July 2009 No. 245

$5.99 U.S./CanadaPrinted in USA

7 25274 01240 4

0 7

$5.99

The State of the Firearms Industry!

Limited Production!Nosler Model 48

Varmint Rifle

Merkel’sRevolutionaryKR1 Bolt Action!

July 2009Volume 41, Number 4

ISSN 0162-3593Issue No. 245

4

38 NoslerModel 48Varmint RifleLimited ProductionCustomChub Eastman

44 What a GunWriter LearnsMike Tracks 33Years on the Job Mike Venturino

54 Drifting intoTroubleThe Fickle Wind Ron Spomer

62 State of theIndustryPearce TravelsEast Brian Pearce

74 Merkel KR1RevolutionaryBolt Action John Haviland

8 Dual PurposeVarmint/Big GameRiflesSpotting Scope -Dave Scovill

14 .300 SavageClassic Cartridges -John Haviland

18 Fashion PoliceNeeded forShooters,HuntersStraight Talk -Ron Spomer

Page 38 . . .

Background Photo: © 2009 Royal Tine Images

20 Ugly Rifles Down Range -Mike Venturino

24 Dial AwhileOptics -Ron Spomer

28 ReplacementTrigger Guards Light Gunsmithing -Gil Sengel

34 Casull CartridgesMostly Long Guns -Brian Pearce

Rifle 245

Page 74 . . .

Page 34 . . .

www.riflemagazine.com

On the cover . . .The Nosler Model 48V is topped offwith a Leupold VX-III 8.5-25x varmintscope. Rifle photos by G. Hudson.

Background Photo: © 2009 Royal Tine Images

Page 62Page 38Page 74

82 What’s New inthe MarketplaceInside ProductNews -Clair Rees

88 Montana RifleCompanyCustom Corner -Stan Trzoniec

90 Rebirth of theRanch RifleProduct Tests -Clair Rees

Publisher of Rifle® is not responsible for mishaps of any nature which might occur from use of published loadingdata or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced withoutwritten permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copy-rights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept re-sponsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

Page 88 . . .

Page 82 . . .

Rifle 245www.riflemagazine.com6

Issue No. 245 July 2009

Sportiting FiFirearearms Joururnalal

Publisher/President – Don Polacek

Associate Publisher – Mark Harris

Editor in Chief – Dave Scovill

Managing Editor – Roberta Scovill

Art Director – Gerald Hudson

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Rifle® (ISSN 0162-3583) is published bimonthly byPolacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe PublishingCompany (Don Polacek, President), 2625 StearmanRd., Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona 86301. (Also publisher ofHandloader® magazine.) Telephone (928) 445-7810. Pe-riodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and addi-tional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S.possessions – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12issues, $36. Foreign and Canada – single issue, $5.99; 6issues $26; 12 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks forfirst issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. Allrights reserved.

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Prescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124© Polacek Publishing Corporation

John Haviland

Brian Pearce

Clair Rees

Gil Sengel

Ron Spomer

Stan Trzoniec

Mike Venturino

Ken Waters

20 Rifle 245www.riflemagazine.com

There is a great divide now-

adays between riflemen.Some think it’s okay to let thegovernment ban some types ofrifles because they are ugly andrelatively useless for hunting. Onthe other side, there are thosewho say that firearms freedomisn’t about handsome rifles oreven hunting rifles. They liketheir “assault rifles,” aka “blackrifles.”

