A barrel is essentiallya steel cylinder with the bore drilled out. It’s as simple as that. For typical handguns (with their short barrels), there isn’t that much more to it. But with rifles, for which the barrel is often the largest and heaviest component, the overall shape of the barrel can take many different forms. This is generally referred to as barrel contours or profiles.

As a baseline, consider a barrel with no exterior material removed, known as a bull barrel. Here, the outer diameter is constant along its length. Naturally, as a perfect cylinder, this is the heaviest profile, though the diameter can vary from large to small (typically referred to as heavy, medium and light).

At the cost of weight, bull barrels do provide some benefits. With all that steel and surface area, they take longer to heat up. This helps maintain accuracy under sustained fire and prolonging their useful life.

Their rigidity also helps prevent deflection, whether from a sling or pressure on the handguard (if not free floated) or from the addition of a suppressor. While it can be unpleasant to carry the damn thing and potentially awkwardly front-heavy, a heavier barrel equals a heavier weapon. A heavier weapon is generally steadier while shooting and helps mitigate recoil impulse.

Of course, you could also simply select a shorter barrel. This reduces weight and can actually increase stiffness of the barrel, potentially helping with accuracy but at the cost of a loss of muzzle velocity. And if you plan to shoot longer distances, you’ll appreciate a higher velocity.

Tapering

Metal can be removed in various ways from this perfect cylinder, thus also lightening the barrel. It can be tapered, where the diameter at the breech end is greater than at the muzzle — with everything from a linear taper to various other profiles, limited only by the manufacturer’s imagination. It doesn’t make much sense for barrels to be tapered in the other direction, since pressures are greatest in the chamber and decrease as the bullet travels down the bore. Not to mention that it would make the rifle imbalanced all together.

Yet, there are lots of AR-15 barrels that have profiles mimicking military configurations, such as the ubiquitous M4 profiles that have thinner diameters under the handguards and thicker in front of the gas block, along with a cutout to mount an M203 grenade launcher.

Eric Kincel, Director of R&D for Bravo Company USA, Inc., explains, “The original AR-15 and early M16 barrel profiles were never like that. But with the adoption of the M16A2, the mass at the front of the barrel was added for one reason and one reason only — the barrels were bending when soldiers were prying crates open with the muzzle end of the barrel. Seriously.”

Tapering is a time-worn method of reducing the weight and improving a rifle’s balance and handling. While less weight is always a bonus when carrying a rifle, there are tradeoffs in heat dissipation and barrel rigidity. It’s a delicate balance to maintain. This is why matching barrel contours and treatments to your rifle’s intended use is key.

Fluting and Other Treatments

Material can also be removed in other ways, leaving the overall diameter constant but relieving metal in other patterns. With advancements in machining tools, more and more complex patterns are possible. Everything from fluting, which is longitudinal grooves (either straight, spiral or radial), to other geometric patterns (such as dimples, hexagonal honeycombs, etc.) are possible.

These sort of treatments are intended to shave some weight. They also maintain greater outer diameter and provide quicker cooling of the barrel during sustained fire, since more surface area of the barrel is exposed. And since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they can look pretty damn cool as well, while still serving as an attractive host for your suppressor.

Let’s look at two identical barrels. If you flute one of them, the fluted one will not be as stiff as the non-fluted barrel. In theory, you can increase a barrel’s diameter enough to offset what you lose in stiffness from adding fluting. However, the simple rule is that no fluting means a stiffer barrel.

For complete rifles (or complete uppers), manufacturers tend to offer barrel contours that match the intended purpose of the weapon — from hunting rifles with relatively lightweight tapered barrels to target rifles meant for a benchrest with bull barrels to general-purpose ARs with medium-weight barrel contours.

Barrel makers are churning out custom, semi-custom and prepackaged offerings with a wide variety of profiles and contours. For those spec’ing out a build, whether bolt gun, gas gun or otherwise, virtually anything you desire can be done … with judicious application of cash or credit.

We’ve never had so many options as we do right now. So as always, choose what best matches your intended use, and enjoy!

Barrel Contours: Tale of the Tape

To demonstrate a variety of options, we obtained four identical standard 16-inch mid-length gas system barrels with government profiles (and 0.750-inch gas block) from Bravo Company USA. We sent three of them to Adco Firearms to be dimpled, fluted and turned down to a lightweight contour.

Dimpling is harder to apply, hence the price premium. It also results in less weight loss. So we dare say one would need to really like the aesthetics to make this choice.

It’s not uncommon to see a fluted process, and this provides a nice balance of characteristics.

The lightweight contour removes the most material, winning the “Biggest Loser” competition here with its anorexic pencil profile.

The pricing listed in the chart in the gallery above encompasses Adco’s gunsmithing fees plus parkerizing (shipping not included). Note that the stripped standard barrel retails for $310. Dave O’Malley with Adco suggests fluting or dimpling for those who want to use a suppressor or crank out high rates of fire. But he advises that “none of these services are ‘needed’ and fall into the ‘want’ category.”

Nevertheless, he’s more than happy to turn “end users’ ideas into reality.”

This article is from the summer 2015 issue of Ballistic Magazine. Grab a subscription to Ballistic Magazine at OutdoorGroupStore.com.

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Most household farms plant fruit trees for a year-round supply of nutritious crops to market or consume. But there are other types of trees, aside from fruit trees, that are edible and profitable at the same time, such as nut trees. In this article, we’ll help you identify 17 of the most common nut trees, so you can select the best option for your farm.

The most common nut tree types include pecan, hazelnut, almond, chestnut, cashew, pistachio, hickory, macadamia, pine nut, black walnut, English walnut, Brazil nut, butternut, oak nut (acorn), Pili nut, beech, and Ginkgo nut tree. Each of them has unique characteristics and features that can help you identify them among others.

Aside from being delicious additions to your meal, the nuts of these trees offer great health benefits and can be a rich source of many vitamins and minerals. Let’s dive into more details about the characteristics, growing conditions, and benefits of these nut trees.

17 Most Common Types of Nut Trees

17 Most Common Nut Tree Types Pecan tree Macadamia nut tree Pili nut tree Hazelnut tree Pine nut tree Beech tree Almond tree Black walnut tree Gingko tree Chestnut tree English walnut tree Oak tree (Acorn) Cashew nut tree Brazil nut tree Hickory nut tree Pistachio nut tree Butternut tree

1. Pecans are fast-growing nut trees

Pecans are native to the United States and thrive in a variety of soil types, including wet soil. They require plenty of water and a significant amount of space to grow.

These nut trees are fast growers, gaining at least 2 – 4 feet in height per year from when they are young. Pecan nuts are rich in vitamins and healthy fats, which make them a valuable addition to your garden.

2. Hazelnuts are prolific nut producers

Hazelnuts are also known as filberts, and they are grown in many parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and North America. They are used in a variety of culinary applications, including baking, confectionery, and as a snack.

Hazelnut trees are resilient and can grow in different soil conditions. Their nuts are also a good source of protein, fiber, and healthy fats. They are prone to Eastern Filbert Blight, but resistant varieties do exist.

3. Almonds are versatile nut trees

Almond trees are one of the first trees to blossom in the spring, producing beautiful pink and white flowers. Most almond varieties are self-pollinating, which means they do not require cross-pollination with another tree to produce nuts. These trees are well-adapted to dry climates and can tolerate drought conditions, which makes them easy to manage.

The nuts of these trees are used in a variety of culinary applications, but their trademark is that they can be processed into products such as almond milk and almond butter. These nuts are also known for their nutritional content, containing vitamin E and healthy fats.

4. Chestnut trees are long-lived trees

Chestnut trees can live for several hundred years, with some specimens reaching over 1,000 years old. They can grow up to 100 feet tall and have a broad, spreading canopy. Their wood is a good source of lumber, which is also high in tannin and has been used for centuries in the tanning of leather.

They produce edible nuts, which are a popular food crop used in a variety of culinary applications, including roasting, baking, and as a flour substitute.

If you have a bee apiary, you may want to consider planting chestnut trees to produce amber-colored honey which has natural antimicrobial properties, and a low glycemic index, which makes it good for diabetes patients.

5. Cashews produce both nuts and fruits

Cashews are tropical nut trees that grow well in warm climates. They produce both a nut and a fruit, with the nut being the more commonly consumed of the two. The cashew nut is surrounded by a shell that contains a toxic substance called urushiol, which can cause skin irritation and other allergic reactions, so you may need to roast or steam them before consuming them.

Cashew nuts have various culinary applications and can also be processed into cashew butter, cashew milk, and other products. The nuts of these trees are believed to have several health benefits, including improving heart health, reducing inflammation, and promoting healthy bones.

6. Pistachios are popular nut trees

Pistachios are known for their unique green-colored nuts, which are a rich source of protein, fiber, healthy fats, and many vitamins and minerals, making them a popular health food.

Pistachio trees are dioecious, which means that there are separate male and female trees, and both are required for pollination and nut production. They are well-adapted to dry climates and can live for several decades, with some species reaching over 100 years old.

7. Hickories are majestic growers

Hickory trees take about 10 – 15 years before they can bear nuts, but they can live for centuries. The nuts they produce are small and sweet, with extremely sturdy shells. These majestic trees grow up to 60 feet tall and require ample space to develop.

They have beautiful fall foliage and are considered an important part of many forest ecosystems because they provide food and habitat for a variety of wildlife species, including squirrels and birds.

8. Macadamia nut trees are profitable nut trees

Macadamia trees produce nuts that can fetch premium prices in the market. These nuts have a very hard shell that requires a special tool to crack open. Macadamia nuts are high in healthy fats, with a high percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids.

However, the trees are slow-growing and can take several years to produce nuts. Either way, if you want to add ornaments to your orchard or farm, you can plant macadamia trees for their attractive foliage in addition to their nuts.

9. Pine nut trees are produced from specific pine trees

Pine nut trees have long, thin needles that grow in clusters of two to five. These trees produce large, woody cones that can be up to 10 inches long.

The bark of a pine nut tree is usually gray or brown and has a scaly texture. As the tree ages, the bark may become rough and deeply furrowed. Pine nut trees can grow quite large, with some species reaching heights of 100 feet or more. However, there are also smaller varieties that are well-suited to home gardens.

10. Black walnut trees produce edible and nutritious nuts

Black walnut trees are native to the United States and are often grown for their high-quality wood used in making furniture. These trees produce a strong-tasting nut, providing a unique flavor compared to other walnut varieties.

It takes 7 years before they can produce their first nut crop, but full maturation is expected only until 25 years of age. If you opt to plant these nut-bearing trees, perhaps consider planting them solely, as they can inhibit the growth of other plants if grown together.

11. Brazil nut trees produce nuts that have high selenium content

Brazil nut trees are native to South America and produce large, edible nuts rich in selenium. They can grow up to 50 meters (165 feet) tall and have a broad, spreading canopy that can reach up to 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter, providing shade for other plants and animals.

The fruit of the Brazil nut tree is a large, woody capsule weighing about 4- 5 pounds that store 10 to 25 individual Brazil nuts, which are a valuable food source for humans and animals.

These nuts are highly nutritious and are a good source of protein, healthy fats, and several important minerals, including selenium, magnesium, and zinc. They are also rich in antioxidants, which can help protect the body against damage from free radicals.

Their rich, creamy flavor and crunchy texture make them good as a topping for salads, oatmeal, and yogurt, or as an ingredient in desserts like cookies and cakes.

12. Butternut trees are cold-tolerant nut trees

Butternut trees, also known as white walnut trees, are cold-hardy nut trees native to North America. They can grow quite large, so you may want to consider giving them ample space in your garden when planting.

These trees are unique and attractive and are easily identified by their distinctive bark, compound leaves, and oblong nuts. While the species is currently facing threats from a fungal disease called butternut canker, efforts are underway to conserve and protect these trees for future generations.

