ducks over a stock dam, or decoying mallards into a small pond, I found this gun easy to use, it pointed accurately, and was very dependable in terms of action function. I have one issue with the gun in the
area of weight. This gun is a bit heavy and while the start of a day tends to minimize the weight thing, by the end of a long day I did tend to feel the effects. I would like to see this gun designed with some carbon fiber, as was the CTI 105, to cut back a pound or so from the overall heft of the shotgun. Get this gun under seven pounds and it would respond differently. At some later point while shooting an event at Remington’s Loneoak clays range, I found that while trying to adjust to the gun when I had just been released from the hospital and was still recovering from a rather nasty motorcycle wreck, I could not keep up with the gun and ended up walking off the range with a whole pile of zeros on the scoring sheet. Several days later at home in South Dakota, with a much lighter gun, I fired a trap score that was quite respectable. This told me that the gun’s heft could be a problem for a small person, or a wounded one like myself at the time. On the other hand, when heavy magnums are employed in the Versa Max, the extra weight is a welcome ad- dition to the gun’s frame. To date, I have shot and tested
three different Versa Max shotguns, with the last one being shot this past summer at Hastings, Minnesota, with Todd Gifford’s Buffalo Ridge outfit over a sweet corn field shooting against the common crow. At that time the test gun I used had been subjected to torrential rains, 100 degrees, 90% humidity, heat, and muddy corn rows that seemed to always get that mud into a gun’s action. By the hunt’s end after three days,
the gun was a flat out mess. However, at no time did the shotgun fail to func- tion, and that included a whole array of heavy and light loads that were taken afield. Crow hunting for me is the time to test ammo and also burn off odds and ends of test shells that had no box or permanent home. The gun chambered at least nine different loads, including the outstanding and brand new Speed Ball waterfowl load by Hevi-Shot that I will cover a bit later. Between Speed Ball and Remington ultrafast Hypersonic ammunition, the Versa Max handled
loads that produced as high as 1,700- plus feet per second in velocity, to target loads at 1,200 f.p.s. Auto adjustment due to those gas ports in the chamber was the key here, and the system worked like a dream. PAYLOAD CONTROL PATTERNS, ETC.
Remington has seen fit to back
bore this new shotgun and also turn to a forward set thread system (Probore) versus the old Rem Choke lower-end- of-the-tube based thread pattern. This new choke is longer and, according to Remington, more likely to stay together with the newer hot loads coming from a variety of sources today. The test gun I received had a full set of chokes that ranged from extra full to improved cylinder. When used for pass shooting (ditch shooting) against very high flying crows along the bluffs of southeastern Minnesota with very heavy loads, we took birds to ranges that exceeded 100 yards over the thick oak tree forest tops. Here the extra weight of the Versa Max aided me in maintaining a proper swing and lead on those (at times very far off) targets. The Remington Versa Max is not a
budget priced shotgun and will run you well above $1,000. But it is in the class of the new, advanced smooth bore gun- ning systems, and for those who want the best in smooth bore varmint control tools, this is an autoloading shotgun to consider.
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WINCHESTER SXP TURKEY/COYOTE SPECIAL Because the modern turkey/coy-
ote shotgun needs to meet several re- quirements, including an ability to be handled in a tight blind or brush cover situation with ease, just about every gun builder today tends to offer one or more models of shotguns in this class. Also, much of the time when called birds or animals approach the hunter there comes a requirement of that hunter to maintain his or her gun position in a point and shoot mode. With the gun mounted, that hunter often can spend quite a good deal of time in that position prior to sending a round down range. If you have ever been in a position that required sitting with a sighted and mounted shotgun for five or more min- utes, you already know the drill quite well. No, heavy guns need not apply, and barrel length, tight special chokes, and in this case TruGlo style open sights, take command of the situation. Every single ounce taken off that gun muzzle counts for more control when it is time to take the shot. Sights, because of in- creasingly tighter patterning guns, have become an almost standard requirement
The author took a strong liking to the Model 85 Mini Mauser that he's holding here after stopping this hog. It's made in Serbia and is marketed in this country by Century Arms. The rifle is chamberd in 7.62x39 Russian Short.
www.varminthunter.org Page 57
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