Incredible light and able to fold to nearly half its size, the Pedersoli Black Widow aims for a spot in your backpack.
Perhaps more now than at any other time in recent years people are more conscious of preparedness. Be it for self-defense in the form of a concealed carry pistol or backcountry survival with a light-and-right takedown rifle, a slew of folks have seen the light when it comes to emergency arms. Davide Pedersoli wants in on it.
Pedersoli … you mean the group with all the throwback guns of the Old West? One and the same, though now the Italian gunmaker has turned their attention to a more contemporary arm in the form of the Black Widow Single-Shot Rimfire Rifle. Quite a break from its usual wares, the space-aged plinker offers one of the lightest and most compact long-gun options presently available. Though, convenience comes at a cost. The breech-loading .22 LR has an MSRP of roughly $400 (this is converted from Euros, so unofficial), which comes in above many of its American-made competitors.
As for what you get for the money, extreme lightweight. The Pedersoli Black Widow tips the scales at a meager 3.3 pounds, which makes it akin to a brick of ammo for the rifle. Much of the weight savings is thanks to a skeletonized polymer stock and a wisp of a fore-end, which gives the hammer-fired rifle gaunt good looks. Size-wise, the 36-inch gun folds down at its receiver into roughly a 19-inch triangular package, small enough to fit into a modestly sized backpack.
The stainless-steel barreled .22 LR has several intriguing features aside from its unassuming size and weight. First and foremost, the Black Widow’s rather pronounced pistol grip. Given the svelteness of the rifle, the feature should maximize control and could prove useful in steading it on long holds. Though, the function of extended beavertail above the grip proves somewhat a mystery—is it an enhancement or just styling?
Anyhow, the interior of the stock has holes to store extra rounds and the removable fore-end is outfitted with a small section of Picatinny Rail. Additionally, the muzzle is threaded for the addition of a suppressor and action is drilled and tapped for mounting a dedicated ½ ” scope rail. Though the rifle comes with iron sights, so is ready-to-shoot out of the box. Pedersoli expects to begin shipping the rifle sometime in July 2021.
Despite its sound in ballistics, the .221 Fireball lacked in popularity.
What You Need To Know About The .221 Fireball:
It was introduced early in 1963 for the Remington XP-100 bolt-action pistol.
The parent case is a shortened version of the .222 Remington.
Its high velocity produces muzzle energy greater than the .357 Magnum.
Despite the caliber designation, .224 inch is the proper bullet diameter.
Historical Notes
The .221 Remington Fireball cartridge was introduced early in 1963 for the Remington XP-100 bolt-action, a single-shot pistol based on a shortened, lightened 700 series rifle action. The pistol had a streamlined nylon-plastic stock, ventilated barrel rib and adjustable sights. This was the first handgun made by Remington since its pocket automatics were discontinued back in 1935. The Thompson/Center Contender was also available in .221 Remington for a time, but no longer. Remington was the only source for .221 Fireball ammunition, and it’s still available.
General Comments
The .221 Fireball follows the modern design in .22-caliber high-velocity pistol cartridges for small game and varmint hunting at long range. The rimless case is a shortened version of the .222 Remington. The cartridge is well adapted to rifles, as well as pistols. The bullet is designed for quick expansion on small animals and is very deadly at all practical ranges.
The XP-100 pistol has a 10-inch barrel and is intended for use with a riflescope. It’s capable of sub-MOA 100-yard groups when fitted with a scope and fired from a rest. It’s much more powerful than the older .22 Remington Jet used in the S&W .22 WMR revolver. Muzzle energy of the .221 Fireball is greater than the .357 Magnum. Despite the caliber designation, .224 inch is the proper bullet diameter. The .221 Fireball was chambered in the Remington Model 700 Classic rifle on a limited-run basis in the late 2000s.
Why the choice of cartridge means so much in the long-range game.
I was lying prone in the Oregon desert, having just broken the trigger of the Ruger rifle and watching the vapor trail of the Hornady A-Tip bullet through the Leupold Mark 5 riflescope, when the air in front of the target started to distort, and I saw the impact on the left quarter of the steel plate 1,500 yards away. In spite of the three aforementioned pieces of excellent gear, my mind wandered to the cartridge—one of the first of the revisionist cartridges, the 6.5 Creedmoor.
Now, before you turn the page, this article is not focused on the Creedmoor; instead, it’s about the concept it embraces. We’ve discovered that the high-BC bullets, which retain their energy so well at longer ranges, are key to hitting a target at extremely long ranges and that the biggest, most voluminous cartridges might not play such an important role.
But, the cartridge must have the proper geometry to harbor those long bullets that do the job so well. I used the phrase, “revisionist cartridge,” earlier. By that, I mean those newer designs that have sacrificed case length and/or capacity to allow the room in the magazine to be occupied by bullet length.
From Cartridge to Cartridge
For years, the .308 Winchester was the darling of the target community. It’s a great cartridge, capable of fantastic accuracy, and makes a wonderful hunting cartridge. It’s mild in the recoil department and, with match-grade bullets in the 155- to 190-grain range, it still makes a good choice out to 1,000 yards or so. Now, to me (at the time a kid in the Northeast who considered a 200-yard shot a “country mile” because of a lack of opportunity to shoot that far), a 1,000-yard shot might as well have been trying to reach the moon. Therefore, a .308 Winchester did everything I needed it to.
But, that wasn’t to last for long.
I took an interest in 6.5mm cartridges when a friend asked for some help zeroing his 6.5×55 Swede. It turned out he had some loose bases. Even so, during the process, I found I really enjoyed the way it shot; and, delving into the paper ballistics, I saw some impressive numbers.
The mighty .338 Lapua Magnum, based on the .416 Rigby case, is shown here with the 300-grain Nosler AccuBond and Sierra MatchKings.
Going farther down the “rabbit hole,” I began spending time with, and loading for, the .260 Remington and .264 Winchester Magnum. I realized why the bore diameter was so popular globally and wondered why it had such a weak following in the States.
About a decade later, the Creedmoor began to take off—years after its 2007 release—and it took a bit to understand why the shooting community would opt for the shorter cartridge when the .260 Remington fit just fine in the short-action rifles. The great BC game was strongly underway, and it took off like wildfire. In the early 2000s, the .260 Remington had a strong following, giving a trajectory on par with the .300 Winchester Magnum.
However, the 6.5 Creedmoor’s capability of loading higher-BC bullets saw the “younger” cartridge begin to take off by the beginning of the next decade. And, make no mistake about it: There’s no more blend of accuracy, availability and affordability than the 6.5 Creedmoor. It no longer matters whether you love to hate it or hate to love it; the Creedmoor is the biggest bang for the buck in the long-range shooting market.
Long-Range Shooting For Everyone
Distances to the target increased, and a new market was born, because everyone was suddenly shooting long range.
The .338 Lapua was a popular choice, but with the big, Rigby-based case came a whole lot of recoil and cost. Nevertheless, it worked very well, with the long, 300-grain bullets giving solid performance at long ranges. Eventually, the .338-inch bullets grew in length—but not necessarily in weight—as the designs saw the ogive increase to the point at which that bullet couldn’t be seated in the Lapua case without grossly exceeding the magazine capacity.
The 6.5 PRC from Hornady: It’s a short, squat and accurate cartridge that’s at home on the shooting range, as well as in the hunting fields.
Enter the .338 Norma Magnum, which uses a shortened Lapua case to best utilize that magazine length and allowing the long Sierra 300-grain bullet to be properly seated on the shank and not on the ogive. It’s a wonderfully accurate cartridge (in fact, I came in second in a shooting competition in Germany with it, printing a four-shot group measuring 1¾ inches at 500 meters); and, if you’re a fan of the .338-inch bore diameter, the .338 Norma deserves an audience.
The .300 Winchester Magnum—long a popular choice among snipers and precision shooters—suffers from the “too-long-for-magazine” syndrome. Developed as a hunting cartridge in 1963, the .300 Winchester has a hard time properly seating those high-BC, 30-caliber bullets in a standard long-action magazine, especially the older ones. With a proper throat, you can single-feed the .300 Winchester.
Nevertheless, I think you see the issue I’m describing: Many of the cartridges we know and love just can’t handle the longer, heavier bullets that perform so well—not to mention the fact that lately, so many people are frowning at belted magnums. No matter. I find the .300 Winchester Magnum to be among the finest hunting cartridges.
And now—the Hornady .300 PRC. This new, .30-caliber magnum is based on the .375 Ruger case, necked down to .308 inch with optimum taper and a 30-degree shoulder. The design of the case uses the 0.532-inch diameter of the H&H belted magnum, but without the belt. The case length is 2.58 inches—shorter than the .300 Winchester—but the overall length is 3.700 inches, and there are available magazines that’ll allow a cartridge of that length to be used in a long-action rifle.
So, why not simply use the .300 Winchester Magnum if the cartridge’s overall length can be extended?
Federal’s Gold Medal Match ammunition, with the 130-grain Berger Hybrid bullet.
Well, Hornady engineered the .300 PRC to have some unique features in an effort to enhance accuracy for long-range shooting. The shoulder/neck joint is set to be at the precise spot where a 225-grain Hornady bullet’s shank meets its boat tail when seated to the proper dimension in the PRC case. Keeping the bullet in the neck portion of the cartridge, along with minimal free bore in the design of the chamber, definitely enhances accuracy, and shooters are finding that there’s a definite advantage to the .300 PRC design. It seems to be economical to build, and the results at the range are excellent. Driving a 225-grain bullet with a G1 of .777 and a G7 of 0.391 to a muzzle velocity of 2,810 fps, the .300 PRC isn’t going anywhere.
