The Traditions Outfitter G2 .45-70 Government break-action rifle on point in the mountains of south-central Alaska.
October 04, 2019By Rikk Rambo
Let’s face it. In an age where goods are plentiful and easily available, sometimes having only one of something makes even the hardiest and stout of heart experience a twinge of anxiety. Whether that something is a potato chip, a stick of Secret Powder-Fresh deodorant (don’t judge me…my resolve is strong but my skin is tender… and besides, the logo expressly states it is “strong enough for a man”), or ammunition, a basic rule of human behavior dictates that “more is better.”
But sometimes rules are meant to be broken, and when the rule-breaker in question is a rifle that is capable of firing a bullet whose downrange terminal performance (at least to a white-tail deer) is roughly that of a telephone pole being launched out of a railgun, an exception can be made.
Enter the simple, sturdy, and uber-practical Traditions Firearms single shot “Outfitter G2” in .45-70 Government. The Outfitter G2 is a rebel…defying recent trends of ‘cool but complicated’ rifle systems housing multiple picatinny rails and moving parts galore. Even by conventional bolt-action hunting rifle standards, the Outfitter stands apart as a simple, iconic firearm. With a single barrel and break action, the Outfitter G2’s retro-styling practically begs hunters and shooters from the wide-open, mountainous, ‘big-country’ western states of America…hunters and huntresses who never had to contend with ‘East Coast/Midwest’ firearms restrictions in order to harvest a deer… to ask a single question:
“Why?”
To answer that interrogatory and solve the riddle of the Traditions G2’s “place in the order of things,” it is necessary for us to take you on a short journey back in time. So, sit back, turn down the lights, kick your feet up, and please enjoy this short educational course in what the younger generation of shooters would call ‘ancient history.’
A Land Before Time (and Rifle Hunting for Deer in America’s Midwest and East Coast)!
It was a time when Kraft Macaroni & Cheese didn’t taste like something that had oozed out of a Union Carbide chemical company leech-field, Disney stayed in its own lane with cartoon princesses and, much to the chagrin of those from the politically correct crowd, Han shot first (RIP, Greedo, you skeevy little green…ummm…whatever you were).
THIS…WAS 1977!
SEE PHOTO GALLERY
Greedo about to get schooled in a little thing called ‘situational awareness’ by Han Solo. (Courtesy of MovieStillsDB.com)
It was the good ‘ol USA…one year after its bicentennial, and while there WAS a chicken in every pot and an automobile in every garage, there WAS NOT an AR-15 variant in every gun cabinet or a double-stack magazine fed combat handgun in every holster. Suppressors (or ‘silencers,’ depending on what side of that semantic debate you ‘self-identify’!) were only available to James Bond, the newly formed Tier-One special operations unit ‘Delta Force’ (DOB:11-19-1977), the few “class 3” shops who knew that they were legal, and concealed carry, at least in most states, was a figment of the imagination unless you could provide sufficient cause for the issuance of a highly coveted permit. I’m not joking when I tell all of the youngers shooters in our audience that back before Disco was pushing up daisies, the acquisition of one of these unicorn-like concealed-carry licenses required a strong political connection, divine intervention, or a REALLY good justification with supporting documentation…examples of such would be your status as a:
Restauranteur or businessman doing sizeable after-hours money-drops to the night deposit box of a local bank.
Night watchman or security guard requiring ‘plain clothes’ status and an express need for carrying a firearm instead of a walkie-talkie, flashlight, and a silly Kubotan pressure point weapon/ninja-thingy you could mail-order from an advertisement in Mad or Cracked magazines.
One of those poor (but quite well-done in the cardio department) Swiss Guards who had to run for miles alongside the aquarium-reminiscent Pope-mobile during a parade.
In the end analysis, the ‘powers that be’ did not make it easy for the average guy or gal to legitimately ‘go strapped.’ But, in the plus column, it was the 70’s, when kids’ role models were still the good guys: Cops, Firefighters, Paramedics, Secret Agents, iconic athletes (without felony records), comic book super heroes (without ‘social justice warrior’ agendas) and military heroes. Ahh, but those were the idyllic, halcyon years when everything from movies, sports, and all things meant to entertain or bring us joy, up to and including a bowl of ‘Lucky Charms’ cereal, were not politicized.*
*Unless the Irish Republican Army was engaged in some type of ‘Psy-Ops’ (Psychological Operations) program designed to win the hearts and minds of Saturday morning cartoon watching grade-schoolers I wasn’t aware of.
Anyway, the bottom line is…just like today, four decades ago you had to take the good with the bad (bell-bottom jeans, flair-collared leisure suits, and The Captain and Tennille Show excluded).
And bad it was for white-tail deer hunters in the flatter or more populated U.S. states who wanted to utilize a rifle for that purpose, because the Debbie-Downer ‘law of the land’ in those regions was unwaveringly simple and Hellfire-missile precise in its wording. In complicated legalese, the state’s answer to the question of employing rifles that utilize modern metallic cartridges to harvest one of the most beautiful, elusive, predator-savvy, and tasty ungulates in North America was worded as follows:
“No Way, Jose.” Unless you were from Jersey, Philly, or the Big Apple, in which case it was “Fuggedaboutit…!”
These Times They are a Changin’: Viva La Straight Walled Cartridge Revolution!
If there’s one thing to be learned from the above Pre-2000 A.D. history lesson, it is that sometimes things do change for the better. Modern sporting rifles, reliable, combat-grade semi-automatic handguns, and suppressors now enjoy widespread availability and popularity. In an even more surprisingly satisfying turn of events, the potential for success in obtaining a concealed carry permit without rosining up your bow, playing that fiddle hard, and engaging ‘Old Scratch’ in a talent show (or selling a kidney on the black market) is much greater in a vast majority of U.S. States* than it was back when ‘Saturday Night Live’ was still funny and, much to Opec’s dismay, ‘big-gulp’ amounts of liquid gold began blasting down the Alaska Pipeline.
*Condolences to our brethren from the ‘no-Issue/may-issue if you are someone important’ states of Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and 21% of California. Maybe it’s time for you to band together and stand below your legislator’s bedroom windows in 24-hour shifts with a boom-box blasting ‘The Price is Right’ losing horn (or, if you really want to trigger some anxiety, Hank Williams Jr.’s “A Country Boy Will Survive”) until they understand the error of their ways!
