The I 'Only Accurate Rifles Are Interesting'

Rifle - Magazine

- Col. Townsend Whelen

Volume 3, Number 5 Septem ber-0 ctober 1971

In This Issue Departments

Defense of the '06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ray FitzGerald

Wootters Remington Slide Actions. . . . . . . . . . . John Colder Weather Hunting . . . . . . . . . . . Lloyd deVore

Why You Missed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Hagel Leather Group Tighteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . Al Miller Bestest Brush Gun: 458x2 . . . . . . . . . . . Will Hafler Accuracy from Autoloaders . . . . . . . . . . . . Don Zutz

Air Rifles Come of Age . . . . . . . . . . . . George Nonte

Inletting Muzzle Loaders. . . . . . . . . . . Jim Carmichel

Editorial . . . . . . 6 Muzzle Flashes. . . . 8 Loading for Bear . . . 10 Dear Editor . . . . . 12 BenchReport . . . . 63 JustJim . . . . . . 74

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16

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26 30

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Adopted in Augwt 1969 as Official Publication For National Bench Rest Shooters Association

Cover _ -

We wish we could claim that Jim Carmichel photo- graphed this scene just as he found it. Truth is, he borrowed the skull and '73 Winchester f rom a Prescott merchant. Then he and Production Manager Dave LeGate "planted" the relics o n the nearby desert. It sure makes a gun enthusiast ponder: "If only that Winchester could-tglk!"

The R I F L E Magazine i s published bi-monthly by Dave Wolfe Publishing Co., P.O. Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona 86301. Telephone (602) 445-7810. Second Class Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Single copy price of current issues-$1.00. Subscription price: six issues $5.00; 12 issues $9.00; 18 issues $12.50 (Ou ts ide U.S. possessions and Canada-$6.00. $11.00 a n d 515.50). Recommended foreign single COPY Price $1.25. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

Publisher of The RIFLE i s not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur f r o m use o f published data, or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from t h e ed i to r , Manuscripts from free-lance writers must be accompanied by stamped self-addressed envelope and the publisher canno t accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

Change of address: Please give one month's notice. Send both old and new address, plus mailing label i f possible, t o Circulation Dept., The R I F L E Magazine, P.O. Box 3030. Prescott, Ariz. 86301.

4

The Staff Dave Wolfe, Publisher

Neal Knox, Editor

Jim Carmichel, Associate Editor

John Wootters, Associate Editor

R. T. Wolfe, Ph.D., Associate Editor

John Buhmiller, African Rifles

Harvey Donaldson, Historical

Roy Dunlap, Gunsmithing

Edward C. Ezell, Ph.D., Technology

Jim Gilmore, Bench Report Editor

Bob Hagel, Hunting

Norm Lammers, Tech. Adviser

A1 Miller, General Assignment

Maj. George C. Nonte, Military

Helen A. Martin, Asst. to Editor

Ken Waters, General Assignment

Edward M. Yard, Ballistics

Don Zutz, General Assignment

Dave LeGate, Production

Jane Clark, Circulation Manager

Barbara Laffey, Asst. Circulation Mgr.

Polly Starbuck, Executive Secretary

Roy Starbuck, Administrative Assistant

The RIFLE Magazine

W R I T E R S have spent the twenty years, at least, con-

vincing the shooting public that “the average hunter cannot handle more recoil than that delivered by the .30-06 and still shoot accurately.” At the same time, a great deal of emphasis has been placed by these same authors on the supreme importance of bullet place- ment. The inference is that if you shoot a light-kicking (translation: “less powerful”) rifle, you’ll get quicker, more humane kills.

All this is well and good, as far as it goes, but I respectfully submit that it doesn’t go far enough. The funda- mental flaw in this argument is that a man not shooting his rifle enough be-

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tween seasons to become accustomed to recoil will never acquire the marksman- ship to place his bullet with surgical precision under hunting conditions, no matter how painless the rifle may be to shoot.

