GunsAmerica Product Reviews – Rifles

         I live half an hour outside of town on my modest rural farm. I count the local Sheriff and his deputies among my dearest friends, but even in a perfect world it will still take them at least a quarter hour to get to my place from a standing start. I know of three of my immediate neighbors who have been the victims of home invasions in the past five years, two of which occurred while the homes were occupied. In one case the oldest family member present at the time was twelve. Defending yourself against an armed threat in your home is no baseless exercise.  

Winchester’s marketing slogan was quite a bold statement, but one that was not braggadocio. When the Model 70 was introduced – way back in 1936 – it represented what I consider to be the ultimate culmination of the American bolt-action hunting rifle. It had all of the necessary appointments: a strong action – closely related to the Mauser Gewehr 98 – with a reliable extractor, capable of handling the highest of cartridge pressures, a well-fitting stock, an excellent trigger and a three-position safety which would (eventually) work perfectly with a rifle scope.

Rock River Arms has teamed with Fred Eichler for new Fred Eichler Signature Series Predator rifles. These guns are designed from the ground up with the hunter in mind, and mostly that means weight savings. The barrels are fluted, and the handguards are carbon fiber. The rifle weighs in at only 6.9 pounds.

When we think of the name Mossberg, most of us instantly envision a shotgun. They have been the leader in American shotguns for decades, and recently have been crushing it out of the park with new products like the 590 magazine-fed and the Shockwave. But they are also a powerhouse in rifles. And this year they are stepping into the precision game, with the Mossberg MVP Precision.

There’s no real way to know what you or your firearm are capable of without adequate training. As Jim Mora so famously quipped after his football team suffered a blowout loss, “You think you know, but you have no idea.” And that’s exactly what you find as you start to train with others more competent than yourself — you were never aware of just how much you didn’t know.

IWI is famous the world over for bullpup designs, and this year stepped out with Tavor 7, a feature-rich addition to the lineup. The Tavor 7 is chambered in 7.62×51, a first for IWI. The gun is obviously larger than the 5.56 Tavor series, going to a big boy caliber requires some additional materials. For the bulk though, you get a lot. The new Tavor 7 is only 3/4ths of an inch longer than the original model.

It is not often we see a caliber that actually changes the way we think about shooting. Wildcats abound, often with marginal improvement over a factory round at best. There are exceptions, though most calibers fail to catch hold. Even those backed by major players. Several new calibers have been tried in AR-15’s over the past few years, none strong enough to give the rifle new legs. Today, hopefully, that changes.

At SHOT Show 2018 was not the first time I have seen the M+M industries M10x International Defense Rifle, but it was worth stopping by. The M10x is a completely new design, and it is certainly unique. To my eye, it looks like a SCAR, AK, and AR got tossed in a blender, and the strong points of each survived to make a new beast.

One company that I have a lot of respect for is Gunwerks. Every year at SHOT Show I swing by their booth to check out their latest products and chat with their staff. The Gunwerks staff are enthusiastic, friendly, professional and above else, skilled long-range shooters. This year at SHOT Show, Gunwerks introduced three new carbon fiber stocks; the CLYMR, MAGNUS, and VERDICT.