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Triggernometry with Jim Higginbotham |
| Home Bullet Penetration Tests |
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Hunting with Carlos Lopez |
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10 Pro Tips for Planning a Hunting Trip |
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Gold Medal Rifle Shooting with SFC Jason Parker (USAMU) |
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Tips You Can Work On at Home |
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Guts of the Gun with Brian Jensen |
| The Revolver - Nostalgic Throwback or Modern Performer? |
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Pick up just about any gun magazine these days and you will see ads for MOA accuracy, guaranteed, out of the box. MOA means "minute of angle", which is 1/360th of a circle. It seems like a great selling point and I'm sure it sells a lot of guns, but I wondered if the claims were actually true. If you don't understand MOA it is understandable. What does a fraction of a circle have to do with the accuracy of a rilfe? But we'll get to that.
When I first heard about the Teludyne Tech (TTI) "Straightjacket", I was extremely skeptical. I have seen literally dozens of products come and go over the years that claimed to increase accuracy by "reducing barrel harmonics." I thought that the Straightjacket, if I bothered to waste my time on it, would turn out to be just something else to throw on the pile with all of the bore treatments, weights, stocks, stock beddings, even something resembling electrical tape, that have crossed my path over the years. Nothing, in my opinion, could make a big difference in long range accuracy beyond what we knew up until now. If you want a rifle that would reliably shoot sub-MOA, you had to work up loads, build your own consistent match ammo, bed or free float the action, get the best trigger, the best stock, and especially the best and most expensive barrel. Teludyne wasn't going to convince me that match grade accuracy would come out of a regular stock rifle with their "new technology".
As many of you know Lipsey's is a large firearms wholesale company in Baton Rouge, LA. They have a history of creating interesting and useful limited edition firearms and before us is one of the best and most interesting I have encountered. The guns are flattop target Bisley-Blackhawk revolvers reminiscent of the good old days and are chambered for one of the most wonderful cartridges of all time, the .44 Smith & Wesson Special. Said another way, they are guns that Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton and perhaps even Bill Jordan would have gone to a lot of trouble to own. Beyond, they are very close facsimiles of what I think is the finest revolver ever created, Elmer Keith's No. 5 Colt.