A couple of years ago, I prettymuch alienated a physician’s as-sistant who was supervising mycardiac stress test. She askedwhat I do for a living, and my

She still had a scowl on herface, so next I took this tack.“Have you ever watched westernmovies?” She had. So I asked,“Do the cowboys’ Winchesters

worry you.” They don’t. Then Itold her that in the hands ofsomeone who had the slightest

reply was simple, “I write aboutguns.” She was obviously takenaback and said, “Well, I under-stand hunting, but I don’t thinkpeople should be allowed to ownthose assault rifles.” To which Isaid, “That’s because you don’tknow what you are talkingabout.” Thinking she had put meon the defensive, that comebackstartled her. She then ratherforcefully said, “Well, no oneneeds those things.” I said, “Lady,you let the bureaucrats get theirtoe in the door about regulatingyour ‘needs,’ then they will bemaking rules about how muchtoilet paper you can buy everyweek. Besides, do you know any-one who actually ‘needs’ to hunt?”

idea of what they were about,one of those old leverguns wasjust as deadly as any assault rifle.She couldn’t comprehend thatand pointed out that those cow-boy guns weren’t “automatics”and didn’t have those big “things”hanging underneath that heldmany cartridges. Basically, whatshe was saying was cowboys’Winchesters aren’t ugly.

To paraphrase Forest Gump,ugly is as ugly does. Since WorldWar II, military rifles have beendesigned to put out volumes offire in order to keep adversaries’heads down so they can’t returnvolumes of fire. That coversother troops who are maneuver-ing to get close with the intentionof ending the fight, usually with

DOWN RANGE by Mike Venturino • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

UGLY RIFLES

Mike was surprised to see one surplus dealer’s sale flyer that said the M1Garand could be shipped to California but the M1 Carbine could not.

To most of the world, the “cowboy” Winchester Model 1892 seemsharmless, but the CAR15 is ominous.

The Colt CAR15 (top) and the Rock River A4 Varmint (bottom) areequally “ugly,” but the CAR15 is a fighting rifle while the A4 Varmint isa dedicated varmint hunting rifle.

July-August 2009 21www.riflemagazine.com

some sort of explosive device.Some of you may argue this fol-lowing point, but I know it istrue. For aimed fire the average“assault rifle” is no more effec-tive than a pistol cartridge firingWinchester levergun. How do Iknow that’s true?

Back in the late 1990s, I at-tended one of Thunder Ranch’srifle training classes when the fa-cility was located in Texas. ButTR Director Clint Smith askedme to bring a levergun. That sur-prised even me, but his rationalewas this: A good portion of thisclass’s attendees would be onetype or another of law enforce-ment officer, plus several profes-sional security personnel. Clinthad seen me shoot pistol car-tridge leverguns on numerousoccasions and he said, “I wantthose guys to see what an oldWinchester is capable of in thehands of someone who knowswhat they’re doing.”

It actually turned out to be aheck of a good time. When weshowed up at the range, the other20 or so students had firearmslike AR-15s of various brands andconfigurations, AK-47s, Spring-field M1As and even somethingcalled a Steyr Aug, which indeedwas very ugly. Those rifles wereequipped with sights rangingfrom ordinary peep types tothings that put out red dots and afew with regular scopes. One andall they used detachable maga-zines. I showed up with a 1914-vintage Winchester Model 1892round-barreled .38 WCF (aka.38-40) rifle with a Lyman tang-mounted peep sight. Everybodyelse had on tactical clothes,while I wore ordinary jeans buta loose-fitting jacket with big

pockets. I saw guys nudging eachother and nodding in my di-rection, sort of like they weresaying, “Look at the countrybumpkin over there.”

The class was great. Maximumrange was 100 yards, and therewas lots of shooting at turning,swinging and moving targets. The

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exercises included much reload-ing. That’s where my big pocketscame into play. I’d just dump abox of .38-40s in them, and at anypause in the action, I wouldthumb a few rounds through theModel ’92s loading gate. My riflenever once ran dry. Others fum-bled with magazines to a consid-erable degree. Every time we tooka break to get some water, theyhad to recover the mag azineslying all over the ground and fillthem again. I just stood aroundvisiting with the instructors.

When we paused to tape up bul-let holes in the targets, minewere pretty well centered. Manyof the class members had bulletholes spread from top to bottomand from one side to the other oftheir targets. The class instruc-tors, most of whom I knew previ-ous to the class, took greatpleasure in pointing that out.

