Kimber has just announced the KDS9c Rail, a new variant of the 9mm KDS9c that now features an accessory rail.
Kimber released the standard KDS9c in April of 2023, a pistol that Richard Mann described as a modern take on the 1911 in his review for Gun Digest. He walked away impressed, as did many others, but some shooters wanted the ability to mount a weapon light on the pistol. Kimber has just answered these requests with the announcement of the KDS9c Rail.
The KDS9c Rail model is virtually identical to the standard variant besides a few details. That means the pistols are still single-action-only hammer-fired 9mms with aluminum frames, steel slides and a 15-round capacity with flush-fit mags. All other features such as the optics-ready slide were also retained. The primary difference, obviously, is the inclusion of an accessory rail. For those who were only interested in one of these pistols if they could mount a light or laser to it, now you can. TXC light-bearing holsters are already in the works for the KDS9c Rail as well.
The other changes present on the KDS9c Rail include an ambidextrous safety, new grip scales with more aggressive texture and the inclusion of an extended 18-round magazine alongside the 15-round mag. Further, the new railed models are available with either a black or a two-tone dark gray/black finish as opposed to the original options of black or stainless. The final difference is that the new model also demands a higher price.
Everett Deger, Director of Kimber Marketing, said this about the new pistols:
When we started shipping the KDS9c in July of 2023, the most requested addition was for a rail and ambidextrous safety, and we listened to those requests. This line extension is a testament to providing the features and attributes that Kimber customers expect and modern firearms owners are looking for. The KDS9c Rail delivers on all of these latest concealed carry attributes and is machined, assembled and finished by American workers in Troy Alabama.
Kimber says that the KDS9c Rail will begin shipping at the end of January and will also be available with 10-round mags for ban states. MSRP is $1,903 for both color variants.
The author tests out the Marlin 1895 Dark Series, a .45-70 Gov’t lever-action with a tactical twist.
If you want to get opinions on rifles, go to a deer hunting camp. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a deer camp at the Lowrance Ranch in Truscott, Texas. This is mostly flat, open country, and you’d expect those who live, work and hunt this ground to be partial to a bolt-action rifle chambered for a flat-shooting cartridge. Given that, you might be surprised what the ranch hands there said about the Marlin Dark Series 1895 when I showed them a picture of it.
I limited these deer hunting cowboys to a one-word description of the Dark Series 1895. One old timer, who’d just showed me a photo of his pride and joy lever gun—a Winchester Model 71 chambered in 348 Winchester—described it as the “terminator.” Another ranch hand/hunter in a cowboy hat rambled something about a modern take on the lever gun, but when I pinned him down to one word, he called it “awesome.” Two other fellers agreed that “rugged” was the best description for this rifle. These were experienced deer hunters, right?
First, Some History
There’s no question that the new Dark Series rifle from Marlin is a modernization of the traditional lever action rifle, but what exactly does that mean, and whether you call it “modernized” or not, is all this modernization a good thing? To answer that, we have to go back in time a few years to 2019 when “Green” Marlin first introduced the Dark Series of traditional lever-action rifles.
New (post 2020) Marlin lever action rifles are made in Mayodan, North Carolina.
First, and for clarification, “Green” Marlin describes the period when Marlin was owned by Remington. The new Ruger owned Marlins are “Red” Marlins, because when Ruger took over Marlin in 2020, they turned the Marlin logo Ruger red. And finally, the original North Haven, Connecticut, Marlins, are “Blue” Marlins to match the color of the logo when they were manufactured there. The 2019 Green Marlin Dark Series rifles were nothing more than an all-black version of the 336, 1894 and 1895 models, with an XS Sights lever rail installed.
These guns were well received, but they were not enough to save Marlin—or Remington—from bankruptcy.
The Details
The first rifle in the new Green Marlin Dark Series is the Model 1895, but Marlin says a Dark Series Model 336 and 1894 should be out sometime in 2024. The only similarity these new rifles have to the originals are the name, base model numbers, a half-cock hammer, the now common cross-bolt safety and their color. Marlin has substantially changed just about everything else, and these changes have altered the look, but more importantly the user interface.
Probably the most notable modernization is the absence of a wood forend. In its place, there’s a 135/8-inch anodized aluminum handguard with M-Lok slots around its circumference. In addition to the multitude of M-Lok slots, on the front end of the handguard, there’s two QD sling swivel sockets. The rifle is also fitted with a nicely contoured midsize finger lever, and the lever and bolt are finished in black nitride. The other important metal parts have a graphite black Cerakote finish.
The lever rail, as it’s often called, substantially enhances the versatility of the Marlin Dark Series 1895.
The buttstock has also been modernized and is made of nylon-reinforced polymer, and it reattains the traditional shape. However, at the wrist, there are textured, removable grip inserts and a thick rubber recoil pad. The buttstock is dished out in the center where you’ll find three M-Lok slots. At the top rear of the buttstock, there’s a steel QD sling stud on each side, but this stud is also there to allow for the attachment of a polymer comb riser that comes with the rifle.
This snap-on riser for the comb on the butt stock of the 1895 Dark Series rifle raises the comb to allow for a good cheek weld when shooting with an optical sight.
The rifle’s muzzle is threaded at 11/16×24, and it comes with a radial port break. But if you’re like me and despise these noisy abominations, you can unscrew it and replace it with the thread protector that comes with the rifle. Just behind the muzzle break is a high-profile fiber-optic front sight that’s encased inside a circle of Tritium for optimum visibility in low light. Further back on the barrel you run into the front of a 23-slot, 11¼-inch rail that extends all the way back to the receiver where you’ll find a fully adjustable ghost ring sight.
The rifle ships with a radial port muzzle break, but it can be easily removed, and a thread protector or suppressor can be attached.
Interface Maximized
Because user interface is so important to a rifle, let’s delve into it. The buttstocks on traditional lever-action rifles and this new Dark Series are configured to best allow you to maintain a good cheek weld while using open sights. The problem comes when you mount a riflescope. This requires you to raise your cheek from the stock, and this complicates fast action and accurate shooting.
To solve this problem with the Dark Series, Marlin has configured a snap-on polymer cheek piece that’s held in place by the two QD sling swivel studs and the detent in the dished-out portion of the stock. This riser will allow you to get a good cheek weld when shooting a low-mounted optic.
When was the last time you saw a factory stock traditional lever gun that could be so easily adapted to a tripod?
The sight/optics rail also improves user interface. The integral ghost ring that’s paired with the high-visibility front sight is ideal for snap shooting at close range. And the rail will allow for the mounting of a traditional riflescope, a scout scope or a variety of red-dot sights. I tested the rifle with a Leupold VX-Freedom intermediate eye relief scope mounted just so the ocular bell was forward of the ghost ring sight. With QD rings, this allowed for easy on and off and near immediate access to the open sights.
The handguard also helps with user interface. It helps cut total rifle weight somewhat but more importantly its M-Lok compatibility allows for the attachment of a light or laser, which would be ideal for hunting feral hogs. I mounted a Spartan Precision bipod attachment to the bottom of the rail, which allows for interface with their excellent tripod or their super lightweight bipod.
Up until now, this has been something that was very difficult to do with a traditional lever gun. I also liked the ability to attach a QD sling swivel to the handguard, and the fact that I could sling up tightly with a shooting sling without the point of impact shifting. This shift in point of impact is something that’s common with traditional lever guns when you snug up tightly with a shooting sling.
Marlin’s new Dark Series 1895 lever-action rifle in .45-70 Government.
Nothing’s Perfect
It’s rare that I test a new rifle and like everything about it. This is partly due to my taste in rifles, but also partly because some rifles are just not made all that well. I’ve tested every new Marlin rifle that’s been produced since Ruger took ownership. Personal taste aside, I’m confident in saying these Red Marlins are the best Marlins ever made. Still, I had two complaints with the new Dark Series rifle.
The first was with the trigger. The triggers on all of the other Red Marlins have been somewhere between good and excellent, but the trigger on this rifle had just a little hitch right at the beginning of the press. From the bench, it was easy enough to manage but it did interfere a bit with off-hand shooting. It also broke right at 5 pounds. In my experience, this is the exception as opposed to the rule with these new Red Marlins. If it was my rifle—and it just might soon be—I’d send it to Jerry Dove at Dove Guns for some trigger work. With just a bit of TLC, this trigger would be just fine.
The other issue was with the snap-on polymer comb. First, it was a bit tedious to get the comb to snap in place. On the other hand, when installed it locked on solidly with no movement or shifting at all. However, while messing with it—possibly a bit rougher than I should have been—I broke off one of the flanges that holds the comb in place. Surprisingly, this didn’t interfere with a solid fit, and Marlin had me another comb in the mail the next day.
Traditional Versus Modern
Through the years, Marlin and even Winchester have tried to modernize the lever gun, usually with the introduction of new, flatter-shooting and harder-hitting cartridges, like the .307 Winchester or .308 Marlin Express. Though initially these cartridges created some buzz, they were by most measures, commercial failures.
Notes: Reported muzzle velocity (VEL), standard velocity deviation (SD) and muzzle energy (ENG) were established by firing 10 shots over a chronograph with the screens 10 feet from the muzzle, and the average accuracy was established by firing three, five-shot groups with each load from a solid rest at 100 yards. *Tested at 50 yards and excluded from average
Admittedly, I’m a lover of the traditional lever-action rifle and traditional lever-action cartridges. Also, admittedly, I don’t think this rifle looks very traditional. However, I do think it’s very well configured to appeal to the modern shooter or to any serious big-game hunter.
The way Marlin has designed the new Dark Series rifle, it’s ideally adapted to do anything a hunter could think about doing with a lever-action rifle in .45-70. In fact, it will allow a hunter to do things with a traditional lever action rifle that were nearly impossible before. I think the Texas cowboys I’ve been sharing camp with are mostly right.
This is an awesome looking and ruggedly built lever-action rifle, that in .45-70 is suitable for hunting and terminating anything on Earth. Now let us patiently wait for the Model 336 and 1894 Dark Series rifles. With apologies to AC/DC, you could say these new rifles are “back in black.”
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Silencer Central and Buck Commander have partnered to release the BUCK 30 by BANISH, an affordable .30-caliber suppressor for deer hunting.
There were a lot of exciting guns to shoot at CANCON Georgia 2023, as companies brought out everything from suppressed belt-fed machineguns to the latest tactical PCCs and carbines. That said, much of what drew the longest lines was far more fun than practical. Conversely, Silencer Central’s lane was showing off an unpresuming new can, but this humble black tube will certainly prove far more popular in the real world than anything that was on the muzzle of an M240.
Called the BUCK 30 By Banish, this .30-caliber suppressor was a collaborative effort between Silencer Central and Buck Commander. If the name didn’t give it away, this can was designed with deer hunters in mind. There are plenty of .30-caliber hunting suppressors on the market, however, so what sets the BUCK 30 apart?
For The Everyman
It has to be said up front, one of the most attractive aspects of the BUCK 30 is its price. With an MSRP of just $699, it’s tied for the least expensive .308 suppressor currently listed on Silencer Central’s website. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cheaper can for sale that’s not rimfire-only.
Versatility
Speaking of calibers, Silencer Central’s BUCK 30 is rated for everything from .17 HMR to .300 Winchester Magnum. For a hunter on a budget, that’s an excellent feature, as it allows you to be a one-can-man even if you regularly go after a variety of game using rifles chambered for different cartridges. While the suppressor may have been dubbed BUCK 30 with deer hunting in mind, it could obviously serve you equally as well when chasing other species.
For maximum compatibility with different platforms, the BUCK 30 also features a variety of mounting options. When ordering one from Silencer Central, you will have to choose a thread pitch for direct mounting to a muzzle. These pitches include 5/8×24, 1/2×28, .578×28, 11/16×24, 3/4×24 and M16x1RH.
For those who would prefer a quick-attach mount or improved cross-compatibility between several rifles, the BUCK 30 also uses the industry-standard HUB mounting system.
In The Field
As a suppressor designed for hunters, by hunters, the BUCK 30 checks every box that makes a suppressor good for field use.
The top quality that any hunting suppressor can have is the ability to reduce the sound level of a shot to hearing-safe levels. This is because wearing ear protection while hunting isn’t just annoying, but it can potentially be dangerous too. While the use of suppressors for hunting has really only just started to become normalized, cans like the BUCK 30 will help push the trend in the right direction. That’s better for everybody, whether they hunt or not.
Since the BUCK 30 will purportedly reduce the report of an 18-inch .308 rifle to just 131 dB, well below the hearing-safe level of 140 dB, it accomplishes this handily. I shot a rifle with the BUCK 30 installed at CANCON and it definitely proved quiet enough that you could leave your muffs or plugs at home when taking a similar setup into the field.
Suppressors that get taken on a hunt are more likely to get banged up as well, so durability is another factor to consider. The BUCK 30 has a tubeless, laser-welded stainless steel construction that should help it survive in the field.
