The Truth About Guns

Why a 10mm 1911-style handgun? “It was our most requested caliber,” STI’s CEO Tim Dillon told me in a cozy curtained corner of their otherwise frenetic SHOT Show booth. And lo it did come to pass: an 8+1 capacity, 10mm handgun with a 5″ slide that weighs slightly less than a SMART car. And costs more than a month’s lease payment ($1514). Available in four months.

When I think of Mauser, I think of vintage K-98s: I own 20 or so. But these days, Mauser Jagdwaffer GmbH is producing hunting rifles, and they’re unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And since these modern Mausers haven’t really been on my radar, I figured I’d visit with their reps and get the lowdown on their flagship M03 Modular system . . .

The thing that impressed me the most about the Mauser 03 was how modular the system really is.  You can change out the barrel in a matter of seconds with the provided tool: only two screws

For ages silencer companies have been marketing themselves as “tactical” accessories, using images of soldiers with their silencers to evoke that thought in the public’s mind that their products are tough and “military grade.” SilencerCo had been on the same track, but starting this year it seems like they’re re-branding themselves. Their PR material has a distinctively “hunting” feel, from the color choice to the method of binding and the font choice. They’ve also done a complete rewrite on their website, from white-on-black to an attractive sepia and gray scheme. And the new cans they have to show off this year are both designed with hunting in mind.

The cans in question (branded as “Harvester” silencers) are similar in construction, except that one is sligh

Are you a dedicated clays shooter who doesn’t happen to have over ten grand laying around for a new P-gun? You’re in luck! Perazzi feels your pain and wants to make things (well, a little) easier on you. Enter the MXS, Perazzi’s “affordable” option. You can get yours with fixed or interchangeable chokes, a standard or adjustable stock and blued or nickel finish receiver.

It probably won’t surprise you that they didn’t lug a bunch of their high-line shotties out the Media Day to let just any schlub stroll up and manhandle them. Which means I didn’t get a chance to

Battlefields are confusing. Or so I’m told, at least. And Colt has a solution, called SWORD, that tries to integrate all of the parts of battle space management in one system. There are multiple components — rifle mounts, networked drones, and even iPads — that can tell soldiers which target to shoot, when to do it, give them a picture of the guy, and even tell them if they’re not aiming on target.

It’s pretty cool, but nowhere near ready for prime time. Nevertheless, this nerd is had a good time testing it out.

You could subtitle this year’s announcements from Ruger as “variations on a theme.” Cribbing off their success with the American Rifle in .30-06, Ruger is expanding the line to include an “All Weather” version in stainless steel and additional calibers such as .243 Win, .22-250, .308 Win and many more.

Also thrown into the mix are a new line of rimfire American Rifle entries. The guns will be in .22LR, .22WMR and .17HMR, and all have the same interchangeable parts to give you the proper length of pull and cheek rest position.

Mikhail’s venerable Avtomat was designed in the days when ‘optics’ meant ‘eyeballs.’ Like most of the weapons of the Great Patriotic War, the AK is stubbornly resistant to scope mounting. GG&G’s new quick-detach scope mount puts an Aimpoint-style optic so low over the dust cover that it actually co-witnesses with the AK’s iron sights . . .

It’s a little too low to be a ‘lower 1/4′ co-witness, but you’ll still have access to the iron sights if your battery dies or your red dot gets washed out in bright daylight.

MSRP is about $160, not including the scope. Vendor’s website here.

It’s a well known fact that I’m a certified 300 BLK fanboy. I think it’s the bee’s knees, so I was happy when Trijicon came out with their 300 BLK version of the iconic ACOG scope. Apparently our readers felt the same way, and far and away voted Trijicon’s new ACOG as the best new optic of 2013. Trijicon VP Tom Munson seemed pleased as punch when he accepted the award on the company’s behalf and we’ll get right on testing their new VCOG. If it’s as impressive as the 300 BLK ACOG, we could be back again with another plaque next year.

“A Danish woman was held at knife point, beaten and gang-raped in the centre of New Delhi’s backpacker district after she asked a group of young men for directions back to her hotel,” telegraph.co.uk reports. Needless to say, the UK paper makes no mention of armed self-defense. But they do offer solutions (such as they are) to India’s increasingly visible problem of rape . . .

“Women’s rights campaigners said despite the widespread protests provoked by the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi student just over a year ago, police are still

The market for quiet .22LR guns is booming. With silencers becoming more and more commonplace, it’s quickly becoming a race to see who can make their gun run the quietest. Gemtech has two new rimfire silencers that look pretty awesome that they’re showing off at SHOT Show, one of them being threaded onto a 10/22 rifle.

