Articles by Scott Mayer

Fiocchi has been our sponsor of the GunsAmerica Blog throughout the entire SHOT Show week. We are going to help them get the word out this year about their new and available “canned heat” line of ammo. They are hermetically sealed in a real can, with a dessicant pack, so they are ideal for long term storage, hunting trips into wet and sandy places, and even desert warfare. We have already used their new cowboy loads on a Cimmaron GunsAmerica Blog post recently, and we hope to go over the whole caliber availability as well (they even come in .32S&W). This video wraps up with some calibers you may not have heard of, and that is just the point. Fiocchi is the only producer of several obsolete calibers, so you can shoot and hunt with those old drillings and oddball European guns, not just look at them. It will be an exciting year for Fiocchi, and we hope to bring you more from them soon.

Vortex Optics is one of the best buys in riflescopes, and they are bringing a new level of clarity and reliability to their well under $200 CrossFire line. They also have a new Razor Red Dot for 3-Gun and tactical applications, and coming in the fall, a first focal plane Viper LS HR with customizable turrets to your ballistics. We hope to get one of each this year for testing, because everything we have ever seen from Vortex is really fantastic. Check out this video from Vortex on the SHOT Show 2012 floor.

The MR762A1 from H&K is a 7.62×51 (.308 Winchester) descendent of the HK416/417 series, a semi-automatic rifle for civilian users. This system uses a solid “pusher” rod instead of the gas tube on a standard AR, and this makes the system very clean, because gas never gets into the receiver. It takes HK417 mags, and as you can see from the video, there are a number of features built into this rifle that make it more sure and stable than a standard “legacy rifle” AR-platform configuration.

You may already know about these two groundbreaking bullpups. The big thing for a long time on both the KSG and the RFB is getting one. Everyone wants one and they are extremely hard to get. Kel-Tec has added a whole new wing to their plant this year and are ramping up production on these in-demand guns. We hope to get one of each soon.

Eotech is a name we have all trusted for many years, and this addition of a shotgun forend is pretty exciting. It fits the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500/590 line of pump guns, and I can’t imagine a homeowner who wouldn’t want this ambidextrous wonder. Also a new version of their holo-sight in Zombie garb, nifty beans!

We saw the Sphinx line of pistols last year at Media Day at the Range, SHOT Show 2011. For 2012 the importers, KRISS, have a new model for us made specifically for “operators” and heavy duty competitors in the case of the pistol. The Sphinx pistols are novel because they are in three pieces, and all pieces can and usually are made of 3 different materials. The Defiance Suppressors are unique in that they are adjustable for point of impact, to match your gun with the can off or on. Truly an OPERATOR tool.

The new Hordady Zombie Max ammo gets a lot of attention, but the real story this year from America’s finest ammo maker is Critical Duty, a new handgun ammo for barrier penetration. Read the article and check out the video on what’s new from Hornady for 2012.

Even though there were little .380 pistols on the market before it, the introduction of Ruger’s LCP set off a .380 buying craze to such a degree that there were localized ammunition shortages. These guns are now so prevalent among the concealed carry crowd that shooting schools are, for the first time I can recall, teaching specialized little gun tactics and courses. There are a lot of benefits to such a compact defensive package, but as with many things in life, to get something you have to give up something.

Many shooters will recognize Chiappa as the company offering the distinctive Rhino revolver. That innovative design fires from the bottom cylinder resulting in recoil dynamics that tame loads otherwise punishing to shoot in conventional snub-nose revolvers. But that’s not all Chiappa has. They also offer a line of dedicated rimfire guns that replicate the look, feel and function of popular defensive firearms including the 1911 pistol and M4 carbine. New this year is Chiappa’s rimfire version of the Beretta M9 pistol called the M9-22.