GunsAmerica Blog Product Reviews – Accessories and Gun Related items

Sometimes a silly idea turns into something really useful. You probably remember back at SHOT Show we ran across “bleeding zombie targets” at Media Day at the Range. Even back then the company making them knew that the zombie craze would eventually die out, but that they had stumbled onto something significant in the area of firearms training. Their marketing and product development company, Maddox Defense, has from the start envisioned these nifty targets, made by ZMB Industries, as a three dimensional training tool.

Sans the blood and zombie graphics these genuinely three dimensional training targets give you a unique perspective at the training range, and show you just how hard it can be to get the shot when the shot is what is required. This example you see here is the basic “Jacob” model. It is currently being used currently by the Navy SEALS and the US Border Patrol. The basic foam core torso with 4 extra skins carries an MSRP of $249.95, and the legs unit is $99.95. They aren’t cheap, but they are completely unique as a training tool, and when you compare them to the cost of finding something else 3D, that gives you this unique perspective, the price isn’t that high for five targets.

We don’t usually have a lot of negative reviews here at GunsAmerica Magazine. There is no point in them generally. The old adage “any publicity is good publicity” rings true
for gun products like anything else, so if we get a product in that stinks, we usually just decline to review it. The exception is when a product is something you will stumble on most likely,
and it is really bad. This is just a heads up about the swinging targets currently in the gun isle at the Wal-Marts that sell guns and have a big gun section.
We bought the targets you see here in Okeechobee, Florida Wal-Mart, but none of the south Florida stores even have them.

You can only buy so many guns (well, not really), so lately we’ve been looking into things that make the guns you already own more effective, and also look much cooler. I ran into this rail system from Black Aces Tactical while researching another article, and I have to say, the Black Aces Tactical shotgun rail is the best in its class that I have found for this application. If you own a tactical shotgun and have always wanted to have the ability to install lights, lasers, red dots, real sights, whatever, at a mere 16 ounces and currently on sale for $179, the Black Aces shotgun rail system is something you should look into. It is available for the Remington 870/1100, Mossberg 500/590, Benelli M1/2/4, and even the Saiga.

I have been at war with pocket holsters since my first concealed carry permit back in New Hampshire in the 80s. Back then the only pocket holsters were leather pouches. They were simple and kept the gun upright in your pocket at first, but eventually even the best of them would slump and buckle, providing little benefit to carrying the gun alone in your pocket. For many years I even carried an AMT Backup 45 with no holster at all in my front pocket, because there was no holster that fit it well and gave me access to the gun. Now, almost 30 years later, due in part to the explosion of micro-pistols in .380, 9mm, and now .45ACP, there are a lot more options to carry a gun in your pocket. Many of them are made from new materials, and a lot more thinking went into making them than back in the day. The pocket holster of today has arrived.

If you can handle the FAL, and it is heavy and awkward, the history of the gun has shown it to be a reliable and formidable battle rifle. Tricking it out with accessory rails is extremely easy and affordable. UTG (Leapers) seems to be the only company actually making a quad rail for the FAL. It isn’t expensive, MSRP $79.95, and, except for its own 6 bolts, the whole system installs with one screw. This is the same screw that holds on the regular hand guards. The rear Picatinny top rail shown here in the pictures, MSRP $69.95, slides into the slots for the bolt cover. Both parts are what is now called “fourth generation” from Leapers. The concept of tricking out a traditional battle rifle with rails and accessories isn’t new. The rear slide in scope mount rail for the FAL has been available for many years. The quad-rail is fairly new, though it did have its predecessors, but none of the old FAL stuff was all that stable. It worked, and as an initial idea, that was good enough, but in today’s mature accessory market consumers want failsafe reliable platforms that hold zero, and that is what these were made to do.

Half price bullets for an AR-15 is a dream come true for many shooters. But is cheaper inferior? That is exactly our question as we take a look at the half priced bulk purchase .223 “Varmint Nightmare” bullets from Midsouth Shooters Supply. In the interest of full disclosure, Midsouth is an advertiser here on GunsAmerica, but most of the gun industry advertises here over the course of the year, and we try to be objective as possible when it comes to products that our people plan to go out and buy. If these bullets weren’t every bit as good as bullets twice their cost, we simply wouldn’t have written about them.

It has been just over a year since we first posted an article about the bump stock from SlideFire Solutions called the SSAR-15. At the time, nobody knew if this cool new toy would still be legal a year later, but here we are. Not only is the SlideFire still legal, it has gone from an obscure product we had to stumble across to nearly a household word for those of us who think of gunshops as our second homes.

Once upon a time paper targets were boring. Concentric circles are fun and all, but if you shoot regularly, especially with friends, finding other stuff to shoot at is always a welcome addition to our sport. Birchwood Casey has for some time been experimenting with ideas for targets that not only make hits more detectible, but also give you multiple positions on the target to shoot at.

Gun locks may not be the most exciting topic in the firearm world, but it is one that many of us have to deal with on a daily basis. In states like Maryland, California, Massachusetts, and even Florida, there are now laws on the books that either require you to keep your guns locked, or (in the case of Florida), make you criminally liable if your unlocked gun gets into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, we as a gun community have been sold on what is most likely the worst method of locking a gun available, the cable lock.