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YOUR MUST-STOP BEFORE HUNTING & FISHING ON PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND, ALASKA KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF WILL LET YOU KNOW WHERE, WHEN AND HOW!
Cassidy Caron, a Canadian hunting guide, spent 18 grueling days alone in northern British Columbia hunting for a big grizzly bear and hauling her trophy boar out of the wilderness. (CASSIDY CARON)
ON THE COVER
LEAD CONTRIBUTOR Frank Jardim
OFFICE MANAGER / COPY EDITOR Katie Aumann
James R. Baker
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Kelly Baker
Jason Brooks, Cassidy Caron, Larry Case, Scott Haugen, Brian Lynn, Phil Massaro, Mike Nesbitt, Paul Pawela, Nick Perna, Shawn Vincent
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Volume 11 // Issue 12 // September 2022
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Andy Walgamott
GENERAL MANAGER John Rusnak
Hanna Gagley, Mamie Gri n, Riland Risden, Mike Smith
INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER Lois Sanborn
SALES MANAGER Paul Yarnold
10 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
CONTRIBUTORS
DESIGNER Lesley-Anne Slisko-Cooper
Jon Hines, Jon Ekse
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES ads@americanshootingjournal.com
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Brian Lynn details how the Sportsmen’s Alliance is leading a lawsuit challenging legislation recently passed in California that bars wildlife organizations and others from promoting hunting opportunities held specifically for youngsters – a threat to hunter recruitment and conservation.
CONTENTS 12 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
46 .35 REMINGTON, AN AMERICAN DEER CAMP RIFLE
Even at 114 years old, this “brush gun” and its rather slow-moving bullets still get the job done on deer, bear and elk at shorter ranges. Jason Brooks shares the story of the .35 Remington and a hunting rifle that’s been in his family for generations.
AMERICAN SHOOTING JOURNAL is published monthly by Media Index Publishing Group, 941 Powell Ave SW, Suite 120, Renton, WA 98057. Display Advertising. Call Media Index Publishing Group for a current rate card. Discounts for frequency advertising. All submitted materials become the property of Media Index Publishing Group and will not be returned. Copyright © 2022 Media Index Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be copied by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher. Printed in U.S.A.
With a new-to-him Model 1874 Hartford from C. Sharps Arms, Mike Nesbitt had a hankering to make some bullets and maybe go hunting with the relatively lightweight carbine. He details the loads he created with molded bullets from Lyman and Accurate, as well as reviews a new book –Sharps Firearms: Volume III.
95 LAW ENFORCEMENT SPOTLIGHT: GUNNED DOWN BUT LIVING ON Officer Kennis Croom gave the ultimate sacrifice to save four children whose mother was allegedly shot by her fiancé, but as Nick Perna writes, even in death the Mississippi police man had important life-giving gifts for others.
87 SCATTERGUN ALLEY: HEVISHOT 101
63 BULLET BULLETIN: BONDEDCORE VS. MONOMETAL BULLETS
These days, hunters have the privilege of choosing from some of the best premium bullets ever created, and our professor of projectiles Phil Massaro knows that better than most. He compares and contrasts these two great designs for traveling and stay-at-home hunters.
VOLUME 11 • ISSUE 12
Bugling’s OK for September elk, but bowhunter Scott Haugen likes to get a lot more aggressive with bulls – raking branches, using decoys and covering ground. He shares how to use assertive tactics and fill your elk tag.
77 BLACK POWDER: MAKING BULLETS FOR A .4570
Little did Cassidy Caron know that facing down a huge British Columbia grizzly bear 17 miles and two stream crossings from her rig would only be half the battle. She shares another epic Canadian hunting tale, this one on her search for North America’s largest predator – and all by herself.
37 ROADHUNTER: GET ASSERTIVE WITH ELK
COVER STORY 28 CASSIDY
Hevi-Shot has been producing nontoxic shotshells for 22 years and while probably best known in waterfowl hunting circles, it has so much more to offer. Larry Case shows us around the shelves of this Oregon-based outfit.
With an eye toward protecting family and property, and maybe putting a little meat in the freezer, Paul Pawela takes a look at this Kansas company’s deadly .300 Blackout and 5.56 NATO TUI rounds, “meant to tumble for better wound capability and stopping power.”
FEATURES
103 SELFDEFENSE TRAINING: MUSING ON FORT SCOTT’S MUNITIONS
55 CALIFORNIA’S MAJOR MISFIRE
18 SOLODAYS CARON
DEPARTMENTS 17 Gun Show Calendar 19 Competition Calendar 21 Precision Rifle Series Calendar, Recent Match Results 113 Concealed Carry Gallery
14 American Shooting Journal // September 2022 CONTENTS 25 25 PRS
MIKE WOODS
99
Self-defense doesn’t just involve a deadly weapon; there’s also “verbal jujitsu,” which can help ward off a potentially deadly situation before it even begins – and save your butt in court if things go south. Shawn Vincent, a litigation consultant, details “managing unknown contacts” with well-chosen words.
ALSO INSIDE PROFILE: BUILDING ON A HOBBY
With his military background and long-range shooting pastime, Mike Woods of Alabama was a natural to join the Precision Rifle Series, where he’s found that fellow competitors are some of his biggest supporters. LEGAL SPOTLIGHT: HOW A WELLPLACED WORD IS AS GOOD AS A WELLPLACED SHOT
americanshootingjournal.com 15
Miami-Dade Fairgrounds
October 15-16Centralia,
Reno Convention Center
GUN SHOW CALENDAR
October 8-9Salem, Va.
October 29-30Redmond,
September 3-4Miami, Fla.
Florida
September 10-11Phoenix, Ariz. Arizona State Fairgrounds September 10-11Sandy, Utah Mountain America Expo Center September 17-18Tucson, Ariz. Pima County Fairgrounds
October 1-2Prescott, Ariz.Findlay Toyota Center
C&E
October 1-2Fayetteville, N.C.Crown Expo Center
Colo.Colorado
Salem Civic Center
americanshootingjournal.com 17 PRIMER
October 15-16Tampa, Fla. Florida State Fairgrounds
September 10-11Independence, Mo.Cable Dahmer Arena September 10-11Paducah, Ky. Trader’s Mall September 17-18Atlanta, Ga. Atlanta Expo Center September 17-18Madisonville, Ky.West Kentucky Archery Complex September 24-25Marietta, Ga. Machinists Aerospace Union Hall October 1-2Savannah, Ga.Savannah Convention Center October 1-2Murfreesboro, Tenn.Mid-TN Expo Center
September 2-4Aurora, Colo. Arapahoe County Fairgrounds Springs, Springs Event Center Plaza Event Center
September 17-18Reno, Nev.
September 10-11Palmetto, Fla.Bradenton Convention Center
September 10-11Hickory, N.C.
Sept. 30-Oct. 2Denver, Colo. Crowne
RK
Shows rkshows.com Crossroads Of The West Gun Shows crossroadsgunshows.com
10-11Centralia,
Gun Shows floridagunshows.com Real Texas Gun Shows therealtexasgunshow.com Tanner Gun Shows tannergunshow.com Wes Knodel Gun Shows wesknodelgunshows.com
October 8-9Orlando, Fla.
September 17-18Redmond,
October 1-2Fort Myers, Fla.Lee Civic Center
September 24-25San Bernardino, Calif.National Orange Show Grounds
Hickory Metro Convention Center September 17-18Columbus, OhioWestland Mall
October 8-9Sharonville, OhioSharonville Convention Center
September 16-18Colorado
October 1-2Springfield, OhioClark County Fairgrounds
September 24-25Mesa, Ariz. Centennial Hall
Central Florida Fair Grounds
October 21-23Colorado Springs, Colo.Norris Penrose
September Wash.Southwest Washington Fairgrounds Ore. Deschutes County Fairgrounds Expo Center Wash.Southwest Washington Fairgrounds Ore. Deschutes County Fairgrounds Expo Center
Gun Shows cegunshows.com Note: Covid-19 restrictions have largely been eased across the country, but always confirm events before attending.
To have your event highlighted here, send an email to kaumann@media-inc.com.
September 3-4Harker Heights, TexasHarker Heights Event Center September 17-18Orange County, TexasOrange County Expo October 1-2Harker Heights, TexasHarker Heights Event Center October 15-16Taylor, Texas Williamson County Expo Center
30-October 2 2022 Iowa ChampionshipSection Elkhart, Iowa
September
September
9-10 2022 New Mexico Section Championship Rio Rancho, N.M.
September
23-24 Greater Yellowstone Section Match Baker, Mont.
30-October 2 North Texas Open 2022 Whitewright, Texas September 16-18 Glock Annual Shoot XXIX & Gunny Challenge Talladega, Ala. September 24-25 Badger State Regional Classic XVI Muskego, Wis.
9-10 2022 Idaho ChampionshipSection Idaho Falls, Idaho
24-25 Atomic City GSSF II Los Alamos, N.M. September 3-5 Wyoming State Finals Lusk, Wy. September 10 Texas State Shoot Angleton, Texas September 14-17 CMSA Eastern US Championship Shelbyville, Tenn. September 23-25 7th Annual Renay Watt Charity Event Valley View, Texas September 24-25 Connecticut ChampionshipState Bethany, Conn. September 30-October 1 Kentucky State Shoot Edinburgh, Ind. September 9-10 Arkansas IDPA State Championship National Park, Ark. September 10-11 Virginia State ChampionshipIDPA Manassas, Va. September 17-18 West Virginia Classic Cumberland, W.V. September 22-24 2022 IDPA ChampionshipNational Palisade, Colo. September 30-October 1 Mississippi State IDPA Championship Guntown, Miss. September 30-October 1 2022 Indiana ChampionshipState Atlanta, Ind.
September
americanshootingjournal.com 19 PRIMER COMPETITION CALENDAR September 9-11 Level 3 Rifle & Pistol Coach Courses Colorado Springs, Colo. September 10-11 Level 1 Pistol Coach Course Colorado Springs, Colo. September 11 WSA Air Pistol PTO Bedford, Mass. Note: Covid-19 restrictions have largely been eased across the country, but always confirm events before attending. cmsaevents.comusashooting.orguspsa.orggssfonline.comidpa.com
17-18 2022 Oregon Open Sectional Championship White City, Ore.
15-17 2022 Arkansas Section USPSA Championship Van Buren, Ark.
September
September
7-11 USPSA Carry Optics Nationals Talladega, Ala.
September
22-25 2022 Area 4 Championship Tulsa, Okla.
September
September
September
Pro Bolt Gun Series September 3Alpha Munitions PRS Pro Series Price, Utah September 3VPRC Rifleman’s Revival Rocky Mount, Virginia September 10Federal Gold Medal Match AG Cup/Pro Series Qualifier Carbon Hill, Alabama September 24Road To Redemption Warrenton, North Carolina October 1 Bushnell Tactical Gap Grind Pro Am Finger, Tennessee October 8 CA Sharpshooter Showdown Hollister, California October 15 MPA Fall Shootout Swainsboro, Georgia November 52022 PRS Pro Series Finale Finger, Tennessee December 8AG Cup Finger, Tennessee SCHEDULE PRECISION RIFLE SERIES americanshootingjournal.com 21 RECENT RESULTS RCBS RUMBLE Pleasant Hill, Missouri August 6, 2022 1st CHRISPlaceOPFER Open Div. 159.000/100.000 2nd JOSHUAPlaceULICKEY Open Div. 157.000/98.742 3rd GREGPlaceHARRIS Open Div. 151.000/94.453 For more information visit www.precisionrifleseries.com PRECISION RIFLE SERIES
22 American Shooting Journal // September 2022 RECENT RESULTS (continued) PRECISION RIFLE SERIES MAGNOLIA MELTDOWN Carthage, Mississippi August 20, 2022 1st GREGPlaceHARRIS Open Div. 175.000/100.000 2nd RICKPlaceLOWELL Open Div. 172.000/98.286 3rd Place (tie) JEFFREY GUERRY Open Div. BEN GOSSETT Open Div. 171.000/97.714 PETERSON SHAYNE1stAugustKennerdell,CHALLENGECARTRIDGEPennsylvania13,2022PlaceYOAKEM Open Div. 180.000/100.000 2nd Place (tie) DAVID PRESTON Open Div. HUNTER ZWIERS Open Div. 179.000/99.444 OKIE KEITH1stAugustNinnekah,SHOWDOWNSUMMEROklahoma13,2022PlaceRUDASILL Open Div. 167.000/100.000 2nd ANTHONYPlace GOHR Open Div. 161.000/96.407 3rd Place (tie) BRADY ALLINSON Open Div. CARSON RUTHERFORD Open Div. JIMMY MOORE Open Div. MICHAEL BEEMER Open Div. 160.000/95.808
americanshootingjournal.com 23
BUILDING ON A HOBBY
“The squad I was on the first day was awesome. They knew it was my first time and as soon as I hit the first target, I could hear them getting fired
Mike Woods first pursued the sport of precision rifle shooting after the Veterans Administration encouraged him to find a hobby. Woods initially fought the idea, but eventually started looking online to see what was out there.
“Lastmatches.yearIdid a handful of events and this year I will double, and hopefully double next year as well,” he says of his competition schedule.
“My toughest shot would have to be my first shot,” he recalls. “It can be very intimidating. You have all these thoughts going through your head, but as soon as that first target rings, you know you’re in the right place.”
With his military background and long-range shooting pastime, Mike Woods was a natural to join PRS.
americanshootingjournal.com 25
“Having a military background, I knew that I wanted something to do with guns,” he explains. “I have always been into long-range and precision shooting since I was a kid. As soon as I found PRS, I knew it was going to be for Woodsme.” made the leap into competition in March 2021, although it wasn’t without some uncertainty.
Going back to that first match, the Alabama Precision Shooter’s Challenge, Woods speaks especially highly of his fellow shooters.
Ever since that first shot, Woods has become a mainstay in the Precision Rifle Series’ Southeast Region competitions – he’s based in Alabama – and has also competed in a few Pro Series
PHOTOS BY MIKE WOODS
Mike Woods, who is relatively new to the Precision Rifle Series, credits squadmates for helping him progress in the sport. “(The) best shooters want you to be better and will help any way they can,” he says.
While Mike Woods started o his PRS career with a Tikka T3x A1 in 6.5 Creedmoor topped with a Vortex Razor scope, he has been building more suitable gun” over recent months. what he’s currently running:
Editor’s note: For more information on the Precision Rifle Series, visit precisionrifleseries.com.
