GunsAmerica Product Reviews – Rifles

It would be absurd for me to review the Savage Rascal. My daughter Emma, though, is just learning to shoot. She’s the ideal test subject. So I passed on this review to her. Want to know what an 11 year old novice shooter thinks of the tiny .22? Read on…

In the American Revolution, the principle battle longarm was the Brown Bess musket. A musket is different from a rifle because it has no rifling, so the bullet doesn’t spin. The Brown Bess is .75 caliber, which is essentially an 11 gauge smoothbore shotgun, used to fire, historically, a cast .69 caliber lead ball weighing just over once ounce. The range on a Brown Bess is a couple hundred yards, but because the ball isn’t spinning, the musket wasn’t used as an aimed weapon past 20 yards or so. Companies of men fired batteries of musketfire to rain lead balls down upon the opposing force, hoping that someone would hit something. This would be followed by a charge with bayonets, because after a couple shots with traditional black powder (smokeless wasn’t invented until 125 years later), shooting a musket more than a couple times without cleaning can be difficult. This mode of war made for bloody battlefields, and a lot of hand to hand, in your face combat.

Henry makes guns that keep up the values established by the company’s namesake—traditional pistol caliber lever actions, mostly. These guns make versatile ranch guns, and are cowboy competitions. They’re adding to their catalog in a big way. If you are looking for an American made .30-30, or a hard hitting favorite .45-70, check out the new guns from Henry. These are hard-working lever actions, but miles away from the pistol calibers you might associate with the brand.

Bigger is sometimes better. That’s the philosphy behind the fixation with the AR-10. For a marginal increase in size and weight, you have a lot more punch on the terminal end of ballistic trajectory. CMMG’s Mk 3 .308 is a beast of a gun, and offers AR speed and ergonomics for those who want more than the 5.56 can provide.

The Troy Pump Action Rifle may look like an AR-15, but it isn’t. While Troy’s Sporting Rifle shares many of the same characteristics and parts, the basic operational mechanisms are unique, and built with compliance in mind. The Troy PAR is 50 state legal, and ideal for hunting, and capable of extraordinary accuracy. If you think this is nothing but an attempt to appease politicians, you need to think again. The PAR is fast and accurate.

For urban combat and self defense, many would argue that there is no better choice in a firearm than a pistol-caliber carbine. It has almost no recoil or muzzle rise, little muzzle flash and plenty of punch to get the job done in close quarters. The H&K MP5 is legend when it comes to SWAT and SPEC-OPS deployment, and it has achieved that status firing the 9mm cartridge, despite concerns of many that the 9mm is underpowered. The Taurus CT9 and CT40 are new entrants into the pistol-caliber carbine market, and they look and work a lot like H&K’s follow up to the MP5, called the UMP. The civilian version was called the USC, and is no longer produced (it was too expensive). The Taurus CT9 is a more full-featured gun than the USC, and with an MSRP of $879 and street prices under $750, this new carbine should fly off the shelves. As this article is coming out, the .40 S&W version was released, but we were able to test the 9mm gun. Our results showed the CT9 to be extremely reliable and tolerant of different types of ammo. The accuracy is at least as good as other pistol caliber carbines we have tested, and the features on the gun are all you could want for home and personal defense. This year is going to see a new emergence from Taurus since Mark Kresser took over the company. With the new focus on quality control and great customer service, the affordability of Taurus products will finally be backed up by a company that puts customers as #1. The CT9 is the first truly new product from Taurus for a while, and minus a couple peeves, it seems to be everything you could want in a pistol caliber carbine.

Now that James Bond has an iron clad set of balls, it’s time he upgraded his arsenal. While there’s nothing uniquely gadget-like about the Primary Weapons Systems MK107P, it does come in a briefcase. Q would be a bit jealous. And a tuxedoed 007 would look sharp carrying the Kenneth Cole case, but to hell with Bond. The novelty of the briefcase evaporates when you pull the trigger. This AR pistol is a surgical tool–it’s better than Bond–the PWS MK107P is exactly what’s right about America.

When I think of the Henry brand, I don’t typically think about survival rifles. The company is much more well known for their lever-action powerhouses. But Henry makes other things, too, and the U.S. Survival Rifle, or AR-7, is a winner. It is compact, practical, and the AR-7’s accuracy will make you think twice about your go-to rimfire rifle.

Not very frequently does GunsAmerica post written reviews from other gun publications, but in this particular instance we felt posting American Rifleman’s original review of the Ruger 10/22 which appeared in the Sept. 1964 issue was warranted considering the celebration that is going on today at Ruger. If you haven’t heard, Ruger is holding a special sweepstakes today to honor the 50th anniversary of the 10/22. Check it out!