GunsAmerica Blog Product Reviews – Accessories and Gun Related items

Eotech is a name we have all trusted for many years, and this addition of a shotgun forend is pretty exciting. It fits the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500/590 line of pump guns, and I can’t imagine a homeowner who wouldn’t want this ambidextrous wonder. Also a new version of their holo-sight in Zombie garb, nifty beans!

The new Hordady Zombie Max ammo gets a lot of attention, but the real story this year from America’s finest ammo maker is Critical Duty, a new handgun ammo for barrier penetration. Read the article and check out the video on what’s new from Hornady for 2012.

Even though there were little .380 pistols on the market before it, the introduction of Ruger’s LCP set off a .380 buying craze to such a degree that there were localized ammunition shortages. These guns are now so prevalent among the concealed carry crowd that shooting schools are, for the first time I can recall, teaching specialized little gun tactics and courses. There are a lot of benefits to such a compact defensive package, but as with many things in life, to get something you have to give up something.

Many of you out there are familiar with the company known as Leapers or UTG. They are well known for selling firearm accessories such as mounts, lights, and optics. This year they came to SHOT with more gear than ever, taking up quite an amount of space in the hall. I was looking through it, and there is something for everybody.

What you may not know about Leapers, is that they are all American owned, and continue to transfer ever growing amounts of manufacturing here to their Livonia Michigan address. Any work done outside the US is in Taiwan, and is completely owned by UTG / Leapers. Their people make it and inspect it. And above all else, I’ve found these products to be quality made, and at a substantial savings. (My police department even uses their gear on our issued rifles, and has been very pleased.)

I did a study not to long ago tracing the average group size of Remington Model 700 rifles over the past 50 years and found that, at least for Remington 700s, factory, centerfire, bolt-action rifles have become progressively more accurate. It’s no wonder, then, that everyone seems to want to shoot at longer and longer ranges. Scope manufacturers are doing everything they can to make long range shooting easier, and Swarovski is no exception. This year they showed a neat little replacement turret cap called a Custom Ballistic Turret that for $99 turns any Swarovski ballistic turret scopes into a long range marvel.

The news from holster giant Bianchi is their latest entry into the concealed carry market. Three new holsters blending old technology with new are their entries for SHOT show 2012.

The Allusion series of holsters, is aimed at the concealed carry market. Allusion holsters blend the advantages and looks of leather (old technology) with the advantages of synthetic materials (new technology). These new holsters have a polymer inner shell that goes around the gun itself, while there is an outside layer of leather.

Bianchi recognizes that there is a certain allure of leather, some like the smell or look. However, there is a certain usefulness of polymer that helps lock in the gun, and allow for easy re-holstering.

Another new entry to the optics world is from well-respected optic manufacturer Nikon. At SHOT show I got to see their brand new Nikon P223 3×32 BDC Compact optic for the AR style rifle.

This is a compact 3-power scope made just for the AR-15 style rifle. The optic is a fixed power 3x magnification, with hash marks in the reticle for bullet drop programmed for 55 grain bullets built into the scope.

MTM never fails to come up with some clever plastic product I probably would not have thought of and now can’t live without. This year it’s the Cast Bullet Box and Gun Cleaning Patch Catcher. I’m an avid bullet caster and have always kept my supplies of sized and lubed bullets in cardboard boxes. The problem with that is dust always seems to find its way into the boxes and onto the bullets. Granted, the dust is only a minor annoyance, but it’s still an annoyance. Al Minneman who heads MTM, is also a cast bullet shooter. Every year I try to visit him and his fellow competitors at the N-SSA National Skirmishes. They’re good folks, I get to hear about what new things they’re working on at MTM, and we talk shooting.

Stag Arms had two new products at SHOT that are going to take a lot of the guesswork out of self-defense and 3-Gun competition for shooters who want “turn-key” solutions. The 2012 Executive Survivor’s Kit (ESK) is a special project done in partnership with Stag distributor LAN World and specifically marketed toward affluent people who have themselves, their family, and assets to protect during a “survival” situation. The kit is not set up for surviving a zombie apocalypse or an end of the world scenario, but instead for the more plausible scenario of being displaced for a few days by some disaster. I’ll be the first to admit that the whole “Katrina” thing has been done to death, but there never fails to be some new natural or domestic threat to make you realize that you need a gun. With social movements such as “occupiers” who think they’re somehow entitled to “their fair share” of what YOU own, I don’t blame people for being concerned about their safety.