Aram von Benedikt

Shadows lengthened across the North Idaho canyon, reaching tentative fingers into every sunlit opening. Bears were on the menu tonight, and I sat, back to a small tree, watching the slopes and timbered openings across a small canyon.

The Winchester model 1895 was the last lever-action designed by firearms designer John Browning, and a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt and the Texas Rangers.

This Model 1894 .30-30 Winchester will be at home on the shooting range, hunting big game, or at the spring roundup.

Bullet design and performance is a favored (and occasionally heated) discussion wherever hunters gather. Debates rage, stories are told, and facts presented. Which brings us to the question: What is good bullet performance?

“I’m your Huckleberry!” The phrase conjures up scenes of Doc Holliday facing down bad guys, eyes gleaming and fingers gently toying with the curvaceous grips of an unusual-looking revolver. And yup! This is the gun.

Spanning six decades of rigorous use and counting, the Bearcat has carved a name for itself as an All-American rimfire six-shooter.

The Gunwerks slogan is “1000 yards out of the box”, meaning a savvy shooter should be able to take a new rifle out of the case, chamber a round, dial for any distance out to 1000 yards, and ring steel. That’s an extraordinary claim, and one I was supremely interested in putting to the test.

The first time I hefted Browning’s new Cynergy, it left me feeling pleasantly surprised and excited to take it afield in pursuit of gobblers. The shotgun is lightweight, well balanced, carries pleasantly, and comes to the shoulder nicely.

A wide racked, deep-forked mule deer buck climbed the face of a far ridge, almost to the top and gone. My friend, an expert shot with any kind of weapon, lay prone behind his rifle, scope trained on the buck as it climbed. “Range?” The word was terse and unembellished with superfluous verbiage.