SHOT Show Recap: Rugers NEW Gunsite Scout Rifle!

Noslers Lucky

Model 48
Legacy! Evolution of American Sporting Rifles

Winchester Model 70

Super Grade
Restoration: Comedy or Tragedy?

No. 256

25274 01240

Printed in USA

$5.99 U.S./Canada
Sporti Fi earms Jour al ting Firear urnal
May 2011 Volume 43, Number 3 ISSN 0162-3593 Issue No. 256

Life n Times in Kansas

Spotting Scope Dave Scovill
Smith & Wesson.357 Magnum
Classic Cartridges John Haviland
The New Classic Cartridges
One-Upmanship wins popularity contests.

John Haviland

Winchesters Power Max Bonded
Mostly Long Guns Brian Pearce
Winchester Super Grade Rifle
The classic Model 70 is back!

Stan Trzoniec

Comedy or Tragedy?
Whats right and wrong with restoring guns.

Terry Wieland

Rifle Safeties
Down Range Mike Venturino

Floorplate Releases

Light Gunsmithing Gil Sengel
American Sporting Rifle Evolution
The basic bolt action still leads the pack.

Mike Venturino

The Lucky Legacy
A.338 Winchester Magnum with Meaning

John Barsness

Page 46.

Page 32.

Page 68. Page 38. 4 www.riflemagazine.com
Background Photo: 2011 Vic Schendel

Rifle 256

On the cover.
The Winchester Model 70 Super Grade features a Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10x 40mm scope in low rings. Photo by Stan Trzoniec.

Page 68 Page 62 Page 56

SHOT Show Standouts
Significant New Rifles and Optics for 2011

Brian Pearce

Whats New in the Marketplace
Inside Product News Clair Rees

Issue No. 256

May 2011
Publisher/President Don Polacek Publishing Consultant Mark Harris Editor in Chief Dave Scovill Associate Editor Lee J. Hoots Managing Editor Roberta Scovill Assisting Editor Al Miller Senior Art Director Gerald Hudson Production Director Becky Pinkley
A Weird Rifle Id Love to Own
Walnut Hill Terry Wieland

Contributing Editors

John Haviland Ron Spomer Brian Pearce Stan Trzoniec Clair Rees Mike Venturino Gil Sengel Ken Waters Terry Wieland

Advertising

Advertising Director - Stefanie Ramsey stefanie@riflemag.com Advertising Representative - Tom Bowman bowman.t@sbcglobal.net Advertising Information: 1-800-899-7810

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Circulation Manager Luree McCann circ@riflemagazine.com Subscription Information: 1-800-899-7810 www.riflemagazine.com
Rifle (ISSN 0162-3583) is published bimonthly with one annual special edition by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301. (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 7 issues, $19.97; 14 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada single issue, $5.99; 7 issues $26; 14 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Change of address: Please give six weeks notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Department, Rifle Magazine, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona 86301. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rifle , 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona 86301. Canadian returns: PM #40612608. Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.

Page 68.

Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copyrights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

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Polacek Publishing Corporation

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WINCHESTERS POWER MAX BONDED

MOSTLY LONG GUNS

by Brian Pearce
oday is certainly the golden age of premium rifle ammunition. Nearly perfect loads are available for almost any appli cation, from long-range competitions to hunting the game rich fields around the world. One area that has become especially competitive with ammunition pro ducers is price point hunting loads that dont compromise performance. These loads are priced similarly to, or only modestly higher than, traditional lead core/ jacketed loads. In 2009, Winchester jumped into this competitive market with Super-X Power Max Bonded that was initially only available in limited cartridges. That product line has now been expanded to include.243 Winchester,.270 Winchester,.270 WSM, 7mm WSM, 7mm Remington Magnum,.30-30 Winchester,.308 Winchester,.30-06,.300 WSM and.300 Winchester Magnum. The bullet features a lead core and copper alloy jacket that is void of plating, which can contribute to or even cause barrel fouling. The jacket is bonded

