Feature Articles

As optics companies strive for ever better and cheaper scopes, a clear winner has emerged. The consumer. We live in the golden age of optics and weapons, as evidenced by this weeks test of the Leupold Mark 5. At a combined cost of under $4000 for optics and rifle, using .60 cent per round ammo, I was able to test a sub half MOA weapons system. Even 15 years ago, you would be lucky to match that at any price outside of a benchrest rig.

In a scene more reminiscent of Hollywood than real life, Officer William Umana of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department can be seen exchanging over 60 rounds of gunfire with two men suspected of fleeing the scene of a homicide.

The origin story is foundational dogma for gun nerds like us. George Sullivan incorporated the ArmaLite Corporation in 1954 as a tiny little subsidiary of the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. Operating out of a modest machine shop in Hollywood, California, Sullivan envisioned ArmaLite as a think tank to explore cutting-edge concepts in small arms. Their first serious effort was a small takedown survival rifle intended for use by downed military aircrew.

At any rate, I like the 19X so much that I bought the one that came in for review. And this week, I finally got around to the add-ons and mods I prefer.
First rattle out of the box, the sights that come as the only option on the 19X are weak sauce.

Biometric safes make me nervous. Using a fingerprint to open my iPhone is one thing. Relying on that technology to save my life is a whole different ball game. Batteries fail, circuits break, and biometric locks have a less-than-stellar track record in the firearms community. But here’s the catch…

One of the biggest problems with these bubble levels mounted on the scopes or rifles was that you had to take your eyes off of the reticle to actually refocus on the bubble to see what the level indicated. The Send iT electronic level from Long Range Arms corrects that problem by using lighted LEDs to indicate when the gun is level.

The .30 M-1 Carbine was used by the U.S. Military in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. The carbine was supplied to allied forces and hung around long after Vietnam. I encountered the M-1 carbine in service with the Bolivian UMOPAR counter-drug police in the 1990s. These fun guns remain popular and effective for civilians today.

The Mag Pump magazine loader is a pretty impressive engineering feat. To use it, push a magazine in, dump a box or handful of ammo in the hopper, and start pumping the handle. It’s literally that simple. The ammo doesn’t need to be oriented or sorted, the loader figures it out and puts it into your magazine in the correct orientation.

Over the last couple of years, Taurus USA has hired a handful of experienced engineers from around the firearm Industry. To complement the new talent, Taurus also opened a state of the art manufacturing and R&D facility here in the United States.