Firearms can be incredibly substantial. They can represent history; personal history, family history, American history or they can simply be like an old song that conjures up memories of an important time, place or persons in our lives.   On December 4, 1970, after four years of active duty, me […]

Handling, shooting and working on many firearms throughout the year has caused me to become extremely picky about personal firearm selection. With experience providing lots of points of reference to gauge quality and performance, ego stroking brand names and premium price tags have zero bearing on my selections. Finesse features […]

There are a very few premium bolt action rimfire rifles being produced these days, which is a shame. A rifle with so much utility deserves the respect of a finely finished walnut stock and blued steel parts and refined accuracy. A quality rimfire can do many things better than a […]

My initial intent was to limit handloads to heavier bullet weights; 250 to 300 grains. However, there is much more flexibility in the cartridge, so the limitation would have been self-serving. A 215 grain Sierra SPBT was squeezed into this family portrait. Later, I caved completely and added a 180 […]

The Weatherby Mark V Accumark represents to an experienced hunter, what Snap-On Tools represent to an experienced mechanic; enhanced capabilities and features for the accomplished and with a price tag to match. I’d guess that the Mark V Accumark and Mark V Deluxe also represent a fork in the road […]

I think there must be a time when I can recues myself from rendering an assessment of a firearm. The criteria might be my inability to decide if I like, or don’t like, a rifle after staring at it on my work bench for days. At the end of some […]

The Winchester Model 1885 was invented by John M. Browning in 1878 and patented in 1879 as a generic Browning Brothers single shot rifle. Approximately six hundred rifles were produced by the Browning Brothers of Ogden, Utah Territory between 1880 and 1883 before the manufacturing and sales rights were sold […]

The S&W Model 63 pictured below is my wife’s first handgun. Produced in January 1979, sold to us in September 1979, it is the revolver that helped my wife develop her impressive shooting skills and it is the revolver used when our three sons where first developing proficiency with a […]

After some experience live fire experience with the Handi-Rifle and 444 Marlin factory ammunition, working up some basic handloads seemed like a logical next step. Dies for this cartridge are available from every significant supplier; Hornady, Lee, Lyman, RCBS, and Redding. I generally prefer Redding dies for consistency of dimension […]

Had to do an H&R intro. While we have reviewed other models we have never covered background. We found a number of inconsistencies in other Internet pieces appearing elsewhere, so we thought we would do a little original hardcopy research. Original sources footnoted as applicable. The origins of H&R date […]