started the trend toward lighter bullets and higher speed with a 30-grain bullet at 2,200 fps. It nearly reaches that velocity and even slightly surpasses it in rifles I ve shot with to 24-inch barrels. Since then all the major ammunition companies have introduced.22 WMRs loaded with lighter bullets at faster speeds: Federal loads a Speer TNT 30- grain hollowpoint and a Hornady 30-grain V-MAX at 2,200 fps, Remington a 33-grain AccuTip-V at 2,000 fps and Winchester its Supreme 34-grain hollowpoint at 2,120 fps. Outland Sales pushes the limits of the little cartridge with a 35-grain V-MAX at 2,045 fps and its Coyote Killer load with the same bullet at 2,265 fps. These loads work well for most small game. Their extra speed and frangible bullets knock small game like ground squirrels (gophers) and prairie dogs for a loop. Sighted to hit on the mark at 50 yards, they drop about 1.5 inches at 100 yards and 7 inches at 150 yards. One spring my son and I parked at the edge of an alfalfa field for a day of shooting gophers. Thomas jumped out the pickup door, announcing he was taking the Volquartsen 22 MAG rifle and he d be gone for a long time. I checked the pickup box after he d left and found he had crammed his pockets with.22 WMR shells, leaving only empty Winchester Supreme boxes. I started after him, but he saw me coming and hurried ahead. I finally gave up and let him go. On the walk back I noticed a 150- yard swath of wrecked gophers. The little 34-grain bullet had killed the varmints right where they had stood munching alfalfa. Facing page, the prairie dog hunter on the right is carrying a Ruger 77/22.22 WMR. In the open country his shots were long at 150 to 300 yards. May-June

.22 WMR? Heavier bullets make the.22 WMR even more versatile. The 40-grain softpoints or hollowpoints work well on game the size of raccoons and marmots.

The even heavier 45-grain Winchester Dynapoints and Federal 50-grain hollowpoints are meant for bobcats and coyotes. However that s stretching the.22 magnum s capabilities.

22 WMR has the shooting versatility of 30-, 33-, 34-, 35-, 40-, 45- and 50-grain bullets.

9 .22 WMR? Heavier bullets make the.22 WMR even more versatile. The 40-grain softpoints or hollowpoints work well on game the size of raccoons and marmots. The 40-grain full-metal-jacket bullets loaded by Federal and Winchester are intended to lessen damage to the hides of furbearing mammals like fox. The even heavier 45-grain Winchester Dynapoints and Federal 50-grain hollowpoints are meant for bobcats and coyotes. However that s stretching the.22 magnum s capabilities. A hunter after these predators, especially when a long shot might present itself, is better armed with a centerfire cartridge like the.221 Fireball or.223 Remington. To summarize, the.22 WMR has the shooting versatility of 30-, 33-, 34-, 35-, 40-, 45- and 50-grain bullets. These bullets come with a variety of nose shapes such as pointy tips of plastic to lessen bullet drop, lead tips and hollowpoints for maximum punch transfer and a solid nose for deep penetration. Compare all those different bullet weights and styles for the.22 magnum to the 17- and 20-grain bullets available for the.17 HMR. The one-in-10-inch twist in.17 HMR barrels could handle bullets that weigh up to 25 grains, but velocity would decrease to slightly less than 2,000 fps with such a heavy bullet. ACCURACY The.22 WMR has had a less A Cooper Light Varmint/Target Model 57M.22 WMR produces enough muzzle blast that ear protection is required if you want to continue hearing gophers sneak up behind you. Left, this Volquartsen 22 MAG.22 WMR is outfitted with a Nikon Titanium x scope, which might be a bit more scope than required for precise shooting. Above, the Ruger 10/22 Magnum.22 WMR features a Butler Creek stock with a bipod that folds out from beneath the forearm. than stellar reputation in the accuracy department. A lot of that imprecision can be traced to lead bullets with a thin copper-alloy coating and rifles with chambers of generous size. But the.22 magnum shoots very well with true copper alloy jackets and in rifles with tight chambers. The load table for the Ruger 77/22 VMBZ shows that of the eight loads fired through the rifle, only two grouped five shots over 2 inches at 100 yards. To be fair to the Winchester Supreme load, on other days it grouped as tight as.87 inch from the Ruger. Heavier bullets make the.22 WMR even more versatile. The Ruger rifle was fired as it came from the box. Its trigger pull was a bit stiff at 4 pounds but had no creep. It had a very tight chamber, with a bullet requiring a hard push to enter the mouth of a fired case. The rifle s dual extractors, though, yanked out every case. The rifle weighs nearly 7 pounds and most of that 56 Rifle 237

1 2 3 weight is in the 24-inch barrel that tapers to.65 inch at the muzzle.

It commonly groups the Winchester Supreme load into.75 inch at 100 yards.

On other days at the bench, the CCI Maxi-Mag HP +V 30-grain hollowpoint loads usually shot better than 2-inch groups.

group. Remington recently changed the bullet in its Premier load to a 33-grain AccuTip-V.