“My toughest shot would have to be my first shot,” recalls Woods. “You have all these thoughts going through your head, but as soon as that first target rings, you know you’re in the right place.”
“a
March 2021, Woods has entered eight regional PRS or Bolt Gun matches, mostly in his home state of Alabama but also in
MIKE RIFLEWOODS’&GEAR
26 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
found this to be a constant throughout his PRS endeavors: the people really make the sport what it is.
Tac
Here’s
Since Georgia.
up,” he Woodssays.has
• Foundation stock • Impact Precision action • Hart Rifle Barrel chambered in 6mm GT • Area 419 Hellfire match muzzle brake • TriggerTech trigger • Leupold Mark 5HD scope • Armageddon Gear Shmedium Mid-Size bags
“What I wasn’t prepared for was the interaction with the shooters,” he says. “This is the first time competing where the best shooters want you to be better and will help any way they can. So far, I have had guys stay after to help me with barricades or other positional shooting. Guys have helped me with gear and also with reloading tips. It’s like nothing I have ever experienced.”
STORY AND PHOTOS BY CASSIDY CARON
Bagging a big northern British Columbia grizzly bear was only half the battle for a guide hunting by herself.
18SOLODAYS
I stopped when I was certain my wind was blowing directly into where I had last seen the giant boar. He should be close.
It was an idiotic idea, since it had equal chances of going one of three ways: 1) I could be presented with the perfect shot; 2) I could get charged; or 3) I could risk the bear of a lifetime vanishing, never to be seen again.
With only about 10 yards of open space between me and
“Hey!” I yelled. It was the first time I had heard my own voice in 15 days and it was a high-risk gamble. My guess was that the grizzly would stand on his hind legs to try and catch my scent, to see who had dared to invade his territory.
I was by myself, as no one else was willing to take that kind of time to help me realize the dream. I drove 27 hours north, through the southern Yukon and back into the northwesternmost corner of BC. I was totally on my own, in search of North America’s biggest land predator, in one of the most remote sectors of the province, if not the world.
W
americanshootingjournal.com 29
I spent the first week covering ground, glassing from
ith my scope dialed down as low as it would go, a round chambered and the safety off, I crept through a narrow passageway of 5-foot-tall willows. It was an eerie feeling. A city dweller might compare it to walking down a deserted avenue with skyscrapers on both sides blocking out the sun.
the willow jungle, I was really banking on the “not getting charged” part. I was more than two weeks into my solo hunt and this was a last-ditch attempt at a big bear. My reserves and resources were running out. I had hiked way too far to pack out an 8-plus-foot grizzly anyway. I wasn’t even sure I was capable of doing it and yet I had pushed on.
Author and hunting guide Cassidy Caron spent over two weeks by herself in British Columbia’s remote northwestern corner searching for the continent’s largest land predator – grizzly bears.
WITH RUMORS THAT British Columbia would end the grizzly hunt over bad politics, when I drew a spring tag in 2016, I decided I was going for it and took a whole month off work. My goal was to take a big grizzly.
I memorized the two little spruce trees and small grass opening very close to where I could see bits of the bear, fast asleep in the thick brush.
the road and doing day hikes. I was fully aware that while I was an accomplished solo hunter, a green (untanned, or raw) grizzly hide from this region could easily weigh over 100 pounds. It would push me to my limits to carry such a trophy over the endless spongy peat bogs and tangled willow flats typical of the subarctic.
After a week of glassing and day hiking off the road but not seeing the caliber of grizzly she was after, Caron backpacked into the wilderness, setting up her first camp 9 miles from her rig. With good weather, going even deeper into the backcountry seemed like a good idea at the time.
and the valley bottom was greening up. It made glassing difficult.
On day eight, I went deep. I packed up my tent and a week’s worth of supplies. I hiked 9 miles on the first day, crossing two rivers churning with the milky water of snowmelt. e water came to just below my waist (knees for most, but I’m short). I had to strip down and cross in my sandals. When I came out on the other side of the icy depths, my flesh was blue and goosebumped.Isetupcamp and spent a few days watching for bruins from the valley of high sheep slopes. I didn’t find any. e spring leaves were quickly popping out
to a waterfall, it’s a relentless journey in the direction of recklessness.
I saw a good number of bears that week, but nothing impressive. I felt a deep sense of foreboding that I was hunting my last British Columbia grizzly. I wanted it to be special. Plus, there is a sort of madness that sets in with prolonged solitude. Like a slow muddy stream winding its way down
I watched the boar, 900 yards below, lick his thick, black lips. His huge square snout lifted, sniffing the air, not satisfied with just one calf. He began to lumber down a small creek and disappeared into thick willows.
I KNEW GOING further in could create big problems and yet, for some reason, I packed up again and ventured into no-man’s land. I set up my second camp 17 miles from my truck. Just after putting up the tent, I watched a giant bear come over the skyline of a mountain further down the valley. It descended toward my camp.
Any rational thought I was capable of died!Iclimbed to higher ground, going nearly 2 miles from my camp to try to relocate the bear. With the valley plugged with freshly leafed-out shrubs, it was hard to spot. Finally, I detected some movement. It was a panicked cow moose running through the brush!
I panned the spotting scope, combing the direction she had bolted from. And then I saw him. Like a trailer for a Jurassic Park movie, the massive boar was gulping a freshly born moose calf, tossing the wet, limp body in the air, his huge jaws devouring it with each toss. Within five minutes, the calf was gone.
30 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
It wouldn’t take me long to close the distance. By the time he emerged into a bit of an open grassy flat, I had the stalk all planned. e problem was, he never came out. So I waited. And waited. It was fast approaching the longest day of the year. In the far north that means daylight for 22 hours. Darkness never came. But neither did the bear.
A rain squall rolled in with a biting wind. I had been sitting exposed on a mountainside for hours and I was freezing. I physically couldn’t sit any longer. My camp was 2 miles in one direction, the last location of the bear 900 yards below. It was go, or pull the pin entirely.
A pair of small bears got a pass early in the author’s hunt. The provincial government has since banned hunting grizzlies, drawing scorn from Caron but also reconfirming her all-in effort during the 2016 season, the second to last.
americanshootingjournal.com 31
Fog veils a mountain one morning after a night of rain.
Caron with her bear, an old, battlescarred, long-clawed interior boar taken on day 15 of her solo backpack hunt.
FROM THE MOUNTAINSIDE, I had ranged the trees and the bear. It was about 20 yards from them to him. I inched my way down until I was at those eretrees.was
shot a bear in a situation like this, or even seen it done, the scariest part of the whole ordeal was wading into that thick brush after the minutes of silence to find him. And there he was, massive and still. For an interior grizzly, he was huge. And old. His scarred cinderblock-like head told the tale of decades of fierce living on that unforgiving tundra. I was overcome with a deep sadness and respect.
Still energized by my success, I made fairly good time. Conditions had turned wet and my feet were pressure-cooking in my boots by the time I made the first river crossing. Water that had been “milky” was now chocolate milk! Warmer weather had turned the river into a deadly, surging mass of brown. I could hear boulders rolling in the current. It was too dangerous to plunge in with my heavy pack so I stripped completely, donned sandals and walked across empty, just to make sure it was possible.
fact, my struggle was only beginning.
Aware of the danger and yet hedging my bet, I moved until the breeze was at my back and yelled, “Hey, hey, hey!”
Havingsilence.never
32 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
e 7mm roared and so did he. He flipped over backward and vanished into the thicket. Mechanically, I cycled another round, expecting 600 pounds of dying fury to explode out of the bush right at me. Nothing. Nothing except, way too close, the blood-curdling sounds of teeth snapping, roaring, thrashing. And then,
AND YET I had more dues to pay. In
As I began to skin the bear, I realized that the small bushes and soft moss that formed his final resting place were working against me. With nothing to tie a rope to, there was no leverage. I managed to flip the bear on his back. But then, when I had him about threequarters done, rigor mortis set in. I could not for the life of me flip him back over to finish the job.
It was 5 a.m. when I stumbled into my camp. I sort of fell over with the heavy load and had to eject myself from the backpack harness by lying on my back like a harassed turtle. Once free, I crawled into the tent and passed out.
It was sketchy. Chest-deep and fast, the current pushed hard and I ended up
It was truly a hunt that pushed the limits of what was possible. I felt that the effort, the hardship and the solitude somehow made me worthy of taking such a magnificent creature.
a very small gap of open ground. My senses have never been more heightened. I could smell the gamey musk of the boar nearby; I even thought I could catch the tainted whiff of the guts and fresh blood from the moose calf he had devoured.
I stuffed the green hide into my pack – one of the best packs on the market. e carbon fiber frame snapped as though it was constructed of toothpicks. I had a little over 2 spongy, moss-filled miles to go back to my tent. And then, after that, 17 miles to the truck. What had I done?
It worked. I was more shocked that it actually happened the way I had envisioned than by the giant grizzly now towering on his hind legs above the willows! He was less than 15 yards from me. Two-thirds of his huge body stood above the bushes that formed such formidable tunnels.
I woke up later in the morning. I brewed as good an instant coffee as you can brew, and set about turning the bear skin. I fleshed it out and then lightly salted it with the quart of salt I had packed in. I rolled the hide and hung it. Hopefully some moisture would drain out while I made the first of the two long trips it was going to take to get everything to the road. Trip one: camp, rifle, bear skull.
ere was no prep, and no anticipation for the shot. ere was not even really any aiming. I was so ready for this close-quarters encounter that I snapped the gun up to my shoulder and, in a millisecond, shot him dead-center in the chest.
It was the early hours of the morning, a dusky half-light. I was absolutely exhausted. I had to gut the bear and remove the quarters to finally maneuver him to where I could complete the skinning job.
americanshootingjournal.com 33
Sadly, these values and this call may not be heard by the next generation. And our world will be poorer for that.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning, the water level was lower and it was still light enough to see. I made it across and then did the same with the second river crossing.
Aftermath. The author had to perform some nasty doctoring in the weeks post-hunt, ending up losing five toenails.
STILL, I SET my alarm for early the next morning. I was enjoying a droolworthy sleep when it went off. at’s when the reality of what came next really set in. I wasn’t even half-finished.
Editor’s note: Cassidy Caron is the owner of Compass Mountain Outfitters. For more information, visit compassmountainoutfitters.com.
I was almost delirious when I reached the river again. It was angry and surging. I realized there was no way I could walk across safely with that much weight. So I slumped on the shore using my pack as a pillow, oblivious to the blood-sucking insects feasting on me. I slept.
When I reached my truck, I just sat down and cried. I was impossibly fatigued, injured, overwhelmed by what I had done, and absolutely maxed out. I have never, on any other hunt, pushed myself to such physical extremes. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. And yet, it was humbling and gratifying.
I also tried not to think about the thousands of dollars worth of optics I had onboard as I lurched precariously through the turbulent water. Despite the different color, the water was not any warmer!enIhad to repeat that whole performance on the second crossing.
I was aching and drained, but the bear hide waited, indifferent to the shape my feet were in. ey were so bad, I put my hiking boots in my pack, along with a few snacks, and walked the entire way back wearing running shoes. Safe to say those were a write-off after! e river crossings weren’t quite as intimidating early in the morning, and the runoff was a bit lower. I regretted not having my rifle when I saw, in muddy stretches of trail, that my tracks from the day before had been nearly obliterated by huge grizzly tracks.
en I turned around and hiked the most grueling 17 miles of my entire hunting career.
20 yards downstream from where I had started. I had to recross and load the pack. I did not buckle my straps in case I tipped over, and tried to step exactly where I had on the empty run.
I ENDED UP losing five toenails and hobbled painfully for several weeks after. But I had endured the hunt of my lifetime, pushing myself to a limit I’m not sure I ever want to push again. at bear will always have a special place in my heart, hard-earned in a pursuit and an adventure worthy of the hard life he had carved out in those northern BC mountains.
first mosquitos in swarms.
I was at my physical limit. e hide was impossibly heavy, the broken frame of my pack was digging into my back, my boiled toenails were scraping against the top of my boots, and the sticky humid heat was bringing out the
I had to hike back 17 miles and retrieve a huge and heavy bear hide. e hide would weigh more than the entire camp, rifle and skull that I had just packed out.
34 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Traveling so light, I made it to my old campsite faster than expected. I was relieved to see that the bear skin had lost maybe 10 pounds already from the skiff of salt I had applied. I had a short nap under a tree and a snack, booted up, and loaded the hide.
Finally, my truck was in sight. I arrived at it, dumped the heavy pack, changed into dry clothes and indulged in a warm – yet delicious – can of beer. I collapsed in the backseat and eventually inspected my feet. ey resembled raw hamburger. I’ve spent most of my adult life in extreme conditions in the wilderness, but this was a new level. For some inexplicable reason, the skin under my toenails was inflamed. e nails had been forced straight up, like bad eyelash extensions. ey had scraped and dragged against the top of my boots. It was painful, aggravating and disgusting.
As I had thought, the grizzly bear hunt in British Columbia soon fell victim to the unrelenting march of a proudly “woke” government. With absolutely no science to back their decision, all grizzly bear hunting has been “canceled” in this beautiful, majestic province. It was once a landscape that asked people – people like me – to push themselves to their limits, to explore who they really are, and to find themselves by flirting with danger and embracing that part of human nature that is called to ruggedness, adventure and challenge.
36 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
this harness will fit anybody’s budget. Let’s get to the nitty-gritty with this Q&A with Rick Young Outdoors.
Q: How easy is it to adjust?
RICK YOUNG OUTDOORS
ecession busting your chops yet? New gear prices are higher than ever but here is the saving grace from RYO! For those still not happy with their binocular car rier, you should take a moment to consider the lightest harness made (1 ounce) that has five functional methods of carry. The saving grace mentioned is that the affordability of
Q: How long will the cord last?
A: Yes, we have an optional kit that carries a range finder or GPS, etc.
Q: What about a cover for my binoculars?
A: We challenge you to wear it out. Made in the US with our formula. Read our reviews on our website at rickyoungoutdoors.com.
Q: Will it support heavy binoculars?
A: Yes, the average 10x42 weighs 28 ounces, but the harness will support up to 40 ounces.
Q: Will it fit kids?
stays on your binos when in use and a pouch cover you can remove.
A: That’s the beauty; with a single point of adjustment, it’s fast and will always fit your clothing choice of the day. No longer will your binoculars bounce, and they come to your eyes without fatigue.
R
A: No, the single-cord design hugs the tor so, transferring the weight throughout the length of cord, unlike a traditional harness that hangs on your shoulders.
