Hunting

WASHINGTON — A story on USA Today's website by Ken Dilanian leads with an anecdote that might surprise many gun-rights proponents:

Higher priced than its competitors, but not prohibitively so, the 686 Plus nonetheless covered all the bases. Consistent, accurate, and packed with seven rounds of either .38 Special or .357 Magnum, this gun is a top revolver choice.

The first thing we noticed was this was a very light rifle. Without scope it weighed under 5 pounds. The second thing we noted was the recoil pad was excellent, a model for the rest of the industry. The straight Kevlar/carbon fiber stock was dark gray in color and had enough of a pebble-like surface that checkering wasn’t needed, even when wet. There were no visible parting lines on the stock, and the barrel, though free floated, was so close to the stock it was not easy to see the separation.The action was like a small pre-’64 Model 70 Winchester compete with cone-shaped breech, controlled feed, and positive ejection.

Introduced into the field gun market in January 2007, this gun had 26-inch barrels and an overall length of 43.5 inches. The length of pull on the stock, which featured a checkered butt rather than a recoil pad or butt plate, was 14.6 inches, and the gun weighed 6.5 pounds.Our shooters said the shotgun was quick and smooth into each target. There were no problems mounting the gun into shooting position, but we would have preferred a pad or plate to prevent slippage. This could be accomplished by a short trip to a nearby gunsmith if the S&W owner prefers practicality over classic appearance.

The coolest and costliest gun in our test provided the best overall accuracy, although it just missed the claimed “1/2 inch MOA or better” guarantee. Each gun is built to order, so you can pick and choose the options you prefer to lower the price, but southpaws should request something other than the right-handed pistol grip normally provided.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation has eliminated approximately 80 hunting-related rifle production jobs at its Rochester, New Hampshire facility.

While we had a lot of fun with this gun, we believe that for sporting sub-gauge purposes, women and teen shooters will like it better than tall adult males. The gun did excel on the skeet field, and thanks to its 3-inch chambers, this gun will hunt, too.

Getting a good buy on midrange-priced products, such as over-under shotguns, can be difficult because of scarcity, and it’s always a challenge to convert MSRP into a reasonable selling price. Such is the case with the Beretta Silver Pigeon II, which Gun Tests magazine tested in its September 2007 issue.

Gun Tests said of the Silver Pigeon, _ìthe Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon II Sporting is a traditionally styled and typically proportioned sub-gauge. Trim in stock, wrist, receiver, and fore-end, the gun is a symmetrically shrunken version of the 12 gauge. ìPerhaps the greatest testament to this gun_s speed was that all our test shooters came off the sporting clays course liking the gun for that sport, but wanting to head directly for the skeet field. And, indeed, this gun excelled beyond the others at the more regimented sport._

In the test, the SPII listed for $2950. But prices for similar guns on GunBroker.com show wide variations off MSRP.

The gun in Auction # 110246420, listed by Tucker Gun in Atlanta, had a “buy now” price of $2950, or MSRP. The opening bid was $400 less, or $2599. The auction had two days to run on Tuesday.

Another GunBroker.com listing, # 109384437, had a similar gun to the one Gun Tests evaluated, but in 28 gauge. On sale by Gander Mountain in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it is a new Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon V 28 gauge with color case-hardened receiver. With 3 days left on the auction, the high bid was $2001, which didn_t meet the reserve. The Buy Now price was $2799.

The U.S. Army is hosting a National Hunting and Fishing Day celebration at its Heidelberg Rod and Gun Club near the U.S. military base in Heidelberg, Germany. This lone overseas commemoration of National Hunting and Fishing Day is set for Sept. 27 to coincide with hundreds of events across the U.S.

Forjas Taurus S.A. announced September 9 its acquisition of the manufacturing and distribution rights of all Rossi products, including the famous Model 92 lever-action rifle from Rossi Firearms S.A.

The Handi-Rifle was true to its name, we thought. We found it easy to carry, pleasant in all its operations, and…well, just plain handy. The ejector worked every time the chamber was opened, which we didn’t really like. The rifle could be opened carefully and loaded silently, without tripping the ejector. Because we are reloaders, we would have preferred a simple, positive extractor over the ejector mechanism. More on this later. The barrel breech was huge in diameter, indicating abundant strength. This rifle is in fact chambered in many calibers including the .35 Whelen, .500 S&W and .45-70, so the design clearly has strength in abundance. As a Hornet, it ought to last forever.

Todd and Kathy Brown of Rosston, Arkansas, are suing Smith & Wesson in federal court in Texarkana, Texas, alleging negligence by the gun manufacturer that led to a Dec. 27, 2007, accident in which Todd Brown’s left thumb was severed.