RECOIL Issue #40

What is the world coming to? A girl on the cover of RECOIL? Why yes, and a damn fine shooter she is, too. In this issue, RECOIL staffer Candice Horner takes the lead because we’re delving deep into the world of precision marksmanship, and in the realm of making hits at extended ranges, she kicks ass.

At this juncture, I’m forced to stroke my beard and reminisce about my first precision rifle match. Way back when I was hitting the 3 gun and USPSA circuit hard, and believed that the doctrine of speed and violence of action could be applied in this realm too, I was shocked to discover once the results came out that I finished below the fold. What?! How could this be? The truth is that the long-range game is its own specialized subject and more of a “thought sport” than many realize, myself included back then. After discovering that weakness in my own skill set, I set about learning as much as I could about the topic. Sometimes you just have to have your butt well and truly kicked in order to be taught a hard lesson.

If one of those lessons happens to be wind calling or positional shooting, then an economical way to time on the gun is with a 22 LR. This is why we’ve devoted two complete articles to the subject in this issue, one of which is buyer’s guide to specialist 22 precision training rifles. Of course you don’t actually need a dedicated bolt gun to learn more about the marksmanship fundamentals necessary to make hits on targets way out there — your 10-22 will work. But having a rifle that closely mimics your long-range rifle makes switching between the two that much easier.

At the other end of the spectrum, former Ranger sniper Ryan Cleckner takes the mighty 338 Terminator out for a spin, while somewhere closer to the sh*ts-and-giggles end of the scale lies the Gear Head Works One, which is a gun created purely because someone said it couldn’t (or shouldn’t) be done. And we like that. Elsewhere, we look at that most mundane but useful piece of equipment, the rear bag — a piece of kit so essential to connecting with tiny targets that the ability to improvise one out of bits of clothing should be in any shooter’s toolkit. Sometimes the best solution is the one you have at hand.

Suppressors and bolt guns go together like peas and carrots, so there’s a good article from Dave Merrill about what to look for when making that lifetime purchase before you fill out the form and send the government your 200 bucks. And should you wish to take your rifle (with shiny new can attached) out to punch a tag this season, then veteran contributor Keith Wood returns to offer advice about applying skills honed on the range to the mountains and fields of this great nation, many of which we’ll be using as the fall draws to a close and we prepare for the end of another great year.

Next issue, we’ll be rounding up some of the cool gear which will be dropping at SHOT Show and, of course, we’ll have a few exclusives up our sleeves to share with our loyal readers.
Stay tuned …

Check out RECOIL Issue 40