MONTANA MUSINGS

Mike Venturino remembers 50 years of gun writing

Today’s affirmation-driven world of “me, me, me!” does a lousy job of accurately portraying a man’s impact on this earth. Thankfully, our late...

The very first cartridge I handloaded carried a bullet cast by myself. As a complete novice, my only source for information was gleaned from firearms magazines.

As a shooter, handloader, varmint/big-game hunter and competitor, I think several guns and calibers are underrated. It seems media hype often leads less...

To generations of American shooters and hunters, the Winchester Model 1894 rifles and carbines and the .30-30 cartridge are nigh-on synonyms. That said, a...

For many gun buyers, the lure of getting guns with special stories or pairs with consecutive serial numbers is irresistible. My good friend, Kirk Stovall of...

Weight is important to horse soldiers so almost as soon as firearms were invented, efforts were made to lighten them for mounted troops. That said, prior to...

Over the past 40 years, I’ve encountered many Springfield Armory M1As. In the late 1970s, the first one I fired belonged to a friend — a Vietnam combat...

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...

Over many decades of shooting, one is bound to develop favorites. One of mine is a genre of firearms; pistol-cartridge rifles, carbines and revolvers.

In 1870 the United States Military purchased 1,000 Smith & Wesson .44 American revolvers. However, they were not satisfied with this first cartridge-firing...

Ever gotten off on the wrong foot with someone? This cliché can be attributed to me and the .32-20 cartridge. First it started in 1972 with a K-Frame S&W...

Recently I sat down in front of one of my lead casting furnaces with misty eyes. The reason for the emotion was happiness because a variety of complications...

M1 .30 Carbines and its variations are firearms for which I will never lose my fondness. Somehow back in 1964, I discovered the Office of the Director of...

In my most humble opinion, the following is a conundrum about Winchester’s Model 1895. Many people say they would only want one if chambered for the...

Overwhelmingly, what we see, hear and read about guns in the media is negative. Purposely so, in my opinion. The good things — when and if reported —...

I dread snake season, for I have a 10-lb. dog that follows me most everywhere and he would never survive a rattlesnake bite. We also have feline companions...

The realization I was a quester came many years back but my first major quest was upon deciding I needed a sample of every Smith & Wesson revolver from...

For many reasons some handgunners like having a rifle/carbine of the same caliber as their pistol. I’m one of those people.

Growing up back east, two things caught my imagination early on — guns and horses, both of which were not plentiful there. So, as soon as I was able, the...

So what does a gun ’riter do for weekend recreation? Does he play tennis or golf? Go fishing? Watch football on TV? Fly drones? Personally I shoot. During...

Here’s a conundrum for you — what World War II pistol had the same name, fired the same cartridge but were made by two different manufacturers on...

During my writing career, I obsessed over a genre of firearm to the point my editors became frustrated. It was because I studied those rifles so deeply,...

My all-time favorite hunting rifle has been a 1952 vintage Winchester Model 70 Featherweight chambered for a cartridge introduced that same year — the...

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...

The U.S. Army has held onto the basic AR platform since adopting the M16 in 1964. Model 1903 Springfields were standard issue for over 30 years and M1...

A friend, to whom I have bestowed the nickname “Shrapnel” for reasons too involved to cover here, recently accused me of a most heinous offense. This...

New visitors to my Shooting Shack often point at a permanent fixture and ask, “What’s that for?” It’s my Ransom Pistol Machine Rest and I explain to...

In my entire career I don’t remember writing about a firearm with which I had only a few moments’ experience. But what an experience!The gun was the...

Which guns were instrumental in making the west safe for settlers? Mike "Duke" Venturino counts two as co-winners with two others as second-placers.