The Firearm Blog

CZ has introduced the new 550 Sonoran rifle at this year’s SHOT Show.  CZ describes the new rifle as being designed to be a long-range tack-driver rather than a mountain rifle.  Inspiring the Western Series, the 550 Sonoran weighs less than 8 lbs. due to the Manners carbon fiber stock and a fluted barrel.  The Manners stock is OD green, with a recoil reducing soft rubber butt pad.

The Sonoran takes on a very nice profile.

CZ built the Sonoran to withstand the harshest of conditions.  The 550 Sonoran is Ferritic Nitrocarburized on the inside and out, raising the surface hardness to 72 on the Rockwell scale.  CZ claims this process wi

The ACR has had its ups and downs. From stylish beginnings as the Magpul Masada, the path through manufacturers and military buyers has been a convoluted one.

But I was nice to see a legitimately new ACR offering on display at the Bushmaster booth this year as they launched their DMR variant.

This new rifle adds a new stock to the ACR: a Magpul PRS with all the adjustability you’d expect.

On the other end, you’ll find a much longer barrel, measuring out to 18.5 inches for a true rifle. Interestingly, this new barrel still uses the carbine-length gas system. This is a weighty, full profile barrel, made of 416 stainless steel with a melonite coating, utilizing a 1:7 twist.

The handguard options are the same as current ACRs. The guns we saw in the booth featured the “enhanced” quad rail, while most of the marketing materials have MOE polymer handgaurd.

Inside the gun there’s a key addition to round out the Designated Marksman design philosophy: a Geisselle enhanced trigger.

Bushmaster lists the gun at

One of ArmaLite’s new offerings for 2014 is the M-15 18″ Tactical.  This rifle is chambered for the 5.56 NATO cartridge and uses an 18″ AISI 416R stainless steel heavy barrel with a 1:8″ twist.

This M-15 has a low profile gas block and a free-float proprietary quad rail handguard.  The upper is a flat top with Picatinny rail.  The lower is forged 7075-T6 aluminum.

This gun comes with a two stage National Match trigger and weighs in at 7.9 pounds.  One magazine ships with the rifle.  The MSRP is $1,449.00.

For many months now we’ve all had some pretty intense discussions about laws limiting magazine capacity. I had an appointment today with the folks at Mako. They had some great new products but this is the one I felt the readers would be most interested in.

The “Star” as I call it has five five round magazines arrayed around a central hub. The baseplate of each magazine allows each one to slide into a recess in the center hub. Well you get the idea. For those living in those states that have banned hi cap mags this just might be a very good solution.

This setup is very new and a price hasn’t been entirely set. The hub itself will be just over $40 from what the Mako representative thought.

In October Hornady announced several products, including their new RAPiD Safe, which is safe that can be used to rapidly deploy a handgun in an emergency. The safe when opened is spring loaded, and deploys the handgun in a sleeve for a optimal draw and fast deployment. The RAPiD Safe is a perfect beside safe that can be used to keep your defensive handgun away from children, or even from being stolen in the event of a break in.

The RAPiD Safe can be opened in several different ways.  There is an RFID wrist band, that when worn on your firing hand can deploy the handgun almost right into your hand.  There is also a proximity card, and RFID keyfob that all work in the same manner.  Also, on the safe is a large button keypad for a combination.  Power is supplied by a 110v wall plug in, and in the event of a power outage there is a 3 AA backup battery system.  As a last resort, for those of us that might not replace batteries as often as needed there is also a key provided that can be used to open the safe, and does not require any power.

I can definitely see myself using this system to secure my han

While most companies are now making a variation of the AR platform in .308, other companies are beginning to push that boundary further still by building AR platforms in .300 Win Mag.  Then there is S.W.O.R.D International that decided to skip the new .300 Win Mag bandwagon and go straight to the .338 Lapua for their large(er?) frame AR.  While not an entirely new concept, very few companies out there have ventured into the .338LM field.

The MK-18 is a self regulating gas piston system, sports a 26″ Lothar-Walther button rifled barrel, 10rd magazines, Keymod rail system, and CMC enhanced 3.5lb trigger system.  While some might think that an AR platform rifle shooting .338LM might weigh close to 20lbs, I actually found it to be quite manageable, and as it was built for SHOT it weights right around 15lbs and is very well made.  One fea

I have said this before, that there are a million AR manufacturers out there. Every so often one jumps out at you with an idea that is out of the box. I ran in to the MEGA-ARMS team at the airport on the way in to Shot. Another great company from my area of the NW  and they told me I had to come by their booth and check out some new items. Their 5th year exhibiting at Shot and they bring fresh new ideas each year. This year’s new product is a genius idea called a level. You have heard of this? Well not like this one you haven’t.

The Megalithic Tactical System is a level that is hidden in between the upper receiver rail and the hand-guard rail. One easy twist and pull and it slides out to the side in perfect view as you are in position on the cheek weld. I thought the scope was going to block my view of it but it is positioned perfectly to view it with your external eye at the same time as looking through the scope. I have seen levels put in to the stock just before and under the scope but not like this. The ones on the stoc

Safety Harbor Firearms manufacture the Kompact Entry Gun (KEG) short barrel pistol-gripped shotguns build upon Mossberg 500 and Remington 870 receivers. Their guns are classed as AOW (All Other Weapons) and so do not carry the hefty $200 stamp required to purchase Short Barreled Shotguns in the USA. An AOW stamp is $5.

