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For many police officers and most security guards, the choice of what pistol to carry is left up to you. There is generally an approved list and it is up to you to pick your duty pistol, holster, and on-duty gear. There are a number of issues to consider, but often it comes back to what you like, what you shoot well and of course, what you can afford.

The CZ-75, which is the steel or alloy gun on which this polymer framed P-07 model is based, is one of those “preference” guns that people just like and naturally shoot very well. It is by far the most popular pistol internationally among police and military, and many people refer to it as “the perfect pistol.” It has also become one of the most copied pistols in history, second perhaps only to the Colt 1911.
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The best gun to have in a gunfight is the one you chose to take with you that day. This is why small pistols are so popular. They are light and pocketable, so people actually carry them. But small pistols are also something of a conundrum. Smaller and lighter is better for concealed carry, but small guns means small parts, and small parts break easier, and they can be cantankerous when it comes to accuracy and reliability. There is no perfect small pistol, but after beating up one of the worst of the bunch recently, we thought it probably a good idea to review one of the best of the bunch, the Kahr P380, MSRP $649. The gun is somewhat ammunition sensitive, as most small guns are, but the P380 is built to the standards of a full size pistol, and performs as such. Made in the USA in Worcester, MA, the Kahr small pistols are chosen by more law enforcement and security personal than another brand of pistol, and the P380 is the smallest of the bunch. If you were scared away from small pistols by our horrendous Diamondback review, don’t be afraid. Legions of Kahr owners and fans unanimously say that Kahr pistols can’t be beat. There are some details you need to know though, so read on.

AR-15s are everywhere. With a couple mods, we even have them in the civilian market in California. There are all kinds of things I can do with this 50-year old platform, from different barrels, mounts, or stocks I can find with the click of a mouse. I can make it look like a Christmas tree with all the gizmos and gadgets I’ve found. But really, the trick is to pick the things you really need on your AR. For me the most import thing is an optic. I can make do with iron sights fine, but as I get older, an optic makes it much easier to actually see my sight picture and hit my target. My problem is that scopes are just plain pricey these days. If you want a name brand, many of which are battle tested by our military, you’re looking at the $600+ range new, which is almost like buying another rifle. Going into SHOT Show this year, I was curious about the optics that are under $200, and that seem to be reliable for the AR-15 platform.

If you could make a list of all the things wrong with the AK-47 platform, what would it be? First off you probably would say the stock is too short. The trigger is lousy, and you never know if you bought a gun made of old, worn out parts. There are also little annoying things, like getting the dust cover back once you take it off, and it is a pain to shoot an AK at the range because the bolt doesn’t stay open. The AK is also known of course for not being accurate. “It’s a spray and pray gun.” All of these things are true to some degree, and all of them have been fixed in a new Zastava PAP build of the AK-47 currently being imported by Century Arms. It is still an AK-47 of course, but we found this gun to be the absolute best of the AK bunch, and it held up to legendary AK reliability when we threw it in the pond and covered it with muck. The $700-800 street price Zastava PAP from Century is a brand new gun made from brand new parts, and is about as much gun as you are going to get in a true AK-47. In the wake of the floods of Isaac, if you are going to strap one rifle to your back, for who knows what’s next, the Zastava PAP is a good option.

This article came about as an opportunity from Rock Island Auction. They are auctioning over 1000 Colts, including over 150 first generation Colt Single Actions, this coming weekend. We took this as an opportunity to gather a basic overview of collecting Colt Single Actions, with specific examples from the auction included here, to give the project an immediately tangible benefit. It is amazing what some of these guns go for at auction, and even as a spectator, interested in only the antiquity of old Colts, just seeing them come through the auction is a once in a lifetime birdseye opportunity to learn about the individual history of these specific guns. Most of these Colts are from the famous Gateway Collection and contain pictures of the documents proving their provinance right on the RIA website.

