September 23, 2010
Well-known Black Powder Cartridge Rifle silhouette shooter and author Mike Venturino's new book Shooting Buffalo Rifles of the Old West covers every aspect of selecting, shooting and loading for the single-shot rifles used during our Western expansion. Sharps, Remington, Marlin Ballard, Springfield Armory and Winchester rifles are compared feature-to-feature and placed historically in their proper context. Another section deals with modern domestic and imported reproduction versions of the above rifles. Today's black powders are loaded and chronographed with a wide variety of primers for the most common cartridges of that era that are in use today. Calibers tested range from the .40-70 to the .50-90 2 1/2 inch. The 278-page softcover book contains sections on plain-base and paper patch bullets, sight selection and hunting. The book is filled with more than 200 photographs including many that are vintage photos of men with these rifles. A bibliography and appendix contains a valuable list of books and suppliers.
The book is $30 from MLV Enterprises, Dept. RS, P.O. Box 914, Livingston, MT 59047; Midway, (573) 445-6363, www.midwayusa.com ; Dillon, (480) 948-8009, www. dillonprecision.com ; or Brownells, (641) 623-4000, www.brownells.com .