But of more importance to this article, the recent past has also witnessed an era of positive change for white-tail deer hunters who reside in states where modern, metallic cartridge deer-hunting rifles were historically a ‘no-no.’ States who (through no fault of their own) are cursed with high-density populations or terrain features so depressingly flat, their only elevated points or promontories exceeding 20 feet above sea-level are situated on putt-putt golf courses and local waterparks.
The positive change of which we speak was the revision of state game board rules and regulations that opened up the door on a whitetail deer harvesting ‘tool of the trade’ that previously sat gathering dust in the corner for a century.
The age of the straight-walled cartridge hunting rifle had arrived!
So…with the history lesson over, it’s time for us to get this buggy back on the pavement and focus on what we’re all here for which is the low-down on a rifle that has arrived at the right time, right place, and in the right caliber for these wondrous new changes to the hunting regulations.
This…is the story of the Traditions Performance Firearms .45-70 Government Outfitter G2 hunting rifle!
Tradition’s Single Shot Deer Slaying Machine
In the high-stakes profession of gun-writing (cue up dramatic theme music here), planning, research, and forward-thinking are critical, key elements in the acquisition and testing of a quality firearm. I totally wish I could claim all three of those components were in my repertoire for this rifle. Unfortunately, that would be what modern politicians call ‘misremembering’ and decent people would refer to as “something that can set your pants on fire” …more commonly known as a LIE!
In the spirit of transparency, the truth of the matter is…the Traditions Outfitter project just kind of “popped up” (I’m sure with a bachelor’s degree, twenty-seven years of ‘5-0’ (Law Enforcement) report writing experience, and a Mom who is a retired reading teacher, I could do better than that totally weak catch-phrase, but I’m sticking to my guns and staying true to my school with “popped up.”
The .45-70 Outfitter “getting its lean on” in the Chugach mountain range, south-central Alaska.
The bottom line is…when someone from your extended Firearms News’ family asks if you’d like to write an article about a .45-70 government caliber rifle with a masterfully fluted Lothar Walther barrel, you don’t kick said project out of bed for eating crackers…even if you only have a few days to prepare. In fact, I was totally stoked to take part in a gun writer’s equivalent of an impulse buy…except instead of a Pez dispenser, a tube of Chapstick, and a crappy plastic penlight, I was about to shoot a Civil War cannon barrage-worth of .45-70 government lead downrange. VIVA!
The call came in from my good friend ‘Yog’ just down the street at Anchorage’s iconic old-school gun store, Great Northern Guns, that he “had a little something for me” courtesy of the busy folks at UPS or FedEx. However, his voice was a bit more upbeat and animated than usual, and it didn’t take long for me to learn why. In the past, a fair number of newly received, custom order gun shipments arrived at the store with no indication on the packaging as to who the specific customer/purchaser was…just the generic address of the gun store. This little slice of perfidy was the sour milk in Yog’s Cheerios. It was that shiny new toy under his tree on Christmas morning when he was just a pink-cheeked little tyke that would have rocked but instead was a big gyp, as announced in small letters at the bottom of the box: “Batteries Not Included.” Not to beat a dead horse, but to Yog, poor shipping etiquette was on the same plane of misery as an incompetent production engineer at ABC interrupting Lynda Carter’s sparkly, explosive, and pirouetting Diana Prince to Wonder Woman transition with a poorly timed commercial break featuring feminine hygiene products and a commemorative Captain Stubing (from the critically acclaimed television masterpiece The Love Boat) Chia-Pet.
Any-hoo, you get the picture…Yog is a consummate professional and an honest professional who will never send you down the wrong path if you are looking for a quality firearm. He is also kind, good-natured, and slow to anger…as long as you follow the basic tenets of package labeling!
Well, thanks to Jacob, my ‘partner in crime’ on this project and co-conspirator at Traditions Performance Firearms, today’s shipment made Yog’s week. It is also likely that it caused the parcel delivery guy to take pause and think to himself “Rikk Rambo? I’m no ATF Agent, but if that’s not a fake name, I’m Queen Latifah!,” because lo and behold, big and bold, on every side of that box was my name emblazoned in #2,000 sized font. Yes indeed…sometimes it’s the little things in life!
It’s not what’s IN the box…it’s what’s ON the box! (Artist’s rendering of ‘Yog-Approved’ packaging artisanship!)
“There Can Be Only One!”-Connor MacLeod, ‘Highlander’
The Outfitter G2 and Connor MacLeod, Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, and ‘The Kurgan’ (from the movie ‘Highlander’) share the same monolithic DNA…and the same credo: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
In the case of the Outfitter, ‘ONE’ refers to how many shots you have at your disposal while deer hunting in order to dominate your street wise, venison-filled quarry and win those juicy, non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism), hormone-free quarters, tenderloins, and backstraps you so richly deserve. Don’t let the single-shot nature of this rifle fool you, however. As they say, “It only takes one,” and you’ll understand the significance of this and its relationship to the Outfitter G2 during the range-testing segment of the Outfitter’s story.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that just like many other shooters, my first impressions of a firearm don’t always carry the day, good or bad, after the weapon is thoroughly put through its paces and the final vote is in. Without reservation, I can tell you that my first impression of the Outfitter didn’t waiver throughout its testing and evaluation. The .45-70 G2 never failed to impress from the time I removed it from its factory box until the time I mournfully drove it to UPS for shipment back to the good folks at Traditions.
The Outfitter G2 is SOLID. There isn’t hint of give or play related to the rifle’s break action. Open or closed, it gives the impression you are wielding a single, monolithic, solid piece of steal. It feels like the kind of rifle you could drive railroad spikes with.
This break-action deer-harvesting machine is manufactured by Traditions Firearms, a leading name in tough, innovative, and extremely reliable muzzle loading rifles. The G2 is available in the more than capable .450 Bushmaster, .35 Remington, .35 Whelen, .300 Blackout, .243 Winchester, 44 Remington Magnum, and .357 S&W Magnum calibers, but the rifle I was able to get my greedy little mitts on was the .45-70 Government version.
