The Truth About Guns

As I said in my review, the Tavor SAR is the perfect rifle for the job it was designed to do. If you want a home defense gun or a rifle for CQB scenarios, there is no finer option. Apparently our readers agreed, and bestowed the first Best Rifle of the Year award on the Tavor SAR. Accepting for IWI were Michael Kassnar, IWI VP of sales and marketing (above left) and IWI’s head man Shlomi Sabag (above center). I had the pleasure of handing the hardware to them this afternoon and Michael immediately hung it on the wall of the booth. And I dare say it looks smashing.

Adams Arms is a relatively new player in the AR-15 market, but they’re already making waves. Their guns use a piston system that’s dead simple to use, and their guns come set up pretty much the way you’d want them kitted out. Now they’re adding a new competition rifle to their lineup with the COR.

The rifle comes standard with Diamondback’s new flip-up offset sight, a Hiperfire trigger (which is pretty sweet), and Magpul furnature. Not to mention the lightened bolt carrier and operating parts for a quicker cycling acti

Star Wars fans know the score: “Do. Or do not. There is no ‘try’.” So when Team Taurus shooter Jessie Duff says she’ll try to blog for TTAG on a weekly basis, and underscores the word “try,” ours is not to wonder why. Ours is to do or die. Which is NOT the ethos Ms. Duff brings to this website. Still, Jessie is one of the smartest, funniest and most attractive women on planet earth, and she shoots pretty well too. We’ll take what we can get and say boy, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Which is literally true. If you’ve got questions of ideas for Ms. Duff’s initial posts hereabouts pop them below and we’ll try to get her to read them. See what I did there?

We’ve reviewed Black Rain Ordnance’s firearms before, and they have fared very favorably. Which is to say that I loved it and dreaded the day it needed to go back. Now, BRO is introducing their Model 602, a bolt action rifle based on an action that BRO has designed from the ground up. Everything from the barrel shank to the bolt face has been designed by BRO to their specs, and there’s a ton of customizable features.

The rifles aren’t even complete yet — this is a prototype, serial number one — but they should ship sometim

Tucked away in a corner of the ground floor of the SHOT show was a small but visually impressive display by Cabot Guns. I thought I had struck gun blogger gold and immediately took some photos of the some of the most beautiful 1911s I had ever laid eyes on. Of course, when I mentioned my achievement to Nick Leghorn a few hours later, he rolled his eyes and informed me that our very own Robert ‘Tex” Farago had blogged the latest Cabot ballistic eye candy a few days earlier. Undaunted, I am posting these pics anyway, because I hate to see perfectly good images go to waste . . .

For some situations, an AR-10 in 308 Winchester just isn’t enough gun. If you feel the need to stretch your legs and shoot out to 1,000 yards and beyond, but with quick follow-up shots, you need Miller Precision Arms’ new .300 Win Mag AR-10 style rifle.

The gun may be 80% parts compatible with existing AR-15 and AR-10 parts, but the oeprating mechanisms are all new. The magazines are stretched and polymer walled, but with an aluminum base plate and 10 round capacity. The barrel is a cut rifling Krieger barrel tailored to your desired length. The camo p

There’s no denying that the BAR is a dead sexy design. And if not sexy, then at least iconic. The guys at Ohio Ordnance Works realized this and have re-engineered John Browning’s iconic design for the modern age. The new design knocks a whole bunch of weight off the gun, increases the cooling capability, and makes it more accurate. They say that it’s 1 MoA all the way to 1,000 yards, but we’ll need to test that out for ourselves.

They’ve also re-engineered the magazines to have a 30 round capac

Chassis are heavy and expensive, but for long range accuracy they’re essential pieces of equipment. Especially chassis that give you the ability to adjust your gun to fit your body. KRG has been making chassis for long range rifles for a few years now, and they’re introducing a hybrid polymer and aluminum chassis that will not only cut down on weight but also the price.

The X-Ray Chassis is an adaptation of their existing top seller, and is interchangeable with many of the existing parts. It is built off the same aluminum spine as the other chassis, but where the original has an aluminum construction this one uses polymer. It allows for more recoil reduction and weight reduction, while at the same time giving the rifle the same rigid platform so it works perfectly.

The chassis will be available for the Remington 700 short action and Tikka T3 action initially, with more coming down the road.

Taking the title for best new ammo for 2013 as voted by you, the people of the gun, was Lehigh Defense and their intimidating 220 gr. .45 Long Colt rounds for the Taurus Judge and Smith Governor. Lehigh’s Rich Brauer was only too happy to accept a little something for his office wall. if you want to see what impressed the readership (and terrifies bad doods) so much, make the jump . . .

If Nick hates gun makers that change one minor thing and call it a new gun, he won’t be happy with the “new” Ruger LCRx. Why? All they’ve done is add a swept-back hammer spur so you can cock this eminently light, pocketable pistol and shoot it in single action if you fancy that. At least for now, you can only get a hammerized .38 version (+P rated). Same Hogue monogrip, same 1.875″ barrel, same great friction-reducing cam trigger. And no extra charge for that hammer spur – the LCRx has the same $529 MSRP as its hammerless sibling. Snubbies über alles!

