Number 93. oreign SY.UU

Transcription

1 Number 93 oreign SY.UU

2 The Magazine for Shooters May- June 1984 IN THIS ISSUE Elmer Keith, Stock Duplicators....Bob Hagel John Bivins Rating Cartridge Effectiveness... Dave Scovill Model 1941 USMC Sniper Rifle..... Kenneth Kogan Lightweight Newton s First Rifle... Mike Venturino Wgf E. PyIe Aerial Shooting with an Air Rifle..... D. D. Hickey Ruger Red Label Conversion..... Layne Simpson In Search of a David Webb DEPARTMENTS Capitol Watch...5 Aiming for Answers...6 Classic Rifles...8 Air Rifles Book Review Dear Editor American Gunmakers ProducTests...57 Product & Service News Trophy Pointers.Z...66 ON THE COVER This custom.270 by Maurice Ottmar features a dressy G33-40 action, an English walnut stock checkered in the O Connor pattern complemented by skeleton grip cap - and buttplate by Biesen. The stock blank is Australian walnut, imported by Angelo and Little, Spokane, Washington. Photography by Mustafa Bilal. Rifle Magazine. copyright 1984, is published bimonthly by Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc., (Dave Wolfe, President) P.O. Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona Telephone (602) Second Class Postage paid at Prescott. Arizona and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: US. possessions and Canada - single issue, $2.50; 6 issues, $13.00; 12 issues, $25.00; 18 issues, $ Foreign. single issue, $3.00; 6 issues. $16.00; 12 issues, $31.00; 18 issues, $ Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published data, or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the editor. Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied by stamped sell-addressed envelope and the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. Change of address: please give six weeks notice. Send both old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Dept., Rifle Magazine, P.O. Box 3030, Prescott. Arizona The Staff Dave Wolfe, Publisher and Editor Mark Harris, Assistant Publisher A1 Miller, Assistant Editor Jana KOSCO, Advertising Manager Dave LeGate, Art Director Barbara White, Production Supervisor Joyce Bueter, Circulation Director Susan Barney, Circulation Manager Terry Bueter, Accounting Mardell Harms, Executive Secretary Holly McLean, Editorial Assistant Randy Swedlund, Photographer R.T. Wolfe, Ph.D., Consultant Technical Staff John Bivins Bob Brackney Sam Fadala J. I. Galan Bob Hagel Neal Knox Ed Matunas Ludwig Olson Stuart Otteson Homer Powley Layne Simpson Mike Venturino Ken Waters 4 RIFLE 93