The standalone rimfire silencer has a solid baffle stack that is tapered at the ends to allow the core to slide free even when the thing is packed with unburnt powder and lead. According to the

A Shiloh Sharps has been on my wish list for quite a few years, so I definitely was looking forward to seeing their booth at SHOT Show.  Not having much, er, any experience with these types of rifles, I was impressed with their weight.  Barrel length and diameter is also impressive, as was the many options for front pinhead sights and rear tang sights with Hadley eyedisks.  More Pics after the jump:

The hand engraving was truly a work of art:

Today I got to wrap my hands around the new Taurus View on the SHOT Shot floor. Actually, I only got to wrap my thumb and middle finger around it because this is absolutely the smallest 5-shot .38 revolver I have ever handled.

The visible internals are pretty cool, kind of like that ‘Visible V8′ car engine model I built in fourth grade when cars still had V8 engines.

The View is blessed with one of the smoothest double-action revolver triggers I’ve ever fondled, but the almost nanoscopic grip may prove to be something of a problem for some shooters.

Dan’s smallish hands were a decent fit on the View, but my average mitts just smothered the poor thing. I h

I was really psyched to have an opportunity to get my mitts on the new Model 101 by J.P. Sauer & Sohn GmbH. The Model 101 comes with a match grade 22 inch barrel and weighs in at a svelte 6.7 Ibs. . . .

It features a silky smooth bolt that ejects the round 90° from the vertical, so that the ejected round doesn’t come in contact with the scope. The 6 lug bolt locks directly into the barrel.

It looks cool as hell, and if Larry Vickers knows anything about guns (and the former Delta Force legend certainly does) it shoots like hell too. Ultra-low bore height? Check. Negligible recoil and muzzle rise? Check. Fixed-barrel accuracy? Check. Ready to call your FFL and order one? Belay that order, sailor . . .

We still don’t really know anything concrete about the Arsenal ‘First Strike’ pistol, because Arsenal still hasn’t started importing them for retail sale. The gun might very well be awesome, but this waiting game is just tiresome.

While Arsenal claims that the design has been approved for importation (which they said last year, too) they still have no importers or distributors actually signed up to bring the thing Stateside and into our warm and waiting gun safes. This means we’re probably looking at another year of Strike One vaporware.

Despite my opinions about the MVP in .223 Remington, I think the folks over at Mossberg might have a winner on their hands with the new .308 version. There’s a market for a ready-to-go magazine fed .308 Win rifle, and the MVP fills that niche quite nicely. The gun ships with a 10 round Mossberg magazine, but can also accept DPMS magazines and Magpul PMAGs.

There are three versions of the gun shipping: the varmint, the patrol, and the FLEX. The varmint is the standard version, the patrol is a shorter black version and the FLEX uses the FLEX accessory system to

Kel Tec continues to introduce more and more new SKUs to its catalog without ever seeming to devote any resources to actually manufacturing the boatload of products they already claim to supply. The newest unicorn in their lineup is the RDB bullpup rifle, shown here in its steel-and-wood M43 variant. Feast your eyes on it here (if you need to) because odds are you’ll never see one on the shelf of your LGS . . .

In addition to sporting the ugliest spot welds I’ve seen since my own 8th grade Metal Shop class, the M43 also ‘features’ an AK muzzle device and bayonet, along with a flimsy sheet-metal front sight post that probably can’t survive contact with the inside of a gun safe, much less contact with the enemy.

Crimson Trace is the top of the mark when it comes to firearm mounted laser systems. They make a set of lasergrips for damn near every handgun out there, but if that doesn’t work for your special snowflake then there’s always the Rail Master line of rail mounted devices. They released the red laser version a while back, but now there’s a combination green laser and white light box that straps to your gun’s accessory rail. MSRP is about $379, and for a nightstand gun it seems like a perfect solution.

Knight’s Armament Co. is announcing the release of the SR-15E3 Carbine MOD 2.  It features a chrome lined, 16-inch hammer-forged barrel (1 in 7 twist), improved three-prong flash eliminator, the 14.5 inch URX 4 handguard, the new MOD 2 gas system, as well as extras such as the ambi QD swing swivel sockets, the 6 Position SOPMOD stock, fully ambi lower receiver controls, extended charging handle, and folding front and rear 200-600 Meter Rear Micro iron sights . . .

Best of all, the entire package rockets in at a surprisingly low 6.6 lbs. Students of the gun will recall that the original M16 A1 was also 6.6

ALG Defense is the slightly downmarket brand of Geissele gear, designed by the same guys and manufactured the same way, but with a slightly lower level of polish. This year they’re adding two new products to their line. First up is this extremely lightweight handguard that has detachable rail sections and comes with the proprietary barrel nut and mounting spanners. The handguard runs $135 for the 10-incher, $140 for 12″ and $145 for the 14″ . . .

Press release [via AmmoLand.com]:

This past Saturday over 50 Second Amendment supporters from the group Twin Cities Gun Owners & Carry Forum met for lunch at an independent and locally owned Plymouth eatery to show support and appreciation for Twin Cities area businesses that recognize the state’s right-to-carry law and allow “lawful carry” at their establishments. The group called ahead and scheduled their lunch meet up during off-peak hours at the eatery, and it’s estimated that the group spent at least $700 or more during their visit . . .

The group meets monthly and purpos