10 GREATEST DEER RIFLES EVER EL, = SS tai WE KNOW GUNS SO YOU KNOW GUNS : bao Cer vail 18, 2013 Perea nce? AOU STUUR COME Ui -mClcorn Ce) mAs rea ZA . Ke >, Goes Deer Hunting s 4 NN VS for & , Ee Meterer eee SLUG GUNS vs. MUZZLELOADERS # GUNS FOR SALE! Dear tt ee eRe royel using only the best Americ STOUR Ue eave NaC a oa) POMC CRS ume ae Ue us GEC een CUR RU CC bh | Style and strength, take both, materials: Thoselsleek BYP YSP LGA.» bocca ggasi AD 0-aG h 77 | Wickel Boron BCG © 7075 Billet Aluminum Receiver © Lifetime Warranty BET RL Aya eG PTH UU Se ete Uy aT ay UE 6 Ke Rang Nese Ss OM EA PO Box 566300, Miami, FL 33256-6300, 305-271-3436 AR, BE eee Sa oar 'WANTED! All types of quality legal machine guns! NO COLLECTION TOO LARGE! GENEROUS FINDER’S FEES GLADLY PAID! Estate and Mactine Gun Appraisals! 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The Gun Digest Marketplace Editor’s Shot Community ‘jrearms Update The .375 H&H ‘The Gun Digest Interview: Natalie Foster ‘The Mauser M12 fop 10 All-Time Deer Rifles ARs for Whitetails T/C’s Dimension Goes Deer Hunting Do-It-Yourself Training Drills The .480 Ruger Alaskan Knives at the Ready Market Trends 86 fNMOADNE (SS 198554) posed seiner neti a 5s eres pushed yas Publezion, on FW Mea, gg a WS tng Pra Sn i INE ba te Pans a rae bia ste traders, thar ease ep ined ee fl ut adres a fr pn oa 5 sane isn un eet i 1S 190 ‘INDIGEST-HEMAGA aa ares Kandler im NOVEMBER 18,2013 eundixest.com TION NEW GIENIER PROU est GUN REVIEWS NEW PRODUCT UPDATES GUNS FOR SALE FIREARMS INDUSTRY NEWS AUCTION AND SHOW LISTINGS NOW AVAILIBLE ON: NOVEMBER 18,2019 GanDigat i mpom | 5EDITOR'S SHOT Doug Howlett Twas actually a member of a small team brought in as part of deer culling operation taking place on the ranch where Mellon Creek Outfitters operates near Refugio, Texas. It was noth drive the ranch’s vast acres and see hundreds of deer. They had to reduce deer numbers plain and simple, We were usin of ington, Bushmaster and DPMS firearms in various calibers; all topped with Trijicon optics. It was a great opportunity to expe rience the performance of vari- ous rifles and calibers in a real world environment, but for thi men gathered there, we quickly realized something else. Tt was also a chance to relive hunting as many of us enjoyed it as a kid—not as today’s hunt- ing legions, over obsessed with big bucks and only seeking the biggest in the area—but as a person who still simply thrills at the sight of deer and sets out to make a successful shot. We saw plenty of wide, tall- racked bucks, but they weren't on the menu, We scraggly spikes and older si seven- and even eight-pointers that would never reach Texas tro- phy status, Of course we needed to thin the number of does, too, as well as destructive hogs and predatory coyotes. The sure of finding a buck that met minimum size requirements was nonexistent, The trophy experi- ence wes found in a successful stalk and a shot well made. At home now the leaves are dropping and more momings are beginning with the cool telltale breeze that blows optimism into the soul of a hunter. This issue is dedicated to those sports who know exactly what I'm talking about as we look at some of the great guns that make th time of year the best one for mil- lions of American shooters, GunbDig« i DOUG HOWLETT JAMES CARD woe K DANE 20vER COREY GRAFF, OOD SHELTON BRIAN MeCONBIE, 9. JOHNSON, WALT HAMPTON, PHILLIP PETERSON, ORKMAN DAVE MORELL, DICK JONES, BLL LOEB 888-457-2873 LORI HALLNAN 13642 en Erland tie Repon CTT BUCANR, 78-462 335 CAROLBUSSE FeW Media tne DAVID HUSSBAUN ebsimen aed CEO JM OGLE chet Farle an cO0 ‘CHAD PHELPS ci ital Otic PHIL GRARAM Seni V, Ms &Padutn LIM HUSTER Ost F D DAVE Sei Advertsing Sl FeW Media Ine. 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Get your FREE introductory | We cover J | series is the > Google play 4 NOVEMBER 16,2013 GunDigestiomgsne | 28A traditional boltaction rifle with a space age look, T/C’s newest switch-barrel rifle should be a big hit with hunters. ay DOUG HOWLETT Thompson/Center’s DIMENSION north central part of the sta d flat ig and lonely and homes are ottoms: en them along the virtually deso unfurled ribbons through the brown late- y and near endless agriculture, combined the perfect environment for genetically su ow big and old. It kills and a needed is a good rifle chambered in the right c a great load to ough the barrel for hunters with lo hat liber, some high-quality optics and re November 2012, | had them all 30 | GunDigestmyne NOVEMBER 