But, the fact was (and is) not

that I am a superlative shot. Itwas simply that while the littleWinchester was being levered, Iwas reacquiring the front sight.And since the large aperture rearsight was right there by my eye, itneeded no attention. The bottomline: I was delivering well-aimedfire. Most of the guys with theirsemiautomatic “assault rifles”were pressing the trigger for thesecond shot before getting thesights on target. Unless welltrained, that’s generally whatpeople do with semiautomatics.

By the end of the first day, thesnickering had ended. Some ofthe fellows were even wanderingover to ask about the old Win-chester. That’s when the instruc-tors told them, “We put Mike inhere with his Winchester, not toshow you how wonderful a lever-gun is but to let you see how theycan perform when someone isused to them. If you’re goingabout your duties and some badguy pops out of the woodworkwith an old levergun, don’t letyour guard down. He just mayknow how to use it.”

A rifle’s effectiveness, deadli-ness or even its purpose isn’t reg-ulated by its looks or by how itssupply of cartridges is stored.Just because a rifle has a detach-able magazine doesn’t make itan “assault rifle.” Neither doesit become one by having a “blackstock.” My Rock River A4 Varmint.223 can take a detachable mag -azine with a capacity up to 40rounds; yet it is capable of thesame sub-minute-of-angle preci-sion my bolt-action Savage Model11F .223, and it is just as good arifle for varmint hunting as thelatter. However, it is indeed uglyin the conventional sense.

Following that same line ofthought, the Savage Model 11Fhas a black synthetic stock, and Isure wouldn’t want someonetelling me it was outlawed be-cause it is uglier than the samerifle with a fancy wooden stock.For the past few years, I’ve beenbuilding a collection of World

Rifle 24522 www.riflemagazine.com

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July-August 2009 23www.riflemagazine.com

So this is mymessage both toidiot politiciansand to brothersportsmen. Don’tjudge any othershooter or me bythe looks of thefirearms in ourhands. Our col-lective interestsare wide. Thoseguns can range

from flintlocks to exposed ham-mer, single-shot rifles of the1870s to any number of historicalmilitary weapons of a relativelyrecent era. Some are even full-autos. Instead judge us by our be-havior. Form your attitudesaccording to that.

War II firearms. Each and everyone of them served their respec-tive countries as top-of-the-line,state-of-the-art fighting rifles,circa the early 1940s. Yet they aredeemed so harmless now thatmost of them can still be ownedeven in a place like California.Here’s a good paradox to con-sider: Many World War II combatveterans threw down their M1Carbines and picked up somefallen comrade’s M1 Garand.That was due to the .30 Carbinecartridge’s poor reputation forstopping power compared to the.30-06 of the Garand.

But recently I received an ad-vertising newsletter from a mili-tary surplus arms distributorcontaining both of those guns forsale. There was a note in it sayingthat M1 Garands could go to Cali-fornia dealers, but M1 Carbinescould not because the brightlights that govern that state fig-ure the little carbine is more dan-gerous than the big Garand. Its15-round detachable box maga-zine evidently looks more sinisterto some than the Garand, whoseeight cartridges are held insideits slightly swelled belly.

Mike attended aThunder Ranchdefensive rifleshooting classbut used aWinchesterModel 1892.38-40 to goodeffect alongsidemany “ugly”rifles.

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MerkelKR1

RevolutionaryBolt Action

74 Rifle 245www.riflemagazine.com

Jim Morey of Merkel isusing a Merkel KR1. ThisPremium KR1 model has asilver-finished duraluminbolt shroud.

John Haviland

Ahunter has time to studyhis rifle while sitting ina tree stand, hunkereddown in a rain suit against

continual torrents of rain and wait-ing for whitetail bucks that nevercome. The rifle under scrutiny wasa German Merkel bolt-action KR1Stutzen Antique. At first the rifle’snovel and complex design made methink: The Germans will tell you

what you like, and you will like it.

But after studying the rifle’s modu-lar design while hunting with it forthree days in Alabama and shootingit back home, the KR1 has somevery innovative features that maywell redefine the bolt-action rifle.

