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Bullet drop, and compensating for it, can be extremely confusing, even for those of us who are good in math. But bullet drop itself isn’t that complicated, especially if you always use the same factory ammo with the same bullet from the same manufacturer. Nikon took this realization, concept, whatever you want to call it, to the next level in their M-223 series and designed scopes that are specifically for the bullet drop of the .223/5.56 NATO cartridge. Read More…

Much to the relief of his hundreds of internet gun buyers who have encountered him first hand, Paul Steven Webster has been caught. He was arrested March 21st by Lee County Florida deputies after an exhaustive three year hunt by both state and local law enforcement. GunsAmerica was instrumental in both the opening of the case against Webster and in his eventual capture.

Webster has been known throughout the internet gun buying world as a most elusive purveyors of internet fraud operating in our small corner of the internet buying world. He has claimed victims from nearly every popular internet discussion forum, posting guns for sale several hundred dollars below their value, and he has also surfaced on all of the major gun buying and selling websites, as well as the internet gun auctions.
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I’m not sure anyone has any faith in the free gun cable locks you get with most new firearms these days. The ones I have tested are a struggle to get the key into, and when you do get the key in and manage to open it the cable stubbornly clings to the side of the action. It is hard to get the gun from a safe and locked up condition to ready to fire.

MagVault, who you probably know from their biometric handgun safes, has recently introduced two products that take the place of those pesky cable locks for not a lot of money. If you aren’t locking your gun in a safe and you feel you need to provide a foolproof measure to keep your gun safe from firing, one of these might be for you. Neither can be eliminated with a $5 pair of bolt cutters from Wal-Mart, and one is even on sale for a few days more for $13.95 Read the rest…

Old vs. New in the classic battle for which pocket pistol is right for you. Join Brian Jensen in this head to head comparison of the classic Walther PPK and the new Ruger LCP. Read it now…

Introduced in 2000, the Glock 36 is a thinner version of the Glock 30 subcompact 45 ACP pistol. Instead of the thick grip and slide that were made to accommodate not just the .45 ACP, but the much more powerful 10mm – both with double stack magazine so common in Glocks, the Austrians did something different. A single stack magazine holds six rounds – comparable to an Officer’s Size Colt, which is similar to the size of the 36 and a much slimmer slide and frame. This lets them make a slim pistol – in fact the G36 is thinner than any other Glock.

This is a CCW dream come true. The reliability of a Glock, in a package the size of a small 1911, using the potent .45 ACP cartridge. With its nearly indestructible Tennifer finish it’s easily carried anywhere, whether an ankle, an IWB holster, or wherever and in the harshest of environments. I thought this gun was immediately destined for greatness.

What is odd, the G36 isn’t the madly popular gun I expected. They are a “love it or hate it” gun. Either you love the characteristics and the handling of it, or you don’t. There really isn’t too much opinion in between. I recently spoke with a local gun shop clerk who noted the same thing; he was just amazed that the gun wasn’t far more popular. For those with small hands, who I hear often complain about the thick grips of the Glocks in 45, why weren’t they snapping these up?

For me, the gun made a lot sense, so I recently purchased one to evaluate as a CCW. I was immediately thankful for the slim grip, and easily concealable package. I also bought a third magazine and two Pierce +1 extensions as well as a +0 floorplate for one magazine to aid in concealment. I also added a single Glock night sight for the front sight of the gun, since this is a close-in gun, not something I plan for target shooting, but more on that later.

Carrying the Glock 36 was very easy, especially with the +0 floorplate. It was comfortable to carry, either in an Inside the Waistband holster, a standard belt scabbard, or paddle holster. I used a Fobus and Blackhawk Serpa holster most often, and the gun melted into my side. I cannot usually carry a semi auto that I conceal with only a T-Shirt over my jeans. The 36 was flat enough to do the trick. All day carry was never a problem, with no sharp edges to scratch you or tear up you clothes. It was far lighter than my Colt Commander, and felt much smaller. All the way around this pistol is a solid CCW choice for those who like the Glock.

With all the talk we have around here about long range accuracy and long distance shots, very little of it applies to actual big game hunting. Punching paper has almost no relationship to hunting in the field. Paper targets just sit there. You don’t have to work hard to find them. They don’t move. It is almost like they were made to sit there and let you shoot at them. Oh yea, they were. Most shots on deer, hogs and even most African game is taken well inside of 100 yards, and often less than 50 yards.

None of those things are true with actual game, whether it is a Whitetail deer in the Pennsylvania woods, or a hog in the Everglades, or a Kudu on the plains of Africa. Wild game is almost always moving somewhat, and they are usually pretty darned hard to find, especially the big ones. When it is time for your shot, the shot you worked really hard to get and probably prayed for by your bedside the night before, you don’t want to look down your rifle and discover that you have the wrong optic for the job. Even at 4 power magnification a moving deer 75 yards away can be a difficult target to find in your scope when split seconds count. Yet optics are preferable in many ways to iron sights, because you don’t have to align them.

Nobody wants to shoot someone by accident, not even if you already shot them once. But something that many people don’t understand is the criminal and civil liability that can arise from doing just that. It is hard to think about a concept such as “gunfight safety.” It is an oxymoron of sorts because a gunfight by nature is not safe. But when you choose a firearm, for concealed carry or as a duty gun, as a police officer or private security, you have to consider how likely is that gun to get you in trouble if you are in the heat of a potential or actual gunfight. Even if you are protected by statute from criminal liability as a police officer or if you live in a state with castle doctrine laws, lawyers can find a way to sue you regardless, and your ability to not fire the gun under stress could potentially effect your life as much as being able to fire the gun under stress.

High end optics have historically not done well in the American market, We will spend any number of hard earned dollars for the newest and greatest rifle in the newest and most devastating caliber, but when we go to buy a scope for it, we cheap out. Europeans tend to go the opposite way. They will take much more pride in a fine optic than a fine rifle, and that is where they prefer to spend their money. An American will put a $500 scope on a $3,000 rifle, whereas a European will put a $3,000 optic on a $1,000 rifle.

I don’t know when this changed, but it is recent. All of a sudden, right here in the good old USA, optics in the $1,500 plus range have come into focus in the market (pun intended), and people are buying them.

Making a gun cheaper doesn’t always add up to making a cheap gun. That is the point of the new Kahr CM9. Modeled after their extremely popular but pricey PM-9, the $569 MSRP clone CM9 has exactly the same external specifications, the same magazine capacity and is the same weight as it’s more expensive older brother.

This gun is how Kahr answers the question, how do you follow up a home run? The answer is “with another home run,” and they really have no choice. Coming out of SHOT 2011, where nearly every handgun company announced a new 6+1 tiny 9mm, the PM-9 now has much more competition in the marketplace where it had previously ruled the kingdom. The CM9 cuts corners only where the engineers at Kahr felt they could safely be cut, but is more competitive on price with the new entrants into the field in this size range. The CM9 still has the 7 patented features found in all of these small Kahrs, and it shoots exactly like the PM-9, recoiling lower in the hand than most guns this size, which drastically reduces felt recoil and muzzle flip. The CM9 differs from the PM-9 in 5 different ways.