Empty Cases

One of the longest running rifle debates is the control-round-feed (CRF) vs. push-feed (PF) argument, which is primarily focused on rifles for dangerous game. Conventional wisdom dictates when a fellow is confronted with a critter that might stomp him into a blood puddle, rifle reliability is paramount. Some believe this best achieved with a CRF action, others declare a PF action is sufficient. Maybe only the Easter Bunny knows the true answer. You should understand the difference in the two action types. CRF actions control the cartridge from the time it leaves the magazine until it is ejected. With a PF action the cartridge is pushed into the chamber from the magazine. The extractor on the bolt does not engage the rim of the cartridge to gain control until the bolt is completely shut and the handle rotated down. If you do not fully close PF action and attempt to cycle the bolt a second time you will likely induce a double feed where one cartridge is in the chamber and another is trying to get there. Not good! Some folks call this short stroking but its actually a failure to fully cycle. Short stroking is when you do not pull the bolt all the way to the rear before attempting to close it. If you short stoke a PF action with a plunger ejector you will not induce a double feed because the cartridge case will be ejected from...

We have to make a lot of choices in life. Early choices deal with the food we eat. In grade school there was this kid who really liked mashed potatoes. When they were available he’d heap his tray and then eat them, and never close his mouth during the process. Another kid would eat about anything as long as the individual food stuffs never touched while on his plate; never mind they became one at exit. Then there are girls, or boys, if you’re of the fairer sex. We all liked different kinds of girls. In 7th grade one of my best friends and I had crushes on two girl basketball players; he liked the rough playing brunet and I the speedy red head. As a side note, neither one of those 9th grade girls ever gave us a look; even three years later when he had his rough looking Nova and I had my bright red Dodge. As adults we learned that picking a partner is a lot more complex than basing our decisions on popularity, hair color or athleticism. We also begin to apply more thought to other choices. The stuff we choose to shove in our blowhole is based not just taste but on calories and saturated fats. And, we select vehicles by considering gas mileage, towing ability and roomy interiors. The human progression through hunting cartridges is a similar learning experience but more so with men than women. At a young age, what I call...

A few weeks ago I mentioned a concept rifle I’ve been working with for sometime. I call it the CUR and it is, admittedly, somewhat inspired by scout type rifles. Since then I’ve put several hundred more rounds through both CUR # 1 and CUR # 2 while working with the different sight systems. Just the other day, before our last snow storm hit, Bat and I were out on the new range running through the Scout Rifle Workout with CUR # 1, which he now claims as one of his favorite rifle. (By the way, his best time on the drill was a few seconds faster then mine. Damn these old knees!) If the CUR concept was of interest to you and you are looking for some more information I suggest you step over to the North American Hunter web site and read the complete list of requirements for a CUR and then let me know your thoughts.

With the shot at hand, I’ve watched hunters in the field wrestle with the magnification setting on their scope. I’ve seen shot opportunities vanish because of this fiddling around. In fact, I’ve experienced it myself. For that reason I keep my scope magnification on the lowest setting possible or at about 4X. Sometimes though, you need to make a pre-shot adjustment. For example, the last Zebra I shot was at a bit over 200 yards and when I put the crosshairs on him I could see what appeared to be intervening brush. The scope was set at 3X, which was plenty of magnification for the shot, but I needed to make sure the brush would not be an issue. In order to do that I had to dial up the power and with the zebra being like zebra are, I knew I did not have long to mess around. It would have been an easier task had I had a neat little tool from MGM to help me. Just the same, competitive shooters often need to adjust their magnification to help them make the best shot they can and lets face it, some scope magnification adjustments do not lend to operation without the application of fine motor skills. This is of course the reason Nightforce offers the Power Throw Lever on some of their riflescopes and its why MGM has started offering the Eagle Eye SwitchView Universal Scope Lever for those not enough lucky enough to ha

