Author Archives: Ed Hale

About Ed Hale

I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.

Semi-Auto Pistols – Maybe a SIG? And SIG Training too?

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In a real life-threatening situation, you can feel your heart pounding like a drum or perhaps in a competitive situation, you want performance and accuracy from the first shot to the last shot from your pistol. Right?

I have shot pistols with too heavy triggers such as double action. I find my bullets pull left on the first shot with double action, perhaps you do too.

I have shot and own mostly “hammer fired” pistols but I am excited to try different makes and models.  I carried a 1911 many years ago when I was in the Navy Submarine Service as a Topside Watch. It is a simple gun with “a lot of bullet” but it does not carry well as a concealed gun.

On the 1911 I don’t like to carry with the hammer cocked and locked, even with the grip safety. With training it does not take much to cock the hammer but you have to do that…with fore-thought.

Times may be changing in the move toward a “striker fired” pistol that has no hammer to hang up and a consistent trigger pull.

What is the difference between hammer-fired and striker-fired?

Striker-Fired – There is an internal rod that strikes the primer, no hammer to hang up, but trigger pull in some makes and models can be heavy.

Hammer-Fired – uses an external visible hammer that strikes the primer or transfer bar.

There are pro’s and con’s to both. 

Since I am talking with my friends at SIG, I may have an opportunity at some point in the near future to shoot a SIG striker-fired pistol like the P320 the US ARMY is ordering but we will see.  Below is the P320 X-Carry. Perfect for Conceal Carry. It comes with 2, 15 shot magazines. Nice! More on capabilities and calibers later…

I am interested in an Intermediate Pistol Class as a skill builder at the SIG Academy. Maybe you are too. Check it out! See the website below. If I take the training class as I suspect then we will publish feature articles with lots of photo opportunities.

https://www.sigsaueracademy.com/Courses/ 

The key to all shooting situations is to train for them so there are no surprises.

The SIG Sauer Academy here in New Hampshire provides world class training and you are so lucky to have them right here in your own back yard. Don’t miss this great opportunity!!

Photo from their website below.

 

Stay tuned….

Ok I guess this article worked. I have to take a later class because it is now full.

© 2018

 

Smith & Wesson donate $34,000 to Pioneer Valley USO Chapter

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:

Elaine Stellato

(413) 747-3371

estellato@aob.com

 

Smith & Wesson® Donates $34,000 to Pioneer Valley USO

Proceeds from Smith & Wesson Annual Big Game Dinner Benefits Local Military Support

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., (March 7, 2018) –Smith & Wesson Corp. today announced that it has contributed $34,000 to the Pioneer Valley USO.  For over a decade, proceeds from the company’s annual Game Dinner have benefitted the Pioneer Valley USO and its programs supporting American military personnel and their families.  Armed forces members and families access the USO for social, recreational, educational and entertainment programs and services.

 

David Mendoza, Pioneer Valley USO Board President said, “It is truly an honor for the Pioneer Valley USO to benefit from the annual Smith & Wesson Game Dinner. This event is a wonderful opportunity for us to raise awareness of our presence in the Pioneer Valley. We could not provide the needed level of support to our military men and women and their families in Western Massachusetts without this type of generosity.”

 

The Smith & Wesson Game Dinner is a unique event that offers attendees a chance to dine on a variety of wild game prepared by a team of dedicated volunteers.  One of the areas most attended events of its kind, the Game Dinner hosted nearly 500 guests and featured a menu of pheasant, elk, bear, boar, moose and venison. Led by Chef Norm Boucher from the Chicopee Comprehensive High School’s culinary department, volunteers created dishes like Antelope Bourguignon, Southern-Style Pulled Boar, Pot Roast of Maine Black Bear, and French Style Moose Meat Pie. In addition to the food preparation team, Smith & Wesson employees and friends donated over 500 volunteer hours to make the event a success.  All game served was donated by hunters affiliated with Smith & Wesson, Foggy Mountain Guide Service, and Linx Wildlife Management, among others.  This year’s event included a limited number of sponsorships giving local businesses the opportunity to show their support. Big Game Sponsor, Thorn Industries of Ludlow MA, as well as other area businesses provided additional support for the USO.

 

Mark Smith, President of Smith & Wesson’s Manufacturing Services Division, said, “We want to thank the dedicated volunteers and generous contributors who make this event a success each year.  Whether in the form of donations or volunteering time, our community comes together to lend support for this event and the Pioneer Valley USO, which offers critical aid to American service personnel and their families.”