3 BOOK REVIEW Scopes & Mounts OR A GREAT many years Bob F Bell has been writing a regular feature on scopes and mounts for Gun Digest that gives the information necessary to keep the reader up to date on new developments. The commentary, test and evaluation material is always informative and interesting. As many gun buffs will MONELL CUSTOM GUNS Specializing in Varmint Rifles, Thumbhole or Classic Stocks and Complete Rifles. Red Mill Rd. Box 96R Pine Bush, NY s (914) ANGEL0 & LITTLE Custom Gunstock Blanks Imported Australian English Walnut Gilbert M. Little N Sargent Spokane, Washington Ph remember, Bob was also assistant editor of Gun Digest for a time. He is now editor of Pennsylvania Game News, and writes on scopes, firearms and hunting for various publications on a freelance basis. With that kind of background, it is only natural he should write a book on his favorite subject of scopes and mounts for rifle and handgun. ScoDes & Mounts contains eleven chapters plus an appendix giving specifications of domestic and imported scopes of current manu- I facture, as well as for those that are obsolete. Starting with an introduction that illustrates the usefulness of a good scope on an ultra-accurate varmint rifle, and on into Chapter 1 explaining why scopes are the ultimate in sighting equipment for the vast majority of rifle shooting situations, every chapter is filled with highly YWR GUN LIKE NEW! Reblue vour auns in minutes with the SuDDlies to do the iob riaht I,, easy-to-use COMPLETE PERMA BLUE@ **THE TOUCH-UP TWINS GUN BLUE KIT Contains even/thing you For a quick touch-up of scratches and need for a quality, professional finish - worn spots use PERMA BLUE@ LIQUID durable Perma Blue Paste and the pre- BLUE, the old reliable gun blue for more blueing essentials, Cleaner-Degreaser than 30 years. Liquld Perma Blue will give and Blue and Rust Remover plus the your gun a non-streaky blue-black finish &- -.\ in 30 to 60 seconds. SUPER BLUETM, the extra-strength solution designed for Qiving an instant, deep, black k!b used for complete reblueing or for touch-up. Eden Prairie, Mn Write for Free Catalog useful information. If anything worthwhile regarding scopes and mounts was omitted that was available at the time the book was written, I failed to notice it. As an example of the work s completeness, those who yearn to know the basics of how and why a scope became the precision optical instrument hunters take for granted today, will be delighted with Chapters 2 and 3. Starting with the all-important aspects of light, sight, and the human eye, there is excellent explanation and illustration of how the telescopic sight improves the vision of the eye to create the clear, bright sight picture that is so important to precise shooting. Also, the intricate working mechanism of the scope, what it does and why, is explained and illustrated. Chapters 4 and 5 go into the design, function and usefulness of different types of reticles. Everything from the simple and useful to some that are downright ridiculous, and from the plain crosshair to the most complicated rangefinder. Later chapters run the gamut from handgun scopes to rifle stocks made especially for scope use. There is even a page devoted to power boosters. Chapter 10, Getting Zeroed, contains complete and wellwritten information on sighting the rifle. Chapter 11 is actually a -series of subchapters, with seventeen subheadings following the main heading Scopes in America, which starts with the earliest scopes and continues to the modern. The following subheadings cover the scopes made by various manufacturers in detail, and is of great interest and value as reference material. Scopes & Mounts not only contains what is perhaps the largest volume of useful information on optical sights ever published under one cover, but is profusely illustrated with drawings and photographs showing every facet of scope design and use. The text is written in a manner that makes good and entertaining reading from a subject that could well be boring and dry. Bob Bell and DBI Books are to be congratulated for producing this highly useful and interesting book. It is the same size as Gun Digest and Handloaders Digest, and contains 224 pages. The price is $9.95, and it is available wherever Gun Digest books are sold. - Bob Hagel 0 12 RIFLE 93

4 Join an elite aun book club J A Limited Edition Collector s Series in Leather & Cold I The books will be important volumes, rare and long out-of-print. When originals are found today, condition may be only fair,-but price is invariably high. These are classic firearms and handloading texts by such masters as Mattern, Naramore, Whelen, and Sharpe - and other books from early in this century on sporting and military rifles, handguns, shotguns, every aspect of shooting, hunting and gunsmithing. Every book in our series will be a beautiful and valuable addition to your library. Premium features of construction will make these volumes more costly than ordinary books - but they will be much more attractive and durable than the rare originals. Size will vay according to the original edition. No effort will be spared to reproduce photos and art with maximum clarity and quality. Paper will be acidfree to insure durability for generations. Page edges will be gold gilded to further reduce the ravages of moisture. Finally, all pages will be Smythe-sewn - an old but the strongest method of binding signatures together. Customdesigned endpapers will reinforce the volume for stressless opening and closing for years to come. The covers themselves will have set heads, hubbed spines and headbands; these features are also old and seldom used because of cost - but they add immeasurably to durability and appearance. Genuine leather, goldstamped with the name of the book, covers the spine and partial-wraps the front and back cover. The remainder of the covers will be top quality cloth, the front gold-embossed with the Wolfe s-head logotype. A permanently sewn-in ribbon marker completes the volume. *- f imited to only 1,500 numbered copies. To receive the same-numbered volume of each book in the series, you send only $15 now to reserve the first book and receive your number assignment. Numbers will be assigned as we receive the orders for subscription to the series. The $15 fee is a first-time only fee to inaugurate your series, and will be applied to the purchase of the first book. You will continue to receive that number as long as you order each new book as it is offered. If you do not wish to accept a particular offering, you will lose your numerical assignment; we cannot guarantee that you will receive the number again if you resume purchases later in the series. We expect that there will be a waiting list. the ultimate addition to a firearms library Prices of the individual books will vary according to their size and the complexity of production - $30 to $60 range - but will be priced fairly for their quality. They will, because of this quality and their intrinsic value, be the ultimate in elegance and excellence of fine book publishing. We anticipate shipment of the first volume of the series in the spring of 1984 One of these two books will be the first offering J.R. Mattern s Handloading Ammunition (1 926), or Townsend Whden s The Hunting Rifle (1 940) Send for catalog of other Wolfe books & periodicals we Wolfe &?mury (ijusics (By the publisher of Rifle and Handloader magazines) Post Office Box North Montezuma. Prescott, Arizona MAY-JUNE