Please visit rickyoungoutdoors.com for more details. Sometimes less is more.
A: RYO makes both a neoprene cover that
A: Yes, it will adjust down to the smallest of frame sizes.
Q: Does the cord dig into the shoulders?
Q: Will it support a range finder?
fill
americanshootingjournal.com 37
hen I was hosting TV shows full-time, I went on multiple elk hunts every season. I did my own calling, made my own decisions and learned a lot. Mostly, I learned how aggressive I could be and still fill tags. With many tags to fill in a season – elk
“Why didn’t you shoot that bull?” my videographer Travis Ralls whispered as the hind end of a massively racked Rocky Mountain elk
melted into the timber. “He wasn’t that big,” I smiled. Travis shook his head, knowing we were in for a long hunt.
and
and otherwise – my time was limited, so I hunted with assertion. Though not every hunt ended in success, I always came away having learned something.
The bull I’d just let walk pushed 350 inches. A great bull in many places, but on this particular public land hunt, it was just a bit above average. The first bull we’d seen on opening morning two
STORY AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT HAUGEN
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Want to bring a big herd bull within bow range? Try assertive moves, which can swing the odds in your favor.
Bugling’s OK, but raking branches, using
ROAD HUNTER decoys covering ground are tactics that really help a bull tag. GET ASSERTIVE WITH ELK
days prior was pushing 390 inches, and we saw three others in excess of 375 inches. The giants don’t come easy.
Over the course of six days I called multiple bulls to within 40 yards, though I didn’t let an arrow fly, as the bruiser bull I’d hoped for never materialized. Our calling success continued that season and I was fortunate to fill tags in three other states, securing some dandy bulls. The
38 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
If there’s no prayer of getting close to a hung-up bull, try raking a tree. Grab a hefty limb you can swing with both hands, then find a tree you can beat the heck out of. Before raking commences, be sure an arrow is nocked and your bow easily accessible. Make sure the wind is where you want
One of the most frustrating experiences an elk hunter faces is dealing with bulls that respond to every sound you make but won’t come in. While taking o the boots and slithering to within bow range of smart bulls seems good on paper, the truth is there are many variables to consider,
not the least of which are lots of cows, swirling winds and dry ground that can botch each stalk.
Be it Rocky Mountain elk or Roosevelt elk, both have big country to roam, and hunting with assertion can be the key to filling a tag.
secret? Move and call aggressively.
ROAD HUNTER
RAKING FOR BULLS
After a minute or so of hard raking and stomping, I like letting out a raspy bugle, one an old bull would make. The goal is to bring in a herd bull, not young satellite bulls, and to do this you have to act big.
With elk, you’ll be sweating, breathing hard and getting tired as you try to fill the woods with sounds mimicking what a massive bull would produce.
it, then get to work.
In nature, when challenging bulls rake a tree it’s not a passive display. Bulls thrash, stomp, push, grind, kick and toss their headgear around with the intent of demolishing the tree to prove their dominance to other bulls. When raking a tree, you have to do the same Rakingthing.forelk is far more aggressive than rattling for deer.
As soon as the bugle passes my lips, I grab my bow, clip on my release and listen. Sometimes you’ll hear a bull clawing its way up the mountain to get to you. Other times you have no idea how a
I like raking a tree that’s surrounded by loose rock, hard dirt and, ideally, lots of dead branches. I vigorously stomp the ground, drag my feet over loose rocks and smash dead branches, all in an e ort to create as much commotion as possible.
americanshootingjournal.com 39
air,
rake and stomp depends on how a bull is responding. If it keeps bugling or starts raking a tree, I get more aggressive. Issuing cow and young bull calls can also convince a big bull to come in, as it creates the illusion that other elk are moving in. I’ve kept this up for 20 minutes to well over an hour, but how long you spend depends on the bull’s behavior, wind direction and your stamina.
tried a lot of diaphragm calls during my elk hunting career, but the new line of Slayer Calls could be the best I’ve used. The range of sounds you can generate from each specifically designed diaphragm is impressive, especially when delivered through their ArchAngel.
’ve
DON’T NEGLECT DECOYS
ROAD HUNTER
Another tool to help bring a hesitant bull within bow range is an elk decoy. Nothing I’ve found matches the realistic nature of a cow elk like the Montana Decoy line of options. I’m a fan of the Miss September cow decoy when hunting trails from a treestand or ground blind. The Back Country decoy is also good for this approach, and both decoys convey a calm feeling of an animal moving away, which often entices a bull to go forward at a quickenedMontanapace.Decoy’s
The ArchAngel is a uniquely designed bugle tube with an acrylic mouthpiece. The wide lip and specially designed back pressure system means less thus more accurate sound production. From penetrating dense timber to blasting across massive canyons to sweet-talking up close, the range of crisp, clear sounds this tube a ords is very impressive.
40 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
If hunting from a treestand or ground blind, situate a cow decoy so a bull has to walk past you to reach it. When an approaching bull reaches a
and you’re ready
o er
and calf chatter that bulls respond to. Learn more at slayercalls.com.
I
Eichler Elk Decoy is also proven, and I’ve had the best results with this when hunting with a buddy. In this situation, one of us posts up, bow ready, while the other holds the decoy 50 yards or so behind the shooter. The person with the decoy also does the calling, and moves and calls according to the reaction of the approaching bull. If a bull hangs up, move farther with the decoy and add some bugles to the cow chatter. This will create a realistic simulation of another bull coming in and taking away the cows, something that can make a big bull close in.
Toss in the Slayer External Call to seductive cow sounds
Once in a while an old bull will gather its cows and leave the area. That’s OK, as you can come back and hunt it another time or day, perhaps some other way. The fact that the bull didn’t see or smell you means you still have a Howchance.longI
SLAYER ELK CALLS
700-pound animal can sneak in from the side without you hearing or seeing it.
ROAD HUNTER
MOVE, MOVE, MOVE
eptember elk hunts can be hot, and water is invaluable. Water, more than food, will keep your body and mind functioning and moving; there’s no such thing as drinking too much. A bladder is ideal because we drink way more water when a straw dangles inches from our mouths versus having to stop and dig through a pack for a bottle. Get a system with a good filter and, if you can, get water from creeks, springs, even ponds, every chance you can.
Moisture-wicking clothing is best for hunters covering ground, as are quality boots. Be sure boots are 100-percent broken in and know how they perform well before the season starts. Danner’s 4.5-inch Sharptail is a favorite early-season hunting boot of mine, as it’s lightweight and the low-profile footbed makes for quiet moving. Always have a wind-check bottle handy, especially when hunting aggressively. If the wind changes, back out, as you can never fool an elk’s sense of smell. Its eyes and ears, yes, but never its nose.
designated shooting lane, draw your bow and issue a cow call to stop it for a shot. A diaphragm call is perfect for this, but an open-reed call can also work.
GEAR FOR AGGRESSIVE HUNTERS
Another aggressive approach I love is covering ground. Often I’ll hunt all day and cover miles of rugged country. The goal is to locate herds burrowed into heavy cover for the day, and I locate them by calling. Using cow and calf chatter, which simulates herd separation, is my top choice. Getting an entire herd talking at 2 p.m. in 80-degree temperatures is a rush,
By aggressively calling, rattling and covering ground, you can take your elk hunting encounters to another level.
42 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
S
americanshootingjournal.com 43
Moving into a bedded herd at midday is risky, as so many eyes can bust you, plus the thermals in canyons can be very unstable at this time of day.
This elk season, be it raking, decoying or covering ground, don’t be afraid to get aggressive. If you sit and wait for the perfect situation to unfold, you may never get a shot. Pay very close attention to the wind, move in the shadows and cover ground, and you might come away with a new approach to elk hunting.
Editor’s note: To order Scott Haugen’s bestselling instructional DVD, Field Dressing, Skinning & Caping Big Game, visit scotthaugen.com. Follow Scott on Instagram.
ROAD HUNTER
Moving and aggressively calling paid off for author Scott Haugen on this elk hunt, as it has many times for him over the years.
and is doable in cooler timbered draws.
44 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
If the bull in the herd starts talking, issue some bugles, as sometimes this will pull it in. If the bull won’t budge, come back to hunt it that evening.
After a di cult deer hunt in Wyoming, we started buying di erent bipods hoping to find one that would cover all kinds of shoot ing situations – prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, etc. We tried numerous bipods but couldn’t find one that would set up quickly and that had a large range of height adjustments needed for rugged backcountry hunting. We also wanted a bipod that would attach and reattach quickly in
n 2014, we started Hatch Outwest Precision in hopes of producing a bipod that could do it all, but the real beginning of the bipod was way back in 2007.
hatchoutwest.com
I
order to speed up getting a rifle in and out of a gun scabbard. We could not find anything on the market that did all the things we wanted, so we decided to build one ourselves with quickadjusting legs, a quick attach to the gun, and a height range that would allow for shooting prone as well as sitting. Our bipods are versatile and can be configured as a bipod, monopod or shooting stick. Bipods come in two lengths – standard and tall – which allows for a range in height from 6.5 to 27 inches on the standard, and from 7 to 36 inches on the tall. Two head choices are available: slide-on or ADM clamp-style.
HATCH OUTWEST PRECISION
americanshootingjournal.com 45
Hatch Outwest Precision bipods have un matched versatility and adaptability, making them a good choice for any shooter. The support and feedback from customers has been great. Many people have said the same thing: “Finally, a bipod that does what I want.” Our business is 100-percent family-owned and -operated in a small Idaho town. We can proudly say our products are made in America.
This Remington Model 141 Gamemaster, chambered in .35 Remington and here paired with Remington Core-Lokt bullets, was author Jason Brooks’ first deer rifle, passed down to him from his grandfather.
46 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Even at 114 years old, this 'brush gun' and its rather slow-moving bullets still get the job done on deer, bear and elk at shorter ranges.
s the story goes, first told to me by my father when I was around 12 years old, my grandfather had walked into a tavern to refresh after a long day of working in the logging camp. On the wall of that bar was a Remington Model 141 Gamemaster in .35 Remington. It was being offered as a prize for a pull tab game and after a quick glance at how many tickets were left, my grandfather realized he had enough money in his pocket to buy the remainder. After finishing his drink, he walked out of the tavern with his new deer rifle. e story doesn’t end there, but I never did ask what my grandmother said when he got home.
It is this rifle that my family still holds as a token of our deer hunting
A
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JASON BROOKS
americanshootingjournal.com 47
.35 REMINGTON, AN DEERAMERICANCAMPRIFLE
THE .35 REMINGTON was first introduced as one of four rimless cartridges by the Remington Arms Company in 1906. Of the four – the .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington and .35 Remington – it is the only one still being currently produced. It came out just after the .30-06 Springfield debuted in 1903, which was created as a cartridge for the US military. Remington
gun. e only problem was, he had no ammunition for it and with today’s ammo shortage, I was a bit worried.
The author’s grandfather (right) Roy Brooks and his hunting partner Hugh Smith after a successful day’s hunt near Republic, Washington. Both hunters used Model 141 Gamemasters chambered in .35 Remington.
48 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Looking on the internet and finding a few boxes of .35 Remington going for way more than I was willing to pay, it seemed the rifle would become more of a decoration than a deer rifle. Maybe it was divine intervention or just good timing, but on our way back from a whitetail deer hunt in Idaho last year, we stopped at a local sporting goods store and on the shelf were a few iconic yellow-
history. Photos of my grandfather carrying it in the deer woods of northeast Washington state now rest in a dust-covered photo album, but that rifle still visits our yearly family deer camp. I used it to take my first deer at age 12 and was told the story of how it came into our family as my dad handed it to me before the hunt. is past fall, my now 16-year-old son opened his birthday present from his grandfather and I could see my dad’s eyes start to well up, knowing his father’s rifle was about to become his grandson’s
and-green 200-grain Core-Lokt boxes in .35 Remington.
americanshootingjournal.com 49
e .35 Remington can be found
JUST AFTER THE release of the Remington Model 141 Gamemaster was another Remington invention that would complement the .35 Remington and that was the Core-Lokt bullet in 1939. is new way of locking a lead core to a gilded metal jacket made for an expanding bullet that retained most of its initial weight. e 200-grain CoreLokt and the .35 Remington became one of the most popular deer rifle and cartridge combinations in the history of hunting. Even today, as we found with those boxes of the iconic yellow-andgreen Remington-labeled Core-Lokts for our family’s .35 Remington, it was the same bullet that my grandpa used 70 years ago, as well as the one I took my first deer with nearly 36 years ago.
When he was 12 years old, Brooks took his first deer with the pump-action .35 Remington.
50 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
the lever-action, with which you have to remove one hand from the stock of the firearm.e.30Remington was the cartridge that the company thought would take over the .30-30 Winchester, but when it didn’t, a strong marketing campaign began with the .35 Remington. It was hard to argue with a fat, slow, hard-hitting bullet that anchored a deer when hit, and with most deer hunts being for whitetails, the .35 Remington was perfect for the thick cover. Soon it was known as a “brush gun” – one that could shoot in heavy cover and knock a deer over.
Firing a 200-grain bullet a scant 2,080 feet per second at the muzzle and with a ballistic coefficient of .192, don’t expect this rifle to cross any Western canyons or be gravitydefying by any means. e ballistic coefficient alone tells you that this round does not fly far, but the roundnose bullet hits hard with 1,921 foot-pounds of energy. Indeed, it is designed to be a brush gun, and it does just that at short distances.
soon realized that it would not keep up ballistically with the faster military round, but it did well in the deer woods. Where the .30-06 was first made for the military, the .35 Remington was made for the hunter and marketed to compete with the .30-30 Winchester.
inch barrel. is increased the ballistics slightly, but more importantly it created a craving for a “new gun.”
One reason why Hornady loads the .35 Remington is because the cartridge is still being used in modern production rifles with, of all things, lever-actions.
Hornady also commercially loads the .35 Remington in their Leverevolution ammunition line. Using a 200-grain bullet with a Flex Tip in the FTX bullet, it creates a higher ballistic coefficient and increased velocity of up to 250 fps faster than traditional roundnose bullets. Hornady’s .35 Remington load zips out at 2,225 fps at the muzzle with 2,198 foot-pounds of energy. When zeroed at 200 yards, the bullet still drops a whopping 17.5 inches at 300 yards. Again, this is not for long-distance shooting but it also hits with over 1,700 foot-pounds of energy at 100 yards – plenty for deer, elk and black bear.