One downside to hunting with a suppressor hanging off your muzzle is the added bulk and weight. So, naturally, good hunting suppressors try and minimize this as much as possible. The BUCK 30 achieves this as well, though it isn’t the shortest or lightest .308 can on the market. It has an overall length of 6.9 inches, a diameter of 1.54 inches and a weight of 13.8 ounces, making it just small enough to not be too noticeable when installed. Given, I didn’t haul the setup for miles through the backcountry, but handling the rifle with the BUCK 30 at CANCON was enough to tell that it wouldn’t be a major burden to do so.
Could it be even shorter, lighter and less cumbersome? Theoretically, sure, but not without sacrificing sound reduction performance or increasing its cost. Silencer Central aimed for the sweet spot between all these attributes with the BUCK 30, and the company definitely hit the mark.
Parting Shot
To be completely honest, after sending some rounds through a BUCK 30 at CANCON, I wasn’t shaking with excitement. But who would be? This is a very practical suppressor with a singular goal in mind—hunting—and we were shooting at steel. That said, I did walk away impressed.
The can is perfectly hearing-safe, is light and handy enough to not be very noticeable on the muzzle and it does all this for a very attainable price. For anyone who hunts in a state where the use of a suppressor is legal, the real excitement of the BUCK 30 will come after you use one to drop your first deer without your ears ringing or having to listen to the muffled sounds of nature through your ear pro.
If you still hunt with muffs on, there’s probably not a single better piece of kit you could get to improve your experience.
More On Suppressors:
The Suppressor: How They’re Made, How They Work, And How To Buy One
A look at Lehigh Defense and its attempts to perfect the art of bullet technology and ballistic innovation.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to have the backstory to appreciate a product. I think that’s especially true with Lehigh Defense … where bullet evolution seems to be happing faster than anywhere else. Under the watchful eye of Bill Wilson—yes, the Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat—Lehigh Defense is taking the mono-metal bullet to places it’s never been.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. For me, this story starts in West Virginia, with two hillbillies trying to create a bullet for a .50-caliber short-action rifle cartridge.
France To West Virginia
In 2006, I was approached by fellow West Virginian, Mike Cyrus. Cyrus had designed a short-action .50-caliber rifle cartridge capable of launching a 345-grain bullet at 2,700 fps. His problem was that there were no .50-caliber bullets capable of withstanding impact velocities that high. I showed Cyrus the French designed GPA bullet and detailed my experiences with it. I felt that if Cyrus could create a similar bullet, it would be ideal for his cartridge.
Cyrus’ short action .50-caliber rifle cartridge that he and Lehigh Defense developed a bullet for. (Shown next to a .22 LR cartridge.)
The GPA bullet is a mono-metal bullet with a broached hollow point. When it impacts animals, fluids are forced into the hollow point. This causes the bullet to fracture, and the result is the separation of four petals. Sometimes the petals will break from a Barnes Triple Shock mono-metal bullet, but when this happens, much like they did with the old Winchester Fail Safe bullet, the petals just fall away and are left in the bullet’s path. Because the fracturing on the GPA bullet occurs almost immediately, the petals retain velocity and drive forward and outward from the path of the bullet shank. This creates massive tissue destruction and hemorrhaging.
Cyrus liked the idea, and, working with Lehigh Defense, they created a bullet. It wasn’t long until Cyrus was back at my range to test it … and the results were amazing. The bullet delivered a controlled dispersion of shrapnel that left a wound cavity of immense proportions. The break-away petals created their own wound tracks and the base of the bullet drove incredibly deep. Cyrus worked with Lehigh to tweak the design and I took Cyrus’ .50-caliber cartridge and those bullets to Africa, where they impressed the hell out of a professional hunter.
Cyrus soon went to work for Lehigh Defense to develop other bullets, conduct testing and to produce load data. He became an integral part of company and moved to South Dakota in 2017 when the company relocated. That year Cyrus also came to Africa with me, and we tested multiple Lehigh bullets on a variety of critters. My son even used a 270-grain .375-caliber version of the Controlled Fracturing bullet that had evolved from Cyrus’ early work to take an African buffalo.
This African buffalo was taken at 100 yards with a .375 Ruger using a 270-grain Controlled Fracturing bullet from Lehigh Defense.
Enter Wilson Combat
Lehigh Defense makes a lot of unique mono-metal bullets, and we’ll get to them shortly. But it was Lehigh Defense’s Controlled Chaos bullet that caught Bill Wilson’s attention.
In late 2021, Wilson Combat purchased Lehigh Defense. Wilson felt solid copper bullets would be the future and that Lehigh Defense was on the forefront of that technology. An avid hunter, he has probably killed more feral hogs than anyone I know, and he was impressed with the Controlled Chaos’ radical terminal performance. He also felt that the Lehigh’s Xtreme Defense bullet was changing how many people think about self-defense handgun projectiles. Wilson relocated Lehigh Defense to Clarksville, Texas, not too far from his home.
And this is where the circle completes. Cyrus was lost in this shuffle, but it wasn’t long until he and Wilson connected, and Wilson learned the value that Cyrus had brought to Lehigh Defense before the sale. Wilson brought Cyrus back to Lehigh Defense to assist with bullet testing, load development and, just as importantly, to handle customer questions and technical support. But what’s also interesting is how bullet development at Lehigh Defense works.
Responsive Engineering
Because of how Lehigh Defense bullets are machined, they can do very small runs and test them; a bullet can be tweaked and tested multiple times in a day. Wilson can take a new design and shoot some feral hogs in the morning, report his findings and the bullet can be modified before the day is over. The final product is not just a result of just testing in various mediums, it’s thoroughly vetted on wild game.
A 270-grain Lehigh Defense Controlled Fracturing bullet out of a .375 Ruger was used to take this massive black bear on Vancouver Island.
Cyrus is embedded in this process. He shadows Wilson’s work and is in constant contact with the factory to make suggestions based on what he sees on paper, on the chronograph and during terminal performance testing. Cyrus was recently on my range showing me the subsonic and supersonic bullets they’ve been developing for the new 8.6 Blackout cartridge. Before he left, he was on the phone with Clarksville, tweaking things.
During that visit, Cyrus also showed me their new Tipped Controlled Chaos bullet. With its better ballistic coefficient, it retains energy better and delivers flatter trajectories. Like the 8.6 Blackout bullets, it’s still under development but should be available in 2024.
Smart Bullets Getting Smarter
This story is slanted a bit to highlight the work and contributions of a fellow hillbilly and friend, but Cyrus and his work with Lehigh Defense has been my main window into the company. Today, Wilson is adding to the Lehigh Defense story and, according to Cyrus, since acquisition, Wilson has substantially enhanced the performance of several of the bullets Lehigh Defense offers.
A 125-grain, .30-caliber Maximum Expansion bullet fired from the .300 HAMR cartridge.
Of course, I cannot just end it here. You need to have an idea of the totality of Lehigh Defense’s smart-bullet product line. So, here’s a rundown of some of their best bullets, available as components or in loaded ammunition from Lehigh Defense, Wilson Combat and several other ammunition manufacturers. I’d suggest you give some of them a try.
Controlled & Xtreme Controlled Chaos Bullet
This is an all-copper mono-metal bullet designed to fracture during penetration. The fractured copper shrapnel is then propelled outward and forward from the bullet path. The base or shank of the bullet remains at bullet diameter and penetrates extremely deep, most often exiting. A version of this bullet built with softer copper is called the Xtreme Chaos and it works the same, but the nose of the bullet shank slightly deforms to create a larger diameter penetrating hole.
The Controlled Chaos bullet and the wound-enhancing shrapnel it creates almost instantly after impact.
Tipped Chaos Bullet
This is nothing more than an all-copper mono-metal bullet designed to fracture during penetration, just like the Controlled Chaos. The difference, however, is the polymer tip that’s inserted into the bullet’s hollow point cavity. This tip increases the bullet’s BC, helps with retained energy down range and flattens trajectory.
Tipped Controlled Chaos bullet. Notice the shrapnel that breaks away to form additional wound tracks, leaving the base/shank of the bullet to penetrate.
Controlled Fracturing Bullet
This is a more controlled version of the Controlled Chaos bullet. The difference is that the shrapnel is reduced to large petals that do not bend or break part. The petals separate soon after penetration and radiate outward from the main bullet path, creating havoc and destruction in their wake. Where this bullet is most applicable is with subsonic loads. No other bullet from any manufacture can match it in terms of subsonic terminal performance. It’s ideal for cartridges like the .300 and 8.6 Blackout.
This version of the Controlled Fracturing bullet is designed for subsonic application and will upset at extremely slow velocities.
Maximum Expansion Bullet
This is a deviation of the Controlled Fracturing bullet, and similar to the Extreme Chaos bullet it’s built from slightly softer copper. This allows the petals on the bullet to remain attached similar to the Barnes Triple Shock. This bullet creates massive tissue destruction but with less penetration than the Controlled Fracturing bullet. It’s suitable for handgun and subsonic applications, and Wilson is working to develop tipped versions for high velocity rifle cartridges.
This is a 118-grain 9mm version of the Lehigh Defense’s Maximum Expansion bullet.
Xtreme Defense Bullet
This is an all-copper, non-deforming approach to a self-defense bullet designed to deliver penetration between the FBI’s optimum 12- and 18-inch range. A non-deforming/expanding bullet might seem counter to conventional wisdom, but the concept is valid. This is partly because the lack of bullet upset prevents the potential for penetration interference from intermediate barriers and partly because, due to the large flutes near the bullet’s nose, wounding is enhanced through high-velocity fluid transfer.
Underwood loads Xtreme Defense bullets for many handgun cartridges. Those deep flutes use hydraulic fluid transfer to damage tissue.
Xtreme Penetrator Bullet
An alteration of the Xtreme Defense bullet, these bullets are designed to drive deeper. They’re suitable for both handgun and rifle cartridges and are heavier than comparable Extreme Defense bullets in the same caliber. They also have smaller flutes to help maximize penetration, and the X-shaped nose design will punch through as opposed to skid on bone. These bullets create much more damage than conventional round nose bullets.
Underwood ammo offers ammunition loaded with Lehigh Defense Xtreme Penetrator bullets for many cartridges. Notice the wide X flat point in the bullet’s nose.
Wide Flat Nose
Very similar to a hard cast bullet, the advantage of a solid copper flat nose solid is that the bullet’s nose will not deform, chip or break, and this contributes to the bullet’s ability to penetrate very deep and straight. Buffalo Bore loads these Wide Flat Nose bullets in their Dangerous Game line. I watched a hunter in Africa absolutely hammer a buffalo with one from a .45-70, and one was all it took.
Buffalo Bore loads Lehigh Defense Wide Flat Nose bullets for a variety of dangerous game cartridges.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Vortex has just expanded its popular Venom riflescope line with the addition of the 1-6×24 SFP and the 3-15×44 FFP.
Since the Vortex Venom riflescope line was launched with the Venom 5-25×56 FFP in 2021, it’s proven to be quite popular. Why? Like most of the company’s products, the scope hit a sweet spot between performance and price, with most users agreeing that the former outweighs the latter. That said, a 5-25×56 optic is only useful for certain applications, so now the Venom line is expanding with two new optics that will be more suitable for carbines and mid-range shooting—the 1-6×24 SFP and the 3-15×44 FFP.
Vortex Venom 1-6×24 SFP.
Despite being described as an entry-level carbine LPVO, the Venom 1-6×24 SFP has a lot going for it. Featuring an illuminated reticle and true 1-6x magnification, the scope can do quick work at short ranges while remaining capable of accurately reaching out. The SFP AR-BDC3 reticle helps with this as well, as its markings can keep you on target out to 650 yards. Other specs worth mentioning include its 30mm tube, its 24mm objective lens, its overall length of 10.3 inches and its weight of 19.5 ounces. The scope comes with a throw-lever, making magnification adjustments even faster and easier, and the package ships with a sunshade, lens covers, a lens cloth, a CR2032 battery and the appropriate hex wrench. MSRP is $449.99.
Vortex Venom 3-15×44 FFP.
Next is the Vortex Venom 3-15×44 FFP. Built on a 34mm tube and featuring a 44mm objective lens, this model was clearly designed to fill the gap between the new LPVO and the older 5-25×56 Venom. It uses the EBR-7C for a reticle and it’s available in either MOA or MRAD, and as an FFP scope, the subtensions will accurately scale to all magnification levels. For rapid adjustments, the scope also features Vortex’s RevStop zero system, exposed elevation turrets (windage turrets are capped) and an included throw lever. Each scope will also ship with a sunshade, lens covers, a lens cloth and a hex wrench. Other notable specs include its length of 13.3 inches and its weight of 28.8 ounces. MSRP is $649.99.
I had the opportunity to try out both of these optics while visiting the Vortex headquarters in Wisconsin last December, and they left me equally impressed. Whether you’re in the market for a new LPVO or something that can reach out a bit further, either would be worth checking out.
What makes a modern hunting rifle? A little competition influence, some military sniper inspiration and an infusion of manufacturing technology.