13. English walnuts are well-known nut-bearing trees

English walnut trees are easy to identify by their long, narrow leaves, smooth gray bark, and large, oval-shaped nuts with a hard outer shells. The nuts are highly valued for their nutritional content and delicious flavor and are used in a variety of culinary applications, including baking, cooking, and snacking.

14. Oak trees produce acorns

Although more valued for lumber production, oak trees also produce nuts, and these nuts are called acorns. Acorns are a staple food source for various wildlife species. While not typically consumed by humans, they can be transformed into nutritious flour and meal options.

15. Pili nut trees produce highly favored nuts

Pili nut trees can grow up to 20 meters tall and produce large, ovoid drupe fruits that are about 4-7 cm long. The fruit has a hard, woody shell that encloses the edible kernel or nut.

The pili nut itself is elongated, pointed at one end, and has brown, papery skin. The nut is rich in oil and has a sweet, buttery flavor.

16. Beech trees produce edible nuts

Beech trees are slow-growing and can live for several hundred years. They typically have a tall, straight trunk with a rounded crown of branches at the top.

The bark of a beech tree is smooth and gray, with a unique texture that resembles elephant skin. Their flowers are small and inconspicuous and are usually not noticeable.

They produce a prickly burr fruit that contains two or three triangular nuts. The nuts are about 1 inch long and have a hard, woody shell.

17. Ginkgo biloba is a resilient type of nut tree

Ginkgo nut trees are known for their resilience and ability to withstand harsh environmental conditions, including pollution and drought. They are often planted in urban areas as hardy and attractive ornamental trees.

These trees can grow up to 30 meters (100 feet) tall and 9 meters (30 feet) wide, and produce small, yellowish-brown nuts that are enclosed in fleshy, plum-like fruit. The fruit has a strong, unpleasant odor that is often compared to the smell of rancid butter or vomit.

Ginkgo nuts are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine for their medicinal properties. They are believed to cure cough, fever, diarrhea, and even gonorrhea.

The average force of a human bite is calculated at 162 pounds per square inch (PSI), but this is nothing compared to some animals with the strongest bite force.

The animal bite force is a complicated topic, and regardless of whether you choose to quantify it in PSI (pounds per square inch), pounds of force, or newtons of force, you are likely to come across a wide range of values that disagree with one another.

In addition, it is difficult to conduct biting force tests, which are rarely a high priority for scientists studying animals.

If such is the case, how can we determine which species have the most powerful bites in the world?

We can obtain a reliable estimate of what an animal’s peak biting force could be thanks to the testing that certain scientists have conducted and the advanced computer modeling that has been done.

Several factors, including the size of the animal’s meal, its jaw muscles, its jawbone, and the amount of surface area covered by its teeth, all contribute to the force with which an animal may bite.

According to a study conducted by Brown University, the amount of force within a muscle depends on the degree to which it is stretched.

As a result, the amount of force contained within an animal’s bite is also dependent on the size of what it is biting.

Psi, or pounds per square inch, is the unit of measurement for bite force. To be more precise, it is referred to as pounds of force per square inch (lbf/in2) because it represents the pressure that results from one pound of force on an area of one square inch (6.5 square centimeters).

In other words, the amount of force the animal applies to its meal.

Does Bite Force Matter?

The animals with the strongest bite force are at an advantage in the wild. If you are a predator, having the ability to kill, incapacitate, or capture and hold prey by using huge levels of pressure when biting into it can be an advantage. Cracking up bones to access the marrow within them is also possible.

Herbivores are able to chew through tough foods such as bamboo, crunch through nuts and seeds, and help defend themselves against carnivores when they have stronger biting forces.

The strength of their jaws helps these creatures become effective hunters, which is why many of the animals with the strongest bite force are considered apex predators.

How Is Bite Force Calculated or Tested?

Utilizing a device such as a strain gauge or a bite meter is the most straightforward method for measuring the force of a bite.

The animal bites the device, which then measures the force. These scales are analogous to the electronic scales that individuals use to measure their weight.

You can’t just be pleasant to the animal and ask it to bite as hard as it can on some metal plate scale, nor is it easy to capture and handle many of the strongest creatures.

Nor can you ask the animal to bite as hard as it can. For example, doing this with sharks would be an extremely challenging endeavor.

When attempting to calculate the bite power of an animal, computer modeling and preliminary approximations can be of use.

Looking at what an animal is capable of doing is one of the things that can assist in determining how hard a bite will be.

It’s like how you power to scale your favorite superheroes by using their feats, but it’s much more accurate.

For instance, if you know that a certain animal can fracture the femur bone of an antelope, you can calculate the force required to achieve the same result.

This provides an accurate baseline minimum of the animal’s possible biting force, which one can use for comparison purposes.

Because of our comprehensive knowledge and extensive study of animal anatomy, we can employ computer modeling to assist in the calculation of biting force.

We can model and run simulations to determine a fairly accurate estimate of an animal’s bite force if we understand the correlation to skull size and shape and rough estimates of how much force jaw muscles are capable of exerting.

Furthermore, if we know how much force jaw muscles can exert.

What Factors Determines Bite Force?

There are several factors that go into determining animals with the strongest bite force.

Skull shape, bone density, plasticity, jaw muscle strength, nutrition, and tooth replacement are among the most important contributing factors.

The shape of the skull and jaw is essential when determining the amount of biting power.

The force applied is dispersed over a more controllable surface area when the jaw is smaller.

Sloped or inclined skulls provide superior leverage and better anchor points for the larger jaw muscles.

If you want to use a significant amount of force with any portion of your body, you must have robust enough bones to withstand the strain without breaking.

There are various creatures whose jaws can shatter or break bones, but when they do so, their own bones do not break.

There are a lot of different explanations for this, but the primary reason is that their jaw and skull bones are extremely dense, and their skulls have suitable angles for applying that force.

Both the skull and the jawbones have a significant capacity for plasticity. Scientists long believed that a T. rex could fracture its skull with a bite force that was likely as powerful as it had been.

Many animals, like the T. rex, have shock absorbers built into their skulls in the form of flexible joints.

These joints allow the skull and jaws to flex, preventing the force from rebounding on itself and causing injury.

The muscles in your jaw are responsible for your ability to open and close your mouth. While our jaw muscles did not evolve to be particularly robust, those of many other species did.

Having jaw and neck muscles that are both larger and stronger contributes to having a stronger bite power.

Along the path of evolution, every species has adapted and changed depending on available food sources.

Hunting is made safer and more effective by adaptations such as the ability to crush the skull of one’s victim like a jaguar does.

If they could only consume fruit or tender shoots, they would have a much more limited food selection than if they could chew through tough roots and shoots like gorillas.

These are some examples of animals that have naturally developed stronger jaws to accommodate the types of food that they eat.

The ability to replace teeth is essential for animals with the strongest bite force that gnaws through bone, although this is not always required.

There are species of sharks and crocodiles that, over the course of their lifetimes, lose hundreds or even thousands of teeth.

Suppose you want to be able to bite as forcefully as some of these animals do. In that case, you either need teeth that are extraordinarily durable or the ability to replace them in a short amount of time.

19 Animals with the Strongest Bite Force

1. Polar Bear (1,200 psi)

Polar bears are larger than their cousins, the grizzly bears, and reside in the Arctic region. Their diet consists mostly of large prey species.

These bears may weigh more than 1,200 pounds (544.31 kg), and their webbed paws allow them to excel as swimmers. They live in semi-aquatic environments.

Polar bears are among the animals with the strongest bite force, and they have a powerful bite that helps them to penetrate the thick skin, feathers, and fat of the prey they encounter in their natural habitat.

This allows them to hunt successfully. The majority of their diet consists of seals, whale carcasses, and whatever else they can get their teeth into.

2. Gorilla (1,300 psi)

The gorilla’s bite force is mostly determined by the thickness of its neck, even though gorillas are overly muscular.

Despite having extremely long and scary canine teeth, the largest ape species is a fairly quiet herbivore.

This is because they are critically endangered. Read this article to get an idea of the gorilla’s overall physical prowess.

Gorillas consume plants, although the majority of their food consists of tougher plant parts like roots, bamboo shoots, and other similar items.

They do not have to rely solely on young shoots and fruit because the force of their bite enables them to ground up and devour the many types of food.

3. Jaguar (1,500 psi)

Jaguars can deliver the most powerful bite of any of the great cats. They don’t bring their prey to the ground as other big cats do; instead, they strike by seizing their prey’s skull in their mouth and crushing it.

Their teeth and jaws are strong enough to break through the thick hide of caimans and the shells of turtles, and they can crush the heads of capybaras and other animals.

Jaguars thrive in the jungles of both North and South America. They normally grow to have a body length of five to six feet (1.52 m to 1.82 m), a tail length of three feet (0.91 m), and a body weight of approximately 250 pounds (113.39 kg).

4. Hippopotamus (1,800 psi)

Hippos are one of the animals with the strongest bite force that is still alive.

They use the enormous canines and incisors on their upper and lower jaws to defend their young from potential threats and to fight with one another.

Hippos are the most lethal mammal in Africa, accounting for more human deaths than any other species each year. Hippos kill more people than any other animal.

The aggressive behavior of hippos is not limited to people. Even though they drink from the same bodies of water, hippos despise crocodiles, and they are capable of breaking the backbone of a crocodile that is ten feet long (3.04 meters).

5. American Alligator (2,150 psi)

The bite force of an alligator is commensurate with its size as the largest living reptile in North America.

They have the ability to snap their jaws shut extremely quickly, which allows them to either crush or bite their prey in half.

The extremely powerful jaw muscles responsible for closing the mouth contribute to the incredible strength of their jaws.

You can use your hands to keep their mouths closed since the muscles that allow them to open their mouths are laughably underdeveloped compared to other muscles in their bodies.

Fish, wading birds, turtles, and smaller animals make up the majority of an alligator’s diet.

6. Great White Shark (4,000 psi)

The Great White Shark is a must-mention on the list of animals with the strongest bite force for no other reason than the fact that its bite force was estimated rather than measured.

In a study conducted in 2008, X-rays and computer modeling served as a means to assess the amount of biting force that a white shark would have.

The study showed that a white shark with a length of 21 feet (6.40 meters) could exert a bite force of approximately 4,000 pounds per square inch, making it one of the living animals with the strongest bite force.

You can find White sharks in many different parts of the world, including the Pacific Ocean, the northeastern United States, Australia, and South Africa.

They are the top apex predators, with only larger white sharks and killer whales being their natural enemies.

7. Saltwater Crocodile (3,700 psi)

As the largest members of the crocodile family, saltwater crocodiles make the list of animals with the strongest bite force and can weigh up to one thousand pounds.

They also hold the record for having the most powerful bite of any animal in the world.

Saltwater crocodiles are among the most dangerous animals on the planet; each year, they are responsible for the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people.

This category requires a 17-foot croc with a 3,700 PSI bite measured by a top scientist.

By extrapolating these findings, the same researcher predicted that prehistoric crocodiles of 40 feet in length would have had a bite force of 23,000 pounds per square inch (PSI).

We should count ourselves fortunate that these monstrosities became extinct millions of years ago. We have enough problems with the more manageable version that is still there today.

The raw power these animals exhibit is so astounding that it is nerve-racking to contemplate how scientists must have compared powerful previous extinct animals to what these animals are capable of.

The biting force of a Tyrannosaurus rex is around 8,000 pounds per square inch (PSI), whereas the bite force of a megalodon is roughly 40,000 PSI using the same methods that determined the great white’s present strength.

Regardless of how powerful an individual animal can be, there are still lethal dangers that face the great majority of animals on this planet.

Strength is not the only quality that might be a contributing factor to risk.

8. Lion (650 psi)

Lions have a higher biting force than mastiff dogs, despite the ferocious reputation that they have earned and the iconic position that they have achieved.