Brian took this South Texas whitetail with Winchester Power Max Bonded ammunition in.270 Winchester containing a 130-grain bullet, an excellent deer load and cartridge.
to the core in a high-tech process that Winchester developed specifically to build this new bullet. The result is a product priced similarly to its traditional lead core Power-Point ammunition. The Power Max Bonded has no lead exposed at the tip but rather is a hollowpoint that prevents nose battering and features a tapered jacket that is notched to aid in and control expansion. For instance, dissected.308-inch,
150-grain bullets measured.070 inch at the shank, then tapered, becoming thinner at the ogive and hollowpoint. As the new Super-X load became available in 2009, I was invited to try it out on a Wyoming pronghorn hunt using a Merkel KR 1 bolt-action.308 Winchester rifle. Accuracy was good, and I was especially pleased with the terminal performance, as the bullet punched a fist-sized hole on a quartering angle and exited. Recently, I was hunting whitetail deer in South Texas using a Thompson/Center Venture boltaction rifle chambered in.270 Winchester, which was stoked with Winchester 130-grain Power Max Bonded ammunition. The.270 is as mainstream a deer cartridge as exists, offering plenty of power, but neither is it in excess. Mature bucks in this region are small bodied but tough and hard to find if wounded. When the time came to take a buck, he was shot through the lungs at a
slightly quartering angle, which resulted in his running about 30 yards then piling up. As expected, the bullet produced a fist-sized wound channel, broke a portion of the shoulder while exiting and left a heavy blood trail. There is little doubt the Power Max Bonded is excellent on deer-sized game, but I won-
dered how it would perform on larger, tougher game. After taking the above buck, additional deer (does) were taken, along with feral hogs. Hogs are tough, as they offer dense bone and muscle and are an excellent bullet medium. I have seen respected hunting bullets get eaten by hogs, as they fail to
offer the penetration necessary to break bones and drive through the vitals. The predawn hours found me sitting in a blind, when the shadow of a dark, mature hog lumbered within 20 yards. Slowly the T/C Venture was shouldered, and the self-illuminated crosshair of the Trijicon 2.5-10x56 scope was placed just behind the shoulder. The hog went straight down and expired almost instantly. Wanting to harvest additional deer, I quickly retrieved the hog, placing him out of sight, with plans to do an autopsy later. An hour or so passed when a dry whitetail doe appeared, and I shot her at 60 to 65 yards. She ran between 35 and 40 yards, then piled up dead. In wanting to study the blood trail, I walked through the cacti to look for the exact location where she was shot. Before reaching that spot, another blood trail was found, which was mowww.riflemagazine.com 13

The Winchester Power Max Bonded in.270 Winchester with 130-grain bullets gave excellent performance on feral hogs.

May-June 2011

Power Max Bonded ammunition was initially introduced in 2009 and is priced comparatively with traditional Power-Point ammunition. It is available in most popular cartridges.
mentarily confusing. In following that blood trail, it became ap parent that it was from the hog! The Power Max Bonded bullet had exited and left a blood trail mixed with lungs and tissue that was strung out heavily more than 35 feet behind where he stood when shot.

TROPHY CARIBOU

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Wow! I was really impressed. First, I was using a middle-ofthe-road deer cartridge with a standard weight 130-grain bullet (which only has a sectional density of.242), and it would normally not be expected to perform this well. Frankly, I didnt expect the bullet to kill that hog instantly, nor was it expected to fully penetrate and exit as though it were easy. Later that afternoon I found myself stalking a large bunch of hogs that were largely concealed in trees and brush. In shooting another half-dozen, again the Winchester Power Max Bonded bullet proved worthy, as all but one were taken with a single shot. The exception was when the bullet was placed too far back (my fault). A second shot completed the job. Examination proved that wound channels were straight and bullets exited on mature hogs. I have not had the opportunity to hunt heavier game such as elk with Winchester Power Max Bonded bullets, but based on what was experienced on hogs, I believe they will prove worthy, especially in proper cartridges such as the.270 Winchester,.308 Winchester,.30-06 and others with similar or greater power. This new load offers impressive R terminal performance.
Barry Taylor, ARCTIC SAFARIS
Box 1294 W, Yellowknife, N.W.T., Canada X1A 2N9 TEL (867) 873-3212 FAX (867) 873-9008
E-Mail: info@arcticsafaris.ca

14 www.riflemagazine.com

minum case and brought out a rifle stocked in walnut that looked like molasses stirred with butter. Now, one side effect of gun writing is becoming somewhat rifle-jaded. Were frequently invited on hunts where were handed yet another rifle and box of ammunition, then told to go slay some wild beast. This is always fun, but not all the rifles used generate above-average enthusiasm. Not this time. Nosler also invited another writer, my old friend Holt Bodinson, because two Legacies were in existence, chambered in.300 and.338 Winchester Magnums. Holt and I both really like the.338, and this rifle looked and felt just right, with the correct heft and balance for the cartridge. Its rare to encounter such rifle-lust among older gun writers, so we flipped a coin to see whod get the.338 first. Poor Holt lost though I did reluctantly agree to switch off with him during the hunt. The box of NoslerCustom ammunition accompanying the rifle was loaded with 200-grain Accu Bonds at 2,950 fps. Ive hunted with the.338 cartridge quite a bit since the 1980s and have concluded that bullets of around 200 grains work best for most hunting. They kill quicker than heavier bullets, recoil less and shoot flatter over normal hunting ranges. If properly constructed they penetrate plenty, even on really big game (though this is often contested by hunters who

ohn A. Nosler invented what is perhaps the most famous big game bullet of all, but he also really liked accurate, good-looking rifles, especially the Winchester Model 70. When he passed away in October 2010 at 97, he left behind not only the legacy of the Nosler Partition but his latest creation, a beautiful and (of course) accurate version of his Model 48 rifle fittingly named the Legacy.
Unfortunately, John Nosler never got the chance to hunt with his rifle. That pleasant chore was left to lesser mortals, one of them me. Noslers public relations guy, Zach Waterman, extended an invitation to hunt a whitetail buck and wild hog on the Nail Ranch north of Abilene, Texas, in early December, when the bucks were searching for does. The invitation didnt say anything about a new rifle, though usually when Nosler organizes a field test, they have something new to try out. When we got to the ranch, Zach opened a big alu-