In 1935, Remington realized profits were not up to what the company hoped. Gun owners were not buying the .30 Remington in the Model 14, which was a carbine, but the .35 Remington was one reason why hunters did buy the pump-action rifle. So Remington came out with the Model 141, which was cheaper to make than the Model 14, and had a few in the carbine barrel while transitioning the machining and tooling. But the most desired ones were the Gamemaster models with the 24-
A much larger bullet, both in weight and diameter, the .35 Remington might not shoot as fast or as flat as the .30-30 Winchester, but it hits harder. Gaining popularity in the whitetail woods, the .35 was produced in the Remington Model 8, a semiauto rifle designed by the famed John Browning for Remington. But it was preferred by deer hunters in the Model 14, designed in 1908 to compete with the lever-action rifles that hunters were familiar with. e Model 8 semiauto wasn’t selling well and Remington did enough research to know the current lever-action rifles on the market had a strong following. Instead of trying to join the lever-action market, they came up with the Model 14, a pump-action rifle, allowing the hunter to stay on target and reload the chamber, unlike
B&T has continued to grow and listen to the suggestions from professional and amateur shooters alike while finding favor with civilian, law enforcement and military marksmen around the world. Proudly de signed, engineered, machined and assem bled in America.
As a lightweight, mechanical device, it pro vides elevation adjustment and eliminates muscle fatigue to acquire the best possible sight picture.
The idea that founded B&T was inspired by a prairie dog hunt in 1997 when a good friend to the business forgot to bring his sandbag, resorting to a time-honored, field-expedient solution: putting dirt in the
americanshootingjournal.com 51
sock he had been wearing.
accu-shot.com
B&T Industries LLC was founded by two Kansans – one with an idea, the other with capital – motivated to bring an innovative idea to the shooting sports. Their business principles are based on taking a novel, common-sense idea, manufactured from the most applicable materials, assembled by Americans and sold at a fair price.
ing the novel 45-degree position – and the ability to pan and cant. Their feature-rich bipods are designed to maximize their strength-to-weight ratio while providing the strength and durability shooters demand.
In January 2000, after the trials of proto typing and testing, the Accu-Shot Monopod was patented and introduced to the market, becoming the “sandbag of the 21st century.”
B&T INDUSTRIES, LLC
In 2005, B&T did the same thing with the bipod to support the front of a rifle. Atlas Bipods have blazed a trail of patented fea tures such as multiple leg positions – includ
u yPacks, LLC, manufactures global defensive solutions for the ever-increasing problem of active shooter incidents. We manufacture a line of custom inserts that provide a level of personal protection from ballistic threats similar to what law enforcement o cers wear daily as bulletproof vests. The Tu yPack Ballistic Shields are built to meet Level IIIA threat requirements. Our inserts have been tested by an independent ballistic lab and the report is available on our website.
It might not be the fastest – heck, it might be one of the slowest – big-bore rifles to ever hit the deer woods, but it is one of the oldest. For good reason, the .35 Remington has been around 114 years and one of those reasons is because it knocks down deer quickly.
T
bullets and fragments, as well as against stabbing with sharp and pointed objects.
TUFFYPACKS, LLC
We have chosen PE as our component fabric due to its accep tance as a go-to solution for the ballistic needs of law enforcement and military on a global level.
From some tavern near the logging camp to our family’s deer camp, the .35 Remington will once again be carried afield this fall, with ammo designed around the same time the Model 141 came about. Both will work well together, just as they have for decades.
Remington is 1.920 inches with an overall length of 2.525 inches. It is beltless and shoots a bullet with a .358-inch diameter. e fat case has a base diameter of .458 inch and a shoulder diameter of .405 inch, with a max pressure of 39,900 pounds per square inch.
When inserted into backpacks, briefcases or computer bags, our ballistic shields will provide the highest level of protection cur rently available as lightweight, concealable body armor. A back pack with ballistic protection weighs only 19 to 27 ounces more than a nonprotected pack (based on the pack size). Additionally, the ballistic shields are removable when the user desires to use the pack in a low or nonthreat environment.
Our panels are constructed using multiple layers of ballistic PE ma terial that is a strong, synthetic PE fiber similar to Kevlar. It is used in the global production of body armor, helmets and ballistic vests, just to name a few.
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Our panels are die-cut multiple-layer pieces and sealed in a moisture-resistant black nylon outer cover that inhibits UV light and moisture that can reduce the useful life of the material.
in Marlin’s popular Model 336 and Henry’s Side Gate Lever Action models, along with barrels for the ompson/ Center rifles and handguns, as well as other manufacturers.ecaseonthe.35
Standing the test of time. The .35 Remington (left) compared to the .30-06 Springfield, both of which are popular deer cartridges and came out within a few years of each other over a century ago. Both are still being made today.
52 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
CALIFORNIA’S MAJOR MISFIRE
americanshootingjournal.com 55
hen California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2571 on June 30, he didn’t just endorse an infringement on the Second Amendment; he violated the First Amendment, as well as the Fifth Amendment and 14th Amendment. Assembly Bill 2571 regardlessthatthesomeone,youthcan’ttoorganization.organizedmakesisotheranyNationalitmarketingintowhereorganizationitammunitiontargetsAssemblymemberChildren”Gunasid=202120220AB2571),ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_(leginfo.legislature.formerlyknown“LegislationtoRegulateManipulativeAdvertisementsTargetingandintroducedbyCaliforniaRebeccaBauer-Kahan,notjustthemarketingoffirearms,andpartstominors;makesitillegalforanypersonortoevenpromoteactivitiesyouthmightusefirearms. Whilethenewlaw–whichwenteectimmediately–clearlymakesanyyouthfirearmillegal,goesevenfurther.Promotingthe4-HShootingSportsprogram,highschoolgunclub/teamororganizedyouthshootingeventnowillegal.Forhunters,thelawitimpossibletotoutayouthhuntbyanynonprofitconservationItevenmakesitimpossibleholdhuntereducation.Why?Becauseaconservationorganizationholdasafety/educationclassorhuntwithoutadvertisingittowhetheritsownmembersorpublic.Byadvertisinganactivitypromotestheuseoffirearms,ofthecontext,anindividual,
The Sportsmen’s Alliance is leading a lawsuit challenging legislation recently passed in California that bars conservation organizations and others from promoting hunting opportunities held specifically for youngsters.
Sportsmen’s Alliance: Lawmakers’ punitive gun marketing bill misses every mark and is a threat to hunter recruitment.
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LEGAL SPOTLIGHT
STORY BY BRIAN LYNN, THE SPORTSMEN’S ALLIANCE• PHOTO BY CDFW
“The law and intent of its author and Gov. Newsom is clearly discriminatory and meant to destroy our hunting heritage,” continued Safari Club’s Cassidy. “The conservation community has a long history of protecting hunting while encouraging safe and responsible firearms use. We are proud to continue this tradition by fighting this irrational and unconstitutional overreach by Gov. Newsom and his supporters.”
While the new law does not prohibit activities themselves, the result is a de facto ban because it is di cult to hold youth camps, competitions, clinics or hunter education classes without some form of promotion of these events.
competed at local, state and national events for decades – and now that’s all gone.”
The bill defines firearm industry broadly to include organizations formed for the express purpose of “… promoting, encouraging, or advocating for the purchase, use, or ownership of firearmrelated products,” which could encompass any organization conducting hunter- and firearm-education classes or youth hunts and shooting matches of any kind. Many conservation organizations hold summer camps that include hunter education or firearm-safety training – all would likely run afoul of the new law.
(B) A person, firm, corporation,
Because of its overly broad language, the new law does more than just violate constitutional freedoms – it decimates youth firearms training and education in the state. Whatever the intent of its sponsors, eliminating youth safety programs is the only foreseeable result.
(A) A person, firm, corporation, company, partnership, society, joint stock company, or any other entity or association engaged in the manufacture, distribution, importation, marketing, wholesale, or retail sale of firearm-related products.
coalition of outdoor groups sued the State of California in federal district court in Sacramento challenging a recently passed law banning the “marketing” of firearms to minors. The legal challenge by Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, So Cal Top Guns, Safari Club International and Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation seeks to protect youth hunting, shooting sports and education in the state.
company, partnership, society, joint stock company, or any other entity or association formed for the express purpose of promoting, encouraging, or advocating for the purchase, use, or ownership of firearm-related products that does one of the following:
Putting overreaching big brother
“Our entire youth education program is on hold because of this law,” said Paul Cain, president of So Cal Top Guns. “Thousands of kids have learned firearm safety and have
Although described by Gov. Newsom and supporters as a prohibition on marketing the sale of firearms to youth, the new law goes well beyond direct advertising to include any marketing activity involving firearms and firearm accessories. This includes not only the purchase of firearms, but lawful use. The law’s broad terms also prohibit marketing hunter education, school-sponsored firearms teams, youth hunts, youth camps that include firearms training and even short seminars or “how to” events. The law is so broadly written that it bans social media, leaflets or flyers, videos, magazine articles or any other communication that showcases or illustrates the use of firearms by youth.
and CEO of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “By significantly impacting the sporting-conservation community’s ability to e ectively recruit and train the next generation of sportsmen and -women, this law will have far-reaching consequences on the very funding structure that underwrites the conservation of California’s wildlife and their habitats. All people of the state, not just hunters, should be outraged that this law is now on the books.”
related products are sold or used.
“This law is a prime example of rushing action without fully understanding the consequences,” said Je Crane, president
(iii) Endorses specific firearmrelated products.
Signed by Gov. Newsom on June 30, the law imposes fines of $25,000 per impression, occurrence or publication of prohibited communications. Introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, the law casts a wide net over any youth program that promotes the use of firearms by a member of the “firearm industry.”
“Whether or not intentional, this poorly written and misguided law is already directly impacting hunting access for young people,” said Ben Cassidy, Safari Club International’s executive vice president of international and public a airs. “As a community, hunters have worked for decades to provide hunter safety and education for the next generation of hunters. This law directly undermines a critical community service.”
SPORTSMEN’S ALLIANCE LEADS LAWSUIT OVER CALIFORNIA’S FIREARMS YOUTH MARKETING LEGISLATION
(ii) Advertises events where firearmrelated products are sold or used.
LEGAL SPOTLIGHT
56 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
A
company or organization is in violation of the overly broad law.
(iv) Sponsors or otherwise promotes events at which firearm-
The new law defines a “firearm industry member” as:
(i) Advertises firearm-related products.
FIREARMS INDUSTRY UNDER SIEGE
Editor’s note: The Sportsmen’s Alliance sent out the following press release to introduce a lawsuit it and partners are pursuing against the state of California over Assembly Bill 2571:
“This law is a travesty that clearly violates several constitutional protections at once, while, ironically, undermining wellestablished safety programs and education,” said Todd Adkins, Sportsmen’s Alliance vice president of government a airs. “In their haste to politicize firearms, Gov. Newsom and the legislature have destroyed youth education and firearm-safety programs that have long been supported by Californians.”
The only entity immune to California’s new law and all-encompassing definition of firearm industry, however, is the state itself. Through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state openly markets the use of firearms by youth through the sale of youth hunting licenses, youth-only hunting seasons and the inclusion of firearm safety and handling as part of its own curriculum, as well as a focus of its hunter recruitment e orts.
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Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan and Gov. Newsom didn’t stop with the vagaries there, however. They included a nonexclusive list of products that could trigger violation of the law if they appear to be attractive to minors:
That would include every youthmodel firearm and reduced-recoil ammunition on the market.
A
Assembly Bill 2571, passed on June 30 of this year, was intended to prohibit the fire arm industry from advertising or marketing any firearm-related product in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors. But the broad scope of the legislation left it open to interpretation, potentially prohibiting the mar keting and promotion of youth-firearm safety, youth-shooting sports and youth-hunting and hunter-education programs, among others.
new law in California that prohibits the advertising of firearms to minors had unintended consequences on the sporting community. But thanks to produc tive conversations between Ducks Unlimited sta and the Governor’s o ce, much-needed clarity has been provided on the bill’s application.
DUCKS UNLIMITED CLARIFIES SCOPE OF NEW LAW FOR YOUTH HUNTERS, SHOOTING SPORTS
for minors, including, but not limited to, hats, T-shirts or other clothing, or toys, games or stu ed animals, that promotes a firearm industry member or firearm-related product.
Editor’s note: At press time, a Ducks Unlimited press release clarified some of the language of Assembly Bill 2571 pertaining to marketing activities like youth hunting and shooting sports. Here is what DU wrote, including amended language in the bill from California’s Governor’s o ce:
The revised law comes at a time when the state of California is attempting to actively recruit young hunters through the California Fish and Wildlife R3 Program, and embrace the educational value of youth shooting courses for the benefit of hunter recruitment, retention and reactivation.
(B) O ers firearm-related products in sizes, colors or designs that are specifically designed to be used by, or appeal to, minors.
GOING TOO FAR?
(C) Is part of a marketing or advertising campaign designed with the intent to appeal to minors. That would include hunter education, firearms safety classes and, again, the state’s own recruitment and retention of minors for hunting.
(D) Uses images or depictions of minors in advertising and marketing materials to depict the use of firearmrelated products. An ad containing a father and daughter duck hunting together would net you a $25,000 fine for every copy of the ad distributed in California.Thenew law states that this is not an exhaustive list and is vague around enforcement of it – using a “totality of the circumstances” standard, which means violating one or more examples might or might not result in prosecution. It leaves the enforcement of the law and the evaluation of guilt by judge or jury with no uniform application. Putting Orwellian and Gestapo scare tactics aside once again, this vague and capricious standard of law is an unconstitutional power grab by the state, leaving our justice system ripe for abuse. The goal is clearly to chill protected speech to destroy the hunting and shooting community.
(A) O ers brand name merchandise
Of course, this was the intent of Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan, Gov. Newsom and every legislator who voted for AB 2571. These politicians view any a liation with firearms, regardless of context, as “indoctrination” while blaming California’s mental-health shortcomings, rising violent crime, illegal gang activity and other associated problems on lawful manufacturers, publishers, youth camps, conservation organizations and hunters.
Editor’s note: Brian Lynn is vice president of communications and marketing for the Sportsmen’s Alliance, which since the mid1970s “has fought to protect and advance our outdoor heritage of hunting, fishing, trapping and shooting in all 50 state legislatures, in the courts, in Congress and at the ballot box.” For more information, go to sportsmensalliance.org.
As amended, the law will have a much narrower scope, specifying exactly what types of advertisements are prohibited, while allowing well-intentioned promotion of educa tional, hunting and competitive shooting programs to continue. The new law will go into e ect immediately upon the Governor’s signature.