As a result of the fact that they hunt in packs, pinning their prey to the ground and suffocating it, they have never required a biting force that is as powerful as that of tigers and jaguars.

9. Nile Crocodile (3,000 – 5,000 psi)

A well-known biologist researched the Nile crocodile as well as other species that are closely related to it.

Using sensitive instruments, he determined the average amount of force that each member of the Order Crocodilia exerts with their bite.

The fact that the Nile crocodile specimen measured was only about 8 feet in length is a limitation of the study.

Considering that the typical length of a Nile crocodile is 16 feet, it stands to reason that their actual bite strength should measure at or above 3,000 PSI. This value is higher than that of the American alligator regarding bite power.

The Nile crocodile, which can weigh up to a whopping 500 pounds and is native to the areas around the Nile River’s banks, is the crocodile species considered the most dangerous in the entire world.

They are solely accountable for more assaults on people than any other species of crocodile in the world. The primary reason for this is that they are so fiercely territorial and hostile.

10. Bull Shark (478 psi)

Bull sharks have the most powerful bite of any other shark species when considering the overall size.

They can grow to a maximum length of nine feet and an average weight of about 800 pounds, which is significantly less than white sharks.

The maximum pressure that a white shark of a similar size might generate is around 360 PSI.

11. Black Piranha (72 psi)

You’re probably looking at the meager biting force of a black piranha, which is only 72 PSI, and wondering why we included it here in the first place.

Black piranhas can reach a maximum length of around one meter and an average maximum weight of about eight pounds (3.62 kg).

Their biting force of 72 PSI is enormous compared to their body weight, and researchers took this measurement from a fish that only weighed about 2 and a half pounds (1.13 kg).

12. Tasmanian Devil (200 psi)

When considering animal size, Tasmanian devils have the most powerful biting force of any mammal and are among the animals with the strongest bite force.

They weigh only 19.07 kilograms (20 pounds), but when they bite, they can produce 553 newtons of force. Their bite’s Bite Force Quotient (BFQ) is greater than any other living mammal.

13. Orcas (19,000 psi)

A killer whale’s bite force has no measurement record, but estimates put it around 19,000 pounds per square inch (psi).

This is mostly because they are so enormous, as they may weigh up to six tons (6096.28 kg) and grow to a length of nineteen feet and fourteen inches (9.14 m).

Because the majority of the data is from simulations, theories, and experiments conducted on whales in captivity, this topic did not earn a place on the list.

14. Tiger (1,050 psi)

The average weight of a Bengal Tiger is between 250 and 500 pounds (113.39 kg and 226.79 kg).

Although India and China are where you may find these large cats in the greatest numbers, they are considered endangered because of their stunning fur and the usage of their bodies in traditional Chinese medicine.

Their relatives in Siberia are considerably larger and can weigh almost a thousand pounds (453.59 kg).

Tigers are solitary hunters for the most part, and their huge biting force enables them to quickly take down their chosen prey, which are large animals such as deer and wild boar.

As soon as they clamp their jaws around the neck of their prey, the animal is rendered helpless and eventually dies of asphyxiation. Only a few animals with the strongest bite force can easily perform this feat.

15. Spotted Hyena (1,100 psi)

Hyena packs are good hunters and voracious scavengers that have no problem feeding on the remains of prey that other predators killed.

They are also engaged in never-ending competition with lions because both species hunt the same species of prey, occupy the same areas, and frequently steal food from one another.

They can break through heavy animal bones to get to the marrow inside because of the arched shape of their skulls and the massive jaw muscles they possess.

One of the reasons that hyenas survive well, even when there is a shortage of prey, is that they can utilize bones as an additional food source.

16. Grizzly Bear (1,000 to 1,200 psi)

The grizzly Bear that lives in North America is a powerful animal in every way. A typical individual is approximately seven feet tall (2.13 meters) and weighs around 800 pounds (362.87 kg).

These omnivorous animals consume anything from fruits and nuts to fish and even animals as huge as moose. They don’t discriminate when it comes to what they eat.

According to urban legends, grizzly bears, one of the animals with the strongest bite force, can bite through bone, small trees, and even cast iron skillets with surprising ease.

17. Alligator Snapping Turtle (1,004 psi)

The alligator snapping turtle is not like other turtles in that it is not little, it is not cute, it is not slow, and it is not generally harmful.

Although they are shorter than the majority of the animals on our list of animals with the strongest bite force, averaging 26 inches in length, these little fellows are no laughing matter.

The bite force of an alligator snapping turtle is 1,004 pounds per square inch (PSI), which distinguishes it from the bite force of a typical snapping turtle.

Do you remember the enormous hippos that we discussed earlier? Even though this turtle is much smaller than the other mammal, its bite is still half as strong and considerably exceeds that of a human or, for that matter, your pet dog.

If you’re looking for a new shelled pet, it’s best to stick to the smaller species while you’re shopping around for one. This super-strong mouth could easily break off a finger or two.

18. Humboldt Squid (6,00psi)

A squid’s jaw isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when one imagines animals with the strongest bite force, so that’s understandable.

Squids are well-known for their peculiar structure, which consists of neither an internal nor an exterior skeleton.

Scientists estimate that this creature’s formidable beak possesses a biting force of over 6,000 pounds per square inch (PSI), although getting close to it is extremely risky and impossible.

This squid has eight tentacles, each with multiple suction cups to capture and immobilize its prey. As if it needed any extra assistance, this squid also has eight arms.

The powerful mouth muscles of these creatures then finish the job, leaving the other animals with no chance of survival.

19. Walrus (1,850psi)

How much damage could a giant floppy thing with an old man’s mustache actually do? A lot!

In spite of the fact that these goofy-looking critters appear to be soft and harmless, they consume a variety of different foods in addition to shellfish.

Walruses are one of animals with the strongest bite force and can kill seals and eat them very quickly. Their enormous tusks allow them to compete successfully against polar bears.

It is not simply the enormous size of a walrus’s tusks but also the strength of its mouth that makes it such a formidable opponent.

In a situation with a pressure of 1,850 PSI, seals do not have a chance of surviving.

If you ever think of a walrus as nothing more than a ball of fluff lounging around and collecting fish, keep in mind that it is perfectly capable of putting up a battle for its life if a polar bear comes knocking on its door.

There are big bull elk. Then there are really big, world-record-class bull elk. The Pope and Young Club awards North America’s finest archery-killed wapiti by size in two categories: typical or symmetrical antlers and non-typical or unsymmetrical horns. The minimum score for a typical elk to qualify for the club is 260 inches.

Arizona claims seven of the top 10 Pope and Young typical world record bull elk records. Six of the seven largest archery-killed elk in the world were taken in Coconino County alone. Other P&Y records, including non-typicals, have come out of Greenlee, Navajo, and Graham Counties.

Coconino County accounts for approximately 20% of Arizona’s hunting opportunities. It’s the largest county in the state, with some 95% of the acreage open to the public as United States Forest Service land.

Why are there so many P&Y archery records from that area? First, Arizona has a warm climate, excellent habitat, tightly managed hunting, and a Goldilocks elk population: not too big or too small.

Second, the hunting seasons favor archery, big time. Early archery season covers most of the rut in Arizona, October is closed completely, and then late archery opens in November for another two weeks. Other western states like Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, and Colorado follow the same archery-preferred early seasons.

Third, getting drawn for an Arizona elk tag is about as likely as marrying for love then later finding out there’s money, too.

Let’s take a look at the top five typical archery killed world record American bull elk:

Related: So you Want to Shoot an Archery World Record?

No. 5 – The William Wright Bull

Score: 404”Location: Coconino County, ArizonaDate Taken: 9/15/1992Hunter: William Wright

Think back to 1992, when we striped our faces with black, brown, and green greasepaint, shot long arrows with Wasp Cam-Lok broadheads, and wore Treebark camo and boonie hats. That was the feel of bowhunting the year William Wright shot this impressive bull in Coconino County, Arizona.

Wright’s 404-inch bull is one of six record-setting archery bulls in the top 10 from that county. There’s no information on the story behind his elk — we just know it was the No. 1 bull in the world for eight years until Chuck Adams dropped a giant in Rosebud County, Montana.

Related: Speaking Elk: The 3 Elk Calls You Need to Hunt and Kill Big Bulls

No. 4 – The Chuck Adams Bull

Score: 409 2/8”Location: Rosebud County, MontanaDate Taken: 9/16/2000Hunter: Chuck Adams

With 200 Pope & Young record-class animals to his name, Chuck Adams is a bowhunting legend for good reason. Adams was the first to kill every North American P&Y big game species with a bow and arrow. The feat became known as the Super Slam, a term Adams coined after filling all 27 tags.

In 200, Adams was shooting Easton Full Metal Jacket arrows with a Hoyt bow when he arrowed his 409 2/8-inch bull in Rosebud County, Montana; and his legend went to another level. After unseating the Wright Bull, Adams’ bull held the No. 1 spot in the record books for six years. This special animal was also the 200th elk of his career.

Related: How to Speak Elk, Lesson 2: Understanding Every Funky Sound

No. 3 – The Jed Reidhead Bull

Score: 410 6/8”Location: Greenlee County, ArizonaDate Taken: 9/3/2013Hunter: Jed Reidhead

Jed Reidhead sits in the No. 3 spot in the record books with his 410 6/8-inch bull, killed in 2013. Reidhead connected with this bruiser in Greenlee County, Arizona. Located southeast of Coconino County and separated by Navajo and Apache Counties, Greenlee is a game-rich area with antelope, black bear, Merriam’s turkey, mountain lion, mule deer, bison, whitetail deer, and waterfowl. Days after notching his tag, Reidhead helped put a friend on a 370-class bull.

Related: Bowhunting Elk: 7 Last-Minute Efforts the Can Improve Your Chances

No. 2 – The Shaun Patterson Bull

Score: 412 1/8”Location: Coconino County, ArizonaDate Taken: 9/16/2005Hunter: Shaun Patterson

Another Coconino County bruiser erased Chuck Adams’ record in 2005 when Shaun Patterson, former Arizona State University and Green Bay Packers defensive lineman, shot this massive 8 x 8 typical bull. It was almost a record that didn’t happen.

Patterson said in an interview that he and his guides crawled to within 100 yards of this giant and started bugling. As the bull made his way toward them, a raghorn came out of the trees at 10 yards and busted them. Every elk vacated the premises. Relocating the bull and stalking back into range this time, Patterson made a solid shot, and the bull went down within 100 yards of where he was arrowed. The impressive animal taped out at 412 1/8 inches and earned Pope and Young glory. Today, this previous world record stands at No. 2.

Related: Elk Hunting on Public Land: How to Build a 3-Year Strategy for a New Area

No. 1 – The Steve Felix Bull

Score: 430 0/8″Location: Powder River, MontanaDate Taken: 9/10/2016Hunter: Stephan Felix

On a beautiful Montana morning in September 2016, 100 yards stood between Steve Felix and a jaw-dropping bull. The gold standard of elk — the pinnacle of the world’s finest typical archery bulls — took his sweet time bugling and feeding his way down a basin toward Felix. With a skinny, ragged-out tree marking the outside of his range, Felix waited an eternity before the giant finally followed a 310-class bull into Felix’s reach.

A well-placed 60-yard shot just behind the shoulder of this massive 430 0/8” bull (official score) was all it took. After a half-hour wait, he found the elk not far from where he’d shot it, and the rest is world-record elk history.

Read Next: How to Score a Bull Elk

The .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are both great cartridges, but have different strengths and weaknesses. So, the question central to the 270 vs 30-06 debate remains: which one should you be hunting with?

Most hunters and shooters probably agree that the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are both quite versatile and effective cartridges. After all, there is a reason why they are the two most popular centerfire rifle cartridges used by hunters in the United States.

