Sportsmans News

Here is the video you have been waiting for. We caught up with Red Jacket Firearms owner Will Hayden at the SHOT Show and got a brief interview with him. Sorry about the sound quality, but the camera lacked an external microphone. I will be heading to Baton Rouge in February to get a better meeting with him and his crew and tour the Red Jacket shop. Watch for that interview right here. Thanks to all of you who helped us get the interview.

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Today at the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trades (SHOT) Show, media were given the chance to test fire some of the newest guns introduced by manufacturers. One stand out was the newest small pistol by Ruger chambered in .22 LR. The SR22 is a double action semi-automatic pistol. It has a small frame, great double action trigger, with a super light single action follow up.

Built on a small frame, the SR22 has interchangeable grips to accommodate those with small hands as well as those with larger mits. The gun is incredibly accurate and for fun we took our turns shooting at a silhouette steel target set out at 100 yards. I’ll take 4 out 10 shots with a 3.5 inch barreled .22 at a 100 yards any day.

This gun is full of features and I expect that it will be a big seller for Ruger in the coming months. Look for us to do a more comprehensive review in an upcoming issue of Sportsman’s News.

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Do you wish you were going to the Archery Trade Association, Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trades (SHOT) Show or the Outdoor Retailers Winter Market? Well, we are going and the staff of Sportsman’s News Magazine will be providing updates on new products, the latest gear, and anything we find interesting, right here in our blogs. Keep checking back through the next week for updates. We’ll keep you abreast of all of the cool things coming up for 2012, including an exclusive interview with Will Hayden of Discovery’s Sons of Guns television show.

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Congratulations to Bomber, the winner of the December Gun of the Month drawing for the M&P 15.  Bomber has has 736 posts, putting him in 4th place in the posting standings and giving him 30 entries in the drawing. Bomber, give me a call at the office at (435) 865-1680 so we can arrange to ship you your prize.

And for those of you who didn’t win, we still have another chance if you join the NRA through this link. If you join through us, it is only $25. And if you are already a member, you can renew and they will add the extra year onto your current membership. Right now the odds of winning are about 1:40. Also, if you purchase a gift membership, send me an email to info@sportsmansnews.com with your screen name, your real name, and the name of the person you bought the gift for so when I get the report, I can give you an extra entry. Good luck.

http://sportsmansnews.com/join…..son-mp15t/

Cover Art: The Nativity of Christ by Vladimir Borovikovsky

From all of us at Sportsman’s News Magazine, we offer you and your families our warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas. May God bless all of you and may you each receive your heart’s desire this Christmas.

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”

Luke 1:30-33

Sportsman’s News would like to wish all of our Jewish friends a warm, happy, and healthy Hanukkah. For those of you who are not Jewish, read about the tradition of Haunakkah below.

From Wikipedia: Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BC. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a unique candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical Menorah consists of eight branches with an additional raised branch. The extra light is called a shamash and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The purpose of the shamash is to have a light available for use, as using the Hanukkah lights themselves is forbidden.

From About.com:

The Hanukkah Story

In 168 B.C.E. the Jewish Temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers and dedicated to the worship of the god Zeus. This upset the Jewish people, but many were afraid to fight back for fear of reprisals. Then in 167 B.C.E. the Syrian-Greek emperor Antiochus made the observance of Judaism an offense punishable by death. He also ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods.

Jewish resistance began in the village of Modiin, near Jerusalem. Greek soldiers forcibly gathered the Jewish villages and told them to bow down to an idol, then eat the flesh of a pig – both practices that are forbidden to Jews. A Greek officer ordered Mattathias, a High Priest, to acquiesce to their demands, but Mattathias refused. When another villager stepped forward and offered to cooperate on Mattathias’ behalf, the High Priest became outraged. He drew his sword and killed the villager, then turned on the Greek officer and killed him too. His five sons and the other villagers then attacked the remaining soldiers, killing all of them.

Mattathias and his family went into hiding in the mountains, where other Jews wishing to fight against the Greeks joined them. Eventually they succeeded in retaking their land from the Greeks. These rebels became known as the Maccabees, or Hasmoneans.

Once the Maccabees had regained control they returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. By this time it had been spiritually defiled by being used for the worship of foreign gods and also by practices such as sacrificing swine. Jewish troops were determined to purify the Temple by burning ritual oil in the Temple’s menorah for eight days. But to their dismay, they discovered that there was only one day’s worth of oil left in the Temple. They lit the menorah anyway and to their surprise the small amount of oil lasted the full eight days.

This is the miracle of the Hanukkah oil that is celebrated every year when Jews light a special menorah known as a hanukkiyah for eight days. One candle is lit on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second, and so on, until eight candles are lit.

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Will Hayden, former Marine and owner of Red Jacket Firearms in Baton Rouge, LA will give away a signed Red Jacket D.I. Ar-15 to the first person to ask for it after he gains 100,000 fans on his Facebook page. Since opening his Facebook page a week ago, the popular star of Discovery’s Sons of Guns has more than 14,000 fans so the wait for this great gun should be short.

In hopes of securing an interview with him at next month’s SHOT Show in Las Vegas, I am asking all of our readers to head over to his Facebook page and hit the “Like” button at the top of his page. Then please post him a note on his page saying “Dan Kidder from Sportsman’s News sent me.” If enough people let him know that I sent you to his page, perhaps he will grant me an interview at the show. Not only will you have a chance for a great one-of-a-kind custom made Red Jacket AR-15, but you will get to read the article I do after the interview right here on this site. Thanks for your help and to get to Will Hayden’s Facebook page, click here.

Smith & Wesson has taken all of the best features of an AR15 and encapsulated them into their Military & Police (M&P) line with the introduction of the M&P15 Sport.

This incarnation of the modern sporting rifle features a 16-inch barrel, six position adjustable stock, fully adjustable rear sights and elevation adjustable front sights. Continue Reading

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Congratulations to Karsten Miller (millerk420), who won our November drawing for the Walther P22. Our random number picker chose number 246 out of 7088 entries. Number 246 is Karsten’s lucky number. Actually, numbers 230-251 are his lucky numbers since he had 21 entries in the hat for participating in the forum. Karsten, please contact the Sportsman’s News office at (435) 865-1680 so we can arrange to have your gun shipped to your nearest FFL for you to pick up.

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Congratulations to Jack Rice of Marysville, CA who finally was able to get his gun. Jack won our gun drawing in July for the Walther PPQ. Since Jack lives in California, and the PPQ has not been approved for sale in California, we had to swap him out a Smith & Wesson M&P compact in .40 cal. Because of a maintenance shutdown of the Smith & Wesson factory, it took a little while for the gun to actually ship. Add to that California’s 15 day waiting period, and it has taken Jack a little while to collect his prize. He has it in his hands now and reports that it handles house loads much better than a Glock and he likes the adjustable back straps and sights better too. Glad to hear it and congratulations again.

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