.45-70 Government…a caliber just shy of the Quigley Down Under .45-110, but still adequate for any game animal in North America…even if some attention-starved geneticist gets too big for his or her britches and clones a herd of Mastodons.
The formal name of the Traditions rifle tested and evaluated for this article was the Outfitter G2 .45-70 Realtree Edge/CeraKote’ variant. This model features several key components that will cause you to question (in a joyous way) the rifle’s modest $557.00 MSRP. First and foremost is the barrel. The Outfitter G2 sports a 22″ Lothar Walther Premium fluted barrel topped off with a highly-effective muzzle break. As a historical side note, Lothar Walther is a company with a storied past dating back to 1925. During the same year that Sears, Roebuck and Company opened its first retail store, and the Mount Rushmore National Monument site was dedicated, Lothar Walther, the youngest son of Carl Walther (are you paying attention, Mr. Connery, Niven, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig) started his own firearms barrel production company…a firm that still produces much sought-after firearms barrels and other related products to this day.
The Walther barrel, combined with a handsome matte-silver/gray CeraKote finish, Realtree Edge patterned camouflage stock, and patented quick-detach forend make for an all-business, whitetail deer harvesting machine. The rifle is also drilled, tapped, and ready for a wide variety of optics.
And speaking of optics…
A Little Bit Country and a Little Bit Rock ‘N’ Roll!
It wasn’t until I said my good-byes to Yog, shouted a couple ‘live long and prospers’ to the other fine ‘fellers at Great Northern Guns, and headed back to Castle Rambo in my big ‘ol pickup truck with the newly arrived Outfitter that I came to a stunning realization. I hadn’t formulated a plan for an optic to mount on the rifle. I’d like to say that what happened next was a display of pure genius…or an epiphany…or some other dramatic literary device. But it wasn’t.
I arrived home, what really happened was this: I blankly stared around my workshop for a while, then went into “what do I have that’s just lying around” search mode. I was a little slow on the uptake, but after several long minutes, it struck me. I had recently acquired a weapon sight system at a deep discount from a friend who was big into ‘impulse buys.’ Long work hours and no recent rifle purchases sadly designated the optic as an orphan, with no long gun to call its own. THAT…was about to change.
RealTree ‘Edge’ stock of the Outfitter G2 geared up with an Alaska-made Diamond D Leather butt-cuff chock full of Lehigh Defense ‘Xtreme Penetrators.’
I mounted the optics system on the Outfitter G2 and the results were perfect…as if they were meant to be. The simple, all-business Traditions single-shot deer slayer, now with a skyline silhouetted by the EOTech XPS2 holo-sight and it’s faithful ‘flip to side’ 3x magnifier companion, presented a striking appearance. The simple, tried and true design of the rifle combined with the Buck Rogers EOTech combination struck both a modern AND wild-west appearance…but the night was still young and I found two more accessories that would complete the Outfitter G2’s ensemble. As Chuck Norris would tell you, “Good Guys Wear Black,” and so did my Outfitter G2…in the form of a black leather rifle butt side-saddle cartridge holder and sling expertly crafted by my friends at Diamond D Custom Leather (DiamondDCustomLeather.com). Diamond D is an Alaska-tough holster and firearms accessory manufacturer just up the road from Anchorage that calls Wasilla, Alaska home.
The Outfitter G2/EOTech combo projects power (and some ‘stink-eye’) down the mountain!)
With those finishing strokes, the Outfitter G2/EOTech/Diamond D Custom Leather equipped rifle system was complete. In only 10 short minutes, the solid, capable looking, but embarrassingly naked Traditions .45-70 had gone from its simple roots to a FULLY FUNCTIONAL BATTLE STATION.
The Outfitter G2 in profile…with the equally sturdy Alaska-made Northern Knives’ “Severance” model.
While interior décor and cooking guru Martha Stewart would most certainly turn her nose up at my buffoonery when it comes to food and wine pairing, our well-spoken, favorite daytime television star and much-heralded felon would have no other option than to crow about my “You got your Chocolate in my Peanut Butter” partnering-up of the Outfitter G2 .45-70, EOTech holosight, magnifier, and ‘Diamond D Custom Leather’ side-saddle cartridge holder and sling.
It was the perfect mix…and call me crazy, but I think Donny and Marie put it best when they crooned: “I don’t know if it’s good or bad, I know I love it so, I’m a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock n roll!”
-Marty Cooper
Accessorizing complete, it was time to take the Outfitter G2 to the range and see what shook loose.
Range Day: “Take a Picture, it’ll Last Longer!”
WARNING: Providing a correct answer to the following trivia question will undoubtedly result in the receipt of an AARP or AMAC card in your mailbox within 1–2 business days.
Do you remember Marine Corps Private Gomer Pyle’s favorite catch phrase? Because that was what went through my head when it came to the interest generated by the Outfitter G2 amongst other shooters at my gun club when I unlimbered that stainless steel beauty from its soft-case and prepared to send some .45-70 everlasting gob-stoppers down range:
“Surprise, Surprise, Surprise !”
It was a puzzlement…I’ve shot many high-speed/low-drag tier-one military weapons at local ranges during peak hours and had fellow shooters approach me to ask questions or to ‘cop a feel’ (of the gun, you nut…I mean, what kind of firing range do you think I go to?). But during the three range sessions I conducted with the Outfitter, this single-barrel, break action, reasonably priced .45-70 practically drew a crowd. I believe the cause for this was the over-all package.
The practical and handsome Outfitter G2, outfitted with the EOTech sight, magnifier, and Diamond D black leather side-saddle cartridge carrier and sling, well… (and this may go down in the annals of gun-writing as the laziest, most sophomoric observation ever) …it just looked COOL.
I answered multiple questions from the newly formed G2 fan-club, acquired a dozen or more new sets of incriminating latent prints from complete strangers on the rifle’s rugged Cerakote exterior and EOTech flip-to-side magnifier, then got down to the serious business of shootin’!
SEE PHOTO GALLERY
Cutting Paper and Smashing Steel: “The Streets will Run Red with the Eardrum Blood of the Non-Hearing Protection Wearers!”
