Columns

Media Day at the Range attracts a lot of unique companies that don’t necessarily exhibit at SHOT Show. One thing that almost all of the guns at SHOT Show had in common this year was that their chambers were filled with plastic chamber flags made by Manufacturing Services, Inc. They have a minimum order of 100 pieces with your custom logo, and if you want to order 250, there is no setup fee. The flags themselves are 50 cents each. Also check out the personal defense tool, 60 cents each for 250, and a really nifty water bottle holder that slips in your pocket (see the third picture, 50 cents each/250. Cool company obviously a big fan of shooting sports, and MADE IN USA. Give them some business for your next shooting event or trade show giveaway.

Springfield Armory is announcing a new variant of the XD-S for 2014. It is the logical next step in the evolution of the sensationally popular XD-S sub-compact format. No, it’s not a new caliber offering – it is a new barrel length! Springfield has stretched the 3.3” barrel just ever so much to an even 4 inches. Why is this significant? For starters – recoil. I obtained my copy of the XD-S in 2012 in the initial offering of .45 ACP. If you have ever fired that gun, you know that it has some “personality” to it. Simple physics I’m afraid. Less size and weight of the handgun means more felt recoil for the shooter. The 2013 introduction of the 9mm version was welcomed by many because of the reduced pressures of that round, but it still has some snap. A 4” offering of this same gun adds weight where it is needed most – out at the muzzle. This helps reduce felt recoil. The XDS-9 4.0 also has a longer sight radius; adding ¾” to the length of the slide allows Springfield to push the front sight further forward by that same distance. This translates to a more accurate sight picture and better shots. Small errors in aiming are more noticeable, and therefore easier to correct with a longer sight radius.

Technology can make your life easier, or create yet a new thing you have to learn for fear of falling behind. The new GunsAmerica Posting Wizard smartphone ap for Android is meant to make your life easier. We hope to follow up within a couple months with an option for Apple products, but it can be very hard to get an ap into their store. The Android ap flows just like the posting page on the main website, and includes all of the options that you will find there. Why didn’t we make an ap for browsign the website and contacting sellers? We may, if people say they want it. The problem with those aps is that you really don’t need them if the website is designed properly for smartphones, and they can be more cumbersome than just using the regular website. For posting, it is really convenient to be able to just pop a few pictures with your phone and post an ad remotely, so we decided that this posting wizard ap was worth the space in your phone if it is something that you think you will find useful. Please give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments, and also please take the time to rate it in the Google Play store. Maybe we’ll be “trending” !!

You do not have to make your gun go bang to improve your shooting. This is good news because often you cannot go to the range and sometimes you just cannot afford ammo. Dry practice, practice with your firearm without ammunition, is a viable training tool and can help you master many aspects of the defensive handgun.

This year’s SHOT Show was overshadowed by an unprecedented attack on our 2nd Amendment rights by shameless politicians trying to pay back political favors from the 2012 election. Unfortunately a lot of the American public are actually buying the lies and the false hopes offered by the carpetbagging charlatans. Prosperity is what America needs to reduce the violence in our inner cities, and SHOT Show 2013 was a stunning banner of American ingenuity, creativity, and the seeds of prosperity. Firearms have always meant freedom, and we will lose our freedom in America if we don’t stand up for our firearms now. Thanks to Julie Mac, Mark Bealo and Eric Beels for great work on this year’s videos. Hopefully next year Julie will remember for once that shotguns are actually a part of the firearms world, but for now let’s all just keep it a secret. We’ll see you for next year’s SHOT Show, back in Las Vegas, for 2014.

The name Weatherby alone is enough to pique the interest of most gun enthusiasts. The company’s attention to detail and renowned reputation for long-range performance in the hunting fields is unsurpassed.

But the company launched a shotgun lineup a few years ago and heads really turned when it rolled out a synthetic-stocked, pump-action shotgun in 12 gauge for self-defense. This year the company has extended its scattergun lineup with three 20-gauge offerings—one for bird hunting, while the new pair of TRs (Threat Response) are tailored for self-defense.

The PA-08 Synthetic in 20-gauge is available with either 26- or 28-inch chrome-lined barrels, comes with a black synthetic stock and to reduce glare afield the gun is finished in matte black. Lengthened forcing cones help reduce perceived recoil, making it an easy-to-use workhorse on opening day, regardless of the weather. It’s sure to offer the same kind of performance as its 12-gauge bigger brother.

The military contractor game has dried up some since the wars have slowed down so a lot of products that hoped for military trials are now trying to make it in the consumer world of guns and gun toys. Perhaps the most advanced at this year’s SHOT Show was TrackingPoint, a monstrous looking rifle and scope combination that is being marketed as fighter plane lock and launch technology for your deer rifle. Tag, Track, Fire.

The TrackingPoint system looks like a big huge rangefinder scope but it is actually an entire weapon system. You buy the rifle and electromechanical optics computer as a package, tuned to the ammo that comes with the gun. At first blush it felt more like the stuff of science fiction than that destined for the hunting camp, but TrackingPoint was the talk of SHOT Show 2013 for sure. The concept of this device is simple. Rifle accuracy and rifle ballistics have outpaced shooter ability for decades now, and most cartridges are generally not able to be shot at their effective distances because of potential shooter error. First shot hits at ranges of further than 600-800 yards are in the single digits for success percentages in human trials, even with ballistic computers, and if you think about it, there should be a technology that can make this better. From idea to finished working product, TrackingPoint is this technology.

Any fan of Mossberg pump guns will tell you, they are the greatest guns on the planet, except that they kick like a mule. When you try the 3″ and 3 1/2″ guns, meant for turkey and waterfowl, the effects can be downright punishing, and I have seen even 2 3/4″ buckshot send a 6 foot 3 inch grown man stumbling backwards. Granted, you can wield a Mossberg 500/590, or even the 835 effectively in both hunting and tactical situations, but you are going to know that you shot the gun. When someone says “eh, that .50 cal. doesn’t kick anymore than a 12 gauge,” keep in mind they are probably talking about a Mossberg pump gun. But hold the bus, Mossberg has a new product line they seem to be testing in the market that is a “harmonic damper,” built right into the stock of their iconic working man’s shotguns.

The system is made by a company called Mathews, which specializes in bows, as in bow and arrows. Somehow this company developed a “push back” technology that seems to work on something of a gyroscope methodology, turning the recoil on itself to push backwards. We are eager to get one of these guns to try, so for now all we can tell you is that there are going to be 7 introductory models, and all of them, including the tactical, will have a special stock with the recoil whosawhatsit and a special adjustable comb. The firearms community doesn’t take easily to new concepts, but it looks like Mossberg has a lot of hope for this new system, and it could revolutionize what we think of as a fixed amount of recoil in fixed breech (ie. pump and over/under and sxs) shotguns. They have a new recoil pad with this system as well, so it will be interesting to see the end result, which is hopefully the opposite of a purple and yellow shoulder after a day of shooting. Everyone’s favorite shotgun is learning some new tricks this year, comfortable ones, 100% made in the USA.

I saw something incredible today when I met Cabot Guns CEO Robert A. Bianchin. His company may not be a household name among gun enthusiasts, yet, but this niche manufacturer builds some of the finest 1911s I have ever held.

These are not old-school 1911s you shoot every weekend, or toss into the back of your trunk irreverently. They’d handle it and be utterly reliable, but you just wouldn’t do that to these handguns.

These are, as Bianchin put it, a functioning piece of precision art. These 1911s are developed and made by engineers, to critical tolerances, using standards typically reserved for the aerospace industry or in a nuclear lab…I’m not kidding. They are also utterly reliable.