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This year saw the flood of extremely small 9mm pistols into the gun market. I call them as a group, “the Micro-9mm.” Just about any gun nut will get excited about on the promise of 9mm firepower in a small package that will fit in your pocket. And with the wave of new concealed carry laws across the US, tens of thousands of new gun owners have come into the market, all looking for the best Micro-9mm. I can’t say I have tested in hand all of the different offerings out there, but after extensive testing, I have to vote that the Walther PPS, if you did go test them all side by side, would come up on top. I’ll try to explain why.

When you have a lot of products that essentially do the same thing (think TVs), you have to figure out what the differences are, and which of the differences are important to you. Trigger action, a manual safety, not having a manual safety, thickness, price, capacity, etc. all factor in and will effect your buying decision.

The most important difference, however, is obviously reliability. Everyone will claim that they have great reliability, and you won’t find a real review of any of the guns either in print or online that says “I tried this gun and it didn’t work.” But not all guns work all the time in every instance, and understanding when and how a gun can be relied upon is extremely important, more important than all of those other factors combined. I want to be able to pick up my carry gun and expect it to fire every time with every ammunition if possible, and cycle correctly, chambering the next round to fire as reliably as the last.

With ultra-compact, or Micro-9mm pistols, reliability is a particularly a huge factor. That size of pistol has traditionally been constructed to handle the .380ACP cartridge, and forcing it to handle the much more potent 9mm, or even .40S&W is a not a feat for the faint of heart. 9mm kicks much harder. The rounds are bigger and longer, and the barrel thicker. Yet “thin” is in when it comes to pocket pistols, so that means the parts have to be smaller. In many cases the Micro-9mm is smaller than any gun the company has ever made, even a .380. Add to this that many of the people making these Micro-9mm pistols have never made a small gun before at all, at least not that small, and you realize that the gun you buy to protect your life is actually just the realization of an engineer’s drawings that so far has worked, as far as you have heard. You may feel that this is true of most guns, but there is a huge difference between making a new model with variations on a gun you have been making for a while as opposed to a completely new gun with design challenges you have no experience dealing with at all.

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At first glance you would think the Walther P99 and PPQ are the same gun, but when you look closer, the only things they really have in common are the way they fire (with a striker), their basic profile, and their weight, 1 lb., 8.3oz. The rest is different.

If your inclination is “Yawwwwwn” when you see a review of a modern polymer striker fired pistol, you aren’t alone. All but a few go bang every time, feel great in your hand, and don’t seem to break ever. They even mostly look the same. But there are differences, even major differences, and PPQ and P99 are two guns that deserve a hard look. Most of us think of Walther as an old time manufacturer of WWI and WWII pistols, and for the current PPK/PPKS, but both the PPQ and P99 are standouts in the polymer pistol world and should be taken very seriously.

The P99 is a totally unique pistol in the striker-fired world, and if given a chance by police armorers, could take a lot of law enforcement sales away from other brands. The PPQ will eat your Glock for breakfast at an MSRP of $729 and street price under $600. I was so impressed with both guns that I decided to put them in one article together in hopes that people would read about them both, rather than have to click two articles. Elite is the word that came to mind, and both pistols are truly elite in the handgun world.

Both the PPQ and P99 employ a unique Walther ambidextrous magazine release that is a part of the trigger guard. It is a little hard to get used to, but once I did, I liked it. The downside to it is that you have to alter your grip on the gun to drop the mag (or have really long thumbs), but the upside is that you won’t accidentally drop the mag in a gunfight because you whacked the button, or because the bad guy pulled a Jackie Chan and dropped it for you. I have accidentally pushed mag buttons my whole life so for me it was a welcome improvement.

The other features they share are an effective three dot sight, with a windage adjustable rear (nice feature), a standard 15 round magazine (17 available from Smith & Wesson), and loaded chamber indicators on the side of the gun. They both have interchangeable backstraps for different size hands, a front rail, and both come in a 9mm and .40S&W configuration.

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OK, so if you’re here, you probably own a firearm of your own, or you may be looking for one. Owning a firearm, such as a pistol, is a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of responsibility. One of those responsibilities is the proper care and maintenance of your gun. If you want it to last, taking proper care of it is the key.

