Feature Articles

Some 9mm ARs feel a bit half baked, like the gun can’t decide if it wants to be a carbine or an AR pistol. Others cobble together parts to make the mags fit. Not this one. Stag’s new 9T is a full on rifle. There’s nothing about this gun that’s a compromise, and it may change the way you think about the pistol caliber concept.

Shhh! At the request of Springfield Armory, we’re going to keep quiet for a little while. I picked up a package yesterday from the folks in Geneseo, and in the box were too shiny new pistols. I mean really new, like not even on the shelves yet. And they’ve made some really big changes.

Those discerning single action aficionados amongst us already know the Nighthawk name. Their 1911s aren’t dressed up in elaborate finishes. They don’t have exotic grips. These are hard working guns meant to be carried, and shot. I recently had the chance to put the 9mm T4 through its paces, and the compact carry gun has changed the way I think about single actions. I’m a skeptic, but I’d carry this gun–no question about it.

Winchester’s Train and Defend line is a concept long overdue. Use range ammo to train, but carry the good stuff. And both are the same grain weight. The idea is that you save money, but the ammo performs exactly the same. How well does it work?

We’ve covered do-it-yourself lowers, but are here today with a new installment. This 80% lower is cut from an aluminum billet. And you can finish it off with a few simple tools. No milling machine needed. The jigs and instructions from 80% Arms make finishing their lower surprisingly easy. Check out or review of the process.

I grew up with the MAC 10, but the gun was rarely portrayed in a favorable light. It was the emblem of the war-on-drugs. Now, though, the old open bolt automatic seems like an antique. Or it did until Masterpiece Arms updated their defender line. This take on the old classic is completely updated, and my new favorite large-framed 9mm.

This time, we’re looking at the Ultimate Defense 9mm 124 grain load for Full-size handguns. It’s a standard pressure load, not a +P, so especially in a larger handgun, it’s tame to fire. With lower recoil and less muzzle flip, you can get back on target more quickly for follow up shots. So how does it perform? Let’s take a look.

The MULE. That’s an appropriate name for this beast. The MULE Tactical Stock is one of a kind. Inside the main compartment on the MULE is a storage area that is built to house a GLOCK, or other similarly sized pistol. Now you can put your back up gun inside you gun. But how practical is the MULE and how does it change the AR? Read on….

These occasional “Prepping Theory” columns can be hard to write, but I feel that unless we periodically talk about why we do this and what the priorities are, it is hard to maintain any kind of enthusiasm. We are after all preparing for the end of life as we know it, and it’s hard to not feel like you are nuts sometimes, or all the time. This topic, investing, is perhaps the hardest thing to talk about, because I know that so many of the tens of thousands of the readers of this column (25,000 last month) are not preparing sufficiently for what I now know is a coming collapse. Many people are sitting on retirement savings and investments, hoping to weather whatever the storm is coming, and though they could put some of those assets into actual preparation, they think that a gun and a savings account will guarantee them survival. It won’t, but that isn’t the point of this article.