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What do you buy the tactical nut who has everything? The answer is: A steel framed, bone charcoal case colored Doug Turnbull AR-15 called the TAR-15. It costs $2,750 with a plain American Black Walnut stock, and you’ll have to get in line if you want to buy one, because they are selling like hotcakes and backordered 5 months. Wait a minute, you ask? Wooden stock? Steel? AR-15? Something doesn’t add up here. But no, your eyes are not deceiving you. The king of firearm restoration, Doug Turnbull, has been making his own firearms for years, and his newest projects are on the AR platform, in .308, .223, and even 7.62×39 and .300 Blackout. We were able to test the .223 version of the gun, just to see if it actually works, and not surprisingly, the TAR-15 is as functional as it is beautiful. Steel and wood will never take the place of aluminum and plastic in the AR-15 world, but if you want a genuinely unique gun, no two of these will ever look the same, and the price is very reasonable for something that only a handful of people will ever own.

Not all gun enthusiasts are gun nuts, so when the firearms industry comes out with a new “official” caliber, a lot of us just shake our heads and ask “why?” The .17 Hornet is the latest caliber to come into primetime. It was designed by Hornady after more than five decades of the cartridge living in the “wildcat” world of those who design their own calibers. The Hornady version of the .17 Hornet is slightly different than the original .17 Hornet designed by P.O. Ackley which was a necked down .22 Hornet. This .17 Hornet pushes a 20 grain bullet at over 3600 feet per second, and early tests showed great potential for the round not only in downrange performance, but also in extreme accuracy. Savage Arms, the company known more than anything for affordable out of the box accuracy, has teamed up with Hornady to introduce the round with 4 models in their Model 25 line. We were able to test the $635 MSRP camo version of the Savage “Walking Varminter” Model 25 in .17 Hornet and it is an insanely accurate tack driver, as well as being deadly on game. The interesting thing about the .17 Hornet is that it has nearly the same trajectory as the 55 grain .223 Remington, so you can use caliber specific reticle scopes meant for the .223, for the .17 Hornet. This isn’t a rimfire like the .17HMR. You can reload the .17 Hornet and handload it to tune the round to your rifle. Good luck trying to find the rounds or brass right now, but by mid-summer we’ll probably be able to get it, and the rifles are out and available.

One of the bi-products of the artificial gun shortage we just experienced is that a lot of guns that otherwise wouldn’t have made it to dealer shelves not only made it, but sold out. One of those was a new line of shotguns from an old brand called Webley & Scott. Don’t be fooled. This is a purchased name that is being put on guns that are made by modern manufacturers in Turkey and Italy. The old Webley & Scott, originally from Birmingham, England, is long dead and buried, and with them went their production of some of the finest shotguns and rifles in history. Still, these new guns coming out under the W&S name are very interesting. We haven’t gotten a look at the Italian SxS and O/U guns, but in the home defense realm, they have a new “slingshot action” that is somewhat unique. It isn’t a true pump and it isn’t a true autoloader, but rather something in between. We bought one, just to see if it works, and to see if this type of action could be the next revolution in home defense shotguns. The street price is around $300 for our tested model, and for the most part it worked great. The slingshot action is something that you would have to get used to, but for a new fangled gimmick, at least it mostly works. The only problem is that new shooters might see the Webley & Scott moniker and buy this gun thinking that it is tried and true design from a trusted name. It isn’t, and they aren’t. The original Webley & Scott engineers are most likely wretching in their graves knowing that someone is pawning off Turkish junk under the auspices of their good names, but the guns do work, and they are inexpensive.

Carrying a gun as a woman is nothing like carrying a gun as a man. Men can get away with wearing the same thing almost every day, and loose and comfortable men’s clothes naturally lend themselves to belt or front pocket carry of a firearm. Even men’s shorts generally have numerous deep pockets and a belt. A woman who wants to carry a gun every day has to navigate pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, and enough different types of tops to make your head spin. Very few of them have the cut and support to hide a firearm. Most women’s clothes are form fitting by design, and unless a woman wears bluejeans every day, there is no guarantee that any garment is going to have any waist support at all. We found an interesting company called “The Well Armed Woman” owned and run by Carrie Lightfoot, an active NRA certified trainer who works with women. Facing frustration with the male holster world, Carrie has found, modified and even created a whole bunch of products made just for the concealed carry needs of a woman. Female wardrobes being what they are, there is no way that a woman can just buy and use one option for concealed carry. CCW for a woman also requires a “wardrobe” of sorts. The holster you use for jogging isn’t going to work at the office, and the holster you use at the office isn’t going to work out on the town. We tried a number of options, including the belly band, a thigh holster, a camisole with holster built in, and even the famed inside the bra holster. Every option has its place, but on a limited budget you’ll have to choose a couple that fit most situations.