6.5mm Cartridges
The 6.5mm cartridges have expanded beyond the ever-popular Creedmoor to include some highly efficient and accurate designs. Hornady also has a 6.5 in its PRC line that’s designed for competition and is considered the Creedmoor’s “big brother.”
Bettering the Creedmoor’s velocity by more than 250 fps, the 6.5 PRC is based on the .300 Ruger Compact Magnum (which, itself, is based on the .375 Ruger) and runs smoothly in a short-action rifle. It’s accurate, flat shooting, easy on the shoulder and a better long-range performer than the now-standard Creedmoor—even if the recoil is sharper … but still manageable. Like the .300 PRC, it uses a standard, 0.532-inch (H&H Magnum) bolt face. And while I’m not overly fond of the short, squat cartridges, the 6.5 PRC is a great choice for both the target range and the hunting field.
I’ve long been a fan of the 6.5-284 Norma, because this cartridge delivers my personal favorite blend of trajectory, energy and accuracy as both a hunting and a target cartridge. It’s just the old .284 Winchester necked down to hold 6.5mm bullets. And, although it’s usually housed in a short-action rifle, I like the additional flexibility of a long-action rifle, simply because there are so many very-low-drag bullets available to the handloader. The 6.5-284 Norma can, when pushed hard, match the velocity of the 6.5 PRC, and it shines on the target range.
Weatherby must be of a similar mindset, because its new 6.5 Weatherby RPM (Rebated Precision Magnum) is an elongated 6.5-284 that’s designed to give flat trajectories, high retained energy and great wind deflection values in a lightweight rifle. To see Weatherby make its first venture away from a double-radius shoulder in a cartridge with no belt says something about the effectiveness of this design.
The classic .300 Winchester Magnum with the high-BC, 230-grain Berger Match Hybrid OTM bullet.
The 6.5 RPM launches a 140-grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of between 2,975 and 3,075 fps—just a bit ahead of the 6.5-284 Norma and on par with the 6.5 PRC. I really like this Weatherby cartridge as a hunting choice, although I’d wager that it’ll show up in target cartridge circles before very long.
Get On Target With Long-Range Shooting:
Mils vs. MOA: Which Is The Best Long-Range Language?
Looking at the performance/cost ratio, we find that the 6.5 Creedmoor pushing a 140-grain bullet at 2,700 fps and with ammo topped with a decent bullet (and there’s plenty to choose from) costs between $25 and $35 per box of 20.
Bump up to the 6.5 PRC, and you’ll see a jump in muzzle velocity to 2,960 fps; and while that velocity increase certainly flattens out trajectory (at 1,500 yards, you’ll need 18.6 mils of elevation for the Creedmoor, as compared with 15 mils for the PRC), the PRC ammo runs between $40 and $55 per box of 20. The 6.5 Weatherby RPM will run between $50 and $65 per box and, if you want to take full advantage of the 6.5-284 Norma case (pushing a 140-grain bullet to 2,875 fps, as custom loaded by Nosler), you can plan on spending as much as $80 per box of 20.
Am I trying to intentionally make a case for choosing the Creedmoor? No, because I really enjoy hunting with the others. Nevertheless, a weekend at the target range would put a dent in my wallet for sure.
The 6mms are surely doing their best to get noticed among this crowd. The 6mm Creedmoor, 6XC and 6mm Dasher all give very good long-range performance with less recoil than their 6.5mm siblings, so if you’re into timed shooting competitions, this feature might appeal to you.
To give an idea of where the 6mm Creedmoor sits in comparison to the 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5 PRC: When using a 108-grain Hornady ELD Match bullet, at a muzzle velocity of 2,960 fps (this seems to be a popular velocity and is common to the .300 Win. Mag. with 180s, the 6.5 PRC with 140s and the 6mm Creedmoor), that 1,500-yard target will require 17.4 mils of elevation (in the middle of the two 6.5s). The wind deflection value for the lighter bullet in the 6mm is greater than either of the 6.5s (3.7 mils for the 6mm CM versus 3.4 mils and 3 mils, respectively), but the reduced recoil might make for an equal trade.
Pricing? The 6mm Creedmoor ammo is on par with the 6.5 Creedmoor ammo—it runs between $25 and $35 per box. The other 6mms are certainly more expensive, and the range of choices is diminished.
What we’re looking at is a wide range of cartridges with which we can effectively and efficiently send a bullet one helluva long way. Even the best deal on a chassis gun can quickly be negated by an ammo bill that equals Nicaragua’s Gross National Product, so depending on how far down the rabbit hole you’ve gone in the long-range game, it might sometimes warrant seeking out the proper balance of cost-effectiveness, downrange performance and economical sense, especially if handloading is off the menu.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2020 Long-Range Shooting issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
ELR Rimfire requires the same skill set as centerfire 2-mile shooting … but at yardages most gun nuts have close to home.
Everyone needs a buddy like Chad.
A.J. Stewart, a 34-year-old industrial technician from Mobile, Alabama, had dropped three .22 LR shots onto a steel target at 825 yards—and into a group about the size of a dip can. Now, with a ridiculous 120 mils of elevation doped into his rig, he sent it to 1,000.
But, it wasn’t going well.
The splashes looked to land in front of the 30×30-inch steel square, so Stewart spun up more elevation.
As challenging as centerfire 2-mile, ELR Rimfire is accessible to more shooters.
“With .22 LR, at that distance, to get it to travel another 5 yards, you need a whole mil of elevation,” Stewart told me. “That’s how steep the bullet is coming down. One meter of elevation for 5 meters of distance.”
He went to 122, 123, 124, 125. Still, no hits.
“Aw, hell!” said his friend and shooting partner, Chad Long, “I’ll go down there.”
Extreme long-range shooting (or ELR)—as with King of 2 Mile events, at which teams of centerfire shooters send .50 BMGs and their derivatives beyond 3,500 yards—makes regular use of forward observers. Chad Long knew this. He took his truck to 1,000 yards and got safe behind some heavy construction debris.
Stewart shot, and Long radioed back. “You’re 35 feet or so behind the target.” Through the spotting scope, Stewart and his team saw the splashes under the steel target, not in front of it, as they first thought.
Stewart walked down the elevation. When he got to 113 mils, he shot and waited. A full 5.5 seconds later, the 40-grain, lead round-nose connected. A few seconds after that, prone on his shooting mat, Stewart heard a faint, but distinct, ding. “That,” he told me, “was the best sound in the world!”
The author puts the Vudoo on paper at 50, 100 and 200 yards. This real-world dope, coupled with an accurate muzzle velocity, made connecting at 500 yards possible.
Stewart shot again.
“Hit,” Long radioed back. “Hit. Hit.” Four in a row. They’d solved the 1,000-yard .22 LR puzzle.
Stewart wasn’t the first guy to repeatedly connect at 1,000 yards with a .22 LR, but on that day, he joined a very small club of ELR rimfire shooters.
Yet, as rifle builders, ammo makers and optics engineers continue to push the bounds of distance, that club’s only getting bigger.
Do You Vudoo?
I’ve never seen someone squirrel hunt at 1,000 yards, you might be thinking. Well, you could be missing the point of ELR. Like its centerfire brother, ELR rimfire shooting is the “Space X” of long-range precision—a program and a practice operating on the outer edge of “possible.” Advances learned in ELR inevitably trickle backward—as we’ve seen in the last 10 years with the rush of modern high-BC bullets, bipod systems, and range-finding and wind-reading technology. Many of those ideas were first “proofed” by long-range fanatics at unreasonable distances.
If any one company is responsible for this kind of proof-of-concept work in the ELR rimfire space, it’s Vudoo Gunworks of St. George, Utah. Mike Bush, the director of engineering at Savage Arms, had been converting Remington 40x actions to repeaters for a small crew of diehard marksmen on an Internet forum. Bush couldn’t keep up with the demand. As a result, along with industry veterans Jay Phillips, and Paul and Jill Parrott, he started Vudoo (the name comes from an old saying of the Parrotts: that the difference between an MOA rifle and a ½ MOA barn-burner was always “a little bit of magic, a little bit of voodoo”).
The first “group” at 500 yards measures 13.5 inches.
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—and movies about them, such as American Sniper—interest in precision shooting over the last 15 years surged here, on the home front, as well as around the world. Recreational sharpshooters soon realized they could train with a low-recoil, low-cost .22 LR that still required all the sniper math and wind-reading needed to hit a long way off, but at a shorter distance. Rather than find a place to shoot at distances of 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 yards, they could do it all at 400-, 500- and 600-yard ranges.
As more and more shooters tried out .22 LRs at longer and longer ranges, they took their problems and solutions online to forums such Snipers Hide, where the small-bore rifle-of-choice morphed from Bush’s 40x conversions to the Vudoo Gunworks V-22 action—the first custom rimfire action to use a Remington 700 footprint. With a Vudoo, shooters could build an exact replica of its ELR or PRS rifle—same chassis, trigger, bases, rings and optic with an AICS-patterned magazine—but in .22 LR.
The success of Vudoo and the expanding ELR rimfire market has inspired a boom in full-sized Remington 700-footprint .22 rifles. Bergara released the B-14-R late last year. The RimX action from Zermatt Arms debuted at SHOT Show in January, as did the Ultimatum Precision Deuce, as well as a .22 LR conversion kit from Curtis Customs. Elite barrel makers such as Proof Research and Lilja Precision rolled out uber-accurate tubes for swap-barrel rimfire actions such as the CZ 455/457 and Ruger Precision.
Add all of this together, and there’s never been so many options in insanely accurate precision rimfire rifles—rifles capable of pushing a little, 40-grain hunk of lead farther, and with repeatable accuracy—than most people thought possible even five and 10 years ago.
Get On Target With Long-Range Shooting:
Mils vs. MOA: Which Is The Best Long-Range Language?