The sun is beaming down and you’re sweating. Your shoulder or maybe your hand is a little sore from too much time behind the trigger. And, possibly, your elbow is a bit weak from working the reloading press. You and your buddy walk down range and gander at the target and he say’s, “Boy, that sure is a pretty group!” You smile, turn, and walk the 100 yards back to the bench thinking about how nervous you were when you squeezed off that fifth shot. How many pretty groups have you ruined with that fifth or maybe 10th shot? My friend Johnny Walker likes to say, “Anybody can shoot nine good shots, its that 10th one that gets you.” How true. But it could also be said that there’s always one shot in a group you’d like to do over. Pretty groups are one thing and I guess some pretty groups have won some trophies. Me? I like pretty guns that shoot little groups and I’m not overly concerned with how pretty the cluster is. I’ve had the luxury of working with a variety of custom gunsmiths over the years. Charlie Sisk down in Texas builds some good shooting rifles and he is a pleasure to work with. Lately he has strayed a bit from crafting one of a kind custom hunting rifles and is working diligently on perfecting his unique S.T.A.R. rifle. At 5 Gs +, Charlie’s guns are not che

Last night after all the kids were asleep, Derma and I found some time on our hands. She has been off work for the past two days due to a vicious stomach virus so instead of getting out the Monopoly game we decided to look for something on TV to watch. Flipping through the channels I stopped when I saw this Hatfield and McCoy looking feller, with a flop hat and a lever action rifle, talking about some sort of monster. As it turns out it he was a fellow West Virginian who has got some of his ugliest friends together and started his own television show called Mountain Monsters.  Little did I know there was an underground monster hunting organization in the Appalachian Mountains that was based out of my home state! Its called AIMS which stands for the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings and they are at the ready to identify and snare fictional beasts in the hope of helping local mountain communities rest more easily. (Honestly, I’m not making this shit up.) Its almost like they are right out of the pages of a Larry Correia novel and are card carrying members of Monster Hunter Nation. Problem is, I don’t think these hillbillies have ever read a Larry Correia book because they are woefully ill equipped to deal with the beasts they are pitting their limited wits against. The first thing I feel I should do is make a call

There is somewhat of a cultural war going on in the gun world and while you may not be aware of it because of the cave you live in, I see it all the time with the writers and editors I work with. At odds are the Elmer Fudds and the tactards. The Fudds are the hunters and the tactards are those other guys. Fudds look at tactards like they are from another planet and tactards look at Fudds like they are Barney Fife. Fudd writers like to wax on with nostalgic verse and tactards like to beat the life out of you with acronyms and battlefield slang. Get a group of writers together and they’ll divide; tactards near the pool table and Fudds near the fireplace. Funny thing is, there is really little difference between the two. For example: Both Fudds and tactards lie: The Fudd will tell you about the turty point buck that got away and the tactard’s story goes something like, “There I was, 20 insurgents headed my way and all I had was a J-Frame and a multi-tool.” Both Fudds and tactards miss: I’ve seen this with my own eyes. I’ve witnessed Fudds miss easy shots at animals as large as a couch and I’ve seen tactards fail to hit an IPSC target at 10 feet. Both Fudds and tactards like guns: This obviously goes without saying but while a tactard thinks a .308 is the supreme long range weapon, a Fudd knows it will not hold up to a .264 Winchest

  Anyone who follows this blog knows I use and trust XS Sights. I like them so much I had a set custom fitted to the gun – a Ruger Single Six in .32 H&R Mag – I carry everyday here around Shadowland. (It helps when you have a top notch gunsmith like Jerry Dove who lives close by.) XS is an Empty Cases’ sponsor and they make good stuff so when new XS products come out, its sort of my duty to highlight them here. For those who like small carry guns, XS is offering their sights for both the new Colt XSP and the Bersa BP9cc. Now, admittedly, I have no experience with either of these handguns but I can only assume they’ll be better for carry when fitted with XS Sights. Their two other new products are for ARs. First is there Big Dot Xpress Threat Interdiction Sights. These are redundant sights for an AR, specifically to be used at close range. They can be zeroed so that off-set at close quarters distances is a non issue. I’ve worked with these sights a bit and if you are looking for a redundant sight, these work and are XS rugged to boot. Their last new product is a bit different. Working with Troy Industries, XS is offering complete Troy BUIS sights with an XS tritium front and a CSAT rear sight already installed. If you are going to the NRA Annual Meetings this year in Indianapolis, Indiana, s