The first two days were dedicated to accuracy testing, on paper, at 50, 100, and 200 yards. The meteorological/climatic conditions during range testing were the exact opposite of what a hunter would normally come to expect from the great Alaskan outdoors: 90 Degrees (above zero!) and blue skies from horizon to horizon! The ambient temperature would be problematic, relative to consistent accuracy, if you were firing a significant number of rounds downrange while sighting in a tapered/thin barreled rifle for distance shooting. Luckily for me, the thicker, fluted barrel of the Outfitter was more than adequate to insure ‘hot-barreled’ accuracy out to two-hundred yards from the leviathan .45-70 Government rounds.
Of the five cartridges tested, only two were capped with bullets of conventional appearance. The others demonstrated some serious mo-jo in their innovative design and space-age profiles. Here’s the rundown!
Turn that frown upside down…or sideways?! Handloaded 400 Grain Swift A-Frame carnage at 50 yards.
The first round I tested launched a conventional, ‘normal’ looking bullet down-range. This cartridge was a dam-busting handload I formulated several years ago for Brown Bear defense. The cartridges were stuffed to the max with “fill ‘er up, high-test” powder charges and topped off with 400 grain Swift A-Frame Flat Nose tank-killers. At the 50-yard line, this massive bullet (sent downrange in a five-round group) made one ugly, ragged, vertical 1¼ inch hole on paper. At 100 yards, the group opened up to four inches. Finally, at 200 yards, my bear-breaker patterned a six-inch group that I’d like to think reflected the limitations of the holosight and 3x magnifier and definitely not my shooting prowess?!
Cannonball with dagger-fins or Lehigh Defense 305-grain ‘Xtreme Penetrator’ …whatever you call it, you wouldn’t want to be its enemy…especially at fifty yards.
The second round up to bat was a heart-attack serious cartridge from Lehigh Defense featuring a 305 Grain ‘Controlled Fracturing’ all-copper/all-brass bullet. This bullet was designed by the highly innovative professionals at Lehigh Defense to streak downrange at an average speed of 2,000 feet-per-second, then deeply penetrate game before delivering a devastating wound channel with razor-like petals that fracture outwards. The final bit of deadly icing on this terminal ballistics cupcake is a ‘base projectile’ that continues deeper into the target for additional penetrating effect. This high-tech 305 grain bullet performed like a dream at 50 yards, leaving a single hole roughly the size of a quarter in the target. At 100 yards, the performance continued to please, scoring a 2.3-inch group. The reliability continued out to 200 yards with a four-inch group.
Lehigh Defense 305 grain ‘Xtreme Penetrator’ brutality at 100 yards.
Science Fiction Rounds with Non-Fiction Results!
Gun Store Manager:These are brand new, we just got them in…You just touch the trigger, the beam comes on and you put the red dot where you want the bullet to go, you can’t miss. Anything else? The Terminator: Phase-plasma rifle in the 40-Watt range. Shopkeeper: Hey, just what you see, pal.
-The Terminator (1984)
The Outfitter’s Alaska Diet: Deadly duos from Lehigh Defense, Hornady, and a ‘home-brew’ from ‘Rambo Mountain!’
The first barrage of non-traditional .45-70 government cartridges sent down the Outfitter’s barrel for this article are a pair of ‘kissing cousins’ from Hornady that have been putting a smile on deer hunters’ faces since roughly 2005. They are the LeveRevolution Flex Tip and MonoFlex rounds. The fact these cartridges celebrated their 14th birthday this year doesn’t change their status of one of the most ground-breaking straight-walled cartridges ever developed for the big-bore lever-action crowd. The Hornady ‘LEVERevolution’ round was designed for use in intermediate to heavy caliber lever action repeating rifles that utilize a tubular magazine. Before Hornady developed this round, lever action shooters were primarily limited to cartridges firing traditional blunt-nosed bullets from rifles housing tubular magazines. This was due to significant recoil and the potential for a bullet with a pointed tip to impact the primer housed in the cartridge in front of it…an event that could result in a premature detonation and bad times to be had by all. Except for the whitetail buck being stalked…he would be absolutely giddy with laughter! These ground-breaking Hornady rounds neutralized the spire-point/spitzer style ‘pointed bullet’ potential for ‘in-tube’ detonation thanks to their flexible, rubberized tips that act as a shock-absorber during recoil.
I evaluated two variations of Hornady’s sleek, red-tipped bullets during my range sessions with the Outfitter G2… the 250 grain MonoFlex and the 325 grain FTX/Flex Tip. The MonoFlex bullet is a lead-free, high-weight retention bullet, and the 325 grain FTX is an equally capable, lead-filled powerhouse. I have reloaded the 325 grain FTX/Flex Tip bullet in ‘home-brew’ rounds for years and have never been disappointed. The Hornady factory ammunition tested through the Outfitter G2 mirrored the performance of my handloads: flat trajectories and a LOT OF IMPACT NOISE down range when the round smacked paper or steel…even out to 200 yards.
What’s good for the lever-action is good for the break action! Hornady’s 250 grain LEVERevolution Mono-Flex 100-yard smackdown.
The 250 grain MonoFlex replicated the Swift A-Frame handload and the Lehigh Defense ‘Controlled Fracturing’ rounds at 50 yards. ONE HOLE. Moving out to the 100-yard line, the MonoFlex printed a 2.5-inch group, and at 200 yards, a four-inch group.
Is it getting drafty in here? The devastating fifty yard ‘one hole punch’ of the Hornady LEVERevolution 325 Grain FTX round.
The MonoFlex’s bigger cousin, the 325 grain FTX, also poked (SHOCKER!) a one-hole, five-round group at 50 yards. Not to be outdone by the 250 grain MonoFlex, it did so with a dramatic SLAP! The FTX nearly mirrored the MonoFlex at 200 yards with a 2¾ inch group and a 4.5-inch group at 200 yards. As with the 50-yard impact acoustic signatures, the return ‘whaaack’ that echoed from the targets ‘out yonder’ didn’t fail to entertain!
As we draw to a conclusion in the accuracy testing segment of the Outfitter G2’s stay on the ‘Last Frontier,’ I’ve saved what I consider the most interesting and unique round tested until last. Drum roll please, as I introduce…the Lehigh Defense ‘Xtreme Penetrator’ round. This 305-grain monster is deadly in appearance, and, if the targets are any indication, devastating on big game. And by big, I mean anything shy of having the surname ‘SAURUS.’