When shooting a .22 LR between 300 and 1,000 yards, the rifle is just one piece of the system. Equally important is high-quality match ammunition that gets along with the rifle’s chamber and barrel—ammunition made nine times out of 10 by Eley or Lapua.
The new Zermatt RimX with a 16.5-inch PROOF barrel. With fewer than 100 rounds down the pipe, it connected easily at 500 yards. Note the Vortex Strike Eagle. It’s maybe the best scope option around for ELR rimfire when considering price versus performance.
With match ammunition that runs just below the speed of sound (Lapua is advertised at 1,073 fps), the 40-grain bullet doesn’t pass through the transonic barrier, which adds a level of instability at longer ranges. This is why high-velocity ammo often doesn’t maintain a good level of accuracy at extreme distances. Knowing which one of the few high-quality match loads a rifle likes is an exercise in trial and error that requires a chronograph.
Vudoo has smartly cut out much of the guesswork, because all its chambers are cut to Lapua dimensions (my RimX with a 16-inch Proof barrel seems to be “ammo-agnostic,” shooting Lapua and Eley equally well. My Bergara is leaning toward Lapua).
At the chronograph, muzzle velocity is important, because you’ll need that figure for long-range ballistic-solving. However, extreme spread or standard deviation—the spread in feet per second (fps) between the fastest and slowest muzzle velocity in a string—is absolutely critical.
Standard deviation is “the number-one limitation for extreme long-range shooting with rimfire,” Geoff Esterline, director of marketing for Lapua, Berger and Vihtavuori within the United States, told me. “We often have production lots of Lapua with single-digit SDs. The challenge becomes identifying a lot that’ll reliably offer consistent ignition through your firearm platform.”
The second major ballistic factor is wind. But, for the sake of this example, we’ll assume an ELR shooter has a good handling on wind-reading.
Figuring the wind was the hardest part—thanks to the layout of this hilltop. At the rifle, it blew between 5 and 10 mph at 90 degrees. After the hedgerow at the 300-yard mark, the wind switched around to between 180 and 270 degrees.
To illustrate the importance of low SDs and mild wind on ELR rimfire shooting, let’s use the Weapon Employment Zone Analysis calculator (AppliedBallisticsLLC.com). It calculates a “hit probability” based on various shooting conditions.
Using Lapua bullet dimensions and their advertised BC of .172, along with no wind and an SD of 10 fps in a ½ MOA rifle, the hit probability at 500 yards is 74.4 percent. With a 2.5 mph wind and an SD of 15, that drops way off to 12.2 percent. At 4 mph and a 20 fps SD, it’s 1.6 percent. Most non-match, mid-tier subsonic .22 LR ammo has an SD between 20 and 80 fps. (If that doesn’t tell you why premium ammo is important, I recommend you take up Steel Challenge.)
Lapua says its Center-X, Midas+ and X-Act ammunition will produce a single-digit SD. That might be true on average, but every rifle ignition system and ammo combination is different.
A.J. Stewart sees single-digit SDs in his Vudoo with X-Act and a range between 10 and 20 fps with Midas+ and into the 30s with Center-X (this is the reason he makes 800-plus-yard attempts with X-Act only). I’ve seen single-digit strings with Center-X in my Vudoo and RimX rifles, with the occasional oddball shot in the 20s or 30s.
At 50 yards, an SD in the 20s can still make a “one-ragged-hole”-sized group: five shots touching in a tight cloverleaf. So, only group-shooting a .22 LR at 50 or 100 yards to determine the best ammo can be deceiving if the goal is to eventually shoot at much longer ranges—at which SD will have a significant effect.
Chronographing lots of ammunition—that is, lots of lots of ammunition—is the best way to determine the best ammo-to-rifle fit. If that sounds daunting, you can send your rifle to Lapua Performance to have the testing done for you for $50. Ten-shot strings are recorded at 50 and 100 meters—right down to the best-performing lot number—and the data is e-mailed directly to you.
Dave Sweet spots and calls holds for his son, Mikey. ELR Rimfire is truly a discipline for any shooter.
In Lapua’s case, Center-X, Midas+ and X-Act all comprise the same case, primer, powder and bullet. What box those rounds end up packaged in is determined by how that lot tests off the production line: The most consistent, lowest-SD lots become X-Act. But, thanks to the weird science of rimfire, some rifles might shoot Center-X better than X-Act. Sending a rifle to get tested will identify this and could save you a bundle of time and money down the road.
You Can’t Hit What You Can’t Dope
Rifle and ammunition figured out, how do you get enough mils or MOA into your rig to connect at 300- to 1,000-plus yards? As with long-range centerfire shooting, the optics platform starts with a canted Picatinny rail.
Most 30mm scopes have around 18 mils of total elevation adjustment, whereas 34mm tubes hover around 30 mils. But, if the scope is zeroed at the center of its elevation adjustment, you’ll only have half that total figure in come-ups—9 and 15 mils, respectively. To bottom out the scope so the zero is at the low range of adjustment, it takes a canted rail—typically, between a 30 and 60 MOA rail with 30mm and 34mm optics.
The distance at which you zero the rifle also matters. If you plan to shoot NRL22 events with your ELR setup, a 50-yard zero is smart, because it’ll allow you to hold dead-nuts from 10 yards to 55 or 60 yards and spin up for anything farther (with a 34mm Athlon Ares ETR, I’ve been able to get a 50-yard zero with 35 MOA of cant in my rail and rings). However, if it’s a dedicated ELR rifle, a 100-yard zero makes more sense and lets you get more distance from your setup.
With a 34mm scope (such as the new and very excellent Strike Eagle from Vortex), 60 MOA of cant is the way to go for a dedicated ELR build. Nightforce makes one, as does Sphur, with a one-piece base-and-rings system. Burris Extreme Tactical Rings, which come with plastic MOA shims, are another way to add even more cant. With 10 mils in the reticle, plus some additional holdover, these platforms will make optics packages capable of the roughly 42 mils required to connect with a .22 LR at 600 yards. With lots of cant, a good 34mm scope and using all of the reticle, 600 yards is about the limit to which most .22 LR rigs can be pushed without specialized equipment.
To get enough dope to connect after 600 yards requires a unique device—the Charlie TARAC from tacomHQ. A little black box that connects to the scope’s objective lens or forward of the scope via a Pic rail, the Charlie optically adds elevation up to an additional 250 mils. This device works very much like a periscope—using mirrors to shift the point of aim higher, reflecting light, so the target image stays bright and optically centered in the scope. It’s what Stewart used to make his 1,000-yard .22 LR shot and what the likes of Paul Phillips and company use at centerfire King of 2 Mile events to send .416 Barret rounds well past 3,500 yards.
A Charlie TARAC and 1,000-yard hits with a .22 LR comprise a rarified pursuit of extreme ELR enthusiasts, but what they’re learning is actively informing rifle, ammo and optic designs. For the rest of us mortals, a difficult, but very possible, ELR .22 LR shot is something closer to 500 yards.
All Together Now
To test this all out, I took two rifles to buddy Dave Sweet’s 500-yard range at Spray & Pray Coatings in western New York. Sweet shoots a Vudoo and had just mounted a new Vortex Strike Eagle. I brought a Vudoo with an 18-inch ACE barrel in a JP APAC chassis, 20 MOA rail, Athlon Conus BTR scope, a RimX with a 16-inch PROOF barrel, 30 MOA rail and Strike Eagle scope in a Grayboe Ridgeback. Both rifles had Timney HIT triggers set around 1 pound. We had previous dope on all the rifles to 200 yards; and, very quickly—within fewer than five shots—all the guns rang steel at 326 yards shooting Lapua Center-X.
We jumped back to 500 yards as the wind picked up. The contour of our hilltop range made for a 90-degree wind at 5 mph, gusting to about 10 or 12. However, at the target pit through a hedgerow in the field, the wind switched to head-on, with gusts spinning around between 180 and 270 degrees. After 20 rounds of grossly overcorrecting for wind, I held 1 mil, and Sweet spotted the impact in the bank just over the top of the plate. My elevation was off a good bit, too.
With centerfire rifles, it’s possible to true your ballistic software by tweaking the muzzle velocity or the BC. With rimfire, this often doesn’t work.
A.J. Stewart’s 1,000-yard .22 LR rig: a Vudoo V-22 action, 22-inch MTU contoured ACE barrel, Cadex Defense chassis, Nightforce ATACR 7-35x56mm scope with a rail-mounted Charlie TARAC and GSL suppressor. Note: His first 1,000-yard hits were made with a much-less-expensive Athlon Ares ETR optic.
Stewart recommended a BC of .132 for all Lapua ammunition, which I used. It put me at 29 mils for the 503 yards we were shooting.
Kestrel recommends using the DropCal function to calculate ELR rimfire shots; that is, input real-world dope at various distances and let the Applied Ballistics software compute farther-out targets based on those known variables. I did this with my 100-, 200- and 326-yard data and arrived at the “magic number” for this Vudoo/Center-X combination at 503 yards: 27 mils. I spun 20 mils up and held 7 with the reticle, with 1 mil for wind.
Ding!
We heard the shot connect, loud and clear. Then, another. Ding! Ding! Ding! We started at 9:30 in the morning. By lunchtime, all the rifles were printing groups on steel, even in the crazy wind. Sweet’s 10-year-old son Mikey was soon making reliable hits at 500 too.
I texted Stewart, who’s provided me with lots of ideas and advice along the way.
“Nice!” he wrote back. “So, when you gonna try at 1,000?”
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the 2020 Long-Range Shooting issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Pistol marksmanship is built from the ground up. Get on target by learning the basics of the proper shooting stance.