The sad truth is that the “average” modern American hunter (Rifle readers excepted, of course!) is hard-pressed t o hit a bale of hay reliably from the offhand position at 100 yards or more! If he is excited by the presence of a trophy, or if he is winded, surprised, or fatigued, or if the light is not too good or the target poorly defined or moving, his chance of “placing the bullet” neatly in the heart-lung area-on purpose- drops appallingly. Not to mention that flash of white in the cedars that is the only deer he’s seen all season; on that one, bullet placement is only a gun- writer’s phrase, recoil or no recoil.

Recoil, in reasonable amounts, is not in my opinion the chief contri- buting factor in gut-shot or leg-shot game. That factor, t o put it bluntly, is simply lack of skill. Ask any profes- sional big-game hunting guide.

There is no sure cure, unfortunately, but it is undeniable that a deer gut- shot with a powerful cartridge is more likely to be anchored long enough for a finisher than one plinked in the paunch with a pea-shooter. So this gun-writer recommends a bit too much cartridge to take care of the bad shooting, rather than a bit too little, in hopes that reduced recoil will improve the shooting.

Please understand that I’m not saying that a big, powerful cartridge will make up for bad shooting, nor do I claim that the use of a potent cartridge can ever excuse deliberately placing a bullet behind the diaphragm. There are ob- vious limits beyond which no amount of bullet energy can compensate for an unfortunate hit.

What I am saying is that a lot of hunters currently toting .243’s and

257’s ought to be lugging .30-06’s for deer, and that the 7mm Magnum or larger (preferably larger) should be minimum for heavier American animals.

But those things kick too much, I’m told. Baloney! There is no magic number of foot-pounds of recoil, below which Joe Blow will automatically be a deadly game shot and more than which will automatically reduce him to a flinching bundle of raw, ragged nerve-ends! Recoil is something you get used to, and any shooter can train himself to handle a lot more gun than he may believe.

The answer is handloading. You simply load the cartridge down to mild levels, accustom yourself to the feel of it, and then gradually increase your powder charges in easy stages, staying at each level as long as it takes to find out that the rifle’s not hurting you and that you can shoot it well. Don’t get impatient, and don’t talk yourself into a flinch even before you’ve dis- covered by experimenting what your limits may be. And we all have our limits; be assured of that!

It’s important to realize that the rifle wilZ kick, and that you’ll be forced to devote a part of your conccnt;ation - to controlling it. With a real kicker, try to do your targeting from a rest so arranged that you can stand behind it, rather than from a ‘Eonventional bench. Make certain you have the butt snugged up hard against your shoulder, and that you have a solid grip with your left hand on the forearm. Mount your scope so far forward that you’re forckd t o crawl the stock a trifle to secure a full field. And quit worrying about it.

You’ll find that you get rocked back solidly, but that you aren’t hurt and that the bullet went about where you aimed it. After that, you may find that shooting a powerhouse is actually fun. Be realistic, though, and don’t let the foot-pounds of bullet energy you can launch get tangled up with your sense of machismo; there is no relationship whatever between cart- ridge selection and what my old Army drill sergeant used to refer to, delicately, as “balls”!

Come what may, nobody alive can shoot a big-bore rifle only a dozen rounds a year and retain either recoil tolerance or shooting eye. Both knacks absolutely demand a good deal of fairly

September-October 197 1 0

regular shooting, and that’s where re- loading pays off in spades-and in dollars, too.

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The older I become and the more game I shoot or see shot, the more inclined I am to bigger bores and more power (Le , : bullet energy). And the more I talk to and read the case- hardened authorities who’ve been there when the game was shot, the more impressed I am with the fact that they (with some exceptions) tend to agree. The more big-game guides I talk to, from Alaska to Africa and back, the more I sense their distress at clients who insist on using minimum legal calibers.

that some rifles shoot better than others, careful records are kept on all guns shot by the Marine Corps Team. The guns that prove the most consis- tent are the ones shot in the matches.