While there is an overlap in their capabilities, the two cartridges are best suited to different tasks and represent two different ways of thinking. This is part of the reason why each cartridge has such a dedicated and loyal following and why the 270 vs 30-06 debate continues to rage on after so many years.

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss the merits of the 270 vs 30-06 and provide some insight into which cartridge you should be using in various situations.

Before we get started, I have two administrative notes:

Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means I will earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make a purchase. This helps support the blog and allows me to continue to create free content that’s useful to hunters like yourself. Thanks for your support.

Additionally, I recorded an entire podcast episode on this exact subject. If you’d rather listen than read, click the appropriate link below to listen to this episode on your preferred podcasting service.

Be sure to hit that “Subscribe” button in your podcast player!

30-06 vs 270 Podcast

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270 vs 30-06: Similarities

First, lets start with the areas where the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are similar.

Both the .270 Winchester and the .30-06 Springfield are descended from the .30-03 Springfield cartridge, which was itself heavily influenced by the 7mm Mauser. Both the .270 and .30-06 are great cartridges for hunting medium to large sized game all over the world ranging from roe deer to moose under the right circumstances. They also have great reputations for accuracy and performance at extended range.

They are also very popular cartridges among hunters and shooters all over the world. Indeed, those two cartridges are among the most commonly used centerfire cartridges in the United States.

For that reason, just about every gun manufacturer produces rifles chambered in .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield. The same goes for ammunition, so users of these cartridges have plenty of choices when it comes to good quality guns and ammo.

So, we’ve covered how the .270 and .30-06 are similar, but how are they different?

270 vs 30-06: Cartridge Sizes

The U.S. Army designed the .30-06 Springfield for use in the bolt action 1903 Springfield rifle in 1906 as an improvement on the .30-03 Springfield cartridge. The Army was just coming off the heels of a sobering lesson regarding the effectiveness of the 7mm Mauser in the hands of Spanish troops in Cuba in 1898 and wanted a cartridge and rifle that could compete with the revolutionary new Mauser.

Using smokeless powder and a new 150gr pointed bullet fired at a muzzle velocity of 2,700fps, the .30-06 Springfield was a significant improvement over previous cartridges the military used during that era like the .30-40 Krag and the .45-70 Government.

It didn’t take long for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge to catch on with the hunting and shooting communities and it was soon an extremely popular cartridge in the United States and in North America as a whole.

As good as the .30-06 Springfield was, not everyone was completely satisfied with it and wildcatters quickly started modifying the cartridge for more specialized tasks.

Around the same time gun designers were necking up the .30-06 to develop the .35 Whelen cartridge, engineers at Winchester decided to go the opposite route and neck down the .30-06 to use .277″ instead of .308″ bullets. The resulting .270 Winchester cartridge (also known as the .270 Win for short) was formally released in 1925 for the Winchester Model 54 rifle.

The original .270 Winchester load shot a 130 grain bullet at a blazing fast velocity (for 1925 anyway) of 3,140 feet per second (2,846 ft-lbs of energy).

Though the .270 Winchester was not an immediate success, American hunters appreciated the flat shooting characteristics of the round and the fact that it was so effective on thin skinned game. The cartridge gradually became more and more popular, which was helped by Jack O’Connor and his famous affinity for the cartridge that he expressed in countless Outdoor Life articles over the years.

That’s not to say that the cartridge only became the incredibly popular because of O’Connor. While O’Connor did indeed love the .270 Winchester and used it extensively on hunts all over the world, it was far from the only cartridge he used. The .270 Winchester was also a good enough cartridge and filled a big enough niche that it probably would have been successful even without any help from Jack O’Connor.

The .270 Winchester is something of an oddity when it comes to bullet diameter though. Unlike all the other popular 7mm cartridges like the 7mm Mauser, 7mm-08, 7mm Remington Magnum and the .280 Remington that use .284″ bullets, the .270 Winchester uses .277″ bullets.

It’s unclear exactly why Winchester decided to go with .277″ instead of .284″ bullets with the .270 Winchester. One theory is they choose that particular bullet size based on the obscure 6.8x57mm Chinese Mauser cartridge. It’s also possible they wanted to create a distinctly American bullet size and avoid the 6.5mm and 7mm bullets popular in Europe by building a new brand new bullet diameter 10% smaller than the one used in the .30-06 (.9 multiplied by .308 is .277).

Regardless of their reasons, the design team at Winchester went with a .277″ bullet diameter and the rest is history. Interestingly enough, while the .270 Winchester turned out to be a smashing commercial success for the company, .277″ bullets never really caught on. The 270 Winchester Short Magnum (270 WSM) and the .270 Weatherby Magnum are the only other two mass produced cartridges that utilize bullets of that size.

You can see the heritage of the .270 and .30-06 cartridges on display in the photos below.

The .270 Winchester has a slightly longer case length (2.54″ vs 2.494″), but the two cartridges are identical up to the shoulder.

Though the .30-06 Springfield cartridge in the photo is slightly shorter than the .270 Winchester cartridge, the SAAMI specifications for the two cartridges overlap and the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield have the same maximum authorized overall length of 3.34″ (84.84mm).

Since the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield have the same maximum overall length of 3.34″, both cartridges are used in long-action rifles.

Due to the fact that the .270 Winchester basically just uses a necked down .30-03 Springfield case (which is also the parent cartridge for the .30-06), both cartridges also have the exact same case diameter and virtually the same case capacity.

Note: while the case capacity figures listed below do give a good indication of the differences between the two cartridges, exact case capacities vary slightly according to the brand of brass used.

270 vs 30-06 Ballistics

The .30-06 Springfield is certainly no slouch in terms of velocity or trajectory, but the .270 Winchester has a clear advantage in both of those areas. Similar to the difference between the 7-30 Waters and the .30-30 Winchester, by necking down the .30-06 case to shoot smaller diameter bullets, the designers of the .270 Winchester were successful in building a cartridge with a higher velocity, flatter trajectory, and less recoil than the .30-06 Springfield.

This is because, when compared to the .30-06 Springfield, the smaller diameter .270 Winchester shoots lighter weight bullets.

For instance, the vast majority of .270 Winchester factory loads shoot bullets in the 120-150 grain range. Of these, 130 grain and 150 grain bullets are by far the most common. On the other hand, though it’s possible to find .30-06 ammo shooting bullets weighing as little as 110 grains and as heavy as 220 grains, most .30-06 Springfield factory loads use bullets in the 150-180 grain range. 150 grain, 165 grain, 168 grain, and 180 grain bullets are the most common these days.

The table below compares the 130gr Nosler AccuBond (.435 BC) in .270 Winchester to 150gr Nosler Partition (.387 BC), 165gr Nosler AccuBond (.475 BC), and 180gr Nosler AccuBond (.507 BC) loads in .30-06 Springfield. As you can see, there is a significant difference in the bullet trajectories between the two cartridges.

Though two of the .30-06 loads utilize bullets with a higher ballistic coefficient and have as much or slightly more energy remaining at 500 yards, the .270 Winchester load still hits 4-8″ higher than all three .30-06 loads.

Not only does the .270 Winchester have a noticeably flatter trajectory, but that particular load generates 22-36% less free recoil energy than those three .30-06 Springfield loads when used in the same rifle. Felt recoil will vary from shooter to shooter and rifle to rifle, but free recoil energy is still a useful way to compare the two cartridges.

It’s tough to pick a winner when it comes to accuracy of the 270 vs 30-06 because it’s something of an apples to oranges comparison. Most people agree that both cartridges are capable of excellent accuracy, but the .270 Winchester is used almost exclusively as a hunting cartridge while match shooters, military and police snipers, and hunters have all used the .30-06 Springfield extensively over the years.

That’s not to say the .270 Winchester isn’t an accurate cartridge. It most certainly is, but it just doesn’t have the same pedigree as the .30-06 Springfield in that regard and for that reason, there are very few choices available for .270 Winchester match ammo.

All that being said, both cartridges have the potential for excellent accuracy in the right hands.

270 vs 30-06: Ammunition Selection

The .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are two of the most popular cartridges for hunters in the United States. For that reason, virtually every ammunition manufacturer of note like Barnes, Browning, Federal Premium, Hornady, Nosler, PPU, Remington, Swift, Weatherby, and Winchester (just to name a few) produce a wide variety of good quality ammo in various bullet weights for both cartridges. So regardless of whether you want lighter or heavier bullets for either cartridge, you should be able to find what you’re looking for.

Just about every major style of bullet is available in those cartridges as well like the Barnes TTSX, the Hornady GMX, InterBond, and SST, the Nosler AccuBond and Partition, the Remington Core Lokt, the Swift Scirocco and A-Frame, and the Winchester Power Point (just to name a few).

Prices and availability for each cartridge vary from region to region, but ammunition for both cartridges is widely available. In fact, if a sporting goods store only carried ammo for two different centerfire rifle cartridges, I’d bet money they’d have .270 and .30-06 ammo. Ammunition for both cartridges is similarily priced as well.

BUY SOME QUALITY 270 WINCHESTER AMMO HERE

BUY SOME EXCELLENT 30-06 SPRINGFIELD AMMO HERE

Read the articles below if you’d like to learn more details about some of the various hunting ammunition choices for the 270 or the 30-06.

Best 270 Ammunition For Hunting Deer, Bear, Hogs & Other Big Game

Best 30-06 Ammunition For Hunting Elk, Deer, Bear, & Other Game

If you’re into hand loading, then you’re also in luck because reloading components for both cartridges are widely available. There are also lots of good quality .277 and .308 caliber bullets to choose from, so you shouldn’t have much trouble working up a custom load that shoots very accurately in your chosen rifle.

270 vs 30-06: Rifle Selection

Since the .270 and .30-06 are such popular cartridges, there are lots and lots of rifles to choose from and virtually every firearms manufacturer produces rifles chambered in both cartridges. Additionally, because the cartridges are the same length and have the same rim diameter, rifles of the same model chambered in each cartridge are virtually identical to each other.

Among others, the Browning X-Bolt, CZ-550, Mossberg Patriot, Remington Model 700 and 783, Ruger American and M77 Hawkeye, Savage 11/111, Thompson Center Compass, Tikka T3X, Weatherby Mark V and Vanguard, and (of course) the Winchester Model 70 are all available in .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield.

As anyone who has read a few of his articles in Outdoor Life would know, Jack O’Connor’s favorite rifle was a Winchester Model 70 rifle chambered in .270 Winchester. Even though the Model 70s has been chambered in many other cartridges (including .30-06), and even though many other rifles are available in .270 Winchester, the Model 70 and the .270 Winchester remain irrevocably linked in the minds of many hunters due to O’Connor’s work.

By the way, O’Connor’s Model 70 is currently on display at the Jack O’Connor Museum in Lewiston, Idaho

The description reads:

Jack O’Connor’s Favorite Rifle: The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight .270 was purchased in Lewiston in 1959. It was custom-stocked by Al Biesen of Spokane who also fitted an engraved trap-door buttplate and grip cap. It was used by Jack from Botswana to British Columbia on a variety of game, including his last Stone ram in 1973.

BUY AN OUTSTANDING 270 WINCHESTER RIFLE HERE

BUY A DEPENDABLE 30-06 SPRINGFIELD RIFLE HERE

Read the article below if you’d like to learn more details about some of the various hunting rifle choices for the .270 Winchester.

Best 270 Rifles For Hunting – Ultimate Guide

270 vs 30-06: Which Is Right For You?

When using the right bullets and with good shot placement, both cartridges are excellent for hunting medium to large sized game. Indeed, both the .270 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are great choices if you’re looking for a really versatile cartridge.

They are both extremely effective (and popular) deer hunting cartridges. Indeed, whitetail deer probably make up well over half of the game harvested by those two cartridges each year. The .270 and .30-06 also work really well for feral hogs and black bear hunting. The same goes for exotic game like sika, axis, and fallow deer.