Much like a boxer wouldn’t throw a punch standing straight up, you shouldn’t pull the trigger locked linearly above your feet. Proper shooting stance—what some might call a “fighting stance”—is foundational to controlling your handgun, quickly acquiring your target and moving to another if the situation calls for it.
Instructor with 1-Minute Out and former Special Mission Unit Sargent Major Jamey Caldwell covers the basics of getting in position to deftly wield your pistol. Much like athletics, the key points involve getting your legs under you and your weight somewhat forward. This puts you in a position to “receive the blow” from recoil, mitigating it and quacking the pace to the next shot. As Caldwell points out, this is primarily achieved by putting flex at the knee and breaking at the waist.
Additionally, the position puts you at the ready to pivot. With weight above the balls of your feet, pivoting becomes more intuitive, without losing balance or control over your firearm.
Now, how Caldwell’s shooting stance isn’t a hard and fast model. Every shooter is different, from height, weight and skill level, thus each person must tinker around to find the perfect stance. However, what the instructor provides are foundational concepts that figure into every shooting stance, thus provides a good base to work from.
Spend time even before getting to the range working on your shooting stance, finding a natural position, facilitates rapid movement and puts your body weight behind your handgun. You’ll find it will go a long way in improving your recoil management and shot-to-shot accuracy.
For more videos from Panteao Productions, please visit panteao.com.
Look no further for a PCC Build. The Aero EPC-9 makes it nearly one-stop for all your components.
Swelling like a cresting wave, the pistol caliber carbine market has grown immensely over the past couple of years. Parts to cobble one together, not quite so much. Yeah, they're out there, but given the niche is defined by idiosyncratic designs AR-parts makers have played coy with the niche. Until now.
Giving PCC builds an enormous boost, AR parts powerhouse Aero Precision recently unleashed the EPC-9 (Enhanced Pistol Caliber). Though it might sound like a complete gun, it’s not. Instead its components system from barrel to buttstock allowing builders to tinker their perfect PCC from the ground up. And, boy howdy, does Aero ever give shooters options.
At present, the company is in its initial phase of the launch, unsurprisingly focused on the most popular chambering of pistol caliber carbines—the 9mm. Technically, the EPC-9 lower is compatible with .40 S&W, but all the other components—BCG, barrels, and complete uppers are all designed for Parabellum. However, Aero gives shooters plenty of reasons to keep tabs in the future with a “Coming Soon” .45 ACP/10mm lower displayed on its website. It’s a sure bet the manufacturer plans to release a full spectrum of support components for the other calibers as time wears on.
On tap right now for 9mm EPC-9, 5.5-, 8.3-, 11- and 16-inch barrels, complete uppers with the same barrel lengths, Atlas handguards and internals. As to some of the EPC's finer points, it features the very desirable bolt hold open and Glock-magazine compatibility. As expected, it utilizes a straight-blowback operating system, which is standard for PCCs. Additionally, Aero has added some nice touches, such as an upper tension screw to eliminate any rattle between upper and lower, flared magazine well and an integrated trigger guard.
As to price, it all comes down to what you buy from Aero, but the EPC-9 receiver set has an MSRP of $269.99.
Do you know when you have gone too far hot-rodding your reloads? Here are some of the telltale signs you're pushing your luck with cartridge pressure.
What Are Excessive Cartridge Pressure Signs?:
Difficult Case Extraction
Flattened Primer
Raised Crater Where The Firing Pin Strikes The Primer
Shiny Spot On The Case Head
This article is an excerpt from The ABCs of Reloading, 10th Edition by Phil Massaro, on sale at GunDigestStore.com.
What are the pressure signs you need to recognize? How do you know when your load is too hot and you need to back it down?
Several signs can be seen or felt on the fired cartridge. The first indicator is a difficult case extraction. Whether it’s a revolver that requires additional effort to get the cases from the cylinder or a bolt-action rifle with a bolt that is difficult to lift, an overly expanded case is a telltale sign. A semi-automatic firearm may fail to cycle the action or extract the cartridge at all, or a lever-action may lock up completely. No matter the gun, if a cartridge is stuck in the chamber or is challenging to extract, that should be the first sign of trouble.
The spent primer can tell you much about what’s going on inside the cartridge. Become familiar with how a primer looks when newly installed, properly seated, and fired at normal pressures. It should have a clean mark from the firing pin. The edges of the spent primer, where it contacts the edge of the case’s primer pocket, should have the same curved appearance when you installed it. If the primer seems to have a sharp, square edge along the primer pocket, or it seems distorted in any way, that is an immediate sign of high pressure. (Many reloaders refer to this as a ‘flattened primer.’) Also, look at the firing pin mark: if the dimple made by the pin has a raised crater on its edges, this is an example of the pressure blowing the metal in the primer backward and around the firing pin. It’s highly indicative of excessive pressure.
These 6.5 Creedmoor cases show shiny extractor marks, flattened primers, and cratered firing pin marks — all are indicative of excess pressure.
If you see a bright, shiny spot on the case head where the extractor sits, this is another sign that the pressure is too high for the cartridge/rifle combination. I’ve also seen excessive pressure blow the primer entirely out of the case and have found the cup and anvil of the primer down in the rifle’s magazine.
However, lest you should fear the handloaded cartridge, I have seen all of these symptoms in factory ammunition and on more than one occasion. Some shooters like to stuff +P ammunition in older revolvers, and the result can be a cracked cylinder, rendering an otherwise perfectly good handgun useless. I’ve also seen people push a classic, century-old lever-action rifle to the brink with the faster, modern ammunition such as Hornady’s LEVERevolution. Both the +P handgun ammo and Hornady’s great lever gun cartridges have their place, so long as you understand the pressures they generate and use them in the appropriate firearms.
You’ll need to recognize the pressure and velocity limits of the cartridge you’re loading. My first bolt-action big game rifle was a Ruger Model 77 MKII chambered in .308 Winchester and was a Christmas gift from my Dad, Ol’ Grumpy Pants. He shoots .308 Winchester, so we started handloading for the pair of rifles and had success. It was quite a good feeling to take deer with the ammunition we’d created together, and that rifle and cartridge were responsible for my journey into reloading.
The IMR Enduron line was engineered to minimize temperature change’s effects on the powder’s performance.
I began experimenting with all sorts of loads for that rifle. Some were middle-of-the-road recipes that the .308 likes and others pushed the limits, as I was essentially trying to beat .30-06 velocities from the much smaller case. With my cartridges demonstrating all of the symptoms I described above, Grumpy Pants gave me that look of parental disappointment, and I knew I’d be hearing about it. “Why don’t you use that rifle for what it was designed for and just go deer hunting? If you want a .300 Magnum, go buy one, but stop torturing that rifle.” He was right.
There was no point in generating those high pressures in that rifle, and once I came back to the realm of sanity, the groups went back to the sub-MOA size they had been, primers and cases appeared as they should, and I still enjoy that rifle to this day. The point is that even though you can control the parameters of your ammo, wringing every last bit of velocity out of the cartridge at the cost of high pressures is a poor tradeoff.
Modeled after the Glock 19, the Lone Wolf LTD brings some welcome upgrades to the table.
If you know Glocks, chances are you’re familiar with Lone Wolf Distributors. You know, the aftermarket parts company—a good ones at that. If it hadn’t hit your radar, Lone Wolf has branched out from barrel upgrades and custom slides for the polymer wonders. Now the Idaho concern is a full-fledged gunmaker.
It all started in late 2020 with the novice-shooter angled Guardian Pistol that came bundled with training classes. Now the manufacturer has turned to something for the bit more seasoned armed citizen. Meet the Lone Wolf Lightweight Tactical Defensive (LTD).
The company hasn’t strayed too far from its knowledge base, given the polymer-framed 9mm is most certainly a Glock clone. However, the Lone Wolf LTD isn’t a 1-to-1 Glock knockoff with a few shined up parts here and there by any stretch of the imagination. The company poured its upgrade know-how into making a fairly striking and unique pistol in its own right, one positively fit for everyday carry.
Living up to its name, the Lone Wolf LTD comes in at a featherweight 19 ounces without a magazine, extremely light for a 4-inch barreled pistol. Side by side to its Glock inspiration—the G19—it’s an entire 11-ounces lighter, making a much more manageable gun to carry for long stretches. A quick scan of the gun and it's simple to decern how Long Wolf achieved the weight savings, with the LTD boasting extensive cuts on the sides of the slide. In addition to removing heft, Lone Wolf touts the machining also helps reduce felt recoil, given there’s less mass thrusting reward. But the reduced weight of the pistol likely makes up for that.
The slide has been further enhanced with ample cocking serrations fore and aft, making the LTD more intuitive to manipulate. Additionally, Lone Wolf rounds all edges and corners, ensuring the pistol won’t snag on the draw.
There are some more nuanced features to the Lone Wolf LTD, particularly in the frame. In particular, the tang has a more pronounced radius permitting a higher grip than possible on a Glock, not only facilitating a solid handle on the gun, but also lowering its bore axis relative to the shooter's hand and arm. Additionally, the company amply undercuts the trigger guard. Both features give the big-handed shooter more real estate to work. Then at the bottom, Lone Wolf runs a low-profile mag well—not a common sight on self-defense guns. Similar in concept to competitive pistols, this accelerates the reloading process and clears the flesh at the butt of the hand from getting pinched.
Other notables on the Lone Wolf LTD include a 6.5-pound trigger break, choice of gray or black frame, black or silver finished slide, stainless steel guide rod and Glock magazine compatibility. As for how it measures up against the origin G19 in price, the pistol holds its own with an MSRP of $699.
What's a legacy skill? Simply the foundational methods of precision shooting. Master them and you'll have a leg up in the long-range game.