In discussing the realities of game shooting, as opposed to the nice, neat, on-paper theories, I find a strong under- current of sentiment in favor of bigger cartridges even among men who have taken the opposite position in print. They tell me too many stories about the situations in which precise bullet placement simply wasn’t possible, when a powerful, deep-penetrating bullet, skillfully directed, saved the day-or the safari.

I concede-nay, emphasize-that every hunter’s recoil tolerance has its limit. But 1 firmly believe that every hunter owes it to the game, if not to himself, to work as close to that limit as is practical. And the hidden bonus is, of course, that when a man shoots enough to learn to do so comfortably, he somehow becomes a much deadlier bullet-placer in the process! IC,

Marine Lands

After reading Jim Carmichel’s article, “Building a 1,000 Yard Rifle,” in Rifle No. 14, and some of the comments on the article in issue No. 15, I find I must comment. I cannot speak for the Army Markmanship Training Unit as Mr. Car- michel can, or any of the other services, but I can speak for the Marine Corps. I have either built, helped build, or super- vised the building of all the 1,000-yard guns shot by the Marine Corps Team in the past 1 2 years.

The first error in Carmichel’s article was when he stated that one of the Ma- rine Corps was pleased with the .30-338 since some of his shooters had posted some high scores with it that day. The coach should have been proud, since the rifles shot at 1,000 yards by the Marines Corps are chambered for the .300 Winchester - a remarkable feat!

As for trying ten barrels before set- tling on one, the Marine Corps has never tried even two before settling on one. There were guns that didn’t shoot, 1 agree, but nine out of ten times it was stocking or scope. A uniform barrel within tolerances and fitted prop-

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The other rifles are continually worked on to improve their accuracy.

I wish Carmichel would be more specific when he says he knows of mili- tary teams that use the ten-for-one method. I have been associated with most of the military gunsmiths and I know of no service that uses this meth- od. I think Carmichel’s method of selecting a barrel is fine, but let us not blame the high cost of building a rifle on the military teams, They win their share of matches because they are well trained and good shooters, not because of their equipment. The last time the military bought more than one barrel for a gun it was called a Gatling gun - not a 1,000-yard gun.

The names of Ted Fasy, Martin Hull, and Middleton Tompkins were brought up in Rifle No. 15. They are prabably the most dedicated .30 caliber shooters in the country. They test extensively and have contributed more to big bore shooting than any one group of shooters I can think of. I’m sure, however, they will agree on this. In order to win at 1,000 yards, especially the Wimbelton, it takes a rifle, a good shooter, a very good relay and a lot of luck.

”

Just to stir up something on which is the best action for a 1,000 yard gun, in 1970 the top shooters with the Ma- rine Corps Team shot round-bottomed actions chambered for the .300 Win- chester and they performed better than anything they have had in the past.

A. W. Hauser USMC Retired

LaFayette, N. Y.

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12 The RIFLE Magazine

L A

By GEOR ’GE NONTE

NYONE W H O DOUBTS that be air rifles have come of age need only to have trooped the firing line at the Phoenix World Shooting Champion- ships last October. The shooting that was done there by the finest marksmen from all over the World shows clearly that modern air rifles have equalled, and even in some instances exceeded, the very high degree of accuracy de- veloped these past few decades by the best .22 rimfire target rifles.

Today’s target air rifles are truly deserving of the term “Precision Air Rifles” which has been bestowed upon them by some manufacturers and im- porters. The better (and more costly) makes and models possess all the fea- 42

tures and attributes of the finest center fire or rimfire target rifle than money can buy.

Mechanically, these guns can place all their pellets through a single hole and I defy you to determine that it was not made by a single shot without examination under magnification. If target dimensions may be considered an indication of the degree of accuracy a gun is expected to produce, then I submit that the ten-ring of the standard ten-meter International Air Rifle target measures a barely 1/32-inch. In fact, it isn’t a scoring ring as we usually visualize it, but rather a tiny black dot.

