Convertible guns have never been that popular in the US. Putting the top up and down is such a pain, and… just kidding. This type of convertible gun allows you to change calibers, shooting two or more types of ammo through the same gun. Europeans, and especially European hunters have always loved convertible guns, but they never really caught on here for some reason. It could be our obsession with rifle accuracy. Even though the average hunter can’t shoot within two minutes of basketball (according to famed hunter writer Ross Seyfried), Americans really love the idea of an accurate firearm, one that can, if shot by the right person with the right rest, shoot into the width of a quarter or less at 100 yards, or 1 MOA, for “Minute of Angle.” That was the challenge when CZ-USA decided to introduce a rimfire combo gun to the US market. It is called the Model 455 American Combo, and the retail prices start just north of $400. In the box, the gun comes with both .22LR and .17HMR barrels, and changing them out takes only two Allen wrenches, included with the gun. We shot our pictures of the test gun in the field, so you can see how easy it swaps, and the accuracy on both barrels is closer to 1/2MOA than 1MOA. The CZ 455 comes in a polymer stock configuration, a competition stock, even a Mannlicher style stock with hi-lux wood, in addition to the basic Walnut you see here. If you have longed for an old world style bolt rimfire, this CZ 455 offers you both the classic look and feel of the 50s and 60s, with the ability to convert from a .22LR plinker to a .17HMR hunting rifle, and you can get a .22WMR barrel as well.

What do you buy the tactical nut who has everything? The answer is: A steel framed, bone charcoal case colored Doug Turnbull AR-15 called the TAR-15. It costs $2,750 with a plain American Black Walnut stock, and you’ll have to get in line if you want to buy one, because they are selling like hotcakes and backordered 5 months. Wait a minute, you ask? Wooden stock? Steel? AR-15? Something doesn’t add up here. But no, your eyes are not deceiving you. The king of firearm restoration, Doug Turnbull, has been making his own firearms for years, and his newest projects are on the AR platform, in .308, .223, and even 7.62×39 and .300 Blackout. We were able to test the .223 version of the gun, just to see if it actually works, and not surprisingly, the TAR-15 is as functional as it is beautiful. Steel and wood will never take the place of aluminum and plastic in the AR-15 world, but if you want a genuinely unique gun, no two of these will ever look the same, and the price is very reasonable for something that only a handful of people will ever own.

Not all gun enthusiasts are gun nuts, so when the firearms industry comes out with a new “official” caliber, a lot of us just shake our heads and ask “why?” The .17 Hornet is the latest caliber to come into primetime. It was designed by Hornady after more than five decades of the cartridge living in the “wildcat” world of those who design their own calibers. The Hornady version of the .17 Hornet is slightly different than the original .17 Hornet designed by P.O. Ackley which was a necked down .22 Hornet. This .17 Hornet pushes a 20 grain bullet at over 3600 feet per second, and early tests showed great potential for the round not only in downrange performance, but also in extreme accuracy. Savage Arms, the company known more than anything for affordable out of the box accuracy, has teamed up with Hornady to introduce the round with 4 models in their Model 25 line. We were able to test the $635 MSRP camo version of the Savage “Walking Varminter” Model 25 in .17 Hornet and it is an insanely accurate tack driver, as well as being deadly on game. The interesting thing about the .17 Hornet is that it has nearly the same trajectory as the 55 grain .223 Remington, so you can use caliber specific reticle scopes meant for the .223, for the .17 Hornet. This isn’t a rimfire like the .17HMR. You can reload the .17 Hornet and handload it to tune the round to your rifle. Good luck trying to find the rounds or brass right now, but by mid-summer we’ll probably be able to get it, and the rifles are out and available.

One of the bi-products of the artificial gun shortage we just experienced is that a lot of guns that otherwise wouldn’t have made it to dealer shelves not only made it, but sold out. One of those was a new line of shotguns from an old brand called Webley & Scott. Don’t be fooled. This is a purchased name that is being put on guns that are made by modern manufacturers in Turkey and Italy. The old Webley & Scott, originally from Birmingham, England, is long dead and buried, and with them went their production of some of the finest shotguns and rifles in history. Still, these new guns coming out under the W&S name are very interesting. We haven’t gotten a look at the Italian SxS and O/U guns, but in the home defense realm, they have a new “slingshot action” that is somewhat unique. It isn’t a true pump and it isn’t a true autoloader, but rather something in between. We bought one, just to see if it works, and to see if this type of action could be the next revolution in home defense shotguns. The street price is around $300 for our tested model, and for the most part it worked great. The slingshot action is something that you would have to get used to, but for a new fangled gimmick, at least it mostly works. The only problem is that new shooters might see the Webley & Scott moniker and buy this gun thinking that it is tried and true design from a trusted name. It isn’t, and they aren’t. The original Webley & Scott engineers are most likely wretching in their graves knowing that someone is pawning off Turkish junk under the auspices of their good names, but the guns do work, and they are inexpensive.

Great guns are always the most difficult to review. After all, a gun is just a fairly simple mechanical device that is made to withstand a bunch of force and direct its energy in a particular direction, one that you are aiming at. What made the original XD-S such an amazing great gun when it was first introduced was that it did this in a big caliber, without a lot of wear and tear on the shooter. Shooting.the tiny, pocketable XD-S 45ACP without a disabling recoil or muzzle flip is pretty amazing when you try it in person. You won’t believe how different the gun shoots unless you try it. The newest XD-S, in 9mm, is the same size as the original 45, brought to market this year in response to overwhelming demand for the smaller caliber. It shoots even lighter than the original, holds two more rounds, and side by side with every other “micro-9” in the market, flips a lot less. The XD-S is a full featured pistol, with a loaded round indicator, last round hold open, and the new 9mm comes with two 7 round magazines, an outside the waistband holster, and a dual magazine holster. It it also has an grip insert for smaller hands and extra fiber optic sight inserts in two colors. The street price of the XD-S 9mm should be around $550-$600. Nobody was surprised that Springfield came out with a 9mm XD-S, and we await the .40S&W version, but until you shoot the gun it is difficult to understand just how much the XD-S, in both the original .45ACP and now 9mm, outclasses the competition. If you remember our original review of the XD-S .45ACP back in June of last year, we correctly predicted that this gun would be a game changer for the market. The 9mm version is more of the same, for those who want a couple more rounds in the mag and an even lighter shooting pocket pistol. They should be at your local gun dealers this week.