In terms of training, we talk about “legacy skills” all the time. To me, legacy skills are the tools that enhance the shooter’s overall proficiency while not being dependent on gear. In other words: You’re solving your precision rifle problem without having to dip into your wallet.
It boils down to training and mindset. Do you invest in a ballistic calculator for your latest smartphone, or will a data book work?
Reticle Ranging
One example from a sniper’s standpoint is reticle ranging. Reticle ranging is a legacy skill because it’s:
Slow in a game where speed wins
Limited in its maximum effective range
Subjective in execution
Results will vary with conditions
It’s a perishable skill set
Today, the military uses tools to help when reticle ranging is necessary. Its members practice “rapid target engagements” with their system that translate directly to their reticle. It’s different from my days in the Marine Corps, but it accomplishes the same thing; it just cuts out a few steps.
Reticle ranging is subject to light, angle, target size and color. There’s a host of variables that can skew the results, so we have to practice. It’s a perishable skill that requires sustainment training. When you need it, you want it to be there, so practice is the only choice. The formulas are all over the Internet, but honestly, you use them to create a “cheat sheet.” They’re not for in the field, because they’re too slow. The idea that you can break out a calculator under stress or time is a non-starter. We adapt and practice to speed up the process.
Slings
Slings are another area we consider a legacy skill. It’s one thing to sling up a 7-pound rifle with a 3-9x scope. It’s an entirely different process to shoot an 18-pound Accuracy International with a sling under time with any kind of success. The amount of training necessary would be self-defeating: Our precision rifles have to be supported. Can it be done? Absolutely. But it’s wildly inconsistent without training.
Ask yourself this: Do I want to stand up in the middle of a field and set up a sling? For me? No. I look at things such as cover and concealment, so my first consideration is rifle support.
While re-reading an older article I wrote, I spoke passionately about carrying a tripod. Legacy skills mean I have a tool in my toolbox when all else fails; I have a plan, along with the ability to execute. My skills are up the task without outside influence. It’s not a dollar issue; it’s one of time and training.
Precision shooters need to manage a lot of information. Consider your data book your shooter’s “bible.”
Sling shooting is beneficial when practiced. But understand the time it takes to build the position and adjust the natural point of aim. I know for a fact that I can deploy a bag or tripod faster. The question becomes, What happens when I don’t have my backpack or tripod?
We shot off of packs in the Marines, because we didn’t have bipods. Slings were necessary for both general qualifying and sniping. A sling can do more than just hold the rifle on your shoulder—but, you have to train.
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Mils vs. MOA: Which Is The Best Long-Range Language?
Ballistic apps/solvers are all the rage. We see new owners buying apps before they even hit the range or own a rifle. Because these apps reside on our phone, many look at them as if they were games—as opposed to the military-grade tools they actually are.
We’ve lost an essential connection to our data by depending on apps. We remember more when we write things down instead of inputting it into the phone. Defaulting to a smartphone to manage all your ballistic calculations creates a “dope disconnect.”
Back in the day, we all had to memorize phone numbers; this was pretty easy, because we manually inputted them every time. Today, we tap the icon or pick a name out of a list, and the phone does the rest.
Our data books are a shooter’s “bible.” We used to have one for every rifle we owned. We were meticulous about monitoring everything— from round count to range details. In fact, I have a retired data book with more information from places such as Gunsite that are still valid today. None of them can be found in any of my apps. It’s more than dope: The targets are plotted out and have yet to be moved.
Data books are crucial for analysis, damage control and barrel conditioning. It’s beyond just serving as a dope book. Fill your data book with any number of true statements, and there’s nothing you can’t accomplish. I love the variety of pages we have (thanks to people such as Tony at Impact Data Books!). To this day, I still use a data book—despite owning every, single ballistic app on the market. In fact, I’d break out a data book before I’d open my phone on the firing line.
Positional Shooting
There’s a long list of legacy skills out there; some of them are discipline-specific.
Modern conveniences and old-school methodology can work hand-in-hand. The author uses a Kestrel on the firing line, but he’s also manually recording the data.
One area that’s easy and combines multiple legacy skills is positional shooting. Today, we try to support the rifle off props. Practicing positions with a sling accomplish two things: You learn to manage the fundamentals from alternate positions, and you can work slings and body positions to stabilize the shots.
Working positions is only limited by time. You don’t need a barricade or a tank trap. You can do it in an empty field. Follow the crawl. Walk and then run the model, making sure your execution is perfect. Take the time to analyze and fine-tune each step of the process. It’s not so much when you’re sitting slung up; it’s more about getting into and out of the position quickly and effectively.
For instance, in a NASCAR race, the problem isn’t the straightaway—it’s the turns (where do you enter each turn, and where do you get back on the gas?).
It’s about being a well-rounded marksman. We have plenty of shortcuts in our lives. Look at your shooting as if it were a martial art and master the craft before turning to the tips and tricks. Those will come later.
I want to “own” everything in front of me out to 600 meters, 800 meters, 1,000 yards! Whatever the case, practice makes perfect.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2020 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Its first foray into 3-dot sights, the new XS R3D Sights design is well-thought-out and easy to see in any light.
For the past 20 years or so, almost every one of my defensive handguns has had its sights replaced with XS Sights. As far as XS Sights are concerned, R3D presumably stands for “Radio Active 3 Dot.” The R3D sights are the first 3-dot sights the company has offered.
I’ve never been a huge fan of 3-dot sights. The front sight is the one that deserves your focus; and, with many 3-dot sight systems, all three dots are the same size. This could—at least theoretically—lead to confusion.
Currently, XS is offering its R3D sights for a variety of Glock, Sig Sauer, Springfield, FN and Smith & Wesson handguns.
To test these new sights, I installed them on my son’s Gen-4 Glock 19, which was already wearing a set of Trijicon HD XR night sights. But, before making the switch, he and I both fired several practical drills so we’d have a baseline of performance for comparison with the new XS Sights.
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After a good bit of range time, I don’t think “dot confusion” is a realistic concern with the R3D sights. This is partly because the front R3D sight has the common tritium vial but is surrounded by a large circle of photoluminescent material. It’s extremely visible; you’d have to be blind not to see it. It very effectively serves its purpose of attracting your eye to it as soon as the handgun enters your field of vision. It’s also partly because the two dots on the rear sight are very small. During all daylight and moderately low-light shooting, I never noticed the rear dots. The only time they got any attention was when it was nearly dark, and then, they were more of a confirmation of the rear sight than an actual tool to help me put a sight picture together.
Another aspect of these sights we both really liked was that the rear notch is 15 percent wider than the front sight. This allows for enough light on both sides of the front sight to make sight alignment fast. Due to presbyopia, I (ideally) need to wear prescription shooting glasses for the best accuracy with a handgun. This notch and front sight size relationship allowed me to shoot well, even without the aid of corrective lenses.
Comparison Testing
How did the XS R3D sights compare to the Trijicon HD XR sights?
The goal of the exercise was not to discover which sight was best; it was only to see if the new XS Sights could perform as well (I don’t know how many shooters and how many rounds would have to be fired in order to make a definitive claim that one sight is better than the other). Based on the drills we fired, both sights performed about the same. I shot infinitesimally better with the XS Sights, and my son’s performance was practically identical with either sight.
We both did agree we liked the smaller rear dots on the R3D sights. In addition, the R3D rear sight has a slight overhang that, combined with the anti-reflective lens vials on the two rear dots, reduces the glare on the face of the rear sight in brightly lit conditions. There’s also some science at work with the front sight: It’s what XS calls “Ember Glow Technology.”
The tritium vial or lamp in the front sights charges the colored dot that surrounds it. This makes the front sight much brighter than the rear and helps direct your focus on the front sight—where it needs to be.
XS R3D Options
The R3D sights from XS are available with a green or orange front sight and retail for $109.99. Currently, XS is offering its R3D sights for a variety of Glock, Sig Sauer, Springfield, FN and Smith & Wesson handguns. They come with a punch and LocTite for self-installation, but I’d suggest you get a gunsmith to do this for you. Also, in addition to XS’s no-questions-asked warranty and world-class customer service, if a customer tries one the R3D night sights and is not completely satisfied, XS will swap them out for a different model or, if the sight is purchased directly from the company or participating partners, it’ll even offer a refund.
Lights out at long range, the .224 Valkyrie might leave some wanting at more pedestrian distances.
When it comes to long-range shooting, what cartridge do you turn to? For the everyman, maybe the 6.5 Creedmoor. For the competitor, perhaps 6mm Dasher. For the independently wealthy, possibly the .375 CheyTac. For the AR-15 owner … that’s where things get interesting.
For many years, owners of America’s favorite rifle were stuck when it came to reaching out with the eminently flexible firearm. That’s surprising given that for more than a half-century the AR-15 has been nearly all things to all shooters. But it took the better part of the rifle’s rise for a dedicated cartridge meant to put copper-jacketed lead on target at the horizon to come about. Of course, here we’re alluding to the new(ish) .224 Valkyrie.
The .224 Valkyrie has earned its place in the pantheon of AR-15 cartridges.
While the cartridge has yet to achieve the notoriety of some of its AR-15 cohorts—5.56 NATO and 300 Blackout especially. The ballistically talented .22-caliber has still carved out a solid and respectable niche in the world of semi-auto rifles. When it comes to downrange performance, without having to jump up to the AR-10, there are few other cartridges that hold a candle to the .224 Valkyrie. That said, it’s not for everybody.
Valkyrie Takes Flight
Wait a tick … what do you mean the cartridge isn’t for every shooter? Don’t take it the wrong way. If you can’t live without a .224 Valkyrie in your arsenal, don’t let anything hold you back—especially digital ink. However, if you’re wary about how and what you lay your hard-earned cash down on, then you might need to consider a few things about the cartridge.
