An urge for some precision riflery took me out to the  gun club this morning.  Pictured is my long rifle, a Ruger 77 Mark II Target in .243 Winchester, with a Simmons 6.5/24X 44 Mag scope and a Harris bipod.  Also fired but not pictured was my only (at the moment) .30-06, a commercial 98 Mauser with a Bell & Carlson kevlar stock and a Simmons Aetec scope.  The .30-06 was out mostly to check zero with a new load, but the .243 was ready for some serious range work.

The Ruger Target is a serious precision instrument.  With a 26-inch free-floated heavy barrel, a big laminated stock with a heavy bench-rest fore-end and a receiver set up for Ruger’s own integral scope rings, the rifle is a benchrest-ready heavy sporter right out of the box.  In spite of some stiff cross-winds on the range today, the rifle produced several 100-yard groups at right around an inch with Federal factory 80-grain soft points.  (See target at right.)

The .30-06 did equally well.  I like messing with old Mausers due to their massive strength, allowing for some steamed-up hunting loads.  Today I was experimenting with the 168-grain Barnes Tipped Triple-Shock X-bullet, a high-tech solid copper hunting bullet that runs about eighty cents a copy.  But hunting bullets aren’t meant to be cheap; they are meant to deliver good terminal performance on big game at a wide range of velocities, and the Barnes X-bullets do that.  They also shoot well, as you can see by the 1 1/2″ 100-yard group shown to the right.

Jack O’Connor wrote that “only accurate rifles are interesting,” and he was correct.  It makes one wonder how long it will be before the anti-gun crowd looks askance at this kind of precision, labels precision hunting arms as “sniper rifles” and begin to shout “who really needs this kind of accuracy!?”  (My answer, as usual, will be “because fuck you.“)

I had to make a trip to our local Gander Mountain on other business today, and since Thursday is ammo day I walked past the ammo shelves.  As usual, the one thing that was present in abundance was 12 gauge target ammo, which I buy by the case normally; but I still have plenty of that.  The one shortage on the ammo rack was .45-70 fodder for my Marlin Guide Gun, the Bullwhacker; I have plenty of cases and bullets but can’t find powder.

Luckily enough, the store had two boxes of Hornady Leverevolution FTX 325-grain rounds in that caliber.  I grabbed both boxes.  The Leverevolution flex-tip bullet is designed for tubular magazine lever guns; the plastic tip maintains a streamlined point while being resilient enough to avoid a chain-fire under recoil.

For those not familiar with lever-action rifles, in older designs the rounds are stored in a tubular magazine under the barrel, with the nose of one round pressed against the primer of the following round – a situation that demands blunt or flat-nose bullets, to prevent the rearmost round setting off the next round, which (as you might imagine) could result in severe damage to gun and shooter.  The new Hornady flex-tips avoid that while maintaining good sectional density and an aerodynamic profile, increasing the round’s trajectory and effective range.

I have loaded up 100 rounds of .30-30 with the Leverevolution 160-grain bullet, but have been unable to find either bullets or loaded rounds for the .45-70 – until now.

Range report to follow, once I get some time to play around.

I think I may need one of these.

This, True Believers, is a Winchester Model 12, a fine classic shotgun manufactured from 1912 (thus the model number) until 1963.  Designed by that Da Vinci of firearms, John Browning, the Model 12 is still the gold standard for pump shotguns.

With my Browning Auto-5 project successfully completed some time back, I began to cast around for a new shotgun project.  I did pick up a 1900-vintage Belgian hammer double, as noted in these pages, but that gun ended up as a decorative wall-hanger.   Too many parts needed fabricating, too many uncertainties were involved in restoring the non-standard old gun to shooting condition.  So now a new project is in order – eventually, when I find the right gun – and the Model 12 seems a good candidate.

Happy Hump Day!

There are a few caveats when selecting a Model 12 for shooting and/or restoration:

1. Guns made prior to 1931 used nickel steel in the barrels.  There shouldn’t be any ultimate or yield strength issues with these guns, but nickel steel is difficult to refinish if the original bluing is gone.
2. Some of the very early guns also had short chambers, 2 5/8″ for 12-gauge, 2 9/16″ for 16-gauge and 2 1/2″ for 20-gauge guns.  I do have a chamber depth gauge, but all of these guns are likewise made before 1931 – see 1. above.
3. Collectible and good condition Model 12s command a hefty price, usually well into four figures.  I’ll be looking for a fixer-upper, since I’ll be looking to refinish/restock and probably have it cut for choke tubes.  People who have invested in these guns tend to take pretty good care of them, so fixer-uppers aren’t always easy to find.

The Model 12 is a fine scattergun.  A solid steel frame lends heft and durability, and the gun has a clean, classic look.  Competition from simpler mass-produced guns like the admittedly excellent Remington 870 and the aluminum-framed Mossberg 500 series doomed the Model 12 in the end, with general production ending in 1963.  A few special-edition guns were produced through 2006, but in that year Winchester closed down Model 12 production for keeps.  Sad, but all part of the business cycle – and, after a hundred and one years, John Browning’s design for the Model 12 is still the standard by which all pump guns are measured.  I think I should have one in the rack.