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One of the more memorable scenes from the 1973 film Soylent Green was Edward G. Robinson on his pedal powered generator, to keep the lights in a post collapse scenario. Is pedal power realistic? How much power do you get? We we able to try the $195 extremely innovative K-Tor Power Box, one of the few complete package options on the market. It generates 20 watts at a steady pedal rate. This is not a ton of power, but lets take a look at the actual numbers, plus a general review of the product itself. One of the nice features on the K-Tor is that it generates 120 volts, not 12v like most backup power systems. The power is DC, not AC, but you can plug your regular wall warts right into the K-Tor, because DC will pass through the power rectifiers in the wall wart. Most electronic devices run on DC, but electric motors are generally AC.

What attracted me to this gun for testing and evaluation is its compact size, light weight and super quick handling. You can think of it as a shotgun carbine. The Beretta 1301 is compact, fast, and agile.

I just got home from “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (trailer below), and it was nothing like I expected. This was due in part to an article on InfoWars suggesting that the movie had a subtle anti-gun message. Those of you who are regulars here know that I have been critical of Alex Jones and his team in the past over 2nd Amendment issues because they seem to make them into a joke. Never will you see interviews with the hard working gun statistics experts out there, and you also never see any of the very smart editorialists at the NRA. Instead, after Sandy Hook we got a circus of a petition to deport an anti-gun CNN host, and this week followed in that same vein with a sloppy opinion that somehow this very pro-gun movie is somehow the opposite.

The Traditions Vortek striker- fired in-line muzzleloader shoots more like a GLOCK than it does your average flintlock, yet the high-tech rifle can still be used during those extra days of hunting season when the center-fire rifles and shotguns are forbidden. But once you have the gun loaded and ready, you may not be able to tell the difference.

CZ is not the first name in American hunting rifles, but I think they need more love. This 557 in .30-06 is rock solid, dependable, and as accurate as any rifle you’ll find on the shelf at any mom-and-pop gun store in America. It is time these rifles get the respect they so obviously deserve.

Love it or hate it, the 300 AAC Blackout is an interesting and incredibly diverse cartridge. Imagine trying to design a ballistic compensation scope for a cartridge that can use 110 grain projectiles traveling at 2,400 feet per second AND 245 grain projectiles traveling at 950 feet per second. Reloading is just as challenging.

You probably know Shoot-N-C. Most shooters do. Most varieties use a black paint over a yellow background. The adhesion of the black on the yellow is just strong enough to keep it from rubbing off easily. When a bullet strikes the target, the impact knocks a hole in the paper and knocks off a ring of the black paint surrounding that hole, exposing the yellow beneath it. This all may seem fairly obvious, but it is some high-tech material science we too often take completely for granted.

I have been sitting on a story since Media Day at the Range back in January on the day before the 2014 SHOT Show. It is a very simple GPS driven topography map interface for smartphones and tablets. Who doesn’t have one of those these days right? But outside of a very small percentage of hunters that hunt public lands with topo maps, I didn’t think many people would be interested in our gun world. One detail about these cards, though, makes them extremely relevant for long term survival. They don’t require a network connection to use the GPS or the data. Once you download the app, all you need is the micro-SD card with the data. At $69.99 without private land data and $99.99 with that data, these are a really cheap way to keep right at your fingertips a complete set of topo maps for your entire state. Right now the cards are available for all Android devices and the Ipad, and we were able to fondle the first generation of IPhone charger cases at SHOT Show, though they have yet to be released.

One of the best war movies ever made was “Enemy at the Gates.” It is about the WWII Battle of Stalingrad, and a Soviet sniper named Vasily Zaytsev. In the movie Vasily becomes a national war celebrity, and is then pitted against a top German sniper. The victor will, seemingly, carry the hearts and minds of the soldiers in the field, thereby swinging the war in the favor of the victor. Yes there are some stupid relationship and love triangle moments, but the movie doesn’t stray too far from the brutality of a war that was literally about survival.