Hornady V-MAX bullets as was this (3) 1.

10 1 2 3 weight is in the 24-inch barrel that tapers to.65 inch at the muzzle. A friend has had the trigger pull lightened on his Ruger, and the receiver and barrel glass bedded. It commonly groups the Winchester Supreme load into.75 inch at 100 yards. The Volquartsen 22 MAG also shot accurately at 100 yards. Of the eight loads shot, only two grouped five shots over 1.5 inches. On other days at the bench, the CCI Maxi-Mag HP +V 30-grain hollowpoint loads usually shot better than 2-inch groups. Just to see if the CCI ammunition had gone sour, I fired 10, three-shot groups at 50 yards. The average group size was.568 inch. The Volquartsen has a very tight (1) Remington Premier cartridges with 33-grain Hornady V-MAX bullets were used to shoot this group. Remington recently changed the bullet in its Premier load to a 33-grain AccuTip-V. (2) This 100-yard, five-shot group was fired with the Volquartsen 22 MAG shooting OSSI Custom Varmint loads with 35-grain Hornady V-MAX bullets as was this (3) 1.18-inch, 100-yard group with Remington Premier ammunition with 33-grain Hornady V-MAX bullets. (4) A Ruger 77/22 Target Grey.22 WMR shot this 100-yard group with CCI Maxi-Mags. (5) This ragged hole was shot at 50 yards with Remington Premier WMR in the Volquartsen 22 MAG. 4 5 chamber. In fact, the chamber must be cleaned after every 50 shots or so or an occasional fired case will fail to extract. The extractor often also pulls right over the rim of a live cartridge when May-June

.22 WMR? trying to remove it from the chamber. But when the Volquartsen is clean, it s a shooting machine. Somewhere in this piece the.22 magnum had to be compared to the.17 HMR.

22 magnum to compare the accuracy of the two cartridges. The rifles were identical with beavertail forearms and heavy 24-inch stainless steel barrels.

11 .22 WMR? trying to remove it from the chamber. But when the Volquartsen is clean, it s a shooting machine. Somewhere in this piece the.22 magnum had to be compared to the.17 HMR. This is as good a place as any. Awhile back I shot a Cooper Firearms Light Varmint/ Target Model 57M bolt-action rifle in.17 magnum and a second Model 57M in.22 magnum to compare the accuracy of the two cartridges. The rifles were identical with beavertail forearms and heavy 24-inch stainless steel barrels. Each rifle wore Leupold scope bases, so I clamped Leupold rings on a Nikon Titanium x scope to use on each. With the Nikon scope, the rifles each weighed right at 10 pounds. And boy, did they shoot well. One afternoon when the sky was blue and the air was calm, I shot three loads through the.22 WMR rifle at 100 yards. Two, fiveshot groups with each load averaged like this: Federal Premium Sierra 30-grain hollowpoint,.45 inch; Remington Premier 33- The.22 WMR is available with a vareity of bullet nose designs, from solids to pointed plastic tips and hollowpoints. grain V-MAX,.94 inch; and Winchester Supreme 34-grain hollowpoint,.52 inch. The next morning was also calm when I switched the Nikon scope over to the Cooper.17 HMR rifle. At 100 yards, two, five-shot groups with Hornady 17-grain V-MAXs averaged.56 inch. So both cartridges shot very precisely in accurate rifles like the Cooper Model 57M. However, all bets are off when the wind kicks up. When the wind barely moved the peach fuzz in my ears, groups shot with the.22 and the.17 had a definite horizontal spread. TRAJECTORY I also shot the two Cooper Model 57M rifles to compare the bullet trajectory of the two cartridges. The results of one.17 magnum and one.22 magnum load from each rifle are shown in Table I. The.22 WMR has had a less than stellar reputation in the accuracy department. Last spring during a prairie dog shoot, a friend shot a CZ boltaction rifle in.17 HMR with Hornady Varmint Express ammunition, and I shot a Volquartsen 22 MAG and Winchester Supreme 34-grain bullets. He absolutely cleaned my clock and made at least twice as many hits from 140 to 175 yards with his.17 than I did with my.22 magnum. The In wide open prairie dog country, the.22 WMR has about 100 yards more effective range than the.22 Long Rifle Table I Bullet Trajectory Comparisons FEDERAL PREMIUM.22 WMR 30-grain Sierra HP muzzle velocity: 2,336 fps, (2,200 fps) trajectory: 50 yards: inch (+.80 inch) 100 yards: 0.0 inch (0.0 inch) 150 yards: inches (-5.8 inches) HORNADY VARMINT EXPRESS.17 HMR 17-grain Hornady V-MAX muzzle velocity: 2,600 fps, (2,550 fps) trajectory: 50 yards: 0.0 inch (0.1 inch) 100 yards: 0.0 inch (0.0 inch) 150 yards: inches (-2.6 inches) Notes: The numbers in parenthesis are the velocities and trajectories stated by Federal and Hornady for their loads. As the factory figures indicate, the.17 HMR shoots a good 3 inches flatter at 150 yards than the.22 WMR. Comparing my.17 and.22 shooting results indicates the former caliber bullet dropped 2.15 inches less at 150 yards than the latter caliber bullet. That doesn t seem like much, but it is. Rifle 237

Table II.22 WMR Shooting Results five-shot group ammunition bullet velocity 50 yards 100 yards comments (grains) (fps) (inches) (inches) VOLQUARTSEN 22 MAG WITH 16.5-INCH BARREL; 5.5-16.

