Idaho Rifleman

Hey, everybody! Thanks for checking out the blog. This week we're going to be taking a look at the 30-30, particularly, a 1959/1960 Winchester Model 94 lever action. Winchester serial numbers are a little hard to track, but this rifle definitely falls into one of those years.  I've got to say, I love these rifles. My dad had one when I was growing up and it was an awesome, all around carry rifle. Our area is pretty dense for hunting, alot of trees, alot of brush, you're lucky to get anywhere near 100 yards for a shot. This rifle is perfect for those close "brush gun" shots. It's got plenty of knock down power for a deer up to 100 yards, but I'd probably think twice before squeezing off a shot on an elk at that same range.  The recoil is pretty mild making these rifles an absolute joy to shoot. The tubular magazine holds 7 rounds, but where I'm from, you can only have a max of 5 rounds in the rifle while you're hunting. The lever action ...

What's up everybody! Welcome to the inaugural post of Idaho Rifleman. There's alot of ways I thought about starting all of this off, but I decided to start at the beginning from as close to the beginning as I could get: The Muzzleloader. In this post, I'm going to be talking specifically about the Thompson Center "Caplock". This rifle is a Thompson Center caliber of .54 caplock rifle. It loads from the muzzle using black powder (different from modern rifle powders), a piece of cloth "patch", and a solid lead ball. Powder, patch, ball. Then you load a persussion cap onto the "nipple" of the drum. This acts as the primer and sets the charge of powder off, discharging the lead ball.  Check out Idaho Rifleman on YouTube, I have a video for all of you demo'ing this rifle with some ballistics shooting.  This rifle is a blast to shoot, but you will definitely hear your shot hit before you see it because of the amount of smoke the black...