Competent air rifle competitors shoot with such a degree of precision

that only a single shot may be fired at each target. A single well-placed pellet obliterates the ten-spot. All competitive shooting is done at a range of ten meters, which is generally con- sidered to be 33 feet; the precise range is 32.81 feet. If that sounds like a ridiculously short range to you, try a simple experiment. Paint the head of a conventional straight-pin black; stick the pin in a wall 33 feet away; then try to hit it squarely with any gun you own, Even your pet, finely-tuned, heavy-barrel .22 match rifle with scope will give you an exercise in frustration before the pin is hit. That pinhead closely approximates the ten-meter bull. Then take a moment to think

The RIFLE Magazine

These sectional views of a cocked (top) and fired high-grade Anschutz show the complexity of the mechanism and the reason for their relatively high price. Note the recoil-damping system.

about the fact that only iron sights (admittedly only the best available are used) are allowed in this game, and you begin to get an idea of just what it is all about.

The name of the game is precision. Precision in the rifle, precision in the ammunition, precision in the sighting equipment, and-most of all-precision in the shooter. Many a top-notch smallbore or big bore powder shooter has cried bitter tears after his first session on the ten-meter air rifle range.

Before you get the idea that only long-gunners are involved, be advised that air pistols are fully as well de- veloped and in as wide use among International competitions. With the short guns though, the shooter gets a break-the target ten-ring is a mon- strous 3 9 4 inches in diameter. Con- sidering that the American standard gallery (50-foot range) pistol slow fire target uses a ten-ring .90 inches in diameter, you begin to get an idea of what the pneumatic pistoleros are up against.

How did it all come about? Well, until only very recently U. S. shooters thought of air guns only in the light of BB-guns we all used as kids, and the pump-up pneumatic guns so many of us used for our first real hunting-guns ranging in accuracy from indifferent or non-existent to mediocre by today's competitive standards. Americans seem to have simply discounted the notion September-October 1971

that any air gun could be truly accurate. Consequently, no really accurate U.S. guns were developed-even to this day.

In Europe, though, they take their shooting a bit more seriously. There, too, generations of severe restrictions upon firearms ownership - particularly after world War II - literally forced many people to either use air guns or not shoot a t all. Europeans did not have the vast wide-open spaces with which we were once blessed. They couldn't simply step off the back porch and blast away with any firearm, much less the cannons we have been accus- tomed to. They were forced t o shoot in many areas where firearms were not acceptable for various reasons. Faced with this, they developed highly ef- ficient air guns rivaling in accuracy the fine .22 arms which were receiving the same sort of development here.

Early in the game it became obvious that the spring-air gun had the potential for delivering by far the most uniform power impulse - this is the same basic

design we limited t o the inaccurate BB-gun. When made to a high order of precision, the spring-air design - wheth- er adapted to rifle or pistol - delivered a very precise and uniform power im- pulse in the form of a jet of expanding, compressed air. '

With a uniform power impulse at hand, one needed only to add a finely rifled barrel, top-quality projectiles, and a trigger mechanism which permitted - firing with a minimum of disturbance of the gun and shooter. Certainly the European arms industry was capable of producing all that. It haddready done so in many fine target firearms that for many years swept world championships against all comers.

But things aren't always as easy as they'seem on the surface. Spring-air guns presented a problem not encoun- tered in firearms. Where the latter recoiled rearward during and after firing - and thus after trigger release, after the shot was on its way - air guns produced a similar disturbance before the pro-

Side-cocking IS used on the Savage/Anschutz rifle. The extremely close tolerances in rifles of this class demand that the arm be kept cleaner than most firearms.

43

Precision air rifles such as these are fitted with the finest sights, pellets through a single hole too small to allow an unfired adjustable triggers and all the other refinements typical of fine .177 pellet to fall through. Prices fall in the $170 to $200 match rifles. A t 10 meters some are capable of placing ten range.

jectile started down the bore.

The problem lay in the fact that in a spring-air design, trigger release merely allowed the air piston to be thrust for- ward violently to compress the air, which then forced the pellet down the barrel. This violent and rapid move-

--merit of the heavy piston between the instant of trigger release and projectile movement destroyed - or at least seri- ously affected - gunlsight alignment on the target. The gun actually lunged forward, away from the shooter’s con- trol, before the pellet started down the barrel. Even though such guns pos- sessed superior mechanical accuracy,

the shooter could not utilize it because of this disturbance.

