One day I shall retire and move to Todamcold, Alaska and star in a wilderness TV show called Frozen Old Men of the North. Joining the tiny home nation, my cabin will be 100 square feet, so as to minimize my carbon footprint and to reduce the amount of firewood […]

I don’t usually write about equipment. Mostly because I get two or three sentences and I’ve said all I have to say, or because I fall asleep typing, fall forward and hit my nose on my desk. Nothing shouts excitement like a new shell holder or pair of pliers, but […]

The S&W manual for the Model 686 does not preclude the use of handloading ammunition, but it does so with the caveat that any reloaded or handloaded ammunition be subjected to an internal pressure test to assure it is in compliance with industry standards. The passage goes on to further […]

This morning, a collection of bullets was pulled for this project. And hour or two later they were returned to stock and another pull, a different pull, was made. The first selection included machine turned copper and hybrid lead/copper bullets that cost approximately $2.25 to $2.75 per and do not […]

Living in a rural environment brings firearms into part of a routine; hunting, ridding property of varmints, self defense, and work assignments in my case. Still, my current preoccupations are fixing a well, pulling water and soil samples, harvesting and generating a new plan for Maine’s Tree Growth program, and […]

In the early 1920’s, Germany’s Waffenfabrik Mauser AG, introduced the 10.75×68 Mauser cartridge. The round was chambered initially in Oberndorf Mauser Sporters and French Brevex and Rival rifles. Post WW II the round was also offered by Belgium’s Browning Arms Company and France’s Dumoulin for European customers. The 10,75×68, including […]

Whenever I hear someone refer to revolver and autoloader handgun grips as “handles” I want to beat them with the stick end of a broom. I am fairly convinced that the “handle” reference is the work of an arrogant little boy, who has intruded into a world he doesn’t understand, […]

I’ve always been a fan of Dante. For those unfamiliar, basically he wrote an epic poem in three sections: the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso that described the current U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the Executive Branch under Harry Truman. What does this have to do with the […]

The combination of short barrel, lever action carbine and the 45 Colt cartridge suggests the use of metallic sights; limited woodland visibility, 102 yard point blank range, the trajectory of a softball, and a relatively soft landing beyond a hundred yards. So why the Leupold scope? 225 grain Standard Pressure […]

There are a number of firearm companies that play on the reputation of historical firearms when there is no association of substance; Springfield Armory with its reference to a long defunct government facility, Kahr Arms with the use of the Thompson and Auto Ordinance names, and the manufacturer of the […]