Varmint Spring 2023

When selecting a varmint rifle and cartridge combination, there are many factors to take into consideration. Some prefer a dedicated rifle and cartridge setup for shooting lightweight bullets at light speed. Others steer towards heavy, longer barreled bench-style rifles in larger calibers to send bullets with a high-ballistic coefficient (BC) to help buck the wind and offer a flatter trajectory. There are many factors to take into consideration and various reasons why these factors may be more important for a given situation. ...Read More >

Although I did not know exactly what farm I was on in Petersburg, New York, with friend Ed Hall, I did know that the chuck downrange was really starting to annoy me. Bolting back and forth, in and out of his hole made tracking it a bit more difficult, but I was still hoping it would take a break, stop, stand up and wait for its demise. That moment finally came, the Ruger No. 1 chambered for the 219 Donaldson Wasp barked, and the chuck was on its way to the big blue. ...Read More >

There was a time when .17-caliber wildcats lurking behind about every bush across our great nation were eager to spring on unsuspecting varmints of various sizes. The 17 Pee Wee on the 30 Carbine case introduced by Parker Otto (P.O.) Ackley during the late 1940s may have been the earliest, although only one rifle was known to have been chambered for it. Handmade by Ackley, its action was a drastically scaled-down copy of either the 1917 Enfield or the Remington Model 30. ...Read More >

A 243 Winchester was my first centerfire rifle because that is what the “expert” behind the gun counter convinced my non-hunting parents that a 12-year-old boy addressing local desert mule deer could handle. I was not exactly unhappy with this decision, as the raw fur market was booming and I harbored big plans for calling some of eastern New Mexico’s super-abundant coyotes. The 243 Winchester proved an ideal fit for the shooting my western childhood offered – annual desert mule deer and Barbary sheep hunts, the occasional lottery pronghorn or elk permit, a black bear, a monthly parade of coyotes and grey foxes during winter months and jackrabbits and burrowing rodents by the thousands during summers. ...Read More >

Several manufacturers are turning out 22 Long Rifle rifles that boast varmint accuracy right out of the box. At the other end of the scale, stores and gun shows are awash with affordably priced, used factory grade 22s - good plinkers, engineering curiosities or historically interesting rifles - but perhaps not possessed of varmint accuracy. There are exceptions though, and a lot of experienced shooters would agree that one of these is Winchester’s Model 69 series. Introduced in 1935, Winchester boxed up the last Model 69A in 1963. Part of its long success is surely due to the Model 69’s surprising accuracy. ...Read More >

Volquartsen is to the rimfire world what Ferrari is to sports cars – performance-driven and truly iconic. Hornady’s 17 HMR, affectionately labeled the “Hummer” by many fans, is indisputably the king of magnum rimfires, at least based on popularity, if not sheer velocity. Combine all these elements and we have something wonderfully special. Add the ability to quickly break that rifle down for more compact transport or storage, while also maintaining Volquartsen’s renowned rimfire accuracy and you have something truly extraordinary. That is the relatively new Volquartsen VT2 Takedown Rifle. ...Read More >

When it comes to varmints and looking through many of the hunting magazines, most favor the western part of the country for the best in small-game hunting. Granted the plains are loaded with prairie dogs, the lowlands of the peaks harbor great numbers of rockchucks and anyone out looking for that just right pronghorn antelope will certainly run into a badger or two. ...Read More >

With the popularity of varmint hunting over the last few years, the 221 Remington Fireball has been coming back with some demand. Remington Arms Company created this special cartridge for its single-shot, bolt-action pistol, the XP-100. Remington had the 222 Remington but decided it did not need as much powder capacity for a firearm with a shorter barrel to perform. Most pistol barrels ranged from 10 to 12 inches, but there are some up to 16 inches for use in competition. Therefore, Remington came out with the 221 Fireball to optimize performance in the pistols to help achieve complete powder burn in the shorter barrels. They did so by shortening the case length from 1.700 inches on the 222 Remington to 1.400 inches on the 221 Fireball, which reduces the case capacity by 5 grains of powder compared to the parent case, the 222 Remington… and just like that, Remington has a new cartridge! Rumor has it that they got the name for the cartridge from the fireball that was coming out of the shorter pistol barrels. ...Read More >

On a spring-like February day, I loaded my “possibles bag” with pre-measured charges, cloth patches, a patch knife, caps and about a hundred newly minted balls. I carried a rifle for pigs but my .32-caliber Crockett Rifle was loaded too. When I saw the first bushytail flicker across the road, I started hunting diggers. ...Read More >