Varmint Fall 2022

For more years than I care to count, I have kept an eye on CZ-USA rimfire rifles, and I still have the single-shot CZ 452 ZKM Scout .22 Long Rifle with which my firstborn, and later her two younger brothers, learned how to shoot – just in case grandkids show up someday. ...Read More >

Working with the 222 Remington Magnum is certainly a challenge. While it has been off the popularity lists for some time, this offspring has its advantages once you get the basics down. Granted, since it is a .22-caliber variant, bullets, primers, loading dies and powders interchange with no problems, but when I get into brass and available rifles, then it could take some time before I get to the first shot. Let me explain, albeit briefly. ...Read More >

Ask a shooter today to list John Browning’s most notable commercially produced firearm designs and the 1911 Government Model pistol would, in all probability, receive first mention while some would contend the recently discontinued High Power pistol should. The Auto-5 self-loading shotgun, discontinued in 1998, would likely get a second-place mention from those who are past the age of having a midlife crisis. Just maybe, there are those graybeards, like me, who would remember to add Browning’s last design, not quite completed upon his death at the Fabrique National (FN) factory at Herstal, Belgium, in 1926, the Superposed over and under shotgun to the list. ...Read More >

The flatbase hollowpoints and exposed lead-tip softpoints I loaded in my early days as a burrowing rodent and predator shooter have now become classics. There’s certainly nothing wrong with these bullet designs, even by modern terms, no more than there was anything wrong with the stick shift 1972 Ford F-150 ranch pickup that transported me to varmint shooting adventures as a teen. They get the job done in a wide variety of varminting situations. But comparing the bullets from my teens to modern versions might be akin to comparing that early ranch pickup to the technologically packed Chevy Silverado I drive today. The latter is simply more efficient in many ways. ...Read More >

Tor about four decades, the 40-XB and the earlier 40X, built by talented craftsmen in Remington’s Custom Shop, was the most accurate factory-built centerfire rifle in America. Like delicious icing on an irresistible cake baked by a master at his craft, it was available in a number of super-accurate cartridges suitable for bumping off varmints of various sizes at great distances. In order to escape the factory, a rifle had to deliver a certain level of accuracy for five-shot groups on a 100-yard indoor range. Accuracy was verified to the customer by including test targets with each rifle shipped. For many years, the accuracy delivered by each rifle was recorded and a tally was kept on the average accuracy of all rifles built in each caliber. The last time I checked, the overall average for several hundred rifles in 222 Remington was .373 inch. ...Read More >

Among any venue where a suppressor would seem to be a natural star, hunting – and varminting in particular – must top the bill. ...Read More >

The 284 Winchester was not a commercial success due to a number of marketing missteps, but the case it spawned quickly became a wildcatter’s favorite. Introduced in 1963, the 284 Winchester was envisioned as a cartridge that would compete with the 270 Winchester, but in short-action rifles. So it’s anyone’s guess why the 284 Winchester was introduced in Model 88 lever action and Model 100 semiauto rifles without sufficient action strength or magazine space to take full advantage of the cartridge’s potential. Even in later bolt-action rifles, the 2.80- to 2.90-inch magazine space precluded bullets much heavier than 150 grains, as they intruded too deeply into powder space to further hamstring performance. ...Read More >

Hunting has been a part of my family life for as far back as I can remember, with my father, grandfather and uncle teaching me the ropes, and passing down the rituals for both big and small game. We’d start with squirrels, rabbits and birds in October, culminating with our deer season in late November, and then spend the winter months again hunting small game. Summertime opportunities were pretty much limited to woodchucks, though as I grew older, I fervently pursued turkeys in the month of May. ...Read More >

The 25-270 WSM (or .25-300 WSM, depending on which name you prefer) has been around almost since the day Winchester announced its line of Winchester Short Magnums. Wildcatters being wildcatters, the 300 WSM was necked in every direction from .22 to .458, with the .25 caliber being one of the more popular stops. ...Read More >

If you conduct a word association test with any active member of the gun community and you mention the word “Colt,” you’re liable to get a variety of responses ranging from which Colt model is in their gun safe to which firearm is their favorite fantasy. The possibilities go back to the original black-powder revolvers first introduced in the 1830s up through the modern Pythons of today. What you probably won’t hear is any reference to varmint hunting. Hopefully, the Williams official “Ministry of Truth” is about to change that! ...Read More >