Feature Articles

Today’s spotlight is on a very special set from Barnes Precision Machine–an AR-15 with uppers in both 5.56 and .300 AAC Blackout. Why two upper receivers? That is the brilliance of the Blackout. 300 AAC was designed from the ground up to work with all existing AR-15 components except the barrel. Magazines, bolt, and all the internal parts are identical. But the real benefit comes from active training.

I make a habit of checking assumptions when I believe something that a lot of other people believe. When I am online these days, all of the ad tracking systems have me pegged as a “prepper,” and I get ads for everything from freeze dried food to gold bullion. I have become a commodity, and it has made me feel like perhaps I should do a little research into just how imminent this global collapse is likely to be.

General George S. Patton once called the M1 Garand the “best battle implement ever devised.” But was he correct? The run up to World War II saw a giant leap forward in technology for weapons of war. The jet airplane was invented for WWII. Of course the atomic bomb was invented for WWII. But more importantly, the weapons that saw the most combat, the infantry battle rifles of the war, changed considerably as well, worldwide. The SVT-40 never really got out of the gate due to the later popularity of the AK-47, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was an influential rifle on the Eastern front during the war, or the fact that it totally rocks. We got to test an actual 1943 SVT-40 side by side with an M1 Garand, and the results may surprise you.

Due to his inflammatory rhetoric, at least one NRA member is asking the nation’s gun lobby to kick Ted Nugent to the curb. But a sensible look at the situation may prove why that’s an untenable request.

We’re gun guys. As such, we’ve been closely following the events in Ferguson. As the conditions deteriorate, more and more innocent Americans are being victimized by opportunistic thieves, who have no connection to the root of the protests. When cars show up in neighborhoods with the license plates already removed…well, it seems understandable that some store owners are standing up to protect what is rightfully theirs. What guns would you take?

Gunslingers agree on very few things, but one of them is that bigger, longer guns are easier to shoot, and to shoot well. This is doubly true when you have to do a lot of shooting. Glock owners are a fierce bunch of gunslinging devotees, and now they have a Gen. 4 version of what is essentially a bigger, longer .45ACP Glock 21. This is the last of a competition trio that joins the G34, a long slide 9mm G17, and the G35, a long slide .40 G22. This new G41 has a barrel about .6 inches longer and it has about 3/4 inch more sight radius than the G21, but it actually comes in a couple ounces lighter.

Do you have a “bug out bag”? Many of us do, but even if you are not planning on leaving your safe location should the Apocalypse arrive unscheduled, there is going to be a transition period between normal life, and survival life. During that time you have to be able to cook. Think about that, because if you are going to rely on freeze dried foods, as we suggested in an earlier installment, that means you should have some kind of cooking apparatus that doesn’t require setting up a stove. For this article we got to look at a fairly new product that is just now finding its way into consumer retail. It is called a “ration heater” from Milspec. This product was developed for heating military MREs, which for home prepping are way too expensive per meal, and they don’t have a 15 year shelf life like freeze dried. So we tried to use the Mealspec Ration Heater to actually cook a 4 serving rice meal from Wise, part of a popular pack carried by many gunshops, and even Walmart.

Smith & Wesson’s M&P line keeps getting bigger. Only this time, the M&P itself is getting smaller. The M&P22 Compact is a well balanced rimfire that is looking to put the fun back in the fun gun. It is brand new, and we have a full review.

The IWI Tavor battle rifle was a great addition to the field of tactical firearms. It is a bullpup design, so you get a really short and handy rifle, without having to register a “Short Barreled Rifle,” or SBR.” Short barreled rifles have their limitations. The barrel being so short, you tend to get a giant muzzle flash, a loud boom, and you lose a substantial amount of velocity because much of the gunpowder burns outside the barrel. Along came the Tavor, which has a full 16″ barrel, doesn’t require an SBR tax stamp, and you don’t have to wait 6 months for it while the BATFE reviews your paperwork. The big problem with the gun is that it has a dreadful trigger. Rather than do yet another review on the basic Tavor, replete with trigger complaints, we found a way to solve the problem with a new sear group from the folks at Timney Trigger. Their $352 completely self contained drop-in sear group solves the problem with the Tavor. Is it worth the investment to improve this otherwise awesome rifle? You be the judge.