Gun Reviews

A .22 LR handgun is easy to dismiss until you carry one all day, shoot it well, and watch it punch deeper than expected. For hunters, trappers, and everyday carriers in the woods, the humble rimfire sidearm still has teeth.

The Winchester Model 70 Featherweight brings wood, blued steel, controlled round feed, and old-school hunting rifle swagger into a world obsessed with carbon fiber and plastic. We tested this 6.5 Creedmoor classic to see if the Rifleman’s Rifle still deserves a spot in the deer stand.

The plain SIG P365 still earns its place as a daily carry pistol because it balances concealability, capacity, shootability, and trust better than almost anything in the micro-compact 9mm world.

Geissele’s King Hunter is a heavy, expensive, superbly accurate bolt gun built around Federal’s hot new 7mm Backcountry cartridge. It is not trying to be a featherweight mountain rifle, but from the bench and the field rest, this thing shoots like it knows it wears a crown.

The Tokarev TT 12 Pro is an AR-style 12-gauge shotgun that showed up cheap, ran clean, and refused to choke on low-velocity shells, buckshot, or slugs. For about $365, this box-magazine-fed semi-auto came to fight.

The 1858 Remington revolver brought solid-frame confidence, serious accuracy, and black powder attitude to the handgun world. More than a century later, its smoke, steel, and cartridge-conversion potential still make it one of the most appealing replica revolvers you can shoot.

The Smith & Wesson M&P Shield X is not just a stretched Shield with a fresh label slapped on the box. It shoots flatter, carries easier than a thicker compact, and makes a very strong case for being the smarter slimline 9mm for everyday carry.

The Ruger Mini-14 Ranch is the old-school 5.56 NATO rifle that refused to disappear. After decades of love, hate, and accurate jokes, the newer Ranch Rifle showed up ready to rewrite some history.

The Henry .45-70 is an heirloom-grade lever action with brass-frame swagger, side-gate loading, and enough thump to make bear country feel a little more negotiable. It is cowboy nostalgia with modern teeth, and yes, wagon train is still not included.

The HK VP9CC brings the VP9 bloodline into a true micro-compact 9mm carry pistol, complete with German engineering, an ultra-low optic cut, and the kind of price tag that makes expectations very serious. After 800 trouble-free rounds, this little HK has plenty to brag about, even if a few sharp edges bite back.

The Springfield Armory SA-16A2 is not just another retro AR15 trying to cash in on nostalgia. It is a smooth, iron-sighted 5.56 NATO rifle that reminds you why the M16A2 still deserves respect, range time, and a spot on your bucket list.

The Rock Island Armory GI Standard 1911 looks like a no-frills throwback, but this budget .45 turned out to be far more shootable and drama-free than its price tag suggests. After 300 rounds and zero malfunctions, the question is not whether it is cheap. It is whether this plain GI-style pistol might be the smartest low-dollar entry into the 1911 platform.

The Benelli Lupo Alpha looks like an Italian design team got loose with a CAD file and a bottle of Pinot Grigio, but this 5.73-pound hunting rifle flat-out performs. It is light, slick, weatherproof, and with the right load, it shoots tiny groups that make the futuristic stock a lot easier to love.

Ten handgun hunters, black bears inside 25 to 50 yards, fading light, and a week full of lessons. This Maine black bear handgun hunt delivered close calls, hard-earned misses, standout revolver performance, and enough honest takeaways to make us want another crack at it.

If you’re looking for a different thrill this fall, take a handgun hunting.

The Unit 9 Compact is not some toy pretending to be a training pistol. It is a Glock 19-style, CO2-powered, non-lethal training system built for real reps, real feedback, and real force-on-force work without the range drama.

Glock may still be the 800-pound polymer gorilla, but bans, lawsuits, and years of slow evolution have shooters looking hard at what else is out there. From Canik to Walther, these striker fired Glock alternatives are not just second choices, they are serious contenders.

The Springfield Armory SAINT Victor 9mm PDW stuffs compact firepower, suppressor-ready utility, and familiar AR controls into a 5.5-inch package that is easier to carry than it has any right to be. After match use, suppressed shooting, and accuracy testing, this little blaster proved it is more than a range toy.

The SIG Sauer M400 Forge looks like somebody accidentally stuffed a premium parts list into a $999 rifle and sent it out the door. With a hammer forged barrel, TriggerTech trigger, Romeo MSR Gen II, and thoughtful details most rifles in this class do not even flirt with, this one lands like a direct shot at the entire value AR-15 market.

The EAA Witness2311 CMXX comes out swinging with flat-shooting manners, a built-in comp, and a price that makes the 2011 crowd a lot less intimidating. It is not perfect, and the trigger started out rougher than advertised, but this compact double-stack definitely has enough going for it to make budget-minded shooters pay attention.

Springfield’s 4-inch SA-35 keeps the soul of the Hi Power alive while making it faster, handier, and easier to carry. If you already like the full-size gun, this trimmed-down steel 9mm may be the one that really gets under your skin.

My Seekins PH3 in 6.5 Creedmoor didn’t just print one pretty group. After a quick factory tune, it drilled repeatable sub half inch clusters and held that precision to 775 yards.

The American-made Charles Daly Honcho looks like a budget-minded 12-gauge bruiser built for tight spaces and rough work. But once the shooting starts, this compact pump reveals a split personality: smoother and better finished than expected, yet still saddled with reliability issues serious enough to kill the deal.

The Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 is not just another striker-fired 9mm trying to chase the usual names. After range time, carry time, and real instructor use, this pistol proved flat-shooting, reliable, optics-ready, and good enough to make a longtime Glock carrier reach for something else.

The Mauser Karabiner 98k is not some dusty museum prop that only matters to collectors. It is a hard-kicking, history-soaked bolt gun that still shows exactly why the Mauser action became the gold standard for combat rifles and hunting rifles alike.

S&W’s Performance Center Bodyguard 2.0 Carry Comp is a tiny .380 that shoots flatter than it should, carries easier than most, and only needed one fix at the sights.

The Browning BAR Mk II Safari is one of those rifles that can make a bolt-gun loyalist raise an eyebrow after the first shot. It is classy, quick on follow-up shots, and surprisingly gentle in a caliber that still gets real hunting done.

The Altor 9mm is crude, awkward, and about as far from a refined carry gun as you can get. That’s exactly why this odd little single-shot pistol makes such a provocative modern echo of the FP45 Liberator, and why its implications reach way beyond the range.

Henry’s walnut-stocked 9mm PCC already stood out in a market packed with lookalike carbines. The M-LOK version adds just enough modern utility to make this brushed-bronze oddball feel even more at home on the range, around the homestead, and anywhere a traditionalist wants a carbine that still knows what century it lives in.