KEG12 built on Remington 870

Because they are classified as AOW, they can only be built using shotguns that originally had pistol grips. Remington only make 12 gauge shotguns with pistol grips, so if you want a Kompact Entry Gun built on a Remington 870 receiver you can only have it in 12 gauge. Mossberg manufactures .410, 20 and 12 gauge shotgun

Cartridge Loading System by Ammo Load Worldwide SHot Show 2014

I compete in the following 3 different shooting disciplines long Range Bulls-eye, 3 Gun and Tactical Rifle. This requires a ton of ammunition which means I load most of it. The pistol ammo and 223 can be made with a progressive press. But even with that it can take a chunk out of your social life sitting in front of that thing. What I need, okay what I want is the automatic rifle/pistol cartridge loading system by Ammo Load Worldwide. Of course this is something you would find in a professional ammo company&#8217

RTS Target Systems are manufacturing a wireless hit counter compatible with their entire range of targets. A sensor is attached to the target that transmits the hit count to the RTS Numerator LED display. The RTS Numerator is controlled by a remote which can cycle the display to show the hit counts up to nine targets individually. It is available as a starter kit with 5 self-healing reactive targets, 5 sensors, 1 Numerator display and 2 remotes, or the full package which has an additional 4 targets and sensors.

The RTS self-healing reactive targets contain no metal parts, eliminating the risk of backsplash, even at point blank.

The GL-MAG buttstock by FAB Defense incorporates an underside magazine carrier well that accepts standard AR mags. The magazine is centered in the stock and doesn’t interfere with positioning the gun on the shoulder. An ambidextrous quick-release button releases the mag for a fast change and then accepts the empty. This eliminates the need for a separate magazine holder strapped on the side of the stock and keeps a spare at the ready.

With a 10-round magazine in the well, as shown in the photo, the stock is nearly the same size and configuration as a standard carbine stock. Obviously, larger magazines will protrude further from the underside of the stock. Larger mags could act as a makeshift monopod, I guess. I personally would recommend against the use of drum magazines with this stock.

Besides the mag carriers, the stock itself is otherwise fairly standard. It has a QD quick detach swivel for sling attachment and has a patented “anti-rattle” mechanism that allows it to fit both mil-spec and commercial buffer tubes. It’s available in

Turtle Skin are manufacturing a tactical glove they claim is the only glove tested for the ability to withstand 28 gauge needed. 28 Gauge needles, popular among drug addicts, are just 0.3mm in diameter, approximately the width of a human hair. The Turtle Skin Search TUS-002 glove can withstand 1.1 ft-lbs from a 28g needle before it failing. The glove is marketed to law enforcement and corrections staff.

The H&K booth at SHOT had a remarkable display of the MP5 series of SMGs, from genesis to current day.

Here we see the result of “Project 64″, the very project that create the MP5. This is gun number 31, still a gun in prototype phase. It is very easy to spot the differences between this one and a current model!

Next came the K model with it’s odd front grip:

BHI Tactical Firearms debuted their new handguard at SHOT Show today. The improvements on the old handguard (see AK pistol photo at bottom of this post) is a full length top rail and a slimmer profile with Keymod compatible accessory attachment points. This handguard will be sold with thier BHI-15 rifles and will soon be available for their AK line.

BHI M92 AK Pistol

For the last several year readers have been rather irritated with Sig for not selling the MPX to the public. Well the time has come. I had a meeting with Sig this morning and as usual we talked about new guns and any changes in status of present guns.

I happened to ask about the MPX and the possibility of them being release to the public.Without hesitation he replied they are now open for public sale. There will be several models available. The first is an SBR semi-auto, a semi auto carbine and a rifle version. All versions will be semi-auto.

The muzzle device that many of you like is still temporarily on hold. The ATF blocked that device from being an allowed accessory. Sig is very confident that issue will be resolved shortly. That’s certainly go

Smith & Wesson is famous for its revolver lines, and this year they’ve decided to make a big return into the wheel gun category.  The S&W 686 PLUS comes out of Smith & Wesson’s Performance Center, their custom firearm shop, and is an impressive new version of a venerable legend from the past.

S&W 686 PLUS

Who doesn’t love a sub-gun? Blasting through cases of cheap pistol ammo is my favorite way of turning money into noise, and I imagine with the new Sig MPX series that amount of fun would be amplified.

The MPX is an extremely compact, magazine fed, selective fire SMG that fires from a closed bolt, and is extremely suppressor friendly (which seems to be the selling point). Of course the MPX has been spotted before in the hands of Sig employees and at shows like SHOT, but I figured I would give my impressions of the weapon system.

First, the MPX comes in two flavors: Regular and kurz. Both are very lightweight and I could see myself competing quite well in a sub-gun match with them. Here is the larger gun with a suppressor installed:

For those familiar with the AR platform, you will feel

Accu-Grip AR grip

Although there are now about a million AR manufacturers out there, there is one thing that is the same on all of them. The grip. Sure you have grips with textures and finger grooves, etc. but no one has thought about length of pull. I am not talking about length of pull of the shoulder stock. I am referring to length of pull of your finger to the trigger. I am 6 feet tall and have long fingers. When I grab a rifle with the stock grip on it I tend to overreach the trigger. Introducing Accu-Grip. A grip that can be adjusted backwards or forwards to fit your finger length of pull perfectly. Why was this so difficult to t

Kel Tec is revealing two new bullpups at Shot Show this year with their RDB and M43.

Scaling down from their successful RFB .308 rifle, the RDB and M43 are both .223 bullpup rifles using downward brass ejection system rather than the forward system of the RFB.

The RDB is the modern variant, while the M43 is described as a “cold-war inspired design.” The internals on both rifles are the same, but while the RDB features polymer and picatinny, the M43 is all wood and steel. New rifles in old styles are something I’d like to see more of.

Both rifles feature a 17.4″ barrel and use a short stroke piston system. The bolt travel is quite a bit longer than conventional rifles in order to eject brass out the downward chute behind the magazine well.

The magazine release on these is a metal slider in a similar position to the Tavor’s magaz