After four trips to Africa you start to feel a little more at home while you’re there; more relaxed. It’s a, you’ve been there, done that, kind of feeling. That does not mean the rules do not apply or that the trophies come easier. My hunting partner Len Waldron had just taken his first African animal and he was on cloud nine. It was our first day afield with Fort Richmond Safaris and we were heading back to camp when our PH spotted a herd of black wildebeest. After watching them through the binoculars, as they grazed in the open savannah, I decided I might like to have one of them ugly things on my wall. Admittedly, I didn’t think much about how we were supposed to get close enough to shoot one. The stalk began from about 1000 yards. At first we were walking and that was okay. Then, as we moved to within their sight, the upright walk turned into a duck walk, then a high crawl. The last 150 yards was a belly crawl up to the last bit of cover. The range was 360 yards, I was sitting with my back to a tree, looped up in my Galco Safari Ching Sling and the rifle was rested on adjustable shooting sticks. I figured this was going to be easy. Yeah, I’d of liked to have had another 100 yards but I’d done this before. I applied the proper hold-over on a nice bull and squeezed the Timney trigger on the Forbes rifle in .35 Whel

3-Gun competition is the fastest growing segment of competitive firearms shooting. Here is an interesting tidbit of information whether you like 3-Gunshooting or not. The last three, 3-Gun Nation champions won by pulling a Timney. Justin Thacker is the 2012 Champion, Keith Garcia won it all in 2013 and Greg Jordan is the reining 2014 Champion. I’m not surprised the winners are using Timney triggers, I just wonder why everyone isn’t. I’ve been pulling a Timney for a long time and for me, Timney has become the standard by which all triggers are judged. When I ‘m pondering on a new rifle, a consideration is always if Timney is making a replacement trigger for it. If they aren’t and I buy it anyway, I usually call the guys at Timney and suggest they start making one. That’s kinda – sorta what happened with one of the newest triggers Timney is offering for the Mossberg MVP. Timney sent me a sample to test but it was for the larger (.308 version) of the MVP. This rifle uses the same action as the Mossberg 4X4. I called my buddy T-Bone at Timney and said, “Dude, I need a Timney for the small MVP; the one in .223 Remington.” A few weeks later a new test sample arrived. I installed it on one of my MVPs (CUR # 2) and it worked to perfection. So, I called T-Bone up again and said send me another. Now, both the CUR # 1 and the CUR # 2

I’ll tell you what’s missing; good stories that’s what. Ruark like, Old Man and the Boy stories. Stories that made your eyes water or brought a smile to your face. Readers of the outdoor word have been blessed with a few good story tellers, I’m not one of them. Oh, yeah, I might eek in a nostalgic thought on occasion but, a real story teller I’m not. There’s often the claim that today’s modern outdoor and gun press is driven by advertising. I know how things work on the backside and while that may seem the case, its not. Consumers drive the train; if you don’t like the content of gun and hunting magazines, stop buying them and write and tell the editors why. (Last time that happened a tenured writer got fired and a new editor was assigned.) Obviously, there are too many magazines selling too many copies for anyone to be doing that. But there’s nothing like a good story on a Monday morning when you’d like to be doing something other than work. There’s nothing like a good story on a rainy Saturday when you’d really like to be out in the world making your own story. And, there’s nothing like a good story as you sit by the fire on a cold evening. (With all this global warming it looks like those cold evenings might just keep coming.) I found a new source f

Lots of folks have heard of cur dogs; not many folks really know what they are. Some think a cur is a mongrel or mutt. The word “cur” is often used to describe such a beast but a real cur dog is not a product accidental breeding. A cur is a dog that has been generationally purpose breed to fulfill a certain hunting need and also provide protection for the owner and the camp. A cur is not a scent-hound or a sight-hound; a cur is unique in that it relies on its nose, eyes and ears, equally, to hunt and to protect. The other unique cur characteristic is that they are, to a large extent, geographical. A cur in the Deep South will serve a slightly different purpose than a cur found in the Allegheny Mountains. In fact, the Rhodesian ridgeback is a perfect example of an African bred cur. Ridgebacks hunt and protect with the equal application of their eyes, ears and nose. The cur dog was my inspiration for a type of rifle; a rifle whose specifications would be conditional on where and how it would be used and who would use it. The rifle would essentially be a CUR – Conditional Utility Rifle. Along with some shooter dependent size restrictions, a CUR rifle will also allow the tool-free employment of three types of sights – aperture sight, a red dot sight and a traditional scope (Not as easy to pull off as it sounds.) This mimics th

