Texas Marksmen

I try to avoid gun reviews until I have worked on them for several seasons and they are really able to show me their staying power. I bought this particular model when it was released by Benelli and I have used it for all manner of hunting ever since. It has accompanied me everywhere from Texas, to Arkansas, to North Carolina, to Florida, to North Dakota, to New Mexico, and even to St. Paul Island, Alaska. Accordingly it has been exposed to all manner of extreme conditions and I have gotten a very good idea of what this particular firearm will and will not do over the course of multiple seasons. I don't particularly like reviews of a firearm that are released just months after a particualr gun has hit the market. This is particularly true of a waterfowl hunting shotgun that with an MSRP in the $1,800.00 range. This is a lot of money to spend on a shotgun and, for that price, it needs to be a weapon that will stand the test of time. That is the focus of this review: Reliability...

A smart shooter is probably thinking that articles with opinions on scopes are like assholes: everyone has one and everyone thinks that everyone else's stinks. The issue with scopes generally however is that there are a lot of good scopes out there and there is also a lot of trash out there. Among the good scopes, there are also quite a few that are significantly overpriced and there are few scopes out there which work well for every possible application. Actually, there are no scopes that work well for every possible application. When it comes to scopes, there are three things that are important: the glass, the turrets, and the parallax. When you pay big money for a scope you are generally paying for quality of glass. This is the number one consideration for a scope purchase because just about any company can make a scope that provides clarity on a sunny and clear day. The problem is that many of these scopes are a shit sandwich when it comes to the quality of workmanship on oth...

I have been handloading my own ammunition for over 20 years. This hobby started when I was 19 and realized that I could not legally purchase ammunition for the handguns I owned at the time. As there were no laws stopping me from purchasing the components I needed to assemble my own ammunition, this of course is exactly what I did (I liked revolvers at the time and started out loading mostly for the 45 Colt round). There is now an entire room devoted to handloading in my house where I enjoy a few quiet evenings each month with a glass of bourbon and John Wick on in the background. The nice thing about handloading is that it allows me to customize a round for every gun that I own so - no matter what - I am always shooting a load that will work well in my weapon. I am proving my favorite handloads below. Please remember that these loads are optimized for my own weapons and that, just because they work well for me, does not necessarily mean they will work well for everyone. I recommend t...