12 Table II.22 WMR Shooting Results five-shot group ammunition bullet velocity 50 yards 100 yards comments (grains) (fps) (inches) (inches) VOLQUARTSEN 22 MAG WITH 16.5-INCH BARREL; X NIKON SET ON 10X CCI Maxi-Mag HP +V 30 hollowpoint 2, CCI Maxi-Mag 30 Speer TNT hollowpoint 2, CCI Maxi-Mag 40 hollowpoint 1, Dynamit Nobel 40 hollowpoint.86 OSSI Custom Varmint 35 Hornady V-MAX 1, shots in.45 inch Remington 40 softpoint 1, Remington Premier 33 Hornady V-MAX 1, Winchester Supreme 34 hollowpoint 2, Winchester Super X 40 hollowpoint 1, Winchester Dynapoint 45 hollowpoint 1, shots in.33 inch RUGER 77/22 VMBZ WITH 24-INCH BARREL; 4-16X WEAVER SET ON 16X CCI Maxi-Mag +V 30 hollowpoint 2, CCI Maxi-Mag 30 Speer TNT hollowpoint 2, CCI Maxi-Mag 40 hollowpoint 1, OSSI Custom Varmint 35 Hornady V-MAX 1, Remington 40 softpoint 1, Remington Premier 33 Hornady V-MAX 1, Winchester Supreme 34 hollowpoint 2, Winchester Super X 40 hollowpoint 1, s flatter trajectory was the reason. PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD During prairie dog and ground squirrel shoots, I ve kept a running tab on how well the.22 WMR knocked varmints for a loop. The CCI Maxi-Mag +V 30-grain bullets hit prairie dogs really hard out to 40 yards. From there out to 100 yards, bullet performance was good but not spectacular, and past that distance bullets often just drilled a hole through the dogs. On smaller ground squirrels, Winchester Supreme 34-grain and CCI TNT 30-grain hollowpoints were devastating out to 125 yards. The.22 WMR s heavier bullets perform better on larger game. The few marmots I ve shot quickly rolled over with a hit from Winchester s Super-X 40- grain hollowpoints. The one red fox I ve shot with the.22 magnum was about 45 yards away. It fell over, but got back up, and I had to shoot it a When the Volquartsen is clean, it s a shooting machine. second time. I forget which load I shot that day. That s a wide assortment of small game for a cartridge that cost between 15 and 20 per trigger pull. The.22 WMR has been doing well for nearly 50 years, too. So let s not plan its funeral just yet. R May-June

May Day Sale! 10% OFF! Offer Expires June 30, 2008 FREE SHIPPING! U.S. Orders Only Call for Foreign Rates Book Catalog # Regular Price Sale Price Rifle DVD Collection RI DVD $350.00 $315.

40 Black Powder, Pig Lead & Steel Silhouettes 567.14 $16.95 $15.26 Cast Bullets for the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle 567.9 $22.50 $20.25 Dave Scovill Trophies & Cartridges 554.2 $24.95 $22.

13 May Day Sale! 10% OFF! Offer Expires June 30, 2008 FREE SHIPPING! U.S. Orders Only Call for Foreign Rates Book Catalog # Regular Price Sale Price Rifle DVD Collection RI DVD $ $ Handloader DVD Collection HL DVD40 $ $ Rifle & Handloader DVD Collection Combo HLRI DVD $ $ Big Bore Rifles & Cartridges $26.00 $23.40 Black Powder, Pig Lead & Steel Silhouettes $16.95 $15.26 Cast Bullets for the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle $22.50 $20.25 Dave Scovill Trophies & Cartridges $24.95 $22.46 Finn Aagaard Selected Works $28.95 $26.06 Ken Waters Notebook $35.00 $31.50 Mauser M98 & M $32.50 $29.95 Pet Loads 549 $49.00 $44.10 Shooting the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle 567 $22.50 $20.25 The Story of Pope s Barrels $39.00 $35.10 Varmint & Small Game Rifles & Cartridges $15.00 $13.50 Wildcat Cartridges Combo Edition $49.00 $44.10 (Mention Code 08MAYSALE to receive discount or place in comment section when ordering online. Arizona Residents add 8.35% tax.) WOLFE PUBLISHING COMPANY WOLFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 2625 Stearman Rd. Ste. A Prescott, AZ Toll Free: Tel: Fax: ORDER ONLINE:

Reduced Loads Without Reloading

Reduced Loads Without Reloading By Jim Berndt, 2006 I love shooting my surplus rifles. The abundance of inexpensive ammunition for many former military rifles is one of the really great advantages of collecting