Guns

After more than 1,300 rounds and 12 months of regular carry, the Kimber CDS9 has become my go-to EDC. It is accurate, distinctive, and flawless for me unsuppressed, although suppressor testing exposed one weakness worth knowing about.

The $529 Glenfield Model A looks every inch like a budget hunting rifle, but our 6.5 Creedmoor test gun punched out .78-.92 inch groups with its favorite ammunition and went 120 for 120. Ruger’s revived Glenfield name may be cheap where it can be, but this rifle puts the important money in the right places.

The FN SCAR 15P crams battle-proven SCAR DNA into a 7.5-inch 5.56 package that is compact, brutally loud, impressively reliable, and capable of groups just over 1 MOA with the right ammunition. After running it hard, suppressed, hot, and dirty, I liked it enough to buy it.

These handguns aren’t just “lefty-friendly”; they’re designed to let you run the gun efficiently, confidently, and without compromise.

AR-15s in calibers other than 5.56 are nothing new. Yet one big trend recently is the attempt to perfect the 7.62×39 in AR form. Is that the answer? Or can the AK be refined? That’s the question that these 5 guns from SHOT Show 2015 try to answer.

The Zero Compromise Optic ZC210 is expensive, heavy enough to notice, and missing true 1x. After shooting it to 1,000 yards, into darkness, and behind a thermal clip-on, I also found it frustratingly hard not to like.

The H&K VP9B backs German engineering with exceptional ergonomics, an optics-ready slide, and a factory trigger that only gets better as the rounds pile up. I started as a skeptic and ended up questioning my usual plastic fantastic.

The Springfield Prodigy 3.5 AOS packs 18 rounds into a compact double-stack 1911 built for concealed carry, then backs it up with approximately 500 rounds of malfunction-free testing and a best 15-yard group of just 0.61 inches.

The Benelli M2-G1 brings a new Rear Piston Operated gas system to a hard-use tactical shotgun. I fed it cheap birdshot, rusty water-damaged shells, suppressed strings, and rapid fire, and several hundred rounds later it still had not malfunctioned.