In conversation, you’ll find that people have a rather rigid idea of just how much “modern” can go into a gun … or what accessories could or should go on a rifle to make it suitable for a given task. There tends to be an idea of “this is a hunting rifle, this is a target rifle, and this is a sniper rifle” among most riflemen.
Today, all the lines are functionally non-existent. That might hurt to hear, but it’s true.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been told that it isn’t fair to the deer to use what I have, but as I will soon address, everything I’m using has been done before: We’re just now seeing better ways to interface these otherwise disparate species of gear.
Right now, we’re in an era of refinement and proliferation regarding support gear, and I think the prophecies I spew here and in deer camp will all come true in a matter of a decade or less. What you see as custom guns here in my photography are my actual hunting rifles, and I believe they’ll all be par for the course soon.
In fact, my gear may get antiquated in a short time. Let’s dive in.
What Makes A Hunting Rifle?
There’s no official definition of what makes a rifle a “hunting rifle.” From a purely cultural angle, a Savage 99 is a classic deer rifle. That much can be said of it. If you choose to use this as your main hunting gun instead of something that takes advantage of modern technology, well, you’re not wrong for doing so. However, understand that, by nature, you are at a technological disadvantage as compared to the efficacy of what I generally carry afield.
The author’s straight-wall-case deer rifle, chambered in .450 Bushmaster. The action is a trued Remington 700 with a 20-inch heavy spiral fluted barrel. It wears a SilencerCo Hybrid 46M in Armageddon gear cover. The stock is the excellent Foundation Revelation with Wiebad cheek pad and SAP sling and two-round holder. The rifle is zeroed with 260-grain Remington loads for 150M with the excellent Leupold MK5 HD 5-25X in a Scope Chaps cover.
Am I a “better” hunter for using all this gear? Most certainly not, but I have learned to leverage new equipment to the timeless game. Again, it’s all about the experience you seek.
Now, ask yourself, is the Savage 99 a better gun than a caplock .54 Hawken? Is the Hawken a better gun than a flintlock? Is the flintlock a better gun than a matchlock? Is a matchlock better than a bow … and so on.
Regression for the sake of nostalgia is just that: regression. It’s no sin to take technology to the field; the first man to throw a rock at an animal started this march and, yes, that thrown rock is technology. You can choose to intentionally handicap yourself, but understand that I won’t. I want meat over the fire, same as my ancestors did 10,000 years ago.
And if you really think about it, we’re still throwing said rocks … just a bit faster and farther.
That Savage 99 was high-tech at the time it was introduced. It created a lasting legacy as a classic and eventually fell out of favor, except with some diehards. It’s a great gun, however, a far cry from the muzzleloaders in common use just a few decades prior. There’s no definition of a hunting rifle other than that which you take hunting, be it a Model 70 or Barrett M107.
Rifle Construction Ain’t What It Used To Be
Rifle actions have changed very little since Mauser developed the 1896 action. The Remington 700 did what others couldn’t and reached a saturation level in the market to the point that its “footprint” (body diameter, trigger inlet, and screw spacing) is now the de facto industry standard. Most large companies are concerned with the bottom line, and as a result, there hasn’t been tremendous innovation in things like “stock” stocks over the years. Thus, aftermarket companies began to step in and experiment.
The Manners stock is designed to use an Arca rail. This model came with it installed. It’s a direct installation and representative of what the author believes will become a standard feature on hunting bolt guns within the next decade.
This level of standardization has created market opportunities that would otherwise not exist for a one-off rifle design, particularly in generating repeatable accuracy. Where this has generated the most excitement has been in material innovation in aftermarket stocks. Each of the stocks in this article is a radical departure from those of yesteryear and essentially guarantee of increased performance.
The interface between action and stock used to be wizardry. Today, the art of bedding and installing pillars is all but vacated except in some high-end custom guns. The reason being that, with an aluminum bedding block or internal chassis, there’s no need to bed at all. In 99.9 percent of cases and from direct personal experience, dropping an action in an aluminum stock/modern internal chassis, groups shrink instantly. I don’t even worry about my groups when I build a gun because I know they’ll shoot: Manufacturing, for the most part, has gotten that good.
Of extreme interest to me is the solid Micarta stock made by Foundation Stocks. You will probably recognize this material as being the same as I use on the various Winkler Knives axes, including other tools and knives I use to supplement the guns in my photos. The material has been used for everything from insulation to electronic components housing and is made from cloth soaked in epoxy that is subjected to heat and pressure.
The machining and quality of the Foundation stock is incredible and it, while being a traditional stock layout, needs no bedding or special attention. I took my well-used custom .450 Bushmaster action and bottom metal and literally just dropped them in, tightened down the action screws and proceeded to take a pile of deer with it. I wish they made a version in green linen—that’s my only critique. You can’t ask for a better modern stock.
The author’s lightweight field rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor features a Michigan-made Tuebor Precision titanium action, 24-inch Proof Research barrel, Rearden MFG muzzle brake and Q Jumbo Shrimp suppressor. The stock is the new LRH from Manners. The rifle is zeroed with Black Hills 143-grain loads and wears a Vortex Razor HD Gen 3 6-36X. Accessories are from Wiebad, Scope Chaps and SAP.
Likewise, one of my main bottleneck-cased hunting rifles, a Tuebor Precision titanium action with Proof Research 6.5 Creedmoor barrel, wears a new Manners carbon-fiber LRH stock with internal mini chassis. Again, all I did was drop the action in and tighten it down. This rifle is under 10 pounds loaded and shoots 140-grain Federal Gold Medal Match factory ammo into a truly jaw-dropping ½-inch, five-shot group at 200M. It’s an absolute tack driver, and I did nothing special to it—well, having a 6-36X Vortex Razor on it certainly helps.
As far as chassis designs go, the Magpul Pro folder has been one of my go-to chassis for years. You’ve seen this same chassis in many of my articles, and it has probably housed a half-dozen actions over the past several years. It currently has a Christensen action in it with a USO optic. I put it together for a specific property I hunt where I wanted a 10X max optic with a thick-lined reticle for low light. The aluminum base of the chassis is about as rigid as you can get and, while being a used action I took off a buddy, it drops Sig Sauer 130-grain Elite Hunter loads into a ½-inch group at 100M at 10X.
KRG has been making fine stocks for a while, and their design is also incredibly simple and effective. The stock featured here is on my wife’s 26-inch suppressed .308 Win. While as long as a musket, it’s eerily quiet and can place Hornady 178’s into a ragged hole at 200M. The barrel is by CarbonSix and the action by Curtis. She’s currently waiting on a prototype extended Arca forend for this build.
The Curtis build is a CarbonSix 26-inch .308 Winchester with Rearden MFG flash hider and JK Armament 155 suppressor. It has a USO Foundation 5-25X MOA optic. The rifle has a KRG X-Ray chassis for the Remington short action. It is a great chassis that can be easily customized. Other accessories are by Scope Chaps, Wiebad and SAP.
I trust KRG because they’re affordable and consistent. Twenty years ago, when I was first into precision rifles, I’d have killed for a sub $400 aluminum-based stock when all that was available was the original generation AICS chassis for double that amount.
But, above all, these stocks have the ability to interface with an Arca-Swiss rail. Some are able to do it with an M-Lok adapter, Anschutz adapter or direct integration. The Arca rail is something I will discuss below when talking tripods, however, now is the point for me to make the bet that in a decade all modern hunting guns and virtually anything geared to hunting and field use will have an Arca rail integrated into the stock. This will be less a big deal on AR-type rifles, but for bolt guns, the Arca interface will allow a proliferation of accessories to further enhance performance.
Arca integration is easy on semi-auto rifles. In this case, a short plate is installed flush with the handguard.
Can It
The first thing people usually notice is that all my hunting guns are suppressed: If you can own one in your state, you absolutely should. Pistol cans are fun, and I hunt with them, too, but rifle suppressors are really where it’s at for increasing your effectiveness in the field. So much has been written already, but it’s always worth noting that suppressors not only reduce recoil—when combined with the other accessories you’ll see how effective the entire system can be.
More importantly, what we are seeing now is that most modern factory guns are coming with threaded muzzles. The popularity of suppressors certainly helps, but just 10 years ago threaded models were not the norm. It may seem trivial, but the standardization of muzzle threads is a huge deal. What you put on the end of your barrel can control recoil, mitigate flash or reduce noise—in some cases, all three.
This build was made of parts the author had laying around. The action is a 24-inch 6.5CM Christensen factory action taken off an MPR. It has a Rearden muzzle brake and SilencerCo Omega 36M with Rearden Atlas adapter. The Magpul chassis is a folding model and very strong. The optic is from US Optics, and accessories are from SAP and Armageddon gear.
Tripod Territory
The modern tripod is a recent creation that has had a long evolution. Creating a stable base for precision at distance is difficult and has taken many forms. The most common today is the bipod, but even at that the shooter is something of the third contact point. The rifle is a platform for the projectile—our original stone, if you will. Over the millennia, we’ve become collectively excellent at directing a projectile, and today’s tripods are rugged, stable bases that are vital to a full hunting system.
Shooting tripods are directly evolved from camera tripods and even share their Arca-Swiss mounting interface, but this is a recent development in the gun world. Arca-Swiss camera adapters have been around for decades, and they were developed to address the same thing that they address with guns: stabilizing a heavy object.
Arca-Swiss rails are essentially just a generous dovetail rail with a clamp on the mounting head. During the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and even in the various wars of the 1980s and ’90s, snipers were always trying to adapt new gear to their rifles. Tripods at this time were revised from camera tripods, but these were often fragile and didn’t provide consistency. Rifles were simply set in a V-wedge, sometimes just made of junk.
The Two Vets ball head. This is a fast and rigid clamp system that prevents the gun from slipping out.
In the later War on Terror years, dedicated clamp-style head mounts became popular, but these were difficult to use with the rounded forearms of most sniper rifles and AR-based precision rifles. Various other types of mounts were tried, including QD Picatinny rail mounts, but ultimately the already-established Arca-Swiss started to take over, largely because the tripod heads were already available. A wide range of products are compatible with rifles because of how prolific photography accessories are.
In the past 10 years, tripods evolved from flimsy aluminum photography models to heavy-duty carbon fiber with rugged controls. I believe tripods are going to be the most in-demand rifle accessory of the next decade. The market is growing rapidly, and we are seeing tons of add-ons such as caddies for gear and note-taking, their use on spotting scopes and lightweight models for field use.
Tripods are commonly used with spotting scopes, such as this Vortex.
System Integration
If you view the rifle not just as a rifle but as a part of a larger system, you see how important the interfaces become. I typically have both Picatinny and Arca mounts on my rifles; I don’t like to have my bipod also be attached to an Arca interface because I like to use the lower-profile QD mounts from Atlas Bipods. In general, what you’re looking at is a completely stable bullet-launching platform that you simply have to align and pull the trigger.
When you have a modern optic, you can zero at max point-blank range and then use your reticle to account for drop. I can easily swap between 260-grain Remington loads in .450 Bushmaster to Hornady 395-grain SubX loads without losing zero or guessing. When suppressed, I can keep my awareness on the environment and listen for the impact of my shots on game.
Bipods can be adapted to Arca, M-Lok, Picatinny and sling studs to suit your needs.
The Two Vets “The Kit” tripod stows in my backpack, and it can adjust to any position I need, including prone. The added bipod weight also reduces recoil, and I can stay on target easily. What’s most interesting and useful is that, when the gun is in the tripod, it’s in firing position already. I sit back, relax and glass. This layout is so effective that it’s the only way I hunt if I can help it.
On The Horizon
I estimate that in just 10 years’ time we’ll see a complete renovation of the hunting rifle category. Likewise, I believe we will see advanced materials, such as carbon fiber, continue to become more common on factory guns. This used to be a custom option, but today we are seeing complete rifles with this technology for less than the cost of some barrels alone.
I believe that soon there will be factory guns with carbon-fiber stocks and threaded barrels with Arca-Swiss interfaces for well under $1,000 that shoot as well as custom guns do today. There will be a few more years of teething before things become truly standardized, but we’re on our way to the total blending of competition, military sniper and hunting rifles to where the capabilities will be utterly uniform across the board.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Few guns are more fun to shoot than a .22 pistol. Here are our top rimfire handgun choices that will provide hours of affordable backyard shooting enjoyment.
What are the best .22 pistol options available today:
Like so many shooters, the very first handgun I ever fired was a .22 LR — my father’s Smith & Wesson K-22 Masterpiece. Since that time, I’ve shot a wide variety of pistols chambered for a number of different cartridges, but when I’m looking to have low-cost fun at my backyard shooting range, you can bet a .22 pistol will be there.
Whether I’m shooting a bag of dollar-store balloons, adding vent holes to an empty soda can or pureeing the leftover Halloween pumpkin that’s started leaking internal fluids on my front porch, I find no end of cheap targets to punch with a .22 handgun.
