January 01, 1900
By Joel J. Hutchcroft, Editor-in-Chief
A lot of the people I socialize with are big-game hunters. Whenever they are around, they are excited to show photos of the game they have taken most recently. I enjoy seeing their prized game animals and hearing about their adventures. I, too, have been on many memorable big- game hunts. In fact, I’ve hunted big game on four continents. But I must confess that deep down I’m a varmint hunter. And where I live, coyotes are the top of the varmint chain, so I’ve sort of always thought of myself as a coyote hunter. I’ve never been on the same scale as my friend and former Shooting Times writer Rick Jamison, but I’m not ashamed to say that I sometimes daydream about hunting coyotes. I’ve tried a lot of cartridges on varmints, including .220 Swift, .22-250, .270 Winchester, .243 Winchester, .22 WMR, .17 HMR, .17 Remington, .32 H&R Magnum, .357 Sig, and 10mm Auto, to name just a few. One of my favorite varmint cartridges has always been the .22 Hornet. I’ve used it in Ruger rifles (Model 77/22 and No. 1), a German Weihrauch rifle, and two Magnum Research handguns (a single- shot Lone Eagle pistol and a BFR single-action revolver).
As Steve Gash points out in his article on the timeless .22 Hornet begin- ning on page 34 of this issue of the magazine, in 2024, Ruger announced that it is now offering a new version of the double-action Super Redhawk revolver chambered for the .22 Hornet . I’m happy to focus this report on the new revolver because I have been a fan of the Super Redhawk ever since Ruger first brought it out in 1986. I’ve shot just about every version of the Super Redhawk since then (calibers include .44 Magnum, .454 Casull, and .480 Ruger; I have not fired the 10mm Auto version yet), and one of my cher- ished collectible guns is a .44 Magnum Super Redhawk with a two-digit serial number. (I used it on my first hunt for Shooting Times back in the early 1990s. That was a big-game hunt for aoudads in Texas, south of El Paso.)
You can read the rest of this story in the latest issue of Shooting Times, available at your local magazine stand, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, or major book retailer. Shooting Times prints a new, exciting issue every month, so be sure to get a copy or subscribe!
More Inside This Issue:
Winchester's Newest Rimfire Lever-Action
If you hunt big game with a lever-action rifle like millions of riflemen, the the new-for-2024 Winchester Ranger may be your ideal small-game hunting companion. By Joel J. Hutchcroft, Editor-in-Chief
Get By with a Minimal Inventory of Powders
Shooting Times reader Michael Warner wants to reload six different cartridges with the fewest powders possible. Here's Lane's advice. By Lane Pearce
The .357 Magnum Marches On
Layne challenged the grand old .357 Magnum cartridge by firing it with one powder, five bullet weights, and five barrel lengths. Here are his results. By Layne Simpson
Multitasker
Leupold's BX-4 Range HD TBR/W is a binocular, a rangefinder, and a ballistic solver all rolled into one device. By Frank Melloni
