Inside Out Outdoors

This year's SHOT show took place January 15-18 in
Las Vegas, NV.  There were some pretty cool and interesting new products revealed this year that we wanted to share with you in case you have yet to read up on or hear about them.  If you are not a member of Guns and Ammo it is a worth while magazine to get as it keeps you updated with the latest firearms.  Being that they were at the SHOT show this year and reviewed many of the new products, I've linked to the ones I think our readers would be most interested in.

1) Savage Arms Hog Hunter & Leupold Pig-Plex

2) XS Sight Systems Offset Tactical Sight

3) Legacy Sports International Escort Shotguns
    - The Escorts are available in left handed models as well for all us Southpaws!

4) Mossberg FLEX 500/590 Modular Shotgun System

5) Trijicon Adds Smaller Red Dot Sight and Serious Tactical Scope

6) Thompson Center Dimensions Modular Bolt Action Rifle System

Let us know if you saw any other revealings that you think our readers would like to read up on as these are just the ones that caught my eye!

-Paul Nicolucci

As I've stated in previous posts, I own a Browning BPS that I use specifically for deer hunting.  Although I love the feel and function of this gun overall, the trigger is one aspect that leaves something to be desired!  My other white-tail firearm that I use is a CVA Accura that has a very good trigger, with a pull around 2 lbs I believe; it's a very light trigger!  From what I have read, the BPS has a trigger pull that approaches the weight of the gun, coming in somewhere between 6-7 lbs. 

This heavy trigger gives me some trouble and I'd prefer a lighter one.  I've done some looking and I've heard a lot of good things about Precision Sports, so I contacted them and they replied with the following:

"If you send us the trigger assembly, with a tag on it with your name address and phone, along with a check for $70 which will cover return shipping we can get to it as soon as possible."

This is another upgrade I plan to make to the BPS in the off season.  For the cost, I find that having a trigger around 4lbs or less would be much better shooting than the heavier trigger that came stock with the gun.  I'm going to try and get a trigger pull gauge and do a before and after and as well as write a review of the work they do. Also I'll try to get a few photos of how to get the trigger assembly out if anyone is interested in this on a BPS. I'm looking forward to getting this work done and getting the BPS out to the range and putting some rounds through it with the new trigger!

Has anyone had any work done by Precision Sports in the past?  I'd like to hear any stories you have about the work you've had done.

-Paul Nicolucci

I purchased a Browning BPS a couple of years ago and have been pretty happy with it thus far.  I decided on the 3" camo model with a cantilever barrel.  I then mounted a 2-7 power Nikon ProStaff scope on it with some dura sight mounts.  I've taken a couple of deer so far with this and it has performed well for me.


Pros:
-  I'm a left handed shooter and this is a good ambidextrous shotgun.  The BPS has a top tang safety as well as bottom-load and bottom-eject.  This is one of the few shotguns that actually has a bottom-load, bottom-eject setup; for those of you who remember the old Ithica shotguns, this is very similar.

- Fully rifled 22-inch barrel, with a 1-in-28 twist, shoots a very accurate sabot slug.

- Reasonable weight at 7lb-10oz.

- Smooth trigger pull

-Price.  I got mine for about $650 which is pretty reasonable for a slug gun!  There are also many after market accessories available including additional barrels.

Cons:

- The Dura Touch coating leaves something to be desired.  After only two years of use I have a lot of wear on the coating and the area around the muzzle of the barrel is starting to peel away.

- I had some cycling trouble where a shell would drop out of the mag while pumping a round into the mag.  I fixed this with a good oil job and I have not had this problem again but it's worth mentioning.

Overall the BPS has made a good addition to my collection and I can't wait to get it out in the field again this year.  As a note I do shoot the 3-inch Light Field slugs that I reviewed here , for hunting deer.

-Paul Nicolucci

Note:  This was written way back in fresman year of high school, as you will be able to tell.  I would just like to say that it got me an A-!  Hey, gotta brag a little...

"Beep, beep, beep, bee..."  That's how my morning started out one early November day.  It was the day after Thanksgiving, a historic day for me.  As I woke up, I felt a brisk chill to the cool Fall air.  "What a perfect day for deer hunting." I said to myself.

As I got up, so did my dad, grandpa and our friend Matt.  I felt so tired when I had awakened that I did not even feel hungry.  So, after I skipped breakfast, I put on my hunting clothes and, after waiting on my guardians, off we went.  As we headed towards public land in Lancaster County, South Carolina, my dad asked, "Are you finally gonna' kill one?"  I replied with, "Yeah, and it's going to be a big buck!"  "Well, I hope you sure do." said my grandpa.  After our little conversation, we reached our destination and got our hunting gear together.

As we started down the long road bed towards the cut-off, we joined Matt, who had gotten there before us, and started talking.  "Where are you going to hunt?" my dad asked Matt.  "I think I'll hunt in that gully where I've seen deer before." replied Matt.  "Where are you going to put Cory?" asked my grandpa.  "I think I'll put him in a pine near the road, while I'll be on the other side of him down in the gully below there towards the thick pines." my dad said.  As we kept on walking, Matt broke off and I asked my grandpa where he was going to hunt that morning.  He said that he was going to hunt the creek bottom below me in the thick pines.  When we had finally gotten to my tree, I was exhausted.  After I climbed the tree and got everything situated, I settled in and started waiting.