Not until after World War I1 was the problem really solved, and then in different ways by different gun makers. By properly compensating their designs to cancel out the effect of “piston surge” they were able to produce an air gun which disturbed the shooter’s control no more than when a -22 match rifle is dry-fired.

The method employed by Feinwerk- bau in both rifles and pistols is the most familiar to us since those are the

guns we shoot regularly. It serves as an excellent example.

Essentially, Feinwerkbau places the rifle and receiver (the latter housing the air chamber, piston, and piston spring) moveably upon a cradle attached solidly to the stock. When unlatched, the barrel and receiver are free to move fore-and-aft a limited distance upon the stock. Fitting to the cradle is very precise so that there is no significant lateral or vertical play.

The searing is so arranged that when the gun is cocked and loaded, the barrel and receiver are latched securely

44 The RIFLE Magazine

piring to International honors in the

J The Daisy/Feinwerkbau match pistol is typical of the precision handguns used in torrid International com- petition-where a .394-inch 10-ring is used.

f

to the cradle. At the instant the trigger releases the sear and the piston starts forward to compress air, the barrellre- ceiver unit is unlatched, and is free to move rearward on the cradle under the influence of the piston.

At that instant, all moving parts are virtually floating, so Newton’s Third Law of Motion takes over - “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” So, as the piston moves forward, the barrel/receiver moves rear- ward - and the stock, held by the shooter, remains stationary, unaffected by that movement.

The result is complete cancellation of piston surge and no disturbance of aim or gun control. The feeling is one of complete absence of recoil or lunge. One cannot, in fact, determine that the barrel and receiver have moved except by looking at their position relative to the cradle in the stock. Only slight movement takes place - the much greater mass of the barrel and receiver compensating for the lighter piston moving a far greater distance.

After the shot, normal gun handling movement, shot recovery, causes the barrel/receiver unit to slide forward and again be automatically latched in the firing position.

This method of compensation is not cheap. It requires very careful fitting of parts and ultra-precise timing of searing and unlatching. It also requires - as d o other methods -#very exact balancing of all moving parts to achieve zero disturbance.

Another method of compensating for piston surge involves simultaneous movement of a balancing piston or weight rearward. Some feel this meth- od is best because it does not require visible movement of the barrellreceiver unit and the sights mounted thereon. I see no basis for this preference inas-

September-October 1971

much as the sight movement is not visible.

The movement is so fast as to be imperceptible and is directly along the line-of-sight, so does not affect the sight picture. In any event, whatever movement there is takes place after trigger release, so cannot affect the shot unless it were to alarm the shooter and cause him to twitch the gun during the time the pellet is traveling down the barrel.

The whole thing is much like shoot- ing a Luger (Parabellum) pistol with its toggle-joint action which flies up before one’s eyes with each shot - the move- ment is there, but so rapid as to be invisible and, therefore, has no effect upon the shooter.

That the mobile-barrel method of compensation used in the Feinwerkbau guns is generally superior to others would seem to be fairly evident. After all, over 80 percent of the World Championship shooters used the Fein- werkbau last year at Phoenix. Nearly all winners in both rifle and pistol air gun matches used various Feinwerkbau guns. That would seem to be recom- mendation enough for me were I as-

Geld,

Air gun competition of a high order is not necessarily limited to interna- tional events. There is the NRA 333 program intended to give training and experience in the same courses of fire and with the same general type of equipment. This program has existed for only a few years and was brought about primarily because we had no “training ground” to develop and pre- pare shooters for International events. Activity in the 333 program is not all we’d like it to be, but as more shooters learn the capabilities of air guns, partici- pation should increase.

