Manufacturers are well-armed this year
   The Detroit News
       Sports; D ; Page 12
   March 10, 2002

Byline: Lynn Henning
    Upland birds and North American big game enjoy a kind of vacation as
winter gives way to spring.
    It's the world of firearms that rarely gets a breather.
    Twelve months a year, rifles and shotguns are eyed by hunters and
sport-shooters who seem never to have met an attractive, technologically
appealing model they didn't like.
    "We've even sold quite a few black-powder guns," said Greg Yourst,
group sales manager for the hunting division at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor
World in Auburn Hills. "And they've been out of
season for a couple of months now."
    Manufacturers seem bent on making 2002 a particularly irresistible
sales year for a consumers group that hardly needs prodding.
    Winchester, Browning, Remington, Benelli, Knight, Thompson/Center --
major names in gun-making -- are clear winners as shoppers either latch
onto models already in the stores, or clamor for new gun-lines.
    Firearms-shoppers also tend to be equal-opportunity buyers. Rifles,
shotguns, black-powder weapons -- all categories have their best-sellers
as spring nears.
    Rifles
    The hot story so far has been Winchester's short magnum (WSM is its
catalogue acronym) rifles and loads that have been been extended from .300
magnum to .270 Winchester and Remington 7-millimeter magnum.
    The WSM lines shoot cartridges that are a half-inch shorter than
standard magnum loads, have faster downrange speeds, and pack comparable,
or better, muzzle energy.
    "And there's not as much recoil," said Jason McClure, firearms
manager at Gander Mountain in Waterford.
    Minimal recoil is one of the key reasons why Ruger's Model 77, in
17-caliber Hornady, is one of the most difficult to find firearms
anywhere in Bass Pro Shops' retail system.
    "Let me put it to you this way," Yourst said. "I've received a
(shipment) of two -- and before they even got into the store they were
sold. It's a flat-shooting varmint caliber, great for
(woodchucks), or coyotes, or for guys who go out West prairie-dog
hunting.
    "They can shoot 700, 800, 1,000 rounds, and not burn out their
shoulders."
    Shotgun
    Another model retailers can't keep in stock is Winchester's Model
9410, a lever-action shotgun in .410 gauge.
    It is a novel firearm, all right. The 9410 -- a take-off on the
classic Model 94 rifle -- has a 24-inch barrel, a nine-shot tubular
magazine, with a smooth-bore barrel and a suggested retail price of about
$570.
    Benelli, an upper-end shotgun manufacturer, has drawn serious
attention with its Super Black Eagle HD (high-definition) Timber, a
semi-automatic with a vibrant camouflage pattern. It's a hot gun for
waterfowl or turkeys -- even at a retail price of about $1,200.
   

Turkey shotguns are, naturally, one of the season 's more consistent
sellers. Mossberg, a brand name that has developed a following because of
its affordability and reliability, has been
selling well in its 500 and 835 models. The same holds true for Benelli's
lower-end Nova model, along with Browning's mid-priced Stalker.
    Remington 870s are a mainstream choice for turkey hunters who opt for
a shotgun that can handle heavy loads up to 3 1/2-inches.
    Black powder
    Measured in proportion, probably no category of long guns has had a
run quite like black-powder rifles.
    H&R has ignited something of a marketplace brushfire with its
entry-level black-powder rifle, The Huntsman, which has a telescoping
brass ramrod and retails for a stunning $129.
    It uses 209 primer and is manufactured in .50 and .45 caliber.
Finding the rifle in stock is the challenge.
    "They are few and far between," said McClure of Gander Mountain.
    Thompson/Center, a noted black-powder firearms manufacturer, is also
advertising a lever-action muzzle-loader -- The Omega -- that retails for
about $300 and is something of a counterpart to the new Knight Disc model,
which has unusual waterproof features.
    Ammunition
    The story three months into 2002 is Remington's adoption of
Hevi-Shot -- a trademarked nickel-and-tungsten shotgun blend that is
described as being 1 1/2 times denser than lead.
    "Nothing on the market patterns like this," said Brad Gerber, a
product specialist at Cabela's, in Dundee, Mich. "It hits like a ton of
bricks. We were using 3-inch, No. 6s, and it was incredible. We can't find
a lead load that will shoot like that."
    Yourst used the Remington Hevi-Shot loads while duck-hunting in
Arkansas last fall, and agreed with Gerber that the load is "phenomenal."
    "I took a shot at a duck at more than 70 yards and nailed it," Gerber
said. "With steel I wouldn't have come close."
    The Remington Hevi-Shot shells retail at $20 for a box of 10.
    "As fast as we get the boxes in, they're gone," Yourst said. "The
longest we've gone with a single box is two days."