5 VER THE YEARS the firearms 0 literature has paid its respects to one of America s finest firearms designers - Charles Newton. Designer of those ill-fated Newton rifles, he has been called America s first wildcatter. He has been described as way ahead of his time and he has been credited with, starting the American love affair with the magnum cartridge. However, in his lifetime he was much less revered than many modern day gun pundits realize. It was the then dean of American firearms writers, Capt. Edward C. Crossman, who made the bad pun on Newton s name in an article describing the upcoming release of another Newton rifle. Crossman called him Charlie DeNewt, more than loosely associating the frustrated Newton with a salamander. The association really was unfair. It is generally agreed that the Newton rifle went from good to bad to worse. The first models, said to have numbered around 3,000, were of excellent quality. The wood to metal fit, the bluing, the quality of wood, machine work, and the overall finish were very good in this early batch. It was the later ones, and those assembled from parts, that were the bane of their owners. Phil Sharpe tells of one.30 caliber that had a chamber considerably oversize. These later rifles also were poorly machined and assembled. Indeed, the products became so inferior that Newton had to go to court to prevent his name from being associated with them. -. When the rifle first appeared in April 1916, it was a work of beauty. It predated such classics as the Winchester Model 54, the Remington Model 30, and the Savage Models 40 and 45. Today just finding a Newton in good shooting condition is a feat. I was fortunate to borrow one from my good friend and longtime Rifle and Handloader subscriber, Tom Steyr. His rifle was in excellent condition, although it bore the wear of many hunting trips. Tom has had the rifle The Newton featured a low receiver profile, interrupted-thread locking lugs, stripper clip loading and a large claw extractor. RIFLE 93

6 for more than twenty years and still takes it out hunting every year. The Newton was a rifle that opened many doors for modern day shooters. It is important to document the firsts this early rifle offered. The bolt was designed like a 1910 Ross; it had an interrupted thread type locking lug. In this way the bolt had seven locking surfaces which in theory gave greater locking power than any Mauser. The rifle bolt also had two rear locking lugs. Interestingly, these lugs were in line with the front locking lugs and this made it possible to withdraw the bolt through the normal raceway. This may not appear important, but it enabled Newton to design his rifles without an elevated receiver bridge as seep in Enfields of that time. In turn this gave the overall receiver a much lower profile than other rifles of the day. Another of the outstanding features of the Newton was the safety. Many riflemen think that Mauser or Winchester innovated the three-position safety. On the contrary, it was Newton. The bolt handle could be rotated freely with the rifle in the cocked position. The safety also locked the bolt and blocked the striker, and was easy to get at, being located on the righthand side of the rear bolt cover. Imagine the surprise of modern day Newton owners when they realize that a scope can be mounted in normal fashion without the safety interfering. The same could not be said of Model 54 Winchesters, early Model 70s and nearly any Mauser type action. Aside from this, the safety was quiet. The rifle also featured stripper clip loading, no doubt part of the designer s desire to get maximum firepower. More importantly, the firing pin was of one piece, and this enhanced lock time. The rifle has a flat surface on top of MAY-JUNE 1984 Upper right, the heads of three bolts compared: left, post-64 Winchester 70; center, the Newton; far right, Winchester 54. Underneath, a bottom view of a Newton bolt. There are seven locking teeth up front plus two reserve lugs in the rear. the receiver rings. In its day it gave a good sighting plane for iron sights and in more modern times it offered a great place on which to fix a scope. Nearly any secondhand Newton one comes across shows signs of being drilled and tapped for scope blocks. This, in combination with a bolt that did not interfere with scope mounting, made the Newton years ahead of its many yetto-be-designed competitors. One of the all-time great contributions to modern bolt action rifles was Newton s hinged floorplate. The other arms companies virtually copied this very functional feature of the early Newton rifle. The plate was held in place by a plunger type release button. This is identical to that found on the modern Model 70. However, it was in using the extended floorplate as a wrench to loosen the barrel from the stock that Newton showed his genius. Once the Newton designed the double set triggers on his rifles. The backward front trigger appeared on subsequent models. The three-position safety allowed safe bolt manipulation; it was quiet to operate and allowed a lowmounted scope. floorplate was swung down, it was rotated at its forward end until it released the forward action screw. This was followed by gently lifting the barreuaction out of the stock just ahead of the fore-end tip. That operation left the rifle neatly separated into two pieces that could be easily stored or transported. The stock and action could always be correctly tightened, for Newton designed the forward screw so that it could be turned into the action with the aid of a screwdriver. This effectively changed the pitch of the exposed portion and the floorplate could be neatly tightened. The rear tang was split andalso held a screw that could be turned into the stock. This took up any rear slack due to wear. The forward end of the tang was angled so that the lip on the rear end of the action fit tightly under the tang..newton s takedown feature is 3