Abroad, there is far more participa- tion in air gun shooting at top levels. Much of this is doubtless due to the factors already mentioned, but it is also due to the fact that other nations take seriously the matter of fielding top- notch teams for the Olympic Games and other International shooting events. Of course, to get’into the game one needs a first-class rifle and ammunition. Though no guns of the type are pro- duced domestically, several excellent makes and models are available from importers.

DaisylHeddon, long famed for Daisy BB-guns and other air guns of various sorts (in fact this country’s largest pro- ducer of same) distributes the very fine Feinwerkbau Model 300 already men- tioned. It has side-lever cocking, weighs apprqximately 10 pounds, produces about 575 fps muzzle velocity (with amazing shot-to-shot velocity consist- ency), and is fitted with very sophis-

All competition-grade air rifles have multiple trigger adjustments, as shown here on a Savage/Anschutz Model 250.

45

ticated micrometer-adjustable sights. Price is in the vicinity of $175.

The Diana Model 65 air rifle is also compensated to eliminate piston surge and is cocked by pivoting the barrel. It produces over 500 fps, has an adjust- able stock, and weighs nearly 11 pounds. Sights are minutely adjustable and price is in the $170 range. It is available from Air Rifle Headquarters, Box 327, Grantsville, W. V. 26147.

Anschutz, long known for its other fine match rifles offers the excellent Model 250, imported and distributed by Savage Arms. This gun is cocked by a side-lever and fitted with the best of sights, the same as found on Anschutz .22 rimfire target rifles. It is fully compensated for piston surge, utilizing an oil damper and compen- sating piston system. Weight is in the neighborhood of 11 pounds, with sights, and it produces essentially the same velocities as the guns already mentioned. Price is a bit over $150, less sights. Sights will raise the cost to nearly $200.

Walther, best known for its fine, double-action pistols, also offers a fine, top-grade competitive air rifle in its LG V model imported by Interarms. It is a fully compensated, barrel-cocked design with typical European stock style carried to somewhat of an ex- treme, and is very popular on the con- tinent. Sights, weight, and velocity,

are essentially the same as the foregoing guns and price is in the same range.

The closest we can come to a com- petitive domestic air rifle is the Win- chester Model 333 which is manufac- tured in Europe but marked “Win- chester.” It is barrel-cocked and com- pensated by a double-piston arrange- ment. A non-glare barrel sleeve is fitted for greater rigidity and to sim- plify cocking. Sights are virtually identical to those found on other guns of the type, as is general ballistic per- formance. Weight is 9% pounds, and the price is right up there with the rest of them at just under $180 com- plete.

An excellent Hammerli air rifle is also available in Switzerland but is not easily come by here-so there is little point in describing it other than to say its performance equals that of the guns already listed.

All of the guns described above share common characteristics. Triggers are finely adjustable, down to pull weights of less than one pound, and are of the double-pull type favored in Europe. This is natural since they are made primarily for the European market. All share a bulky, functional, four-position style stock fitted with an adjustable butt plate. All are in .177 caliber only, that being the standard for air rifle competition and generally more accurate than the .22 caliber popular for other shooting in this country.

And, all require so-called “match grade” pellets in order, to develop their full potential on target. Each rifle maker has his own pellets to offer, allegedly best for that rifle. However, it is not unusual for guns to show a preference for pellets of one make or the other- much like .22 rimfire target rifles.

All have very sophisticated and fine- ly adjustable rear sights of aperture type, usually adjustable for eye re- lief and fitted with soft rubber eye cups and adjustable diopter eyepieces. In fact, the same make and model sight is used on more than one of the guns listed. Front sights are normally of the hooded type with a wide variety of interchangeable inserts.

In accordance with International Air

The tiny ,177 bore is capable of accuracy at 70 meters which cannot be equaled by firearms.

46 The RIFLE Magazine

Rifle rules, the stocks carry no slings, swivels, palm rests, hand stops or other accessories. All have barrels of approxi- mately 18 inches, the length that has proven to produce best results. Barrels are very carefully and precisely rifled with a large number of quite shallow grooves to produce best accuracy with the light (about eight grains), soft lead, skirted or waisted pellets.