However, this is where the strengths and weaknesses of each cartridge start to diverge.

The flat trajectory of the .270 Winchester makes it great for animals that are more likely to require longer range shots like mule deer or pronghorn. By the same token, the fact that the .270 also has a relatively mild recoil also makes it a great cartridge for mountain hunts where a lightweight rifle is really desirable. After all, there’s a reason why Jack O’Connor liked his .270 so much for hunting sheep why it’s also still such an effective cartridge for mountain goat, Himalayan Tahr, and chamois hunting.

On the other hand, since it shoots heavier and larger diameter bullets, the .30-06 Springfield has a clear advantage when hunting larger species like caribou, elk, and moose. When using a 180 grain bullet, the .30-06 also has a clear advantage when hunting most species of African plains game.

That doesn’t mean that you can hunt elk, moose, or plains game with a .270. After all, lots of hunters have killed untold numbers of those animals with a .270 over the years. If anything, the .270 Winchester is even more effective on really large game (elk hunting in particular) now than it was even 20 years ago because hunters have access to much better quality bullets these days.

For instance, the 150gr Nosler Partition below really did a number on a big kudu bull in South Africa.

There’s also nothing saying the .30-06 isn’t suitable for long range shots or that can’t also be a great rifle for a mountain hunt.

Like I said earlier, they’re both quite versatile, but that each cartridge is just a better choice for certain applications.

Do you primarily hunt deer, hogs, or bears in an area where long distance shots past 200 yards are uncommon and bullet drop is less of a concern? Both cartridges will work just fine under these circumstances and there isn’t much of a difference between them ballistically inside of 300 yards.

Are you very sensitive to recoil? Do you do a lot of mountain or backcountry hunts where it’s really nice to have a lightweight rifle? Consider going with the .270 Winchester, which has a lighter recoil that’s more manageable in a small and light rifle. With good shot placement and quality ammunition, the .270 Winchester is a wonderful choice for mountain goat, sheep, or tahr hunting.

Do you want to hunt larger game animals like elk, moose, red stag, and eland? Both cartridges will work, but the .30-06 Springfield offers a clear advantage since it can use heavier 180 grain bullets that are much better suited for extremely large and/or tough animals.

As I’ve stated before: the .270 Winchester and the .30-06 Springfield are both great rifle cartridges. While each one may be better suited to specific situations than the others, they are both very solid performers overall. The difference between them (270 vs 30-06) is not as great as it is sometimes made out to be and the animal will never know the difference if your shot is placed in the right spot.

Want to take a rifle chambered in one of these cartridges on a hunt?

Book an excellent black bear hunt here.

Book an outstanding African hunting safari here.

For a more detailed discussion on the .30-06 Springfield and how it compares to some other popular .30 caliber cartridges, or to learn about how the .270 compares to the .308 Winchester, or to learn about other cartridges specifically designed to improve upon the performance of the .30-06, read the articles below:

308 vs 30-06 vs 300 Win Mag: Which Cartridge Should You Be Hunting With?

7mm Rem Mag vs 300 Win Mag: What You Know May Be Wrong

25-06 vs 6.5 Creedmoor vs 270 Winchester: The Results Might Surprise You

270 vs 308: Which One Should You Hunt With?

Enjoy this article about the .270 vs .30-06 debate? Please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Nosler provided the load data used to compare recoil for the cartridges (here and here). Cartridge case capacities were obtained from Chuck Hawks. The Lyman 50th Edition (p197-198 & 246-250) and Hornady 10th Edition (p351-355, 510-522) reloading manuals were also used as references for this article. Maximum pressure obtained from SAAMI (p28 and p29). I used the Hornady Ballistic calculator and Handloads.com to compare wind drift, the range each bullet goes subsonic, and recoil for the cartridges.

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NEXT: BEST 6.5 CREEDMOOR AMMO FOR HUNTING DEER AND ELK

NEXT: 101 BEST GIFTS FOR HUNTERS

NEXT: 11 BEST HUNTING EAR PROTECTION OPTIONS FOR SPORTSMEN

Heath Wood

As a young teenager, I recall five childhood buddies, along with myself, gathering at a family farm for a night of gigging frogs. Being the young boys we were, we decided to cook dinner on one of the banks of the many ponds spread throughout the farm. For a solid hour, my buddies and I waded the pond banks mud, trying to get enough frogs to prepare a feast for our dinner. After we met our required amount of frogs and spent another hour cleaning them, we finally had the fire going and fresh frog legs sizzling in the hot oil of a cast iron skillet. Not only did our young and rebellious group of friends cook dinner, but we also decided to sleep out underneath the stars on that warm summer night.

I traded in my frog gig for a bow and arrow in my mid-twenties, as competitive bow shooting with my friends was my peak interest. However, that night of gigging frogs many summers ago sparked a lifelong passion for spending summer nights in quest of bullfrogs and green frogs that always ends in delicious fried frog legs.

Bow Hunting Frog Equipment

The first time I ever shot at a summer bullfrog with a bow was in my early twenties with a compound bow and a few old aluminum arrows that I didn’t care if I lost. After a few misses, well, several misses, I successfully shot frogs from ten to fifteen yards at a consistent rate.

Today, I have upgraded the quality of my equipment yet have kept the traditional archery values by using the Cajun Bowfishing Fish Stick Recurve Fishing Bow.

The Cajun Fish Stick bow was designed to use while bowfishing for larger fish such as carp or suckers. However, the design of shooting an arrow with an attached line is perfect for bow hunting summer bullfrogs as well. Hunting frogs with a good friend a few years back, I watched as he showed off his archery skills by using a homemade recurve bow to shoot giant bullfrogs from his farm ponds. After watching his skills, I made it a personal goal to use a recurve bow on my next frog hunting outing.

When hunting bullfrogs on a warm summer night, a quality light is vital to find frogs yet prevent them from seeing you. I prefer the Optical Dynamics OD40 light to help locate frogs before making the shot. When hunting with a recurve bow, it is best to have a partner use the light due to the lack of time to shoot before the frog jumps into the water. Only having a few seconds to shoot is why the Cajun Fish Stick recurve bow is ideal for bowhunting frogs.

Another vital piece of equipment to successfully bow hunt frogs is a user-friendly arrow rest such as the TruGlo EZ-Rest Bowfishing Arrow Rest. The EZ-Rest features a full-containment design to hold the arrow in place no matter the bow’s angle. An arrow rest that keeps the arrow in place is a game changer. Again, the shooter has seconds to draw, aim, and shoot when a frog is located. The quicker the shot, the more frogs, will be taken.

How To Hunt Frogs

Frogs are most active during the summer months of June, July, and August. Being mostly night-active is why most frog hunters began hunting during late evenings, after dark, or throughout the night hours. A few minutes before the last light and after dark are the ideal times for frogs to be on the move. In my home state of Missouri, the frog season begins June 30th and runs through the end of October. Check your local regulations for season dates and guidelines.

The American Bullfrog and the Green Frog are the two most common frogs hunted during the summer and can best be found around farm ponds. When hunting frogs, the hunter must creep around the edges of the pond banks, scanning with a bright direct-beam light to locate frogs. When a frog is located, the light must be kept directly in its eyes to prevent it from spooking and jumping in the water.

After a frog has been spotted, the hunter and whoever is helping shine the light creep until they reach a comfortable shooting range. When using my Cajun Fish Stick recurve bow, I prefer to be ten to twelve yards if possible before stopping. Once we stop within range, I quietly get drawn, aim, and shoot as quickly as possible. Once a frog has been hit, I reel the line attached to the arrow while reeling the frog simultaneously. The daily bag limit for frogs in my home state is eight, so we try to hunt until our limit has been reached, then go directly into cleaning and processing until all the legs have been removed. The legs can then be cooked the same evening or frozen and cooked later.

Creating fond memories and carrying on traditions are both hallmarks of life that many hold near and dear to their heart. Even though times change and technologies advance, there is always a bit of tradition found if one looks hard enough. As with new and improved recurve bows, they may be perfected upon, yet a tradition of use goes back many decades. The same goes for frog hunting, this sport is not a new idea, yet it is enjoyable and addictive once you have tried it.

Frog Gigging 101: How to Gig a Frog

Frog gigging, also known as frog hunting, is a popular activity in parts of the United States, particularly the South and Midwest. Gigging frogs typically involves using a large spear, or gig, to impale frogs in bodies of water and then pulling them out of the water to be cooked and eaten. If you’re new to this pastime, or if you have always wanted to learn how to gig for frogs in the water yourself, then here’s everything you need to know about this fun summer activity!

What is Frog Gigging?

The techniques and equipment involved with frog gigging are relatively straightforward, but to successfully gig a frog, is not. The spear has a small barb with a small barb near it’s tip like a fishing hooks barb; when you gig a frog, it will stay on your spear without slipping off due to the barbs. The barbs of a frog gigging spear help keep your catch secure as you pull them out of underwater hiding spots or through thick vegetation. In general once you have some experience and have successfully learned to gig a frog it’s very easy to gather large amounts of frogs through gigging. Though typically you’ll want a partner to help you as it’s much harder to do solo (We’ll explain why below).

Step 1: Set up your Frog Gig

A frog gigging spear is a long-bladed spear tip traditionally used by hunters who wanted to catch frogs from the shore of a lake or river. A traditional frog gigging spear is thin, with three pronged spear points with small barbs on the end. You can purchase a ready to go spears to gig a frog, or even make one yourself from pretty basic materials. With that said, there are plenty of variations—some frog gigging spears have 3 prongs with barbs on all three ends, some have 2 or 4 prongs on them. Once you’ve got your frog gig grab a partner, and a couple headlamps. If you’d like more information on making your own frog gigging spear, click the link HERE or grab your own Frog Gigging Spear Card HERE

Step 2: Find Some Water to Gig a Frog in!

If you’re looking to gig a frog in the water, the first step is finding some water. Once you do you can confirm their presence by listening to the frogs as they croak; they often call near the water. (Croaking generally gets louder as their proximity to the water increases.) After locating a group of frogs, shine your light out over the water, you can see their eyes glow to confirm their presence. Once that’s done it’s time to go get your equipment together and go gig a frog!

Step 3: Blind the Frogs

You’re now equipped with the perfect frog gigging spear, a partner and an area to hunt. The only thing left to do is shine them, then gig a frog. It’s crucial that you blind the frogs while they are sitting on the bank or in their mud holes, or even in the water so your light needs to be as bright as you can get. You don’t want them to be able to escape, but if you shine it right into their eyes, they won’t be able to see your partner approach (from behind is best) just don’t get between them and the light or they will quickly hop away.

Step 4: How to Spear a Frog

Step up slowly behind the frog. This is a critical part of making sure you take your frog out cleanly and quickly. When ready, aim at the base frog’s head, directly behind his eyes, and thrust, congratulations, you’ve just learned how to gig a frog! Put your frogs into a dedicated frog gigging bag (like a burlap potato sack that’s been wet with cool water) and transfer them to an iced cooler as soon as you can to keep the meat as fresh as possible.

Step 5: Dinner Time!

now that you’ve got a few frogs, it’s time to eat! There’s a lot of resources online that include recipes for cooking frog legs, as well as other edible parts of frogs, so I won’t go into that for now since there’s plenty of information out there.

To purchase your own Gig click HERE

For more information on how to make a Frog Gig click HERE

Before Going Frog Gigging Check your Local Laws

before you go frog gigging check your local laws to determine any special requirements or limits you may have.

Types of Frogs: Only certain types of frogs can be hunted depending on the State. Some States allow more but, as a general rule, most states allow hunting:

American Bullfrogs

Green Frogs

Pig Frogs

Leopard Frogs

Your specific State Wildlife Department is the best place to get up-to-date information and resources for hunting, fishing, and land-use regulations

While rabbits may be cute to look at, they’re not animals you want to share your garden with.