Lega cy

willingly shoot big game in the rear end; not my favored shot placement). The.338 Winchester Magnum is also fine for hunting deer and similar-sized game, whether in North America or Africa. It kills smaller game quickly but doesnt shred meat like faster magnums, even with light.338 bullets and one sideassignment on this trip came from my wife, Eileen, who requested an eating-size pig, rather than a big, stinky boar. Also on the hunt was the national sales director for Nosler rifles, Shawn Finley. Id already gotten to know Zach pretty well on a couple of other hunts, and Shawn turned out to be yet another rifle loony. The four of us stayed up fairly late that night, talking rifles and other things. Luckily, the sun doesnt come up early in North Texas in December, and the hunting starts as soon as you leave the Nail Ranch headquarters. We woke up at 6 oclock, leaving the ranch yard less than an hour later. Zach and I were guided by Brian Cope, a cowboy, construction contractor and conversationalist from nearby Albany, Texas. Brian said hed twice glimpsed a pretty good buck not too far from the ranch, though this didnt necessarily guarantee anything: Unlike many Texas hunting ranches, the Nail isnt high-fenced and doesnt have corn feeders. The deer truly are free-range. Sometimes, however, I can be a very lucky hunter. We were half a mile from the ranch yard and two minutes into legal shooting light when Brian suddenly said, That might be him! and raised his binocular. The deer was walking along a shallow draw a few hundred yards away, with that distracted look of a lonely buck in rut. Brian whispered, Lets get a little closer and make sure its him. We dropped behind a low ridge to close the distance, and when we topped the ridge, the buck was within 200 yards.

The Legacy, Noslers latest rifle, was designed by the late John Nosler and put to use on Texas oil country whitetails.

Lucky Lega cy

The buck was still walking when the crosshairs found his ribs, but then he paused briefly and the rifle went boom. The recoil jarred my view through the scope, but in a fraction of a second, I heard the drum-like whump of a sizable bullet striking game, and Zach said, Hes down! Brian said, Yeah, straight down. We started for the buck, another round in the chamber of the.338. The summer rains had been good to Texas, and the buck lay hidden in the tall prairie grass until we walked within a few feet and could see the curve of an antler. He was a classic 5x5 with tall tines, but what struck me more than the antlers was his overall size. This was definitely the largest bodied of several Texas bucks Ive taken. Geez, Brian, that took a long time, I said, looking east toward the predawn sky. I think we might have to wait a couple of minutes for photo light. He just shook his head, smiling slightly. We didnt really know each other yet, but it was a good start.
The lucky.338 Winchester Magnum is also a good-looking rifle stocked in fancy walnut.
After we took some photos, Brian field-dressed the buck. The AccuBond had taken off the top of the heart and left an inch-wide hole in the far ribs, the placement was also pretty lucky given the need for a quick shot. It was still so early that after field-dressing, we hauled the buck back to the ranchs walk-in cooler before going to look for a deer for Zach. This took a little longer than the search for my buck, but one of the great things about traveling to hunt is getting to know different parts of the world. This was my 10th hunting trip to Texas, and the country around Albany was perhaps the prettiest yet en-
countered, with long ridges overlooking wide valleys still green from summer rain. This was definitely western game country, where a hunter could gain some elevation to glass and stalk. We looked at a few wild pigs that day, but mostly we searched for Zachs deer, finding several mature bucks that werent quite good looking enough. While driving from one vista to another, we talked. Ive spent long days in more than one hunting camp with a guide about as talkative as a deaf stump. For a social guy (who appreciates the social aspect of hunting more as he gets older) this can be a little trying, especially when sitting in a small tent waiting out an Alaskan storm.
The floorplate of the Legacy has a latch like the Model 70 Winchester and is engraved with John A. Noslers signature.
The.338 ammunition for the hunt was loaded with 200-grain AccuBonds.
Left, the first animal taken with the new Nosler Legacy was Johns nice Texas whitetail. Above, Zach Waterman (left) and guide Brian Cope with Zachs buck, taken on the last day of the hunt with a Nosler Model 48 Trophy Grade 7mm-08 Remington.