The KR1 is a bolt action with forward rotatinglocking lugs, but that’s about the only resemblancethe rifle has to other bolt actions. The receiverabove the stock waterline is blocky, yet its profilefrom the tang flows in a pleasing continuous line tothe breech of the barrel. Lift the bolt handle andpull the bolt back, though, and the whole receiverseems to move back. That’s because the KR1 doesnot have a receiver that threads deeply onto thebarrel or that holds the bolt within it like otherstandard bolt actions.

Neither does the KR1 receiver have a bridge or afeeding ram. The tips of bullets of cartridges in themagazine sit right up at the barrel breech. This steelbolt assembly weighs 1 pound, 6 ounces, andMerkel calls it the “action housing” or “bolt carriershroud.” The shroud on the Antique model is colorcasehardened, which gives the steel a marbled bluesurface that looks like cooling metal. A lighterweight shroud made of silver-finished duralumin isalso available on the KR1 Premium model.

The shroud contains a bolt head with six lockinglugs, firing pin, straight line hammer and spring.Channels in the left and right inside bottom of theshroud run in corresponding channels in the re-ceiver. The six locking lugs allow a short angle ofbolt rotation, and bolt pull is short, slick and fast.

From its fully rearward po-sition, the bolt head movesforward only 3.5 inchesbefore it enters the bar-rel and then locks intorecesses in the barrelbreech. That is at least aninch shorter travel andshorter receiver lengththan standard Mauser-typebolt actions chambered forcartridges similar in lengthto the .270 Winchester.

With the KR1’s bolt openthe entire top of the actionis exposed and allows un-restrained access to loadthe magazine or to clearany jams that might occur,even with a scope extend-ing over the receiver. Thiswide opening also enablesvisual verification of theextraction of cases andfeeding of cartridges. Oftenwhen I loaded the maga-zine from the top of the re-ceiver, cartridges weretipped up, and the closingbolt failed to pick them upfrom the magazine. But thebolt never missed a car-tridge when the floorplatewas opened and the maga-zine removed and loaded.With the bolt closed theentire lock and chamberarea is covered by the ac-tion housing. In fact, whilehunting with the KR1 inthree days of rain, the in-nards of the receiver re-mained completely dry.

The safety on the KR1 islocated on the tang, and atab in the middle of thesafety button must be de-pressed to move the safetyand keep it from inadver-tently releasing. The but-ton fully rearward blocksthe sear and locks the boltshut. The middle positionblocks the sear but allowsopening the bolt and floor-

July-August 2009 75www.riflemagazine.com

The KR1 Stutzenhas color case-hardened antiquemetal finish on thebolt shroud.

A

Rifle 245

plate. Forward is the fire setting,which also locks the floorplateshut. Trigger pull weight wasright at 2 pounds time after time.For an even lighter pull, the trig-ger is pushed fully forward andto the set position. The set trig-ger was one pound.

.25-06 Remington or .30-06 needonly switch barrels. For a widerselection of cartridges, differentmagazines and bolt heads are re-quired:

• .222 Remington and .223 Rem-ington, a short bolt head and anumber 1 magazine.

• .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 Rem-ington and .308 Winchester, astandard bolt head and number3 magazine.

• .25-06, 6.5x55, .270 Winchester,7x64 and .30-06, a standard bolthead and number 2 magazine.

• 9.3x62, a standard bolt headand number 4 magazine.

• 7mm Remington Magnum, .300Winchester Magnum and .338Winchester Magnum, a mag-num bolt head and number 5magazine.

• .270 and .300 WSMs, a mag-num bolt head and number 6magazine.

In many European countries,sportsmen are allowed to ownonly a few firearms. For instance,in Sweden, citizens can own onlysix firearms. For them, a switchbarrel rifle, like the KR1, is oneway to possess at least a sem-blance of enough suitable hunt-ing guns. The barrel of the KR1 isremoved by loosening twoscrews at the front of the floor-plate. A hunter who wants toswitch from a .270 Winchester toa 7x57mm Mauser, 6.5x55 Swede,

76 www.riflemagazine.com

Below, pushing a button opens theKR1’s floorplate. Right, by swingingthe floorplate open, its magazinecan be removed for loading. Thefloorplate remains locked whenthe safety is in the fire position.