The bill defines “minor” as under age 18, but o ers no clarification of how clothing sizes for a 17-year-old would di er from an 18-year-old.
The updated language reads as follows:
60 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
This subdivision does not apply to a communication o ering or promoting any firearm safety program, hunting safety or promotional program, firearm instructional course, sport shooting event or competition, or any similar program, course, or event, nor does it apply to a communication o ering or promoting membership in any organization, or promotion of lawful hunting activity, including, but not limited to, any fundraising event, youth hunting program, or outdoor camp.
comparisons aside, this simple act overtly proves that viewpoint-based restrictions are the object of the new law. In short, the new law doesn’t restrict speech for all, just a particular group of citizens or individuals based on what they believe and do.
“We thank the Governor’s o ce for their attention to this matter and for working with Ducks Unlimited to clarify this law,” said Dawan Lee, California Ducks Unlimited youth and education chairman. “As an advocate for youth shooting programs, I am encouraged this will help promote a safe, educational and healthy environment for our youth to learn com petitive shooting. This change will also help the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Ducks Unlimited’s shared goals of recruiting, retaining and reactivating new hunters through existing R3 programs, and that’s great news for conservation.”
LEGAL SPOTLIGHT
americanshootingjournal.com 61
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Comparing and contrasting two great designs for traveling and stay-at-home hunters.
A standard cup-and-core bullet –using a lead core inside of a copper jacket to reduce lead fouling and over-
BULLET BULLETIN
BONDED-CORE VS. MONOMETAL BULLETS
Modern hunters have the privilege of choosing from some of the best premium bullets ever created.
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Good fortune was with us, and when the bull turned at 340 yards, I sent a 180-grain Federal Trophy Bonded Tip bullet – handloaded for my .300 Holland & Holland – and saw the bull pile up within 30 yards. Upon examination, we discovered that even at that distance, the bullet had penetrated the entire width of the eland and exited to who knows where. Projectile technology has inarguably improved over the last three or four decades, to the point that
STORY BY PHIL MASSARO • PHOTOS BY MASSARO MEDIA GROUP
it has enhanced the capabilities and performance of even our most common cartridges. The .30-06 Springfield and .270 Winchester were excellent designs with the cup-and-core softpoint bullets of their day, but load them with a bonded-core or monometal softpoint and you have a di erent experience altogether. But which of the two designs is preferable?
ith less than 30 minutes of shooting light remaining, we decided to take our chances and hold our position in order to let the eland herd feed toward us. There was a bull in there with a good head, and rather than risk a stalk, we gambled that he’d come clear and o er a shot.
It was Randy Brooks who implemented the idea of removing the lead core of the conventional bullet, resulting in a projectile comprised entirely of copper alloy. After acquiring the Barnes Bullet Company – Fred Barnes himself having produced heavy-for-caliber lead-core bullets –Brooks released his famous Barnes X hollowpoint monometal. The initial iterations were met with mixed reviews – some rifles loved them, but none of them were mine – and copper fouling was an issue, so revisions were made.
CHEMICALLY BONDING THE copper jacket to the lead core is another method of slowing expansion to allow the bullet to penetrate deep into the vital organs during expansion, and many di erent models are available to today’s hunter. While match-grade target bullets –which are not concerned with any sort of terminal performance – may print tighter groups than hunting bullets, many of today’s premium bondedcore designs are extremely precise. In
expand and yet keep the rear intact for deep penetration. It remains a sound choice to this day.
BULLET BULLETIN 64 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Nosler’s E-Tip is a copper-alloy monometal with a polymer tip, perfect for those areas where lead-core bullets are prohibited.
Most manufacturers o er a bondedcore design of some sort, including Federal’s Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, Trophy Bonded Tip, Terminal Ascent and Fusion; Hornady’s InterBond and DGX Bonded; Swift’s Scirocco II and A-Frame (the latter being a partitioned bullet with the front core bonded); Nosler’s AccuBond and AccuBond Long Range; and Norma’s Oryx and BondStrike designs. Australia’s Woodleigh Bullets makes their Weldcore roundnose softpoint with the same profile as the old Kynoch projectiles, which were used to regulate so many British hunting rifles, yet they have bonded the core to the jacket. This bullet has served me very well in Alaska, Africa and here in my native New York for game animals ranging in size from black bear and whitetail deer to kudu and zebra.
The modern TSX and TTSX bullets
There have been many attempts to build a better mousetrap, going all the way back to John Nosler’s Partition bullet, which came to light as the result of cup-and-core bullets disintegrating on a moose’s shoulder. Nosler used a partition of copper jacket material to separate the lead into two pieces – fore and aft – in order to allow the front to
fact, never before have we seen such accuracy (or more properly, precision) from hunting projectiles.
Nosler’s AccuBond is a flat-shooting bullet that can handle highimpact velocities and yet still expand reliably at slower velocities.
expansion – has been a popular choice for hunters since the latter part of the 19th century. It does, however, have its own set of issues, including jacket/ core separation upon impact as well as rapid expansion, which can lead to insu cient penetration.
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING the two designs, you’ll find that while both share a high percentage of weight retention, this is about where the similarities end. The bonded-core bullet can have the same general shape as its non-bonded counterpart, yet the copper-alloy bullet of the same caliber and weight as a lead-
Three 525-grain Barnes TSX bullets, fired from the .505 Gibbs and recovered from a Zimbabwean Cape buffalo bull.
Randy Brooks had the idea totheremovelead core andtheresultingentirely,inBarnesX,ultimatelytheTSXshownhere.
Since those monometals are longer, the center of gravity will be changed, and the heavy-for-caliber models will often require a faster twist rate in
The Barnes TTSX (Tipped Triple Shock X) shares the same monometal design as the TSX, but uses a polymer tip to improve the ballistic coefficient and initiate expansion.
are accurate, open reliably and retain nearly all of their original weight. When pursuing dangerous game with thick hide, tough bones and the ability to stomp or gore you, a copper-alloy monometal bullet makes good sense. It has gained popularity of late, with many companies o ering one or more monometal designs. Nosler’s E-Tip, Hornady’s CX, Federal’s Trophy Copper, Norma’s EcoStrike, Cutting Edge Bullets’ Raptor and South Africa’s Peregrine Bullets are all great examples of monometal hunting bullets with sound reputations.
core bullet will invariably be longer. Copper is less dense than lead, and to make up the same weight –maintaining the caliber dimension – the bullet will be longer if it is of the same shape, i.e. spitzer boattail, etc.
BULLET BULLETIN 66 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
americanshootingjournal.com 67
BULLET BULLETIN 68 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Professional hunter Poen van Zyl and author Phil Massaro with a Mozambican Cape buffalo bull, taken with Peregrine BushMaster monometals from a Heym Model 89B in .450-400 NE 3-inch.
I’ve used 150-grain monometal bullets in my .300 Winchester Magnum to take animals as large as kudu and waterbuck in Africa; they will certainly do the job on whitetail and mule deer here in North America. For a dangerous game bullet, the Barnes TSX and Peregrine BushMaster are two of my favorite monometals, as they handle thick hide and heavy bone very well. I’ve loaded both to handle Cape bu alo bulls, and they’ve performed perfectly.
Peregrine’s BushMaster bullets are made in South Africa, using a copper-alloy hollowpoint capped with a brass plunger, which drives the sidewalls out radially.
order to stabilize the longer bullet. Looking at factory ammunition, you will find that the monometal o erings are often lighter than standard loads with lead-core bullets, depending on the cartridge. For example, the popular 6.5 Creedmoor uses the 140-grain lead-core bullets without issue, and that load is the standard for long-range shooting. Switch that to a copper-alloy monometal – be it the Winchester Copper Impact, Barnes LRX or Hornady CX – and you’ll see the bullet weight drop o to somewhere between 120 and 130 grains.
humane kill.
Some will frown upon the drop in bullet weight, but with the weight retention so high, the terminal results are usually on par with heavier leadcore bullets. If you’re looking to use a lighter monometal at truly long ranges, you may be frustrated with the way the energy and velocity drop o , but for hunters at sane ranges, it shouldn’t pose too much of an issue.
The bonded-core bullets also allow
There are some states and areas that prohibit the use of lead-core ammunition for hunting, so in those areas there isn’t much of a choice, but many hunters simply like the performance of these designs. The monometals work just fine on lighter game, but really show their value on larger species, as the combination of high weight retention and reliable expansion can quickly destroy vital organ tissue, resulting in a quick,
BULLET BULLETIN 70 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
This kudu bull fell to a Texas heart shot from Massaro’s .318 Westley Richards, using the 250-grain bondedcore Woodleigh Weldcore roundnose bullet.
normally reach for a 180-grain cupand-core, and have hunted confidently when a close shot presented itself, knowing that the structural integrity
Three 500-grain Peregrine bulls.NE,author’sbulletsBushMasterfromtheHeym.470recoveredfromapairofCapebuffaloWeightretentionwasinthehigh90-percentrange.
250-grain penetratingauthor’sWeldcoreWoodleighfromthe.318WestleyRichards,aftertheentirelengthofakudubull.Bonded-corebulletsconsistentlygivethatkindofperformance.
A
a hunter to utilize a bullet of slightly lesser weight, yet still deliver the needed penetration. I’ve relied on a 165-grain Swift Scirocco II where I’d
of that bullet will hold together, even at maximum impact velocities. Generally speaking, when I want to hunt with lighter bullets in a given
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americanshootingjournal.com 71
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BULLET BULLETIN 72 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
The Norma Oryx bullet is bonded at the rear of the bullet, allowing the front to expand, yet keeping the rear of the bullet intact.
The Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw is a sort of hybrid, having a short yet bonded core in front of a heavy copper base, keeping much of the weight forward.
SOME WILL TELL you that a premium bullet isn’t needed at all, and that a number of species were nearly pushed to extinction before the jacketed bullet became popular. While they may be
caliber, I reach for a bonded-core bullet. Load the .375 H&H with a 260-grain Nosler AccuBond, or the .338 Winchester Magnum with the 200-grain Trophy Bonded Tip, and you’ve got a surprisingly flat-shooting combination, capable of taking game at longer ranges. Load the same cartridge with heavier premium slugs and you’ve got the capability of taking the larger species.
americanshootingjournal.com 73
The Federal Trophy Bonded Tip is the son of the Bear Claw, and is one tough bullet.
Hornady’s DGX Bonded is an improvement over the earlier cup-and-core DGX, and has gained favor among African professional hunters.
correct about the latter half of that statement, there is no telling how many game animals were wounded and not recovered because of poor bullet performance. Couple that idea with the scarcity of tags in some states, or the cost of some hunts today, and the investment in a premium bullet is minimal and is indeed a worthy insurance policy.
BULLET BULLETIN 74 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
The EdgeCuttingRaptor is a monometal bullet designed to break apart; the front of the bullet breaks into blades for severe trauma, while the base remains at caliber dimension for deep penetration.
I hunt with all sorts of projectiles, but in general I will reach for a bonded-core or monometal premium design if I’m traveling for a hunt in order to hedge my bets. I definitely want a premium bullet when it comes to dangerous game animals, and in my opinion it doesn’t hurt to use them on a deer hunt here at home. Just as I want the best optic and rifle I can a ord, I also want the best projectile I can get my hands on. More often than not, that is a bonded-core or monometal design.
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76 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MIKE NESBITT
americanshootingjournal.com 77
used for these carbine loads were Lyman’s No. 457124, the old Ideal-style grooved bullets that were the standard 405-grain slug for the .45-70. Some of the old-style bullets did have fewer and wider lube grooves, but those don’t show once the bullets are loaded into the cases. And the bullets for the carbine loads were seated rather deeply, so no air space was left in the case above the powder charge, making the carbine loads instantly identifiable to the shooters. This can be duplicated by seating the bullets deep enough so the mouth of the case can be slightly crimped over the “top” of the forward driving band.
BLACK POWDER MAKING BULLETS FOR MY .45-70
n
MAKING THE CARBINE loads is simple. For me this began with new unfired brass that was run through a neck expander to do two things: 1) bell the mouth of the cases just a bit to accept the cast bullets, and 2) round the mouth of any cases that might have gotten squeezed a bit out of round. Of course, fired brass needs to be treated the same way. Then the cases are primed and ready for powder. Once the powder is poured into the case, no compression is required and you can easily seat the lubricated cast bullet down over the powder.Thebullets
bullets for both hunting and target shooting.Manybullets available for the .45-70 weigh less than 500 grains, from the 300-grain bullets that were intended for the .45-90 Winchester up through the 330-grain Gould hollowpoint and the various 405-grain bullets. These are all from the black powder era and all could be used for short-range loads for use out to 300 yards with less recoil than the heavier loads. But even so, loads with these bullets weren’t “Sharps” enough to suit me.
Back in the “on duty” days of the .45-70, there were some variations in the loading of the cartridges. The first and oldest was the .45-70-405, which was designated as the “rifle load.” Because that powder and bullet combination can be considered “a real blast” when fired from a carbine, a “carbine load” using 55 grains of powder under a 405-grain bullet was also used. The carbine load might sound like it is pretty melteddown compared to the standard rifle load or the commercial load using the 405-grain bullet over 70 grains of powder, but don’t cut it too short. Carbine loads can stand on their own performance while o ering comfortable shooting too.
ot long ago, I was able to buy a lightweightrelativelyModel 1874 Hartford version made by C. Sharps Arms. It was secondhand to me and the rifle was made about 2010, but it was in almost unfired condition when I acquired it. It has a 28-inch standard weight barrel, which, to my uncalibrated eye, looks to be even thinner in contour than most. This rifle, with its Hartford forearm and militarystyle buttstock, weighs just an even 9 pounds. At that weight, this Sharps is approaching the weight of a carbine and it is a very handy little rifle.
Between loads from Lyman and Accurate Molds, author enjoys shooting his 'lightweight' carbine.
This gun has “hunting rifle” written all over it and while I haven’t hunted with it as yet, maybe I really should. With its sling, it will be a fine rifle to carry in the woods. I should add that it wasn’t really made to use with the long-range heavy bullets that weigh 500 grains or more. The rifle would shoot them, of course, and probably rather well, but such a load would be punishing to the shoulder if used for more than just a couple of shots. This turns my attention to lighter-weight
Author Mike Nesbitt says his .45-70 Sharps “has ‘hunting rifle’ written all over it,” thanks to a tang sight as well as a sling that will make it even easier to carry the 9-pound carbine around the woods.