And now that .22 LR ammunition is once again widely available — and sanely priced — I can have all that fun on a shoestring budget.
In addition to being such fun to shoot, there’s also a practical side to .22 handguns: They serve to dispatch vermin, harvest small game … and you can compete in small bore competitions.
I believe that .22s are the ideal training pistols for new and experienced shooters alike. The minimal recoil, muzzle rise and blast allows rookie shooters to control these guns effectively — and even experienced shooters should, from time to time, run through a few boxes of .22 for a low-cost, low-impact tactical tune-up.
The mild .22 offers a great platform for improving trigger control and other important shooting skills.
Here’s a list of eight great .22 pistol options currently on the market. They vary in price, design and function — but they all share one common (and important) trait: They’re loads of fun to shoot.
Ruger Mark IV: The Classic .22 Pistol
Ruger makes a number of excellent .22 handguns, and the brand has earned multiple mentions on this list. Leading off is the Mark IV. As the name implies, this is the fourth generation of the family of semi-auto pistols that set the standard for blowback-operated .22s.
As you might expect, the Mark IV is extremely reliable and is capable of superb accuracy right out of the box. What you might not expect, however, is how simple this gun is to break down for routine maintenance.
If Ruger’s blowback semi-auto pistols have a blemish, it’s the fact that they’re not easy to field strip — until now. With the push of a button, the Mark IV can be disassembled … and cleaning is a snap.
There are a wide variety of configurations of this pistol, including everything from the classic Standard model to target, hunting and tactical versions. MSRP: $519-$1,039 www.ruger.com/
Like Ruger, Smith & Wesson offers several excellent .22 rimfire guns. One of the very best is their Model 617, a 10-shot stainless double-action revolver built on their sturdy K-Frame. The 617 is fine for backyard plinking, but this is a gun that was built for serious accuracy.
It features a full-length underlug, stainless-steel construction with a satin stainless finish and excellent adjustable sights. The polymer grips fit grown-up hands, and at 44 ounces it’s hardly a featherweight. Nevertheless, the Model 617 is an excellent .22 that’s built for competition — yet it’s fun to shoot. MSRP: $959 www.smith-wesson.com
Browning 1911-22
John Moses Browning invented the 1911 pistol, and now the company that bears his name offers an 85 percent scaled-down version of the original 1911 chambered in .22 LR.
There are several versions of the fun-to-shoot 1911-22, including the Black Label Medallion Full-Size version shown here, which comes with an alloy frame and machined aluminum slide, 4¼-inch barrel, rosewood grips with a gold Buckmark logo, and three-dot sights.
The 16 versions of the Browning 1911-22 currently in production offer a wide variety of optional features, including accessory rails, threaded barrels and a number of finishes. Regardless of which version you choose, these pistols combine the look and feel of a 1911 in a reduced package that’s accurate, reliable and a joy to shoot. MSRP: $749.99-$879.99 www.browning.com
Charter Arms Target Pathfinder
Charter Arms produces solid guns at reasonable prices, and the Target Pathfinder is no exception.
This double-action .22 revolver comes with a 6-shot cylinder, matte stainless finish and a large, comfortable polymer grip with finger grooves. With a 4.2-inch barrel, these guns weigh just 24 ounces — so they’re a suitable option for teaching a young shooter the ropes … and yet they’re both accurate and durable.
Plus, they offer the reliability of a revolver, which means you’ll spend less time cleaning your gun and more time actually shooting it.
Plan on buying a boatload of .22 ammo (and you can afford to do so since this gun is so inexpensive) and punching tin cans and paper targets in the backyard with this revolver for years to come. MSRP: $425.60 www.charterfirearms.com
Ruger 22 Charger
Hardly a conventional .22 pistol, the Charger is a product of Ruger’s 10/22 blowback action.
If you know anything about the 10/22, you’re aware of the gun’s reputation for unfailing reliability, so you can expect this gun to run with a wide variety of ammunition.
The threaded, cold hammer-forged 10-inch barrel is capable of superb accuracy, and the included top rail provides a platform for mounting all sorts of optics.
Other key features borrowed from the larger 10/22 semi-autos include Ruger’s BX-15 15-round magazine and a crisp, smooth trigger. Each Charger includes a bipod to help stabilize the pistol for maximum accuracy, and if you plan on hunting small game with a .22 pistol, this is an excellent choice.
It’s also a great gun for backyard plinking, and it’s extremely affordable. There’s even a breakdown model that disassembles easily for convenient storage and returns to zero when pieced back together. MSRP: $399 www.ruger.com/
The SW22 Victory is a recent addition to Smith & Wesson’s firearm line — and it’s a welcome addition.
This blowback-operated semi-auto offers a long list of excellent features, including adjustable fiber-optic sights, a Picatinny rail for mounting optics, textured polymer grips and an adjustable trigger stop.
Two 10-round magazines come standard, and takedown is extremely easy, requiring the removal of a single screw.
The match-grade barrel can be easily removed and swapped out as desired. There are models available with Kryptek camo and threaded barrels, and Smith & Wesson’s Performance Center offers a number of high-end models with extra touches, like carbon-fiber barrels and pre-mounted red-dot optics.
Regardless of which version you choose, the SW22 is a superb .22 handgun that’s accurate, budget-friendly and fun to shoot on any occasion. MSRP: $454-$945 www.smith-wesson.com
Another blowback .22 semi-auto, the Buck Mark is available in, ironically, 22 different styles — perfect for everything from backyard shooting to small game hunting and competition.
These guns offer excellent reliability and very high build quality, as well as a number of great optional features, such as optional fluted and threaded barrels, full-length top rails and a choice of walnut or polymer grips.
Alloy receivers keep weight to a minimum, yet these pistols are large enough for adults to comfortably grip and shoot. They come equipped with good triggers, and they cycle reliably with a wide range of ammo — you can expect to spend your time on the range shooting instead of clearing jams.
Buck Mark pistols look and feel like expensive firearms, and yet they’re affordably priced. MSRP: $439.99-$1,079.99 www.browning.com
Rounding out our list of top-flight .22 handgun options is Ruger’s sleek New Bearcat revolver, a perfectly-proportioned rimfire revolver that pays homage to Bill Ruger’s love of single-action wheelguns.
With an overall length of 9 inches and a weight of 24 ounces, this is a gun that’s great for young and old shooters alike. Available in both blued and stainless versions, the Bearcat is adorned with hardwood grips and bear and cougar rollmarks on the cylinder.
The capacity is six rounds, and the fixed sights are basic but functional for shooting at close to moderate ranges. The single-action design with Ruger’s patented transfer bar system is very safe, and this is a great gun to introduce new shooters to the sport since the hammer must be cocked between shots.
This is a classic Ruger design that has been a favorite of shooters young and old for generations — isn’t it time you made space in your safe for at least one more .22? MSRP: $819-$919 www.ruger.com/
Many shooters regard the Colt Woodsman as the classiest of the classic designs. Take one look at this Colt Woodsman Match Target .22, and it’s not hard to see why. Photo by Dataproducts.
When it comes to the .22 pistol for hunting, the classic Colt Woodsman is hard to beat. Designed by John Browning in 1915, it was the first commercially successful semi-auto .22 pistol.
The Woodsman was a handfit .22 pistol, designed to feed cartridges smoothly thanks to slanted magazines. That design solved rimfire cartridge feeding issues that had plagued other designers of the era.
Today, a used Colt Woodsman will fetch north of $4,000 for the Match Target variant in excellent condition. In fact, they are much sought-after collectors’ items. Indeed, many still consider it to be the best .22 target pistol of all time.
First Series and Pre Woodsman Colts are characterized by a 6 5/8-inch barrel in the Target model, or a 4 ½-inch tube in the Sport version. Moreover, Second and Third Series pistols sported 6- and 4 ½-inch barrels in the Target, Targetsman, and Huntsman versions, respectively. MSRP: Discontinued. www.colt.com/
High Standard .22 Pistol
The High Standard .22 — sometimes spelled “Hi-Standard” as engraved on the slides of some early models — is chiefly regarded as a .22 target pistol.
High Standards were produced starting in 1926. For service pistol competition, the High Standard reigned supreme in its role “on the line.” Available in a dizzying array of model designations, High Standards were known for their exceptional barrels and triggers.
Popular models included the High Standard Supermatic and Supermatic Trophy, High Standard Olympic and High Standard Victor. In 2018, the company (then known as the High Standard Manufacturing Company) made its last valiant stand and ceased operations.
In the collectible gun market, a 102 Series Supermatic Trophy will command upwards of $1,350 at auction. And you’ll still see them winning trophies in NRA Bullseye Precision Pistol competition. MSRP: Discontinued.
Smith & Wesson Model 41
The Smith & Wesson Model 41 is a heavy barrel semi-auto .22 for target competition. Since 1957 it has been the top choice among NRA Bullseye competitors.
The reigning king of the .22 pistol in NRA Bullseye competition is unquestionably the Smith & Wesson Model 41. With its 105-degree grip angle to mirror the 1911, it was the darling of post-World War II target shooters. In fact, it remains so for precision pistol competition today.
With barrel lengths of 5 1/2, 7 and 10 1/2 inches, weighing around 44 ounces (depending on barrel), and with a honed trigger that breaks like fine china (2.75 to 3.25 lbs), the Model 41 was designed to keep your front sight on the 10 ring.
According to current gunbroker gun auctions, a Model 41 will set you back about $1,200 NIB. Similarly, expect to pay $1,350 or better for the Performance Center and 7-inch barreled versions. Hence, it’s one of the more expensive .22 target pistols you can buy and remains the best .22 pistol in current production for rimfire competition. MSRP: $1,500-$1,763 www.smith-wesson.com
Colt King Cobra Target .22 LR
If you want the classic look and feel of one of Colt’s famous snake guns, but with a bit less bite, the King Cobra Target in .22 LR is the answer. Colt has been hard at work bringing some of its other larger caliber snake guns back, like the Python, but now new-production baby snakes are available as well.
The King Cobra Target .22 LR has a 10-shot cylinder, a polished stainless-steel finish and is available with either a 4- or 6-inch barrel. Both barrel length options feature a 1:16RH twist. They come with adjustable rear target sights and fiber optic front sights, and both versions also ship from the factory adorned with Hogue rubber grips for a more pleasant shooting experience. MSRP: $999 www.colt.com
Walther PPK/s 22
A true-to-scale Walther PPK in .22 LR is an ideal trainer to complement its .380 ACP-chambered big brother. Available in blued or nickel (pictured here), it’s an easily concealable .22 that gushes with class.
An elegant .22 LR pistol scaled to the exact dimensions of the popular .380 ACP model, the Walther PPK/s 22 is a plinker’s dream come true.
The upscale .22 pistol sports single action/double action (16.5/6.1 lb. trigger pull) with a safety decocker, and a threaded barrel for suppressor use. The little James Bond .22 spews enough firepower to take on slithery evil-doers (such as rattlesnakes) that endanger the free world.
With its puny 3.3-inch barrel and 10-round capacity, it’s a looker. MSRP: $449 www.waltherarms.com
Kel-Tec PMR-30
Introduced in 2010, the Kel-Tec PMR 30 holds 30 rounds of .22 WMR hell-on-earth firepower. That makes it a formidable rimfire for a variety of uses from target shooting for fun to home defense.
The only .22 Magnum in our list, the lightweight Kel-Tec PMR-30 packs quite a wallop (in rimfire terms). So it’s ideal for those who can’t shoot larger calibers well but still want to pack heat for self-defense.
As its model name suggests, it holds 30 rounds of .22 WMR and has an integral light/laser rail, a reminder of its intended use for some as a home defense handgun. MSRP: $495 Black Finish, $469 Nickel Finish. www.keltecweapons.com
Glock 44
Released during the frenzy leading up to the 2020 SHOT Show, the Glock 44 is the first .22 pistol made by the Austrian manufacturer. It’s size? Identical to the Glock 19 Gen 5. That makes it the perfect trainer for one of Glock’s most popular concealed carry handguns.
The Glock 44 sports a 4.02-inch barrel and tips the scales at just a smidge over 12 ounces. Magazine capacity is 10 rounds. And a threaded barrel for suppressor use is available.
Plus the polymer .22 pistol retains Glock’s well-known polygonal rifling. Glock says extensive testing proved reliable with a wide array of .22 LR ammo evaluated. MSRP: $430 us.glock.com
Ruger LCP II .22
Face it, small concealed carry pistols are oftentimes difficult to shoot. Light and bucky, even in milder calibers such as .380 ACP the easy-to-carry heaters oftentimes prove too much for effective self-defense. Ruger’s answer, create the nearly perfect training pistol.
The LCP II .22 LR is modeled after the company’s extremely popular concealed carry gun, mirroring the .380 in nearly every way. Yeah, its operation has been tweaked—straight blowback—and it features the company’s Lite Rack system, making the rimfire’s slide easier to manipulate. But from there it’s a dead ringer for the original and one heck of a training aid, one that costs pennies on the dollar to perfect. Even if you don’t run a Ruger for self-defense, the 2.75-inch, 10+1 pistol still proves an excellent and affordable option to hone your skills to a razor’s edge.
