It’s very prestigious for a company to have their flagship .22 long rifle (LR) gun used in shooting events by both civilian and military competitors. When the gun is a long-standing favorite, its appearance on the shooting line is no great surprise to anyone. After all, if the “Flamboyant Firearms Company” as had a certain .22 match gun in the line for quite some time, and the gun has proven itself in local matches, and had several favorable write-ups and guys have found the gun tunes up well, it’s natural for that gun to eventually make it to the winner’s circle. However, imagine how surprised everyone is when a company puts so much faith is a completely new gun; that they send pre-production examples of a gun no one has ever really even seen, to compete in the national matches!
That’s exactly what Winchester Repeating Arms did in 1919. Winchester sent 6 pre-production, Model 52 bolt-action, magazine-fed rifles to the National Matches held at Caldwell New Jersey. Five guns were in caliber .22 Long Rifle (LR), and one in caliber .22 Short. More
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Trail Boss K.I.S.S. by J. Simon and R. Ted Jeo
Would a single powder charge work across a spectrum of calibers? Let’s look at it in a logical way. Nine grains of Trail Boss topped with a 165 grain LFP bullet is the listed max load for the 30-30 cartridge. This is the closest cartridge to our mil-surp family that is listed. The 30-30 has a case capacity of 2.45 cubic centimeters (cc). This is far less than any of the mil-surps. Petty lists a 9 grain load of Trail Boss for the 30-06. The 30-06 has a capacity of 4.38cc, the largest of the mil-surp cartridges. Since the 9 grains of Trail Boss is safe in the 30-30 and did not leave a bullet in the bore of the 30-06, it was assumed it would be safe in the rest of cartridges of interest. You can also see that the working pressures of the cartridges are at least 37,000 cup. More
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Shoot Your Martini Henry Rifle by J. Simon and R. Ted Jeo
Basically all you have to do is find a source of .577/45 (or .450 Martini Henry) ammo for sale. After you catch your breath and notice you did NOT make an error in reading where the decimal point in the price tag is, you will realize that, in order to shoot your .577/45 Martini Henry, it will cost over $5 a pop (20 rounds are currently running well over $120). Obviously, this sort of pricing makes the Martini Henry a prime candidate for reloading. BUT, this is no standard sized case, and unfortunately, you cannot use just standard reloading tools. Fortunately, Lee Precision Inc. (very likely the mil surp shooters BEST reloading friend), can provide the proper tools at a very reasonable price. And, on top of that, the techniques for reloading are not too difficult…after all, WE did it successfully! More
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Book Review: The Winchester Model 52 by Mark Trope
This work is replete with pictures and original blue print drawings of the various versions of the 52. There are also copies of original Winchester letters and inter-departmental memo’s concerning development of the Model 52. Houze takes great pains to explain the development of the famous Winchester ‘Micro Motion” trigger introduced in the Winchester 52 C. The story of how the special single-shot 52’s developed for the Olympics became the 52 D is also there. Houze also includes 7 appendixes’ that catalog the various model numbers, specifications, and sales figures, serial number ranges and Model 52 brochures. More
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A Mosin Burr... by J. Simon and R. Ted Jeo
My first thought was about high pressure ammo, but examination of the brass showed several gouges along its length. So the issue seemed to be a rough chamber, a common enough issue with these “new” arsenal finished “rough” Russian rifles…. More
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The GSG-5: A Dream Come True? by R. Ted Jeo
Something changed. Just after Christmas last year, while lazily leafing through a copy of Shotgun News I happened upon a color add of an MP 5. Okay, sure, these ads are always in SGN…but in reading it closely, I noted that it was a .22 version of the famed terrorist killer. Hmmm…once again, I figured it would be out of the budget range. After all, if a standard caliber (9mm) MP5 was running upwards of $1500+ for a CLONE…well, a .22 version had to be serious money as well. Keep that thought for a moment…. More
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Covering Your Assets: Insuring Your Firearm Collection by Mark Trope