Lehigh Defense’s innovative 305 Grain ‘Controlled Fracturing’ all-copper/all-brass round on target at the “other end of the football field/100-yard line.”
This Lehigh defense round is meant to create massive wound cavities while penetrating game animals deeply. My hunting partners and I work hard to maintain high levels of proficiency with our firearms to ensure humane game-taking, and this round has the energy and design to be a force-multiplier in that regard. This round was the most accurate sent out into the bright Alaska sunlight during my time with the Outfitter G2. It also printed the spookiest looking holes I’ve ever seen on paper. The ‘Xtreme Penetrator’ rounds exhibited a lethal looking profile on paper that were reminiscent of four-blade broadheads on hunting arrows. As for this Leigh Defense round’s accuracy? Well, if you are a fan of the movie ‘Ground Hog’ day or just like repetition, the Xtreme Penetrator’s accuracy was equally as impressive. They scored…you guessed it…. a five-shot/one-hole crater at fifty yards. They five-hole punched a two-inch group at 100 yards and a 3¼ inch group at 200 yards. Since the Xtreme Penetrator fit the definition of a ‘pet load’ and its compatibility with the G2 was so impressive, I decided to stretch the scary looking round’s legs out to the 300-yard line. I was not disappointed. The round printed a six-inch group out yonder…not bad, if I don’t say so myself, for peepers over five decades old and an EOTech holosight with a 3x magnifier! With that kind of accuracy, forget the deer… even if you were a groundhog, you might not be safe from the Outfitter G2’s wrath even if you were wearing ballistic armor and hiding behind a stump and a fire-team of up-armored chipmunks.
The ‘Xtreme Penetrator’ rules the day with its signature ‘X Marks the Spot’ signature hole and a deadly 200-yard group.
Since I was “in for a dime, in for a dollar” at the 300-yard line, I also placed my pride-and-joy heavy-metal silhouette target out there as well (the local manufacturer promoted it as being fabricated from a section of plate steel removed from the Dreadnought ‘Tirpitz,’ although he may have embellished this a bit as there is a ‘Pittsburgh Steel’ logo at the bottom). A ‘throwdown’ video camera I left adjacent to the target recorded several consecutive ‘head-shot’ strikes. These impacts that were so impressive they looked less like bullet-strikes and more akin to John-Henry induced sledgehammer smashes.
The only thing missing was Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine! The ‘Gong Show’ is back in syndication at the 300 Yard Line, courtesy of the Lehigh Defense ‘Xtreme Penetrator!’
While I love the clanging of steel and the swinging of 50-pound solid steel silhouette targets, at this point, dear readers, we best move on…because with the amount of lead flung hither and yon during the Outfitter G2 range trials, it would be prudent to skedaddle before an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) task force shows up and makes us complete an environmental impact statement and watch an entire season of Captain Planet reruns!
One is Enough: Final Impressions of the Outfitter G2
The view that big game would be very frightened of if they knew what a Traditions Outfitter G2 in .45-70 rifle was.
For Whitetail Deer Hunters and modern metallic cartridge traditionalists, Traditions Firearms hit a homerun with their Outfitter G2 in .45-70 government. This single shot, solidly constructed deer harvesting machine is up to the task of putting venison on the table, with consistency, to the 200-yard line and beyond. Don’t let the let the single-shot nature of the rifle throw you, because as I would submit to you, fellow shootists, what the hay did Harry Nillsson know about marksmanship or deer hunting? When you are good…ONE IS ALL YOU NEED.
“One…is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do…”
-Harry Nillsson / ‘Three Dog Night’ (1968)
There is only one thing I would change about the Outfitter G2 and that is the extractor. One dose of .45/70 government is enough ‘ouch’ to humanely harvest a vast majority of North American intermediate and big game. However, there may come a time when a hunter has to ‘get on it’ and plunk another kill-dozer cartridge into the Outfitter…something that is slowed by the current extractor configuration on the rifle. The current Outfitter G2 extractor ‘starts the shell’ out of the chamber but doesn’t provide for a positive, affirmative ejection of the spent casing into the air like grand-daddy’s old break-action double-barreled shotgun. After a bit of practice, I was able to reload the rifle fairly quickly by using the old ‘African Hunter’ method of placing the ‘next one down the pipe’ cartridge between the fingers of my non-trigger hand, then, after firing, snapping the action open and using my Chuck Norris-esque ‘pinchers of doom’ forefinger technique to pluck the empty out and fling it flamboyantly into the air while plunking a new round into the chamber. Is the extractor issue a deal-breaker? Not even close. It’s just that when every second counts, a positive, spring-powered ejection hastens a shooter’s reload. And hey…let’s be honest…who doesn’t like to see that brass fly cinematically into the air when the action breaks open!
Combat reload…the old-fashioned way! “Just a pinch between the finger and gun!”
The positive qualities of the Outfitter far outweighed the negative, effectively leaving my extractor opinion choking in the dust. The G2 is a deer harvesting MACHINE. If you are proficient, ethical, and not one of ‘those guys’ (ie: a ‘slob-hunter’) who takes any shot they can get on an animal, no matter what angle/profile the game provides, the Outfitter G2 will drop the hammer (pun intended) with epic results on your fleet-footed, crafty, cornfield-hugging/hardwood forest whitetail adversaries. The rifle is light, solid, and handles recoil like a boss thanks to the practical, yet cosmetically handsome muzzle brake.
My final word in the “Kudos Department” comes in the form of a ‘thumbs up’ for the Outfitter G2’s accuracy combined with its price tag. Traditions Performance Firearms’ combination of a nicely barreled (shout-out to Mr. Walther for raising his barrel-crafting son right), well-balanced solid rifle and affordable MSRP makes perfect sense (both practically and fiscally) for deer-hunters from states previously handicapped by ‘no rifles allowed’ restrictions.
Richly blooming Alaska Fireweed and the Traditions Outfitter G2…a fitting combination heralding the waning days of summer and the coming of fall…and a new season of harvest for an enigmatic straight walled deer rifle!
