by Phil Bourjaily

Today’s tip: Have a backup plan, and have a backup to your backup plan.

This morning’s Plan A was to hunt a gobbler I found earlier in the week. The season is almost over and the wildlife area I hunt has been deserted for days so I was very surprised to find the only other vehicle on 6,000 acres parked at my spot this morning. So much for Plan A.

Plan B was to sit in the woods near the exit to a field where I know birds have been strutting first thing before they wander off into the woods. Plan B might have worked if I hadn’t had to stop and change a flat tire. The time it took me to change the flat put me behind schedule and I arrived at the Plan B location exactly when the turkeys got there. I was just picking out a tree to sit under when I noticed red heads looking at me. They went scuttling away. So much for Plan B.

Plan C was to go sit and blind-call at the edge of a field near the Plan B spot. Turkeys have been passing through the field at mid-morning and sometimes strutting there.

There was no Plan D, so I figured I would stick with Plan C for the rest of the morning. Two hours and fifteen minutes after I sat down this gobbler showed up. He may have been one of the birds I spooked earlier, maybe not. I don’t care. He strutted in just the way they are supposed to with the mid-morning sun on his feathers.

This morning, Plan C was the winner.

by David E. Petzal

Melvin Forbes started Ultra Light Arms (now New Ultra Light Arms) in 1986, and is still very much in business, which is a towering tribute to the quality of his rifles. Small gunmakers riseth up and are mown down, but Melvin is still turning out the best truly light hunting rifles in the world.

What stands between a New Ultra Light Arms rifle and most shooters is the price. It’s a handmade gun, and the basic Model 24 NULA is $3,600 before options, which are many. And so, because Melvin is a man of the people, he has found a way to get his rifles into the hands of the many at a price of $1,400, which puts it in the upper tier of factory rifles.

The Forbes Model 24 B consists of the same Kevlar/graphite stock, made by Melvin, a CNC-produced action turned out by Titan Machine Products in Maine, a Timney trigger, and a Shaw barrel instead of a Douglas. The barrel comes in 24 inches only, #2 contour, and at present the rifle is available only in .270 and .30/06, right-hand only, and one stock color, gray. Its weight is 5 ¼ pounds, and until you heft one, you can’t imagine how light that is.

Picking up a Model 24B is jarring because the rifle has not been hacked, chopped, gouged, bobbed, or otherwise mutilated to achieve that extraordinary weight. It’s a full-sized gun, and looks like a full-sized gun, so you don’t expect it to weigh that little. The stock is only a pound, and there is not a fraction of an ounce extra anywhere else. It’s extremely durable (Nosler had a NULA action on a test rifle and put a million rounds through it before it got tired.), accurate, and foolproof.

After some snorting and farting on everyone’s part, I got my hands on a production rifle in .270, and am pleased to report that it shoots as well as any of the $3,600 NULAs. Due to the very limited time I could keep it, I went directly to handloads, and found that I could get groups of .589-inch with 150-grain Hornady SSTs, Federal 215 Primers, and H4831. Even by the unearthly accuracy standards of the newest rifles, this is about as good as it gets.

Two words of caution: The Shaw barrel is pretty rough and collects copper very quickly, so be advised that unless you clean your Model 24B with great vigah, it will quickly cease to shoot well. Second, rifles this light place an extra demand on you; every little twitch or jiggle is magnified because you don’t have 8 or 9 pounds of gun to absorb it. If your marksmanship basics are not up to snuff, you might want to buy something heavier.

I’ve owned a number of ULAs and NULAs over 20-plus years, and have hunted just about everywhere and everything with them, and except for the stamp on the receiver, I can’t tell the difference between the Model 24B and my guns. It’s still the best light big-game rifle around…but at $2,200 less.

by Phil Bourjaily

As I mentioned previously, raising the comb of a field gun with moleskin or a slip-on comb pad makes it work better for clay target shooting--especially trap. The question arose in the comments to that post: Why should guns have different stock dimensions for clays or birds, seeing as how both are flying targets? Good question.

The gun in the picture is a Remington 1100 trap gun. I bought it (for $250. Score!) from a friend who used it as his duck gun for many years. It’s the gun I give to any kid who is having trouble hitting trap targets, especially kids who are struggling to hit trap targets with a field gun.