A good place to start, as always, is the beginning.
Federal Ammunition introduced the .224 Valkyrie in 2018 with great fanfare and a bold promise: supersonic performance out to 1,300 yards. They weren’t the first to soup up the good old .224 caliber—the year previous to the Valkyrie hitting the scene Nosler unveiled its blistering hot Nosler 22. But how Federal aimed to reach its goals varied substantially from its competitor. Whereas the Nosler 22 achieves its goals through pure brute force—larger case capacity—the .224 Valkyrie is more nuanced. The case capacity offers a modest improvement over the tried-and-true 5.56/.223, but the secret sauce is bullet weight. A ceiling around 90-grains, the .224 Valkyrie offered up longer and sleeker bullets, with those high-value ballistic coefficients (BC) that buck air resistance and wind drift. Again, nothing new.
Given the .224 Valkyrie's parent case is the 6.8 SPC, it does require a bolt upgrade to function in an AR.
Daring handloaders have upped their projectile’s weight for years, but in the case of the .223 Remington and the AR-15 it typically came at a cost. In particular, maximizing a power charge generally meant incompatibility with standard AR magazines, due to increased case overall length. Conversely, if the bullet was seated deeper in the case powder was displaced, resulting in less velocity. Not exactly what shooters signed up for with the platform.
Federal had an elegant solution, keeping specs in line with the rifle, without compromising capacity. Enter the 6.8 SPC. The child of the old, rimless .30-30 (the .30 Remington) had already shown a smooth operator out of the AR-15, requiring minimal modification from the mil-spec formula. Federal just continued to neck the case down to hold a .224-diameter bullet to produce a cartridge that functioned in the platform and sent its rounds way downrange.
Even better, the cartridge required little muddling with the AR itself to make the jump. A bolt upgrade to handle the .224 Valkyrie's .422-inch case head and a new set of mags specific to the rotund cartridge were in order. Other than that it was off to the races.
SAAMI chamber diagram of the .224 Valkyrie.
For their efforts to embrace the new long flier how were shooters repaid? From Federal’s initially ballyhoo with performance that rivaled the 6.5 Creedmoor. There didn't stretch the truth about it either. From a 24-inch barrel, with a 90-grain bullet moving 2,700 fps at the muzzle, the Valkyrie easily reaches 1,300-yard supersonic making it a legitimate long-range threat. But like all things in life, to achieve those results there are tradeoffs.
If you were paying attention to the above numbers, you might have caught a little something odd. Barrel length. Whichever way you slice it, a 24-inch barrel on an AR-15 is mighty long. But to get the Valkyrie singing, plenty of bore is required. Even a small deviation has consequences. An example.
Take 24-inch barrel and 18-inch barrel rifles shooting the same .224 Valkyrie load, in this case Hornaday’s 88-grain Match round topped with its excellent ELD bullet (.545 BC G1). From the longer barrel, the bullet leaves the muzzle at around 2,675 fps and the shorter somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,555 fps. As expected, the extra 125 fps out of the 24-inch barrel shoots much flatter. With a 100-yard zero, the two are nearly neck and neck at 500-yards, but by 1,000 yards the 24-inch barreled rifle drops somewhere around 60-inches less than its compatriot. Additionally, the 18-inch barrel goes sub-sonic at 1,200 yards, while the 24-inch barrel nearly makes it to 1,300 yards.
Trajectory comparison at 1,500 yards of the .224 Valkyrie shot from 24- and 18-inch barreled rifles.
To be sure, there is some hair-splitting in this comparison. Nevertheless, for those who take weight and wieldiness of a rifle into account, it’s worth keeping in mind. Plus, there’s a little matter of where the .224 Valkyrie falls out at pedestrian ranges, especially for those who might apply the cartridge to more than shooting a country mile. Let’s parse that out with another example.
Match the same Hornady load as before against the 5.56 NATO 62-grain M855 Green Tip (.305 BC G1, roughly). Here we’ll launch the 5.56 from a 16-inch carbine, which pushes the bullet out around 2,946 fps and the Valkyrie from the 24-inch barrel, with its previous performance standards. It goes without saying, the .224 Valkyrie outperforms at long-range, expected given the lighter 5.56 goes sub-sonic at 800 yards. Before then, we observe something interesting. The 5.56 has a marginally flatter trajectory than its heavier compatriot at intermediate ranges. It’s only surpassed by the Valkyrie beyond the 400-yard mark and tracks the heavier bullet’s trajectory closely until 500 yards. Salient, especially since the 5.56 accomplishes this feat from a rifle boasting a barrel 8-inches shorter and presumably much lighter than the Valkyrie gun.
Trajectory comparison of the 5.56 and .224 Valkyrie at 500 yards.
For dedicated long-range shooters, the concern about barrel length probably falls on deaf ears. For many, large rifles are not an issue and, given the extra weight, are perhaps desirable in ensuring accurate follow-up shots on the quick. But for a hunter who has to shimmy up to a tree during deer season or hump more than a mile to a coyote stand—both of which won’t likely take a shot over 400 yards—the extra burden becomes questionable.
Who’s It For?
Federal cooked up the .224 Valkyrie as a long-range option fit to compete against some of the most popular precision cartridges on the market. All in all, the cartridge hits this nail on the head. The AR-15 shooter looking to compete in the Precision Rifle Series gas-gun section or reach out to the rifle’s limits would do well investing in a complete build or an upper.
To learn your limits you have to stretch things out. For example when it comes to long distance shooting you won’t know what you can do unless you reach your limit. This lets you know what you can do, which creates confidence, and with time your skills improve too.
More practical-minded shooters might have to give the cartridge more thought. The .224 Valkyrie is a lights-out hunter and more than capable of owning middle ranges. But shooters must realize the cartridge mirrors more common AR-15 cartridges in those roles—at least in respect to trajectory—and does so from a much larger rifle. All in all, expect most .224 Valkyrie rifles and uppers to boast 18-plus-inch barrels—the majority greater than 20 inches.
There's also a little matter of ammunition costs. Certainly, 2021 (when this article was written) has seen inflated ammunition costs, no matter the cartridge. In saner times, however, the 5.56 can be shot for penny's on the dollar, while the .224 Valkyrie will command more than $1 per trigger pull with anything but the lightest range ammo.
Parting Shot
The .224 Valkyrie rounded out the AR-15, legitimately getting it on par with other popular long-range platforms. But like everything pertaining to guns (and life) getting the most out of the specialist required tradeoffs—some of them not in line with every shooter. Similar to any other gun or cartridge conversation, only you can evaluate if those tradeoffs make sense.
With power to spare, the new Raging Hunter .460 S&W hits the mark for handgun hunters.
A lot’s happened since “Dirty” Harry Callahan declared the .44 Magnum “the most powerful handgun in the world.” One example, the .460 Smith & Wesson. Capable of kicking a 300-grain bullet out more than 2,000 fps, the big-bore revolver round tends to make the .44 Mag look like child’s play. Which is to say, little stands in the way of it and its terminal destination.
No stranger to handheld power, Taurus recently embraced the .460 Smith & Wesson chambering its popular hunting revolver for the brutish cartridge. The Raging Hunter .460 S&W is certain to prove a favorite among hunters who not only want an option that handles any North American game but nearly everything around the globe.
“Handgun hunting is on the upswing as experienced hunters look to expand their options and, quite frankly, seek new and challenging ways to enjoy their hunting passion while putting healthy wild game on the table,” said Taurus CEO Bret Vorhees. “The Taurus Raging Hunter was a hit among veteran and new handgun hunters when we introduced it in 2019. We are now answering the consumer demand for even more chamber options and downrange performance with the new Raging Hunter in .460 S&W.”
Previously, the Raging Hunter was available in .454 Casull, .44 Magnum and .357 Magnum/.38 Special +P. While the new .460 S&W chambering increase the power of the 5-round revolver, Taurus has striven to keep the pistol as manageable and on-target as its previous iterations. So, how does the new addition shake out?
First off, Taurus offers three different barrel lengths of the Raging Hunter .460 S&W: 5.12 inches, 6.75 inches and 8.37 inches. Each features a sleeved barreled to reduce the revolver’s overall weight, making it more comfortable to tote into the backwoods. Helping counteract its lightweight, Taurus includes factory-tuned porting and a gas-expansion chamber. The features won’t make the .460 a kitten, but will help combat excessive muzzle rise and aid in placing a follow-up shot if one is called for. Taurus also makes the addition of an optic simple, outfitting the Raging Hunter with a full-length Picatinny rail on top of the barrel shroud.
Other notable include a fully adjustable rear sight, ergonomic finger-groove grip with cushioned inserts and your choice of matte black or two-tone finish. In the expensive realm of hunting handguns, the Raging Hunter .460 S&W comes in at a relatively affordable price. The black finish puts shooters back $968.18 and the two-tone $983.33.
Raging Hunter .460 S&W Specs Caliber: .460 S&W Magnum Action Type: DA/SA Capacity: 5 Barrel Length: 8-3/8″ / 6-3/4″ / 5-1/8″ Overall Length: 14.9″ / 13.2″ /11.6″ Overall Height: 6.5″ / 6.6″ / 6.6″ Overall Width: 1.92″ Weight: 65.6 oz. / 61.5 oz. / 57.7 oz. Sights Front: fixed Sights Rear: fully adjustable Materials (Frame): alloy steel or stainless Materials (Barrel): stainless Safety Device: transfer bar Finish: matte black or two-tone Rail (top): Picatinny MIL-STD-1913 MSRP: $968.18 Black / $983.33 Two Tone
For more information on the Raging Hunter .460 S&W, please visit taurususa.com.