With that, my fellow shootists and hunter-gatherers, the Outfitter G2’s Alaska/Summer vacation comes to an end. In the final analysis, whether you are a rifleman who lives for the finality of a single-shot rifle action slamming shut on an iconic, big bore cartridge, or a Whitetail deer hunting aficionado intent on gaining another tool for your kit, I think it’s safe to say you will find the fine folks at Traditions Firearms smacked one out of the park with the Outfitter G2 .45-70 Government edition.
Editor’s note: Edvin Lofthammer is a student as the Swedish Defense University writing a thesis on the adoption of the AK4 by the Swedish military. The following article is an interesting side note of Swedish development that did not fit into the scope of his thesis, but ought to be published nonetheless.
by Edvin Lofthammar
During the early Cold War, Sweden had a rapidly expanding military as a result of it’s neutral stance in the balance between the west and the east. In WW2, Sweden had been able to stay out of the conflict, but due to this there were some moments were they had to compromise on their hard-line neutrality in order to appease the major actors of the war. Infamously, Sweden allowed German soldiers to pass through the country via train, a number totaling around 2,140,000 soldiers between 1940 and 1943. After WW2, Sweden decided to invest large amounts of resources and money in both civilian and military defence, which formed what in Sweden is referred to as the Total Defence (Totalförsvaret). During WW2 Sweden had produced a lot of it’s own military hardware, and continued to do so into the Cold War. This included the Kulsprutepistol M/45 (known as “The Swedish K” abroad) and the Automatgevär M/42 (mostly know as the Ljungman abroad, pronounced Yung-Mann). When Sweden realized it had to update its standard issue infantry rifle in the early 60s, it was therefore only natural that a domestic design be submitted as well. This would be the AK GRAM.
Automatkarbin fm/1963. Source: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024260710/automatkarbin-fm-1963 (CC BY 4.0)
The AK GRAM was an experimental gun designated as an Automatkarbin in Swedish nomenclature. This translates to Automatic Carbine, and is not synonymous with either the term Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle which are prominent in the English-speaking world. The “Automatic” in Automatic Carbine refers to it being a self-loading gun. A mainly fully automatic weapon would have the prefix “Kulsprute” (Bullet-Spewing). The Carbine part was simply because it was considered shorter than what would typically be considered a rifle. There is however some instances of Automatic Carbines being longer than Automatic Rifles. For example, the M-14 (which was also trialed by Sweden during the same time) was at this time designated an Automatic Carbine despite its total length being 1,126mm, which is longer than the German G-43 at 1115mm, which was considered an Automatic Rifle. The most accurate description of the AK GRAM in English-speaking circles would be Battle Rifle, as the gun was chambered in both 6.5 Swedish and 7.62 NATO.
Automatkarbin fm/1963. Source: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024260710/automatkarbin-fm-1963 (CC BY 4.0)
The gun can trace its heritage back to the AG 42, as the AG 42 was modified to become another prototype Automatic Carbine intended for use with Swedish paratroopers. This gun first became known as the AK FM/57, and featured, among other things, a folding stock, pistol grip and removable 20 round box magazines. From this project (which never saw mass adoption) sprung the AK GRAM. It was originally designated AK m/W, named after its creator E.W. Wallberg who was an engineer at Sweden’s main firearms developer and manufacturer, Carl Gustaf Gevärsfaktori. It is however worth noting that Nils Lundin who was also an engineer at Carl Gustaf Gevärsfaktori is also credited with constructing the gun, and he has been credited with the construction of the mechanism as well. The gun would soon after the first rounds be renamed the AK GRAM. “GRAM” probably refers to the sword “Gram” which in nordic mythology was passed from Oden to Sigismund, and is most likely not an acronym.
The AK GRAM took a lot of details that were changed from the AG 42 when it was modified to become the AK FM/57, including integrating a piston in the previously direct gas impingement system for increased reliability, and it otherwise was very similar to the tilting bolt design on the AG 42. The gun was select fire, and weighed 4.35 kg (9.6lb) unloaded. The length without a flash hider (which was being designed when measurements were taken) was 1060mm, and with the folding stucked folded it was 800mm (31.5in). The barrel length was 520mm (20.5in). Rate of fire was around 650 RPM. The gun was constructed in both 6.5 Swedish and 7.62 NATO, and for the 6.5 Swedish version a curved magazine was designed.
It is more accurate to describe the AK GRAM as a distant derivative of the AG 42 more than anything else, since the gun was changed so much that it became doubtful whether or not they would be able to reuse any tooling from the AG 42. This was something that had previously been heralded as a benefit compared to the foreign designs competing with it, the main competitors being the HK G3 (which after quite a substantial amount of modification was accepted into service as the AK 4) and the FN FAL. The AK GRAM was continuously updated, but always lagged behind its competitors. In 1963 the final model was designated the AK FM/63 GRAM. This design also lagged behind the competition, and this was the point at which KATF (the Swedish ordinance department at the time) pulled the plug on the project and decided to concentrate on the G3 and FAL instead. The main issues that went unsolved throughout its lifetime was feeding and ejecting issues, something even the final version couldn’t alleviate in any acceptable amount. The gun never left the technical testing stages, and tactical testing wasn’t formally commenced.
In 1965 Sweden accepted and started to field the AK 4, and would continue to do so until it was replaced with a modified FN FNC designated the AK 5 in 1985. Sweden had a quite short timeframe of only 5 years to select and adopt its first Automatic Carbine, and this was even in the very first documents regarding the matter one of the key identifiable factors why a domestic option was dubious. KATF estimated a timeframe of 10-15 years to design an Automatic Carbine ready for mass production, which they compared to the 5-10 years required for a machinegun (kulspruta, referring to light, medium and heavy machineguns). Sweden had however managed to produce domestic designs for self-loading and fully automatic weapons before which had been quite succesful, mainly the Kulsprutepistol M/45 and the AG 42. Sweden also had a very succesful aircraft industry, which was producing cutting edge fighter jets like the J-35 Draken in a country of only 7.5 million people. Economically, Sweden was also in the middle of what is sometimes referred to as Rekordåren (the Record Years) which saw a rapid development in Swedish living standards and industry up until the oil crisis in 1973. These factors combined conceivably resulted in the will to atleast make an attempt at creating a domestic Automatic Carbine, despite the even then unsure possibilities of actually producing something usable. The projects justification in the tail end of its lifecycle was to provide Swedish engineers with valuable knowledge and experience in the construction and maintenance of Automatic Carbines. A completely Swedish Automatic Carbine, Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle design has since then not seen the light of day.