It has a stock that is straighter than a field stock but not aggressively high (1-3/8” at the comb, 1-3/4” at the heel). For most people, it shoots just high enough that you have to see the whole bird over the barrel to hit it. I believe it’s a lot easier to hit birds (whether clay or feathered) when you see them, rather than when you have to cover them with the barrel.

So, why aren’t all guns stocked this way?

I have no answers, only theories.

Here’s one: since so much of target shooting is done with a premounted gun, you have an opportunity to wriggle your cheek down onto the stock of, say, a trap gun. In the field, on the other hand, you throw the gun up hastily and rarely cheek it as firmly as you would on the target field. Therefore a field gun needs a lower comb to compensate for the fact that most people don’t have time to “get down” on it.

The man I bought the 1100 from was a serious sporting clays shooter. He has practiced his gun mounting enough that it was consistent, whether he was shooting ducks or clays with the 1100. For him, a gun with a target stock was perfect for hunting. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but it’s something to think about.

by Phil Bourjaily

Two years ago when I took my tour of Smith & Wesson, S&W’s Paul Pluff talked with me about current the boom in gun sales. He told that something like 50% of recent gun buyers were first time gun owners. He said the challenge the shooting industry faced was to turn those new gun owners into shooters or they would not be repeat customers, and the boom would be but a one-time spike in sales.

Pluff drew an analogy to Harley Davidson. A lot of people buy Harleys just because they are cool American icons. If they never ride their Harleys (and some don’t), they never have to buy new ones.  Harley Davidson, therefore, puts on events and rides specifically aimed at getting people out and riding their bikes so they will buy more. The firearms industry, said Paul, needed something like it.

A couple of days ago I received a release about the Armed Citizen Alliance (ACA) which appears to be an initiative like the one Pluff was describing. The ACA, among other things, plans to offer shoots for carry guns. From their website:

“ACA “Practice & Confidence” recreational events offer an appealing alternative, designed specifically so people can “Shoot what they actually carry; the way they actually carry it.”  Only store-bought handguns of carry-concealed configuration are allowed.  No special-configuration custom guns, no non-standard refinements.

The format and structure of ACA events themselves will be simple, safe, and fun.  Basic and necessary forward-looking rules will provide for the inevitable desire of returning participants to expect growth and improvement as they become “captured” by the challenge--and the enjoyment--of developing personal defense abilities and confidence, and seek ways to “keep track of how well they’re doing.”
 
It seems like a sensible idea all around. The shooting industry needs to sell guns, ammunition and holsters.  People with permits should practice and become more familiar – and therefore safer and more responsible – with their firearms. They should have fun with them, too.

Discussion questions:
Would you shoot in an ACA event with your carry gun?
If ACA events catch on, do you predict they will become serious competitions in their own right the way skeet and sporting clays evolved from hunting practice to target sports.

by Phil Bourjaily

As we come up upon VE day (May 8) we should reflect that even the youngest WWII veterans are in their mid-eighties by now, a fact I’m well aware of, since my dad died in 2010.*

I was reminded of the “Greatest Generation” a couple of times last week. An Honor Flight was landing at the Quad Cities airport when I picked up my son the other night, and a few days before that I squeezed into my old tuxedo and attended a black tie event for my wife’s department.

Since I knew almost no one there and we were seated at a table with a wealthy donor and assorted VIPs, I feared a long evening. Wrong. The VIPs were all interesting and the donor – an attorney who sponsors an ethics essay award my wife administers – was a very lively 87-year-old who loves to fish and often travels to Brazil for peacock bass. He doesn’t hunt, though, having had enough of guns as an infantryman in Europe during WWII.

Besides being wounded in the war, he suffered from PTSD (“They didn’t have a name for it back then but I had nightmares for 50 years,” he said) until a few years ago. He cured himself by talking to schools, veteran’s groups and anyone else about PTSD and experiences he had kept inside for years.

Like many who fought in WWII he had grown up with very little. He was the son of a Greek immigrant who never had much to begin with and lost all he did have during the Depression.