There is no doubt about it, com- petitive air rifles are very finely made and extremely accurate arms. To regard them as toys or “sissy-guns” is a great mistake. They are highly specialized guns that, within their scope of opera- tions, will outshoot anything else you can come up with.

Air guns do have a decided advan- tage over powder guns in that they require very little shooting space and that they do not disturb persons or activities nearby. As more and more shooting facilities for noisy powder guns are closed by encroaching ur- banization, air guns become increas- ingly attractive. Then, too, those ill- informed and prejudiced people who look with suspicion on anyone using a firearm for sport will usually pass air guns by - to them powder guns are weapons, air guns are not, so are accept- able. Air guns just might be the only way you can continue shooting regu- larly and often - and, they can be just as much fun, just as challenging, just as satisfying, as the smoke-belching, pow- der-burning variety.

Bestest Brush Gun (Continued from Page 37)

under difficult conditions-trailing wounded elk. Over a period of years doing this kind of thing you can learn a lot about what a rifle will or will not do.

.The only elk I shot with the 300- grain Barnes was a small bull which had been wounded with a Ii’O-grain .30-30 Silvertip. He had flashed across an opening about 25 yards from me; he shuddered and sagged at my shot, but regained his stride and galloped off; I had hit too far back. However, after setting out on what we thought would be a long trail, we found him only 60 yards away.

He had been angling away; the 300 Barnes entered just behind the right ribs, took out a chunk of the liver and made a four-inch diameter ragged entrance into the rear of the right lung. The channel tapered down from there; it ran 2% inches where it crossed into the left lung and one inch where it left the chest cavity. The slug lodged just behind the left shoulder-in the classical place one aims for, but on the off side. The shot from the .30-30 had clipped the right kidney loose from the aorta so the bull would soon have bled out. All I did was save us some tracking and check out the 300-grain Barnes.

I also received reports on this load; one that it expanded well at 200 yards-an elk hit high through the paunch lay down after 30 or 40 yards- and one that it held together after breaking a spike bull’s back.

It also works on bears. In the spring season two years ago I shot

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a big sow as she rounded a bush 30 yards from me. She ran about 12 yards in a semicircle and piled up. The 300 Barnes had entered the rear right ribs, torn out most of the right diaphragm and lung, gone through front and left lung and ribs, clipped inside of left shoulder blade and lodged in front of shoulder.

I’ve only stopped one elk with the 350-grain Hornady; it had been wounded-in fact about shot to pieces-with an 8mm Mauser using asL sorted factory loads, plus one or two of my 300-grain Barnes. She was sneaking out in a tangle of brush, quartering slightly away when I spotted her at 40 yards. The bullet left a 2 to 2%-inch channel across the front of the liver, a 3-inch wound channel through the off lung and a 1%-inch exit-noticeably less damage than the Barnes. However, I found a nicely mushroomed 300-grain Barnes (294- grain retained weight) in the paunch. It had failed to go through broad- side-not enough sectional density-de- spite good bullet performance.

Deer kills with the 405-grain Rem- ington .45-70 bullet showed excessive damage and all deer dropped on. the spot regardless of shot placement- although all were solid body hits with enough resistance to put the bullet to work. Exit-and somerof the en- trance-wounds were from three to five inches in diameter.

With a rifle of this power you don’t need a bullet that is specially adapted for deer. A tougher bullet meant for bigge; .game will go through deer with- out utilizing all its energy, but if it expands at all it will down these frag- ile critters without completely ruining them.

Note that the 405-grain load will not down an elk with poorly placed shots. Neither will anything else, though with the .45 they’re usually easy to track.

1 bagged the first elk with the .45-70 bullet at about 80 yards, holding a bit behind her shoulders to avoid spoil- ing the roasts. She took a few steps and keeled over. The 405-grain Remington had hit a rib squarely on impact, made an average 4-inch channel through both lungs, and a 2-inch exit through the ribs. It did great damage but it was obviously slowing as it exited.

I also stopped a wounded elk with I) September-October 1971 47