Most hunting shots happen in the worst possible light. The buck steps out at 6:02 AM in the bottom of a dark hollow. The bull elk materializes in the timber at last light on day four of the hunt. The mule deer appears on a shaded canyon wall at noon when the sun angle cuts … Read more
The .223 Remington is one of the flattest shooting cartridges available in a sporting rifle. A 55 grain bullet leaves the muzzle at around 3,240 feet per second. At 300 yards it has dropped less than 8 inches from a 100 yard zero. That trajectory makes it a genuine long range varmint cartridge and a … Read more
A pistol scope has one requirement that no standard rifle scope can meet: true long eye relief. Standard rifle scopes require the shooter’s eye to be within 3 to 4 inches of the ocular lens. At arm’s length with a handgun, the shooter’s eye is 12 to 20 inches from the scope. A standard scope … Read more
Rimfire rifles are the most owned category of firearm in North America, and most of them never get a quality scope. A sub-par scope on a rimfire rifle is a double waste. The rifle itself is accurate enough to expose a scope’s weaknesses at 50 and 100 yards. At those distances parallax error, poor glass … Read more
Scoping a muzzleloader requires thinking about three factors that centerfire hunters never need to prioritize simultaneously. The first is recoil. A modern inline muzzleloader loaded with 150 grains of powder and a 250 grain sabot generates recoil comparable to a heavy magnum rifle cartridge. The scope must handle that impulse and retain zero across a … Read more
The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight exists to solve a specific problem: putting a full-power hunting rifle on a hunter’s back at the lightest possible weight without sacrificing accuracy or reliability. The Featherweight achieves this through a slimmed contour barrel, a classic walnut stock cut to minimal dimensions, and a weight that comes in under 7 … Read more
The 3-9×40 is the most successful rifle scope format in North American hunting history, and its longevity is earned rather than accidental. It covers close range brush shots at 3x with a field of view wide enough to find a moving animal. It reaches to 9x for field shots at 300 yards with adequate magnification … Read more
The Savage 220 is a bolt action slug gun that changed expectations for what a shotgun-based deer rifle can do. It delivers sub-2-inch groups at 100 yards out of the box with quality sabot slugs, and its detachable box magazine and AccuTrigger put it closer in performance to a budget centerfire bolt action than to … Read more
A slug gun operates in a different world than a centerfire rifle, and most hunters scope one. A rifled slug from a 12 gauge leaves the muzzle at around 1,600 feet per second and drops past 150 yards. The practical effective range on deer-sized game is 150 to 200 yards for most hunters and most … Read more
When it comes to dangerous game hunting or tackling the largest game animals on Earth, few cartridges have earned the respect and longevity of the legendary .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. Introduced way back in 1912, this British powerhouse has become the gold standard for African safaris and big game hunting worldwide. I’ve spent over … Read more