BOLT-ACTION

Charlie Askins claimed the bolt-action was finished. Was he right?

The Hammerli Force B1 Straight Pull Rifle is more fun than a Mustang GT

No. You don’t need .264 bullets to hit steel plates three sheep pastures yonder, or to topple a deer. It just seems this way.

It’s very rare these days, but caches of World War II surplus still turn up. I recently discovered 1937-contract Portuguese m/937A and 1941 m/937B Mauser...

In 1968, Ruger introduced the Model 77 bolt-action rifle. It was a rare glimpse of hope for traditional rifle shooters. Maybe the good times weren’t over...

There is one American that is as value-packed as they come — the Ruger American Gen II Rifle. The original Ruger American made a huge splash when...

You might as well know up front: My only qualifications for dispensing advice on affixing rifle scopes are longevity and incompetence. I’ve wed optics to...

Planet Earth doesn’t need another bolt rifle. But, when the east wind brought scent of this one, I had to look twice at its origin — Springfield Armory.

Ultimate is thrown around a lot but not too many things live up to the hype. The “ultimate defensive handgun,” the “ultimate long-range rifle,” the...

The argument can be made rifles haven’t changed much. If I were to show up for a deer hunt driving a Model T, my fellow hunters would think I must have...

The Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk 1 (T) sniper rifle was shot was arguably the most refined precision combat rifle used during World War II. It was the ultimate...

By 1870, the Trapdoor Springfield had been around ever since 1865. Simple, rugged and very accurate, it was a successful in-house design and well received...

Roy Huntington describes the inherent, primal wonder of a firearm as its ability to “smite from a distance.” This sense of awe only increases with the...

Hearing the name Kobus, pronounced “Qwi-biss,” grabbed my attention. Anyone having such a colorful name surely lived an adventurous life. I was in South...

Japanese weapons of World War II are generally denigrated as low-quality junk but until late in the war, this charge was far from the truth. Japanese...

No. You don’t need .264 bullets to hit steel plates three sheep pastures yonder, or to topple a deer. It just seems this way.

The Lee bolt-action rifle was the British service rifle from 1888–1957. It went through many design changes but retained its basic form — detachable...

If any phrase could be used to collectively describe Great Britain’s WWII small arms, it would be “Plug Ugly!” Be that as it may, I must paraphrase...

The era from around 1895 into the 1920s was a time when anyone with spirit and ambition could go pretty much anywhere without much government interference....

It was a crisp November afternoon in the early 1960s. A yearling boy and a yearling whitetail buck were walking in new fallen snow, on farmland owned by the...

In Africa, a savannah is a large grassy plain interspersed with acacia trees and shrubs. A savannah attracts and holds “plains” game because of the...

We all live through our guns in one way, or another — and there’s nothing wrong with that. Heck, it’s even fun. Guns have the power of making us...

Seventy-five years ago in 1948, Remington released a new rifle and started trends we still see unfolding today. Prior to WWII, skilled labor was readily...

Currently, demand for firearms and ammunition is so strong many products are hard to find and expensive when they are found. Ammunition and reloading...

Our story begins back in the Boer War of 1899. In their skirmishes with the South African republics, and despite the sizable numeric differences in their...

For rifle enthusiasts, these are the best of times as we have an amazing array of rifles, scopes, cartridges and bullets. The first deer hunting I did was...

If a .410 simply isn’t meeting your standards of sub-gauge snobbery anymore, may I suggest Winchester’s vintage Model 36? What we’re talking about...

Living on a remote farm (the nearest traffic light is 40+ miles away), I use rifles pretty much daily. I have a ready rack holding four rifles and seldom...

Why complain, if contemporary rifles function well and shoot accurately? Well, to enthusiasts, a .22 isn’t a tool. It doesn’t belong with brooms or...

Telling my Ruger American rifles apart by merely glancing at them would be a bonus. I was accumulating Ruger Americans faster than a crazy cat lady. Did I...

Two just-commissioned second lieutenants were celebrating their graduation from Sandhurst, 1910, with a pint at the local pub. They were speculating on...

The Russians, under the leadership of a power-mad dictator, attacked a vastly smaller and weaker neighbor with what looked like overwhelming military force....

Steyr’s extraordinary reputation for producing superlative military and hunting arms is well deserved.

Rifles — And Friendship — Stand The Test Of Time

Twenty years ago when I was the director of the Patton Museum of Armor and Cavalry at Fort Knox, Ky. — and the Frazier History Museum in Louisville was...

The Momentum is Franchi’s first center-fire sporting/hunting rifle, so why buy something brand new? “Brand” is the key word here — Italian company...

Big game rifles have evolved continuously with the introduction of new models, new cartridges, new manufacturing methods, changing hunting conditions and...

If you’re even a halfway-serious rifle enthusiast, you need to save up your lunch money and buy this Wheeler Tools Scope Mounting Kit.

As buffalo landed just below lion on Jack’s list, he’d secured a suitable rifle in .450 Watts. Winchester had yet to unveil its .458, so this was a...

In the history of firearms, the French Mle.1886 rifle — unofficially and universally nicknamed the “Lebel” — looms large as the weapon making all...

For me, one of the joys of having a large collection of military surplus rifles is shooting cast bullets through them. Loaded to 1,500 to 1,800 fps, cast...

Friends and relatives sometimes ask for advice on cartridge choice for big game hunting and they seem surprised I don’t have any particular favorites.