Guns

We are so lucky to live in this time when precision machinery and quality materials allow for the production of affordable guns that give up little to their higher-priced brethren. Imported by TriStar Arms from Turkey, the new ATAC Raptor Turkey gun is a great example. As an extension of the company’s low-priced Raptor series, it delivers solid performance and dependability on a proven action.

What happens when you shrink a 1911 down to 85% of its original size and optimize the new gun to fire .22LR? What once was a serious fighting tool becomes a stellar fun-gun. Not to take anything away from Browning’s new rimfire series. These are capable, accurate pistols. Yet there’s something novel about shooting a small 1911. It makes me smile. So how did they manage to produce such a spot-on homage, and how does the 1911-22 line stack up with the rest of the rimfires?

Signature models rifle don’t come along a lot in the gun industry, and it is a little strange that Rock River Arms would put famous bow hunter Fred Eichler’s name on one of their highly regarded LAR-15 guns. An AR-15 is an AR-15 right? Wrong! Fred of course does also hunt with modern sporting rifles, and specifically this one built to his specifications. The point of this Eichler gun is hunting, and primarily hunting varmints, or pest animals, as evidenced by the coyote prints on the special Fred Eichler floating handguard. Is it cute? Well, is it possible for an AR-15 that shoots under .75 MOA at 100 yards to be cute? Then yea, it’s cute. But after hog hunting this gun for a day, shooting it at the range with a group of friends, and driving tacks with it, this bad boy is a predator killing machine, a gun that is so reliable, dependable, accurate and intuitive to shoot that a missed shot is obviously user error.  The Fred Eichler Series LAR-15 is a gun that dominates the nightmares of coyotes, hogs, and prairie dogs. If you think the puppy prints are silly, move on. RR makes the same gun, with the .223 Wylde chamber, meant for both .223 and .556, without the extra Fred stuff. But if you think the gun is cool, pull the trigger.  I haven’t met anyone who has fired the Eichler who isn’t impressed.  And at a direct Rock River and store price of $1500, it is an impressive specialty hunting rifle that isn’t going to break the bank.

Say “Magnum Research” to a gun enthusiast, and you’ve just conjured up the image of the .50 caliber handgun that has become almost folklore. But the truth is that Magnum Research has been diversifying its offerings for some time, and now that continues with the ownership and backing of Kahr Arms. In 2014, the product line expands with a new 1911 offering called the 1911U, or Undercover. This small 3” 1911 is clearly intended for the personal protection and concealed carry markets.

When I pulled the Daniel Defense M4 V9 (DDM4V9) out of its black plastic case, I had a flashback. Inside was a 5.56mm carbine and a 30 round magazine. While this black rifle was shorter than the M16A1 I was issued during the “second phase” of basic training at Marine Recruit Depot Parris Island (way back in 1980), it was familiar enough. The DDM4V9 has the quintessential AR-15 at its core, but it is fashioned like something just back from a gunsmith, almost ready for competition. The Daniel Defense is a formidable rifle capable of serious multitasking, and it’s what Marine infantrymen 30 years ago dreamed they would have been issued.

Colt’s Manufacturing has a long history of working with other gun companies for Colt-branded bolt action rifles. The Colt Sauer rifle was produced by J.P. Sauer & Son in Germany from 1973 to 1984, and the 27,189 rifles that came out of it are still highly sought after by collectors. These days, Colt has updated itsgame with an American company called Cooper Firearms of Montana. Cooper was started in 1990 by ex-Kimber employees and has beena staple in the custom rifle market for more than two decades. The first Colt/Cooper came out a couple years back, called the M2012. They still make it today, and as you can see from the picture here, it looks like what it is, a high-end tactical rifle meant to look tactical. Since the introduction of the M2012, a lot of high-end shooters, especially ex-military snipers, have said that they would love a Cooper rifle that says Colt on the side (who wouldn’t?), but that what they would have in mind was something more along the lines of a US Army issue M24 or USMC M40. Colt, and Cooper, have listened, and the result is a whole new version of the M2012 that more resembles those rifles, while sacrificing nothing in performance. These rifles aren’t cheap. Our test gun as you see it here retails for $3,195. But as you will see, it is well within the world class division when it comes to bolt guns. If you are a Colt fan who just loves to see that name on the side of your gun, like back in the old Sauer days, or you are just in the market for an extremely thoughtful and well-made long range rifle, look no further than the new Colt Model 2012.

By this point in the development of tactical firearms, the bullpup seems like familiar territory. Yet Desert Tech has created a good deal of buzz with the announcement of its new multi-caliber bullpup design. The company plans to release it in .223 and .308 at first, with 300 BLK, 7.62 x 39 and 6.8 SPC to follow. It will be offered with either a 10.5” or a 16” barrel. One of the most interesting design features of the new gun is a new sighting system that will allow the user to swap between calibers without losing zero. The spent casings will eject above the magazine well forward and to the right via a short chute, which is easily accessible to clear any malfunctions.

Somehow, in preparation for the first article in this series on ordering M1 Garand rifles from the Civilian Marksmanship Program, we missed the least expensive of the bunch. They are called “Field Grade” Garands, and at $525 (plus $24.95 S&H), they seem to be a great buy. We ordered both the Springfield Armory and Harrington & Richardson (HRA) versions of these guns, and the Winchester is no longer available. Of all the Garands we have ordered from CMP so far, if you are looking for a Garand to just shoot and enjoy, you can’t do any better for the money than these field grade guns. Look around in gunshops and online and you will be hard pressed to find a nice looking and shooting Garand for under $600. Even at live auctions these days more Garands go for upwards of a thousand bucks. These “cheapest Garands” are a real find, and you order them directly from the CMP, just as we described in the first installment of this series. Our guns came in less than three weeks, each with its own hard plastic CMP case, and certification paperwork. Who knows when these guns will dry up, so if you are thinking long, heavy boxes under your Christmas tree this year, now would be the time to order.

Carlos Hathcock is probably the most famous sniper of all time. He had 93 confirmed kills in Vietnam, and until recently held the world record for a sniper shot at over 2500 yards, using a Browning M2 .50 cal. machinegun. During his entire career as a sniper, Carlos Hathcock used a U. S. Marines version of a Unertl precision riflescope. This was standard issue on his Winchester Model 70 sniper rifle, and he even used the same scope on the .50 cal. for his record shot. It is an odd scope by today’s standards. There are no internal adjustments to zero these old style Unertls. The scopes adjusts with turrets integral to the rear scope mount, and the tube of the scope floats inside adjustment pins. To buy an original of this USMC scope today would cost you thousands, but Hi-Lux/Leatherwood this past year released an exact replica, called the 8X Malcolm USMC, and the scope really great, but hard to mount. It has an MSRP of $549 and the internet and street price is slightly below that. Hi-Lux sent us one, with the mounting hardware, and we were able to have it mounted for a full range test. Our friends at the American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) agreed to help us and you by making an instruction video on the difficult mounting process, included here, in the style of their monthly magazine and DVD subscription called GunTech that is available to their Gun Club of America gunsmith student members. If you have any interest in mounting this scope, the video will save you or your gunsmith a lot of headaches.