He told me: “I once asked my father what were the best years of his life. He said it was the Depression, because then we had nothing but time for each other.”
 
*He drove an ambulance with the American Field Service attached to the British army in North Africa and Italy, then was drafted into the Army and was training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. I always figured if it wasn’t for the atom bomb I might never have been born.

by Phil Bourjaily

As we come up upon VE day (May 8) we should reflect that even the youngest WWII veterans are in their mid-eighties by now, a fact I’m well aware of, since my dad died in 2010.*

I was reminded of the “Greatest Generation” a couple of times last week. An Honor Flight was landing at the Quad Cities airport when I picked up my son the other night, and a few days before that I squeezed into my old tuxedo and attended a black tie event for my wife’s department.

Since I knew almost no one there and we were seated at a table with a wealthy donor and assorted VIPs, I feared a long evening. Wrong. The VIPs were all interesting and the donor – an attorney who sponsors an ethics essay award my wife administers – was a very lively 87-year-old who loves to fish and often travels to Brazil for peacock bass. He doesn’t hunt, though, having had enough of guns as an infantryman in Europe during WWII.

Besides being wounded in the war, he suffered from PTSD (“They didn’t have a name for it back then but I had nightmares for 50 years,” he said) until a few years ago. He cured himself by talking to schools, veteran’s groups and anyone else about PTSD and experiences he had kept inside for years.

Like many who fought in WWII he had grown up with very little. He was the son of a Greek immigrant who never had much to begin with and lost all he did have during the Depression.

He told me: “I once asked my father what were the best years of his life. He said it was the Depression, because then we had nothing but time for each other.”
 
*He drove an ambulance with the American Field Service attached to the British army in North Africa and Italy, then was drafted into the Army and was training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. I always figured if it wasn’t for the atom bomb I might never have been born.

By David E. Petzal

The late Finn Aagaard, who was a PH for many years, claimed that elephants were the greatest of all African dangerous game, and among people who have hunted the Big Five, I doubt you’ll find much disagreement. “The Essence of Elephant Hunting” is a DVD put together by Charlton-McCallum Safaris, and after watching it I doubt you’ll disagree either.

The photography is professional (except for when the cameraman is running for his life along with everyone else) but the disc is devoid of the shuck and jive that you see in the hunting programs produced for television. As one example, mopane flies swarm in front of the camera lens, and everywhere else. The little bastards are a fact of life in Africa, and no attempt is made to hide it.

What you get to see is elephant hunting as it really is, and also, in the course of events, some very good shooting, largely with double rifles. Buzz Charlton’s clients are experienced with elephants, and very proficient with their guns. Getting off two fast aimed shots with a .500 while something that weighs 6 tons is bearing down on you at 5 yards takes a certain degree of skill, and possibly a change of underwear. 

“Essence” is more expensive that a conventional DVD, but on the other hand you’re not going to see anything remotely like it anywhere else. For information on ordering, go to the website.

by Scott Bestul

I’ve been hunting turkeys for about 30 years now, and have experienced just about every type of spring imaginable. This year (actually, our season is about 10 days old now) has some of the best hunting I’ve seen in a while, and I attribute it to strong numbers of two-year-old gobblers. Just as a healthy batch of whitetail bucks makes for an intense rut, competition between toms makes for ramped-up turkey breeding. And hunters are the main beneficiaries any time males duke it out to get to a female.

Though I haven’t pulled a trigger or loosed an arrow yet, I’ve watched four gobblers die within the last six days of hunting. The first, pictured above, fell to my friend Gabe Mierau, 12. Gabe’s dad, Dean, was called up to active military duty this winter, and before Dean left, he asked if I’d take Gabe turkey hunting in the spring. I was more than happy to oblige, and was particularly thrilled when three longbeards marched to our decoys opening morning. Gabe performed like a veteran hunter, waiting until the trio of birds separated enough to take (and make) a 10-yard shot.