Relampago Furioso is the creator of The New Modern Man. He is a former member of the mainstream media turned dissident, with professional experience in both science and journalism. He enjoys striking at the Establishment using politically incorrect truths and electrifying SJWs with logic. He is now living part time in the Caribbean while traveling the world. New for 2017, Rel has published a Quick and Dirty Guide to Womenand a Quick and Dirty Guide to Money and Minimalism. Rel is also a Red Pill Life Coach, helping other men realize the dream of getting laid on the regular, getting out of debt, and traveling the world. Facebook|Twitter
If you listen to the hysterical mainstream media, you’ll walk away with the impression that something just has to be doneabout gun violence, rights of the peons be damned. Those rebel flag waving hicks and people who “cling to their guns and religion”—to quote Barack Hussein Obama—are going to have to bend the knee to the stripping of one of their most fundamental freedoms, the Second Amendment, so we can all live in a hypothetical, perfectly safe socialistic bubble, and more importantly, so people won’t have any defense against encroaching tyranny.
Sure, the American military has weapons beyond the wildest dreams of the simple gun owner, but the gun owners have strength in numbers. It’s hard to send people to government work camps when there are 357 million firearms in the nation—more guns than there are people. At the very least, all hell will break loose when government agents come around to round people up, if indeed that ever happened. It won’t be a neat and tidy transition to authoritarianism with a populace armed to the teeth.
Never is the fact mentioned by elites in the propagandist media that authoritarian governments from that of Mao Zedong to Hitler stripped their citizens of guns before instituting totalitarian governments that murdered millions, nor is the fact you have a near zero chance of dying in a mass shooting ever given the emphasis it deserves. Hitler knew the importance of disarming the citizenry before subjecting them.
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjugated races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Beyond the fact citizens are disarmed before they are subjected to centralized power, despite the genuflecting of countless empty headed talking heads, the fact is life is much more mundane than they would like it to be. You are far more likely to die when you go hop into your box on wheels sedan (that you are probably in debt bondage paying for) and make your way down to your corporate job. In fact, twice the number of people die every single day in automobile accidents than died in the “biggest mass shooting in history” in Orlando. Yet, we haven’t heard from the left about banning automobiles. (Yet, anyway. The global warming religion will push that agenda item at a later date.)
Here are things that really kill people in great numbers, but they don’t make for compelling video to suit a news director’s need to create drama so he, she or zhe (heh) can put asses in seats in front of the idiot box. Asses that your local propaganda outlet needs so desperately. You are more likely to die from falling out of a tree than you are at the hands of a mass murderer. Let’s look at things that kill more people than mass shooters:
Falling out of a tree: 100 deaths annually
Falling inside your home: 13,000 deaths annually
Suicide: 42,000 deaths annually
Kidney infections: 48,000 deaths annually
Stroke: 133,000 deaths annually
Cancer: 592,000 deaths annually
Heart disease: 614,000 deaths annually
The mass media also never bring up the fact that an increasing chorus of people, from Judge Napolitano to Steven Seagal are questioning the truthfulness of sensational news headlines the echo chamber foams at the mouth selling to a public that is, by and large, malleable and suggestive to thought control. Here are some bombshells that the media selectively avoided when they were trotting out their gun control narratives:
Judge Napolitano revealed that nobody died until 5:13 AM in the Orlando mass shooting—that is until the FBI and SWAT teams entered the Orlando gay club hours after the standoff began. This raises a number of questions that were never even brought up, let alone answered. Napolitano is apparently the only mainstream media personality who bothered to read the FBI’s report. He said: Here’s whats news in the summary, nobody died until 5:13 in the morning, when the SWAT team entered, prior to that no one had been killed. The 53 that were injured, and the 49 that were murdered all met their fates at the time of, and during, the police entry into the building.This is a bombshell revelation, readily available in the official FBI report.
Steven Seagal dropped this bomb on Russian television last fall: I believe that, and I hate to say this, a lot of these mass murders and all this funny stuff that’s going on, I believe a lot of this is engineered.
Beyond questioning the official narrative and conspiracy theories, even if you think people who question authority are nuts, the representation of of gun violence as increasing—as half the public thinks it is—reveals the power of the corporate press to distort facts and create false realities as Congress’ own statistics reveal. Gun crimes and gun violence have plummeted over the past 20 years, yet the public believes otherwise. As Einstein said: Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
Gun violence has tumbled over the past 20 years, despite what the media tell you
Gun Violence At Record Lows
Let’s look at some statistics. The number of guns per person has increased from 0.93 to 1.45 over the last 20 years. There are more guns than people in the United States. That is a whopping 56% increase in the number of guns over a generation. However, the gun homicide rate has tumbled 49% in that same time. The gun homicide rate has fallen from 7.0 to 3.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Gun homicides have been cut in half while the number of guns has more than doubled! This is exceptional news, but chances are you have never heard of it unless you read alternative media. This fact gun crime is down is coming straight from the horse’s mouth, the U.S. Government itself.
Despite the fact you are more likely to die of just about anything but guns in your lifetime, the fact gun violence is plummeting to record lows, and the fact people own more guns than ever proving there is no link between gun ownership and violence, politicians feel the need to take away the average citizen’s capability to defend against criminals and tyranny. This reveals the gun violence narrative is pushed by politicians and the media for a reasons other than those stated by our “social betters.”
Politicians and social engineers need to create a gun violence issue to continue the Hegelian dialectic: spin up a “gun control” problem, have a preplanned solution (i.e. gun confiscation) in place, and direct all “solutions” towards that goal.
