by Ron Spomer | Aug 7, 2024
We hunters might be suffering from a warped perspective on rifle accuracy or, more accurately, precision.
by Ron Spomer | Jun 12, 2024
Debating the merits of “deer cartridges” has heated as many hunting cabins as have potbellied stoves. Most such disputations are ignited by calibers from 24 through 35, but if you want a barn burner of a conflagration, toss a 22 centerfire onto the embers. In the...
by Ron Spomer | Apr 29, 2024
Sheep hunters often get obsessed. Not just with rams, horns and mountains, but backpacks, boots, optics and rifles. Especially rifles. Just as backpackers cut the handles off toothbrushes and labels off shirts, so do sheep hunters shave superfluous ounces from...
by Ron Spomer | Mar 6, 2024
Another flight around the sun and here we are, 138 years after the invention of the first centerfire, bottlenecked, smokeless powder cartridge, the 8x50mm Lebel, watching cartridges evolve. For better or worse. The “better” part of this equation are the bullets. In...
by Ron Spomer | Feb 21, 2024
All-copper, hollow-point bullets typically mushroom like the best lead core bullets without losing mass to jacket separation or core erosion.
by Ron Spomer | Jan 31, 2024
The panoply of centerfire rifle cartridges extant in 2023 isn’t just extensive; it’s redundant. Navigating it to select the ideal for your needs, desires and styles of hunting can be overwhelming. We have at least 25 varieties of 30 caliber cartridges, 15 7mms, 10...
by Ron Spomer | Jan 26, 2024
Contradictory though it sounds, a military connection usually predicts cartridge popularity in the hunting fields. Despite a few naysayers condemning martial cartridges as “nothing but mankillers,” most centerfire rounds that emerge from battle go on to long careers...
by Ron Spomer | Jan 19, 2024
Conventional wisdom suggests this rifle shouldn’t exist let alone function smoothly and shoot precisely. Yet here it is: Howa’s Super Lite. If there is a lighter weight mass-produced bolt-action hunting rifle than the 4-pound, 7-ounce Super Lite, I’ve yet to hear of...
by Ron Spomer | Dec 29, 2023
We have the rifles. We have the cartridges. We have the bullets. What we don’t have is consensus. Which is why we have so many rifles, cartridges and bullets. Welcome to free choice, an unusual option in most parts of the world. A challenge if not conundrum in the...
by Ron Spomer | Nov 10, 2023
An African safari puts a historic spin on rifle and ammo selection. Seasoned hunters with whitetails, mule deer, elk, moose and bears under their belts begin looking askance at their 270s, 7mms, 300s and 338 magnums. They need something bigger. They need something...