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Close quarters battle has always been the proving ground for the EOTech line of holographic weapons sights.  You will find EOTech sights mounted on just about every type of small arms tactical weapon made, and they are equally at home on the SWAT team as they are in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The EOTech 553 is in U.S. military service under the designation SU-231/PEQ and M553 in the commercial market.  I got a chance to look at two new products from EOTech, the updated top of the line version of their battle sight called the EXPS-3, and a new scope that sits in front of the EOTech sight for more precise shots and flips out of the way when you don’t need it. Read More…

Out of the cool closet comes a quad-rail for side by side shotguns from LaserLyte that would make even Doc Holiday come out of his grave and get out his credit card and laptop. The OK Corral would have gone a little different if he had a laser on that there doublegun, and whether you own a Rossi Coach Gun like you see here in the pictures or a fancy engraved high grade upland game gun, your home will be a little safer with this nifty easy to use device from LaserLyte. Read More…

Pellet guns let you to bring your shooting home and AirForce, a small manufacturing company in Fort Worth, Texas, makes some great guns to do it with. We tested their two most popular models, the Talon SS and the Condor, out at the ranch on a typical north Texas summer day.
There are basically three types of air guns: spring guns which must be cocked prior to each shot, CO2 guns which use small canisters of carbon dioxide as propellant, and pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) guns which use compressed air. The advantages of a PCP gun over the other two types are that they can be more powerful, they shoot more consistently, there is virtually no recoil, and follow-up shots are faster and easier since the gun doesn’t have to be cocked between shots. Read More…

The science of ballistics is not as simple as many would make it seem.  What a bullet does in flight can vary due to factors you would never think possible.  Modern ballistics calculators, available as hand held units in the several hundreds of dollars, have been around for some time.  With the advent of smart phones, you no longer need a separate hand held calculator (unless you’re in a situation where you need the physical toughness of the unit itself).
The problem is, all of the name brand phone calculators were developed for the Apple Iphone, which means if you are running the Android operating system from Google, you can’t use them.  Run a search in the Android Marketplace for “ballistics calculators” and you’ll find some free apps and some paid apps.  I decided to download several of them and see what the differences are, and if they actually work.
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As battle rifles go, probably the most misunderstood of them all is the AR-10.  It almost beat the M-14 in replacing the M1 Garand, and its design was actually copied for the AR-15.  Made by Armalite in 1956, when the company was owned by Fairchild Aviation and Eugene Stoner worked there, the Armalite AR-10 has a long and storied history. Fidel Castro even bought some. Today’s AR-10, brought back to life by Armalite Inc., is a more mature rifle than the guns of the  ‘50s and ‘60s. Read More…

See a need, fill a need. That’s the foundation of American ingenuity. While browsing through new ads coming onto GunsAmerica a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a nifty homemade tool for adjusting the rear sight on a pistol. We’ve all gotten guns that came from the factory not shooting to point of aim, and while it isn’t an expensive gunsmith visit, it’s still a gunsmith visit. I’d rather have a tool I can bring to the range and adjust it myself, and also have to help others who I see dealing with the same issue. Read More…

Well, we’ve all seen the commotion about Glock’s new “Gen 4” version of their line of pistols. Some like it, some, well let’s just say aren’t jumping for joy. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Whenever a tried and true model gets an update, everyone wants to know how you improve on something that already works pretty well as is.

If you have an earlier model, we need to ask ourselves, “In today’s economy, is this really worth putting my hard earned money into?”

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Cool new guns always do well with the early adopter crowd, but seldom does a new firearm design last and thrive the way the KRISS Vector has since its introduction in 2007. You could not turn on the Discovery Channel back then without seeing the episode of Future Weapons that featured the KRISS. Now here we are in the future four years later, and the KRISS Vector has come into full consumer production, and it is again featured on TV. The Military Channel has named it the best close quarters combat weapon.

If you haven’t seen the KRISS on TV, it is truly a novel firearm. The patents are not just applied for, they are awarded. Compared to other pistol caliber carbines and rifles, the KRISS is just simply different. The bolt, upon firing, travels back and downwards, into the handle, and the recoil is absorbed in a spring in that downward position. The result is significantly reduced felt recoil and muzzle climb.

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New this year from Springfield Armory is their latest entrant into their line of XD(M) polymer framed striker fired pistols. This is what is being called the XD(M) Compact, and it is very similar to the XD(M) 3.8 that came out last year and that was built on their standard size frame with a shorter barrel and slide. The Compact has the same 3.8 inch barrel, and the slide is the same. But the frame is a new design for Springfield and it is made specifically for concealed carry.

Never to be left with a question about thinking about everything, Springfield gives you two different size magazines with the gun though. The flush magazine is the true “Compact” size and holds 13 rounds, but there is also a full size 19 round that comes with a sleeve to extend the grip. So with one gun you have both the new XD(M) Compact, a 2 finger grip for most hands, and the same gun with a full 3 finger grip, like the older 3.8 model. Read More…