Guns Illustrated 2011. Dan ShidelerЧитать онлайн книгу.
Fully multi-coated optics of course. In spotting scopes Vortex catalogs two Nomad models, both with your choice of straight or angled eyepiece. The 20-60x80 and the budget-priced 20-60x60 accept adapters for most pocket-size digital cameras. At the top end, there’s the Razor HD spotting scope with apochromatic lenses and an 85mm objective. It weighs 66 ounces with an angled 20-60x eyepiece. The die-cast magnesium alloy body is argon-gas purged. It has coarse and fi ne focusing wheels. (Vortex.com.)
The finger-friendly dial on Author’s BSA Catseye scope delivers predictable, repeatable clicks.
WEAVER
Eight decades after Bill Weaver’s 330 led a trend away from iron sights, Weaver is re-introducing the 330’s progeny, the iconic steel-tube K4. More than any other scope, the K4 confirmed the value of optical sights for my generation of hunters. The new version has a Dual-X reticle that doesn’t move off-center in the fi eld when you adjust windage and elevation! While the K4 may be all you need on that ’06, Weaver offers more for 2010. The Super Slam series now includes a 1-5x24 Dangerous Game sight with heavy Dual-X that should excel in thickets. Besides the Grand Slam, Classic V, Classic K and T-series scopes, there’s now a Buck Commander line, with 2.5-10x42, 3-12x50 and 4-16x42 models. Prices start at just $280, retail. For close shooting, Weaver offers a red/green dot sight with fi ve brightness settings. It has a 30mm tube, an integral Weaver-style base. Tactical sights will probably proliferate, as the shooting public is not that of Bill Weaver’s day. Thus, the firm announced in 2009 a 4-20x50 Tactical scope with 30mm tube, front-plane mil dot reticle and side-focus parallax dial. But you can still buy a K-series fixed-power hunting scope (one of the most-overlooked bargains in rifle sights). Among target scopes, I like the T-24. It offers a 1/2-minute or 1/8-minute dot reticle. Target adjustments on dual-spring supports ensure repeatable changes.
The new Redfield 3-9x40 seems a great match for this Marlin 1895 Rifle in .338 Marlin Express.
New Classic binoculars have been added to Weaver’s line this year: 8x32, 8x36 (my pick), 8x42, 10x42. ATK, parent company to several shooting-industry brands, counts Nitrex as well as Weaver in its family. Early in 2010, Nitrex became part of the Weaver fold, although the lines remain separate. Nitrex TR One scopes (similar to Weaver’s Grand Slam) are joined by TR Two (Super Slam) scopes with additional reticles: glass-etched EBX (ballistic), dot and illuminated. These sights boast five-times magnifi cation – 2.5-10x42 to 4-20x50 – and turret parallax dials. Pull-up, resettable windage and elevation knobs need no caps. The TR One series includes a new 4-15x50 AO scope. (Weaveroptics.com, Nitrexoptics.com.)
ZEISS
Brisk sales of Conquest Rifle-scopes several years after their introduction confirm their appeal to shooters keen for value. I like the 4x32; if you must have a variable, the 2-8x32 and 3-9x40 make sense. The 4.5-14x44 milks the reach of hot-rod cartridges but looks good on lightweight hunting rifles. Like the 6.5-20x50, it features a turret-mounted parallax dial. By the way, Zeiss has just cut the list price on its 3-9x40 Conquest from $499 to $399! While there’s little new in the Conquest stable for 2010, the top-rung Victory series boasts an up-grade of the 6-24x72, a 34mm scope introduced in 2005 but now with quarter-minute clicks and FL glass. Two new Victory scopes also incorporate fluorite lenses. I used a 6-24x56 recently, on a super-accurate Blaser R8 in .300 Winchester. At 600 yards, prone, it was no trick to reduce a plastic pail to splinters. The 4-16x50 is better suited to hunting rifles, and should be on your short list if you expect long shooting. But for all-around hunting there’s no better sight than the Victory 2.5-10x42. With four other Victory scopes, it’s available with Varipoint, an illuminated dot in the second focal plane complementing a black first-plane reticle. So the main reticle stays in constant relationship to the target (for easy ranging), while the dot subtends a tiny area even at high power. A left-side turret knob controls dot brightness on the 1.1-4x24 Victory. The 2.5-10x42T*, 2.5- 10x50T*, 3-12x56T* feature automatic brightness control.