Just two days ago, I joined my father and uncle for our annual spring safari. After a slow opening day, we went to a new farm to start the second morning. At 8:00 a.m., Uncle Al (on the right in this photo) dropped this big-framed two-year-old as it poked its head into a corner of the field where I was running my calls. We celebrated briefly, and then headed toward the opposite end of the property to blind call for a while. It was easy to pass an hour on the pretty, hardwood ridge — even better when a distant pair of gobblers greeted a series of yelps. Dad completed the day’s double play when a pair of gobblers strutted in 10 minutes later. The duo covered 600 yards; crossing a field, a barbed wire fence, and a steep ditch to reach us.

Like I said before, competition among birds makes for happy hunters. As a side note, my father is 82 and my uncle is 80. I hope I’m still at it when I’m their age!

So how’s the turkey hunting in your neck of the woods this spring?

by Phil Bourjaily

Talk to good shotgun shooters, and they will tell you they get “in the Zone” where targets look as big as trashcan lids and birds seem to fly in slow motion. I get in the Zone sometimes, but the difference between ordinary pretty good shots like me and really good shooters is that the champions can find the Zone regularly and stay in it. For me, being in the Zone is a fragile state.

I had cause to reflect on this these last few days as we filmed Gun Nuts, Season III. Having two camera men depending on me to hit targets helps me focus. It’s just the right amount of pressure and it often puts me in the Zone. In the picture here (actually taken last season) I am breaking a trap target with a camera on my gun. I broke 103x105 trap targets that day, about half with a camera on my gun blocking my view of the target. I was In the Zone.

This season, when the Wolf Creek Production guys cranked the cameras us I got right back into the Zone. I missed exactly one target before lunch the first day and we set up some stuff like a  “grouse in the woods” shot that were pretty difficult. I crushed them all.

However, when I fall out of the Zone while we’re filming, I melt down completely. It happens two or three times each Gun Nuts season. That same afternoon we filmed a segment about sporting clays guns that required me to shoot a very easy double on a pair of looping targets. I broke enough of them for the segment – thankfully – but then I missed the closer, easier target, and that was it. My Zone evaporated. The target was 15 yards away and hanging in front of me. I missed it again and again. I would have had a better chance of hitting it if I threw shells at it. Shotgun shooting is a funny thing which is why I find it so interesting.

I am also grateful for the magic of editing. We will not be doing a “Gun Nuts Live” show if I have anything to say about it.

by Phil Bourjaily

We are filming my parts of Gun Nuts, Season III, even now. One of the segments we’ll be doing again this year is reader questions. I asked for them a while ago and have picked some to answer on the show.

Here’s one that unfortunately didn’t make the cut for the camera, but I thought it would make a great discussion starter. I’m taking the liberty of posting it here. Thanks to frequent contributor Tom-Tom:

“Phil, in your opinion, what characteristics does it take to make a shotgun “A Classic”? Many of today’s models seem to be the “New and improved” version while others are still made virtually the same as they were many years ago. Is there a common denominator across pumps, side by sides, over/unders, autos and single shots?”

The dictionary definition of “classic” reads: “Judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.”

By that standard, the Remington 1100, which turns 50 next year, was not only revolutionary when it was introduced, it remains a great gun today and is as good an example of “classic” as any.

A gun doesn’t have to be made by the millions to qualify, either. Consider another Remington, the Model 32. An innovative and very strong O/U, it was introduced during the Great Depression and did not sell well. However, the Germans recognized its excellence and bought the design. It was made first as the Kreighoff K-32 and today as the K-80. Its reputation as one of the great target guns validates the Remington 32’s claim to classic status.

It’s also possible for a gun to become an instant classic. Benelli’s 6-pound, 12 gauge UltraLight semiauto was introduced in 2008. In its narrow niche --semiautos for upland brush hunting -- it has already established itself as the best ever (better than the Winchester 59, the Franchi 48 AL, the Browning Sweet 16 and even my favorite, the Browning Double Automatic).  It is definitely “new and improved,” useing modern materials like a carbon fiber rib to save weight and a dipped, enhanced woodgrain finish.  Performance-wise, however, it’s a classic. It carries easily, points perfectly, kicks less than it ought to, always works, and it already has won a devoted following.

That’s not an answer, but I hope just the beginning of a discussion of what is --and isn’t -- a classic shotgun. Give us your  examples of classics and overrated classics, and please back up your choices.