Columns

Eotech, the world leader in holographic sights, this year has a new sight made for the elusive 300 Blackout, also known as the 300 Whisper. This caliber is interesting because it has two loadings. One is subsonic, slower than the speed of sound, for use with suppressors, and one is supersonic, so there is a [...]

Last year we saw Colt regain its status as the king of the AR-15/M-16 type rifle. Our Colt articles on both the 6920/6940 Patrol rifles, and the .308/7.62 Colt 901-16S were among 2012′s most popular here at GunsAmerica Magazine & Blog. The nice thing was that you could actually get the guns, and tens of thousands of you did. We have some good news for the 901 purchasers out there. According to “inside information” at the Colt Defense booth at SHOT Show, those proprietary swapper parts should be out this year, and they will finally come with the gun. Everyone who already has a 901 will be able to get them either free or cheap directly from Colt, hopefully by March is what we were told. If you have not yet read the 901 article and watched the video, it is a really cool gun that could transform your perspective of the AR-15 platform.

So what’s new for Colt this year? Mostly they are coming out with a bunch of specialized configurations and colors in the same rock solid 6920/6940 guns, and some of them are going to be only available from specific Colt distributors.

A lot of you guys were in disbelief that the new .17 Winchester rimfire from our Savage article early in this year’s SHOT Show coverage is all that it claims, so we got a little bit more information from Winchester. Seems that we have a whole new era of rimfire that will begin with the .17WSM. At 200 yards it barely moves at all in a 10mph wind, and they are marketing it for…coyote hunting. So stay tuned on this one kiddies. We hope to get a rifle from Savage and a box or two from Winchester Ammunition and get out coyote killing on the ranch soon. This is exciting stuff.

With ammunition prices through the roof and manufacturers unable to keep up with current demand, why would a company roll out an all new rimfire cartridge at the SHOT Show? In Winchester Ammunition’s case, probably because it has completed three years of development, and now is a great time to unveil low-cost fodder with performance that rivals some centerfire cartridges. Enter the world’s fastest rimfire, the .17 Winchester Super Magnum.

We first reported more than three years ago that deer rifles had vastly improved from what they were even five years before. We measured several inexpensive factory rifles at better than MOA, or Minute of Angle accuracy, and even those rifles have gotten even better since our original installment. Better stocks, better construction, and better overall workmanship have put legacy stalwart rifles like the Remington 700 at a disadvantage. You can get much cheaper guns with the same or better performance, out of the box. Remington entered the race for the least expensive great rifle last year with the 770, and this year they have added the 783. We hope to get both of these guns in for some actual hands on testing this year. It is amazing how much gun you can get for cheap these days, and this new Remington 783 looks very promising.

Live birds ahoy! If you went stumbling around the corners of the basement at SHOT Show 2013 you may have come across a trailer mounted giant clay pigeon machine Lazy Susan. There is almost no other way to describe this monstrosity called the Crazy Quail. Made of solid galvanized steel, it comes in sizes that hold from one to four bird throwing machines. The machines you see mounted on this demo unit at the show are made by Apex, but it accommodates just about any thrower. The machines rotate on a spinning plate, so you can throw several presentations at one time, and the whole system is portable, so one unit can be used for several locations at the same club.

The premise of the Crazy Quail is to get more birds in the air for clubs trying to make money. More birds equals more rounds equals more ammo, equals a profitable club. If you run a sporting clays club, the Crazy Quail is affordable, and throws up to 160 birds per minute. The quad configuration holds 1632 clays at one time. That is about 65 rounds, on one loading.

Inside-the-waistband carry, or IWB, is considered one of the most discreet concealed-carry methods, making a T-shirt and shorts possible while carrying in places like my sunny Southern California. Even larger weapons can disappear on your body when quietly tucked into your waistband.

Versa Carry has been coming up with a lot of innovative ideas on ways to secure a handgun inside the waistband, and its latest is a small J-frame revolver setup.

This story came as a tip from our friend Carrie Lightfoot at The Well Armed Woman. There are a ton of “CCW purses ” out there, but most of them were made by men and don’t work at all. We almost covered a company last year that made a purse that worked like a raccoon trap. You could put a woman size hand into the gun pouch on the side, but once you grabbed that shiny gun, you couldn’t get it out. Carrie is working on a series of articles for us here at GunsAmerica, and she will be the first to tell you that carrying a gun in a purse isn’t for everyone. You have to make sure that bag stays with you at all times and is in your complete control, but in some modes of dress, bag carry is one of a short list of options, and possibly the most sensible one. Of all the bag companies that have courted Carrie, to sell them on TWAW, Gun Tote’n Mamas is the one she likes the most. They have a huge assortment of bags for just about every taste and mode of dress, and the gun parts work, which is the most important thing.

In the midst of the gun grabber legislative chaos, ATI Gunstocks had some pretty neat stuff for this year’s SHOT Show 2103. Their big new product is set to ship in April and they are taking pre-orders now. It is a complete replacement stock system for the Benelli M4 called the Raven. Like all ATI stocks, it is modular and you can buy one piece or the whole system. All ATI stocks are what is known as “992R” compliant as well. On foreign made high capacity weapons, you must have at least 5 parts that are made in the USA if you want to use a pistol grip, and they have to be one of a core list of parts on the gun. For the Benelli, there are 14 parts, and ATI makes the five that you need for compliance. The kit retails for $374 on their website (again, currently in pre-order). The extra part you see here in the pictures is that front rail system, which they call the “magazine tube shroud,” and that isn’t available yet on the website.

One of the stories you didn’t see at GunsAmerica last year at SHOT Show was the “DoubleTap” pocket pistol. We elected to not cover it because though it seemed a good idea, it was clear from speaking with the management at the show that it was not going to be available in the market anytime soon. Several lawsuits later, the inventors of the DoubleTap have changed manufacturing facilities and it looks like the gun is actually going to be available in a couple months. This is a really neat double derringer style pocket pistol that comes in both .45ACP and 9mm, and it is available in both aluminum, at 12 ounces empty, for $499, or titanium at 14 ounces, for $729. At present all of the major distributors have placed orders for the guns, in the tens of thousands, and within a couple months the factory, located in Naples, Florida, should be able to produce over 5,000 guns per month. A full line of holsters and accessories are already available for the DoubleTap, and the barrels and calibers are interchangeable, with .40S&W hopefully available by summer.