At about 7:09 or 7:10 a.m., I got cold, so I put on my blaze orange toboggan.  About two minutes after I put it on, I noticed a deer coming straight at me from the cut-off.  I also noticed that it was a buck!  When he was within 50 or 60 yards from me, I found a hole to shoot through.  Kablaam!  A shot rang out from my .243 over the morning silence.  He ran about 20 more yards and a final shot put him down for good.  There he lay beside my tree after a 10 or 20 yard run.  Needless to say, I was shaking all over from the excitement!

As I looked down at him, I knew I had accomplished a great feat.  After all the shaking, I said to myself, "Wow, what a deer!"  Right after I said that, at 7:30, another deer came through.  This deer was an even BIGGER buck, but somehow I managed to stay cool.  When he cut down a different fork of the same trail the other deer had taken, Kablaam!  I shot him.  Kablaam!  Another shot rang out!    After that, I realized I was out of bullets.  All while he was laying in the cut-off, a mere 50 yards from me, bleeding from his side and sucking air!  As I tried to reload, he got to his feet and trotted off right as I was taking aim.  To say I was mad is an understatement!

At 10:00 a.m., my dad came.  "Did you get that big buck?" he asked excitedly.  "I don't know.  I shot him though." I replied.  "Well, did you get anything else?" he yelled from below me.  "Yeah, I think it's a three or five pointer." I said.  "Well, where's he at?"  I pointed right beside him.  To me, it seemed like my dad was the happiest out of the two of us.

While he gutted the deer, Matt and I looked for the other deer.  To make a long story short, the bigger buck was never found after hours of searching.  Even though I was upset that we weren't able to find the other deer, I still was glad to have gotten my five pointer.  Yet it makes me sad to think that many anti-hunting activists would like to take this joy away from me and others.

-C.B.

So early December last year (2010), I decided to hit the road and head from Charlotte, NC up to the state capitol - Raleigh for those of you in Faison - to enjoy a weekend of hunting the gamelands around town. I had to make the most out of being unemployed during hunting season the past few years, so hunting trips were my little way of relaxing. I met my buddy (and soon to be Inside Out team member) Chris at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday December 2nd and off we went to Butner-Falls of Neuse gamelands.  Sneaking into a spot I scouted back in college, eventually we string up in a drainage not far from the road. I figured this little patch of land received little pressure during the year and I knew we were hunting in a spot most people would pass-by. After an afternoon of being surrounded by turkeys and squirrels, I had two does come under me right before legal shooting time ended. No horns equals no shooting for me that day since it wasn't either-sex there yet, but it did make me feel confident that I was putting us in good spots already.

The following morning saw us hunting with another buddy along the Haw River in a section of the Jordan gamelands. There wasn't much action atop my hardwood ridge until about 10 a.m. when two came trotting by me, skirting the hillside. Didn't even raise the gun as they never slowed down or came through an opening. That afternoon we decided head to another spot on Jordan, one that Chris had hunted in before. Chris and I headed down a drainage about a half-mile from the road and out towards the lake, in the area he had actually walked through a few weeks prior. I set him up in a prime spot, hardwoods surrounded by small thickets, and off I went about 200 yards out from him.  After passing numerous rubs along the way, I set up next to the lake in a small opening also surrounded by some thick stuff, in particular a holly thicket to my North. After 20 minutes of sawing and having to use a tie down to physically nudge a beech tree off the oak I was set-up in, I settled in for the evening 10 feet off the ground in my perfectly hidden little spot. While I watched squirrels and birds play in the woods and fish jump in the lake, a shot rang out behind me around 3:30.  My immediate thought was "Chris has finally shot a deer!" I can't tell you how excited I was as I have been trying to put him on deer the past 3 years while also giving him advice whenever he hits the woods alone; I just knew it had all finally paid off.  I immediately call him and the first thing he says is "I think I missed her", followed by "I see another one, bye". After patiently waiting 5 more minutes, he calls me back and I ask him about her reaction, if he heard a crash, etc. He didn't, so I tell him to wait until 5 p.m. to climb down and look for blood since it was still early and they were moving out by him.

5 p.m. comes and I am in lala land hoping that he is finding blood when I suddenly hear and see a big, dark bodied deer running my way. I thought I saw horns, not wide but tall, but it was really hard to tell with all the small saplings between me and the deer. Before it hit the opening at me, the deer veered off and headed straight to that holly thicket before stopping. I grunted and even snort-weezed to try and bring it out to no avail. With Chris and I finding no blood nor hair and telling me "She ran, stopped, looked back at me, then ran off up the hill", we came to the conclusion that it was a clean miss and he must have hit a branch or one of the two trees he was trying to squeeze the bullet between.  While not the best shot decision, he did make the ethical decision to not take a head on shot, which was very good to hear.  After discussing the situation, we decided to leave the stands in overnight, planning to hunt that particular area again the next morning.