 

Those interested in supporting next year’s dinner should contact Elaine Stellato, Smith & Wesson Community Relations Manager at (413) 747-3371 or at estellato@aob.com.

 

About Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson Corp. is a U.S.-based leader in firearm manufacturing and design, delivering a broad portfolio of quality firearms, related products, and training to the U.S. consumer and law enforcement markets, as well as global military and law enforcement customers. The company’s firearm division brands include Smith & Wesson®, M&P®, Performance Center®, Thompson/Center Arms™, and Gemtech®. For more information on Smith & Wesson, call (800) 331-0852 or log on to www.smith-wesson.com.

 

About the Pioneer Valley USO

The USO strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home and country throughout their service to our nation. ​Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about programming and services provided by the Pioneer Valley USO, please visit www.pioneervalleyuso.org or call 413-557-3290.

 

 

New Doppler Radar for Chronograph; LabRadar – Coming Soon

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If you are a fan of Applied Ballistics LLC; http://appliedballisticsllc.com . They recommend LabRadar for chronographing your bullet velocity.

http://mylabradar.com

I have used the older style chronographs where you place the Chrono. about 10 to 12 feet in front of the muzzle and shoot through a wire like triangle.

The LabRadar is much more expensive e.g., over $500. but if you are testing like me or you are always wanting to know bullet speed and STD DEV. of your shooting string and want to import your data via SD Card, then this may be a winner.

We have contacted LabRadar to see if we can test and write about it for you. It can even give limited down range velocities as the radar tracks the bullet or arrow. We shall see what they say….

They say that a  number of them are out being tested and would be several  months before i can get a magazine sample.

So we have purchased one based on the many reviews we have seen to date and on the recommendation of Doc Beech of Applied Ballistics!

Coming Soon!

Some NH Shooting Club Membership Qualifications more Stringent

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This past year my Club – Chester Rod And Gun, and perhaps others, gave notice that you need a Police Permit such as Conceal Carry to gain or renew membership. I renewed mine with my Police Department and had to provide three citizen sources of recommendation to get the permit along with a background check. In today’s crazy world, I know that those members at my range have been like me, checked out as safe. This does not mean that a guest at a range has been however. Vigilance is still necessary…

Be Wise: Keep your firearms locked up when not in use. 

Guns are great fun when used for hunting and target and necessary for family and home protection.

The Constitution of the United States as designed by our founding fathers were influenced by Freedom and God.

IN GOD WE TRUST

 

 

Nashua F & G 300/600 Highpower Match Schedule and Hunter Suggested use.

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20180203_NFGA_Leveridge_schedule (2)

Are you ready for competition or perhaps just shoot your rifle at 600 yards. On Thursday mornings at Nashua NH Fish and Game you can practice with your hunting rifle and hunting bullets for say an elk, mule deer or pronghorn hunt on the western prairie at long range or an African Plains game hunt. Below is a South African Springbok taken with my Ruger M77 and .338 Win Mag/ w Leupold VX II Scope with 250 grain Nosler Partitions. Yes, I did have enough gun if I needed it. The Springbok dropped as if hit by lightning, but I digress. Back to Nashua…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The target is only 600 yards away here but hitting the target is not the game here. It is hitting the target bullseye… every time. Above, son Jason is competing with a Savage Rifle and a Leupold VX-6 Scope with sun-shield.

Here, the target shooter has to contend with dozens of factors starting with the firearm/barrel and scope model, rests types, accuracy, trigger pull, cartridge loading’s, care of reloading, bullet weight, bullet manufacturer quality, standard deviation load calculations for repeatability, chronograph verification. Then practice breathing, squeezing the trigger consistently… as if machine like. After all that you need to read the wind (which can blow your well aimed bullet right off the target) and play your shot, understand that your barrel will heat and can affect your shot placement later in the match.

I have done this but you need to be dedicated to win.

I highly recommend long range hunters compete to see where your shooting bugs are. We all have things we can improve on, don’t we.

2018 © Copyright Photos.

 

 

 

 

New Hampshire Rifleman wants to advertise for your NH business

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Since 2013, New Hampshire Rifleman Magazine  has evaluating hunting products for business. And these business such as Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Weatherby, Savage, Timney, Leupold, Nikon, Sims Vibration Laboratory have used us as a gateway to greater sales and profit.

We look forward to advertising for NH Outdoor Business’ for an honest fee that keeps us writing and sharing stories with our 60,000 yearly readers and growing.