To be just a little more specific, Chapter 7, which is about Heavy Barrel Model 1874 Rifles, drew me like a magnet. That’s where I started reading. This chapter contains the only mention of bu alo hunting and that portion of the chapter is rather short. What is discussed much more are the heavy rifles made for benchrest shooting. Benchrest shooting evolved from the heavy muzzleloading “bench guns” and continued
BOOK REVIEW: SHARPS FIREARMS: VOLUME III
As mentioned, this book is dedicated to the Sharps target rifles and other variations in the Models of 1874, 1875 and 1877. (The bu alo rifles were covered in Volume II.) Creedmoor rifles are given serious recognition, as are the Creedmoor matches.
nce again it is my great pleasure to review another book on Sharps Firearms. This time it is for Sharps Firearms: Volume III, the third of the fourvolume set. Written by Roy Marcot, Ron Paxton and Edward W. Marron, Jr., Volume III is specifically about the 1874, 1875 and 1877 target rifles and model variations. This book contains a wealth of detail and information about these Sharps rifles and even though I think I’m fairly well-versed in the old Sharps guns, I’m learning a lot.
Among Sharps Firearms: Volume III’s 425 pages and 21 chapters, the section on Heavy Barrel Model 1874 Rifles drew black powder cartridge shooter Mike Nesbitt “like a magnet.”
78 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
This volume is divided into 21 chapters. Thirteen cover several specific versions of the Model 1874 Sharps rifles, one is dedicated to the rare Model 1875 rifles, and three more are about the 1874 transition to 1877 rifles. That is followed by a chapter about the Freund Brothers and their alterations to Sharps rifles. The next chapter is about other conversions and modifications to Sharps firearms, which includes the famous Meacham conversions plus several by unknown gunsmiths. Then there are two more chapters, one about the Sharps metallic ammunition and the other about the Sharps reloading tools.
O
with the heavy breechloaders such as the Sharps. Of course, benchrest shooting and competition continues to this day, but not particularly with black powder.
BLACK POWDER
Old records revealed that just over 200 of the Sharps rifles were made. Those rifles, which weighed over 16 pounds, were capable of some fantastic shooting and
only very few of those targets have been preserved or recorded.
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Following the chapters devoted to the
THIS NEW BULLET was born after seeing Roy Marcot’s latest fantastic book, Sharps Firearms: Volume III (see sidebar). In the back of this new book is a chapter on Sharps reloading tools. A couple of Ron Paxton’s excellent photos show an old Sharps bullet mold, a nose
80 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
lubetwoand413bullet.46-caliber46-413N,Molds’AccurateNo.aweighinggrainsfeaturinglargegrooves.ACCURATEMOLDS
BLACK POWDER
1874 models, the 1875 and 1877 models are given just as much attention. A lot of history and development is mentioned here, even though the Model 1875 never reached actual production. Few were made and that included one military version. What was attempted with the 1875 as a target rifle was actually realized with the Model of 1877. I already knew that, but what I didn’t know was how the 1877 was made in versions other than the Long Range and Creedmoor models. They also made at least four 1877s as midrange rifles that had double set triggers. And there were sporting models among the 1877s as well; these were the ’77s sent to JP Lower, which have distinctions all of their own.
Shop drawing of
The final two chapters are all about
There are sporting models of the famous Sharps 1874 rifle included in the book in their own separate chapters. Those include the Business Rifle and, in another chapter, the Hunter’s Rifle. Another model that gets a specific chapter is the “A” rifle. Other versions of the Sharps 1874 that are covered include the 1874 Military rifles and the 1874 Military target rifles. This book certainly covers the 1874 rifles in details that have never been so completely available before.
Sharps ammunition and the Sharps reloading tools. Those chapters interest me greatly because they include info that hasn’t been covered nearly as completely as it is in this book. Obviously, for followers of Sharps rifles, this book has a lot to o er.
Fresh cast bullets and newly loaded ammo with the 413-grain bullets.
Those Creedmoor rifles had to meet very specific limitations, i.e. they couldn’t weigh over 10 pounds. The section about the Creedmoor matches includes photographs of the Creedmoor trophies, as well as the shooting teams.
To get a copy of Sharps Firearms: Volume III, send $100 (shipping is included) to: Roy Marcot, 4680 W. Placita Casa Sevilla, Marana, AZ 85658. Make checks payable to Northwood Heritage Press. There is a limited supply of copies of Sharps Firearms: Volume I still available for $100 from the same address. Volume II has sold out. Volume IV, about the Sharps Model 1878, will be coming next.
So far, I’ve been sizing this bullet to only .459-inch diameter and it seems to be working just fine. The lube I’ve been using is BPC from C. Sharps Arms and for powder I’m using 65 grains of Olde
Molds (accuratemolds.com) about building it. That new bullet is now in Accurate’s catalog as No. 46-413N. The main features of this bullet are two large lube grooves with a rather long nose, so the bullet protrudes beyond the case mouth much further than with bullets made for the lever-action repeaters. That gives the loads with this bullet a real “Sharps” look to them.
Shooting the carbine load in this light rifle is a real blast and I would certainly continue using that load, except that something new has come my way. That “something new” is a new bullet that has caused the rebirth of my interest in shooting this rifle.
This highly detailed tome has 425 pages and measures 10¼ inches by 12¼ inches.
pour with the large sprue cutters, for a 400-grain .45-caliber bullet. That was one of the Sharps o erings for the .45-70, a 400-grain “naked” bullet that was 1 1/10 inches in length. Sharps also o ered a 412-grain naked bullet and I do wonder if the main di erence between that and the 400-grain version was simply bullet alloy. There probably was a slight di erence in design, but I can’t comment more because I just don’t know. However, that picture of the 400-grain bullet in the book was enough for me to quickly consider a design for a new mold, so I contacted Accurate
Eynsford 1½F, with a .030-inch Walters wad between the powder and the base of the bullet. The only other detail I can give you about the load is that it gets its ignition from standard Winchester large rifle primers. That’s the full description of my .45-70 “short-range” loading.
WHEN I GOT this rifle, it was equipped with open sights and for a while I used it with that flat-topped open sight along with a German silver blade. My eyes began to complain about that quite a while ago, so now a Deluxe Vernier tang sight does its best to keep me on target. While I have replaced the rear sight, the front sight is still the blade and I really don’t want to change it because I still have ideas about using this rifle for hunting. The blade front sight is most visible when you’re in the deep woods. For now, the rear tang sight and the blade front sight keep me pretty well satisfied.
More needs to be said about the rear sight. C. Sharps Arms (csharpsarms.com)
Five shots with the new bullet and load, fired at 50 yards.
82 American Shooting Journal // September 2022 BLACK POWDER
The Deluxe ShortRange tang sight from C. Sharps Arms.
My own shooting with both the new 413-grain bullet and the new sight has so far been limited to just 50 yards. That is short range for sure, but at that distance I find the results very pleasing. You’ve got to start somewhere. As of this writing, I can claim to have shot under 100 rounds with the new bullet, but more shooting is certainly to be expected.
This short-range Sharps rifle is now teamed with a bullet that will see a lot of shooting and I’m also setting up a couple of other shooters at our club to try the new bullet in their .45-70 Sharps rifles. Like me, they’ll appreciate shooting with a bullet that is based on an original Sharps design, when “Put Up Expressly for Sharps Rifles” used to appear on the cartridge boxes.
84 American Shooting Journal // September 2022 BLACK POWDER
has made a Deluxe Short-Range Vernier sight for several years, but is finally mentioning it in their catalog. The Deluxe ShortRange sight is screw-adjustable for windage with calibrations on the top of the elevator body. Elevation is securely locked with a set screw on the left side and it comes with a nice large 1 1/8-inch-diameter eye cup. This sight can provide elevation out to 300 yards, depending on the height of the front sight, which is fine for our 100- to 200-yard club shoots. It is available with bases for fitting to Winchesters such as the Highwall, to Remingtons like their rolling blocks, and to Sharps for their ’74, ’75 and Model of 1877. The fine shortrange sight is $250.
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id you know that a small, specialized ammo company has been quietly pumping out millions upon millions of shotshells out of Sweet Home, Oregon, for the past 22 years? By o ering so many nontoxic ammo options for shotgunners, Hevi-
steel. To do this, they spent more than a year developing their very own alloy mixture using tungsten and other metals. The result was a very heavy pellet superior to steel, and that also outperformed lead due to its density. Along the way, Hevi-Shot also started crafting its own bismuth pellets, which the company might be best known for. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Earlier this year, the company
Shot is often misunderstood. HeviShot only produces nontoxic shotshell hunting loads. They don’t make centerfire or rimfire ammo (yet) and they don’t load anything with lead. So, for shotgunners looking for a big list of options for hunts in lead-restricted areas, Hevi-Shot has it.
Hevi-Shot is probably best known in waterfowl hunting circles, thanks to steelshot alternatives in the form of proprietary tungsten and bismuth pellets, but loads for doves, pheasants and other upland birds are also on offer.
For 22 years, this Oregon company has been producing nontoxic shotshells; here’s their current lineup.
americanshootingjournal.com 87
D
STORY AND PHOTOS BY LARRY CASE
HEVI-SHOT 101
SCATTERGUN ALLEY
In 2000, Hevi-Shot (Hevishot.com) started up with the goal of making waterfowl ammo that outperformed
reevaluated its catalog of o erings, discontinuing many of its convoluted product names and condensing its list of products to be simple and streamlined. But that doesn’t mean Hevi-Shot’s current product list is small; it’s still huge and can be confusing to comprehend.
bismuth and tungsten. A denser (heavier) material will carry its velocity and penetration energy longer. This means it will hit harder (faster) plus carry its lethality (in foot-pounds) out to greater distances.
SCATTERGUN ALLEY 88 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
PELLETS AND STACKS
The first key to understanding HeviShot’s overall product line is grasping their overall strategy of pellet materials and stacked payloads. Hevi-Shot only loads nontoxic pellet materials: steel, bismuth or tungsten. Of these three shot materials, steel has the lightest density – 7.8 grams per cubic centimeter. Bismuth is next at 9.6 g/ cc, and tungsten is the heaviest at 12 g/cc. Hevi-Shot also loads a full line of turkey-hunting ammo using tungsten super shot (TSS) pellets, which have a density of 18 g/cc. Regarding lethality, it’s considered to be the same order: steel, bismuth, then tungsten and TSS.
Again, Hevi-Shot does not load any product containing lead pellets. But for comparison’s sake, the density of lead is 11.2 g/cc, which falls between
Hevi-Shot’s product line is organized by four hunting activities. Within each of those, the company o ers its customers good-better-best solutions to choose from based on their need, preference or budget. Hevi-Shot o ers only the most popular loadings with specific attributes for each type of wild game, making it easier for customers to know what to select.
Waterfowl. Hevi-Steel is o ered
Let’s take a look.
The Hevi-Metal line features stacked bismuth/ steel payloads available in 20 different loads.
Think about it: If you had a wi e ball, a tennis ball and a baseball thrown at you at the same speed, which one would hurt the most? Density also relates to shot size. A 1-centimeter cube of steel weighs a lot less than a 1-centimeter cube of bismuth or tungsten. Because bismuth is 22-percent denser than steel, hunters can choose loads that are one size smaller than steel and still have the same or better lethality. Using tungsten, hunters can choose three sizesThesmaller.sizeof the projectile also a ects penetration. If you were punctured in the foot by a large nail or a small needle, which one do you think would go deeper? That example of penetration is the same when shooting the large shot size No. 2 compared to the tiny size of No. 9. The size of shot also a ects pellet count. In a 3-inch shotshell hull, you can fit a lot more pellets of tiny No. 9s compared to
No. 2s. So, if you choose a shotshell that features a material that is denser than another material, you will benefit by having more downrange energy, deeper penetration and/or higher pellet counts, which leads to fuller patterns with more hits on target at longerHevi-Shotdistances.shells are loaded with either straight or stacked payloads. Straight means all of one material (100-percent bismuth, tungsten or whatever). Stacked means multiple shot types in one shell. For Hevi-Shot, this means a layer of steel pellets and a layer of bismuth pellets loaded in the same shell. This stacked, dual-shot design, according to HeviShot, improves on a shotgun shell’s performance.Tosumitup, Hevi-Shot’s three shot materials and two payload types all have a specific purpose in the company’s product line. Steel satisfies customers looking for a good option that is less expensive yet is e ective at close and medium distances. However, a load that has both steel and bismuth is a better solution because a stacked load o ers an increase to the shell’s overall lethal e ectiveness at only a modest increase in price. Bismuth is slightly more expensive than steel, but its performance is closer to that of lead loads, so a load with 100-percent bismuth is an even better solution. And finally, while tungsten comes with a larger price tag, it is the most e ective at long distances compared to anything else, so tungsten loads are Hevi-Shot’s best solution.
SELECTED FOR THE GAME
americanshootingjournal.com 89
Hevi-Metal Longer Range shotshells are topped with 30-percent bismuth pellets over 70-percent steel shot. The former are a size smaller than the latter, but because of their heavier density, they have the same ballistic coefficient.
one size smaller than its steel pellets, but because of density, they have the same ballistic coe cient as the steel. Hevi-Hammer is available in only five popular loads, and it’s stacked with just 15-percent bismuth over 85-percent steel; both pellet types are the same size in this Hevi-Bismuthload. Waterfowl is an even better choice because it’s loaded with all bismuth and it’s o ered in 23 di erent loadings. It’s also popular because it’s softer than steel and tungsten, meaning it can safely be used in both modern and classic, or older, fixed-choke shotguns.
in 23 popular loads for waterfowl in a long list of sizes and speeds. Hevi-Teal is o ered in just three options – all in shot size No. 6. Both are good, all-steel solutions.Hevi-Metal Longer Range and HeviHammer feature stacked bismuth/ steel payloads, which are better than all-steel. Hevi-Metal is the more robust of the two products. It’s available in 20 di erent loads and features 30-percent bismuth pellets stacked on top of 70-percent steel shot. HeviMetal Longer Range also features two shot sizes so there’s more pellets in its payload. Its bismuth pellets are
SCATTERGUN ALLEY 90 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Turkey. Hevi-Metal Turkey is o ered in shot sizes No. 4 and 5. These loads feature stacked payloads with
Hevi-XII is the company’s best solution for waterfowl. It is named for the dense tungsten alloy that weighs 12 g/cc.
Upland. Hevi-Hammer Upland is o ered only in shot sizes No. 3 and 5. Hevi-Hammer Dove is o ered only in shot size No. 7. Both products have stacked bismuth/steel payloads (15-percent over 85-percent). HeviBismuth Upland is o ered in only the two loads that pheasant hunters choose the most: 2¾-inch, No. 5 in 12or 20-gauge.