Author shot this elk with a Magnum Research Rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor, Leupold/GreyBull sight.
Zeiss has just introduced a Compact Point red dot sight. Its 3.5-minute dot has fi ve brightness levels. Weight: less than 3 ounces with two 3V lithium batteries. The 8x45 and 10x45 T* RF binoculars introduced last year have proven themselves afield, with a laser range-finding unit that requires no “third eye” emitter but delivers 1,300-yard range on refl ective targets. This unit is fast – you get a read in about a second – and the LED self-compensates for brightness. The binocular itself has peerless optics, with a rain-repellent LotuTec coating on ocular and objective lenses. You can program the RF with computer data to get holdover for six standard bullet trajectories. Zeiss still sets the bar for laser-ranging scopes, too, with its 3-12x56 Diarange. The Zeiss PhotoScope is a 20-60x80 DiaScope spotting scope with a 7-megapixel digital camera built in. The 15-45x power range affords you the equivalent of a 600-1800mm zoom in a 35mm camera – plus a 68-degree field at 15x, which Zeiss claims is 40 percent wider than normal. The camera uses a 7.4-volt lithium ion battery and SD card to deliver images in standard file formats. PhotoScope 85T* FL weighs 6-1/2 pounds. And yes, it does produce images that qualify for full-page prints! (Zeiss.com/sports.)
Author found this BSA scope a worthy hunting sight, despite its low price. Rifle: a Kimber 84L.
S&W Model 58 BY DAN SHIDELER
S&W’s big Model 58 in .41 Magnum still makes for quite a handful.
I have just received a letter from Local #417 of the Brotherhood of Independent Gunwriters & Septic Tank Pumpers (BIGSTP) informing me that my membership in BIGSTP would be terminated if I didn’t write something – anything – about the Smith & Wesson Model 58 in .41 Magnum.
You see, every gunwriter is obligated to write something about the Model 58. It’s a rite of passage, like kissing your first girl or mixing your first dry martini. But what can I possibly say about the Model 58 that hasn’t been said before?
By now, of course, everyone knows the story of the Model 58: how it was introduced in 1964 as the perfect cop gun, the revolver that would pacify the nastiest felon like a 20-lb. sledgehammer coming down on a cockroach. Model 58s are fairly scarce these days, so you might assume that the big revolver fell somewhat short of its stated goal. And you’d be right.
The Model 58 was born during a period of civil unrest, when American police were first realizing that their fuddy-duddy old .38 Special revolvers just weren’t cutting it anymore. Even the .357 Magnum was criticized as being a little on the iffy side. Back then, in a time when a nutcase from the Symbionese Liberation Army (remember them?) might be hiding behind every shrub, it was only natural to want a sidearm that had some oomph.
The logic behind the N-framed, fixed-sight Model 58 and its .41 Magnum chambering was that something in between the “underpowered” .357 Magnum and the overpowered .44 Magnum was needed for police use. Personally, I don’t consider the .357 underpowered. When I worked in the funeral industry 25 years ago, I had occasion to offer my professional services to two ex-criminals (one a rapist, the other a bank robber who made it to the bottom of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list) who were on the receiving end of a couple of .357 loads. At the time I met them, neither of these two gentlemen was in any condition to complain about how underpowered the .357 Magnum was.
I do agree, however, that the .44 Magnum is probably overpowered for police use. I’ve seen a .44 shoot lengthways through a deer, so I imagine that overpenetration could be a bit of a problem unless you could line up four or fi ve bad guys in a row before squeezing off a shot. But rather than load up the .357 or load down the .44, Remington and