The media makes their living and maintains their ivory tower by creating problems to create profit. There is nothing scarier to average people than the prospect of being mowed down by a nut with a gun, so the rational and responsible view that yes, mass shootings are an issue but do not deserve 24/7 attention is immediately discarded in favor of sensationalism. This also speaks to the lack of journalistic integrity to report on mass shootings but also to calm the public down with the fact that these are very isolated events and that gun violence overall is tumbling. They often excuse their hysteria with “human interest” in these bloody stories, pointing to the victims. This is nothing but exploitation of tragedy for profit and to push an agenda, as far more people die from other causes of death each and every day.
Creating “sitting ducks” by pushing gun-free zones all over the nation is another way guns and gun owners are marginalized. The government doesn’t need to ban the Second Amendment if they make the entire country a gun-free zone. Gun-free zones invite violence, as attackers know they’re more likely to inflict harm on defenseless sheep than armed wolves.
Beyond gun violence and gun homicides being at historical lows, there are other facts the puppet masters don’t want you to know.
A teacher and student guarding the entrance to their Delaware school in 1973 after a shooter called in a threat. No gunman ever arrived
More Hidden Information
Let’s bust a couple more gun myths promulgated by the irresponsible and shameless mass media and look at a couple of important facts they ignore. Myth: Children are at significant risk at school of being killed by a mass shooter.
After Sandy Hook, an impressionable and irrational public immediately pushed for schools to be gun-free zones, and to turn schools into the equivalent of prisons for children. However, only a couple of generations ago the above scene at a Delaware high school played out after a threat was called into the high school. Students and teachers went to their cars to pull out their guns at the school, and no gunman ever showed up. My, how times have changed.
Additionally, more children die each year on bicycles, from space heater fires, and in drownings than from guns. But, we don’t hear calls for banning bicycles, heaters, and swimming pools because that doesn’t make for good TV or good politics. Also, liberal mothers kill more unborn children than guns each and every year through abortion, yet women go into a hissy fit if anyone talks about taking away their right to murder a defenseless, voiceless human being. Myth: Crime is lower in countries that have banned guns.
One need look no further than our neighbor Mexico, where guns are forbidden for the average citizen but every cartel and criminal has them. Many Mexican cities look like war zones and I personally witnessed two shootouts between the Mexican military and cartel members when I lived there. One has to think the gangs would not be as brazen if the average citizen had the capability to defend themselves. So, Mexico is an example of gun control nightmare. The CATO institute also dropped this truth bomb on gun grabbers.
In Israel and Switzerland, for example, a license to possess guns is available on demand to every law-abiding adult, and guns are easily obtainable in both nations. Both countries also allow widespread carrying of concealed firearms, and yet, admits Dr. Arthur Kellerman, one of the foremost medical advocates of gun control, Switzerland and Israel “have rates of homicide that are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States.” A comparison of crime rates within Europe reveals no correlation between access to guns and crime.
Gun control disarms good people, as criminals will always find a way around laws. Fact: SSRIs are strongly correlated with mass shootings.
Eric Harris at Columbine, Seung Hui-Cho at Virginia Tech, James Holmes at Aurora, Christopher Harper Mercer in South Carolina, Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings pilot who killed 149 people, and Adam Lanza of Sandy Hook all were on high doses of SSRI anti-depressants. As Dr. Peter Breggin has warned, going to a psychiatrist has become one of the most dangerous things a person can do. Breggin also wrote this in his book Your Drug May Be Your Problem:
Advocates of psychiatric drugs often claim that the medications improve learning and the ability to benefit from psychotherapy, but the contrary is true. There are no drugs that improve mental function, self-understanding, or human relations. Any drug that affects mental processes does so by impairing them.
And more tellingly:
Despite a hugely successful promotional campaign by drug companies and biological psychiatry, the effectiveness of most or all psychiatric drugs remains difficult to demonstrate. The drugs often prove no more effective than sugar pills, or placebos – and to accomplish even these limited positive results, the clinical trials and data that they generate typically have to be statistically manipulated.
The effects of these drugs are chilling, and a large number of people become agitated and manic when they take them.
The newer antidepressants including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, and Lexapro commonly cause some degree of over-stimulation. The effects are not unlike those of cocaine and amphetamine, and both the Prozac-like drugs and the stimulants impair function of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Some of the other newer antidepressants, including Effexor, Serzone, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin can have similar effects. No one knows the frequency of very severe reactions to the antidepressants. Some studies indicate that some degree of clinically significant over-stimulation and mania is caused in a startling 5%-10% of all patients taking these drugs. A number of clinical reports have also described a syndrome of obsessive SSRI-induced suicidality and violence that seems particular to these drugs.
Rather than calling for an investigation into pill-pushing prostitutes with medical degrees, as some doctors are, the media pushes a gun control agenda as the “magic bullet” that will fix everything. The correlation between SSRIs and mass shootings is never given proper attention because pharmaceutical advertising is a $5.17 billion dollar industry, and the media needs this revenue to prop up their sagging bottom lines. Fact: Cops kill more people than mass shooters.
The very people who are supposed to protect the public kill far more people than mass shooters. Statistically, you are 9 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a mass shooter. Are the cops acting in self defense most of the time? Probably. But there are also videos coming out by the truckload that show police are often acting inappropriately and an in abusive manner to the public they are supposed to protect and serve.
Last year alone cops killed 1,205 people. Were all those deaths justified? Most of them probably were. But how many people were killed that should not have been? Nobody is watching the watchers except for the web site Killed By Police, so nobody knows. Yet, the media never focus on this as they always push the public towards complete and total trust in authority, whether it be government bureaucrats or militarized police.
So, each of the gun grabbers’ arguments can be destroyed through some basic research and logic. The argument that people don’t need guns because there are police is the equivalent of saying people don’t need fire extinguishers because there are fire departments. By the time the police arrive in their average 10 minute response time, the criminal is already going to be gone. And your house is already likely to be burned down from a small kitchen fire that could have easily been extinguished.
Once again we defenders of freedom are making the colossal mistake of letting the Marxist left and media control the narrative, then playing defense against their narrative. Gentlemen, the time has come to push back against the left. We have to find some way to put them on the defense about their insane policies and beliefs. Every time they bring out a new agenda item, they push and push until we fall back. Sooner or later the line must the drawn, and the authoritarians shown we will not be pushed any farther. Making them defend their insane positions instead of libertarians and traditionalists defending their positions, as we are doing now, is the most important move we can make.