7 I Both front and rear sights were mounted on barrel bands. Later models of the Newton bore different addresses on the barrel stamp. perhaps his only design that has not been imitated by any American gun manufacturer. One last feature was a double set trigger which Newton designed. The rear trigger set the forward trigger and a mere touch would send the firing pin home. Production of Newton rifles is divided into three distinct phases, each corresponding with a bankruptcy or reorganization of the company. The first company went into receivership in April Thus, the first rifles were only made for two years. The second company, called the Chas. Newton Rifle Co. N.Y., became insolvent in Newton then tried one last time to organize a company, calling it the Buffalo Newton Rifle Company. In short order it too, went under. It is the first rifle that is considered to be the best example of the Newton genius. Although numbers may vary, depending on who you read, there were very few of these produced. Sharpe, in his book The Rifle In America, states that perhaps no more than 7,000 Newtons were produced. He is probably referring to all the Newtons produced by the three different reorganizations. Harry 0. Dean, writing in an old 1956 Guns magazine, claims about 2,400 original, first company Newtons were produced. On the same subject Sharpe estimates about 3,000 rifles were manufactured. Right, serial number and caliber were stamped beneath the receiver. The serial number was also marked on the stock, bolt, butt plate and various other parts of the rifle. Newton experts agree that any of the first Newton rifles below serial number 3000 are excellent examples of their kind. Beyond this, workmanship is poor and some guns may even be unsafe, since over 1,000 specimens were rejected by Newton s own inspectors. These rifles were later foisted onto the public by a firm calling itself the Newton Rifle Corporation. This was a firm set up by the first receivers and was little more than an attempt by the creditors to recover some money from their investment by selling off the rejected rifles and a few parts. The rifle I examined bore serial number This puts it early enough to be on the safe side and guarantees that it is an original first run Newton. Overall the gun was in excellent mechanical condition with only the checkering showing much wear. The rifle was chambered for the.30 Newton cartridge. This is the caliber that caused such a stir, since at the time it was the most powerful magnum-like cartridge in existence. At that time the was sporting a new 150-grain bullet that traveled at 2,700 fps. A 150-grain.30 Newton had an advertised muzzle velocity of 3,200 fps. Newton was known to have experimented with various forms of rifling. He actually had some success with an oval bore that was originally designed by Charles Lancaster in the early 1800s. Early tests indicated that this type of bore retained its accuracy better than conventional styles; other advantages to this bore were its ease in cleaning and reduced working pressures. There are no records, however, to show that these barrels were outfitted to the early Newton rifle. A quick check of the sample rifle shows standard rifling, and although flewton went on to develop two more kinds of rifling, they need not be considered here. When examining the old Newton it is plain to see that the classic stock design was at its peak. The stock can best be described as conservative with much European influence. The rifle appeared well before the California mania in stock design and was therefore spared the exaggerated pistol grips, epoxy finishes, radical cheekpieces and the general racy lines bracketed with white spacers. The Newton sports a neat Schnabel foreend and a full shotmn butt. The Distol grip is full and gentle in its iines. Another European influence is the thinning of the grip throughout its upper portion. Compared to a modern Model 70 the pistol grip -- is noticeably thinner. No cheek piece or Monte Carlo for Newton, yet his stocks look refreshingly modern. 32 RIFLE 93