The KRI is a bolt actionwith forward rotating

locking lugs.

Merkel KR1

With the KR1’s bolt open the action is wide open to clear any jams thatmay occur or to load the magazine.

A climbing tree stand is an inventionof the devil. While the short length

of the Merkel KR1 Stutzen rifle madeclimbing with the stand less onerous,

it wasn’t Haviland’s “cup of tea.”

July-August 2009 77www.riflemagazine.com

That should be enough car-tridges to get a hunter through atleast most of a hunting season.

Switching bolt heads is easy.The bolt handle is pulled fromthe shroud, which allows the bolthead to slip out. A different bolthead is inserted, along with theoriginal firing pin and hammerassembly. The bolt handle snapsback in place, and you’re readyto shoot.

The KR1 I hunted with and shotwas a Stutzen Antique with a20.28-inch barrel. The rifle’slength was 38.25 inches. Thestock style is strictly Europeanwith a humped comb, squared offcheekpiece, full-length stockwith a metal cap at the muzzleand fish scale checkering. The

checkering is cut with a laser. In-dividual scales are precisely cut,and the borders are sharp. Thecomb height was the right heightfor aligning the open sights andthe Docter 2.5-10x scope in lowdetachable mounts.

The open sights are calleddriven-hunt sights with a roundnotch rear leaf with three greenalignment dots. The leaf is ad-justable for windage by loosen-ing a setscrew, sliding the leaflaterally and then retighteningthe screw. The front red fiberoptic pipe is adjustable for eleva-tion. Turning a hex-head screw atthe front of the front sight regu-lates horizontal adjustment. Theopen sights are very innovative.Sight radius is a bit short at 9.5inches. However, the sight spac-ing could not be much longer asthe rear sight would interfere

The KR1’s bolt has a swept-backangle.

The bolt head has a plungerejector (at 1 o’clock) and a wideextractor on the left, inside thebolt face.

Below, left to right: the tab in the center of the three-position safetymust be depressed for the safety to operate. When the KR1 is cocked,the tail of the firing pin assembly protrudes from the rear of the bolt.That protrusion can be felt with the thumb to verify the gun is loadedand ready to fire. The trigger is shown in the forward or set position.

handloads and factory loads inabout 2 inches at 100 yards. Six,three-shot groups averaged 1.47inches at 100 yards with hand-

loaded Nosler 150-grain BallisticTips and Reloder 22. The centerof those groups wanderedaround the target about an inchleft and right and up and down.That made me wonder if theMerkel SAM (Suhl tilt-up mount)wasn’t clamped securely to thebarrel or something was loose in-side the Docter scope.

I fired a three-shot group, thenunfastened the SAM’s rotatinglocking levers and removed thescope. I reattached the scope andfired three more shots. The firstbullet landed within .5 inch of theprevious three-shot group. Thenext two bullets landed 1.5inches low and left. Three morebullets hit the same for elevationas the first group but an inch left.Then I went to 300 yards. A five-shot group out there clustered in3.32 inches. That was certainlymore than good enough for Ala-bama whitetail.

HUNTING

On the Alabama deer hunt, theMerkel folks had spotted a largebuck running a ridge. Theyclamped a climbing tree stand onthe trunk of a thin pine tree onthe ridge and told me to hop inand shinny on up the tree. Now ifyou’ve never seen one, a climb-ing tree stand is a contraption ofthe devil. The frame of the toppiece of the stand contains a seatand steel teeth on the oppositeside of the frame that bite intothe tree trunk. The bottom partof the stand is a small platformfor a foot rest and also a row ofteeth on the opposite side. Rais-ing one piece, then the other, Iinched my way up the tree trunklike a caterpillar. About 12 feetup, I started feeling woozy. Itdidn’t help that a 20-mile-per-hour wind was blowing the topof the tree back and forth. “You

with the huge scopes Europeans,and Americans, seem to preferthese days.