Dubbed the Hellcat RDP, the variant of Springfield's popular micro-compact comes decked out with features to make it more manageable and accurate.
Springfield Armory struck gold with the introduction of its Hellcat pistol. Among the smallest of the micro 9mm options to hit the market in recent years, the bantamweight also boasted impressive firepower. With 11-rounds on tap with its flush-fit magazine and 13-rounds with its extended mag, the Hellcat had claw enough to come out on top in most force-on-force scenarios. Good as the pistol has proven, the gun company is going the extra mile with the latest addition to the Hellcat family.
Dubbed the Hellcat Rapid Defense Package (RDP), the new pistol boasts all the features that made it popular in the first place, plus a couple of extra accuracy-enhancing assets. Perhaps the most radical of the upgrades is the pistol now comes with a 1/2″-28 TPI threaded muzzle on the 3.8-inch barrel, which comes pre-installed with a self-indexing compensator. Unorthodox as it is, the device does make some sense on the petite package.
Manageable as the original micro-compact proves, its lightweight and abbreviated grip makes it a hair jumpy in the hand for some, thus a bit slower shot to shot. The machined anodized aluminum compensator solves this, eliminating much of the muzzle rise, thus quacking the pace of accurate follow-up shots.
The device might not be everyone’s cup of tea, given it does increase the Hellcat RDP’s overall length to 7 inches. Though even for this group, the threaded muzzle might be appealing opening the gates for the addition of a suppressor and more enjoyable (at least quiet) range time.
As for the other enhancement, Springfield debuts its HEX optics on the Hellcat RDP. Direct-mounted on the slide HEX Wasp red dot provides a low-profile aiming solution specifically tailored for the pistol. With the same footprint as the Hellcat OSP, the ruggedly built, IPX7 waterproof-rated Wasp features an aluminum body and an anti-glare-coated glass lens, and the ability to co-witness with the gun’s iron sights. The Wasp boasts a quick acquisition 3.5 red dot that offers a 65,000-hours run time between battery changes.
Less evident than the other features, the Hellcat RDP is also outfitted with Springfield’s new Gen 2 trigger. Featuring a new flat contour, the shoe proves more comfortable, reduces the felt pull-weight and promotes a more linear path to the break. The pistol is available with or without a low-profile thumb safety, in either case, the MSRP on the Hellcat RDP is $899.
I got into reloading for a couple of reasons: first, it was something I wanted to do with my Dad, as it kept us shooting together in the offseason; second, it allowed me to build premium ammunition at a lower cost than I could buy it. I’m not sure that is true any longer, but it warrants taking a detailed look at the cost breakdown of what it takes to make a box of cartridges compared to what it would cost to buy factory loaded stuff. And, never forget, your time is worth something, even if you spend it performing a labor of love.
The volume of ammo you expend will affect the numbers game, as you’ll need to purchase the same tools to make one box of ammunition as you’ll need to load twenty. And it’ll also depend on the cartridge you’re shooting; the cost ratio of reloading to factory ammo is going to be much different for the 9mm Luger, .45 ACP, .223 Remington, and .30-06 Springfield than it will be for the .455 Webley, .318 Westley Richards, .333 Jeffery, and .350 Rigby Magnum. Then there is the ability to load for rifles and pistols that have no factory ammunition option. You can then only place the value on the ability to shoot that gun, making the cost of reloading irrelevant as it’s the only option you’ve got.
Couple these ideas with the ammunition drought of 2013–2014 and the incredible increase in sales of both firearms and ammunition in the madness that began in 2020, and you’d have to add some value to having the ability to reload when there is almost nothing available on store shelves. No matter what the usual market price of your favorite factory ammo, when it’s unavailable, you’ll pay a premium. The value of handloads increases accordingly.
The Economics
Let’s use the universal and popular .30-06 Springfield as an example for cost analysis, assuming you’re a new reloader and starting with no more gear other than a heaping pile of once-fired brass you’ve saved in a shoebox over the years. Looking at the big picture, at a bare minimum, you’ll need a reloading press, a set of dies, a scale, trimming capabilities, measuring tools, case lube, reloading manual, and other accouterments.
Factory ammunition for a standard chambering such as the .30-06 Springfield is generally available and affordable, but once you experience the freedom of handloading, you may never look back.
Let’s say you jump into the pool with one of the reloading kits, such as the Rock Chucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit, which has a street price of $400. I’d add to that a trimmer, say an RCBS for $135, and a set of standard dies at $40. Before you buy a single component, you’re now $475 in the hole. You’ll need a pound of powder for roughly $30 and a box of 100 large rifle primers for $4. Let’s use a standard deer hunting bullet such as the Sierra GameKing 165-grain spitzer boattail at $30 per box of 100. You’ve invested $539 and have the capability of loading five boxes of ammo. That works out to $107.80 per box of 20, but that’s not realistic because you can use the tools for decades.
Suppose you take care of your reloading tools, and they last you a lifetime. Further, to simplify the analysis, let’s remove the equipment’s initial cost from the equation. To be conservative, let’s throw in 100 brass cases from Federal at $62/100. Our components for 100 newly loaded .30-06 rounds would come to about $126, or $1.26/round. By comparison, a 20-round box of Federal Premium with that same Sierra 165-grain GameKing bullet fetches $30-$37 — or $1.50-$1.85/round. So, yes, you can handload these rounds for a $.24-$.59 cent per round savings. Not only that, as I write this, there is a run on ammo, and you can’t find that Federal factory load in stock. If you have the components on hand, you can always load some up.
Seeing The Savings
If you’re a one-deer-a-year consumer who generally confirms zero on Ol’ Besty and heads afield, perhaps the factory ammunition is the way for you to go. But if you enjoy recreational shooting and the benefits of routine practice with your big game rifle, you can see how the investment in reloading tools can pay for itself in a short amount of time. If you get a couple of buddies together to share the tools’ cost, you can see a return on your investment even sooner.
Compare this idea to a cartridge such as the .300 Weatherby Magnum, where factory ammunition runs from $40 to $90 per box. Suddenly, your investment in tools seems much more worthwhile. Should you shoot multiple calibers — both rifle and pistol — you will see how reloading gear can quickly provide a return on your money. I’ve also experienced the frustration of finding a factory load that a rifle loves, only to have the factory change the recipe (whether intentional or not, I cannot answer), resulting in ruined accuracy and me scratching my head wondering what happened to the rifle. What’s more, experimenting with different factory loads can be a hefty investment, especially if you’re shooting a rare and costly cartridge. The initial investment of the reloading tools, and the cost of components, coupled with the time spent developing a load, are all well worth it to me. I can grab primer X, charge the case with my known charge of powder Y, and seat bullet Z on top to arrive at the load that will serve for the rifle’s life.
I gave the example of purchasing a reloading kit, and that is certainly a sound idea, but you could also buy your tools individually. Depending on your budget, you can make the tool list as expensive or inexpensive as you choose. One benefit of reloading: dies and presses are interchangeable — should you choose a Redding press, you could easily use a Hornady resizing die, an RCBS seating die and a Lee crimp die, or just about any combination. You can buy as you go, keeping your eyes open for specials and deals on reloading gear to keep costs to a minimum.
Considerig reloading requires an upfront investment in tools and components, bulk factory ammo might be a better value (when you can get it) for some shooters.
Online shopping has become popular, and that applies to reloading as well. But primers and powder require a Hazardous Materials fee on shipping. This fee can add a considerable amount of money to your components’ cost, so keep that in mind and try and order in bulk, even if you have to combine orders with a friend or two. I recommend combining primers and powder on the same order under the same HazMat fee.
Looking For Deals
For the high-volume handgun shooter, there are many quality, inexpensive projectiles available that will keep the cost of ammunition down. Federal’s SynTech is a great example. It’s a synthetic-coated lead bullet, perfect for the indoor ranges, which cost between $23 and $27 per box of 100, or roughly 2/3rds the cost of Federal’s premium handgun bullets. It runs clean and is accurate for practice. If you don’t mind scrubbing lead from your bore, companies such as Meister Bullets offer hardcast lead bullets in bulk that can be as cheap as $0.07 per bullet for the classic 230-grain round-nose .45 ACP bullet if you buy them by the 1,000 count. Berry’s Bullets offers plated projectiles for both rifles and pistols at an affordable rate; they are accurate, and you can use them in an indoor range.
Rife with obscals and challenges, defending yourself in a vehicle requires a different set of self-defense tactics.
If you’re like most Americans, you spend an inordinate amount of time in your vehicle. It’s both the curse and blessing of a mobile society. Familiar as your car or truck is, however, the space can become a challenging and unforgiving terrain in a self-defense situation. From stick shifts to seat belts and tight quarters, there about every type of obstruction to hamper or completely hinder your ability to defend yourself. Given the riotous situations on the nation’s roadway last year, it’s obvious not knowing the way around your vehicle can put your life at peril.
While there are many facets to defending yourself and your loved ones inside a car, Jamey Caldwell goes to the bedrock of the topic in the above video. Much of what the former Sargent Major in the Army’s Special Mission Unit and firearms instructor preaches is situational awareness. It doesn’t matter if you’re walking down the street or pulling up to a red light, observing and evaluating conditions around you is perhaps the A-No. 1 self-defense skill. However, he also touches upon another pertinent concept important in defending yourself in a vehicle—environmental awareness.
Sounds silly, right? You know your way around your car, so much so you can tune in your favorite radio station while changing lanes and never bat an eye. Well, there’s a nasty illusion in that example. You have a lifetime of practice operating your vehicle; chances are you don’t defending yourself in it. That’s not a comforting thought.