Usually the first experience most of us have with purchasing insurance is the automobile policy. Then it’s life insurance, renters insurance, and eventually, a homeowner’s policy. But, what about your arms collection, is it just enough to assume your homeowner’s / renters insurance will cover a loss? More
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M12 Scope Mount Part 3 by R. Ted Jeo
Now we get the latest mount to grace my M12. I found this mount on Ebay, or more correctly Mark found it on Ebay and I bought it to try it out. The maker is Chuck Stepp. Chuck’s mount uses the existing rear sight mounting block on the rifle receiver. Now here is where it gets sticky. In MY case, when I bought my M12, the gun came with the rear sight block in place, and included the Redfield rear sights and Palma front globe. Those, of course, I took off and set aside (no, I’m not selling them). If your rifle does not have this rear sight block, you will have to get one. Possible sources may be Champion Shooter or Champion’s Choice. More
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BENCH TOPICS: DEALING WITH THOSE PAINFUL SPLITS AND SEPARATIONS (Of Brass Cartridge Cases) by Mark Trope
Sometimes, especially if brass is FL sized many times, a case will get reloaded beyond its useful life. What usually happens is: the round is fired, the bolt retracted, and all that comes out is the case head and about 3/8 inch of brass! The remainder of the case stays in the chamber. Needless to say, not only is this annoying to see, but it means the remainder of the case needs to be removed before shooting the gun again. More
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U.S. 1917 and Brazilian 1937 Smith & Wesson's Un-Identical Twins by Mark Trope
In the late 1930’s Brazil found itself in need of handguns. Training men in the safe & proficient use of a revolver is much easier then training them to use a semi-auto pistol. Generally, a revolver requires less maintenance then a semi-auto pistol. Brazil let a contract to S&W for a .45 ACP chambered revolver. The Brazilian model number is model 1937. The Brazilian 1937 is extremely close to, but not quite identical to the S&W 1917. More
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A Day in the Life... by Mark Trope
The crate I was in was hurriedly placed on a truck along with many other crates. The trip to where I would be issued to a soldier was a slow and arduous one. The American Air Forces pounded the industrial centers with almost total impunity now. The roads were in bad shape, and destruction was everywhere. Air raids were common. On the way to the delivery point, the driver had to stop the truck often at checkpoints. I thought we might never get there. More
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DGC Custom Gunsmithing Parkerizing Job for My FR-8 by Jamie Mangrum
The original Parkerize finish was completely gone in some places and there was visible rust. Knowing a great deal when I see one I packaged up my carbine and shipped it off. More
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SHOTShow 2008 - A Trip Report by Layne King
I was expecting to see lots of neat guns and accessories….no surprises there….what did surprise me was the size and complexity of the display booths. Several of the booths were larger than my home…… much larger! The Realtree/Advantage Camo booth was made to resemble a mountain chalet….a large mountain chalet! The display was 145ft long by 30ft wide and at least 30ft tall….wish I could live in it! More
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Special Interest Arm's Enfield .45 ACP Kit by Jamie Mangrum
If you are inclined to perform the modification yourself, SIA will send you a kit in the "white" as pictured below so you can apply your own finish to the barrel such as DuraCoat, Hot Bluing, etc or you can have the barrel Parkerized by SIA as I did. SIA also offers a number of very reasonably priced conversion services so you don't have to worry about removing your old barrel, headspacing, parkerizing, or drilling & tapping as these can be somewhat advanced tasks for the average garage tinkerer. More
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THE BIG PUSH: Taking the Recoild (sting) out of the Short, Handy, Mil-Surp Rifle! by Mark Trope
Headphones or earplugs protect the hearing from muzzle blast. The only way to truly reduce recoil though is to shoot a lighter load. A lighter load simply has less kinetic energy. A lighter bullet, less powder, or, less of both will do the trick. However, while shooting the service load there is a way to at least reduce the effects of recoil. More
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