It’s a shooter too—no surprise from Ruger. The company knows .22 LR, and the micro pistol is as fun as every full-sized plinker they offer and ideal for wreaking havoc on soup cans, though a bit closer in. MSRP: $439 www.ruger.com
Sig Sauer P322
The Sig Sauer P365 has quickly became one of the country’s favorite concealed carry pistols, and given the similarities, it won’t be surprising to see the Sig P322 become a very popular choice for plinking too. Especially for those who like to accessorize their handguns.
However, the P322 is not exactly just a .22 LR version of the P365. The rimfire is slightly larger and uses an internal single-action-only hammer rather than a striker mechanism. It is about as customizable as the P365 though, as the P322 comes with a 1913 rail, an optics-ready slide (RMSc-pattern footprint) and a threaded barrel. The pistol also takes advantage of .22 LR’s small size by packing 20 rounds into the standard magazine, of which two are included. Sig also has 25-round mags for purchase separately.
Other features that should be appreciated are its integrated, slightly flared magwell for easier loading, its fiber optic front sight and its ability to swap triggers between flat and curved models. The P322 is also a good choice for lefties, as the manual thumb safety and slide stop are both ambidextrous and the mag release is reversible. MSRP: $399 www.sigsauer.com
Corey Graff and Elwood Shelton and Adam Borisenko contributed to this article.
The author reviews the Trailblazer Pivot, a space-age 9mm PCC with a trick up its sleeve.
The Trailblazer Pivot, a blowback PCC chambered in 9mm, is not your usual carbine. Some ideas are so clever you’ve just got to nod and go, “I’m on board with that.” The Pivot is a solution to compact storage that does not use any other usual methods.
Usually, to make a long-gun more compact, several things must be done: shorten the barrel, shorten the stock, fold it, make it a takedown or, my least-favorite, make it a bullpup. Shortening the barrel makes it an NFA item, shortening the stock makes it usable only by short people, folding and takedown bring mechanical problems with them, and, as for bullpups, the less we discuss them, the better.
The Pivot uses none of those. Instead, the upper receiver rotates on the lower receiver, and since the pivot point is not in the center of the assembly, it increases in length from its closed size. That’s how you get a 21-inch closed package to unfold into a carbine with a 16-inch barrel.
Nice And Tidy
The folding and unfolding is easy enough. On the front of the lower is a flush button. Press the button to unlock the receivers, and you can then rotate the upper to the unfolded position. (Can it “unfold” if it never folded in the first place? The English language has some very strange quirks and shortcomings.) The rotating is easy; you can use your fingers to give it a flip/rotate in either direction, and you can do it pretty briskly. When the upper gets around to its 180 position, it will automatically lock in place.
The upper hinges across the lower, and that means there has to be a clearance slot for the hammer. Also, the Pivot has to be unloaded and have the bolt locked back to pivot open or closed; you can’t have a magazine in place like this.
Now, the folded position is going to raise some eyebrows, at least until you understand the setup. When folded, the muzzle is going to be pointed back at you. Do not be alarmed. The designers took care of that, in part for safety and also for good mechanical reasons.
To fold or unfold (rotate? pivot? swing about?), the Pivot has to be unloaded, that is, with no magazine in place and with the bolt locked to the rear. The non-reciprocating charging handle has a locking notch, very much like that of the MP5. (And yes, you can do the “HK swipe” to chamber a round.) These are both necessary for the upper receiver to swipe across the top deck of the lower.
The bolt locks open with a notch in its travel slot, just like the MP5. And you get to do the “MP5 swipe” on loading, as well.
If you look closely at the Pivot, you’ll see there is a notched segment in the upper. That’s there to clear the top of the hammer, as the upper swings around across the lower. The hammer has to be high enough to be depressed by the bolt when it cycles, so it sits high in the lower. And the magazine lips have to do the same in order to feed. So, bolt back and magazine out, to provide clearance.
The clearance slot for the hammer is in two locations on the upper, as expected. But the front slot location is also the place of the locking system to hold the Pivot locked in place, open or closed.
To use the Pivot form in its stored condition, you pull it out of the case, from behind the seat or wherever and hold the pistol grip in your firing hand. Press the unlock button and swing, slap or rotate the upper to lock, grab a magazine, insert in the pistol grip and slap the charging handle down. You carry loaded and have a chambered round. If the stock, as folded, is too short, you simply press the stock latch and slide the stock out as needed. It has 3 inches of travel, and while it’s still a tad short for long-armed gents like me, I find it entirely usable. If you don’t have a 7-foot wingspan, then the stock will be just fine for you. The ambidextrous safety lets you use the Pivot right- or left-handed, and from there it is safety off, aim and fire.
Oh, sights? The Pivot doesn’t come with any. There was a time when every carbine, PCC or other had to come with sights. There weren’t many choices; optics were still fragile and untrusted, and shooters expected sights. Now, there are so many to choose from, and optics are normal; anything Trailblazer put on the Pivot, 80 percent of the buyers would swap out for something else. So, why bother?
The Trailblazer Pivot is a compact-storing 9mm carbine that opens up to be a useful tool in an emergency, or just a fun plinking firearm.
Diversity Is The Key
Now, the Pivot doesn’t just have the rotational aspect to it—it isn’t a one-trick pony. The stock, as mentioned, is adjustable to length, and it also has a storage space for a magazine. And did I forget to mention the Pivot uses Glock magazines, and the pistol grip is made deliberately a tad short, so you can use G19 magazine, holding 15 rounds? You can use higher-capacity magazines if you wish (and most of us would), but since the G19 is common, one might even say a baseline EDC pistol, making it compatible with G19 magazines makes sense.
The stock, which is adjustable, also holds a magazine. It comes with a 15-round G19 magazine.
If they made the grip a bit longer, for more comfort, to work only with G17 magazines, none of the bazillion G19 magazines in existence would work. That would be stupid, and the folks at Trailblazer are not. And since it works with Glock magazines starting with the G19, every Glock mag bigger than that, in 9mm, will work as well. I’m not saying that having a 33-round magazine handy would be too much, but it certainly isn’t going to ride well on your belt. So, if belt-loading the Pivot is your plan, have a belt-appropriate magazine or magazines there and the 33-round one someplace handy.
The upper is an aluminum shell with the steel barrel and bolt inside, while the lower is aluminum and polymer. The upper has a Pic rail on top, but it doesn’t extend the full length of the receiver. It starts at the rear, but a hand’s-width back of the charging handle stop position, the rail is cut away. This does two things: It keeps your hand from the sharp edges of the rail, while you’re working the charging handle.
And it precludes mounting gear there that would do the same thing. The rail picks up again forward of the charging handle travel, so there’s room to mount a front sight if you want a BUIS set. My suggestion, if you do: Be sure and select something that folds. It’d be a shame to take the very compact Pivot and make it a bulky thing with fixed sights.
A compact red-dot sight would be just the ticket here, and I used an Aimpoint Micro T2, 2 MOA for the fun. The Pivot isn’t a long-range carbine (although the Pivot and Aimpoint and I did heroic work on the 100-yard gongs at the club), so even a low-power variable scope would be more than needed and, by the time you had mounted it, add considerably to the bulk of the Pivot.
The ambidextrous safety makes it easy to shoot from off the shoulder, should the need present itself.
That said, if you want to add accessories, the Pivot is handy. The upper receiver has two rows of M-Lok slots for accessories on each side. The lower receiver has M-Lok slots at the 6 o’clock position, so you could, if you were just not paying attention, hang a whole lot of gear on the Pivot. The whole point of the Pivot is that it’s compact, so resist the temptation to bling it up.
In testing, I found that the blowback design is effective, but it has some unavoidable consequences. Since the Pivot is compact and this limits bolt travel, the bolt is heavy and stoutly sprung. Not so much so that it is difficult to hand-cycle, but more so than my various competition PCCs, which isn’t a fair comparison. Those have been tuned to be smooth and soft, and the shortest one of them is a full foot longer than the Pivot, and the lightest one tips the scales 2 pounds heavier than the Pivot. Unfair, as I said, because the Pivot is meant to be compact, and my competition PCCs are made to win matches.
But the recoil is no big deal in the Pivot—we are, after all, talking about a 9mm carbine. The barrel is threaded 1/2×28, the standard 9mm muzzle thread, so you have your choice of muzzle brakes, suppressors or just use the included thread protector instead.
I tested the Pivot with a cross-section of 9mm ammo, not really expecting to find anything wrong, or amiss, and guess what, I didn’t. Boringly, the Pivot fed all, fired all and ejected all with no problems. The Pivot does not lock open after the last round has been fired, but I don’t see that as an operational problem, and I can see it as a mechanical and safety problem.
Note: Accuracy results were to be averages of three, five-shot groups at 50 yards off a Champion shooting rest. Velocities are averages of 10 shots measured on a Labradar chronograph set to read 15 feet from the muzzle.
Disassembly is not obvious. It involves a punch or small-diameter Philips-head screwdriver, and a hole in the rear plate of the upper receiver. The owner’s manual lays it all out, and once you have extracted the bolt assembly, your job is done. There’s no need to separate the upper and lower, as you can gain access to everything with it hinged open, and the large socket-nut bolt on the bottom does not appear to be user-serviceable. Once the bolt is out, clean the gunk, scrub the bore, aerosol hose out the firing assembly, lubricate and reassemble. There’s really no need to make it more complicated than that.
The Pivot hinge has to be open to disassemble it, and that could entail needing three hands.
But … Why?
So, what’s the usefulness of the Pivot, very clever engineering aside? Well, if you want to be packing a PCC, but don’t want to be using something as obvious as a gun case, this is your ticket. At just under 21 inches long, folded, the Pivot will disappear into bags and cases that don’t shout “firearm.” Instead of a skateboard pack, a messenger bag will do—and even a not-large messenger bag, provided the zipper arrangement allows.
That said, know the laws in your jurisdiction. Your CPL may cover the Pivot, and it may not. Is it a concealed pistol license or a concealed firearms license? Some states don’t allow the concealed carry of rifles and shotguns. And in some other (even more irrational) states, the law or case law has determined that a firearm that has a loaded magazine in the case with it, or touching it, is loaded. So your unloaded Pivot, with a loaded magazine in the stock, is “loaded” based on some ignorant judge decades past. Know the law.
With the Pivot hinged open, you can reach and clean everything. You do not need to separate the upper from the lower.
As to the cost, the list price seems a bit much at first. Well, it did to me, but then I remembered “it isn’t the 1980s anymore.” If you’re comparing the Pivot to a 9mm-chambered AR, then the price is normal. In fact, you can flip open the latest Gun Digest to the AR/PCC section and be hard pressed to randomly drop a fingertip onto one AR or another and not exceed the cost of the Pivot. Oh, you can find 9mm carbines for less, but they don’t fold or rotate.
Nope, there’s only one Pivot.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
A quick look at Mitchell Defense, its DOC line of AR-15s and what sets them apart from the rest.
AR-15 manufacturers often claim to have a secret sauce, something they do differently that sets their weapons apart and above the rest. Admittedly, when I hear this, I’m typically skeptical.
When I stopped by the Mitchell Defense lane at CANCON Georgia, the owner, Nathan Mitchell, gave me a similar pitch about his company’s guns. My skepticism was cut short after sending just a few rounds downrange.
As promised, the Shorty DOC SBR 5.56 carbine was noticeably smoother and flatter shooting than the average AR-15. How did Mitchell Defense accomplish this? It wasn’t done with an obnoxious muzzle brake or through the addition of extra weight, but instead through the company’s buffer system and manufacturing process.
The company’s owner/founder Nathan Mitchell putting rounds downrange at CANCON Georgia 2023 with a Shorty DOC SBR in 5.56.
The Buffer System
Much of Mitchell Defense’s magic comes from its proprietary buffer system. It uses a specially treated flat wire spring that provides approximately 30-percent more forward pressure than normal springs and lasts much longer. The company claims traditional springs begin losing their strength at around 6,000 cycles, but Mitchell Defense flat springs don’t start doing the same until after 200,000 cycles.
Mitchell Defense’s flat wire buffer spring (bottom) vs. a traditional one.
Nathan Mitchell has stated his company’s designs “stand firmly on the pillars of Accuracy, Durability, and Reliability”, and the flat spring’s qualities contribute to those last two points. It also enhances the guns’ accuracy, in the sense that it reduces recoil and allows for faster follow-up shots thanks to the minimal muzzle movement. When shooting AR-15s with traditional buffer systems, you may notice that distinctive metallic “twang” sound after the buffer cycles back into the tube. The Mitchell Defense buffer system eliminates this as well, resulting in a quieter shooting experience.
Another look at the flat wire spring with the buffer installed.
