Gun Reviews

This week, I got my hands on a rifle that is destined for greatness. Springfield Armory has surprised all of us by chambering the M1A in 6.5 Creedmoor! I am not generally a fan of what I consider ancient weapons, but I am prepared to make an exception for this one. The History of the [...]

What do you need to do a Glock to make it an awesome combat gun? Well, if you ordered it with tritium factory sights, take it out of the box and put bullets in it. But sometimes we want something else. A gun is a very personal item to some of us, and we grow fond attachments to our favorites. At some point in your life, you are going to want to customize one.

It is pretty hard to get excited about an AR-15 in the current marketplace, which as a consumer is a good problem to have. I am certain there is an analogy in me somewhere that is family website friendly but let’s all just use our own imaginations instead. I have reviewed three SAINT models in the last 365 days if you count the pistol, and I count the pistol. It was going to have to be spectacular to get my attention.

And on this one, Springfield Armory delivered in spades.

It has been almost a year since Smith and Wesson introduced the M&P 2.0 upgrades, and the market agrees with me it was a fantastic set of improvements. Smith and Wesson actually listened to consumers over the decade since the original M&P series, fixing every major complaint with the 2.0. I haven’t heard one bad [...]

Remington is now shipping their newest double-stack 1911 to stores now. That’s not all as the company is working on a new series of magazine-fed shotguns.

Responding to law enforcement and public demand, CZ is developing a suppressor designed for the Scorpion family of firearms as well as a new Micro Scorpion.

It’s a banner day for pump shotguns.

We have waited a long time for this. Today, I am happy to report about the greatest leap forward in pump shotguns I have seen in my lifetime. This miracle of engineering is named the Remington 870 DM (Detachable Magazine). This has been a long time coming, and I am beyond excited to see it come from Big Green.

My father was a big advocate of old cowboy guns. Hailing from Europe by birth and upbringing, his fascination with the old West and the cowboys who won it bordered on overzealous. Any gun good enough to be preferred by the old-time cowboys was good enough for him.

He had a point.

As a parent and firearm enthusiast, the aspect of introducing your child to firearms can be both exhilarating and terrifying. Thanks to modern-day technology, there are many ways to interactively teach a child rules of firearm safety before they even pick up a firearm. This includes laser training. And what better to practice with than a SIG Sauer P320 Air Pistol?

The mere mention of the word obtains my undivided attention; it is the concept of a hunting adventure in the wild places of Africa, and is undoubtedly my happy thought. The word safari is taken from the KiSwahili dialect of East Africa, and it simply means ‘journey.’ It represents the challenge of shooting a big-bore rifle and being in an environment where there are animals large enough to take your life with ease. The CZ 550 rifle is, in and of itself, a journey, in that it has its roots in the Czechoslovakian Brno ZKK 602 rifle, and has come a long way to get to the current inception. That ZKK 602 is still revered among those who enjoy the big bore bolt-action rifles; the action is considered as rock-solid and reliable as a Mauser 98.

Real innovation in the firearms industry is a rarity, and some of what is innovative isn’t necessarily good. So it was with mixed emotions earlier this week I set out to review TrailBlazer’s LifeCard 22. Trailblazer Firearms is new to the business, and the LifeCard is their only product thus far. TrailBlazer is an appropriate moniker, this is definitely a different handgun. The company is based in Asheville, North Carolina. That region has been rife with what we shall term “ creative sauce” as long as I can remember.

There is no doubt that Browning has become the first name in American hunting. So when I had a wolf hunt come up last month, they were the first place I turned. The best thing about going to Browning is that you don’t walk away with just a rifle. Your walk away with a magnificent rifle.

Kimber has built a brand name that for many gun buyers in America is simply synonymous with top quality firearms. From its long guns to the many variations of 1911s, on down to the subcompact self-defense pistols — choosing a Kimber means taking a look at what is on the top shelf and telling the clerk, “I’d like to try that one, please.”

Ideally, to pick the best revolver for your daily carry or backup, you’d want to do a lot of shooting with everyone you could get your hands on. I mean thousands of rounds in all kinds of conditions. The downside to that is that it would take a L-O-N-G time! Turns out that getting old means that I’ve had a long time to do just that.

Always bring enough gun. That line writes well. It also embodies a great deal of well-reasoned tactical gravitas. If ever you should find yourself in the midst of a Real World balls-to-the-wall gunfight you don’t want to be the guy suffering a terminal case of pistol envy. However, I always thought that whoever first penned that idiom likely didn’t live in the American Deep South.

