Lighting Options For Varmint Guns John Markwell
the exception, until we went looking for a wounded boar in the swamps of South Carolina back in 2005. On this trip, some hog hunting friends, my son, and I em-
I
never thought much about hav- ing a light on a rifl e, M4s being
barked on a quest to spec out and build the perfect close cover hog rifl e. The gun turned out to be a carbine of large caliber suitable for shots on hogs from zero to about 100 yards. Looking for a hog in the dwindling light of a Carolina swamp
moved the idea of having a light on the rifl e pretty high on the list of options for this rather specialized application. MARCH 2009
Sitting in a blind in northeastern
Texas. The light is just about gone and the hogs have been milling around for a fair while. I have one picked out. It’s a small boar — a meat hog — maybe 130 pounds. No clear shot. Too many little ones. Light fading fast. Can’t see the duplex in the Scout Scope. The boar is clear now, about 40 or 50 yards out. Turn on the light while pointing the muzzle upward and then bring it to bear on the boar, slowly. Good sight pic- ture on the neck. Trigger breaks on the chopped down Marlin Guide Gun and the 300-grain .45-70 Corbon DPX load roars and spits fl ame into the darkness. Work the lever and look. No second shot required! This was the fi rst hog taken with
The author’s AWC suppressed Ruger 10/22 with The Wilson Combat Scope Accessory Mount attached to the Burris scope tube. The Small E1L SureFire light is attached to the mount with the smallest of the Vltor Scout Mount rings.
the modifi ed and light-equipped Marlin .45-70. What we called the “Guide Gun Conference” and the fi nal product that it generated had proved successful. The modifi ed Marlins we all used in Texas on this hunt varied some, based on the user’s preferences, but all had in com- mon the Wild West Guns magazine tube mounted light rail for the attachment of a shooting light. It’s referred to in Africa as a leopard light. With a price of around $45.00, the
This AR-15 has two lights mounted for illustrative purposes. The bottom light, with the vertical handgrip containing the switch pad, is the SureFire Rail Mounted Weapons Light which carries a price tag of about $650. The light on the side of the rifl e is the UTG Swat Force unit which is priced at $29.95.
Page 6 October — December 2011
anodized aluminum Wild West Guns light mount base slides over the maga- zine tube of Marlin lever-action guns and is secured with a supplied screw. Basically a Weaver rail, it provides for easy attachment of a SureFire or other similar light beneath the barrel of the rifl e. It is a simple and robust mount that requires only a bit of sanding to knock off some sharp corners, and it doesn’t interfere with carrying the carbine in a scabbard when on horseback. Bear in mind that hanging a light from the bottom of the barrel of a rifl e is similar to attaching a bayonet — it will cause a change of impact from the existing zero, generally shooting low. Even with the short, stiff Guide Gun barrel, this .45-70’s impact shift at 100 yards was
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