In addition to reproducing rapidly, rabbits will destroy your plants and can wreak havoc on your landscaping, yard, and flowerbeds.

Fortunately, you don’t have to resign your property to rabbit damage. In fact, there are many humane removal methods that can stop rabbits from eating your plants.

In this blog, we’ll discuss how to get rid of rabbits without killing them. Our tips will help you remove wild, cottontail, and European rabbits from your backyard, garden, or lawn.

Safety Considerations

1. Apply repellents and baits in areas away from children and pets.
2. If using products that contain chemicals, read the product labels carefully to ensure safe application.
3. If using live traps, handle any captured rabbits with care. Wear heavy gloves and protective clothing to avoid contact with diseases. Be aware of local laws regarding the relocation or euthanization of trapped animals.

How to Get Rid of Rabbits in Your Yard

Natural & Humane Methods

Want to get rid of rabbits for good? Try these home remedies:

1. Repellents

Rabbits have a strong sense of smell, and they use it to guide them to safe, tasty food sources. Fortunately, you can use that sense of smell in your favor if you’re trying to repel rabbits.

To keep these pests from returning, try using various homemade deterrents.

Here are our top suggestions:

• • Use repellents like dried blood meal or sulfur to keep bunnies from entering your garden in the first place. Sprinkle your repellent of choice in the parts of your yard that you want rabbits to stay out of. Make sure to re-apply the repellent after every heavy rain or anytime you water your lawn or garden. If you have dogs, be wary of using this method since they may be attracted to the blood meal.
  • Sprinkle cayenne pepper around the garden or near plants that rabbits love to eat.
  • Use a small, mesh bag to contain shavings of strong-smelling bar soap, and place it in high-traffic rabbit areas.
  • Grind together three hot peppers, three large onions, and a whole bunch of garlic. Add water to cover, let the mixture sit overnight, strain it, and add water to make a gallon of homemade rabbit deterrent. Spray it anywhere you’ve noticed rabbit activity.
  • Apply a light coating of animal lard to the stalks and base area of new seeding replacements to repel rabbits.

We recommend Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit Repellent Concentrate if you’re looking for a more powerful repellent. This long-lasting, rain-resistant repellent is safe for use on landscaping, ornamental gardens, flowers, trees, vines, and shrubs and is harmless to plants and animals when used as directed.

Remember that repellents are only effective if you use them repeatedly and frequently since they can wear off quickly.

Pros: Easy, effective, affordable, non-toxic, gets rid of rabbits without killing them or harming dogs and other pets

Cons: These DIY deterrents require re-application after every heavy watering or rain (except for fencing of course)

2. Fencing

Use repellents and exclusion methods together to keep rabbits out of your garden for maximum effectiveness.

While fencing is time-consuming to install, it is the best way to control rabbits.

To prevent their entry, install chicken wire fencing or wire mesh around your lawn, garden, flower beds, and other areas you’d like to protect.

To ensure the fencing is rabbit-proof, we recommend using 15” tall poultry or bird netting (this product is a great option), although anything taller than 12” will work well. To prevent bunnies from digging under the fence, bury it at least 6” underground.

The top of the fence should be bent away from the garden bed, so rabbits can’t jump over it. You can protect bulbs with a dome or cage of chicken wire.

Pros: Fencing is affordable and humane and can keep other pests out of your garden.

Cons: Fencing can be difficult to install and requires routine repairs and maintenance.

3. Mesh hardware cloth

Create a second line of protection to keep rabbits away from your plants by using cylinders of ¼ inch-mesh hardware cloth to protect young fruit and ornamental trees.

For maximum protection, ensure the cylinders extend higher up the trees than a rabbit can reach while standing on its hind legs. The cylinders should be at least 1-2” off the tree trunk.

You can also use individual tin calls to create “collars” around plants so that they can grow to a less vulnerable size.

Pros: Easy, effective, inexpensive, nontoxic

Cons: Requires a good deal of manual work to install these barrier methods

4. Chicken Wire

Use chicken wire to protect your plants and keep rabbits out of your garden.

Simply wrap the wire around the garden. To prevent rabbits from burrowing underneath, dig the wire several inches into the ground.

You can also use netting to drape over your plants and prevent rabbits from nibbling on vulnerable growth.

Pros: Effective at preventing predation

Cons: Can be unsightly

5. Live traps

While rabbits are intelligent animals that are very difficult to lure into traps, you can do it.

To use live trapping as an effective rabbit control method, you must invest time and patience into determining the rabbits’ daily habits and routes of travel.

Well-placed live traps can catch and contain rabbits without harming them. Commonly used by rabbit control companies, live traps are a great way to quickly reduce rabbit populations without using lethal methods.

Not sure which live trap to use? We recommend Wilco’s Collapsible Live Trap, which is safe for rabbits, humane, and easy to set.

To make your live traps extra-effective, we recommend adding Wilco Rabbit Lure and placing the traps in the rabbit’s normal path of travel. This bait is a non-toxic paste that’s made from food-grade ingredients. While it attracts rabbits to the trap, it won’t harm them if they ingest it.

If you’re going to use live traps, you must treat the animals ethically.

• All traps should be checked at least once a day.
• Any trapped animals should be handled with care.
• You should wear heavy gloves and protective clothing to avoid contact with diseases transmitted through the animal’s feces and urine.

If you choose to live-trap animals, you’ll need to understand your area’s relevant trapping rules and regulations, as it is generally illegal to relocate live-trapped animals.

If you choose to euthanize the animals, you must only use humane methods. Drowning is not an acceptable option.

While shooting can be an effective solution, it’s illegal in most municipalities and can be dangerous. DO NOT try to shoot rabbits unless you’re a skilled marksman capable of doing so safely and responsibly.

Pros: Effective, fast-acting, humane

Cons: Can be time-consuming to set up and manage, poses a risk of disease

Lethal Methods

If you want to eliminate rabbits, there are lethal methods you can use. That said, we always recommend using humane approaches and avoiding deadly techniques as much as possible.

6. Poison

If you want to kill rabbits, poison is one of the fastest methods. There are many store-bought rabbit positions designed to kill rabbits fast.

There are also jackrabbit baits on the market, but they’re highly restricted and come with many risks.

We advise caution with all poisons since these poisons contain dangerous toxins and are likely not safe for kids, pets, or non-target species.

Pros: Effective, fast-acting.

Cons: These products are highly toxic and inhumane and are not approved for use around kids, pets, or food.

7. Lethal traps

While there are a variety of non-lethal traps available to help you get rid of rabbits, some people prefer lethal traps.

Lethal traps kill rabbits quickly and can be used to cut down large rabbit populations.

Pros: Non-toxic, safer than poisons

Cons: Requires re-baiting and re-setting of traps, and disposing of dead rabbits, inhumane. Live trapping is also dangerous: live trapping can pose a risk of injury for the trapper and animals and may distress rabbits.

How do Wildlife Removal Companies Get Rid of Rabbits?

Interested in hiring a wildlife removal company to get rid of your rabbits? Here’s what you can expect:

Step 1: Inspection

When you hire a wildlife removal company, most teams will start with an inspection of your property.

During this inspection, they’ll arrive at your property, identify rabbit burrows, and assess current rabbit damage.

Next, they’ll make treatment recommendations. During this inspection, they’ll evaluate your property, identify the source and severity of the infestation, and discuss treatment options.

Step 2: Treatment

Next, the wildlife removal company will deliver the treatment method they’ve deemed most appropriate for your property.

Since rabbits reproduce rapidly, getting rid of them usually requires multiple treatments rather than a single appointment.

Step 3: Follow-up

Once the pest control experts have completed their initial phase of treatments, they may move on to exclusion recommendations designed to keep rabbits from returning to your property.

Keeping Rabbits Away

Keep bunnies off your property with these simple prevention tips:

• Plant onions, garlic, marigold, and other strong-smelling plants around the border of your garden to deter rabbits. While there are no truly “rabbit-proof” plants, rabbits tend to stay away from strongly-scented herbs and plants like oregano, basil, and rhubarb.
• Keep your yard as tidy as possible. Habitat modification is one of the best ways to get rid of bunnies. Remove hiding spaces by trimming back landscaping, raking up piles of brushes and leaves, and keeping your lawn mowed to limit shelter.
• Let your domestic pets outside often. Rabbits see pets as predators and will be hesitant to visit a yard with pets.
• Use scare tactics to startle rabbits. Motion-activated lights, shiny aluminum pie tins, old mirrors, and motion-activated scare devices can all help keep rabbits out of your garden without hurting them.
• Use store-bought ultrasonic spikes. These spikes emit a noise that’s too high-pitch for people to hear, but that creates an intolerable racket for rabbits.

Need Additional Help? Turn to Pest Dude!

Rabbits can be tough pests to eliminate. If your DIY options have failed or you want expert help, it may be time to find a reputable, local wildlife removal company in your area.

Fortunately, we have a broad network of reputable partners in your area that can help you get rid of rabbits quickly and humanely.

“The advantages are obvious when you consider that many of the same targets of rocket and mortar fire can be neutralized with M33 ball, API M8 or Multipurpose ammunition.”

—”Heavy Firepower for Light Infantry,” Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc. brochure advertising its Model 82A1 50 caliber sniper rifle18

The 50 caliber sniper rifles proliferating on today’s civilian market are coveted by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations because the cartridge they fire offers a devastating combination of range and power. This section explains why the .50BMG round can slice through body armor like a knife through warm butter, knock down hovering helicopters, rip up armored limousines, destroy radar dishes, and ignite bulk fuel tanks—all at the length of 10 football fields.19 Here is the summary of the round’s merits by an enthusiastic essayist in the authoritative journal The Small Arms Review:

The fifty caliber’s ability to be deployed by one individual and give that person the capability of discretely engaging a target at ranges of over one mile away are definitely alluring from a tactical standpoint. While the .50 cal sometimes seems to be exaggerated, it is hard to imagine a round that at ranges of over a mile and a half away, has more kinetic energy than a .44 Magnum, and has unbeatable penetration as well.20

The trained operator of a 50 caliber sniper rifle like the Barrett M82A1 has the choice of accurately hitting a long range target at 1,800 meters (1,969 yards) away,21 blasting through two inches of solid concrete at the shorter range of 200 meters (219 yards),22 or destroying a spectrum of personnel and material targets at other ranges.23 These choices—the balance of extremely long-range and enormous striking power—are enhanced when specially designed “match,” “armor piercing,” or “armor piercing incendiary” ammunition is used.

To appreciate the threat of the 50 caliber sniper rifle, it is necessary to consider its extended accurate range, its exceptional power, and the extraordinarily destructive characteristics of special 50 caliber military ammunition widely available on the civilian market.

Extended Range and Accuracy

Apologists for the unrestricted sale of 50 caliber sniper rifles to civilians often downplay the sniper rifle’s long range accuracy. But the evidence from manufacturer advertising, military manuals, expert writing, and civilian owners themselves is that the 50 caliber rifles are accurate at ranges of at least 1,000 yards, and in the hands of a patiently trained and well-practiced marksman, nearly 2,000 yards. It is sobering to think of what Al Qaeda or other terrorists who have these sniper rifles can do with them from a distance of 20 football fields, especially given the planning and training of the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

The great mass of its bullet and the large size of the case into which the bullet is loaded give the 50 caliber round its deadly reach. Taken together, these result in much higher momentum than lesser rounds, such as the 30 caliber rounds of most other military sniper rifles.d The staff columnist of Very High Power Magazine, published by the Fifty Caliber Shooter’s Association—a tiny organization of competitive shooters vociferous in its defense of the unrestrained civilian sale of 50 caliber sniper rifles—summarized this point in an article comparing the 50 caliber to the 7.76 NATO (.308 Winchester) “its next, closest, US military competitor” as follows:

For military users, the .50 BMG caliber cartridge offers a significantly larger payload volume over the .30 calibers. Also, with the speed and weight of the .50 projectile, muzzle energy is outstanding for a small arms caliber. This translates into a longer range bullet that can still deliver a punch.