A guy walks into a crowded bar, waving his 1911. “Who in here has been screwing my wife?” he demands. A voice from the back of the bar yells back. “You need more ammo.” [h/t Chris V]

Please mail gun jokes to guntruth@me with GUN JOKE (all caps) in subject bar.

And this isn’t it. Switchview already makes extended throw levers for variable-magnification scopes. Variable scopes like my Leupold VX-R Patrol are awesome tools for shooting anywhere from CQB to 500 yards, but their magnification adjustment rings are often stiff and slow to turn. Switchview’s throw levers fit their designated scopes like machined aluminum gloves, but the wide variety of rung styles and sizes out there means that each lever has to be individually designed for each make and model of scope. Smaller volume combines with higher design costs, and aluminum throw levers like these run about $60 . . .

Switchview is about to change all of that with their Eagle Eye universal speedlever. It will be made of polymer instead of aluminum, with an adjustable length strap similar t

It doesn’t actually mounted to a gun, but Eotech’s new X320 handheld thermal imager is beyond cool. It’s the size of a pair of roof-prism binoculars and gives you the almost magic ability to see through camouflage and foliage, or to track warm footprints over cold, hard ground. It’s not really priced for recreational use yet, but the cost of this technology is dropping faster than you might think. Make the jump for some creepy, skull-eyed infrared video . . .

I filmed this through the lens with a small camera, and I’m amazed it worked at all. The actual thermal image is of course much larger and m

Rimfire AR-15 rifles are nothing new, but they all use a blowback based operating system. This puts tons of stress on the cases, and for some of the more powerful rimfire cartridges it can rupture the cases as they’re being extracted from the gun. Franklin Armory wanted to make a semi-automatic rifle in .17 Winchester Super Magnum, and so they completely redesigned the internal components of an AR-15 to function with the cartridge. Now cases extract under lower pressure, the gun cycles reliably, and you can use all standard AR-15 components for stocks and triggers. Naturally, we’ll test one out and get back to you.

Tactical Innovations has brought back the dual 10/22 ‘Gatling Gun’ that used to sell through the Cabela’s catalog. It’s completely impractical, but back in the days of inexpensive and plentiful .22 ammo it was about the cheapest fun you could have with your clothes on . . .

Wholesale for the all in-house machined kit is $345, not including the pair of ancient beater 10/.22s that you bolt into it.

I got my hands on an old Cabelas version a few years ago, and ballistic hilarity ensued. Yes these things are silly. But they’re a lot of fun, for a little while

I thought white gun furniture looked pretty awesome when I saw it on the cover of the Rogue Spear video game years and years ago. But then I realized what a slob I am, and discovered how quickly my favorite shooting quarries can make a white gun not look so white any more. For those of you in cleaner or snowier climes, Tapco is introducing full sets of AR and AK furniture (not shown) in the dazzling ‘Arctic White’ color . . .

The crappy lighting of the SHOW Show side exhibition rooms doesn’t quite do it justice, but these stocks and vertigrips are whiter than virgin copier paper. Why Tapco didn’t stick these on an actual AR demo gun, or at least a full-metal airsoft gun, I’ll never understand. They’re awfully nice-looking, but keeping them sparkling white could be nearly impossible.

MSRP: $150-ish

Besides meeting Colion Noir and the Gunny, one of the other highlights of Media Range Day for me was getting the opportunity to get some trigger time on the Beretta ARX 100. I’ve been pining to add this plump little ball of Italian goodness to my collection ever since I first laid eyes on its full-auto cousin at NDIA 2012. Features include: Quick change barrel capability (no tools required, takes seconds); chrome-lined hammer-forged barrels; ambidextrous and redundant controls (safety / selector switches, bolt hold open latches, barrel release latches, magazine releases, etc., multiple ambidextrous sling attachment points; SCAR-like” 4 position collapsible folding stock, AR ergonomics and the ability to use standard AR-15 magazines . . .

My boss at the day job is going to be heartbroken. He thought that he was the first person to think of doing an AR-10 based 12-gauge shotgun, but apparently Rhino Arms has beaten him to the punch. Their new AR-10 based shotgun is a “hot swappable” upper receiver, meaning all you need to do is change the upper and slap in a new magazine and you’re running 12 gauge roounds. No fiddling with recoil springs, no messing with internal parts — nothing.

They’re planning on selling the gun in a package, with a drag bag containing one AR-

Guns make terrific art. Just ask artists Jeff Coons, who raked in $1.4m from CNN’s Anderson Cooper for an as-yet-nonexistent sculpture made from Sean Pean’s gun collection. (No, I did not make that up.) A reader emailed us a promo for the above object d’art by JD Cabrera, who’s slightly more familiar with guns than Balloon Dog boy. “JD’s extensive experience with firearms ranges from building single actions for Col

Look closely at the receiver which that FLEX buttstock is (mostly) attached to. That’s not your grandfather’s Mossberg 500: it’s an MVP bolt-action rifle in .308 Winchester. It also takes M-14 mags (which is awesome BTW) but it’s not the only Mossberg model that’s getting the FLEX treatment . . .

Mossberg floated their FLEX modular hardware system about two years ago, and I have to confess that I was initially skeptical. I didn’t think any quick-detach stock mounting system would ever stand up to 12-gauge shotgun recoil without wobbling and creaking and, well, flexing until it drove me mad. After several hundred rounds of testing, I had to conclude that I was I wrong.