Geissele’s King Hunter is a heavy, expensive, superbly accurate bolt gun built around Federal’s hot new 7mm Backcountry cartridge. It is not trying to be a featherweight mountain rifle, but from the bench and the field rest, this thing shoots like it knows it wears a crown.

The Benelli Lupo Alpha looks like an Italian design team got loose with a CAD file and a bottle of Pinot Grigio, but this 5.73-pound hunting rifle flat-out performs. It is light, slick, weatherproof, and with the right load, it shoots tiny groups that make the futuristic stock a lot easier to love.

A 6.2-lb Savage 110 wearing carbon fiber in all the right places, including a Proof Research barrel, then casually stacking a 0.46-inch best group in 308 Win. If you have ever wished the 110 could go full mountain mode, this is it.

AAAA maple glam with real teeth. In 6.5 Creedmoor, the X-Bolt 2 Medallion Maple stacked tight groups, ran smooth, and looked like a custom without the custom bill.

Near-magnum speed without the shoulder slap, the 280 Ackley Improved keeps shots flat and kills convincingly. On deer, steel, and long ridgelines, it earns every fan.

The ‘world’s fastest’ factory 7mm cartridge launches 170-grain bullets at 3,000 fps from a 20-inch barrel with relatively modest recoil. It’s even faster from longer barrels. The author executed a tricky shot to take this big 3X3 desert mule deer using Federal’s innovative new 7mm Backcountry cartridge. Table of contents7mm Backcountry Delivers Sizzling VelocityPerformance in [...]

Colt’s new CBX TAC Hunter is a hybrid design offering the ergonomics and accuracy of a competition rifle in a lighter, hunter-friendly package.

Every X-Bolt rifle I have tested over the years was superbly accurate. Rifles in non-magnum chamberings consistently shot ½-MOA groups or better, with many groups measuring just 1/3-MOA, with factory ammo.

Tall brush dictated a standing shot, so I rested the forend of the American Gen 2, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, on shooting sticks.