Fifty Caliber Sniper Rifles Are Used by Armed Forces Worldwide

This Swedish soldier takes aim with a Barrett M82A1 50 Caliber sniper rifle. According to Forbes magazine, a sale to the Swedish army in 1989 was Barrett’s first government contract. How long a range? According to the U.S. Army, the 50 caliber rifle more than doubles the range of the sniper over the .308 round:

The typical range for a sniper attack is 300 to 600 meters with medium-caliber rifles. Shots from 800 to 1,000 meters are the exception. However, heavy sniper rifles (.50-caliber, 12.7-mm, 14.5-mm, and 15-mm) with ranges of 1,200 to 1,500 meters are now proliferating around the world.25

Manufacturers of 50 caliber sniper rifles also claim accuracy at these and even greater ranges. “With confirmed hits out to 1800 meters, the Barrett model 82A1 is battle proven,” Barrett Firearms states in its promotional brochure.26In fact, U.S. forces using Barrett M82A1s routinely engaged Iraqi forces out to a range of 1,600 meters (1,750 yards) during the 1991 Gulf War.27 For readers familiar with Washington, DC, this is roughly the distance from the Smithsonian Institute Metro stop to the West Front of the Capitol, where inaugural ceremonies are held. Another manufacturer, Aurora Tactical, says that its Model 650 Special Light Anti-Materiel Rifle (SLAMR) “enables a skilled marksman to deliver exceptionally accurate fire on targets in excess of 1500 yards.”28

These ranges, in the vicinity of one mile, are at the outer limits of what may be expected from a skilled marksman. But they should not be dismissed as beyond the reach of dedicated terrorists like Al Qaeda, especially given the civilian training available and discussed in Section Four. In fact, some expert observers consider the 1000 yard range—the equivalent of 10 football fields end to end—to be comfortably within the grasp of the serious shooter. For example, two publications reviewing the performance of a new entry into the 50 caliber market, the ArmaLite AR-50, addressed the range question. American Rifleman, the NRA’s official journal, said the .50 BMG is “ideally suited for precision target shooting at distances of 1000 yds. or more.”29 The Small Arms Review, dedicated to the arcana of military weaponry, said, “It turned out that hitting something at 1000 yards was not the challenge. The real challenge was finding a place to safely shoot at a target 1000 yards away.”30

Finally, advances in the design of 50 caliber rifles and ammunition alike have gradually improved the performance of expert shots at the 1,000 yard range. Thus, the diameter of the group of winning rounds fired in world record competitions steadily declined from 9.3125″ in 1986 to 2.6002″ in 1999.31

In short, the evidence is clear that the power of the 50 caliber sniper rifle in trained hands reaches from at least 1,000 to as far as 2,000 yards.

Destructive Power

It must always be kept in mind that the 50 caliber sniper rifle’s threat is not only a function of the long ranges described above, but a devil’s blend of long range and massive power. The operator will balance these two depending on the nature of the target. For example, IRA terrorists who assassinated British soldiers and Irish constables fired from ranges as short as 120 yards. The rounds the IRA snipers fired easily ripped through high grade military body armor worn by the soldiers, inflicting instantly mortal wounds.32 On the other hand, the longest confirmed kill in sniper history was achieved at a distance of 1.42 miles in Vietnam, by U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Carlos N. Hathcock. That feat is all the more impressive given that 50 caliber sniper rifles had not even yet been invented—Hathcock was firing single shots from a 50 caliber machine gun that he jury-rigged with a telescopic sight.33 The 50 caliber sniper rifles being sold to civilians today are much more sophisticated and finely made than Hathcock’s makeshift weapon.

Although the 50 caliber sniper rifle presents a dramatic assassination threat because of its extraordinarily long range, that threat must not blind us to the super gun’s power to destroy material targets. This destructive power is at least as serious a terrorist threat as assassination, and is more likely to cause mass casualties and widespread disruption to commerce and civic order. Here, for example, is Barrett’s description of the power of its Model M82A1:

This revolutionary .50 caliber semi-automatic rifle allows sophisticated targets to be destroyed or disabled by a single soldier. Armored personnel carriers, radar dishes, communications vehicles, aircraft and area denial submunitions are all vulnerable to the quick strike capability of the Barrett 82A1. With decisive force and without the need for the manpower and expense of mortar or rocket crews, forces can engage the opposition at distances far beyond the range of small arms fire….The 82A1’s light weight makes transportation as easy as walking….With night vision equipment, the weapon is even more effective under cover of darkness. The muzzle brake reduces felt recoil to no more than that of a 12 gauge shotgun….The advantages are obvious when you consider that many of the same targets for rocket and mortar fire can be neutralized with M33 ball, API M8 or Multipurpose ammunition.34

An excerpt from the U.S. Army’s manual on urban combat indicates that it agrees with Barrett’s assessment of the 50 caliber sniper rifle’s ability to destroy materiel targets:

These heavy sniper rifles were originally intended as anti materiel weapons for stand-off attack against high-value targets, such as radar control vans, missiles, parked aircraft, and bulk fuel and ammunition storage sites. Because of this, they are only marginally accurate enough for long-range shots against individual personnel. It is their ability to shoot through all but the heaviest shielding material, and their devastating effects, that make them valuable psychological weapons.35

How destructive can the 50 caliber sniper rifle be in the hands of an Al Qaeda terrorist? That depends on the ammunition—and the target.

Overview of 50 Caliber Ammunition

The U.S. military uses at least eight different types of .50BMG ammunition, each type designed for a specific use.36 There are also various brands of civilian ammunition, much of it designed and manufactured for long-range competitive shooting, and 50 caliber ammunition can be reloaded at home. Worldwide, at least 100 variants of 50 caliber ammunition are produced in more than 30 countries.37 All of these types of 50 caliber ammunition have one thing in common: they are extremely powerful. Even so, some varieties are much more destructive than others.

The ammunition that 50 caliber sniper rifles fire today was originally developed during the First World War as both an anti-tank and machine gun round.38 Developments in tank armor soon made tanks generally impervious to 50 caliber rounds,39 but according to the Marine Corps and other authorities, the 50 caliber can still blast through more lightly armored vehicles, such as armored personnel carriers, and thus clearly through armored limousines. “Size Matters”

Relative size of 30 caliber and 50 caliber rounds. Most military and police sniper rifles are in 30 caliber.

In fact, one of the reasons that the FBI requested that tanks be brought into the notorious and ultimately tragic siege of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas Size matterswas that the Davidians were armed with two Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifles.40 An Army general told officials that even the U.S. “Bradley fighting vehicles would be vulnerable to .50 caliber weapons.”41 It is clear that the presence of these super guns in civilian hands contributed to the escalation of force in the encounter. The implications for the security of high-profile dignitaries and others traveling in civilian armored cars, equally clear, are discussed in Section Three.

50 Caliber Ammunition Available on U.S. Civilian Market

The following review of four types of 50 caliber ammunition that are available to civilians in the United States—and thus easily available to foreign and domestic terrorists—describes the destruction the 50 caliber sniper rifle can inflict.

The availability of this ammunition in U.S. civilian markets is wholly aside from the fact that military ammunition stocks also can be procured from underground sources. Arms and ammunition—including such destructive items as M-16 assault rifles, machine guns, TNT, dynamite, plastic explosives, land mines, and hand grenades—are regularly stolen from U.S. military armories.42 Fifty caliber sniper rifles have proliferated in military forces around the world, and 50 caliber ammunition is made in more than 30 countries. Those foreign forces, including some that are less than friendly to the United States, have stocks of military ammunition that are available to any terrorist with the right connections. Arms and ammunition are also stolen from these foreign forces, friend and foe alike, sometimes on a staggering scale.43 Fifty caliber sniper rifles are also now finding their way into the arsenals of civilian police,44opening another potential channel for acquisition of the more exotic 50 caliber ammunition through theft45 or other leakage.46 As Jane’s Intelligence Review noted recently, “the hardest category of military exports to control is dual-use technology—technology that has both civilian or military applications.”47 This description snugly fits the 50 caliber military sniper rifles sold by Barrett and other manufacturers to armies and civilians alike.

Ball ammunition. The simplest and most common round of firearm ammunition is called “ball.” The U.S. Army says 50 caliber ball is used for training and against personnel and light materiel targets.48 Ball has less penetrating power than the specialized rounds discussed below. But the bullet’s power against material objects is nonetheless awesome, varying as in all cases with distance. Thus, the Army says that at the long range of 1,500 meters (1,640 yards), ball ammunition can penetrate one inch of concrete, six inches of sand, and 21 inches of clay.49 At the lesser range of 35 meters (38 yards), ball ammunition can penetrate an inch of armor plate and 16 inches of log wall.50

Of course, a bullet that can penetrate an inch of concrete from the distance of 16 football fields can do massive damage to any softer target (such as human beings or unarmored public utility fixtures) from that and lesser ranges. Moreover, Army tables cited in the paragraph above show that the effects of ball can be enhanced by repeated firing at the same target, a capability of the semi-automatic 50 caliber sniper rifles like the Barrett M82A1 and others.gThis thought is captured in the following quote from a noted expert author on sniping:

It’s the .50’s tremendous ability to penetrate bunkers and building that makes it so deadly….This means you can pulverize enemy positions and induce casualties without necessarily seeing an enemy soldier. When firing at positions, don’t be thrifty; riddle them with enough bullets to ensure damage.51

In lieu of such brute force, the 50 caliber sniper rifle’s performance can be substantially enhanced by the use of ammunition specially designed to destroy hard targets—ammunition that makes the rifles what expert Mark V. Lonsdale calls “a cost effective way to engage the enemy’s high-tech equipment, light skinned vehicles and aircraft, especially when compared to the cost of hitting the same targets with rocket or mortar fire.”52

Armor-piercing and incendiary ammunition. The Army says that the basic 50 caliber armor-piercing round is designed for use “against armored aircraft and lightly armored vehicles, concrete shelters, and other bullet-resisting targets.”53 The armor-piercing effect is achieved by the bullet’s design, which wraps a hardened core of a substance like manganese-molybdenum steel with a softer metal jacket.54 Incendiary ammunition is self-descriptive, used for “incendiary effect, especially against aircraft.”55 In other words, it sets things like airplanes, fuel, and other combustible materials on fire.h Tracer ammunition, familiar to the public from scenes of night combat, leaves a visible trail of incendiary light. Variant rounds combine armor-piercing, incendiary, and tracer effects.56

As the following table demonstrates, the capabilities of the 50 caliber sniper rifle is substantially enhanced by the use of basic armor-piercing ammunition.

50 Caliber Armor-Piercing Bullet Penetration

Material 200 Meters(219 Yards) 600 Meters(656 Yards) 1,500 Meters(1,640 Yards) Homogeneous Armor Plate 1.0″ 0.7″ 0.3″ Face-Hardened Armor Plate 0.9″ 0.5″ 0.2″ Clay 28″ 27″ 21″

According to expert John Plaster, armor-piercing rounds at the shorter range of 100 yards (one football field) can penetrate nine inches of concrete, 1.8 inches of unarmored steel, 3.5 inches of aluminum, and 96 inches of timber.57

Saboted Light Armor Penetrator (SLAP) Ammunition. Designers of anti-armor ammunition have long used the idea of replacing a given caliber gun’s projectile with a projectile of smaller diameter but more dense material. In order to seat the smaller projectile in the larger ammunition case, and to gain the necessary spin from the gun’s rifled barrel, the projectile is wrapped in a “sabot” or “shoe.” The shoe rides the length of the gun’s barrel, then drops away from the projectile when it exits the barrel. The much higher velocity of a “saboted” round enhances its armor-piercing performance.