Occasional when we run a story a comment will come in from the maker of a competing product offering to send us a sample to review. This product came in from an email to GA customer service after the article that Guy Sagi did on the Laserlyte ReactionTyme target system. That system is $179 and works with a dummy cartridge that activates a laser target downrange. This system, called the Pistolero, is a full $100 more, but it allows you to practice with not one but five different calibers. Ammo supply is starting to equalize back with demand because Obama has had to distract himself with keeping his job instead of registering your guns in a twisted gun confiscation plan, but ammo is EXPENSIVE. You can shoot up $279 worth of ammo in an afternoon these days, without even inviting any friends. The Pistolero is made by the Robert Louis Company, actually located in Newtown, CT, and it is clearly a hand made product created for serious shooters. Robert Louis makes the same kinds of systems for competitive shotgun shooting, and this pistol kit is made with the same attention to detail and care. Though I think the patent potential is dubious, it is a great idea and a nifty little product that will allow you to practice your competitive shooting, reactive shooting, and tactical shooting with a laser on target, without burning precious ammo. At $279, it’s a little steep for a lot of us, but that is what you pay for a hand made product from a smal company that makes them one at a time.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is the way the majority of shooters treat their guns. But there are those of us who like to trick certain guns out because they fit a specific purpose better with cool stuff on them. The Springfield Armory M1A is one of those guns that can go either way. The M1A was designed as a military rifle, known as the M-14, so out of the box, in both its short and long versions, it’s good to go for close quarters combat, and the peep sights built in are good enough to shoot at a man sized target out to 600 yards. But tricked out, the M1A is even better, and the military even uses it today in a modern chassis system that can take rails and optics. The problem with consumer M1A chassis, like the bullpup Juggernaut Rogue that we reviewed last year, is that they are both expensive and heavy. Unless you have money to burn and the muscles of a special forces dude, most M1A chassis just aren’t worth the trouble, until maybe now. Pro-Mag makes a copy of a very expensive professional chassis that they call the Archangel. We found that it installs fairly easy, ads some genuine versatility to the gun, and probably improves the accuracy quite a bit. It retails for under $250, and besides being reasonably priced, isn’t a behemoth. At only 10 pounds for the complete finished rifle, the Archangel isn’t significantly heavier than even the fairly svelte M1A SOCOM I stock. If you have an M1A that you want to make that much better, this is an official heads up that the Archangel seems like a great buy.

With many things in life you get what you pay for. If you remember, back in December, we reviewed the Wheeler Professional Reticle Leveling System, which, if you click through to Midway, is currently $45. Within about an hour of that article coming out, we got a comment that there was a much more affordable system that was “much better” than the Wheeler, called the Segway. Rather than let the commenter hijack the post, we asked the manufacturer, Straight Shot, for a sample, and we got one of what we found out later was the old model right away. The owner of the company then stopped by our booth at SHOT to drop off the newest model, the Segway Mark III, and we are finally getting around to telling you guys about it now. But don’t worry, if you already bought the Wheeler, it is a far superior device, and uses an overall superior approach to making sure your reticle is plumb with your bore. The Segway is available also from Midway for $21.99, but it isn’t half the product of the Wheeler. The Segway Reticle Leveler isn’t a bad product. Not by a long shot in fact (pun intended). But if you are shooting truly long range, over 300 yards it is probably better to stick to the Wheeler.

The concept of “accuracy” reaches far beyond a 3 or 5 shot group when you shoot your rifle in competition or varmint hunting, where 3 or 5 shots is nothing. It isn’t unusual these days to find off the shelf, inexpensive rifles that guarantee “MOA accuracy” out of the box, limited to a 3 or 5 shot string. But when you get up into 10, 20, and even 100 shot strings, it is a virtual guarantee that the accumulated heat in your barrel will throw your shots into a much bigger circle than MOA, (which is roughly an inch of dispersion at 100 yards). Back in 2010 we first examined a product called the “Straightjacket” from Teludyne Tech that was designed to cure the effects of heat in rifle barrels. The Straightjacket is a 1 1/4″ wide sleeve that is fitted around your existing barrel. It is filled with a heat-wicking media of a proprietary metal alloy, and the overall system is much less weight than would be a comparable 1 1/4″ heavy, or bull barrel. Our original look at the Straightjacket was on bolt guns, but now in its 4th generation of the Straighjacket, Teludyne has come up with a system for the AR-15 that is said to make your best 3 shot group into your average 10 shot group. What we originally called the “Ultimate Accuracy Makeover” has become the “Ultimate AR-15 Makeover,” and we got some amazing results from our two test uppers. The Straightjacket is still a niche product for people who shoot a lot of bullets, fairly quickly, at things far away, and it ain’t cheap. AR-15 upper conversions are currently $1049 and bolt guns can be converted into Straightjacket guns for $849 ($1049 titanium). From its introduction to this day the Straightjacket challenges everything we “know” about accuracy, and that alone makes it exciting to play with, and worth the investment if your budget allows it.