8 i View A: Newton receiver, with parts of the set trigger attached. Note the step on the tang, which nestled under the tang plate when the rifle was assembled. View B: When the floorplate was released, it was free to rotate on the threads of the front receiver stud, (shown in View D) freeing the guard and stock from the barreheceiver group. Raising the barrel unlocked the tang from tang plate. The latter was attached to the stock, as shown in View C, and screw-adjustable to compensate for wear. The forward portion of the comb is fluted. This again reflects European influence, although by this time several of the Winchester lever models were also featuring this nice touch. The comb is not as straight as a modern bolt gun and the overall length of the wood is a bit longer. These things really do not mean much and probably reflect the results of manufacturing demands rather than any significant line of thought in stock design. Other stock dimensions are those common to the time. The length of pull is just over fourteen inches. This would be considered a bit long by today s standard (often said to be 13% inches), but unlike the shotgun this extra length in a rifle stock usually poses no trouble and is sometimes actually preferred in a rifle used from the prone. The 314 inch drop at the comb is an acceptable one. Drop at the heel is inches, and while this may seem excessive compared with today s sporting stock, it is quite acceptable when iron sights are used. The Newton stock is a picture perfect embodiment of American stock making at the end of World War I; it is only now that the same classic lines are returning to our sporting rifles. Naturally, a stock like this comes to the shoulder effortlessly and the sights align on target as if the shooter has been using the rifle since his youth. MAY-JUNE 1984 Original factory loadings for the.30 Newton came in 150,172,180 and 225- grain and developed 3,200, 3,000, 2,860 and 2,610 fps respectively. In its day this was considered hot stuff and the entire line of Newton cartridges blazed many trails. The original.30 Newton was made by necking down the 11.2 Mauser case to.30 caliber. It was first known as the.30 Adolf Express, named after the custom rifle maker Fred Adolf. Interestingly, it was the first American cartridge with a 23-degree shoulder almost identical to the 25-degree shoulder on the.300 Winchester Magnum,.338 Winchester Magnum, the dying.264 Winchester Magnum, and the ever popular 7mm Remington Magnum. Shooting this old gun, and using essentially untried loads, produced highly variable results. Hundred-yard group sizes were as small as one inch with 180-grain bullets, but increased so much that a realistic average is unavailable. Clearly more load development is needed before accuracy can be readily defined. Also, fitting with a good quality scope will be necessary as the ancient Weaver on the test gun may be suspect. Tom and I did have the opportunity to test fire some original Western factory cartridges carrying 180-grain open point, boat-tailed bullets in this fine old piece. The average velocity from five of these rounds was 2,790 fps which was only 70 fps off the factory claim. In all, this is not bad and considering the Cartridges were over forty years old it has to be considered excellent. From a shooter s standpoint the old Newton had few faults. One of the complaints recorded in the shooting literature is the excessive recoil produced by the rifle in.30 Newton. In the test rifle recoil was very evident. Without scope and sling the Newton used here weighed only 6% -pounds. This is indeed light for a rifle with a 23 %-inch barrel. Recoil was calculated using a load of 62 grains of IMR-4895 with a 180-grain Sierra bullet. This load produced an average of 3,025 fps muzzle.velocity. Using the standard recoil calculation, this yields a hefty pounds of recoil energy - a fair bit for the average shooter to absorb. The same load in a.300 Winchester Magnum would give the same recoil in a rifle of similar weight. However, a.300 Winchester Magnum of mine in a Model 70 Winchester tips the scales at an even ten pounds. The same calculation would then yield only 19.8 foot pounds of recoil energy. The conclusion is that the old Newton did kick somewhat. There is little doubt that any biggame hunter going afield with an early Newton was well and correctly armed. Unfortunate circumstances brought down the Newton rifle companies, and the rifle never really caught on with the shooters of the day. Praised for his cartridges yet damned for his rifles, Charles Newton was indeed the father of the American magnum cartridge.. 33