Caldwell covers some of the main concerns armed citizens confront in facing lethal-force events in vehicles, from avoiding getting hung up on a seatbelt to shooting through a windshield. But the overall thrust of his message goes beyond mere tactics. Like anything pertaining to self-defense, deftly maneuvering in and around a vehicle in a defensive situation requires practice—plenty of it.
For more videos from Panteao Productions, please visit panteao.com.
Among the most famous of all handgun cartridges, the .45 Long Colt has proven unsinkable. Versatile as it is historic, there's little wonder why.
I’d received the good news that my New York State pistol permit had been approved by the powers that be, and I doubt a chisel would’ve removed the grin from my face. I then proceeded to set about choosing what would be my first handgun.
It was a topic my father and I’d discussed at some length, and “Ol’ Grumpy Pants” had imparted his wisdom: “Buy a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson .38 Special; you’re gonna carry it a whole lot more than you’re gonna shoot it.”
While he wasn’t entirely wrong, and a Model 36 S&W—which was identical to his (with the exception of the beefier Pachmayr grips)—would come later, I had a different path in mind.
First of all, I’m a hunter. Second of all, I wanted something fully capable of taking deer, bear and other big game; and I also wanted something classic at the same time. I knew it’d be a wheelgun—and a strong, modern action at that, while paying homage to the time-honored designs. I settled on a stainless Ruger Blackhawk, chambered in .45 Long Colt and with the 7½-inch barrel.
The gun could handle any .45 Colt ammunition on the market, because its design is much stronger than the traditional Colt Single Action Army pistols. However, it has the clean lines of a classic six-shooter. The longer barrel, while a challenge to carry and nearly impossible to conceal, certainly wrings every last bit of velocity out of any load but also makes it easier to hit distant targets. The beauty of the .45 Colt is that it has many faces. It’s a pleasure to shoot, with the mild loads mimicking the original 1873 formula and the modern developments, which inspired the larger .454 Casull.
It’s been a movie title, a television series, a major league baseball team name and (although there’s some speculation about the possible tie-in with an NFL runningback), a malt liquor. It‘s served the U.S. Army, laid bad hombres down for good in the hands of sheriffs, deputies and marshals, and has been used by the outlaws as well. The .45 Colt, along with the .44-40 WCF, embodies the Old West: The .45 Long Colt is the OK Corral; it’s “Bat Masterson” and “Butch Cassidy.” But, most importantly, the .45 Colt is, was and always shall be … cool.
It was developed as a joint effort between Colt and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, beginning in 1871 and concluding in 1872. The cartridge and the Colt Single Action Army six-shot revolver were soon accepted by the U.S. Army and would serve from that date until 1892.
(And, just for the record, the first Colt Single Action Army—bearing serial number 1—was found in a barn in New Hampshire in the early 1900s; and yes, it was chambered for the .45 Colt.)
The design of the cartridge was simple: a rimmed case measuring 1.285 inches in length with a rim of 0.512 inch and maintaining a cartridge overall length of 1.58 inches. It was loaded with (roughly) 40 grains of fine black powder under a 255-grain lead bullet, moving at slightly more than 875 fps. For its time, this was a formidable load, and its performance was unmatched.
The .45 Colt. It’s been with us since 1873, and it isn’t about to fade away. It can purr like a kitty or roar like a lion.
Although it was replaced by the .38 Long Colt in 1892 as the U.S. Army’s official sidearm, the miserable performance of that combination in the Philippine-American conflict forced the powers that be to rethink their choice. The Moro juramentados—frenzied Moro warriors—would take several shots from the .38 Long Colt without being stopped. This simply wasn’t the case with the .45 Colt, and so it was revived for a brief time … until John Browning’s .45 ACP in the M1911 won the contract for the new service sidearm and completely changed the idea of what a soldier’s sidearm should be.
It can instigate an argument in the blink of an eye, and it’s as aggravating to those who study the history and development of cartridges as it is when I show someone a photo of a Cape buffalo from Africa and they respond, “Nice water buffalo!”
Consulting the list of SAAMI-approved cartridges, the official cartridge designation is “45 Colt” (we can argue about the decimal point later)—excluding the word, “Long.” There are those who believe the “Long” was added to differentiate the Colt cartridge from the shorter .45 Schofield or .45 Smith & Wesson.
Others insist the designation was brought over from the .38 Short Colt and .38 Long Colt pair: Just as the .38 Short Colt can be fired in the chamber of the .38 Long Colt (and both can be fired in the modern .38 Special chamber), the .45 Schofield can be fired in the chamber of the .45 Long Colt.
The author’s preferred load for bear country: a 325-grain hard-cast from Choice Ammunition, which leaves the barrel of his Ruger Blackhawk at slightly more than 1,300 fps. But, you do want to hang on for the ride … although this 40-yard target engenders confidence.
Regardless, the proper name for the cartridge is “.45 Colt,” which is completely different from the rimless .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol). And that’s that.
From Lamb to Lion
The .45 Colt of 1873 is not the modern .45 Colt; the modern handguns can handle pressures far greater than the older Single Action Army design can.
My Ruger Blackhawk is one of the strongest designs out there, but there are others, such as the Freedom Arms Model 83, Ruger Redhawk and T/C Encore. However, those Colt Single Action Army revolvers and the clones—the Ruger Vaqueros and similar guns from Cimarron and Uberti—need to be held to a lower pressure limit, along the lines of the original ballistic formula.
Much as Elmer Keith, who had a healthy respect for the .45 Colt, experimented with the .44 Special cartridge to arrive at what would become the .44 Remington Magnum of “Dirty Harry” fame, Dick Casull used the .45 Colt cartridge to develop his .454 Casull. And while there’s no denying that the .454 Casull is a raging beast of a handgun cartridge (the Casull is simply an elongated .45 Colt at higher velocities), the high-pressure .45 Colt loads have no flies on them.
I’ve developed several handloads based on the 250- and 300-grain Hornady XTP Mag bullets. Should you want something a bit beefier, there are the Swift A-Frame Heavy Revolver projectiles and the Barnes XPB projectiles.
The Taurus Judge, a handgun capable of firing both .45 Colt ammo and .410-bore shotshells, has gained a huge following.
The .45 Colt wears many hats, in that the simple, 255-grain lead bullets at 1873 velocities are as effective as they were nearly 150 years ago. But, in the proper handgun—or even a lever-action rifle—the heavier bullets at higher pressures are certainly a step above the Old West power level. The stronger actions can see a 300-grain bullet pushed to more than 1,200 fps, which is both hard hitting and hard kicking.
My Ruger Blackhawk isn’t particularly finicky. With its 7½-inch barrel, I feel I’m good to hunt out to 50 yards with open sights. I like the wide variety of loads available, and a trio of loads from Choice Ammunition highlights the capabilities of the .45 Colt very well; I use all three.
The Choice Cowboy loads, designed for cowboy action shooting and using a 200-grain RNFP Hi-Tek Black coated-lead bullet at a sedate muzzle velocity of 445 fps, allows nearly any shooter to learn how to handle a .45 Colt without the wrist-twisting characteristics of the full house loads.
I observed an average muzzle velocity of 460 fps from my gun … but the light report of the ammo caused my dad to wander out to the backyard shooting bench, wondering if I’d handloaded some ammo with a powder charge that was too light.
“Did those things penetrate the target?” he chided.
Imagine his surprise when I showed him how a lead bullet at that mild velocity would penetrate a 2×8-inch target every time. Anyhow, he enjoyed the mild report and very low recoil as much as I did.
The Barnes XPB 200-grain, monometal hollow-point is a sound hunting bullet and is California-compliant as well.
Using the same Hi-Tek Black bullet coating—which reduces friction and leading simultaneously—on a 250-grain, round-nose lead bullet, Choice Cowboy offers the classic formula for the .45 Colt, driving that bullet at a muzzle velocity of 820 fps for a combination suitable for all the various .45 Colt handguns. This load will work well for plinking, target shooting and hunting alike, although I’d want to limit it to deer-sized game. If you want the classic .45 Colt experience, this is it.
On the top end of the power spectrum, I really like the Choice .45 Colt +P “Bear Load,” driving a 325-grain Wide Flat Nose Gas Check hard-cast lead bullet that leaves my barrel at 1,305 fps. This load immediately lets you know it’s +P, because the muzzle jump is such that the unassuming shooter might lose their grip on the handgun. In other words: Hang on to it, or you’ll be picking up your revolver off the ground.
Generating 1,229 ft-lbs at the muzzle, this is surely a sound choice for a sidearm in bear country. I can keep five of these in a 4-inch group at 40 to 45 yards, and I like the authority with which this load speaks.
Want to use your .45 Colt for a defensive handgun? There’s nothing wrong with putting your faith in the Army’s old sweetheart. My Blackhawk likes the Winchester PDX1 Defender load (a 225-grain, bonded-core hollow-point at 850 fps—and it runs very close to the time-honored .45 ACP formula.
For the lead-free areas, or for those who simply enjoy the performance of monometal expanding bullets, look to the Barnes XPB bullets for a great option to take the .45 Colt hunting.
Is it as fast as the .44 Magnum? It gives up a little to Elmer Keith’s brainchild, but not much. Does the .45 Colt get shelved for the .454 Casull? Not in my opinion, because the heavier loads from Choice, Grizzly and Buffalo Bore are formidable for certain.
Even so, the affordability and diversity of ammo and gun choices give an advantage to the .45 Colt. Yes, the Casull can fire .45 Colt ammo, but the price of a Freedom Arms can be a real eye-opener.
The bottom line is this: Like the .45-70 Government, the .45 Colt remains relevant because the design was so good to begin with. Clearly, the .45 Colt isn’t going away anytime soon.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Looking to go armed, but are stuck in the weeds as to what to arm yourself with? Here are 20 excellent concealed carry gun options that will keep you on the defensive.
