Posts by feetwet
"Buck and ball" loads are commonly available. They're often marketed for self defense, but where legal for hunting they have the same benefits on game, namely: The "ball" (or slug) has more reach ...
Absolutely safe. The .357 Magnum cartridge was literally designed as a high-pressure .38 Special: Max pressure on a .38 Special is 17kpsi (with the +P specification allowing for 18.5kpsi). Max p...
When is it necessary to clean a rimfire firearm? Only after exposure to excessive moisture? Only when it begins to malfunction (for autoloaders)? With some frequency of shooting, or time, or bef...
I've worked extensively with the Aguila subsonic .22LR loads. Out of a full-length (i.e., 18") barrel the 40gr runs about 1035fps while the 60gr barely breaks 900fps. So both are soundly subsonic...
A lot of deer hunters put a rifled barrels on their shotgun and shoot sabot slugs. I know that without rifling a sabot slug has no stability. But there are two common types of slugs designed for ...
Put a strong magnet on top of a shell and turn it upside down. If the magnet sticks then you know it contains steel shot. If it doesn't, then you could have either lead or "non-toxic" shot. If y...
In the U.S. there are legal definitions provided by code (18 USC 921) and regulation (27 CFR 478.11), which are somewhat derived from the customary definitions. A shotgun is designed to shoot shot...
I just tried on some modern snowshoes for the first time in some fresh powder and I'm confused by why there's a big hole in the decking in front of where the toe of the boot sits: With my boots ...
When I go trail-clearing I generally carry two machetes and a felling ax, but I haven't found a practical way to sling them so I can work with one without taking off the other tools. The machetes ...
I have a lot of knives that are 20-30 years old, and I've never spent more than $100 on any knife. Have there been appreciable advances in the steels or treatments applied to mainstream knives ove...
I regularly use a machete to clear brush. I must be using the wrong technique for the tool ... or the wrong tool given my technique. In order to maximize the speed of the blade, I rotate my wrist...
In school I shot competitive rimfire with valuable Anschutz .22LR rifles. Our team didn't clean our rifles until the end of the season, even though we fired thousands of rounds through them during...
How can I determine whether a shotgun fits (or can be easily adapted to fit) me without having the chance to test fire it? (And without spending thousands of dollars for customization?) Whether f...
Yes. There are two common approaches to this: Press moistened paper into the target container, which can be a box of any sort. The paper should be wet enough and pressed hard enough that at lea...
While rare, I assume that compound bows with metal limbs do occasionally suffer limb failures. Is that correct, and if so What is the effect of a cocked metal bow limb fracturing? I'm trying to p...
tl;dr: No. Any theoretical advantage of one rifling profile over another is lost in execution. Since this is a question of practice, not theory, I appeal here to the experience of authorities in ...
I know of Boar taint which describes an unpleasant taste in the meat of non-castrated pigs. Which left me wondering more broadly: Are there other animals whose meat (from an animal of the same age...