While the DOC carbine I shot was also equipped with a suppressor (this was at CANCON after all), the recoil reduction was far too significant to be entirely attributed to the can. When I put the reticle over a steel plate at about 25 yards and pulled the trigger, the red dot’s movement was barely perceptible. Requiring only minimal effort to hold the rifle steady, I was able to keep pulling the trigger and ring steel with every subsequent shot. Of all the production AR-15s I’ve had the pleasure to shoot, the Mitchell Defense is most deserving of the descriptor “flat-shooting.”
Thermal-Fitted Barrels
As mentioned, accuracy is one of Mitchell Defense’s priorities when designing guns. While ARs have never been known for extreme accuracy compared to bolt-action rifles, Mitchell decided to challenge that notion. This is mostly thanks to the company’s use of thermal fitting to install its barrels.
One of Mitchell Defense’s thermal-fitted upper assemblies.
Thermal fitting is a process in which the part of the upper receiver that accepts the barrel is made to be slightly smaller than the barrel extension itself. This means that at room temperature the barrel cannot be inserted. To install the barrel, the upper is first heated until it has expanded enough to accommodate it. The barrel is then inserted before the receiver cools down and returns to its original size. The result is an incredibly tight connection between the two components. Combine this with Mitchell Defense’s billet uppers that feature a “near-perfectly flat surface for the barrel seat”, and you end up with one very accurate setup.
BCG And Coatings
The bolt carrier group is a crucial component of any build, and it’s another area where Mitchell Defense has made several improvements. Called the MD Enhanced BCG, it features some relatively “standard” BCG upgrades such as optimized carrier key screws and a staked and sealed gas key, but there’s more to it than that.
Mitchell Defense grinds the skids on each BCG perfectly flat, even and sized exactly to its individual upper. Combined with the BCG’s ArmorLube coating (the latest mil-spec M4 BCG coating), you get a very smooth action with a minimal amount of friction. The friction is further reduced using E Series Cerakote throughout the guns. Keep in mind that less friction not only increases the parts’ durability and longevity, but it produces less heat while cycling too.
It’s little details like these that result in guns that feel superb to shoot. The enhancements to the BCG didn’t just impact the smoothness of the action but also did an excellent job of minimizing the amount of gas going back into the shooter’s face. The Shorty DOC was suppressed, yet I could breathe better while shooting it than I have when behind some particularly poorly built, unsuppressed ARs.
Parting Shot
If you’re still not convinced that Mitchell Defense ARs are a cut above the rest, that’s fine. While the company is happy to sell its firearms on the commercial market, it’s law enforcement groups and government agencies that comprise the bulk of its sales. The Pennsylvania State Police is currently Mitchell’s biggest buyer, but plenty of other groups like SWAT teams are making the switch to Mitchell Defense guns too. Considering the higher-than-average price of the company’s products, these groups must also believe that the increased performance is worth the increased cost.
Mitchell Defense has stated that it builds its guns as if they were to be “the last rifle you will ever have.” That comes with a price tag that won’t be within everyone’s reach, but for those who get one, the odds are that it will last longer than you do. The company is confident enough in this statement to back its guns and components with a lifetime guarantee.
The Mitchell Defense Slick Rat Dog SBR PCC in 9mm.
For those interested in buying one, you should also know that there are more models offered aside from the Shorty DOC 5.56 carbine. The DOC line also includes 16-inch 5.56 rifles, a 6mm ARC rifle and some short-barreled .300 BLK models. The company also has the Rat Dog PCC line in 9mm and the Pipe Hitter line with models chambered for .308 Win., 6.5 Creedmoor and 8.6 BLK.
Whichever you pick, just know that it comes pre-treated with Mitchell Defense’s medicine.
A look at the author’s simple recipe for getting all the lead out when cleaning a gun.
If you ever get a chance to read some of the seminal gunsmithing books—books written more than a half-century ago (in some instances more than three-quarters of a century)—you’ll be horrified.
Some of the concoctions they used for bluing and rust and lead removal were simply toxic. Back then, there was no Brownells; if you wanted it, you had to make it yourself. Today, some of the home mixes you might find online aren’t any better.
But, you’ve got a leaded bore … so what do you do to remove the lead?
I do a lot of testing, and I do a lot of reloading, both for practice (practice ammo) and R&D. That means that sometimes I end up with a grungy bore. The solution is simple: one can and one brush. I use Shooter’s Choice lead remover and scrub the bores with Hoppe’s Tornado brushes.
Unlike the various caustic, corrosive and borderline lethal mixes you read about, Shooter’s Choice is merely “petroleum distillates.” I’ve got a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, and “petroleum distillates” covers a lot of ground, but it isn’t like you’re using reactive materials that can create lethal compounds.
But they do say not to leave it in the bore overnight, so take at least some care, OK?
One “home remedy” creates lead acetate as a byproduct, and that stuff is nasty. There’s an old saying in chemistry and medicine: Dose makes the poison. Well, lead acetate isn’t something you can just shrug off. Instead of chemically reacting to the lead, the Shooter’s Choice works on the bond between lead and steel, and that’s where the brushes come in.
The list of ingredients of the lead remover is simple: nothing caustic, abrasive or reactive … and nothing to create nasty byproducts.
The Hoppes Tornado brushes aren’t made with bristles. Instead, the brush is a cylinder of springy stainless-steel loops, ones that scrub on their edges—not their ends. This means you have less abrasion on the bore and the tops of the lands than the bristle style creates.
Yes, the loops can’t reach down into the corners of the grooves as well, but once I’ve gotten the bulk of the lead out (and rather easily, I might add), I can use a bronze brush for a few strokes. OK, two brushes then, not just one.
Swipe And Shine
The process is simple: run a patch with a bore cleaner, any cleaner, down the bore to mop out the powder residue. Then, a dry patch. A patch wet with the Shooter’s Choice is next. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. The hardest part is the waiting. Then, scrub with the Tornado brush, a few passes with a bronze to clean it up and voila, done.
The new design is a lot more eye-catching than the old, but the results are the same: It gets the lead out.
I developed this routine at Second Chance, the bowling pin shoot, where it was common to go through ammo by the thousands of rounds in the weeklong match. This process also worked miracles on shotguns to get the lead and plastic out from days of shooting buckshot and slugs. Although, for that I had to go with a Chore Boy bronze pot scrubber, as there were no Tornado brushes for 12-gauge back then.
After checking up on Shooter’s Choice, they changed the packaging; I still have a few more tins of the old label left, so I’ll keep using them.
Oh, and pay attention to what got you into this mess, and don’t do it again, OK?
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
The Walther PD380, the company’s new .380 ACP concealed carry pistol, is now available for purchase.
While the Walther PD380 officially launched in late 2023, the company’s new concealed carry handgun is only just now hitting store shelves. Walther is advertising the pistol as being extremely comfortable, reliable and ready to provide an unmatched concealed carry experience.
Naturally, the Walther PD380 is chambered for .380 ACP, and as a concealed carry pistol it features a single-stack 9-round magazine to help keep its profile slim. Speaking of which, the PD380 has an overall thickness of 1.24 inches, an overall length of 6.48 inches and an overall height of 5.15 inches. Its barrel is 3.7 inches long and it weighs 20.6 ounces with an empty magazine. It’s not the smallest or lightest .380 carry pistol out there, but Walther clearly prioritized shootability over size with this design. The company also notes that the PD380 has minimal recoil and that its slide is very easy to rack, making it a great option for new shooters too.
The PD380 is also ambidextrous, as it features a manual thumb safety on both sides of the slide as well as Walther’s paddle magazine release that can be actuated when held in either hand. However, the pistol will only lock back when an empty magazine is inserted, and the hammer must be manually lowered while the safety is engaged to decock it. On the other hand, this also allows for cocked and locked carry for those who prefer it. The final points worth mentioning are the pistols’ industry-standard rear sights, their aggressively textured grips and their front and rear slide serrations.
Jens Krogh, vice president of marketing and product development for Walther Arms, Inc., said this about the new handgun:
Comfort, reliability, and confidence is at the forefront when you’re carrying, which is exactly what the PD380 was designed for. It embodies the perfect fusion of power, elegance, and ease … Our dealers have been waiting for this to be in their stores and we’re excited for consumers to experience the increased confidence built from having the PD380 by their side.
Each Walther PD380 will ship with two magazines and MSRP is $449.
Father and son shared a lifetime of firearms experiences. But in the end, there was one piece of unfinished business.
As father/son relationships go, Dad’s and mine lasted 64 years. We shared a lifetime of hunting, shooting, reloading and “accumulating” all kinds of firearms, including rifles, shotguns and handguns. We shot them all, reloaded for most of them and added to the trove periodically when our finances aligned with our desires. And sometimes, when they didn’t.
The story of Dad’s last gun is a puzzle that, once assembled, was the sum of our knowledge and wisdom, somewhat belated, with a seemingly contradictory outcome if viewed after the fact. It’s a story best told from the beginning.
From my early teens, hardly a day went by when my father and I didn’t discuss, fantasize and argue (sometimes heatedly) about the merits of one gun versus another. My poor mother bemoaned the perpetual subject matter in vain.
My late mother, Marilyn, and my late father, Harry, raised me well; Dad worked as an electrician, and Mom was an advertising copywriter. We lived in a modest house in a cozy, middle-class, tree-lined suburb in Wisconsin.
Under my father’s tutelage, my introduction to the firearms world was gradual and measured. At age 10, Dad began taking me to gun stores and shows and introduced me to his friends steeped in firearms culture. His voluminous library of gun books (including many fine editions of Gun Digest), magazines, and sales literature in the basement was always open to me, on one condition (not always honored) that I put all borrowed items back where I found them.
Being young, curious, and fascinated with firearms, I read his collection enthusiastically and absorbed what I learned like a sponge. In time, my book knowledge would rival his. Looking back, I couldn’t have asked for a better upbringing.
When I reached 12, Dad decided it was time to begin my formal firearms education. He taught me pistol craft with his classic Smith & Wesson K38 .38 Special revolver and allowed me to shoot my Marlin 39 .22 lever-action rifle, a birthday gift from his brother, under strict supervision.
During my teens, I purchased my first shotgun, a beautiful Browning Auto 5 in 20-gauge magnum, and my first handgun, a Smith & Wesson 61/2-inch barreled Model 28 Highway Patrolman, from the fruits of my summer and after-school jobs. At 16, I hunted ducks, geese, pheasants and furred game with the Browning and perforated coffee cans and paper targets with .38 Special wadcutters shot from that Model 28. A while later, Dad and I took up deer hunting. There was wild game in the freezer during the winter for our family’s dining pleasure.
Although they didn’t share the last handgun, the author and his father, Harry Ewert, enjoyed over a half-century of shooting, reloading, hunting and acquiring firearms together. By adding a Glock 19 to the collection, the author completed their unfinished business.
Handguns were our first love. Over the years, we owned and shot over 50 revolvers and semi-autos by Smith & Wesson, Colt and Ruger. The foreign models came later.
We reloaded the most popular American centerfire handgun cartridges. We graduated to casting bullets for our handguns by the thousands, in .35, .44 and .45 calibers, including some round balls for a brace of Colt second-generation percussion revolvers.
As the cliché goes, it was a great run. Human mortality proved the only limit to our shared passion.
After a long struggle with many health issues, Dad passed away peacefully at age 89. My lifelong hunting and shooting partner is still sorely missed. However, the memories remain clear, and the knowledge and wisdom acquired during our time are firmly in place.
This leads us to the unfinished business of that last handgun.
Dad and I had conservative tastes in firearms. A majority of them are classics in their category. Through our readings, we were heavily influenced by 20th century firearms writing greats Jack O’Connor, Elmer Keith, Charles Askins and, later, Jeff Cooper, Skeeter Skelton and Bill Jordan. Those were our prophets during the 1960s and ’70s.
Our revolvers included that classic S&W K38, followed by an S&W Model 1950 Target Model in .44 Special, a 1950 Military and Police .45 ACP and many other well-known Smith and Colt revolvers.
Later, we added a host of vintage European 9mm semi-autos, with the Browning Hi-Power and an early World War ll Walther P38 at the head of the class. Then, there is a family of Argentine 1911A1 semi-autos, including a Colt contract pistol, a licensed copy, and an unlicensed knock-off, with indigenous design improvements, all in .45 caliber.
Beauty and the Beast? The Glock 19 Gen 5 (below) with the Browning Hi-Power. The Glock is a different pistol from a different era. While it lacks the elegant lines, fine bluing, sculpted all-steel construction and French walnut grips of this 1970s-vintage Hi-Power, it does offer high magazine capacity in a lighter-weight package. Add reliability with modern, high-performance ammunition and easy takedown, and the Glock comes ahead.
For the most part, blued steel and well-figured wood grips were our quality standard in sidearms. However, as the shooting world rushed ahead, we were stuck in the ’70s, decades behind firearms technology. By then, the lightweight, high-capacity, double-action 9mm “Wonder Nine” was conquering the military, law enforcement, and civilian handgun markets.
