Test protocol includes three distinct, but overlapping, phases. Before a single shell or cartridge is loaded, each firearm is inspected, measured, weighed, cleaned if necessary, and in the case of the rifles, scoped up. This time-consuming process is what we use to build the data sheets provided to each tester, which list all the vital statistics about the firearm. We’re so picky during this process that we even assign number grades to reflect the quality of the machining on the bore and rifling, for instance. Suffice it to say there’s no nook or cranny on these rifles and shotguns, all of which are field-stripped and disassembled, that isn’t inspected.

In February, the OL test team put the screws to 12 of the best new rifles on the market. See which guns scored the highest in our annual rifle test.

Top-flight shooting instruction has never been easier to come by, particularly with the proliferation of long-range precision rifle schools, most of which have been strongly influenced by modern sniper techniques. One of the keys to being more effective at long ranges is to get the most out of your riflescope, binoculars, and spotting scope.

From the outside, the new 12-shot 1873 Cattleman from Uberti looks like a normal revolver made of steel and wood. But based on the reaction it has elicited from the broad cross section of shooters I’ve shown it to, I’m now convinced that some other alchemy is at work.