Great guns are always the most difficult to review. After all, a gun is just a fairly simple mechanical device that is made to withstand a bunch of force and direct its energy in a particular direction, one that you are aiming at. What made the original XD-S such an amazing great gun when it was first introduced was that it did this in a big caliber, without a lot of wear and tear on the shooter. Shooting.the tiny, pocketable XD-S 45ACP without a disabling recoil or muzzle flip is pretty amazing when you try it in person. You won’t believe how different the gun shoots unless you try it. The newest XD-S, in 9mm, is the same size as the original 45, brought to market this year in response to overwhelming demand for the smaller caliber. It shoots even lighter than the original, holds two more rounds, and side by side with every other “micro-9” in the market, flips a lot less. The XD-S is a full featured pistol, with a loaded round indicator, last round hold open, and the new 9mm comes with two 7 round magazines, an outside the waistband holster, and a dual magazine holster. It it also has an grip insert for smaller hands and extra fiber optic sight inserts in two colors. The street price of the XD-S 9mm should be around $550-$600. Nobody was surprised that Springfield came out with a 9mm XD-S, and we await the .40S&W version, but until you shoot the gun it is difficult to understand just how much the XD-S, in both the original .45ACP and now 9mm, outclasses the competition. If you remember our original review of the XD-S .45ACP back in June of last year, we correctly predicted that this gun would be a game changer for the market. The 9mm version is more of the same, for those who want a couple more rounds in the mag and an even lighter shooting pocket pistol. They should be at your local gun dealers this week.

Occasional when we run a story a comment will come in from the maker of a competing product offering to send us a sample to review. This product came in from an email to GA customer service after the article that Guy Sagi did on the Laserlyte ReactionTyme target system. That system is $179 and works with a dummy cartridge that activates a laser target downrange. This system, called the Pistolero, is a full $100 more, but it allows you to practice with not one but five different calibers. Ammo supply is starting to equalize back with demand because Obama has had to distract himself with keeping his job instead of registering your guns in a twisted gun confiscation plan, but ammo is EXPENSIVE. You can shoot up $279 worth of ammo in an afternoon these days, without even inviting any friends. The Pistolero is made by the Robert Louis Company, actually located in Newtown, CT, and it is clearly a hand made product created for serious shooters. Robert Louis makes the same kinds of systems for competitive shotgun shooting, and this pistol kit is made with the same attention to detail and care. Though I think the patent potential is dubious, it is a great idea and a nifty little product that will allow you to practice your competitive shooting, reactive shooting, and tactical shooting with a laser on target, without burning precious ammo. At $279, it’s a little steep for a lot of us, but that is what you pay for a hand made product from a smal company that makes them one at a time.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is the way the majority of shooters treat their guns. But there are those of us who like to trick certain guns out because they fit a specific purpose better with cool stuff on them. The Springfield Armory M1A is one of those guns that can go either way. The M1A was designed as a military rifle, known as the M-14, so out of the box, in both its short and long versions, it’s good to go for close quarters combat, and the peep sights built in are good enough to shoot at a man sized target out to 600 yards. But tricked out, the M1A is even better, and the military even uses it today in a modern chassis system that can take rails and optics. The problem with consumer M1A chassis, like the bullpup Juggernaut Rogue that we reviewed last year, is that they are both expensive and heavy. Unless you have money to burn and the muscles of a special forces dude, most M1A chassis just aren’t worth the trouble, until maybe now. Pro-Mag makes a copy of a very expensive professional chassis that they call the Archangel. We found that it installs fairly easy, ads some genuine versatility to the gun, and probably improves the accuracy quite a bit. It retails for under $250, and besides being reasonably priced, isn’t a behemoth. At only 10 pounds for the complete finished rifle, the Archangel isn’t significantly heavier than even the fairly svelte M1A SOCOM I stock. If you have an M1A that you want to make that much better, this is an official heads up that the Archangel seems like a great buy.

I recently completed a video with the American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI #346DVD), “AR-15: Practical, Tactical, or Tacti-Cool, which looks at many of the current components that can turn your AR-15 into a rifle that best suits your needs or wants. There are many great companies making quality rifles and even more companies making great add-on components to upgrade those rifles. Some components are very practical and enhance the rifle platform with minimal cost or work. Some components are more “Tactical,” meaning they assist in a specific mission or purpose, whatever that may be for you. Some components are “Tacti-cool”, meaning they don’t necessarily help with a real need… but they enhance the look and you “just gotta have it.”

You can take any AR-15 rifle and reconfigure it yourself to fit whatever purpose or desire you have. In my video, we take a look at many components, add-ons, optics, and tools. We discuss gas impingement vs. gas piston systems, along with the pros and cons of each. Let’s take a look at just a few of the components that I think are the most practical enhancements to a rifle.

With many things in life you get what you pay for. If you remember, back in December, we reviewed the Wheeler Professional Reticle Leveling System, which, if you click through to Midway, is currently $45. Within about an hour of that article coming out, we got a comment that there was a much more affordable system that was “much better” than the Wheeler, called the Segway. Rather than let the commenter hijack the post, we asked the manufacturer, Straight Shot, for a sample, and we got one of what we found out later was the old model right away. The owner of the company then stopped by our booth at SHOT to drop off the newest model, the Segway Mark III, and we are finally getting around to telling you guys about it now. But don’t worry, if you already bought the Wheeler, it is a far superior device, and uses an overall superior approach to making sure your reticle is plumb with your bore. The Segway is available also from Midway for $21.99, but it isn’t half the product of the Wheeler. The Segway Reticle Leveler isn’t a bad product. Not by a long shot in fact (pun intended). But if you are shooting truly long range, over 300 yards it is probably better to stick to the Wheeler.