“federal magnum”

When hunters are toting their trusty bear-defense handguns outside of the backcountry, its often wise to change out ammunition—away from hard-nosed, monolithic rounds that focus primarily on penetrating thick skull plates and the like. Federal Premium is helping hunters do exactly that, with the addition of Personal Defense HST 357 Magnum and 327 Federal Magnum.

Get a closer look at the Henry Big Boy Steel Carbine, the latest addition to our #SundayGunday series.

The Ruger Single-Seven (offered exclusively through firearm distributor Lipsey’s) has the same frame size as the older rimfire Single-Six, but it is chambered in .327 Federal Magnum. Except for the sights, all the visible metal is stainless steel. The laminated hardwood grips have an orange tint and a Ruger medallion inset.

Henry’s Big Boy Steel Carbine has traditional lever-action lines but retains Henry’s signature cutout in the magazine tube, through which cartridges are loaded and unloaded. Though somewhat unconventional in appearance and function, it makes the lever gun infinitely easier and safer to unload at hunt’s end.

Federal’s new HammerDown ammo line has been ideally adapted to feed, cycle and function in lever-action rifles while also delivering the best level of terminal performance for hunting that can be extracted from each cartridge.

Loosely based on a shortened .404 Jeffery case with the rim rebated to the .535-inch case head of the H&H family, the .270 WSM was the third commercial cartridge using the .277-inch bore diameter, and betters the velocity of the .270 Winchester by 200 to 250 fps.

The goal was to build a magnum-class cartridge in a small package, and Weatherby has done just that with its 6.5 Weatherby RPM, featuring a rebated rim, large body diameter, low body taper and 35-degree shoulder.

Hornady’s dive into a .17-caliber rimfire was met with fanfare, as it truly was—and still is—a decided improvement over the long-range ballistics of any of the .22 rimfire cartridges.