But Brian Cope is not that way, and neither is Zach Waterman. We discussed all sorts of stuff, including the best western movies ever made, eventually ending up with that ultimate western, Blazing Saddles. All three of us could recite good-sized chunks of its dialogue, such as Slim Pickens and the Old Number 6: Thats where we go into town a-whompin and a whumpin every livin thing that moves within an inch of its life. This just proves the films timelessness, since it was made before Zach was born. Back at Nail headquarters that evening, we found that Holt hadnt found The Buck either, so I handed off the.338 and took the.300. We got to bed earlier and the next day looked over some more bucks along with a few pigs, none quite matching the precise meat criteria. That evening we returned to the ranch to find both Shawn and Holt with fine bucks. Holts had been taken with one neck shot. The buck was walking straight away, with his head down, but then he stopped and lifted his head. I put the crosshairs on his neck and pulled the trigger! I shook Holts hand heartily while taking back the.338 with my other. We found Zachs buck late in the morning, an old boy with wide and heavy beams. Unfortunately, the buck didnt cooperate. Zach saw him three times sneaking around inside a big mesquite patch but never got a clear shot

The NEW

BALD EAGLE

Rimfire Cartridge Gage

The Gage That Works!
The Nail Ranch has plenty of whitetail bucks, many of them much larger than these young deer.
This is a gage to measure consistency of rim thickness on.22 rimfire ammunition (a.22 rimfire rifles headspace is determined by case rim thickness). The more consistent the rim thickness, the more consistent the ignition of the primer and the powder charge in the case. In other words, the firing pin will fall the same distance every time if the same rim thickness is used on every case being fired for a particular group. By sorting the shells into various groups by rim thickness, a reduction in group size of up to 25% can be realized in some IF NOT MOST rimfire rifles. This information about group reduction comes from the.22 rimfire benchrest participants who compete in the extremely difficult BR-50 matches. All of the top shooters sort their shells into groups by checking rims and weighing the unfired cartridges.

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before the buck slipped away completely. Well, not quite completely. We went back to the ranch for lunch and a little nap, heading out again at 3 oclock. We were parked along a fence line a half-mile from where wed seen the good buck that morning, glassing a narrow draw, when a buck came trotting down the draw and jumped the fence. The deer had no idea we were there, and both Brian and I said, Thats him! at the same instant. Zach took a quick rest and aimed, but the buck didnt stop as it headed down the draw. It did, however, almost pause while angling away through an opening in the mesquite, and Zach put
CONTINUING NOSLERS LEGACY
he original limited-edition NoslerCustom rifle appeared in 2004. It had a stock made of fine walnut, including an ebony pistol-grip cap and forend tip, with a double-square-bridge action machined to accommodate Leupold detachable scope mounts. A couple of years later, the Nosler Model 48 rifle appeared, with a high-grade synthetic stock and basically the same action though with more conventional scopemount holes.
The Nosler rifles shot very accurately on the ranchs range.
The.338 Legacy was fitted for the hunt with a 3.5-10x40 Leu pold VX-3 in Leupold mounts. There wasnt any scale handy, but the rifle felt like it weighed around nine pounds, a good weight for a.338 Winchester Magnum. With the 200-grain load the rifle was pleasant to shoot, even off the bench, in part thanks to a one-inch Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad. easily traced. This little bullets jacket is very heavy toward the rear, but the front end opens up readily, like every other Ballistic Tip, doing a lot of damage.
The Legacys action is the same as the Model 48s, but the bottom metal is different. The latch is a copy of the Winchester Model 70s, and the floorplate is engraved with John A. Noslers signature. Like the original NoslerCustom rifle, the stock is fancy walnut with generous coverage from 20-lines-per-inch, point-pattern checkering but without the ebony on the forend and pistol grip. a bullet through its last rib. The buck ran a few feet, then fell along the edge of the trees. Zach put in a finisher, and that was that.
He was hunting with a NoslerNow we could do some serious Custom Model 48 Hunter 7mm-08 Remington, a carThe.338 Winchester Magnum tridge usually considered is also fine for hunting deer more appropriate for Texas and similar-sized game. whitetails than the.338 Winchester Magnum. The 120-grain Ballistic Tip had angled across the bucks chest, ending up somewhere near the far shoulder. We never found it, though the path was