Why would you spend your hard earned money on a Kahr Arms Desert Eagle in .50 AE or .44 Magnum? Mostly because they’re fun as hell to shoot. This week in honor of Veteran’s Day coming up, we had the opportunity to shed light on a worthy cause and spend some time on the range with two Magnum Research Desert Eagles.

As SIG SAUER’s plan of global domination progressed last year, the world was treated to an entirely new rifle in the MCX. A lot of the press went to the smaller, pistol-sized, but the MCX did make waves. It became the duty weapon of the Netherlands Maritime SOF, the British CTSFO, the Berlin Police, and [...]

The new fully-featured Saint pistols feature a custom free-floating rail, updated pistol brace and blast mitigation device.

With the release this week of the variant, the Springfield Armory AR-15 family comes closer to completion. Not content to just chop down a SAINT and slap a forearm brace in place of the buttstock, Springfield has added some design features that make this AR pistol the one to beat. SPECS Type: Direct-impingment semiautomatic pistol Cartridge: 5.56x45mm [...]

Like you always do, you’ve done your “homework” and researched the crap out of your next purchase: be it a Smart TV, a camera, handgun or tires for your truck. And as a result of your data collection efforts, you eventually decide on an item knowing that it has “almost” all the features and qualities you had on your wish list.  It is a pretty good bet that the guys who engineered the new SAR 9 from SAR USA have felt the same way.

The Holy Grail of tactical shotguns has always been a detachable magazine feeding system. Several have come to market, but none of them worked well. Even those based on the ultra-reliable AK-47 fell short. For some reason, scaling up to 12 gauge just doesn’t feed the way it should. This week, we got our hands on the latest attempt to reach this bar. We have good news. For once, someone may have solved it

The muzzleloader can be a freezer-saver; many states offer a special season after, or sometimes before, the regular rifle season, and there may even be an additional tag involved. I have had deer seasons where the centerfire rifle went unfired for the entire season, and the muzzleloader was relied on to put meat in the freezer.

Among the multitude of autoloading handguns that a shooter has at his or her disposal, John M. Browning’s most famous pistol design still remains a perfectly viable choice, well over a century after it appeared.  The M1911 and the M1911A1, of the First and Second World Wars, respectively, showed the effectiveness of Browning’s brainchild, as well as the new cartridge designed for it: the .45 ACP, or Automatic Colt Pistol. The ACP marked a return to a .45 caliber sidearm for the military, as the M1892 revolver – firing a .38 Long Colt cartridge – didn’t have the power level that soldiers needed, and the Philippine Insurrection brought that quickly to light.

The Desert Eagle is a unique and iconic firearm. Though the Deagle, as most die-hard fans refer to the gun, has long been associated with the nation of Israel, naturally a gun this manly was originally born in America. The US patent application for this gas-operated pistol was approved in January of 1983 under the auspices of Magnum Research Inc. The gun earned a second patent in December of 1985. After Israel Military Industries refined the design the gun went into volume production.

ArmaLite began as a tiny little division of Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation in the early 1950’s. Fairchild built a variety of trainer and transport aircraft during and after World War II. Their most recognizable creation was the 1970s-era A10 Warthog ground attack fighter. Gene Stoner was the chief bottle washer at ArmaLite, and their mandate was to contrive the most technologically advanced military firearms designs on the planet. With a modest team of engineers, a few resources, and a remarkable excess of vision, these guys first strived to apply cutting-edge aviation technology to the development of small arms. Their efforts changed the way the world makes guns.

Need great balls of fire? Here’s one way to get some with the Fightlite SCR Raider pistol. The Raider has a Shockwave pistol grip and uses AR uppers.

Times have changed. In the past, there’s was a claim about pistol suppressors that, up until recently, still had relevance. The claim was that compared to rifle suppressors, pistol suppressors made less sense. On the other hand, a suppressed rifle can hang harmlessly and comfortably on a sling or sit on a bipod allowing the operator to load mags, and do other administrative duties without having to put the firearm in a less than ideal location. This theory held water until now, with the release of SilencerCo’s Maxim 9.

I am not generally a fan of the AK-47 family of weapons; I have spent too much time on the receiving end of them. But I am a fan of all things American made, so I was more than happy to review a couple of offerings from Century Arms.  Anything Commies can do, we can do better. And the boys from Vermont have set out to do just that. 

The whitetail deer has to be our most popular big game animal in the Continental Forty-Eight, yet the settings in which we hunt them, and the means with which we hunt them has got to be the most diverse ever.  Entire volumes have been written on what makes up the consummate deer gun, and while I’m not going to attempt to define that within this article, I would like to talk about some ideas to optimize your existing deer rifle, or perhaps to choose a different rifle in order to try a different means of deer hunting.