16,2019, und igest.com The Gun Modularity in firearms—making them so certain parts can be easily swapped out to make a gun more versatile or better suited for various pur: poses—seems to have become a keen interest among engineers and firearms manufacturers of late. Perhaps some of this focus is in response to the raging popularity of modem tactical firearms, in particular the Ak-style rifle, which despite be- ing more than 50 years old, still enjoys “new” or “modern” status as tactical arms continue to, find their way into more and more households and hunting lodges. Pethaps some of it is no more than a naturally evolutionary desire for improved efficiency. Certainly versatile designs such as Mossherg’s current FLEX shotguns, the modular assembly and disassembly of the Benelli Vinci or even the dual-load capable Taurus Judge owe their existence to this modern mindset One company, Thompson/Center, has. long been a leader in modularity, creating. firearms that permit the rapid swapping of barrels and other components in order to cteate one gun ca: pable of handling a wide range of hunting and shooting needs. Their popular Contender (first introduced in 1967) and Encore lines are testa- ment to the company’s ability to think outside the box when it comes to manufacturing quality firearms characterized by versatility. Enter their Dimension rifle, a switch-barrel bolt-action de- sign that comes in at a price point most sports- men can swing without sacrificing quality. In fact, the Dimension succeeds where similar at- tempts have failed by making secondary barrels, available at a great price—around $200 or less. While of traditional bolt-action design, the gundigest.com Thompson/Center Dimension 300 Win, Mag. (rine other calibers available) Bat-action Bartel: cinch, chrome-moly, 1:40 twist, SR siting, recessed ctwwn Magazine: Single stack, 3-shet box magazine ‘Tigger: Adustable between 344 and 6 Ibs. Sights: Comes topped with Weaver-syle bases foropties mounting Stock: ue/black composite Welgnt: Tihs. Length: 22x! ‘Accessories: Cm swap out bares, bolts and ‘magazines for use with different calbers sexo scerms.com. sculpting of the stock and a free-floating blued chrome-moly barrel that attaches much like an ARs through a front-threaded receiver and torque collar make this gun anything but tradi- tional. To make the guns fully functional with a variety of calibers, bolts and 3-round single-stack box magazines also switch out. Additional fea- tures include the arched stock with an integrated high cheekpiece for ready eye alignment with mounted optics; a light, but durable matte black composite stock with Armorsoft coating and tex- turized rubber grip panels on the pistol grip and forend; removable stock spacers for a completely adjustable length-of-pull; a fluted bolt with three locking lugs that reduce bolt rotation to 60 de- grees for low scope mounting; and a pre-attached. two-piece Weaver-style base. The trigger is ad- justable to between 3.5 to 5 pounds and the rifle comes with an MOA accuracy guarantee. NOVEMBER 16,2013 GunDigetiomain | 31The Scope & Load Sink as much money as you can afford into a quality rifle and without a good optic, you might as well have built it in your garage. For virtually any shoot: ing expected to be made beyond 100 yards, when you are budgeting for your next hunting gun, remember to bud- get for a good scope at the same time to understand the true cost of your new shooting rig. For my Nebraska hunt, I went with a 2.5-10x42 Nikon Monarch riflescope with a BDC reticle. ‘The BDC reticle has a fine crosshair as well as four small see-through aiming circles lined up along the lower ver cal crosshair. Simply enter your precise caliber and load into Nikon's Spot-On Ballistic Match program to determine the yardage each aiming point repre- sents, The Dimension, both right-handed 132 | GunDigestionguine NOVENBER 18,2019, ‘The autor traveled tothe Sanahils of Nebraska sresming of longastance big buck success He found the late. but ‘at arange more essoxated with Bowhunting and left-handed models, is available in 10 calibers ranging from .204 Ruger to 7mm Rem. Mag. I went with one of the preeminent all-around big geme calibers—the .300 Win, Mag. And the load I settled on was the Winchester Power Max Bonded with a 150-grain PHP (Protected Hollow Point). The round leaves the muzzle at a published 3,290 fps. Zeroed at 200, it drops a mere 6 inches at 300 yards, a virtual dead hold on largersized game. Ze- toed at 100, you would need