The country around Albany is some of the prettiest in Texas, especially in a year of plentiful rainfall.
66 www.riflemagazine.com Rifle 256
Like all Nosler rifles, the Legacy comes with an accuracy guarantee when shot with NoslerCustom ammunition. In the case of the Legacy, the guarantee is.75 inch for three shots at 100 yards. The.338 shot that way at the Nail Ranch range, as did the unlucky.300. Ive now range-tested eight Nosler rifles, ranging from the original to the Legacy, and all have matched or exceeded the accuracy guarantee. Perhaps the best feature of the Legacy, however, is the $2,195 price, about what many custom stockmakers would charge just to produce the stock on this new rifle. In addition to the.300 and.338 Winchester Magnums, the Legacy will also be chambered for the.257 Roberts,.270 Winchester,.280 Ackley Improved,.308 Winchester,.30-06 and.35 Whelen, with the rifles weight varying according to the cartridge. For more information, contact Nosler, Inc., PO Box 671, Bend OR 97709; 1-800-285-3701; R www.nosler.com. made a couple of strides before the.338 boomed. Zach had made a perfect head shot on what turned out to be his first coyote. As the sun slanted down, we hunted the edges of a big winter wheat field. Dozens of deer fed on the new shoots, but only a few pigs came out, and none were trophy boars. That was okay, Zach said. Now he had an excuse to come back to the Nail again. All of us who hunt long enough encounter lucky hunting rifles. When we carry them, things just seem to happen, and the.338 Legacy turned out to be one of those rifles. During the hunt it took four animals, all with one shot each, and all four dropped right where they were hit. John Nosler would have definitely liked how his rifle took to North R Texas.

www.riflemagazine.com 67

A lineup of Nosler Model 48 rifles at the range include a couple of Sporters, a Trophy Grade and a Legacy.
pig hunting, and again I got lucky. Less than an hour after loading Zachs buck onto the pickup, a small bunch of small hogs showed up in the shade of a small patch of mesquite, perhaps 150 yards away. The.338 boomed and a red-brown pig went straight down. Once again the bullet had luckily taken off the top of the heart. The young boar weighed about 75 pounds and, after skinning and quartering, fit perfectly inside my wheeled cooler for the trip north to Montana. This was the last afternoon of the hunt, and since Zach had never taken a wild hog, he elected to use the.338 instead of the 7mm-08, since he wanted a big trophy boar. Twenty minutes after we loaded my pig, he spotted a coyote in some brush 100 yards from the pickup. The coyote started to trot off but only

Double Set Triggers

Page 2 5.
Silhouette Knockdown: Fact & Fantasy

Momentum versus energy.

Jay Turner

.375 H&H

New bullets and powders.

G. Sitton

Volquartsen Custom Ruger 10/22 & Mark I1

Match-grade performance.

Layne Simpson

Use and effectiveness.

AI Miller

Page 2 8.

Fine Longrifle Kit
First-class, do-it-yourself rifle.

Steven Dodd Hughes

Test Your Rifle Scope
What to look for in rifle optics.

Norman E. Johnson

DEPARTMENTS

. Spotting Scope

. Dear Editor

. Rimfires

. Reader Research

Page 3 2.

Custom Corner

. The Armsmakers

12. Air Rifles

. ProducTests

14. Capitol Watch
. Tales from French Creek
COPYRIGHT WOLFE PUBLISHING CO. 1992

On the cover

This David Miller.375 H&H Winchester Model 70 Super Grade is outfitted with a 24-inch barrel and Leupold Vari-X-III 1.5-5x scope in custom one-piece mount and rings. Differential blueing - satin and bright - and gold and stainless steel inlays are matched with the full fiddleback English walnut stock that was finished by Curt Crum. Contact David Miller Company, 3131 E. Greenlee, Tucson AZ 85716. Photo by Ron Dehn.

January-February 1992

Wolfe Publishing Com,dn:,
6471 A i r p a r k D r i v e Prescott, Arizona E Phone ( 2 ) 445-7810 F a x ( 2 ) 778-5124
WOLFE PUBLISHING PLEASED Is To INTRODUCE A N E W MAGAZINE CONCEIVED F O R GREAT SPORTSMEN L l K E O U R HAh'DLOADER AND RIFLE READERS.
WOLFE PUBLISHING SET HAS THE~ T A N D A R ~ C FIREARMS IN MAGAZINES YEARS. FOR
Back in 1969 WOLFE PUBLISHING introduced H a n d l o a d e r magazine, the first technical journal specifically about handloading ammunition, and it has become the foremost publication on the subject the world over.

R i f l e magazine _ _ -

Qetapart from
Now, WOLFE continues in that tradition by establishing a landmark
journal on hunting excellence. Hunting Horizons is different and a step up

o be better, mo

with Hunting Horizons.