The U.S. Marine Corps developed 50 caliber SLAP ammunition in the 1980s, and it was used in 1990 during the Gulf War’s Operation Desert Storm. It uses a .30 inch heavy metal (tungsten) penetrator in a plastic shoe, which is .50 inch in diameter. “Since the mass of the saboted penetrator is much lighter in weight than normal ball .50 caliber ammunition, SLAP’s velocity can be significantly and safely increased,” according to the Marine Corps. “This produces a very fast round with a very flat trajectory which enhances hit probability…and extends the light armor capability…significantly.”58

According to Winchester, the civilian contractor that developed the 50 caliber SLAP round, it delivers “superior and proven performance against lightly armored vehicles and armoured attack helicopters at ranges up to 1500 meters.”59

Components of “saboted light armor piercing” (SLAP) round

The 30 caliber bullet fits into 50 caliber case with plastic “sabot.” Sabot falls away after round exits the barrel of the gun.

A round that has “proven performance” against an armored attack helicopter at 1,600 yards is a clear threat to America in the hands of any terrorist group that, like Al Qaeda, has acquired the means to deliver it in the form of the Barrett 50 caliber sniper rifle.

Raufoss Multipurpose (Armor-piercing, explosive, incendiary) Ammunition. The crown jewel of 50 caliber sniper rifle ammunition is the Raufoss multi-purpose round, developed by a Norwegian company and manufactured under license by several companies, including Winchester. Said by experts to be the most popular round with U.S. military snipers,60 it was used to devastating effect by U.S. forces in the 1991 Gulf War.

Designated the MK211 by the U.S. military, the Raufoss round was described by Jane’s International Defense Review in 1994 as “the most influential development of the past decade” in 50 caliber ammunition.61 The round combines armor-piercing, explosive, and incendiary effects and uses a “highly effective pyrotechnically initiated fuze…[that] delays detonation of the main projectile charge until after initial target penetration—moving projectile fragmentation and damage effect inside the target for maximum anti-personnel and fire start effect.”62 According to its developer, Nordic Ammunition Company (NAMMO), the round can be used in “sniper rifles similar to Barrett M82A1,” has “the equivalent firing power of a 20 mm projectile to include such targets as helicopters, aircrafts (sic), light armour vehicles, ships and light fortifications,” and can ignite JP4 and JP8 military jet fuel.63 (The typical 20mm projectile to which NAMMO equates its 50 caliber Raufoss round is approximately .8 inch in diameter, thus more than half again as wide as the 50 caliber. It is used in anti-armor and anti-aircraft cannons, often with an explosive charge.64 The Vulcan 20mm cannon has been the standard internal gun armament of most U.S. combat aircraft—currently including F-14, F-16, and F/A-18—since the 1950s.65)

According to the Marine Corps, the Barrett “M82A1A…fires the .50-caliber RAUFOSS ammunition, which contains a tungsten penetrator and a more powerful explosive charge than the API ammunition….it has penetrated an inch of steel at 2000 yards.”66 Jane’s International Defense Review estimates that the round is “probably capable of disabling a man wearing body armor who is standing behind the wall of a house at 2,000m…. (and) can perforate the foundation of a high-rise building (20cm reinforced concrete) at 400m.”67 Reasonable persons probably would agree that blasting through 20 centimeters (7.87 inches) of reinforced concrete from four football field’s distance is an impressive performance.

The antipersonnel sniping potential of the Raufoss round—touted by both NAMMO and Winchester in their advertising material—inspired an unsuccessful attempt in 1998 by the International Committee of the Red Cross to have the round Raufoss Rounddeclared an “exploding bullet” banned under international law.68 The Raufoss Round—The Crown Jewel of 50 Caliber Ammunition

How the Raufoss 50 caliber multi-purpose round works. The armor-piercing bullet penetrates the armor. Then a delayed action fuze sets off the explosive part of round, producing fragmentation and incendiary (fire-starting) effects.

Availability of Specialized 50 Caliber Ammunition on U.S. Civilian Market

The implications of the potential uses to which a terrorist might put 50 caliber armor-piercing, incendiary, SLAP, or Raufoss ammunition can only be described as frightening. Yet all of these types of ammunition are available on the U.S. civilian market. SLAP is less frequently offered than ball, armor-piercing, and incendiary variants, and Raufoss is rarely offered publicly. Yet the VPC has documented public offerings and apparent sales of all the varieties discussed above in the civilian market (again, aside from leakage from military stocks worldwide).

Ball, armor-piercing, and armor-piercing incendiary are routinely sold through a variety of Internet web sites and mail order catalogs, and at least one site has also offered SLAP.69 In addition to these commercial outlets, armor-piercing and SLAP rounds have been offered for sale through at least one Internet gun auction site.70

Finally, SLAP and Raufoss have been offered for sale through postings on a popular 50 caliber Internet bulletin board.71 One correspondent on the board claimed to have “acquired some Winchester manufactured (real) SLAP ammo which was acquired from a Winchester rep for free.” If this is true, that incident marked a source of leakage that cut out the military middle man.

In sum, the most destructive types of ammunition for the 50 caliber sniper rifles are freely available in the U.S. domestic market—wholly aside from whatever leakage may exist from military sources, not only within the United States, but abroad, including from the armed forces of hostile, terrorist-supporting countries.

In the next section, we report on the hands into which 50 caliber sniper rifles have fallen, including Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and other terrorists and criminals.

c) .50BMG is the technical designation of the round. The BMG stands for Browning machine gun, one of the earliest weapons using the round.

d) Generally speaking, modern ammunition consists of four parts, assembled into a unit called a “round” or “cartridge.” The components of the round are (1) the bullet, i.e., the actual projectile that the gun shoots; (2) the propellant charge, or gunpowder, which when ignited rapidly expands into a high pressure gas that expels the bullet out the barrel of the gun, (3) a “primer” which ignites when struck by a firing pin and in turn sets off the main charge of powder, and (4) a case or “shell” in which the powder, primer and bullet are assembled. Ammunition size is commonly expressed in terms of the approximate diameter of the bullet, measured either in inches (e.g., .50 BMG is roughly half an inch in diameter) or millimeters (e.g., 12.7 mm). Although the dimensions of 50 caliber rounds vary depending on the type (i.e. “ball,” “match,” “armor-piercing,” etc.), the typical 50 caliber bullet is .510″ in diameter by 2.27″ in length, the case is 3.9″ in length, and the overall length of the assembled round is 5.425″. (The overall length is somewhat shorter than the sum of the case and bullet because the bullet is “seated” within the case.) Dimensions from: Dean Michaelis, The Complete .50-Caliber Sniper Course: Hard-Target Interdiction (Paladin Press, Boulder, Colorado, 2000), p. 391; Ian V. Hogg, The World’s Sniping Rifles (Greenhill Books, London,1998), p. 123; Ian V. Hogg, The Greenhill Military Small Arms Data Book (Greenhill Books, London, 1999), p. 280.

e) Last February the FCSA’s president reported that it was “rapidly approaching 2600 members.” “From The President’s Bench,” downloaded from The Fifty Caliber Shooter’s Association Internet web site, http://www.fcsa.org on February 13, 2001.

f) It is not true, nor has the VPC ever claimed, that a 50 caliber round can penetrate the armor of a modern tank, despite occasional erroneous reports to that effect. What is true is that the 50 caliber can force tank crews to “button up,” and well-placed shots could destroy or degrade certain external equipment and vision blocks on some tanks. See, e.g., undated article “How to ‘Tickle a Tank,’” Soldier of Fortune, posted on Barrett Firearms Internet web site, downloaded from http://www.clickstudio.com/barrettmilitary/sof.htm on September 29, 2001. These, however, are generally military matters beyond the range of this report and the VPC’s interest.

g) Semi-automatic firearms typically have an ammunition magazine, popularly called a “clip.” They fire one round every time the trigger is pulled until the magazine is empty. The trigger of a semi-automatic firearm may be pulled rapidly, but it must be released between each round. This differs from the fully automatic weapon, or machine gun, which continues firing as long as the trigger is held down until the magazine is exhausted.

h) Fifty caliber sniper rifles have been banned from some public shooting ranges because of fires set by enthusiasts firing various types of incendiary rounds. See discussion in Section Four.

i) Source: John L. Plaster, The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military & Police Snipers (Paladin Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1993), p. 221.

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An air pistol is a type of BB gun that uses compressed air to shoot pellets. Air pistols typically have a shorter range and less power than other types of air guns, making them suitable for close-range target shooting. Most air pistols are semi-automatic, meaning they can quickly fire multiple shots. 

Air pistols are often used for plinking, a type of target shooting involving shooting at small targets such as cans or bottles. Air pistols can also be used for pest control, as they are powerful enough to kill small animals such as rats and snakes. 

While air pistols are not as powerful as other types of firearms, they can still be dangerous if used improperly. Always treat an air pistol with the same respect you would treat a real gun.

Things To Know Before Purchasing An Air Pistol

So, you’re in the market for an air pistol. Whether you’re looking for a new piece to add to your collection or your first gun, you should know a few things before you make your purchase. The five most crucial considerations for air pistol shopping are covered in this blog post.

1 . Types Of Air Pistols

There are many different styles and dimensions of air pistols, each with specific benefits. For example, break-barrel air pistols are air pistols with barrels that break open in order to load the pellet. This type of air pistol is typically very inexpensive and easy to use. 

Another type of air pistol is the semi-automatic air pistol. This type of air pistol has a magazine that holds the pellets, and the gun is automatically cocked when the trigger is pulled. Semi-automatic air pistols are typically more expensive than break-barrel air pistols, but they are also more accurate and have a higher rate of fire. 

Finally, there are CO2-powered air pistols. These pistols use CO2 cartridges to propel the pellets and are generally considered the most powerful and accurate type of air pistol. They are, however, also the priciest variety of air pistols. 

=> Read more: Things to Know About Pistols

2. Budget

Once you’ve decided on the type of air pistol you want, it’s time to start shopping around. Establishing a budget before you begin looking to prevent unintentional overspending is crucial. 

Air pistols can range in price from $30 to $200 or more, so it’s important to set a budget and stick to it. 

3. Shipping Restrictions

Anyone seeking to purchase an air pistol should be aware of the shipping restrictions in place. For instance, air guns can only be transported by ground in the United States.

Furthermore, a lot of retailers won’t deliver air guns to locations beyond the contiguous 48 states. Due to the possibility of abuse and mishaps, some regulations are in place. It is crucial to be aware of them before making a purchase.

By understanding the shipping restrictions, you can ensure that you select a retailer that can meet your needs and help you stay safe while enjoying your new air pistol.

4. Power Of The Air Pistol

Several different air pistols are available, each with special features and advantages. But before you purchase an air pistol, it’s important to consider how powerful of a weapon you need. 

A lower-powered model will likely suffice if you’re only using the gun for target practice or plinking. However, if you plan on using the gun for hunting or self-defense, then you’ll need a more powerful option.

It’s also important to pick an air pistol that fits naturally in your hand and is simple to use. Finding the ideal firearm for your needs is crucial, given the variety of models available. 

We also recommend you check out the most powerful air pistol to help you make your purchase decision.

5. Accuracy Of The Air Pistol

Some air pistols are designed for competition shooting and can be quite accurate, while others may be less precise but still suitable for casual use. 

Factors that affect accuracy include the quality of the barrel, the type of pellet used, and the power of the air pistol. If you are serious about competition shooting or need to hunt small game, you will want to choose an air pistol with high accuracy. 

However, a less accurate air pistol may be more suitable if you are simply looking for a fun way to spend some time at the range. 

Conclusion 

Buying an air pistol is a big decision. Before making a purchase, there are numerous things to think about.

We hope this post has given you some insight into some of the issues you should be aware of when purchasing an air pistol. Please feel free to use the comment section below if you have any additional queries.