Fast forward to Saturday December 4th. Sunrise came and went with us not waking up, so after a really late start, we got in the woods and setup at noon:  Me at the same spot as before and Chris up the ridge about 50 yards from where he was the previous afternoon.  Being a bit of a weather nerd, I knew there was a chance of a little wintry mix that day, I just didn't think it would amount to much.  Well around 2 p.m. the snow and sleet started up; at one point in time it was snowing so hard I could barely see the opposite lake shore which was only 250-300 yards away. Birds were active but that was it over our way.  Our buddy who we hunted with the day before, however, had managed to see deer left and right over at the Haw River and harvested a cowhorn.  By 4 p.m.,  there was a dusting of snow and sleet on the ground but everything switched over to an on and off rain/drizzle, soaking me in melted snow.  I texted Chris that "I am cold and wet, but we are toughing it out this remaining hour and a half" and let me tell you, I am glad I did! 

Around 4:30, I took a look out towards the holly thicket mentioned earlier and saw movement.  Then legs.  Then a whole body.  The deer is real light colored and I ease up the gun. Just like I thought, my scope was fogged up but I could still see through it enough to tell it was a doe (and that was tough to see at that distance). With nothing dry to wipe it off with, I knew I was going to have to get a deer in close to take a shot, which I needed anyway since the furthest I could possibly shoot was 50 yards.  I continued to look towards the thicket and see another, darker colored deer before finally seeing yet another large, dark colored deer step out into a large opening beside the other two. I immediately thought "That is the deer from yesterday!".  As I was saying that to myself, the deer picks its head up and I saw horns, good ones at that.  To say I was praying for them to work my way is an understatement.  With my attention fully on him now, I watched this buck feed his way right to me.  Every now and again he'd stop and look my way while I was trying not to shake from the cold.  Oh, let me stop right here and mention that I had taken off my wet gloves to try warm my hands next to my body.  Ever hold a cold, wet gun bare-handed in 30 degree weather and try to keep steady while the biggest buck you have seen while hunting is standing a mere 50 yards away? Yea, that was a moment of mind over a matter. 

As this buck came closer, I noticed the doe was directly in front of me, so I eased the gun around in the direction he was in while making sure to not get caught.  At 20 yards, he stopped under a large holly tree that was beside me. "5 more feet, just 5 more feet is all I need". Nope, he turned around, but headed straight towards another opening. Foggy scope and all, once he hit it and stopped, I put a 150-grain Remington Corelokt right through both lower shoulders and his heart. The beautiful 10-point dropped like a rock, the other deer scattered a little ways and I was shaking like a leaf from a combination of the cold and my largest buck laying dead 20 yards from me.  As I called Chris, the other deer eased around in front of me, so I tell him they are headed for his general direction. Not that it matters much, but the other dark deer turned out to be a spike for those of you wanting to know.  Unfortunately, they do not head his way.  After trying to calm down and calling Paul to tell him to get our processing stuff ready as well as my mom to spread the good news, I tried to stay in the stand 15 minutes.  I promise, I really did.  But I couldn't take it, after about 5 minutes I said to myself "Whatever, I have to get down, get warm and grab those antlers!"  I like to think that I set a new world record climbing down that tree and literally running to my buck.  As the heavy sleet and snow commenced again, I just had this huge smile knowing that my plan for that weekend had come together.

-C.B.

I just wanted to share a recent experience that I had with CVA.  I bought an Accura from CVA about two years ago.  I used the muzzleloader for a season, harvesting a very nice 8 point buck during the open day of gun season in New York while my Step Dad harvested a nice doe on one of the last days of the season.  My overall experience has been great with this gun as it shoots very accurately.  I'll leave the details of the gun for another post; however I do want to share a good experience I had with CVA's repair service. 

After the first season, I noticed that the firing pin was not recessing back into the breech face bushing.  Basically, once the gun was fired it could not be fired again without pushing the firing pin back into the bushing.  I concluded that the firing pin spring must be either broken or dirty.  I tried again and again to remove the breech face bushing....without success.  Fortunately CVA offers a lifetime warranty on all of their rifles!  I packaged the gun up, filled out an easy form found here and mailed it back to the factory for repair.

To my surprise, within 3 weeks I had my gun back!  The repair was free of charge and the shop performed the following:

- Repaired the bushing and cleaned the firing pin and firing pin hole
- Cleaned the entire gun (top to bottom!!!!)
- Sent a tube of good grade cleaning gel
- Best of all they attached a 30% off VIP discount coupon good on one item...even one of their rifles!

Customer service like this is what keeps folks coming back to buy more guns as well as recommending these guns to fellow hunters and shooters.  I was very impressed with the job they did and the speed in which they performed the repair.

I'll get off my soap box now and let you take a look at their rifles...if you are in the market for a new muzzle loader, take a look!

-Paul Nicolucci