Many of these guns have no comparison anywhere in the market, and several will sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, including factory engraved Colts taken from the dead bodies of the Dalton Gang. Next week all of these classic Colts will be on their way again to the next private collection, and some of them will never to be seen again in the collector market. This is a unique opportunity to see into one of the greatest collection of Colt Single Actions, while learning a little about collecting the most classic of all classic firearms. This is by no means a comprehensive instruction, but if you are new to collecting old Colts, it should at least get you on your way, and guard you from getting ripped off.

The quest for the ultimate .22 has found an unexpected home in Minnesota at Magnum Research, Inc., creators of the most popular movie gun of all time, the Desert Eagle. You wouldn’t expect Magnum Research to be the new leader in cutting edge .22LR, .22WMR and at some point even .17HMR firearms. But these days Magnum Research is home to not only their famous handguns, but also a patented graphite barrel technology called Magnum Lite® . What makes these barrels unique is that the graphite fibers are unidirectional, parallel to the bore axis. The result are barrels that are six times more rigid than steel of the same weight and that dissipate heat 43% faster than steel. Magnum Research is taking the custom rimfire market to a whole new level by producing a whole line of these guns in various calibers, and they have carried the technology to full sized centerfire calibers as well.

Deer season is right around the corner, and for those of us who are fortunate to be able to hunt with a rifle, the Browning X-Bolt should be in the top of the list if you are in the market for a new bolt gun. It is an exquisite example of everything a high quality traditional deer rifle should be, and it performs flawlessly. We thought it would be interesting to test a left-handed model for a change, even though we don’t have a left-handed shooter here. Lefty guns are an important part of the firearms market that are often ignored. You can’t get all guns in a left-handed configuration, so for the 10% of us out there who are lefties, it helps to know when a gun is really good and also comes in left hand. Our Browning X-Bolt test gun is the X-Bolt Hunter type, in .30-06 with a 22″ barrel and low gloss, drop dead gorgeous walnut stock. The MSRP is $919 and street price slightly less. It weighs 6 3/4 lbs. empty, and the left hand model is available in 16 calibers from .223 to .338 Win. Mag.

In the world of small semi-automatic pocket pistols, you have a lot to choose from these days. Diamondback Firearms has laid claim to the “smallest and lightest” in that category, so we decided to take a look at a couple of their guns, the DB380, and the newly released DB9, both with a street price under $400 . Are they really the smallest and lightest? Apparently so, at least as compared to the more common names out there, including the Kel-Tecs, Kahrs, and S&W Bodyguard. But do they work? Our results were mixed. The .380, which is the more mature product, performed almost perfectly, but is not that accurate. The 9mm version weighs only 11 ounces empty, compared to 18 for the S&W Shield, 21.4 for the Walther PPS, and even the tiny Beretta Nano is 17.7. Diamondback may have tried the impossible with this gun because we didn’t find the DB9 to be reliable or accurate. If you are going to buy a Diamondback, for now you should probably stick to the DB380. We have to put a do not buy on the guns however, due to the way they seem to be handling what are clearly problems with their guns

Sometimes a silly idea turns into something really useful. You probably remember back at SHOT Show we ran across “bleeding zombie targets” at Media Day at the Range. Even back then the company making them knew that the zombie craze would eventually die out, but that they had stumbled onto something significant in the area of firearms training. Their marketing and product development company, Maddox Defense, has from the start envisioned these nifty targets, made by ZMB Industries, as a three dimensional training tool.

Sans the blood and zombie graphics these genuinely three dimensional training targets give you a unique perspective at the training range, and show you just how hard it can be to get the shot when the shot is what is required. This example you see here is the basic “Jacob” model. It is currently being used currently by the Navy SEALS and the US Border Patrol. The basic foam core torso with 4 extra skins carries an MSRP of $249.95, and the legs unit is $99.95. They aren’t cheap, but they are completely unique as a training tool, and when you compare them to the cost of finding something else 3D, that gives you this unique perspective, the price isn’t that high for five targets.