CUSTOM CORNER

Simillions Complete.375
In gunmakers lingo, a complete job means that one man did both the stockmaking and metalsmithing. Gene Simillion (220 Wisconsin, Gunnison CO 81230)accomplished all of the work of this.375 H&H hunting rifle.
The pre-64 Winchester Model 70 action was ground and polished inside and out before several functional changes were made. To prevent solids from deforming it, the magazine box has a /,-inch reinforcing plate added. To improve feeding and function, a new follower was milled from 4140 bar stock. It is quite different than factory specs and was heat treated for slickness and durability. A straight bolt handle was welded i n place and checkered a t the knob. Prior to barrel fitting the front of the receiver and bolt face were squared and the bolt lugs lapped. Gene fitted the generously dimensioned barrel using the dialed in techniques developed for benchrest rifles. Its profile was ground to Genes specifications and the 25 inch length was chosen with balance in mind. A secondary recoil lug was sweated and screwed to the barrel 5 inches forward of the receiver. Custom made scope bases, hardened 4140, are attached to the action with 8-40 screws and Burgess lever scope rings fitted high enough to accommodate European scopes. With just a quarter turn of the levers, the scope tips off to the side without sliding on the dovetails. Genes iron sights are mini sculptures mounted high near the scopes line of sight. The shallow V rear
blade has a n inverted ivory V on its face to aid alignment with the ivory bead front sights. Warthog ivory was used in both cases as it will not yellow. The rear sight is dovetailed to its base and secured by a n allen head set screw to facilitate adjustment. It is engraved 50 yds., the range it was regulated for. The front sights,.125 and ,090-inch beads, are found in a small leather pouch inside the grip cap trap along with a plunger tool. The front sight base is fitted with a cover plate when the sights are not needed; they can be easily interchanged with the tool and the cover will fit in the trap cavity when the sights are in use. The bases for both sights are sweated and screwed to the barrel. All of the trigger pins are reamed and fit like a national match trigger. The trigger bow was heli-arced, reshaped and canted to the right. The

right side of the trigger guard bow has a neatly raised and beaded edge. Other metalwork includes a threescrew bottom metal, a drop box magazine with a hinged floorplate and a guard bow release lever that has a spring loaded detent to secure it. All of the metal is rust blued with nitre blued highlights. The French walnut classic-style stock looks like it was stretched slightly at the wrist. The open pistol grip, gently rising comb nose and angle of the grip cap each add to this sleaker look. Castoff and toe out, %, and % inch, respectively, are hard to see but comfortable to hold. Sharp contour lines at the magazine, rear of the action and comb fluting enhance the overall look of the rifle. The cheekpiece is subtly and agreeably shaped.
The stock was bedded with slight upward pressure near, but not at, the ebony tip. It is bedded tightly to the receiver and barrel lug. The recoil pad is covered with pigskin. Point pattern checkering, 26 lines per inch, covers the oil-finished stock at the grip and forearm. Mullered checkering borders and a 14kt gold monogram plate are strictly for show. Mitch Mochetti (PO Box 27065, Denver CO 80210) engraved the rifle. The caliber designation, sight regulation and makers name are noted. Rosettes decorate the bolt knob, cross bolts and screw heads. This ,375 is a fine example of a cornplete job.

BOY'SSINGLE-SHOT RIFLES

by James J. Grunt
edition is the bible for the single-shot collector in reference to those guns that became the prized possessions of boys growing up in the early part -s the century.

$36.00

I nis facsimile

11ClCIl L U I W l l l

The true story of a man who spent his life flying the bush and hunting in the "great land." Don Johnson respectfully put away his medals from World War II and initiated polar bear hunting in the Arctic. The book contains his pilot/guide accounts of hunts of all major animals found in Alaska. Those who hunt and love the land will find his story fascinating. $12.95

One of the rarest catalog/handbooks from the turn of the :entury, it is an information treasure for handloaders with line drawings and extensive text. $10.50

CALL FREE TOLL

1-800-899-7810
WOLFEPUBLISHING COMPANY 6471 Airpark Drive Prescott, Arizona 86301 Phone (602) 445-7810 Expires: * Fax (602) 778-5124 I