Lets Grow Together!!

Advertise Your Business

I will be contacting many NH folks this spring to help share the joy of outdoors, hunting, fishing and shooting and increase your sales and profit!

Ed Hale- Editor-In-Chief

Gemsbok – South Africa 2003

 

The .375 Ruger; just plain fun with Speer 235 grain Hot-Cor and reduced loads!

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Just when I get in a Rifle rut, I pull out my Ruger M77 in .375 Ruger with medium to low power loads that I load myself. This female red deer was taken with a low power load and just crumpled. The .375 Ruger is geared for the largest game on the planet but you can tame it too.

Not any more powerful than my 50 cal muzzleloader shooting 300 grain bullets and 100 grains of Pyrodex and recoil is similar and tolerable too. What is so cool is that with a 235 grain Speer Hot-Cor and reduced power loads you can still shoot accurately and pack a deer and black bear killing wallop with 2200 fps.

Speer Hot-Cor Rifle Bullets .375 cal .375" 235 gr SEMSSP 50/ct

The bullets group well at 150 yards. See below. 1st shot set for 100 yards and low. I raised the crosshairs and the next 3 shots were around a 1.5 inch group.

On a bench rest I had to use a thin neoprene pad to tame the recoil. I wrote this below article about powder a while back in 2014.

http://www.nhrifleman.com/2014/09/05/375-ruger-reduced-loads-and-powder-are-here/

Natchez is offering the 235 grain at a very low price so stock up my 375 shooting friends.

https://www.natchezss.com/speer-hot-cor-rifle-bullets-375-cal-375-235-gr-semssp-50-ct.html

You might like this article below too.

http://www.nhrifleman.com/2014/06/27/the-375-ruger-cartridge-a-handloaders-dream-cartridge/

 

©2018 All Rights Reserved.

 

Florida Getaway and Fishin’

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It was hard to take, loads of sunshine, time with the wife at the Naples Bay Resort. Not too shabby where you can step onto your boat within feet of our bedroom suite with kitchen. (yes a bit pricey but we wanted luxury). Wow!

We rented this seven passenger pontoon boat at Rose Marine on Marco Island for the day ($300). All smiles we got our fishing license and headed to sea. We were restricted to shoreline areas and not open ocean but I was happy with that. I was the Captain you see.

My wife was gleeful as she tanned on the bow.

We caught some weird fish like this  2 foot bonnet head shark and released them. We thought they were young hammerheads until we were educated by locals.

But finally hit on a Pompano below with a bucktail hook and a small piece of shrimp on the hook.

You can see the sunshine on my smiling face and this keeper Pompano (must be 11 inches to the inside of the tail fork). This one was around 12.5 inches. Good fighting fish too!!

We dipped the fillets in egg and fish batter and fried them up in our resort kitchen. Sides of Tartar Sauce and Lime for garnish. A nice chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc made it spectacular. Wow!!

Later in the week we did an Airboat Ride in a Mangrove swamp with Captain Jack. down Hwy 41 to the Everglades. Spectacular!! Can you say fast!!

And some Alligators…

We did stop at a local resturant serving alligator and blue crab. The gator was fried and tasted like chicken with an ocean flavor. Nice! The crab serves as a crab cake did not do service to the crab.

While grocery shopping I found the fish was expensive to buy but found some lesser expensive grouper cheeks (small nuggets of grouper) an fried them up to top our pasta dinner with Parmesan cheese.

I like to cook as you can see. Fried Grouper Cheeks Marinara. Wow were they good!!

Coming back home all smiles and sunshine!

Copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

Coyote Hunting Gear – SIG Echo I Reflex Thermal Scope -by Ed Hale

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Yes Persistence pays but just not yet. I’m tryin’ in daylight.

Night hunting with thermal scopes can be very effective. One such thermal scope on the market that I have seen but not yet tested is the SIG Echo I for around $1150 instead of $3000 to $9000  for other brand models.

Sig Sauer ECHO1 1-2x Thermal Reflex Sight w/Batteries, Graphite, SOE11011

You can see the SIG Echo 1 at the SIG Pro shop in Epping/ Exeter NH.

If I can get one to test I will write an article. See NHFG for requirements for night hunting below.

http://www.eregulations.com/newhampshire/hunting/furbearer-hunting/ 

 

Night or day you can make mistakes!

Here is a website that may help us all.

https://www.realtree.com/predator-hunting/articles/8-mistakes-rookie-coyote-hunters-make

Good Hunting!