The bare rifle weighed 7 pounds,12 ounces. Weight increased to9 pounds, 6 ounces with theDocter scope in place.

SHOOTING

The Merkel .270 Winchestertook some shooting to settledown and was rather finickyabout the loads it shot best. Atthe range it grouped several

Rifle 24578 www.riflemagazine.com

Merkel KR1

The KR1’s open sights are called “driven-hunt” sights and include around rear notch leaf with three green alignment dots and a front redfiber optic pipe.

The shroud containsa bolt head withsix locking lugs.

branches when I was making thetightrope turn of stepping fromthe ladder to the seat and thenback again in the dark.

A few does came past my standover the three days, usually on arun. To keep up my interest, Isnapped the rifle to my shoulder

stand to anyone who wanted tokill the big buck.

I spent the remainder of thehunt perched in ladder stands se-curely strapped to substantialoak trees. The Stutzen’s sling wasshort across my back climbingthe ladders and never snagged

need to go up 30 feet so you cansee over these shorter pines,”they shouted from below. “Thatbig buck’s here, and you’ll sureget him from up there.”

I’ve shot deer before, but I’venever fallen out of a tree. I inchedmy way down and offered the

The Docter scope was fitted with a Merkel SAM mounton the barrel of the KR1. The SAM mount has two rotat-ing levers that snap claws into recesses on the barrel.

The barrel is easily removed by unscrewing two boltsthat extend through an aluminum bedding block onthe underside of the barrel.

Merkel KR1

Rifle 245

the last day and a half. We keptthe TV going in the trailer at nightto listen for tornado warnings.

The rain slacked off the last af-ternoon of the hunt, and the redclay earth actually turned solid. Ijumped four deer as I walkeddown into the creek bottom tomy stand. In front of the stand, adoe grazed in the middle of thenarrow strip of greenfield. Withthe Merkel slung over my back Iscurried up the sturdy ladder andinto the seat of the stand. Sunburned through the black cloudsas I clicked the Merkel’s floor-plate closed on the magazine andslid a cartridge into the chamber.

In the next hours, a couplemore does came out to feed, thenwandered back into the brush.

With 10 minutes of shootinglight remaining a soft crunch ofcautiously approaching footfallson the oak leaves came from be-hind – three steps, a scrutinizingwait of 20 seconds then threemore steps. It had to be a buck,and a big, smart one. After a cou-

of straight line winds that arethe harbinger of tornadoes. TheBirmingham TV news reportedfive inches of rain had fallen in

ple of minutes, the deer was rightbehind the stand. I squeezed therifle’s stock so hard rain waterdribbled out of the pores, like thewood was a sponge. A brownpatch appeared at the bottomcorner of my eye. In one motion Isat up and brought the riflearound and down. A little buck-toothed cottontail rabbit staredup through the scope. It jumpedsideways into the brush like my

movement was a swooping greathorned owl.

For more information aboutMerkel KR1 rifles, write to:Merkel USA, 7661 CommerceLane, Trussville AL 35173; or visitonline at www.merkel-usa.com.

80 www.riflemagazine.com

and swung it like I was going toshoot them on the run. The trig-ger pushed forward into the setposition required a bit of a reachfor my index finger. But only athought was required to trip thetrigger, and the light pull didn’tdisturb the sights. I think I couldhave hit the deer rather easily outto 100 yards.

The wind and the rain in-creased, and the radio warned

The bare rifle weighed7 pounds, 12 ounces.

Above, this five-shot group was fired at 300 yardswith the Merkel KR1 Stutzen rifle. Bullets wereNosler 150-grain Ballistic Tips. Right, Nosler150-grain Ballistic Tips and IMR-7828 powderaveraged 1.47-inch groups for several three-shotgroups at 100 yards from the KR1.

