Varmint Fall 2019

A few utilitarian rifles and shotguns were stored in a shallow bedroom closet. With occasional permission, Dad allowed the removal and sometimes disassembly of each one. Then, one at a time I wiped them down with WD-40 (!), helped put them back together and awaited another opportunity. Their engineering was too complicated to understand at the time, but the cold, blued barrels, firing and ejection systems became more interesting over time. This sounds silly today given my career path, but most fascinating of all were the stocks. The look and feel of the ordinary walnut was pleasant even to a boy. ...Read More >

The 22-250 Remington is a varmint cartridge that always delivers great accuracy and top velocity to hit small targets across far distances. Cooper Firearms of Montana chambers the 22-250 in a variety of bolt-action rifles, such as its Model 54 stocked with stunning wood or its new Raptor Model 22R with a Manners stock. Either way, the end result is great accuracy. ...Read More >

Our fastest mainstream varmint cartridge is nearly 85 years old. Sure, there are a couple of .22-caliber cartridges that match or slightly edge its performance, but they never really grabbed American shooters’ imaginations like the Swift. Winchester chose the semi-rimmed 6mm Lee Navy as the parent case, and like anything well ahead of its time, the outdoor press summarily piled on. Furthermore, as is standard practice in the shooting community, decades-old assertions are passed down through the years – usually by people who have never actually shot the cartridge under discussion. ...Read More >

Wildcats usually arise when a varmint hunter or shooter identifies a need not met by a factory loading. For most wildcats – especially all the “improved” versions of existing rounds – the goal is to wring out more velocity from the parent case without exceeding equivalent pressures. The other “wildcat line” is to neck down or neck up cartridge cases to a caliber different from the original chambering. ...Read More >

When it comes to rounding-up a turn-bolt action for a new varmint rifle build, our cups runneth over. The Remington 700 and Savage 110 series are prime candidates simply because so many are out there on the used gun market with prices sometimes low enough to allow robbing the action and dumping everything else at blue-light special prices. Both companies also sell new actions alone. For shooters who can afford them, there are custom actions such as the Stolle, Borden, Stiller, Farley, BAT and Surgeon. ...Read More >

The last century proved to be an exciting time for small-game hunters. Rifles were becoming more accurate, powders were getting more abundant and cartridges were starting to make their own runs into history. Most of them are still used today in one form or another. There was certainly a lot going on and while men were busy developing cartridges and rifles to shot them all in, riflemen were enjoying the fruits of their labor in the field. ...Read More >

Back in 2007 Barnes Bullets introduced its Varmint Grenade (VG) bullets made with a copper/tin powdered metal core surrounded by a gilding metal jacket. VGs were mainly intended for shooting in areas that require lead-free bullets. However, because they shoot so accurately and instantly fragment on contact, the bullets have become popular everywhere game from ground squirrels to coyotes are hunted. ...Read More >

In all my time in the field, the one rifle I did not see very often was the Browning T-Bolt. Unless they were there and I never noticed, the T-Bolt seems to be a rarity in the hunting fields. Not that there is anything wrong with the rifle, but with the market full of bolt-action and semi-automatic rimfire rifles, the T-Bolt has regrettably been left out of the fray in rifle reviews and gun store inventories. ...Read More >

The idea was simple enough: Friend Cole Bender from Proof Research offered to rebarrel my Winchester Model 770 243 Winchester, a rifle I hadn’t shot in years. When returned, I would have a heavy-barreled 243 Winchester to replace my beloved Remington 700 BDL Varminter that was sold to pay some emergency debt long ago forgotten. I can say this rebarreled 770 will never replace that old Remington, but it has the potential to do some very useful things in the field. ...Read More >

The .17-caliber cartridges date back over 75 years, with the famous gunsmith and cartridge developer P.O. Ackley having had a considerable part in their development. The first commercial .17-caliber cartridge was the 17 Remington, released to the public the same year I was: 1971. Based on the 222 Remington Magnum necked down to hold .172-inch diameter bullets, the 17 Remington was released in the Model 700 rifle and would drive a 25-grain bullet over 4,000 fps. ...Read More >