Dad and I discussed this frequently before his illness. Had we missed the boat? Were we out of touch with the 21st century? We agreed that we were. What to do about it? Our time together was running short. But we were stubborn, inflexible and complacent with what we felt were the best handguns in the world. We owned them for years, shot them regularly and were proficient, sometimes better, with them.
One gun, in particular, stuck in our craw: The revolutionary Glock 17, the pistol that turned the handgun world on its head. At first, it was an abomination to us. Before the Glock, we even disdained semi-autos with aluminum frames, including the original Colt Commander (now lightweight Commander) and the S&W Model 39, America’s first double-action 9mm autoloader. Why? As we believed at the time—later proven wrong—aluminum frames were less durable than steel. And “plastic” guns? They were anathema.
Yet, in our discussions, we couldn’t deny the wisdom of the lightweight frames, double-action, high-capacity magazines, well-defined sights and improved trigger pulls these new pistols offered, at least for military and law enforcement professionals. We both knew our beloved Colt Government Models and Browning Hi-Power were beautiful, classic, storied pistols, though heavy and hard to conceal. But we believed they were the standard in semi-auto excellence.
Eventually, we old dogs were keen to learn a new trick. Glock and others of the genre were on our minds. Then, Dad’s illnesses worsened, and our plans were put on hold. Though bedbound at the end, we discussed guns, what we’d learned together and what we hadn’t. During his last week of life in hospice, we ruminated about the ones that got away, the Glock in particular.
After Dad passed away, I rested all our firearms for a while. As an only child, and per his wish, his guns were now mine and had to be managed as objects of use and investments. I knew he would want me to continue with our passion, enjoy firearms, move forward and continuously learn. For three years, I thought about our unfinished business and what I would do about it. There was substantial research, including from the pages of Gun Digest, the internet, social media and face-to-face discussions with veteran shooters. It seemed a consensus was impossible.I was bombarded with opinions and advice from a host of trusted, gray-haired pistoleros and then, for good measure, input from a handful of knowledgeable millennial shooters.
The biggest obstacle was personal. Having grown up on hammer-fired, single-action semi-autos from the John Browning stable, it was a big adjustment to accept striker-fired, double-action pistols. However, striker-fired technology was proven for many years—U.S. law enforcement and our military made the transition and weren’t going back. With some reservations, striker-fired it would be.
Visits to gun shops to examine, hold, and debate the merits of one model versus another were interesting but inconclusive. My selection criteria focused on a proven design, mechanical simplicity, reliability and ergonomics. While this would not be a target gun, a first-rate trigger and sights were prerequisites. For concealed carry, weight and size were a concern.
All the Wonder Nines felt good in my large hands; today’s pistols have ergonomics down pat. The lighter weight gives my arthritic shoulders a break. Sights and triggers? Handgun manufacturers offer consumers new levels of off-the-shelf excellence in both. The magazine capacity is there if you want it.
After a year of searching, I purchased a Glock 19 Gen 5 and haven’t looked back. This pistol has it all, and there’s no shortage of aftermarket accessories. To me, the jump into the 21st century was exhilarating.
A Glock 19 Gen 5. After over a half-century’s experience with hammer-fired, single-action auto pistols, the author and his father believed the Browning guns set the bar for service excellence. They still do, but the bar has moved, and now the author thinks favorably of lightweight, striker-fired semi-autos.
The G19 pistol has been reviewed extensively. It’s an excellent compromise in size, weight, firepower and concealability, incorporating all the advancements in semi-automatic handguns over the past 50 years.
Out of the box, fired offhand at 25 yards, the Glock is accurate, reliable with all ammunition, balances right and is very natural and comfortable to shoot. These attributes are reinforced at close range and with higher fire rates. Takedown for cleaning and routine maintenance is shockingly easy. Other pistols would have sufficed, but this is the one we—myself as purchaser and my father, through me as his proxy—chose.
I know Dad would have approved of the choice. I only wish he was around to share the joys of its ownership and use. No, it’s not the finely blued, sculpted steel and quality-checkered walnut grips we valued on handguns. But it is a marvelous shooting tool, built for a purpose. If you judge a handgun by form-follows-function design, the Glock is a work of art.
For years, the author and his father doubted the relevancy of lightweight, high-capacity, striker-fired “Wonder Nines.” Dad’s last gun, this Glock 19 Gen 5, illustrates that even the most entrenched attitudes can change over time with experience.
This newcomer to our collection does not diminish the legacy of the Browning masterpieces we’ve owned and shot for most of our lives. They’re still prized, in the gun safe, ready for use, and will be to the trail’s end.
Dad’s last gun, a Glock 19 awarded posthumously in his honor, completely contradicts what we thought a handgun should be for almost half a century. That’s ironic, but so be it. The unfinished business is now complete.
Our hoard of classic firearms is a testament to Dad, my shooting and hunting partner, teacher and best friend. It represents a lifetime of shared firearms experiences, knowledge and shooting memories. Examining each gun, whether to shoot or hold, relive the memories, and admire, still brings tremendous enjoyment.
Dad’s last gun is now a valued part of that collection.
A discussion on the extremely fine line between self-defense and excessive force.
As of this writing, 41-year-old Tyrone Frasier of Stockton, California, is facing several criminal charges in connection with entering a Stockton 7-Eleven and attempting to steal a large amount of merchandise. Frasier commandeered a garbage can and was behind the counter, filling the large garbage can with cigarettes, sweeping them off the rack and into the bin. By the time he was stopped, the garbage can was about half full with hundreds of packs of cigarettes (and at the going rate that would be thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise).
While that’s not particularly newsworthy, what happened next to Fraiser is.
The incident was caught on cell-phone video, and the video shows two store employees stopping the theft by beating Frasier with a large piece of wood over and over until Fraiser begged for them to stop. (To watch the video, Google 7-Eleven robbery/beating.)
It’s clear that a person has a right to stop criminal conduct by using force—but that force must be reasonable. By my count, one of the clerks used this wooden stick to hit Frasier 37 times. It reminded me of watching the Rodney King beating, and, in fact, there was some similarities.
In the King incident, four police officers attempted to apprehend King after a high-speed pursuit. While the officers were first acquitted of any wrongdoing, later they were found guilty of federal charges, and the department lost a large civil lawsuit. This could happen here, too, because the two clerks are not facing any criminal prosecution, at least at this time.
In the 7-Eleven case, I could see that the thief communicated he was giving up after receiving strikes with the stick 10 times. But, instead of stopping the beating, they continued until the guy recording the incident with his phone convinced the clerk that he had given up.
I can understand the frustration the clerks had dealing with runaway theft from their store, and it’s my understanding this was not the first time the thief entered the store and blatantly stole items. But, if you are going to use force against someone who is committing a crime and want to avoid arrest, trial and conviction, then that force must be reasonable.
Defining ‘Reasonable’
What is reasonable force? I can’t tell you.
What is reasonable will be determined by the jury, and it will be your responsibility (through your attorney asking you questions at trial) to convince the jury you needed to use the amount you used. Your job will be to convince the jury that the force used was no more than necessary to stop the criminal attack.
I’m reminded of a murder case I worked on as an expert, where my job was to do a shooting incident reconstruction. The incident centered around one individual (defendant) shooting the deceased who the defendant said was attempting to disarm him. They were both inside the cab of a truck, and there was some decent evidence to validate this claim. But the problem is that, after the first shots were fired in response to the attempt to grab the gun, the defendant kept shooting—for a total of 10 times, with the last bullet striking the deceased on the top of the head.
That’s not a reasonable amount of force, even if one believed the defense of the initial attack was warranted. I’ve heard well respected firearms instructors say to “shoot ’em to the ground,” and if they were lawful to shoot him once, they’re lawful to shoot him many times.
Maybe, but then again, maybe not. I’ve worked on several cases where excessive shots meant excessive force, which meant conviction and prison time.
Physical, Non-Deadly Force
Now, let’s get back to the use of physical non-deadly force. Black’s Law Dictionary states reasonable force is “force that is not excessive and that is appropriate for protecting oneself or one’s property.” In this instance, the thief wasn’t presenting a deadly threat, although there’s some evidence that he had intimated he had a gun. But, as the camera showed, there was clearly no gun.
I have heard the practical working theory is that, when protecting yourself or property, use equal force, then a little more. Continuing to beat someone once they are disabled is excessive force. Most police officers and deadly force trainers recommend not attempting to apprehend someone who is committing a property crime, primarily because you do not typically have the physical means to control the guy after he is stopped. It might be logical to carry a heavy-duty zip tie worked inside the belt, just in case.
As far as self-defense, the force would be just a little more than was being used against you. This is why pepper spray and Kubotans are effective intermediary tools one can easily carry. Training, of course, is necessary, so one can explain how their actions were within guidelines when using that intermediate force. A little self-defense training can go a long way.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
The author reviews the ratchet-style Black Beard Belts Ranger Gun Belt, an adjustable and comfortable concealed carry accessory.
I have a new gun belt, and I really like it. But first, I want to talk a bit about this new world we’re currently living in.
Back in 1993 when I was a young patrol officer, I was recruited to cover the firearms law portion of a concealed carry class that was frequently taught in the city where I worked. The lead instructor had graduated from Massad Ayoob’s Lethal Force Institute and was well versed in the application of a handgun for self-defense.
Part of the course dealt with what I categorized as “not doing stupid things that could increase your exposure to situations where your life might be jeopardized,” or where you might have to use your handgun. This included not hanging around in dark alleys, parking in dim-lit areas or frequenting secluded stop-and-rob convenience stores, failing to look for suspicions characters and paying attention to the body language of others.
Back then—30 years ago—if you did those things, the chance that you would need to use your gun to save your life while out in public were slim. That hardly seems like enough anymore.
The times, as they say, have changed. Gun belts and holsters are no longer just made of leather, and bad guys with bad intent are likely to appear anywhere at any time. It seems that all that has to happen now is for someone to get off their meds or wake up with their panties in a wad, and they’re ready to load their guns and head out to some gun-free zone and start shooting folks.
If it’s not comfortable to carry a gun, you won’t. And, in today’s world, not carrying is not good.
This complicates self-defense because what we once thought were relatively safe spaces no longer exist. The world—this new world—has become a dangerous place, and it doesn’t matter if you live in a small town or a big city.
The point of all this is to remind you that bad things can now happen anywhere, and your awareness needs to be properly tuned and functioning anytime you’re out in public. Also, no matter where you are, you should have a plan, and, if at all possible, a gun that’s handy and that you can shoot well.
Just as important is the training of your family members to respond to a potential bad situation, whether it occurs in a mall, a church or a bowling alley. If you wait until something happens to make that plan, it’ll be too late. Be armed, be vigilant and just like it was 30 years ago, don’t do stupid stuff.
Black Beard Belts
Back in the day, gun belts were made of leather. They still are, and I’m kind of an old-school guy and like leather belts and holsters. However, I’m open to anything that makes carrying a gun more comfortable and, for the past three months, I’ve been wearing a new gun belt from Black Beard Belts. Black Beard Belts offers several styles of gun belts to include those with a conventional buckle and prong, to the more modern ratchet-style belt.
The quick adjust buckle on Black Beard Belt’s Ranger Gun Belt allows fast and easy adjustment, one half-inch at a time.
The older I get the more I appreciate comfort when it comes to, well, everything … but especially as it relates to concealed carry. Lack of comfort is the number-one reason those with a concealed carry permit don’t carry a gun. This appreciation for comfort has led me to also be appreciative of ratchet-style belts because they’re not limited to 1-inch adjustments. If you’re feeling an extra bit trim, a ratchet belt will allow you to snug-up incrementally. Just the same: If you eat too much, a ratchet belt will allow you to loosen up a bit. Ratchet belts also allow you a bit more flexibility when carrying, particularly with inside the waistband holsters. I have Black Beard Belt’s ratchet-style Ranger Gun Belt.
This belt is offered in black, coyote brown, OD green or with the M81 camo pattern, and in 2-inch incremental lengths from 32 to 52 inches. Regardless of length, it has 19 reinforced holes spaced in 0.5-inch increments, and there’s an option for steel grommet reinforcement. This 1.5-inch belt is made of high-strength polymer-coated nylon with a no-shine, non-slip coating.
The buckle and pin are made of stainless steel, and it has a quick-release feature. When you adjust it, you get an audible click letting you know everything is locked in place. This is a good-looking belt to wear with jeans … and even dress pants. Black Beard Belts also offers a 1.75-inch version of this belt with double holes, but it’s a bit radical for everyday wear and is probably best suited to range or duty use.
I’ve worn this belt a lot with inside the waistband and outside the waistband holsters, and it hasn’t shown any wear. Also, I’m not as lean and trim as I used to be, and it seems after every meal I need a bit more room, and with this belt, it’s a simple adjustment. It’s also easy to adjust this belt when sitting for long periods like on a drive or at a desk, and tightening back to normal is almost instantaneous when you stand up. It’s not uncommon for me to carry a steel-framed Colt Commander, and this belt has plenty of rigidity to hold the gun in place.
