I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ruger did not follow the current direction of many firearm companies with its introduction of the 38 Special +P, 3″ barrel LCRx-3. Instead, Ruger designed a revolver that can be used frequently, in many applications, by pragmatic decision makers. No 10 shot cylinder, […]

Having the opportunity to spend considerable time shooting Ruger Hawkeye Africans, chambered in all available cartridges, I can say that they all feel about the same. The 300 Winchester Magnum version has the same shooting and handling personality as the 338 Winchester Magnum, 375 Ruger, and 416 Ruger version. At […]

It seems the Ruger product development process is quite different than many other companies. Most new firearms reflect the personal preferences of a company’s executive management or the political clout of a disconnected R&D or penny pinching finance group. Ruger seems to soak up information from  customers, as presented in […]

The Africa that piqued my childhood interests no longer exists. The continent’s colorful history, the topography and climate, teeming wildlife and early farmer settlers seem to have been crushed under the weight of revisionists politics, racism, religious wars, and intrusive tourism. Many of the classic stories have  been reinterpreted in […]

If I wanted to illustrate why revolvers have remained in high demand, despite the intense marketing  of inexpensive plastic framed autoloaders, I would probably just show them this revolver. The gun projects nostalgia, but it also reflects modern manufacturing technology. It is a gun that fits well into a handgun […]

The Ruger Bearcat has been around since 1958; the New Model Bearcat since 2002. Bearcats have been made of aluminum and steel, sometimes a combination of both. A Super Bearcat version has been produced as a stretched cylinder convertible, chambered for the 22 WMR and 22 Long Rifle. The standard […]

The range was buried under 3′ to 4′ drifts, but today’s temperature of 24ºF beat tomorrow’s weather forecast of -16ºF, so today was the day. The tractor mounted snow blower did a pretty good job of cutting a 4′ wide and 60 yard swath through the snow before needing an […]

I was listening to Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton singing “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and wondering, more than twice, why Dylan was working so hard to kill such a terrific song. Guessing that Dylan sang that song tens of thousands of times, his need to sing the lyrics in […]

Promotional ad copy and scripted commercials are generally the product of a writer’s imagination; dancing mops and personality altering candy bars. Writing an entertaining, but objective product review, places constraints on the writer’s use of imagination and places a heavier demand on product induced inspiration. Examples? Sure. A commercial for […]

I was reading a draft of this article, with its terrific subject firearm, and thought, “Geez, my writing is really crap these days”… which erroneously infers that I haven’t written crap on other days. What is probably of greater consequence is the analysis of why on some days I write […]