R

KR1 Stutzen Antique Shooting Results.270 Winchester

100-yardbullet powder charge velocity group

(grains) (grains) (fps) (inches)

130 RWS H-Mantle 2,793 .89150 Federal Premium Sierra GameKing BTSP 2,763 2.00150 Nosler Ballistic Tip RL-22 54.0 2,543 1.47150 Speer Grand Slam IMR-7828 58.0 2,860 2.82

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

The KR1 has traditional diamondcheckering or the shown fishscale checkering.

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82 Rifle 245www.riflemagazine.com

Over the years I’ve accu-

mulated a handful of GPSunits. My first global positioningsystem was the size and heft ofa brick and about as handy tocarry. While this was an early,very basic GPS, its directionsrequired careful reading. It was-n’t in any way intuitive or easyto use.

As GPS devices grew lighterand smaller, they incorporated allkinds of useful bells and whis-tles, including downloadablemap displays, electronic com-passes, altimeters, speedometers,the ability to store hundreds ofdifferent locations – even speechrecognition, etc. As these devicesbecame more sophisticated andcomplex, their instruction manu-als grew apace. The instructionsaccompanying a GPS unit I ac-quired last year were written inexcruciating detail. That’s intimi-dating to someone who still has-

with the distance in yards, miles,meters or kilometers. Go in thedirection the arrow points, andyou’ll eventually arrive at yourdestination. Carry one of thesesimple-to-operate devices, andyou should never get lost again.

In addition to a SiRF Star IIIGPS receiver, the BackTrack fea-tures a digital compass, whichshows the direction of travel incompass degrees and indicatesmagnetic north.

Frankly, now that I have thisdead-easy GPS unit, my more so-phisticated (and complicated)GPS tools will see a lot less use.Simple is good, and I think Bush-nell has a huge hit on its hands.

The unit fits easily into anypocket and has a detachable lan-yard so you can hang it fromyour neck or attach it to yourpack. It’s water resistant (not wa-terproof) and has a backlitscreen. It’s powered by two AAAbatteries (not included), and au-tomatically shuts off after 10minutes. The BackTrack is of-fered in five different colors(thankfully not including camou-flage). MSRP: $69.

See the new BackTrack at yourBushnell dealer. For more infor-mation, contact Bushnell Out-door Products, Dept. R, 9200Cody, Overland Park KS 66214;or visit the website online at:www.bushnell.com.

The Rifle CompStock™ (shot-gun versions are also available)is designed to greatly reducefelt recoil in bolt-action rifles.Built by Hogue, the rubber over-

molded synthetic stock featuresKnoxx’s patented CompStock re-coil reduction system, which thecompany claims reduces feltrecoil by as much as 75 percent.

n’t mastered any but the mostbasic functions his cell phoneoffers.

One of the neatest products Isaw at the SHOT Show last Janu-ary was a GPS unit that was as-tonishingly easy to use. Theinstruction booklet for Bushnell’snew BackTrack GPS is a four-page 43⁄4x51⁄2-inch pamphlet. Thefirst two pages feature simple,photo-illustrated instructionsthat clearly show you how to op-erate the GPS. The next twopages offer six-step instructionsin slightly greater detail.

Finally, someone is offering asimple GPS that’s easy to use.Bushnell Outdoor Products haseliminated the confusion andcomplexity associated with otherGPS units. Two buttons allowyou to record and save up tothree waypoints (GPS double -speak for “locations”). Once a lo-cation is recorded, you need onlypress one of the buttons to findyour way back.

As Bushnell points out, thiscompact, 27⁄8 inch diameter GPSisn’t only useful to find your wayback to camp or return to yourkill with a pack horse, but it alsooffers a quick way to locate yourcar in a stadium parking lot.

Just press a button, and theeasy-to-read screen displays anarrow that points the way, along

INSIDE PRODUCT NEWS by Clair Rees • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

BUSHNELL’SBACKTRACK

™ GPS

Knoxx Industries’ Rifle CompStock™

Recoil Reducing Stock