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Hevi-18 Turkey is the company’s new best-of-the best option. It features tungsten super shot pellets that deliver the ultimate in density (18 g/cc) in shot
SCATTERGUN ALLEY
Magnum Blend is a 12 g/cc tungsten load that features a mix of three di erent shot sizes – No. 5, 6 and 7 – all in one load, making it HeviShot’s best solution. This blend o ers a more powerful, versatile payload with a higher pellet count compared to a traditional No. 5 or No. 6 copper-plated lead turkey load.
size 7 or 9. TSS is now widely known as being the most lethal pellet material on the planet, so it’s no surprise that Hevi-Shot loads it.
Predator. Hevi-Shot o ers its best solution for predator hunting, which is aptly named Dead Coyote. It features 12 g/cc tungsten pellets in shot size 00 Buck or T. Both can be deadly out to 70 yards.
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“Quality exceeds expectations” when it comes to Hevi-Shot products, argues columnist Larry Case, making for satisfied shooters and busy hunting dogs.
The element of quality. Shot and payload type matters, but there are other characteristics of Hevi-Shot shotshells that set them apart from other shotgun shells, such as their all-season reliability and specialized components. Hevi-Shot is very
particular on what primers, powders, wads, hulls and sealants they use, and because of that, its overall product quality exceeds expectations.
Editor’s note: Larry Case has been a devoted outdoorsman since he was a child. He will admit to an addiction to turkey hunting (spring and fall), but refuses any treatment. He enjoys the company of gobblers and cur dogs that are loud and people who speak the truth softly. Case served 36 years as a game warden in West Virginia and retired with the rank of district captain. You can check out his podcast and other stories at gunsandcornbred.com.
bismuth on top of steel (30-percent over 70-percent). Turkeys are large upland birds, so payloads are heavier in ounces than Hevi-Metal for waterfowl.
Officer Kennis Croom gave the ultimate sacrifice to save four children whose mother was allegedly shot by her fiancé, who has been charged with capital murder.
L.E. SPOTLIGHT
We never know what evil lurks behind the door. Disturbance calls are, traditionally, the most dangerous calls that o cers respond to. And domestic disturbances, even more so.
Inbehind.certain instances, an o cer sacrifices his or her life so that others can live. O cer Kennis Croom was an o cer with the Meridian Police Department in eastern Mississippi. On June 9, he responded to a domestic disturbance at around 5 p.m.
What makes this story more disturbing is that Bender was previously employed as a police o cer but was fired in January of this year. He had only been an o cer for a few months prior to being fired. There aren’t any other details as to why he was terminated but, given the short time he was employed as a police o cer, he clearly wasn’t suitable for the profession.
americanshootingjournal.com 95
GUNNED DOWN BUT LIVING ON
FOLLOWING THE SHOOTING, Bender fled the scene and a massive manhunt was launched. He was arrested the following evening, 80 miles away.
I
Mississippi officer killed while responding to domestic violence call saved four kids – and his donated organs are helping others live.
t is always a sad day when an o cer gives his or her life in the line of duty. The inherent dangers that the job presents make the loss of one’s life an unfortunate reality of the profession. No words can heal the pain of the family and friends who are left
That’s when O cer Croom arrived. The suspect turned his gun on O cer Croom, shooting him five times. O cer Croom died as a result of his injuries.
O cer Croom was originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He lettered in basketball and football in high school and played the tuba in the marching band. He graduated magna cum laude from Hinds Community College and obtained a BS in criminal justice from Jackson State University, where he made the dean’s list. He knew he
When Bender was arrested, he was placed in a pair of handcu s that had belonged to O cer Croom, symbolizing his part in bringing this fugitive to justice.
What O cer Croom didn’t know was that inside the residence he was responding to, 31-year-old Dante Marquez Bender had shot and killed his pregnant fiancé. He was then planning on murdering four children who had witnessed the crime.
EVEN IN DEATH, O cer Croom kept giving. Per his request, his organs were donated after his death to help others. In addition to the four children he saved the night of the disturbance, he will be responsible for saving and helping many others.
STORY BY NICK PERNA • PHOTO COURTESY OF MERIDIAN POLICE DEPARTMENT
96 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
We will never know what other accomplishments O cer Croom may have had in his career and his personal life. But we do know one thing. There are four young lives that were sustained by his bravery and selflessness. Thank you, O cer Croom, for all you did and, by donating your organs, all that you continue to do.
T
actical Target Systems co-owner and product developer Don Robertson thought it was long past due for a serious redesign when it came to paper targets. Those e orts have awarded him United States copyrights and sales to our military, federal government, state and local law enforcement agencies, and to European ally nations.
“There is no training on the real thing, so making the sight picture as accurate as possible was a major consideration in these designs,” says Robertson. Tactical Target Systems’ research also revealed that many of those in the military and law enforcement who froze (failed to discharge their weapon in combat or on duty) had never shot at anything with eyes. These were highly trained individuals who had never seen combat before or who had never hunted.
In his honor, O cer Croom’s family has established the Croom Foundation, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged children in Alabama seek college educations. Go to thecroomfoundation.com to donate.
It wasn’t long after Robertson encountered an armed suspect while working as a deputy sheri in Los Angeles that he realized the old black B-27 human silhou ette targets with arbitrary circles and numbers were lacking for combat training. He succeeded in redesigning targets specifi cally for educating shooters on critical shot placement and what it takes to neutralize armed threats. The new scoring zones are a big favorite among training o cers and range masters.
The day of his murder was actually a scheduled day o .
for developing critical marksmanship skills. Practicing on a large B-27 target, where the design is of a 180- to 200-pound person, will give one a false sense of their true ability.”
Editor’s note: Author Nick Perna is a sergeant with the Redwood City Police Department in northern California. He previously served as a paratrooper in the US Army and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also has a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco. He is a frequent contributor to multiple print and online forums on topics related to law enforcement, firearms, tactics and veterans issues.
POINTS?ZEROtacticaltargetsystems.comVALUE?EQUALWHY ONLY POINTS?8
“In addition to blending five major ethnicities into one for political correctness, we also redesigned the size of our targets to what would be that of a smaller human threat,” says Robertson. “It makes more sense to shoot at a smaller target than the large B-27
wanted to go into law enforcement from an early age, which is why he chose to major in criminal justice. As an o cer who served in two states (Alabama and Mississippi), he excelled, serving as a crisis intervention o cer, a member of the special response team and a narcotics investigator.
TACTICAL TARGET SYSTEMS
Whether you’re training for personal defense, hunting or target practice, you will appreciate the extensive thought put into every Tactical Target Systems design.
A WELL-PLACED WORD IS AS GOOD AS A WELL-PLACED SHOT
training program is what he calls MUC, or managing unknown contacts. Many of the potential threats that a concealed carrier may encounter present first as strangers on the street, and in the first critical moments, it may not be clear if the unknown contact poses a legitimate threat or whether or not they are armed. Such a circumstance creates the possibility for what Douglas calls “violence intertwined with ambiguity.”
“I
Self-defense doesn’t just involve a deadly weapon; there’s also a verbal component that can help ward off a potentially deadly situation before it even begins – and save your butt in court if things go south. (SHUTTERSTOCK)
A key component of Douglas’s
know the potency and power of a well-placed word,” says Craig Douglas, “and it’s as potent and powerful as a well-placed shot.” Douglas is a veteran of law enforcement, a former undercover cop and the founder of ShivWorks, which provides tactical training to people in 48 states, 12 countries, four branches of the US military, and five federal law enforcement agencies.
americanshootingjournal.com 99 LEGAL SPOTLIGHT
Douglas says, “If one chooses to take on the responsibility of carrying a gun in a public space, then the onus is even greater for people to have parity in other skills like good language, good verbal agility and good social literacy.” He calls these skills “verbal jujitsu,” and as a narcotics o cer, he used it to avoid gunfights in the line of duty. Now, as part of his training business, Douglas teaches concealed carriers how to use verbal skills to avoid deadly force incidents in their personal lives.
‘Verbal jujitsu’ can help head off a potentially life-threatening encounter, and in court if one occurs.
STORY BY SHAWN VINCENT
The idea of ambiguity is central to our concept of the “armed defender’s
LEGAL SPOTLIGHT
Douglas says, “You can project volume without necessarily connoting hostility, and that bump in volume, if done correctly, and it’s unexpected, quite often is enough to really put somebody back on their heels.”
100 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
dilemma,” which describes the challenge of concealed carriers facing an apparently unarmed aggressor. We know that a person doesn’t have to be armed to pose a threat of great bodily injury or death, but criminal defense attorney and CCW Safe National Trial Counsel Don West says using deadly force against an unarmed person creates legal challenges after the fact.
In his training sessions, Douglas instructs his clients to begin verbal contact by making a request that is spoken firmly but not aggressively –something like “Hey, man, can you hold up?” Beginning with a question such as “What’s up?” or “What do you need?” invites the unknown contact to engage in conversation and continue their approach. Opening with a command such as “Stay back!” could aggravate the situation, especially with someone who didn’t necessarily mean you any harm.
is critical. Once someone has gotten within what Douglas calls “wingspan,” the potential aggressor has a huge advantage, and the defender has little time to react. Before an unknown contact gets too close, an armed defender can use verbal skills to buy time and disambiguate the threat the person presents.
“With the opening salvo of your language,” Douglas says, “you’re trying to halt someone’s approach, not
THAT’S WHERE VERBAL jujitsu comes in. If the armed defender can use communication skills to disambiguate the potential threat of an unknown contact, it may be possible to avoid a violent confrontation in the first place.
If the “ask” fails, and the unknown contact continues to advance, Douglas instructs his clients to increase the volume and move to a command, or as Douglas says, a “tell” – something like “Whoa, back up, man!”
to create a problem.” A firm request stated as an “ask” communicates the desire to establish a safe distance without escalating the tension with an unknown contact.
Douglas says that maintaining a safe distance from an unknown contact
IF BOTH THE “ask” and the “tell” fail, and the unknown contact continues to approach, then the stranger’s intentions become much less ambiguous, and the defender can consider use-of-force options with more confidence that their actions may
“It’s a harder case to defend when you’ve used a deadly weapon against someone who is unarmed or who is, at least, portrayed as not having a deadly weapon,” he explains.
Editor’s note: Shawn Vincent is a litigation consultant who helps select juries in self-defense cases, and he manages public interest of high-profile legal matters. Mr. Vincent is also a regular contributor to CCW Safe’s news and podcasts.
be legally justified.
In the wake of a self-defense shooting, being able to articulate every e ort made to clarify the potential threat and de-escalate the situation could serve to strengthen the legal justification for deploying deadly force. Your ability to explain how an attacker ignored your ask and continued approaching even after a stern command will help you distinguish yourself as a thoughtful defender who made a clear e ort to avoid a deadlyTheconflict.lessonfor concealed carriers is that by incorporating verbal skills in your self-defense toolbox, you’ll be more prepared to manage encounters with unknown contacts, and should you have to use deadly force, you’ll be more prepared to articulate the e orts you made to assess the nature of the threat and ward o your attacker.
There is much more to MUC than verbal jujitsu, and you can find out more about that at shivworks.com.
Next time we’ll discuss some of Craig Douglas’s recommendations for how to handle an attacker when your verbal skills fall short.
americanshootingjournal.com 101
simply not true.
Fort Scott’s ammunition, which I will discuss in this article.
ast month in this column, I wrote about the Battleline Tactical and Fort Scott
americanshootingjournal.com 103
myIFortlatter’scourse,close-quarterMunitionstrainingheldatthefacilityinScott,Kansas.wasthenaskedthoughtson L Kansas company’s deadly .300 Blackout, 5.56 NATO Tumble Upon Impact rounds get thumbs up. MUSINGS ON FORT SCOTT’S MUNITIONS
Fort Scott Munitions’ 5.56 NATO TUI – short for Tumble Upon Impact – is one of several unique rounds from the company that come with solid testimonials, per author Paul Pawela.
Self-Defense TRAINING
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PAUL PAWELA
But before I pontificate on the company’s product line, I had planned to write an article on the poor performances of some of the leading law enforcement rounds. Hollowpoints are advertised as mushrooming bullets excellent at stopping bad guys. However, most of the time this is
I was sent an in-depth medical report by a trusted friend, who happens to be an ER surgeon and a federal tactical o cer/nationallyrecognized firearms trainer. He has pulled lots of bullets from actual bodies on the operating table and the top bullets failed to mushroom as advertised; he supplied the pictures
1) A shot to the central nervous system, or CNS. The CNS controls all bodily functions. No part of the body can function without a signal transmitted through the CNS. Gunshot wounds to the CNS o er the best chance for reliable incapacitation; however, there is not a 100-percent guarantee that this will be quickly achieved.2)Ashot to the brain and the medulla oblongata. The brain is small but not as di cult to hit as many state. At close range, it is often hit with remarkable results. The medulla oblongata brain stem lies between the brain and the top of the spinal column; while a hard target to hit, if achieved it o ers immediate body incapacitation.
FORT
With handgun ammunition, incapacitation will generally come from hypovolemic shock, which is caused by a loss of blood volume su cient to drop blood pressure to critical levels. Bottom line, it could take a while to bleed out and die. This could
An avid hunter, Ryan Kraft – here with a wild pig – is the “brainchild” behind Fort Scott Munitions, which produces bullets “meant to tumble for better wound capability and stopping power.” SCOTT MUNITIONS
Ballistic gel testing is fine for the lab, but not for Pawela, who points out the substance doesn’t “run, dodge, duck and weave when being shot. What is important to me is how animals react to bullets when being shot.”
104 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
Most research on wound ballistics comes from coroner reports based on autopsies of said reports, as well as doctors who perform emergency procedures on gunshot victims. Then we have police reports, though these may be tainted for one reason or another.
the matter. Here is what they had to say on the subject in their “Handgun Wounding Factors and E ectiveness” report: “There is no valid, scientific analysis of actual shooting results in existence, or being pursued to date … There are some well publicized, so called analyses of shooting incidents being promoted, however, they are greatly flawed. Conclusions are
reached based on samples so small that they are meaningless.”
of those bullets to back it up. Before I get crucified by the keyboard commandos for criticizing their favorite ammo, first let me state for the record that I do not claim to be an expert on wound ballistics. However, the same could be said for most people, including said keyboard commandos.EventheFBI has little expertise on
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
TO DESTROY OR kill an animal, including humans, there are only two ways to do so:
Animals – especially the two-legged variety – are capable of sustaining phenomenal punishment while persisting in a determined course of action. Consider Emmett Dalton, who was one of the Dalton Gang shot in a Co eyville, Kansas, attempted bank robbery in 1892. He was shot 23 times –two of the bullets taken from his body were large-caliber rifle bullets; others ranged from buckshot to pistol bullets – andRiflelived!ammunition is always better to use in a defensive encounter due to rifle projectiles traveling at higher velocities than handgun projectiles. Rifle projectiles also penetrate the skull much easier and create a significant hydrostatic shock wave to the body.