Be it rifle, shotgun, or handgun, each has it’s own particular characteristics. Here, we’ll talk about caring for handguns, both revolvers and pistols. Revolvers will generally need less in the way of maintenance, but will still need your TLC from time to time. Take a few minutes to pull that wheelgun out, look it over, and wipe it down if need be. In a similar situation, stainless guns will need less maintenance, but they can and will still rust if not properly cared for.

First off, there is a difference between maintenance and cleaning. One is done to keep the gun ready on an ongoing basis, and preserve it long term (maintenance). The other is cleaning he weapon after use. Both are important, but both hold slightly different roles in the care of your firearm.

Before we get into the specifics about caring for the guns, let’s pause here just briefly to go over where you do your work on them. Select a place that’s clear of clutter, and with a flat surface. Avoid places that have carpet or rugs as they will suck up and eat small pieces.

Most importantly, make sure the gun is empty, and if you need to, remove any and all ammunition from the room. I cannot emphasize this enough. Far too many people have been hurt or injured by someone cleaning an “unloaded” gun. Before you even start doing anything to a weapon you bring into your cleaning area, clear it, check it two or three times, then recheck it. Once you know it’s empty, and visually as well as physically check the chamber, you can begin. This goes back to the standard principle that you should treat every gun as loaded until you check it for yourself. When you sit down to clean or work on your gun, make sure you check to make sure it is empty first.

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Value means getting more than you paid for, and that’s exactly what you get with Vanguard’s Endeavor ED binoculars. For binoculars with the performance and features they offer, you would typically pay 50% to 500% more.

The MRSP on the Vanguard Endeavor ED 1045 is $499, but I found them on Optics Planet for $399 and on Amazon for $379. Until November 30th there is also a special running from Vanguard that you can get a shooting stick or other accessories free when you buy a pair of these great binocs. The direct link to the promotion is: https://www.vanguardworld.com/index.php/en/os/component/content/article/6-other/137-free-shooting-stick-with-binoculars-purchase.html

The Endeavor provides 10.5 x magnification with 45 mm objective lenses. Typical sport binoculars in this power range have 42 mm lenses. The larger 45 mm objective lenses gather more light with an inconsequential trade-off in weight and size. Compared to the Vanguard ED 10 x 42 binoculars, the 10.5 x 45 add a little more than an ounce in weight and 2 mm (less than eight hundredths of an inch) in width. The added brightness is well worth the minimal weight penalty.

To get the best image quality, binoculars have to basically do two things well: transmit as much light as possible, and focus the image clearly. Glass lenses reflect some of the light from their front surfaces and the inside of their back surfaces, anyplace that glass and air touch. That’s the flash you see if you happen to be in front of someone using binoculars or a telescope. Anti-reflection (AR) lens coatings assist in light transmission and also reduce ghosting and flare. Binoculars designated as AR “Coated” have a single layer of coating on at least some of the lens surfaces. This helps but multiple layers are much more effective. You’ll know if they have multiple layers if they say “Multi Coated.” “Fully Coated” means that all glass to air surfaces are coated, and the very best binoculars have “Fully Multi Coated” lenses, like the Vanguard Endeavor.

The second problem area for light transmission is the prisms. Quality binoculars generally use one of two types of prisms: poro prisms or roof prisms. You can tell if a pair of binoculars uses poro prisms because the objective lenses are wider than the eyepieces; the prisms are mounted side-by-side inside the binoculars.

Roof prisms are mounted in-line, making the binoculars sleeker and more compact, however roof prisms require better coatings and more precise manufacturing than poro prisms, which is why roof prism binoculars typically cost more. The Vanguard Endeavor uses a combination of roof prisms, BaK4 prism glass (which is superior to BaK7 glass used in cheaper binoculars), and special phase coatings, for optimum performance.