- Signature

The 775 H&H Winchester Model 70 Custom Super Grade I \ topped off with a Leupold Vari-X-Ill 15-5x variable with Butler Creek caps Right, the Kemington hctory load5 feature (left) 270 and (right) 300-grain I)ullet\ at 2,687 and 2,402 tps, re5pectrvely
AM A SWORN enemy of the socalled compromise cartridges. It is a matter of high principle with me. You may call them dual-purpose or combination or all-around, but the result is the same in the end. If you buy the concept, you can wind up with one rifle, instead of two or three. When that happens, youve no one to blame but yourself. Furthermore, compromise always comes with a price tag attached. You pay it, one way or another, in performance.
The ,243 Winchester, for example, is a fine cartridge. In a good rifle, it delivers more than sufficient accuracy for any spoiting purpose. Trajectories are quite flat. I admire it greatly for its performance on coyotes and prairie dogs. It is not, however, a trustworthy deerslayer under any and all conditions. In the hands of a calm and disciplined rifleman, the.243 will deliver on medium game. Yet like the 30-30 WCF, it is usually prescribed for those who are most fearful of recoil and muzzle blast; to wit, the excitable, the inexperienced, the beginners - the very hunters who can least afford its inherent limitations a s a round for deer and such.
It is ironic, then, that one of my alltime favorites is arguably the ultimate in compromise cartridges: the ,375 Holland & Holland Belted Rimless Nitro-Express. Doubly ironic is the fact that this multi-purpose round is not
necessarily ideal for either task, it is entirely adequate for both. Beyond romance and generality, every animal I have ever hit (or seen hit) fairly with the.375 H&H expired promptly. You can get into a disastrous bind with the cartridge, no doubt, but the same is true of any sporting round. For every tale of fabulous killing effect, there is probably a horror story. Still, I have seen the ,375 H&H at work from British Columbia to Zimbabwe to California. It will do.
meant to span the modest requirements of taking both woodchucks and whitetail deer. No, indeed, the ,375 H&H ( a s we know it in the U.S.) is generally admired for its versatility in dispatching game of every description, up to and including elephants. Those who are annoyed by this inconsistency might consider the words of Oscar Wilde: Consistency is the last refuge ofthe unimaginative.Certainly, this is a cartridge to fire the hunters imagination. The mere mention of its name conjures visions of distant lands and far horizons. It is by a wide margin the single most popular cartridge for wandering in places where hunting opportunities are both abundant and diverse. Properly loaded, the ,375 H&H will reach out to grazing herbivores a t 300 yards and morel With the same bullets, it will stop charging carnivores a t muzzle-touching range. Though not

So it was, with the possibility of another trip to Africa in my mind and a vacancy in my rifle rack, that I roamed the aisles of the SHOT Show in Dallas last January. Finally, after two days of more or less concentrated shopping, a decision was reached. I cornered Bruno Pardee in the U.S. Repeating Arms exhibit and explained
my need for a Winchester Model 70 Super Grade from the USRAC Custom Shop. Bruno said it nas my lucky day. They had had a cancellation, so instead of having to take a number and wait my turn, the rifle would be on its way by summer. The new rifle arrived in July. It was impressive to behold. The stock is a n interesting, if not theatrical, piece of (Italian?) walnut with a rosewood forend tip. Grip cap, floorplate and trigger guard are steel. All metal is nicely polished, deeply blued, except for the traditional matte finish on the receiver. Double cross-bolts inspire confidence in the stock's integrity; more to the point, they are properly bedded. Fit, finish and checkering are nice. There is a hooded front sight atop a graceful ramp. At the rear is the obligatory set of express sights, with one standing and two folding leaves, nominally for use a t 100,200 and 300 yards. The forward sling swivel stud is mounted out on the barrel. This is all well and good, according to the conventions on dressing a dangerous game rifle. As a practical matter, the brass bead out front is too small by about half for hurried acquisition in the shallow "V" of a n express sight. Likewise, locating the swivel stud on the barrel makes sense when the forend is abbreviated in the classic British manner, recoil is truly heavy and shooting from a sling is not a wanted option. None of these conditions apply to this Model 70.
Bullets used in load development included the (1) Hawk 235-grain mftpoint, (2) Sierra 250-grain spitzrr boat-tail, (31 Hawk 270-grain softpoint, (4) Barnes 270-grain "X," (5)Speer 285-grain Grand Slam, (6) Nosler 300-grain Partition spitzer, (7) Sierra 300-grain spitzer boat-tail and (8)Speer 300-grain

African Grand Slam

Enough of these petty complaints. This is a handsome, thoroughly businesslike rifle. Rigged with a Leupold Vari-X-I111.5-5x scope in Fkdfield hardware, it weighs fully 9.75 pounds, magazine empty. That may be a burden when compared to most contemporary sporters, however, the weight is a comfort when you start lighting up full charges of powder behind 300-grain bullets. The rifle is, of course, built on the newlold, improved pre-'64, post-'89 Model 70 Super Grade action. Whatever you call it, it's a winner. For almost three decades, enthusiasts demanded the return of the original Model 70, controlled-round feeding, Mauser-type extractor, coned breech and all. With minor deviations, they got that very thing in the current Super Grade, plus a n anti-bind feature to prevent over-rotating the bolt and better gas management in the event of case or primer failure.