Thanks to my friend Bill Pace in Texas for this, um…entertaining link:

If you visit our SPONSORS page you’ll see that the only companies that sponsor this blog are companies who make products we use. That’s not to say we don’t use and trust other products; what it means is that we have allowed some of the companies we trust to sign on as Empty Cases partners. We turn down what you would call traditional advertising because Empty Cases will, plain and simple, not support products we do not use. You come here to get reliable information and probably on occasion some entertainment. While you’re here we are not going to bombard you with banners advertising companies we do not trust. My first exposure to Nightforce Optics was during a long range shooting course at Sniper Country in Utah. We were shooting .338 Lapua Magnums and for five days we pounded round after round down range. I never had to adjust or re-zero my Nightforce. When I took another long range shooting course with Magpul I borrowed a Nightforce Compact riflescope. I liked that scope so much I had to have one and consider it one of the most versatile optical options available for a hunting rifle. Last fall I got to test the new B.E.A.S.T. from Nightforce. I had the help of a seriously experienced long range shooter – Mike Moore from Gunsite Academy – and after a serious workout we both concluded it just

After years and years of shooting at stuff and missing and shooting at stuff and hitting. And, after years of watching others do the same. I’ve concluded that scope reticles could be to blame for some of the missing that goes one. Well, that’s not entirely true; the miss is always due to an operator headspace issue. However, a simiple equipment change might sometimes decreases the excessive headspace we sometimes can experiences. If you talk to lots of outfitters as I have over the years – outfitters in North America, Europe, Africa and even New Zealand – you’ll find that the most common misses on animals are high and that the most common bad shots are gut shots (center mass shots.) The shooting too high is primarily a problem caused by lack of practice at longer ranges and the inability to properly compensate. Gear can’t help with practice but it might be of some use with the compensation. Ballistic reticles are all the rage but most are thin and when the shooting occurs in low light or becomes wildly dynamic, these thin reticles can become lost in the mess. A thicker reticle like a heavy duplex or post reticle can help but when you start trying to compensate for bullet drop with that thick reticle it hides the target you’re shooting at. After thinking about this for a bit I concluded that if I had a thick post reticle installe

There are lots of contests on the Internet. Few offer a prize package as varied as this one. I don’t often enter contests but I took the time to fill out this entry form. Why? Well, look at what you can win: Mountain Khakis® & Overland Journal® Present the Tonto Trails® Alpine Expedition Sweepstakes One grand-prize winner plus guest will win a 6-day/5-night alpine overland adventure package; featuring an incredible outdoor gear package, and a 4-day/3-night self-driving overland expedition in a Tonto Trails® customized Jeep JK Wrangler on the epic 65-mile Colorado Alpine Loop, through Colorado’s most scenic high-country connecting Telluride, Silverton, Lake City & Ouray. Mountain Khakis®: (2) $1000 MK gift cards Overland Journal®: $500 Visa Gift Card, (2) One-year subscriptions to Overland Journal, OJ swag pack Tonto Trails®: (1) 4-day/3-night self-driving overland expedition experience on the Colorado Alpine Loop, including expedition-ready Jeep JK Wrangler vehicle, pre-programmed GPS, trip briefing, cooking/sleeping gear + (2) nights hotel accommodation. Trip date options: *July or August, 2014 Thomas and Thomas®: (2) NSII 905-4 fast action trout fly rods 1816®: (2) Leather Duffels, (2) Travel Kits BF Goodrich®: $1000 in tires for winner’s personal vehicle Bushnell®: (1) Excursion HD Binoculars, (1) Le