Of course, the quality of the lenses is responsible for the quality of the image, and the Endeavor uses ED or extra low dispersion glass which makes the very best lenses. Binoculars with ED lenses actually use a pair of objective lenses, or a lens couplet, in each tube to reduce chromatic dispersion. Chromatic dispersion stems from the fact that the different colors or wavelengths of light which make up white light (think rainbow), focus at slightly different points, creating a slightly fuzzy image. The second lens in the ED couplet corrects the dispersion created by the first lens, resulting in a sharp, clear image with fine detail resolution. That’s important if you’re trying to count the points on a deer at 300 yards or to see anything in low light conditions.

The Endeavor utilizes a magnesium alloy body for lightness and strength, rubber cladding to ensure a secure grip, and is nitrogen purged to eliminate fogging and protect the internals from oxidation. They also incorporate O ring seals to make them waterproof. That doesn’t mean you can take them to 90 feet on your next diving trip. They are guaranteed waterproof to 3.3 feet, which is more than enough to keep the rain out and provide a little insurance in case you drop them in the water at your duck blind.

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Marching to the beat of your own drummer can be a challenge in the gun world. But over and over again, Kel-Tec CNC, the company we all know for their tiny extremely affordable and reliable pocket pistols, keeps showing up with a new beat, and the guns are some of the most interesting in the entire shooting world.

The Sub 2000 is a folding pistol-caliber polymer carbine, and that is about where standard descriptions run out of gas. At first glance you may try to compare it to a gun you already know, but quickly you realize that it is unlike any other gun you know.

You find yourself saying, “It’s kind of like a … um, no, it’s kind of like nothing.”

The Sub-2000 cocks in the rear, and all of the moving parts of the gun are located in the rear. If you look in the pictures, that whole front barrel assembly swings up from a release in the trigger guard and the entire gun effectively folds in half. It is pretty much a totally unique firearm.

At an MSRP of $409 and a street price well under $400, the Sub-2000 is loaded with features that you wouldn’t expect in such an inexpensive gun. It takes Glock 17 mags in the standard model, but Kel-Tec is also shipping them in Glock 19, Smith & Wesson 59 type, Beretta 92 & 96, and Sig 226 configurations, and the gun is available in both 9mm and .40S&W. The plastic rear sight automatically flips up when you deploy the front of the rifle, and the front sight is a completely adjustable fiber optic. The barrel is 16″, and the weight is only slightly more than a pistol at 4lbs. It fold down to 16″ long.

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This week we are giving away a choice of two optics from Swarovski Optik – a Z5 riflescope and a 65 HD spotting scope. If you haven’t entered the giveaway, it’s easy. Just “like” Swarovski Optik North America Hunting on Facebook and look for the instructions to enter. The full explanation was emailed earlier in the week and is here. As promised, this is an overview of Swarovski products, and our two giveaway scopes.
Quality is not something you can fake with optics, and learning how to buy quality optics isn’t as hard as you might think. There is a boatload of technology behind great optics: patents, design trials, and research and development, but you really don’t need to know any of that to choose an optic that outperforms the rest of the field.
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Many of us long for the days when technology didn’t rule our lives, yet we love the convenience of it. It’s the same thing with special muzzleloader seasons for whitetail. The antiquity of the technology is romantic, but better ballistics, better sights, and easier and more consistent components can make a hunt more likely to put a rack on the wall and fill a freezer with meat. The precious time we manage to actually get out into the woods in our busy lives is valuable, and going into the woods with a better gun during muzzleloader season has become the norm instead of the exception.
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I recently visited the Islands of Hawaii, putting some of my hard earned vacation dollars to work. While there, I noticed something unusual in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center in downtown Waikiki. It was a billboard ad for a shooting range, of all things, where tourists could rent guns and shoot!
Now I’m from California, and a shooting range is the next thing to an adult book store there, so I was pretty surprised to see the ad, much less in an urban shopping center. Since my interest was piqued, I had to wander up to the top floor to see what’s what.
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This is what you’ll get in the mail. The Nitesiters come with everything you need. They are easy to move to precisely where you want them. S&W revolver front sight before centering. NiteSiters Website: www.nitesiters.com. Whether it’s self-defense, hunting or target practice, being able to see your sights is a very good thing. For about [...]