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
First, for the record, I am not impressed with bullets being shot into gel blocks because gel blocks don’t run, dodge, duck and weave when being shot. What is important to me is how animals react to bullets when being shot.
be very problematic if an individual is shot but still capable of hostile action.
I will back that with testimonials
106 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
He continued, “With the TUI (Tumble Upon Impact) round, we saw increased to better odds because
the above information was necessary to understand what makes Fort Scott di erent from other brands on the market and why.
SOME MAY SAY I went a long way around the barn to introduce Fort Scott Munitions (fortscottmunitions.com), but
Ryan Kraft is the brainchild behind Fort Scott Munitions. While his family made it big in the printing business, being an avid hunter, Kraft started to notice certain things that were happening on the hunt.
Terminal results in real life speak volumes about the Kansas company’s ammunition. (FORT SCOTT MUNITIONS)
Experts will agree that whether it be handgun or rifle ammunition, penetration is critical and so is shot placement, also known as accuracy.
it utilizes both principles of doing extreme terminal damage inside the animal but still exits with little energy left. But by far the worst one-shot stops where the animals survived longer before incapacitation was fragmenting ammo that stops in the body. This was scary because at certain feet per second this is what the 5.56 is banking on to make more lethal, which in return is less lethal than if it would tumble once and not fragment. With TUI you get at least two tumbles by design and two holes to bleed through as well.”
I AM A big fan of the 5.56x45mm NATO round as both a home-defense and hunting bullet. However, with testimonials from my former special operations friends and hunting friends, I am thoroughly convinced that .300 Blackout is the way to go. I am even more convinced that Fort Scott’s .300 Blackout ammunition could be a game-changer, especially for the law enforcement community, as no other company is getting the results that their .300 Blackout ammo is.
“When hunting, which is testing on live animals, we quickly realized that projectiles that pass through the animal greatly increases the possibility of the one-shot stop,” he said. “But for the times it didn’t drop the animal in one shot to the ‘vitals,’ it ran shorter distances before the animal became incapacitated than it did for rounds that stopped in the animal.”
several instructor certifications such as OC, handcuffing, first aid, firearms and more.His wife Ploy is also thecertifiedRSO for most classes. Growing up in a country with strict gun control, she understands the importance of owning firearms. If you’re looking for training that encompasses all aspects of firearms ownership, take a class from Black Ring Tactical. They do it all. CLASSES OFFERED > BASIC PISTOL (LEVEL 1) > DEFENSIVE PISTOL (LEVEL 2) > BASIC RIFLE (LEVEL 1) > DEFENSIVE RIFLE (LEVEL 2) > PRIVATE CLASS 360-474-5650 • BlackRingTactical@gmail.com Black Ring Tactical @blackringtactical Black Ring Tactical blackringtactical.com
americanshootingjournal.com 107
different contractorsbefore
to
uniform
Black Ring Tactical, LLC is run by Travis Sparr, a combat veteran of Iraq and aformer Federal Contract He taught firearms the Iraqi Army thenspent many years in under becoming a Federal Contract Heholds
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
and
Trainer.
Black Ring’s classes are focused on more than just how to clean, load and shoot (although they teach that in the basic classes). The curriculum teaches how to respond to a violent encounter while using a firearm. Black Ring doesn’t care about how fancy your gun, gear, stance, or politics are… they care about you hitting your target quickly and repeatedly while retaining accuracy from any position you might find yourself in. Basic level classes are designed with the first-time gun owner in mind. Defensive classes are focused on honing your skills while developing new skills like reloading under stress, clearing malfunctions with one hand, and fighting from uncomfortable positions.
Employee.
“I have seen nothing come close to it for the damage it does to vehicles, short of the .50-caliber BMG round,” Benton said matter-of-factly. (Look forward to an upcoming article on Benton and vehicles soon.)
Be it for law enforcement use or home self-defense, the Fort Scott .300 Blackout is going to be hard to beat; their 5.56 ammo is awesome and accurate as well and is in both my short- and long-barrel duty rifles. I have not shot the Fort Scott in .308
from men I not only know and respect, but men I would trust with my very life. Bill Stasak, training partner and owner of WJS Guns in Merritt Island, Florida, had this to say: “I sell and use the Fort Scott .300 Blackout round in the hunting arena; whether using their .300 AAC 115-grain standard TUI or the 190-grain AAC subsonic TUI, you are sure to take down any hog or deer with one well-placed shot.”
If this ammo works so well on 300-plus-pound hogs, how well do you think it would work on human beings?
Continuing with Stasak’s testimonial: “In testing the 115-grain .300 Blackout, at 2,200 feet per second the round is faster and harder-hitting on target; it has no problem passing through metal that most other rounds can’t penetrate. This round, even from my 10.5 short-barrel rifle, is deadly out
The other man I asked to give a testimonial on Fort Scott’s .300 Blackout is Dave “Boon” Benton. Benton is a former law enforcement o cer, a former special operations marine, a 13-year personal protection specialist for the CIA and now a fulltime firearms trainer; he is perhaps best known for his contributions during the Benghazi attack.
firearms instructor who knows what he is talking about.
On target! A silhouette registers a couple good groups.
Those are powerful words coming from people in two di erent professions on one product.
Bill Stasak, owner of a central Florida gun shop, fires a suppressed AR pistol using Fort Scott’s .300 AAC 115-grain standard TUI at a target 100 yards away.
He added, “When using the 190-grain .300 AAC Blackout Solid Copper Spun Sub-Munition with a suppressed rifle for hogs, this round is ultra-quiet and devastating to the hog. One round drops larger hogs in their tracks and leaves the other hogs confused because the round is so quiet, the other hogs have no idea where the danger is coming from.”
to 300 yards and I would be willing to bet (I’d) get accuracy from it out to 400 yards.” As previously stated, Stasak is an entrepreneur who owns a gun shop and carries many di erent guns and ammo; he is a hunter and certified
108 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
W
tedblockerholsters.com
the highest-quality duty holsters and accessories available. We make shoulder rigs for concealment and an Alaskan-style rig that can sit on your chest for your larger hunting handguns. You can now change out your holster to use the same rig for a different gun.
Ted Blocker Holsters have been used in TV shows and Hollywood movies such as Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Dukes of Hazzard, Cowboys & Aliens, Gangster Squad, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, among others. One of our holsters is even displayed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library andHavingMuseum.trouble finding a quality holster to fit your lights and optics? Give us a try. You will learn what quality is!
At Ted Blocker Holsters, we are the sole manufacturer of “Evil Roy” competition holsters and accessories, which can be purchased through our website. Our duty holsters, made from leather, are still the most comfortable in the field and they are
e are now in our 50th year here at Ted Blocker Holsters. The tradition of fine holsters and accessories continues. Based in Oregon, we ship all over the world, including New Zealand, Japan, Canada and Guam. We make custom holsters for concealment, duty, field and competition, and our reputation is getting your gun – with its add-ons – to fit in our leather holster like a glove.
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TED BLOCKER HOLSTERS
But there are two kills that impressed me the most. One was a grizzly bear taken with a Fort Scott 10mm round. Granted, two rounds were needed – one shot to the head and one to the neck – but keep in mind that this is a predator that tracks, kills and oftentimes eats humans, so I would say the results were pretty damn good.
Editor’s note: For realistic self-defense training, see assaultcountertactics.com. Author Paul Pawela is a nationally recognized firearms and self-defense expert based in Florida.
AS I CLOSE on my report on Fort Scott Munitions, here are some final thoughts. Ryan Kraft designed, developed and patented bullets that were meant to
Once again, the hard data we have to date is on animals first because there is much more opportunity to shoot animals than there is humans. I am not interested in small game results; what intrigues me is big game. A few years ago, I was charged by a wild boar before putting it down with several rifle rounds from an undisclosed manufacturer. So to witness a one-shot stop of a 250- to 300-pound boar with a .380 out of a small Ruger LCR is nothing short of
amazing. Fort Scott handgun calibers have also put down the likes of a 225-pound black bear.
GETTING BACK TO the subject of gun fighting, in an ideal situation we would be dealing with conflict resolution in a rifle caliber; however, we usually trade power for portability and thus we enter the discussion of Fort Scott Munitions’ handgun calibers.
but have seen the videos, which have amazing results. I do know their .338 reaches out to an astonishing 3,000 yards and the 6.5 Grendel out to a mile.
The crew at Fort Scott Munitions, which is headquartered an hour and a half south of Kansas City, manufactures ammunition for hunting and self-defense, as well as bullets for hand-loaders. (FORT SCOTT MUNITIONS)
Battleline instructor Jeremy Mitchell encourages a student to get full arm extension while aiming his handgun.
SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
I believe in Fort Scott Munitions so much that I am willing to bet my life with them. I carry them in both my 9mms, as well as in my rifles. I do not believe there is a better testimony.
110 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
The other creature killed with a Fort Scott Munitions 10mm round was a polar bear – another maneater taken down with just two rounds. People can sco all they want, but until they face down, shoot and kill those creatures themselves, they have zero input to give, period.
tumble for better wound capability and stopping power. In designing handgun calibers, he had his lovely wife in mind, who protects his greatest treasures, his children. So any handgun caliber has to do its job. Kraft is a humble man who believes in this great country and is a man driven by God.
For the doubters out there, Kraft just smiles and has this invitation for you: “Come hunting with us and see for yourself.”Andthat’s my two cents!
Red River Tactical is a veteran-owned and -oper ated company located in Clarksville, Tennessee. We hand-craft high-quality, high-definition, custom Kydex gun holsters and magazine carriers.
its shape after years of use. We find creating our holsters as an art form and take great care and time in every aspect of the process. We carry a large variety of Kydex colors, patterns and holster designs. We are confident we can provide you with a custombuilt holster that will fit your personal style and needs, at an a ordable price.
Using only the top-of-the-line Kydex our holsters are made in the USA. We only use suppliers that are USbased and meet strin gent U.S. Mil Spec standards. Kydex is a teartoughestwithstandsmaterialhigh-strengththatthewearandwhileretaining
rrtholsters.comREDRIVER
Hand Crafted. Quality Custom Holsters
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TACTICAL
Hand Built For Hardcore Use
Tap Rack Holsters is a leading provider of premium American-made gun holsters and knife sheaths. Our products are the result of 40 plus years of combined experience in the military and law enforcement field using American made materials. Every Tap Rack holster and sheath is handcrafted using extreme care, precision and built to last because we’re dedicated to providing premium quality products our customers can rely on.
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a PREMIUM QUALITY a FULLY FUNCTIONAL a LIFETIME WARRANTY a CUSTOM BUILDS a BUILT FOR EXTREME USE a MADE IN AMERICA a BUILT WITH AMERICAN MATERIALS AND PARTS a MADE BY AMERICANS AND VETERANS
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On Your 6 Designs is a family-owned and -operated custom holster manufacturer. They have been producing high-quality Kydex holsters for over 10 years. Their average holster comes in at a little over 3 ounces; once you put it on you will forget you are carrying. Every holster is made in the USA and is backed by a lifetime warranty.
an adjustable
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Holsters feature adjustable retention, a 550 corded loop for securing to a belt or belt loop, semiclosed bottom that can be left open for threaded barrels on request, different body shield heights in low, medium and high upon request, and nonbinding smooth edges with no sharp points in their designs for comfort. Different colors and patterns available upon request. www.taprackholsters.com
If your cowboy gun is what you shoot the most, why not make it your daily carry? Mernickle Holsters’ PS06SA is made of the highest grade Hermann Oak Leather. This holster can be carried in the strong-side position or a crossdraw. Holsters are hand-mold ed to your model of gun to ensure a perfect fit e ery time.
HOLSTERSMERNICKLEwww.mernickleholsters.com
If you are looking for a simple everyday carry holster that just works, On Your 6 Designs has your back! www.onyour6designs.com
tension screw that ensures proper gun retention. Made in the USA with premium vegeta ble-tanned leather and heavy nylon stitching. MSRP: $54.50. www.triplek.com
Tap Rack Holsters IWB offers function and form with safety and comfort as two principles in their line of handmade holsters. They mold to your specifi cations for a correct fit. o buckets here.
Crossdraw Holster is designed for gun owners who prefer a dedicated cross anfeaturesdrawforallowsdesignopen-topcarry.draw-styleTheeasyandadjustable
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This is Red Hill Tactical’s premium inside-the-waistband holster. The design stemmed from days of wearing the company’s standard IWB holster and thinking, “What would take this to the next level in comfort, concealability and use?” They feel that this design is their best IWB holster yet. www.redhilltactical.com
RED RIVER TACTICAL
114 American Shooting Journal // September 2022
The Type I Holster V3 is the newest addition to Red River Tactical’s line of holsters, with new features that make this holster remarkably comfortable and exceptionally concealable for outside-the-waistband carry. This holster is based off of their Type I Holster V2, with some design and construction changes. The V3 holster has a higher ride height than their Type I V2 Holster, a more aggressive forward cant of 25 degrees (plus or minus 2 degrees) and a cutaway on the leading edge of this holster for significant increase in comfort. It is also constructed with the thickest Kydex they use: 0.125-inch-thick Kydex. This thicker layer is applied to the backside layer of this holster, making it extremely durable and giving it an exceptional feel of retention, while 0.080-inch-thick Kydex is used on the frontside, allowing a wide selection of Kydex colors and patterns. www.rrtholsters.com
This holster is Ted Blocker’s 911M, shown here in black. The finest leather has been used by an experienced leatherman to handcraft this concealment holster for the client’s particular gun. In business for over 50 years – they know how to do it right! www.tedblockerholsters.com
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RITCHIE HOLSTERS
The most comfortable and secure ankle holster available. Black chrome leather with a 0.5-inch-thick fully adjustable felt pad, with 2-inch leather-reinforced Velcro band. The ankle scabbard is 8-ounce vegetable-tanned leather. All are wet-molded and hand-boned to the specific weapon.
TED BLOCKER HOLSTERS