to hold a little high. The Spot-On program let me know that zeroed at 100 yards, the first bal- listic aiming circle below the crosshair would be dead-on at 215 yards, the next would be dead-on at 325, the fourth at 415 and the bottom one $45 yards. Of course, when a deer is at 278 yards or at more than 330, you'd bet- ter know how that bullet’s going to hit in between the circles, and that’s partly where I made my mistake. The Long & Short of It Arriving at the Big Sandy Lodge used by James Brion’ Gobble-N-Grunt Outtitters (gobblengrunt.com), wwe un- packed gear and headed to the make- shift range outside the lodge to double check the zero on our rifles after be- ing handled by the baggage monkeys of the various airlines we flew to get there. Mine was actually off a little, so wwe shot several times, tweaking it with each one until we had it hitting back where it should have. ‘The next morning, perched on a large hill looking down a stretch of the Keya Paha River bottom, a doe burst into a cut comfield near a bend in the waterway. Close behind her was a und igest.com large, wide-racked 10-point. Peering at it through my Nikon Monarch binos, T quickly estimated that the buck may well be flirting with 150 inches worth of antler. My guide agreed. The doe, joined now by another, and still being pursued by the buck headed over a hill actoss the road from the field. “Come on,” said my guide, Jeff We ters. “That's still our land over there.” ‘The deer were across the river, so I had to unload my gun and case it since we ‘were jumping in the truck to try to get across the water. We drove to a spot near the field where we last spotted the buck and parked, the idea to march as quickly as we could to peer over the hill where we saw him go. I slipped the loaded: magazine back into the bottom of the rifle as we marched about 400 yards to the low hill top. Getting close, ‘we dropped to the ground and crawled another 100. I was still breathing hard when we spotted the buck moving through the valley below. The range- finder told me he was 240 yards away I waited for the monster to stop and using a pack as a rest and laying prone, I sighted the crosshair just be- hind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Click! The firing pin fell on an empty chamber. In the rush and ex- Citement (and effort to he as safe as possible), I had made an epic bone- head move; I had failed to chamber a round. On TV I would've regrouped and got my buck. But this was real life, and that doesn't always work out The buck began trotting farther away, not because he had heard or seen us, but because he wanted that doe. Still I freaked, chambered a round and when he stopped again, lets just say I missed big time—twice! It would've been the biggest buck I had ever taken. Twas sick, but I knew exactly what | gundigest.com had done. | had rushed myself when. I should have done a simple mental check, stuck to my mechanics, taken my time and gently squeezed the shot off. The next day I would see the larg- est whitetail I've ever seen on the hoof in a wild setting—a 185- to 190-inch beast. But of course, he was on the opposite property, so all we could do is watch him through binoculars and hope he’d come back on our side of the fence. He never did. We ga remark. ably accurate rifle chambered in a caliber ideally suited for long shots on large game and in a country that lends itself to distant shots, when I finally took my buck, a busted brow heavy elght-point, it was standing less than 7 yards away. ironic that in shoot At Home on the Range Spending time with the Dimension re- cently at the range, I put more loads through the rifle to see how they would perform, I used the same Power Max Bonded bullets that I had used on my hunt, as well as Winchester Ac- cuBond 180-grain bonded loads. [also tried some custom loads constructed by Massaro Ballistic Laboratories in West Coxsackie, N.Y, The latter were loaded with 180.grain Scirocco bullets Shooting fiveshot groups at 100 yards, both Winchester loads per- formed roughly the same delivering average groups of 1% inches, barring the occasional flyer. With the Massaro, rounds, | was able to reliably punch inch groups in the target. Both are super in my book, fitting nicely in the vitals of a whitetail when properly aimed, and at under $700, the Dimen- sion is the perfect tool for sending them down range, whether that distance is 400 yards or a mete seven. ¢orm ubscribe nc eueere nee y) FREE Trial! PUR TL NOVEMBER 1¢, 2019. Gunigetd mp | 33