You may think such a geometric shape does not exist. In text books, maybe not. Humans however, can complicate anything. I think I was about 11 when my father took me out to the local vocational school parking lot one weekend. We were in my grandfather’s 69 Chevy truck. The parking lot was empty and Dad decided to teach me how to drive a stick shift. I struggled with the old three on the column and the clutch but before we left I was starting to get the hang of it. A few years later when I got my first job at a lumber yard, those early lessons were there to help me get a handle on a much larger truck. (I didn’t mind delivering lumber but I hated unloading it.) What does this near ancient memory have to do with shooting? A lot actually. Shooting is not a complicated thing. In fact its much easier than driving a car on the highway. The main problems most folks have with shooting are they don’t do enough of it and much of the training offered tries to put them on the highway before they graduate from the parking lot. A triangle can be used to describe the necessary balance of many things in life. COL Cooper was the master of the triangle analogy with his accuracy, power and speed (DVC) and his combat triad, which included gun handling, mindset and marksmanship. Too many instructors or training schools complicate th

Its Wednesday and if you’ve had a week like mine, you probably need a laugh. For starters I suggest you check out Michael Bane’s latest blog which is his satirical application to be an editor at NRA’s American Rifleman magazine. Funny for sure but it left me wondering, do I really write like that? I didn’t know it was possible to express nostalgia and ballistic bull crap all at the same time. But before you head over to Michael’s blog, check out this funny I found on Facebook. No, really, this is not something that happened to me. Husband comes home drunk on St. Patricks Day and breaks some crockery, vomits and falls down on the floor. Wife picks him up and cleans everything. Next day when he gets up he expects her to be really angry with him. He prays that they should not have a fight. He finds a note near the table and it reads,  “Honey, your favourite breakfast is ready on the table, I had to leave early to buy groceries but I‘ll come running back to you, my love.” Surprised, he asks his son,”What happened last night?” Son says, “When mom pulled you to bed and tried removing your boots and shirt you were dead drunk and you said, Hey Lady leave me alone I’m married.”

I’ve said it here before that I’m not a shotgun guy and that I don’t even own a shotgun. Some readers took that to mean that I’m stupid when it comes to shotguns. Comparatively speaking, that might be true but it will depend on who you are comparing me to. Overlooking my disdain for the imprecise weapon that a shot gun is, I’ve done some experimentation and testing with shotguns. Believe it or not, I’ve actually killed stuff with a shotgun. Back just a little  short of a decade ago I was working as a consultant to a company who developed ballistic testing media. I was tasked with with creating a test media or tool to help turkey hunters evaluate how effective a particular shotgun load would be when fired at a turkey. I did the smart thing and found a turkey hunting expert and we began testing shot shell loads. We learned some interesting things and the following data was obtained during one of our test sessions. We placed five inch circle targets at 35 yards and fired multiple shots at them, with 2 3/4 inch 12 gauge turkey loads, from a shotgun with a full choke. We used both # 4 and # 6 shot. On average, 15 pellets from the # 4 load landed in the five inch circle. From the # 6 load, there was an average of 31 hits in the five inch circle. Advantage # 6 shot. We then fired numerous shots into

Nothing like a new gun, except maybe a new, old gun with some personalized customization. Maybe one even chambered for a new cartridge. I’ve been working on two projects for the last several months and both are based on Mossberg’s MVP Predator rifle. I’ve been a fan of the MVP since it was introduced; I like the idea of a bolt-action rifle that uses AR magazines. It’s almost as cool as an AR that uses AR magazines. I’ve been working these rifles into what you might call a pseudo scout type rifle. Now, while I like a lot of what COL Cooper said, I’ve never really bought completely into the scout rifle concept. This is whey the two rifles I’m working up would probably best be described more like, multi-purpose utility rifles. I don’t necessarily think an army scout would carry one but if you’re looking for a one rifle answer to a lot of questions, I think you’ll like these because they involve a lot of neat kit like XS and fiber optic sights, an EOTech MRDS, a sweet go switch from Timney and something cool from Lasermax and Surefire. I can’t give it all away here; one rifle will be featured in the GUNS Annual and the other in an upcoming issue of Rifle Firepower. One is sort of a do it yourself project while the other needed professional help, which is why I turned the project over to Jerry Dove at Dove’s Custom Guns. So, consider