Use the right ammunition!

By Massad Ayoob Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 The purpose of the gun is to fire ammunition. It follows that the ammunition should be the correct ammunition. This is simple. It is not hard to understand. But...

Hunting, processing, and serving black bear

By Linda Gabris Issue #162 • November/December, 2016 Bear was a popular meat in our house when I was growing up in the rural woods. Black bear was Grandpa's favorite big game animal to hunt and...

Women and guns

By Massad Ayoob Issue #121 • January/February, 2010 In a time when what used to be called "the women's liberation movement" has achieved many of its goals in terms of equality and empowerment, the concept that...

1911: The classic homeland security pistol

By Massad Ayoob Issue #83 • September/October, 2003 If you've read American firearms history at all, you know the lore of the .45 automatic. How during the Philippine insurrection, the newly issued .38 revolver failed miserably...

How long should your gun’s barrel length be?

By Massad Ayoob Issue #136 • July/August, 2012 The person new to guns is like the person new to timepieces. "How many of these things are there?" "In how many configurations?" "And they've been around for...

Cold weather shooting considerations

By Massad Ayoob Issue #126 • November/December, 2010 Winter will soon be upon us. Cold weather makes a lot of things more difficult. Running. Walking. Navigating through the woods. And, of course, safely manipulating and shooting...

Reload your own brass

By Dale Petry Issue #132 • November/December, 2011 Not long ago a friend called to say he had seen an unusual rifle at the local gun shop. Shortly after that call I found myself in possession...

The M1A — A rifle that makes a statement

By Massad Ayoob Issue #45 • May/June, 1997 I take the Springfield Armory rifle out of the box, and savor it. I seldom do that with guns, but a Springfield Match grade M1A will make a...

Consider the 20-gauge shotgun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #120 • November/December, 2009 A year or more ago in these pages, I made the suggestion that sometimes less is more, and usually shooters with less powerful guns with which they are...

How to shoot a handgun accurately

By Massad Ayoob Issue #85 • January/February, 2004 "I want you to do an article on how to shoot a handgun accurately," Dave Duffy told me. "Make it 2,500 or 3,000 words." Long ago, I would have...

Frontier style handguns for the modern backwoods home

By Massad Ayoob Issue #101 • September/October, 2006 The year was 1873. Samuel Colt had invented the revolver—or at least introduced it to America—in 1836. The Colt Navy .36 and Army .44 cap-n'-ball revolvers had been...

Centennial of the All-American .30-06

By Massad Ayoob Issue #100 • July/August, 2006 In the long love affair between America and the rifle, there has never been an interlude quite as intensive as the epoch of the .30-06. This cartridge celebrated...

Building the coyote rifle

By Rev. J.D. Hooker Issue #107 • September/October, 2007 Feral dogs, coyotes, and those odd-looking "coy dogs" like to feed on my neighbors' livestock on occasion here around Kendallville, Indiana, and for years the neighbors looked...

Picking a holster

By Massad Ayoob Issue #69 • May/June, 2001 One good thing about being out in the boonies by yourself is that you can carry a gun on your own property. It's a fundamental right that, for...

The light at the end of the gun

By Massad Ayoob Issue #128 • March/April, 2011 Dave writes, "A few weeks ago I had to shoot a skunk in the chicken house, but the old long-barreled Sears semi-auto proved unwieldy as I tried to...

Bury a gun and ammo for 15 years

(and be assured everything still works when you dig it up) By Charles Wood Issue #115 • January/February, 2009 Back in the early 1990s the outlook for the nation in general and gun owners in particular seemed rather...