Despite the steady clamoring for the real Model 70, no one knew how it would do in the marketplace. After all, people who were too young to afford the original item in the early sixties are now grandparents and the rifles, whether in the production or Custom Shop versions, carry a premium price. Had the Super Grade fallen dead in gun shops all over America, it wouldn't have been the first time we cut a manufacturer for giving us what we said we wanted. Turns out USRAC made a smart play. The demand for the Model 70 Super Grade has exceeded both their most optimistic predictions and their ability to build rifles around the new action. There are probably lots of graying gents in the land who grew up on dreams of the old Model 70, never could
Below, seven powders of more or less recent vintage were evaluated with varying degrees o success. f Tests suggest Reloder 19 i s the most useful of the lot. Right, the print-out from the PACT Professional Chronograph traces the trajectory of the Nosler 300-grain Partition spitzer pushed by a compressed charge o Reloder 19. f

Rifle 139

see spending collector-inflated prices for clapped-out originals, but cant resist the appeal of a bright and shiny, maybe better-than-ever edition of The Riflemans Rifle. I hope so because there are three of them in the rack right now. I would hate to be the only aging child of the sixties to go simple over the Super Grade. Right out of the box, the ,375s action was slick, smooth, silky and all of those other words used to describe the way a bolt ought to function, but usually doesnt without a gunsmiths help. The trigger broke at 3.5 pounds, with just the slightest hint of creep; it still does for reasons soon to be made manifest. Being slothful by nature, I dislike loading ammunition for a rifle until it has shown some willingness to deliver a modicum of accuracy. Initial testing was done with factory ammo. Six groups of three shots were made with Remingtons 300-grain solid load and Federals Premium Safari load with the Sierra 250-grain spitzer boat-tail. The largest group measured ,875 inch, on centers and the smallest was about half that size. Thus begall my interesting, informative and frequently strange relationship with the Model 70 Custom Super Grade Express.375 H&H, hereafter referred to as the Model 70.
them with considerable travel to the leade. The 250-grain Sierra, for example, cannot be brought closer than ,150 inch, or thereabouts, if the finished cartridge is to be chambered from the magazine. This is usually a n unhappy characteristic in a factory rifle. Their throat diameters tend to be too generous if substantial free travel is imposed by magazine length. In this Model 70, accuracy does not seem to suffer unless competitive benchrest is the game. Presumably, it has a n appropriately close throat diameter. Working up loads for the Model 70 was meant to be a n adventure of sorts. My loading to date has been almost entirely confined to unfamiliar powders

and bullets previously unused in the ,375 H&H. Despite a certain amount of weirdness in the form of seemingly anomalous velocities, the program has been highly rewarding. The number of relatively new.375-caliber bullets available suggests that the H&H enjoys excellent commercial health. In addition to the eight reported on in the data table, Trophy Bonded, A-Square, Swift and others offer a n array of worthy projectiles. Further, Nosler has a 250-grain Partition in the works. Propellants were selected on the basis of data published by the im(Continued on page 54)

.375H&H Load Data

bullet (grains) powder

235 Hawk softpoint

BG-4351

BG-4065 RL-15

AAC-2520 AAC-4350

85.5 76.5 77.0 76.0

2,788 2,663 2.814 2,851 2,879
heavily compressed near maximum maximum near maximum

AAC-4350

A lifetime of obsessive tinkering with
firearms has made me suspicious, apprehensive and more than a little superstitious when met with a rifle that so casually delivers excellent accuracy. Contrary to the experiences of some writers, MOA precision is not found in every long carton with my name on it. When a n unaltered rifle delivers the goods with factory ammo, I immediately fear 3-inch groups with meticulously assembled handloads. I am also loath to change anything about t h e rifle, which includes touching the action screws with a driver. So the trigger remains as issued. Preparing to begin load development, the distance from bolt face to lands was determined with a Precision Mic from RCBS. This tool gives very exact readings on maximum overall cartridge length, as determined by the chambers throat. In the case of the Model 70, the throat is rather long. Indeed, since the magazine will not accommodate rounds measuring more than 3.60 inches ovqrall, mobt bullets must be seated to al depth which leaves
BG-4351 BG-Hawk softpoint RL-15 RL-19 86-4351 AAC-2700 AAC-4350 RL-19 BG-4351 RL-19
80.0 83.0 83.0 75.0 74.5 84.0 83.0 77.5 83.0 84.0 82.0 84.0
2,660 2,743 2,815 2,769 2,676 2,677 2,709 2,621 2,661 2,641 2,708 2,625 CCI 250
slight compression compressed maximum

R9h CCI 250 CCI 250

maximum compressed, accurate compressed moderate compressed compressed maximum good load
279 Barnes X-Bullet 285 Speer Grand Slam 300 Nosler Partition

CCI 250

86-4351 RL-19 AAC-2700 AAC-4350 RL-19 RL-19

80.0 84.0 74.0

2,598 2,574 2,489 2,584 2,607 2,593
accurate, maximum excellent load

R9/2 CCI 250

300 Sierra spitzer boat-tail 300 Speer African Grand Slam

84.0 82.0

accurate best long range load
Winchester-Westernbrass used in all loads, and overall loaded length of all cartridges was 3.60 inches. Velocities are instrumental as recorded 10 feet from the muzzle by Oehler M35P and PACT Professional chronographs. During all testing, the temperature of ammunition ranged from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Maximum loads may be excessive in some rifles. Reduce all loads 10 percent and work up only as pressuresigns permit.

Be alert

- Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

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