Ratchet-style belts allow quick and easy precise adjustment for carry comfort.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like leather. For me, guns—especially steel guns—and leather go together. But I also like to be comfortable and for inside or outside the waistband daily handgun carry, this is one of the most comfortable belts I’ve tired. Just like our world is evolving, this new millennium has brought with it new threats. But it’s also brought better gear that will allow us to be more comfortably armed, more often, and that’s a good thing.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Nothing beats the sweet sound of copper-jacketed lead ringing off steel targets. Here’s what you need to know and the models to spend your money on for years of shooting enjoyment.
Why You Should Buy A Steel Target:
The sound of a hit gives you instant feedback on how you’re shooting.
Many can double as pistol and rifle targets.
Cared for properly, steel targets last for years.
If you shoot a lot, they’re cheaper per trigger pull.
Honestly, there are few things more fun to shoot at than steel targets.
A warning in moving to steel targets: They’re addictive. Once you hear that sweet “Ping!” of copper-jacketed lead crashing into a plate of high-quality steel, you’ll be left drooling like Pavlov’s dog for more. Never fear: If the steel target bug bites you, you certainly aren’t alone.
As a terminal destination for bullets for decades now, steel targets have become more common in recent years … and for good reason: Over the long run, they’re extremely economical. Furthermore, these shooting-range gems come in every conceivable shape, size and function. From simple silhouettes to ingenious reactive targets, the sky is the limit.
With a wealth of options out there, picking the right one for your training and shooting enjoyment is difficult. But, we’ll try to streamline the process. We collected 5 steel targets that hit the mark not only in their practicality, but also in regard to longevity and pleasure they’ll add to your trigger time.
But, before we get to that, let’s look at why you might want to (read: should) invest in this kind of shooting target.
Advantages of Steel Targets
To many, a target is a target – material make-up doesn’t matter. Certainly, from preseason shooting to tramping after deer, a Redfield sighting-in target is handy. Outside of that, some would ask, what difference does the end destination of your bullet make as long as you’re shooting?
True enough: Range time is great, regardless of what you set your sights on. But if you dig into the matter a bit more, you’ll find that there are certain advantages steel targets hold over nearly any other kind.
Feedback: The sweet, addictive ping! of pounding away at steel targets isn’t just pleasant, it’s also practical. The sound gives you instant feedback that you’re connecting, particularly if you’re shooting a rapid-fire sequence. Opt for a reactive steel target and you’ll also add a visible confirmation if you’re on target.
Versatility: Buy the proper steel targets in the right sizes and you’ll have something suitable for both pistol and rifle work. Furthermore, they’re easy to configure when you build up a collection, and you can construct a lights-out course of fire.
Longevity: Even with a bag full of masking tape or pasters, paper and cardboard targets last but a shooting session or two – if you’re really chintzy. With proper care, a steel target’s longevity is measured in years, not sessions.
Economy: You pay more at the front end, but given the longevity of steel targets, they prove highly economical. Consider that a stack of 100 IPSC silhouette paper targets will run you about $35 and last a year or less, depending on how much you shoot. On the other hand, a 9-inch tall steel silhouette will last years for about the same price.
Enjoyment: This is subjective, but given that they’re simple to set up and plum fun to plug away at, steel targets tend to offer more shooting enjoyment. Add in some reactive steel targets and it kicks the fun up to another level.
Choosing Steel Targets
There are some factors you need to consider when taking the dive into steel targets to make certain you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
At the forefront, you need to aim at buying AR500 or AR550 steel targets if you’re shooting most calibers above a .22 LR.
We won’t go too far into the weeds about AR500 steel plate here, because we have an excellent explainer on exactly what it is, how to use it properly and why you want to buy it. But for our points here, let’s just say that it’s made to take a beating from centerfire calibers, even up to .50 BMG.
Next, it helps at the front end to figure out what the majority of your shooting will entail. You’ll save money this way. There’s no need to buy a 17-inch tall, ½-inch-thick AR500 steel gong if you plan on plugging away with your 9mm from 10 yards. Along with this, you should also think about what sort of mounting system you’ll require. The bigger the target, the more support it needs, thus the more money you’ll have to spend. But if you’re figuring on something large enough to push your rifle out to 1,000 yards, it might very well be worth the investment.
Now on to the good stuff …
Great Steel Targets From Birchwood Casey
Birchwood Casey World Of Targets Handgun Dueling Tree
If handgun shooting is your focus, a high-quality dueling tree is among the best options. And Birchwood Casey offers one of the most affordable and convenient models.
Featuring six AR500 steel paddles, the steel targets swing to the opposite side when hit. This offers visual and auditory feedback, as well as making a great option for single and dual shooters. Two really is better than one when it comes to a dueling tree.
With toolless assembly and its own stand, Birchwood Casey’s unit only takes seconds to set up, but takes hours to pull yourself away.
Shoot Steel ½-Inch AR550 Gong Bundle
As far as getting into steel targets, gongs are a staple. But it’s better – and more fun – to have more than one at which to plug away.
Shoot Steel offers a great opportunity to instantly create a course of fire with its ½-inch thick AR500 Gong Bundle. Featuring one 8-inch and three 4-inch gongs, it’s a great starter pack and versatile to boot.
The steel targets’ thickness makes them adequate for rifles up to .338 Win. or Lapua Mag. when set up beyond 200 yards. To boot, you can plug away at them with any pistol from 10 yards or greater.
Range Time AR500 IPDA/ IPSC Silhouette Steel Target Pack
Great for defensive training or long-range work, silhouettes are a must for any steel-target collection. An excellent deal, Range Time AR500 targets doubles your fun in this style of target with a twofer. If you want to work on engaging multiple threats, this is a perfect option to get you rolling.
At 20-inches tall and 12-inches wide, the steel targets are a realistic size and built to last. Available in 3/8- or ½-inch thick plate, you have a pistol-exclusive option and one capable of taking a hit from a high-powered rifle at distance.
MSRP: $134.98 pack of 2 3/8-inch thick; $209.94 pack of 2 ½-inch thick
Champion Center Mass AR500 Pop-Up Target
Among the simplest, yet most satisfying reactive steel targets are poppers. Falling over when hit, they give you instant feedback on your shooting, with plenty of enjoyment when they topple. The best kinds are the ones that set themselves back up, and Champion offers an economical option with its Center Mass Pop-up.
Actuated by a hefty torsion spring, the pop-up quickly set itself back in place and is ready for more after being shot. Available in two sizes – 14″x4″ and 20″x6″ – the 3/8-inch thick AR500 steel targets are perfect for any sort of pistol shooting you do.
MSRP: $129.11
Magnum Targets Steel Hostage Reactive IDPA
With a steel hostage and chest flappers that when hit, Magnum Targets really spices up the traditional silhouette. It also potentially makes the style of target more useful. Enhancing drills while demanding the utmost accuracy, the steel target is ideal for honing your self-defense skills to a razor’s edge.
The 12″ x 22″ silhouette is more than enough to stand up to punishments from most defensive calibers. Constructed from 3/8-inch AR500 steel, at appropriate ranges it can also handle some rifle calibers—as long as the bullet delivers less than 2,100 ft/lbs of energy at point of impact. Regardless of what you favor, the target is an absolute blast.
AR-15 wizard Patrick Sweeney reveals the critical things he checks on every AR he brings home.
Few gun scribes have spilled more ink on the AR-15 subject than Patrick Sweeney. In addition to being a respected law enforcement armorer, he’s authored thousands of articles, columns and dozens of books, including the popular title Gunsmithing the AR-15: The Bench Manual—specializing in AR-15 maintenance, troubleshooting, upgrading, gunsmithing and shooting.
GD: So, you’re this world-renowned AR-15 expert, you’re an AR-15 armorer.
SWEENEY: [laughs] You’re gonna give me a swelled head if you keep this up.
GD: OK, but you find a good deal on a $700 AR-15, and you get it home.
SWEENEY: It used to be that if you spent $600 for an AR-15—and I’m dating myself here—that you were spending your money at the top of what you would be spending for an AR-15. Nowadays, you say to somebody that you got an AR for $600, and they go, “What’s wrong with it? What kind of cheap Chinese whatever is it that you just bought?” And people don’t blink at a $2,000 AR. Well, for $2,000 or $2,400, yeah, it better have all of these details taken care of.
GD: Where do you start? You get it home and what does Patrick do?
SWEENEY: Start at the muzzle and make sure that whatever flash hider or muzzle brake that’s on there is on straight and that your crown hasn’t been mangled or screwed with. You’d be surprised how badly a rifle reacts after somebody has dropped it in the dirt, and now it doesn’t shoot well anymore, so they sell it without telling you. So, look at that and make sure it’s fine.
From there, it’s back to the chamber, and the first thing to check is whether it’s a .223 or a 5.56 leade. Many people poo-poo the idea and think that .223 and 5.56 it’s all the same. I’ve seen enough guns in classes go down from shooting 5.56-rated ammo in a .223 leade that I check it. And except for a few brands like Daniel Defense, Geissele, Colt, a few others, when it says 5.56, you can bet all the money in your pocket that it is 5.56.
This barrel is marked “5.56 NATO chromed.” That means it was chromed, but it wasn’t a 5.56 NATO throat. Markings can’t be trusted, with a few exceptions.
GD: So, you wouldn’t assume even if it says 5.56?
SWEENEY: I wouldn’t assume so, no. In one class I remember, we had half a dozen rifles with departments that issued them to officers, and the barrels said 5.56. And we gauged them, and four of the six that were marked 5.56 from companies we didn’t know weren’t; they were .223. But 5.56 sells rifles, so that’s what you mark it as. OK, fine, you put a racing stripe on a car; it doesn’t make it a street racer. And in the course of that class, all four of those rifles that had .223 chambers but were 5.56-marked went down with the malfunctions we associate with that particular problem.
An excellent tool to tell if you have a .223 or 5.56 leade is the 223/556 Gauge from M-guns.
And I told the officers, “You should get that corrected, but we’re going to have a test here.” And sure enough, it was a five-day class, and I think it was the afternoon of Tuesday that these guns started having problems. So I used my gauge and reamer from Ned Christiansen to gauge each barrel and make sure it was [5.56], and if it wasn’t, to ream it out.
This is the result of using the reamer from Ned Christiansen. A clean, 5.56-length leade that will control pressure spikes in your rifle.
One proviso: If you have a barrel that has been Melanite treated, you don’t ream it because it’s harder than any reamer you’re going to put in there.
A .223 leade means a “popped” primer. In this case, the primer ended up in the locking lug recess and kept the rifle from firing. Don’t blame S&W: This is not their upper on that lower.
GD: OK, what’s your next step?
SWEENEY: Next, we go to the bolt and carrier and make sure that the gas key is properly staked. And if it’s not, take it off, clean it up, tighten it back down with Loctite and stake it. Because if your gas key comes loose, you’ll lose gas pressure, and you’ve got malfunctions—the always “oh my God moment” of short-stroking AR-15s.
If the manufacturer didn’t, you must stake your gas keys. The MOACKS tool’s staking bolts crush metal onto the gas key screws, keeping them from loosening and backing out.
Back in the early days, everyone assumed short-stroking meant that the people who made the barrel hadn’t drilled the gas port out large enough. People would go in there, hogging out gas ports … they would drill out the gas port to feed more gas to the leaky gas key so that the gun would cycle properly. And if you fit the gas key properly, so it wasn’t leaking anymore, all of a sudden, your brass is going off into the next county because, oh, they drilled out the gas key. No! Leave the gas ports alone.
Then, it’s onto extractors. If you don’t have an O-ring, or better yet, a defender on your extractor, your extractor’s under tension. The Army says carbines need the gold spring and the O-ring, but rifles don’t. The Army’s wrong. Every AR-15/M16, regardless of barrel length, needs all the extraction you can get on it.
From there, it’s back to the buffer. Personally, I like to run the heaviest buffer that the gun will properly cycle with. And some people like to tune it to this or that … but if it’s a standard buffer and the brass isn’t getting thrown too far, I’ll probably leave it alone. But I’m just as likely to throw a standard buffer into the bin with all the other standard buffers and put in an H or an H1.
The next thing is the castle nut on the buffer tube. It has to be staked. Now, I don’t care if your friend says you can torque it up tight enough or if you’ve got the super-great Loctite that will hold it tight. It’s gotta be staked.
A properly positioned buffer tube and a securely held buffer retainer. You want yours to look like this.
Last thing, the barrel nut must be tight. The specs say anywhere from 30 to 80 pounds of torque. If it lines up with a gas key with 30 ft-lb, I’m not sure I would go with that. I’ll yank it apart and put in a shim to get it to time up somewhere above 30 ft-lb.
But if you take a no-name AR and do all those things to it, it will run. You may not have the MOA rifle that everybody promises you is your birthright as an American to have, but it’ll run.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the January 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
Looking to go armed, but are stuck in the weeds as to what to arm yourself with? Here are 20 of the best concealed carry gun options that will keep you on the defensive.
